Children of the Magenta Line

One of my favorite training videos ever. Old school yes, but the philosophy remains true. Part of the American Airlines Advanced Aircraft Maneuvering Program (AAMP), Captain Warren VanderBurgh presents his thoughts on automation dependency.

CX 2020

Every year, Cirrus Aircraft holds an annual gathering of training centers, service centers and other partners.

The result is usually an interesting conversation about training, safety and innovation. That last word gets thrown around a lot in life and the media. But I think Cirrus Aircraft actually pushes hard to make sure that they are holding true to it. That’s why we partner with them exclusively.

In a few hours, we should know what’s coming in 2020 for the SR & SF series aircraft. I hope that there are significant updates for the SR series, though I struggle to imagine what they could be.

At this point, I think the single engine piston aircraft is pretty tricked out. But I am usually proven wrong and hope to be this time also.

#p6aviation #cirrusaircraft #cx2020 #cirrus #generalaviation #flightinstruction

You just don’t see this on the east coast…

Departing 35R out of KAPA, the controller was kind enough to give us a sharp right turn to avoid a duststorm approaching from over the Rockies ahead of a cold front. Ranks up with the craziest weather I’ve ever seen personally from an airplane.

Learning the Hard Way

There are some industries and occupations that are more forgiving than others.

By that, I mean that the consequences of bad decisions are not that painful, easily forgotten or written off with a financial/other penalty. Aviation is not that type of industry for reasons that I don’t need to be explicit about.

A large part of my pedagogy as an instructor pilot is that you are going to make poor decisions and mistakes in the cockpit. it’s just going to happen. Period. They are unavoidable.

BUT, as pilots, we strive to keep mistakes small and catch poor decisions early. If we can do that and not let them compound into a negative chain of events, we greatly improve our chances of a safe landing, which is the ultimate goal.

I have been meaning to write about this for a long time because I believe in it so strongly. Thankfully, I read a blog post by Fred Wilson this morning about his mistakes in the VC world, and it reminded me to write this. I’d say 7 of 10 his blog posts are direct analogs to aviation. I’m amazed at how closely aviation mirrors many other aspects of life.

The value of onboard weather

I am always learning. Especially about weather. Mother Nature is so powerful and you sometimes don’t know exactly where or at what intensity she’ll require that you yield to her.

At the entry-level training of general aviation, we often have a Sirius XM feed or less frequently, an actual radar antenna. 

In teaching, words matter and I appreciate when someone is able to simply get a point across powerfully. On that note, someone recently told me that you should use XM for strategic planning and radar for tactical execution. That is exactly right. Often, weather (like above) is not dangerous and XM is perfectly fine to get through it. However, when it gets bad, you need to respect weather and use radar.

Something Different

We fly new Cirrus aircraft all day long. So, it’s a very different and refreshing treat to fly something like this Waco out in Cape Cod a few days ago. I’ve never flown a tailwheel aircraft before, which is a huge miss, but never too late, right?

Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet

It's Never Too Late To Start

For The Love Of Flight

Beautiful New York City

Learning How To Fly

Flying Is A Superpower