Category: I learned from that

Navigating Instrument Failure at 10,000 Feet

I’m not here! I’m celebrating Thanksgiving in the US for the first time in 30 years, so I do hope someone has organised a double-batch of cranberry sauce. Don’t worry though, I have a great guest post from my friend Lola Reid Allin. Lola was among the first female commercial pilots, breaking barriers in aviation…

Read more… 22 Nov 24

The Human-Machine Interface: Reports from ASRS

CALLBACK is a NASA publication from their Aviation Safety Reporting System which takes anonymised ASRS reports and presents them in a “lessons learned” format. Every month, they focus on a different aspect of aviation safety, One issue that they have focused on recently, which coincidentally fits in with some of the accidents that we have…

Read more… 3 Jun 22

April Showers Bring…More Questions and Answers

It’s time again for a collection of questions from readers for the community to answer. This time, I’ve collected some questions from the comments that didn’t get much attention previously. If you know the answer, come on over the comments and leave a note. If you have a question, add it to the comments (one…

Read more… 22 Apr 22

Close Call with Hand-Propping

Today’s piece is a guest post by someone who wishes to remain anonymous. I think it’s great that he’s not only willing to learn from his rather frightening experience but happy to share it with the rest of us. Let me preface this by saying that both myself and the plane are fine, the only…

Read more… 31 Aug 18

The Low Rotor Horn

Reddit user CrimsonAv8or posted this story on the flying subreddit and I immediately got in touch to ask if I could share the post with you! It’s a very good and honest piece which definitely comes under the ‘learned about flying from that’ category. I hope you find it as interesting as I did. For…

Read more… 23 Mar 18

The Hurried Walkaround

This is a guest post by John Hill, who originally shared the story on the Professional Pilots Rumour Network. John’s been flying all his life and his story of a lessoned learned after a hurried walk-around is as intriguing as it is instructive. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I’ve been…

Read more… 9 Oct 15

Accident Reports

Following the story of the Fokker F27

Last week I wrote about the Fokker F27 mk 500 Friendship that came off the runway at take-off at Bournemouth Airport. Rudy commented on his experience flying the F27 in…

Pneumatic Pressure Required

The flight crew reported for duty at Bournemouth Airport at 3am on Friday the 7th of May 2004. They were flying a thirty-three-year-old Fokker F27 Mark 500, registered in the…

Demystifying

How to tell a Russian Su-27 from a British Typhoon

This is not an article that I ever thought I would feel compelled to write! However, given the confusion over a photograph chosen in a regional English paper, apparently it’s…

How to tell an F-16 Fighting Falcon from a Eurofighter Typhoon

There are a number of reasons why you might need to quickly point out the differences between a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and a Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon. You might…

History

Gladys Ingle Inflight Wheel Change: Emergency Action or Stunt?

This video of a mid-air wheel exchange goes viral once a year or so, but I never get tired of watching it. Last week, it showed up on Reddit and…

The Disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper May Not Be as Mysterious as Was Thought

This week, we have a guest post by J.B. Rivard who wrote an article for the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) and used one of my articles as a reference.…

Fun Stuff

Friday Lightness: A Short Respite from Crash Reports

It seems a good time for something a bit more lighthearted. After weeks of analyzing serious incidents and technical failures, I thought I could could a moment to appreciate aviation…

Flights of Fantasy: Aviation April Fools Worth Celebrating

I’m going to admit that I’m not a great fan of April Fools’ pranks, especially not attempts to trick people into believing something and then pulling the rug out from…