by John Zimmerman | Aug 27, 2024 | John's blog
What matters for VFR proficiency: better landings Air Facts Journal Earlier this year I argued that if IFR pilots wanted to prevent accidents, they should focus on the most boring of skills: basic attitude instrument flying. Now it’s time to look at VFR pilots, and to...
by John Zimmerman | Jun 25, 2024 | John's blog
Ignore the YouTube crash detectives—it’s usually pilot error Air Facts Journal When a high performance airplane crashes in IMC, the self-proclaimed experts on social media quickly spin elaborate theories about autopilot failure, in-flight icing, structural failure,...
by John Zimmerman | May 15, 2024 | John's blog
Why learning to fly can be good for your mental health Air Facts Journal Americans seem to be especially gloomy right now. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt recently released a book packed with worrying statistics about a “teen mental illness epidemic,” sparking a...
by John Zimmerman | Apr 15, 2024 | John's blog
What a difference a decade makes: the GA boom in statistics Air Facts Journal General aviation is growing. That simple statement would have been unremarkable to a pilot in the 1960s or 1970s, as surprising as saying the sun rose in the east that day. But for anyone...
by John Zimmerman | Feb 2, 2024 | John's blog
What matters for IFR proficiency? The answer is quite simple. Air Facts Journal Unlike riding a bike, flying an airplane is a perishable skill, and instrument skills might have the shortest shelf life of all. The FAA explicitly recognizes this in FAR 61.57: a flight...
by John Zimmerman | Nov 20, 2023 | John's blog
Pilots need to be generalists, not specialists Air Facts Journal American education has been obsessed with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) for at least a decade, and the aviation industry has eagerly jumped on the bandwagon. The FAA is leading the...
