When all else fails

Last January 2024, just after the holiday season, I undertook a “training flight” to cover the recency regulation for my IFR qualification. In Canada, it is required to log 6 hours of IFR flying, shoot 6 approaches to minimum and accomplish this within 6 months of a proposed IFR flight. The weather was impeccably VFR.… Read more »

Emags follow-up

About 4 weeks ago we took-off for the Yukon for a 2 week vacation. Canada’s vast expanse had us covering 2500 nm for about 16 hours of flying – one way (CZBM – CYQT – CYQR – CYXJ – CYXY). This happened to be an excellent test to follow-up the electronic ignition ( emag )… Read more »

Time for a magneto upgrade

Improving the old reliable magneto with an electronic ignition system General aviation aircraft engines have been around for ages. The technology has evolved into super reliable propulsion source. One does not have to dwell too long on the punishing environmental and certainly difficult operating conditions. Yet well maintained and operated there is an excellent chance… Read more »

Canada becomes a safety dunce.

ICAO gives Canada a C grade (64%) in air safety. Let’s be clear: the only way to truly punctual efficiency of flight safety is to count the number of accident over flight hours. Granted, this is rather cold as a statement but nonetheless reflects on reality however unpleasant it is to explain. However, professional observation… Read more »

B-737 Max and the recent NTSB response

I just recently came across the January 13th 2023 NTSB response to the Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 Boeing 737 Max accident of March 10th 2019. Wow… Not so much as a surprise but rather as a very unusual procedure in the industry. First, a bit of background to put the event in context. There were… Read more »

Risk management and the lottery

Good risk management is more beneficial than the hope of a lottery gain Recently, I literally fell off the PA-30 seat. All right this in itself would be quite an feat. figuratively speaking that was how I was struck to say the least. Carbon monoxide poisoning About 2 years ago, I wrote about carbon monoxide… Read more »

Where is the emergency ?

When was the last time you had an emergency, a real one? Everyone will have their own creative interpretation on the matter. A perceived emergency will vary from one individual to another. Experience will bring its own bias. One way or another, an ocean separates a stressful situation where a pilot gets busy and an… Read more »

Going faster

… an important aspect aside from flying the aircraft, was flying the aircraft as intelligently as possible.