Ask Captain Lim

DECEMBER 11, 2024

Recently, the pilot of a Malaysia Airlines A350 earned praise on social media for expertly handling a demanding final approach in London’s Heathrow Airport during a storm that struck Britain. Its important to note that the A350 has a demonstrated crosswind limit of 40 knots with gusts. Some airlines impose a lower limitation.

Crosswind 52

Crosswind Pilot Approach Final Approach 52

Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 21, 2024

These were small pedals at the base of the rudder pedals that give the same differential control as toe brakes, but you push your heels in for brake application. As an airline first officer for the better part of the past 16 years, I didn’t do much with brakes on the jet. For that matter, we’re not all flying around with toe brakes.

Rudder 52

Rudder Runway Altimeter Pilot 52

Pilot Institute

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

From simple mechanical linkages in small aircraft to high-tech fly-by-wire systems in airliners, ailerons have evolved with aviation itself. Adverse yaw is a side effect of aileron use, countered by rudder input. Commercial airliners fly at speeds above 300 knots but also need to be controllable at speeds below 150 knots.

Aileron 90

Aileron Weight-Shift-Control Rudder Longitudinal Axis 90

Plane and Pilot

AUGUST 3, 2024

The airlines use their high-fidelity flight simulators to great advantage, and when combined with stick shakers, multicrew flight decks, and low-speed and stall-warning systems, the training is excellent. Not to worry: The airliner you are flying has probably not entered a stall in its entire 20- to 30-year service lifespan.

Airplanes 82

Airplanes Approach Horizontal Stabilizer Pilot 82

Northstar VFR

AUGUST 11, 2024

By Leslie Caubble, CFI/IGI When I began flight training, I had no intention of flying for the airlines or becoming a flight instructor. The standards for slow flight on a Private Pilot checkride are: maintain the specified altitude, ±100 feet; specified heading, ±10°; airspeed, +10/-0 knots; and specified angle of bank, ±10°.

Checkride 52

Checkride Airplanes Pilot AGL 52

Aerotime

JULY 19, 2024

A violent and destructive engine failure on the aircraft, one of United Airlines ’ McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, caused the loss of all standard flight controls through the fracture of all three hydraulic syst ems on the aircraft. While fatalities resulted, the majority of those onboard survived. The plane entered a descending right-hand turn.

Runway 294

Runway Horizontal Stabilizer Airlines Airline 294

Plane and Pilot

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

It’s a bright sunny day, great visibility, some high stratus clouds, a bit windy maybe (050 at 10 knots gusting to 15 knots), and folks are wearing hoodies as the temperature is a brisk 38 degrees Fahrenheit. NASA researchers found “concurrent task demands” present in a “great majority” of crew error airline accidents since 1990.

Pilot 90

Pilot Knot Airplanes Lift 90

Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

Alongside a nearby highway, some recognizable bits of airplane, the vertical stabilizer and rudder, a horizontal stabilizer and elevator, fell separately to Earth. After the military, he joined Hughes Airwest as an airline pilot and settled down with his wife and baby in Boulder City. The listed entry airspeed range is 87 to 97 knots.

True Airspeed 91

True Airspeed Indicated Airspeed Horizontal Stabilizer Aileron 91

Plane and Pilot

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

Alongside a nearby highway, some recognizable bits of airplane, the vertical stabilizer and rudder, a horizontal stabilizer and elevator, fell separately to Earth. After the military, he joined Hughes Airwest as an airline pilot and settled down with his wife and baby in Boulder City. The listed entry airspeed range is 87 to 97 knots.

True Airspeed 90

True Airspeed Indicated Airspeed Horizontal Stabilizer Aileron 90

Flying Magazine

APRIL 26, 2024

Viceroy is designed to combine the speed of an aircraft (cruising at 180 mph or 156 knots) with the functionality and low operating cost of a boat. And so much of pilot training is learning the feel, the stick and rudder, the takeoff, the flare,” Thalheimer told FLYING at DriftX. I’m a pilot.

Ground Effect 115

Ground Effect Rudder Knot Pilot 115

Air Facts

OCTOBER 7, 2024

But my goal was to fly the airliners that, as a child, I watched climbing out from La Guardia Airport over our Bronx apartment. Anyone who bothered to look up from the farms, corn fields and cotton fields east of Mobile Bay could watch students meld aerodynamic theory with stick and rudder practice.

Cockpit 98

Cockpit Rudder Tail Indicated Airspeed 98

Plane and Pilot

NOVEMBER 22, 2024

It’s a bright sunny day, great visibility, some high stratus clouds, a bit windy maybe (050 at 10 knots gusting to 15 knots), and folks are wearing hoodies as the temperature is a brisk 38 degrees Fahrenheit. NASA researchers found “concurrent task demands” present in a “great majority” of crew error airline accidents since 1990.

Pilot 93

Pilot Knot Airplanes Lift 93

Air Facts

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

Airspeed variations with weight in light general aviation aircraft are only a handful of knots, so it’s easy to fly the published slow speed when light, the faster speed when heavy, and something in the middle when the aircraft weight is something in the middle. No math required. That variety may require multiple initiatives.

General Aviation 98

General Aviation Pilot Approach Airplanes 98

Plane and Pilot

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

Even at 60 knots over VY, we were still climbing at a rate that would shock the private students we’d just left below and behind in the pattern. We both wound up flying at the same regional airline. At one time I mainly flew solo, VFR, as a stick-and-rudder aviator.

Aileron 52

Aileron Rudder Airplanes Pilot 52

Plane and Pilot

JANUARY 7, 2025

She flew like a big, lumbering Cub of sorts, complete with a wooden rudder bar, tall wooden stick, and instruments that seemed like they were straight out of World War One. Credit: Cayla McLeod] Douglas DC-3 : Todays commercial airliners dont excite me, but the airliner that changed the world certainly does. I know it.

Airplanes 98

Airplanes Tail Pilot Jet 98

Air Facts

AUGUST 26, 2024

In business jets and airliners, the issue is usually being too fast, leading to a runway excursion and often substantial damage or even fatalities. Make this one of the key measures of your pilot proficiency: can you maintain a predetermined airspeed with a maximum deviation of +10/-5 knots (the Private Pilot ACS)?

Knot 98

Knot Runway Airplanes Pilot 98

Air Facts

JUNE 21, 2024

Nowadays, I feel even sorrier for him, because I see on Linkedin that he’s a first officer at a regional airline. As my buddy, who used to be a captain for Trans States, said “Flying in the airlines is like driving a car into a garage with someone you don’t like and staring out the windshield at the wall for four hours.”

Rudder 75

Rudder Crosswind Knot Airplanes 75