It was his first airplane trip at age seven that made Eric decide to become a pilot. "While boarding the airplane, a flight attendant noticed my interest in the flight deck and urged me to go talk to the pilot. I give a lot of credit to that pilot for my career choice." Eric earned a bachelor’s degree in finance and went on to an airline career. He learned to fly at Sporty’s as part of the University of Cincinnati’s Professional Pilot Program, an initiative he later directed. Eric now manages Sporty’s media network including FlightTrainingCentral.com. In addition, Eric serves as a Captain in a Cincinnati-based corporate flight department.
It’s important for pilots to understand the operating requirements and restrictions regarding Special Use airspace (SUA). SUA consists of Prohibited, Restricted, Warning, Military Operation, Alert, and Controlled Firing Areas. All SUA is depicted on aeronautical charts, except for controlled firing areas (CFA), temporary military operations areas (MOA), and temporary restricted areas.
FAA’s From the Flight Deck video series has published “Pilot Handbooks” for 40 airports across the US with new locations added regularly.
A military operations area (MOA) is airspace established below 18,000′ MSL to separate non-hazardous military flight activities (air combat maneuvers, air intercepts, low altitude tactics, etc.) from IFR aircraft and to identify for VFR aircraft where these activities are being conducted.
While Sporty’s courses are the perfect fit for a Part 61 training program, if you are an instructor or flight school operator, or a student who would prefer to train under Part 141, Sporty’s courses also provide a modern, comprehensive Part 141 training solution. The requirements for Part 141 certification are contained within the regulations and further detail and guidance is provided in Advisory Circular 141-1B.
The purpose of the different airspace rules is safety. Some areas of the US have more flights than others. Therefore, the FAA has implemented classes of airspace to reflect this activity. The level of control goes from zero in some areas to considerable control around congested, big city, airports that serve considerable airline traffic. Airspace can be […]
Ground reference maneuvers integrate the fundamentals of flight and demonstrate that you have competence in manipulating the flight controls and applying control pressures to maintain a pre-determined aircraft course relative to objects on the ground. Applying this skill to the rectangular course is the basis for airport traffic patterns.
Sporty’s Pilot’s Discretion Podcast has new episodes available with guests that include Bruce Williams on flight sims as well as EAA Chairman Jack Pelton, discussing EAA AirVenture and the experimental aircraft boom. The informative and entertaining format features wide-ranging questions with one intriguing guest.
Communication is key to the examiner understanding your thought process and decision making. Checkrides have plenty of emotion and pressure that will hopefully allow you to excel. Don’t bring unnecessary pressure or emotion to the flight by overreaching or trying to do too much. Fly like you’ve trained and be the PIC.
If we didn’t have access to the variety of visual IFR procedures or the option for VFR flight, the system would quite simply be overwhelmed. Where the breakdowns and inefficiencies occur, can often be attributed to a lack of awareness on the part of pilots or failure to take advantage of our options for combining IFR and VFR flight.
As the complete instrument pilot, you should be able to maintain heading, altitude, and airspeed at speeds ranging from cruise to approach. Within the normal speed range of an airplane, there are many combinations of power and pitch which will maintain altitude at different airspeeds.
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