Oh, the places you’ll go. Dr. Seuss probably wasn’t talking about helicopter pilots, but he could have been. In this amazing video, you’ll ride along in a Robinson helicopter as four friends explore some of the most beautiful places in British Columbia, from glaciers to ice caves. All of these incredible views can only be seen from a helicopter.
https://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/05174709/Helicopter-glacier-view.jpg6751200studentpltnewshttps://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/17092615/FTC_Redesign_2025_WhiteRed_WEB.pngstudentpltnews2017-12-29 09:18:032021-06-08 19:23:28Video: Flying a helicopter to an ice cave
When the days get short and the temperature drops, many US pilots’ thoughts turn to the turquoise waters of the Bahamas. The weather is great, the scenery is even better, and it’s all a short flight from Florida – a bucket list trip for any pilot. In this video, make the trip to Staniel Cay in a Cirrus SR22 and take in the sights.
https://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/05164652/Bahamas-from-Cirrus-1.jpg450800studentpltnewshttps://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/17092615/FTC_Redesign_2025_WhiteRed_WEB.pngstudentpltnews2017-12-22 12:03:202021-06-08 19:23:28Video: Cirrus flying in the Bahamas
As a new student pilot, I was almost always too high and too fast on final approach (maybe I didn’t want to land and end all the fun). The result was that my instructor often had to coach me through both slowing down and going down. One day, in an attempt to help, he said something that sounded so simple, and yet was immensely confusing: “pitch for airspeed; power for altitude.”
That sounded exactly backwards to me. In a car, if you want to go faster, you step on the throttle. Why would it be different in an airplane? And won’t the airplane just climb if I pull back on the yoke?
Slow flight is a great way to learn the relationship between pitch and airspeed.
Little did I know that I had stumbled into one of the oldest arguments in aviation. I soon found out that different pilots had very different opinions on this subject, and debates were often quite heated. Fans of Wolfgang Langewiesche’s classic book Stick and Rudder cite chapter and verse to explain that airplanes are not cars. Navy pilots will tell you that if you ever want to land on an aircraft carrier at night, you’ll most definitely use “pitch for airspeed; power for altitude.” Glider pilots agree, pointing out that “power” isn’t an option for them and they manage to control airspeed rather precisely.
Not everyone agrees with this traditional approach. I’ve heard Air Force and airline pilots both argue for the opposite: Langewiesche may be right about Cubs in 1944, but in a jet you start a climb by pitching up and then managing the climb speed with the power lever(s).
Who is right? I generally side with the pitch for airspeed crowd. While it may sound counterintuitive at first, it’s actually quite simple after a few hours. Airplanes are stable, so if you trim for the right airspeed the airplane will want to stay there. You can try this yourself: while in level cruise, pull back gently on the yoke, then release it. The airplane will eventually find its original airspeed. This is helpful on an approach if your airspeed is perfect but you are slightly high. Simply reduce power to increase your rate of descent, and the airplane will stay at its trimmed airspeed.
The lightbulb moment for me was really when my instructor and I went to practice departure stalls. I quickly learned that my instinct had to be to lower the nose (more specifically, reduce angle of attack) in that situation. Since an airplane was already using full power, “power for airspeed” was not an option. It proved to me that airspeed could be controlled by pitch.
But clearly things aren’t quite that simple. Consider the departure stall scenario again. When you reduce pitch, the airspeed will increase, but your altitude will probably decrease as well (or at least, the rate of climb will go down). That suggests that maybe the old saying doesn’t tell the whole story.
You’re level and slow. Should you pitch down or add power?
Here’s a more practical example, one I’ve encountered many times when flying to busy airports. If ATC tells you to maintain 3000 feet, then later asks for “maximum forward speed,” you’re not going to push the nose over to accelerate. Instead, you’ll likely increase power first, then slowly add forward pressure on the yoke to stay at 3000 feet. As you do this, the airplane will accelerate.
As you gain experience and fly higher performance airplanes, things get even more complicated. First, you’ll often have to balance multiple criteria: “cross GAVNN at and maintain 12,000, slow to 160 knots at GAVNN.” In order to satisfy both parts of that clearance, you’ll have to play around with both the power and the pitch (or sink rate) in order to fly as fast as you can while descending, but still slow down before you cross the fix.
Flight directors complicate things even more. If you’re flying an ILS on a G1000, for example, the magenta flight director bars will tell you how to stay perfectly on the glideslope. So if you’re too low, the bars will suggest you pitch up to recapture the correct descent angle. It works beautifully, but isn’t that pitching for altitude? It sure is, and a wise pilot will add a touch of power to compensate for the lost airspeed. Since the flight director doesn’t control the throttle, the only way it can suggest you fly the correct glide path is with attitude.
So what’s the answer? Is it pitch or power that determines airspeed? The answer is obviously both! As these examples show, the key skill for student pilots to learn is how to use all available tools to fly the correct course and altitude while maintaining the proper airspeed. To do this smoothly and safely will require coordinated use of both power and pitch. A truly great pilot understands the tradeoffs and has an innate feel for the relationship between pitch and power. High on final but on glide path? Reduce power, not pitch. High on final and slow? Leave the power alone and pitch down.
Instead of focusing on a simplistic rule of thumb, go do some slow flight and get a feel for how these scenarios work in the real world. And save the arguing for your next rainy day hangar flying session.
https://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/05164703/pilot-in-cockpit-pitching-up-1.jpg400813studentpltnewshttps://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/17092615/FTC_Redesign_2025_WhiteRed_WEB.pngstudentpltnews2017-12-18 10:00:542021-06-08 19:23:28Pitch or power? The answer is both!
Backcountry flying is general aviation at its best: no airspace or ATC, but plenty of scenery and unmatched freedom. In this amazing video, you’ll see how much fun this type of flying can be – and it doesn’t require an exotic bush plane. Fly in a Cessna 182 to visit remote grass strips, rocky river beds, and scenic mountain passes. And no, don’t try this on your first solo.
https://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/05174715/Backcountry-182.jpg6751200studentpltnewshttps://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/17092615/FTC_Redesign_2025_WhiteRed_WEB.pngstudentpltnews2017-12-15 15:09:342021-06-08 19:23:28Video: backcountry flying in a Cessna 182
What’s it like to be a jet pilot? This video offers a window into that fast-paced life. Strap into the right seat of a Beech Premier jet with professional pilot Justin as he flies a trip at sunset, and hear about his journey from non-pilot to the left seat. Is this the same dream you’re chasing?
https://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/05164707/Premier-wing-over-clouds-1.jpg6751200studentpltnewshttps://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/17092615/FTC_Redesign_2025_WhiteRed_WEB.pngstudentpltnews2017-12-08 11:49:582021-06-08 19:23:28Video: The life of a business jet pilot
“I’ve been to 36 county fairs, 24 hog killings, 12 goat ropings and a half dozen molly mule milkings and I thought I had seen it all.”
This is a quote that was common during my upbringing on the farm in northeastern Kentucky. It indicated a sequence of events from common (county fairs occur each year in rural America as a place for the community to gather to determine who made the tastiest pies and preserves) to rare (mules are a hybrid created by breeding a male donkey called a jack to a female horse called a mare).
As horses have 64 chromosomes and donkeys 62, the mule winds up with improperly paired 63 chromosomes and are usually infertile. The extremely rare female that has a developed reproductive system and therefore capable of producing milk is called a molly).
Falling somewhere between common and rare, during winter local families would gather to slaughter and process hogs when the temperature was low enough to cure the meat without refrigeration. And in the summer, kids might start developing their roping skills on smaller animals like sheep and goats. Certainly anyone who had witnessed all these things was considered to have had considerable experience.
A couple of years ago I learned about the total solar eclipse to take place in August, 2017. Although they occur regularly around the world, having one occur in North America is rare. Having one casting its totality shadow from coast to coast across the United States is even more special and this one was scheduled to have over two minutes of totality less than 200 nautical miles from me as the shadow moved across western Kentucky to central and eastern Tennessee.
Sporty’s President, Michael Wolf, and I decided that if we were both still alive and the weather would cooperate, we would fly Sporty’s famous Aztec to one of the nearby airports in the path of totality to experience something neither of us had – a total eclipse of the sun.
Along about mid-summer we began to finalize our plans. Originally we had considered viewing the eclipse in Hopkinsville, KY, where the eclipse was scheduled to last the longest – 2 minutes, 41.2 seconds. A call to the Hopkinsville – Christian County Airport revealed they had been flooded with inquiries and had opted to start taking reservations for aircraft parking and we would be pretty far down on that list.
Other airports we then considered along the path of totality included Sumner County Regional Airport (M33) in Gallatin, TN, located about 20 miles northeast of Nashville. A call to the airport revealed they would not only save us a parking space, but would not charge for parking. A win-win-win considering the number of airplanes that could be expected from across the United States, the fact the duration of the eclipse was only about a second shorter than in Hopkinsville, and the airport was about 10 miles closer to our home base at Sporty’s – Clermont County Airport.
The eclipse was scheduled to begin in Gallatin about 1:00 PM EDT, but wanting to ensure a good viewing spot Michael and I, along with our families, loaded into N702SP with our eclipse glasses in-hand early that morning for the hour and a half flight to Sumner County.
We arrived to see several aircraft already parked and we were third in line for landing in the pattern. The airport management had plenty of help to efficiently marshal us to our parking spot on the edge of the ramp as a steady stream of aircraft arrived. Some folks were camped out under the wing of their aircraft, but our early arrival paid off as we found some shade under an ornamental pear tree in the airport front lawn.
Waiting for the main event provided time to walk the flight line to see the various aircraft (from single seat homebuilts to Citation Sovereigns) and talk to the people who, like us, traveled in light airplanes to witness the event. About noon local, as advertised, everyone sporting their eclipse glasses began “oohing” and “aahing” like a Fourth of July fireworks display as the moon started its journey across the face of the sun.
We attached a Garmin 360 camera to an antenna atop the Aztec. You can view the event on YouTube. As you watch the video, turn the sound up to hear the reaction of the crowd. Start viewing towards the front of the airplane as that is the direction from which you will see the shadow of totality approach. Once the eclipse is total, look towards the tail and notice the runway lights have illuminated.
Another unusual sight occurs about the 2:50 mark on the video. If you tilt your view straight down you will see the shadow of the camera on the airplane. First, you will notice the “shadow snakes” dancing across the airplane’s skin caused by the sun shining between mountains on the moon and the instability of the atmosphere. This is the same phenomenon that makes stars appear to twinkle. At 3:07 the shadow disappears as the moon completely blocks out the sun. Pan the camera view around and see the 360 degrees of twilight as the orange glow on the horizon is caused by the sun still shining outside the shadow of totality. At the 5:50 mark the process is reversed as the shadow makes its way to the southeast.
Proving how pilot-controlled airports can be efficient, by the time we packed up our belongings and passengers into the airplane, started the engines and taxied off the ramp and onto the taxiway, we were about 30th in line.
One by one, airplanes taxied onto the runway and departed. The next airplane followed as soon as the previous one was at a safe altitude and within 20 minutes it was our turn. I was pilot for the return trip as Michael and our passengers kept watch for traffic conflicts – a very important job as this screen shot from the iPad connected to our Stratus indicates a “swarm” of aircraft leaving the area.
An hour and a half later we were back on the ground at Sporty’s. A friend who drove to see the eclipse spent more than 12 hours driving home as the interstates were clogged with traffic with little movement for the first few hours after the eclipse. Chock up another point for traveling in a general aviation airplane!
If you missed this opportunity, don’t worry, as the next eclipse in the United States will happen in April 8, 2024, whose shadow will move from Texas through Ohio. After that, most of us will have to wait until the year 2045.
I can now say “I’ve been to 36 County Fairs, 24 hog killings, 12 goat ropings, a half dozen molly mule milkings and one total eclipse of the sun!” I may have truly seen it all.
https://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/05164714/eclipse-footage-1.png378673studentpltnewshttps://media.flighttrainingcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/17092615/FTC_Redesign_2025_WhiteRed_WEB.pngstudentpltnews2017-12-04 10:00:212021-06-08 19:23:28Chasing the shadow
Video: Flying a helicopter to an ice cave
/in Fun Flying Videos/by studentpltnewsOh, the places you’ll go. Dr. Seuss probably wasn’t talking about helicopter pilots, but he could have been. In this amazing video, you’ll ride along in a Robinson helicopter as four friends explore some of the most beautiful places in British Columbia, from glaciers to ice caves. All of these incredible views can only be seen from a helicopter.
Video from Bradley Friesen.
Video: Cirrus flying in the Bahamas
/in Fun Flying Videos/by studentpltnewsWhen the days get short and the temperature drops, many US pilots’ thoughts turn to the turquoise waters of the Bahamas. The weather is great, the scenery is even better, and it’s all a short flight from Florida – a bucket list trip for any pilot. In this video, make the trip to Staniel Cay in a Cirrus SR22 and take in the sights.
Video from Sonikhanem.
Pitch or power? The answer is both!
/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnewsAs a new student pilot, I was almost always too high and too fast on final approach (maybe I didn’t want to land and end all the fun). The result was that my instructor often had to coach me through both slowing down and going down. One day, in an attempt to help, he said something that sounded so simple, and yet was immensely confusing: “pitch for airspeed; power for altitude.”
That sounded exactly backwards to me. In a car, if you want to go faster, you step on the throttle. Why would it be different in an airplane? And won’t the airplane just climb if I pull back on the yoke?
Slow flight is a great way to learn the relationship between pitch and airspeed.
Little did I know that I had stumbled into one of the oldest arguments in aviation. I soon found out that different pilots had very different opinions on this subject, and debates were often quite heated. Fans of Wolfgang Langewiesche’s classic book Stick and Rudder cite chapter and verse to explain that airplanes are not cars. Navy pilots will tell you that if you ever want to land on an aircraft carrier at night, you’ll most definitely use “pitch for airspeed; power for altitude.” Glider pilots agree, pointing out that “power” isn’t an option for them and they manage to control airspeed rather precisely.
Not everyone agrees with this traditional approach. I’ve heard Air Force and airline pilots both argue for the opposite: Langewiesche may be right about Cubs in 1944, but in a jet you start a climb by pitching up and then managing the climb speed with the power lever(s).
Who is right? I generally side with the pitch for airspeed crowd. While it may sound counterintuitive at first, it’s actually quite simple after a few hours. Airplanes are stable, so if you trim for the right airspeed the airplane will want to stay there. You can try this yourself: while in level cruise, pull back gently on the yoke, then release it. The airplane will eventually find its original airspeed. This is helpful on an approach if your airspeed is perfect but you are slightly high. Simply reduce power to increase your rate of descent, and the airplane will stay at its trimmed airspeed.
The lightbulb moment for me was really when my instructor and I went to practice departure stalls. I quickly learned that my instinct had to be to lower the nose (more specifically, reduce angle of attack) in that situation. Since an airplane was already using full power, “power for airspeed” was not an option. It proved to me that airspeed could be controlled by pitch.
But clearly things aren’t quite that simple. Consider the departure stall scenario again. When you reduce pitch, the airspeed will increase, but your altitude will probably decrease as well (or at least, the rate of climb will go down). That suggests that maybe the old saying doesn’t tell the whole story.
You’re level and slow. Should you pitch down or add power?
Here’s a more practical example, one I’ve encountered many times when flying to busy airports. If ATC tells you to maintain 3000 feet, then later asks for “maximum forward speed,” you’re not going to push the nose over to accelerate. Instead, you’ll likely increase power first, then slowly add forward pressure on the yoke to stay at 3000 feet. As you do this, the airplane will accelerate.
As you gain experience and fly higher performance airplanes, things get even more complicated. First, you’ll often have to balance multiple criteria: “cross GAVNN at and maintain 12,000, slow to 160 knots at GAVNN.” In order to satisfy both parts of that clearance, you’ll have to play around with both the power and the pitch (or sink rate) in order to fly as fast as you can while descending, but still slow down before you cross the fix.
Flight directors complicate things even more. If you’re flying an ILS on a G1000, for example, the magenta flight director bars will tell you how to stay perfectly on the glideslope. So if you’re too low, the bars will suggest you pitch up to recapture the correct descent angle. It works beautifully, but isn’t that pitching for altitude? It sure is, and a wise pilot will add a touch of power to compensate for the lost airspeed. Since the flight director doesn’t control the throttle, the only way it can suggest you fly the correct glide path is with attitude.
So what’s the answer? Is it pitch or power that determines airspeed? The answer is obviously both! As these examples show, the key skill for student pilots to learn is how to use all available tools to fly the correct course and altitude while maintaining the proper airspeed. To do this smoothly and safely will require coordinated use of both power and pitch. A truly great pilot understands the tradeoffs and has an innate feel for the relationship between pitch and power. High on final but on glide path? Reduce power, not pitch. High on final and slow? Leave the power alone and pitch down.
Instead of focusing on a simplistic rule of thumb, go do some slow flight and get a feel for how these scenarios work in the real world. And save the arguing for your next rainy day hangar flying session.
Video: backcountry flying in a Cessna 182
/in Fun Flying Videos/by studentpltnewsBackcountry flying is general aviation at its best: no airspace or ATC, but plenty of scenery and unmatched freedom. In this amazing video, you’ll see how much fun this type of flying can be – and it doesn’t require an exotic bush plane. Fly in a Cessna 182 to visit remote grass strips, rocky river beds, and scenic mountain passes. And no, don’t try this on your first solo.
Video from motoadve.
Video: The life of a business jet pilot
/in Fun Flying Videos/by studentpltnewsWhat’s it like to be a jet pilot? This video offers a window into that fast-paced life. Strap into the right seat of a Beech Premier jet with professional pilot Justin as he flies a trip at sunset, and hear about his journey from non-pilot to the left seat. Is this the same dream you’re chasing?
Video from MrAviation101.
Chasing the shadow
/in Personal stories/by studentpltnews“I’ve been to 36 county fairs, 24 hog killings, 12 goat ropings and a half dozen molly mule milkings and I thought I had seen it all.”
This is a quote that was common during my upbringing on the farm in northeastern Kentucky. It indicated a sequence of events from common (county fairs occur each year in rural America as a place for the community to gather to determine who made the tastiest pies and preserves) to rare (mules are a hybrid created by breeding a male donkey called a jack to a female horse called a mare).
As horses have 64 chromosomes and donkeys 62, the mule winds up with improperly paired 63 chromosomes and are usually infertile. The extremely rare female that has a developed reproductive system and therefore capable of producing milk is called a molly).
Falling somewhere between common and rare, during winter local families would gather to slaughter and process hogs when the temperature was low enough to cure the meat without refrigeration. And in the summer, kids might start developing their roping skills on smaller animals like sheep and goats. Certainly anyone who had witnessed all these things was considered to have had considerable experience.
A couple of years ago I learned about the total solar eclipse to take place in August, 2017. Although they occur regularly around the world, having one occur in North America is rare. Having one casting its totality shadow from coast to coast across the United States is even more special and this one was scheduled to have over two minutes of totality less than 200 nautical miles from me as the shadow moved across western Kentucky to central and eastern Tennessee.
Sporty’s President, Michael Wolf, and I decided that if we were both still alive and the weather would cooperate, we would fly Sporty’s famous Aztec to one of the nearby airports in the path of totality to experience something neither of us had – a total eclipse of the sun.
Along about mid-summer we began to finalize our plans. Originally we had considered viewing the eclipse in Hopkinsville, KY, where the eclipse was scheduled to last the longest – 2 minutes, 41.2 seconds. A call to the Hopkinsville – Christian County Airport revealed they had been flooded with inquiries and had opted to start taking reservations for aircraft parking and we would be pretty far down on that list.
Other airports we then considered along the path of totality included Sumner County Regional Airport (M33) in Gallatin, TN, located about 20 miles northeast of Nashville. A call to the airport revealed they would not only save us a parking space, but would not charge for parking. A win-win-win considering the number of airplanes that could be expected from across the United States, the fact the duration of the eclipse was only about a second shorter than in Hopkinsville, and the airport was about 10 miles closer to our home base at Sporty’s – Clermont County Airport.
The eclipse was scheduled to begin in Gallatin about 1:00 PM EDT, but wanting to ensure a good viewing spot Michael and I, along with our families, loaded into N702SP with our eclipse glasses in-hand early that morning for the hour and a half flight to Sumner County.
We arrived to see several aircraft already parked and we were third in line for landing in the pattern. The airport management had plenty of help to efficiently marshal us to our parking spot on the edge of the ramp as a steady stream of aircraft arrived. Some folks were camped out under the wing of their aircraft, but our early arrival paid off as we found some shade under an ornamental pear tree in the airport front lawn.
Waiting for the main event provided time to walk the flight line to see the various aircraft (from single seat homebuilts to Citation Sovereigns) and talk to the people who, like us, traveled in light airplanes to witness the event. About noon local, as advertised, everyone sporting their eclipse glasses began “oohing” and “aahing” like a Fourth of July fireworks display as the moon started its journey across the face of the sun.
It’s helpful to view this amazing footage before continuing. Be sure to tilt your device or use your mouse to move the camera angle – Ed.
We attached a Garmin 360 camera to an antenna atop the Aztec. You can view the event on YouTube. As you watch the video, turn the sound up to hear the reaction of the crowd. Start viewing towards the front of the airplane as that is the direction from which you will see the shadow of totality approach. Once the eclipse is total, look towards the tail and notice the runway lights have illuminated.
Another unusual sight occurs about the 2:50 mark on the video. If you tilt your view straight down you will see the shadow of the camera on the airplane. First, you will notice the “shadow snakes” dancing across the airplane’s skin caused by the sun shining between mountains on the moon and the instability of the atmosphere. This is the same phenomenon that makes stars appear to twinkle. At 3:07 the shadow disappears as the moon completely blocks out the sun. Pan the camera view around and see the 360 degrees of twilight as the orange glow on the horizon is caused by the sun still shining outside the shadow of totality. At the 5:50 mark the process is reversed as the shadow makes its way to the southeast.
One by one, airplanes taxied onto the runway and departed. The next airplane followed as soon as the previous one was at a safe altitude and within 20 minutes it was our turn. I was pilot for the return trip as Michael and our passengers kept watch for traffic conflicts – a very important job as this screen shot from the iPad connected to our Stratus indicates a “swarm” of aircraft leaving the area.
An hour and a half later we were back on the ground at Sporty’s. A friend who drove to see the eclipse spent more than 12 hours driving home as the interstates were clogged with traffic with little movement for the first few hours after the eclipse. Chock up another point for traveling in a general aviation airplane!
I can now say “I’ve been to 36 County Fairs, 24 hog killings, 12 goat ropings, a half dozen molly mule milkings and one total eclipse of the sun!” I may have truly seen it all.