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  • Caldwell RNAV (GPS) 22

    Caldwell RNAV (GPS) 22

    There are business jets as well as smaller general aviation airplanes here and quite a bit of flight school activity. It sits at the edge of the New York Class B airspace, which means it can be easy to operate into or out of the airport VFR with a minimum of communication with the overlying congested airspace, but to do so is to take certain risks. Having the helping hand of ATC is a smart move. However, if they’re too busy or you need to get in and out quickly and the weather conditions are suitable, VFR is an option.Glidepath control is critical, because the chart does not depict the roads that run just north of the field, which create thermal-like conditions.

    CDW is only six miles to the north of Morristown Airport (MMU), which is another busy tower-controlled field. Just four miles to the north-northwest sits Lincoln Park (N07), which is just outside of the CDW Class D airspace. Overhead is airline traffic going to Newark, and bizjet traffic going to Teterboro. Runways 22 and 28 at CDW are right traffic. There’s a lot going on here and being part of the chaos means being on your toes.

  • An extra set of hands

    An extra set of hands

    Leonard Greene understood that nearly 70 years ago when he created the first commercial autothrottle system. Greene founded the New York-based Safe Flight Instrument Company, also known for its angle-of-attack and stall warning systems.

    A few definitions first. Boeing calls its installed system an autothrottle, while a similar system on an Airbus is known as autothrust. Autothrottles typically synchronize with the autopilot and operate in either speed or thrust mode and create many practical hands-free benefits, like flight envelope over- and under-speed protection. Typically connected to the aircraft through the flight management system (FMS) computer and an outside air temperature sensor, the autothrottle calculates engine power more accurately than any human. During an instrument approach or on a standard terminal arrival route (STAR), for example, the autothrottles relieve the pilot of the throttle-jockeying work during required speed changes. If the autothrottles are switched off or become inoperative, the flying pilot can easily revert to flying the aircraft by adjusting the throttles manually.

  • Better than a magic button

    Better than a magic button

    I’m in the left seat of Garmin’s Cessna Citation CJ2 level at 14,500 feet and cruising along over the pancake-flat Kansas prairie when company pilot Jessica Koss directs me to pull both throttles to idle and leave them there.

    I comply and the autopilot dutifully holds the moderately loaded airplane’s altitude rock steady while airspeed diminishes, pitch attitude increases, and the elevator trim wheel spins. The pitch attitude is 10 degrees nose-up and airspeed has bled off to just 110 KIAS as the low-speed/high angle-of-attack warnings on the G600 retrofit panel flash and make aural “airspeed” and “landing gear” callouts.

  • Power Up

    Power Up

    More power is always a good thing – or so say most pilots, comic book villains, and one of the turbine market’s leaders in power upgrades, Blackhawk Aerospace.

  • French Revolution

    French Revolution

  • Eyes on the Sky

    Eyes on the Sky

    Few inventions have changed the ways flying is taught or how the experience is conveyed more than action cameras. These small, lightweight, extremely capable, mass-market products have become pervasive in aircraft cockpits during the past decade, and pilots have enthusiastically adopted them—with both commendable and regrettable results.

  • Budget Pilot Gift Guide

    Budget Pilot Gift Guide

    We also set our sights on items that not only were inexpensive, but that met interesting criteria: things you might not think you need or know about. We combed all the popular sites: Sporty’s Pilot Shop, Aircraft Spruce, Flight Outfitters, MyGoFlight, Alaska Gear Company, and did a deep dive into Amazon. However you shop, we hope you’ll make your special pilot happy this holiday season. —The editors

  • Disneyland for pilots

    Disneyland for pilots

    Jon Kotwicki is your man.

    The former owner of a flight school in Florida, Kotwicki knows a wild hair when he sees it. He, too, left the relatively simple confines of the Sunshine State to pursue a new life in the Last Frontier, starting a flight school in Big Lake, Alaska, and flight instructing through YouTube videos. Even his mother was skeptical.

    “Only you would think you could actually do this and then actually do it,” she said to him on her one and only trip from Florida to Alaska.

    Not only did Kotwicki leave the warmth for the wilderness, buy 115 acres nearly sight unseen, carve out two gravel runways, and build some cabins for his prospective students, he let his imagination run amuck. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we got an old airplane and turned it into a house?”

  • Wings of the Iditarod

    Wings of the Iditarod

    Iditarod Air Force pilot Bruce Moroney and I have just departed this field in his ski-equipped Cessna Skywagon after hauling people and gear up from McGrath. This is one of many flights today that support race-critical missions like transporting dogs, judges, and even doggy drug tests to prevent doping.

    We follow the Iditarod trail home to McGrath, taking note of the current weather conditions in a land where METARs and TAFs are few and far between, and pilot reports and weather cameras are king. Suddenly, over the radio, we get a call, asking if the IAF is up. It’s the Iditarod trail breakers—a team of snowmachiners who ride the trail first, taking care to ease the path for the mushers and their teams behind and place the official trail markers. They’re a critical safety component of the race and precede the mushers on the trail by at least a day. Turns out, the snow has been thicker than expected, and they’re low on fuel; they ask to make sure the IAF brings some to Cripple. They wave up in thanks as we wave our wings down to them. This winter-bound region is now only accessible by skiplane, dog team, or snowmobile, and transporting fuel would take anything without wings days. With a Skywagon, it takes a little over an hour. For Moroney and the other IAF pilots, this is all in a day’s work. For the Iditarod, air support like this is the reason the “last great race” can go on at all.

  • Flying In Wild Alaska

    Flying In Wild Alaska

    When it comes to general aviation, there is no place like Alaska. And when it comes to sled dog racing, there is nothing like the Iditarod. Combine those two and you have one of the most unique operations in all of aviation: the Iditarod Air Force.

    The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is a nearly 1,000-mile-long endeavor that takes the most competitive teams a little more than one week to complete from Anchorage to Nome. Because of the remote nature of the race, it relies almost completely on general aviation air support. The Iditarod Air Force is an all-volunteer group of more than 20 pilots and their airplanes plus support crew who coordinate and fly a variety of supplies, veterinarians, and race officials to and from the 20-plus mandatory checkpoints along the race.