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These days, that guy should get kudos for security awareness. Seeing a non-uniformed person drive up to the field and scrutinize someone's airplane, seems worthy of politely challenging that person.

I get the cynicism, it often does happen that way. But not all the time. For example, the Coleal letter significantly opened up part 14 CFR part 43 for those of us who do as much of our own maintenance as we legally can. Page 2 paragraph 2 is priceless!

As some have suggested, ask yourself what exactly you really want. If it's speed, for most trips you need a lot more speed to make a small difference in total time. Upgrading from 172 to a 182 won't do it, you'll need to go to a Mooney or Baron to get enough speed to make a difference. But means...

I agree with McSpadden. Treat night VFR departures like an instrument departure. Don't expect to see a horizon, even if you do see one you can't trust it due to common illusions. So fly it according to airspeed, heading, attitude, altitude. Do your scan and keep the needles where they need to...

Agreed, but let's face it, a lot of pilots just get sloppy. One should always do it right, but if you do it wrong, tricycle gear will forgive things that a tailwheel won't. Insurance rates reflect this. Indeed. I would say a person like that is not even proficient to fly at all. You never know...

So how about for student pilots? So many pilots learn to fly in a 150 / 152, would anyone recommend learning to fly in a 140 instead? I think learning to fly a taildragger makes a student (or any pilot) more aware of using rudder properly, nailing the correct airspeed on short final, continuing...

When landing, tailwheels are less forgiving of airspeed variance (being too fast or too slow) and require active feet on the rudder, and much more careful braking (or no braking at all!) to keep it going straight ahead because the center of mass is behind the main wheels. It's not necessarily...

I wondered the same when the old Narco DME-890 that was in my airplane when I bought it 15 years ago, started failing, getting incrementally worse reception with every flight. So I found a used plug-in replacement on eBay, which worked for about a year before it succumbed to the same behavior...

IME, flying a nose dragger (C-172) vs tail dragger (C-170) is not much different all the way to short final. The difference is in the flare, touchdown & rollout. But then a C-170 is a pretty tame taildragger with good forward visibility. Maybe other taildraggers are more different, though I will...

Both methods, slip all the way down final or crab on final then slip just before landing, are acceptable and safe when done properly. If the situation allows either method and passenger comfort is a concern, crab then slip is usually better.

Anyone who has been flying long enough has seen something like that when on final. In a case like this my primary concern would not be cloud clearance or visibility for my own landing, but something else: the landing rollout may take you into the fog, which prevents you from seeing if there are...

As I read the regs, you need standard VFR minimums to fly in the airspace - that means cloud clearance and at least 3 miles of visibility. Otherwise you need an SVFR clearance. However, if you are taking off or landing an exception applies eliminating the standard VFR cloud clearance distances...

OK, but why would the pilot request it if he didn't need it? So the difference seems to be the regulation you cite provides this exception for aircraft that are taking off or landing. This implies that VFR aircraft transiting the class D airspace without taking off or landing would need the...

The FAA Controller guidance I linked above says otherwise: Section 5, 7-5-1, (b) "SVFR operations may be authorized for aircraft operating in or transiting a Class B, Class C, Class D, or Class E surface area when the primary airport is reporting VFR but the pilot advises that basic VFR cannot...

It depends on how consistent the mixture distribution is through the intake manifold. As you lean, the engine gets rough when the leanest cylinder is too lean, though the others may be fine. So what's the difference between the leanest and richest cylinder? If that difference is small, then you...

You got answers to most of your questions and since you were asking about this topic in general I'll mention another consideration. Suppose you plan to fly to or through a class D field having 5 mile radius and is reporting VFR but as you are approaching from more than 5 miles away, it looks...

I'll add that the only time I can think of during landing where one might shift a slip from one side to another would be if doing a power off 180 short approach to a xwind landing. If it is a L pattern and there is a L xwind on final, you would maintain the same slip direction all the way...

Yes that's what I do and I think it will be smoother. Landing in a xwind is always a slip before the wheels touch down: aileron to bank into the wind with enough opposite rudder to point straight ahead. You can transition from crab to slip anytime you want: early on final, wait until the flare...

My understanding of Camguard is not that it extends the drain intervals, but it resists the corrosion that develops when the engine sits unused. If the airplane is flown every day or nearly so, for example with a flight school, you don't need it. But most privately owned airplanes sit a week or...

I'm curious: why did you tear it down to inspect? Where there symptoms indicating a problem? Another way to think about it: my marginal cost of the next hour of operation is about $60 (fuel & oil). Camguard costs about $30 every 50 hours, so that's 60 cents per hour, or 1% of my hourly cost. If...