The most valuable lesson I learned from the “School of Hard Knocks” had nothing to do with weather or instrument flying. The “trial by ice” was a lesson in the awesome responsibility that comes from occupying the left seat of an airplane, regardless of its size. It also taught me to recognize those rare and unusual emergency situations when going by the book is not safe, and when deviating from standard operating procedures or the Federal Air Regulations is not only warranted, but imp...| Air Facts Journal
The Strangest Instrument Approach I Have Ever Flown Air Facts Journal As we taxied out for takeoff at Denver, we got the latest SFO weather from our dispatcher and found it had deteriorated even further to ceiling zero, visibility 1/16th of a mile in fog with an RVR of 800 feet. Incredibly, this was above our landing minimums, so we didn’t sweat it. And of course, RVR stands for Runway Visual Range, which is the horizontal visibility measured in feet by instruments located next to the runwa...| Air Facts Journal
But this rainy afternoon, neither of us was contemplating our future with Skyway. We were scheduled to fly the afternoon shift in a Beech 18 over the eastern half of our route system, and it promised to be a long and difficult day. We would fly 11 legs—nearly eight hours of flying without the aid of an autopilot. What would really make it stressful was the weather.| Air Facts Journal
Joel Turpin began his flying career in 1966 by soloing in a Piper J-3 Cub as a 16 year old high school student. He subsequently obtained his Private Pilot license as a high school senior in 1967. Joel then earned his Commercial license and CFI in 1969 as a 19 year old college student, and has been a current and active pilot and flight instructor since then. | Air Facts Journal