GONE: Slow Flight at Minimum Controllable Airspeed June 2021 In its 1965 Flight Training Handbook, the FAA dedicated over two pages of text to explain the concept of flight at minimum controllable airspeed (MCA)
Dive and Drive: Fact or Fiction? Maybe Both? December 2018 By Rod Machado I am a "dive and drive" denier. There, I said it and I'm not taking it back. The term "Dive and Drive" is used by some instructors in the...
Cargo Cult Thinking July 2018 By Rod Machado Early in the 20th Century, pilots visited remote islands by air, dropping off goodies for Tarzan and Jane. On subsequent visits, these pilots noticed that the natives...
ACS Changes? Don't Celebrate Yet June 2018 Flight instructors! Remove those party hats, collect the confetti and deflate those balloons because this is no time to celebrate. Celebrate what? I'm speaking of celebrating the FAA's semi-reinstatement of full-stalls in...
The Stall Horn Fallacy of Stall Prevention December 2017 By Rod Machado News flash! The Mona Lisa’s eyebrows are missing. That’s right. Gone! Some say they were scrubbed off during an early restoration. I suspect they were vaporized when...
Stalls Redefined as Emergency Flight Operations November 2017 I managed to watch the recent NAFI-sponsored ACS webinar on replay (http://www.mentorlive.site/program/3.html). I’d like to offer a different opinion from those provided by the FAA and ACS committee members in...
Stall Requirement on Commercial ACS Gone! Replaced by Hearing Test! August 2017 Isn't it ironic that the FAA wants all pilots to have better stick-and-rudder skills while, at the same time, it dumbs down the flying skills required to obtain a pilot certificate? In...
Private Pilot Checkrides: The Good Old Days May 2017 My friend, DPE and highly experienced pilot, Mr. Frank Phillips was kind enough to provide me with much of the following documentation in this blog piece. I am grateful that...
The FAA's New "Not-So-Slow" Slow Flight Procedure November 2016 As most flight instructors know the FAA recently changed the requirements for slow flight in the private pilot ACS. Slow flight must now be accomplished at a speed higher than...
