83. ‘I’m Unable to Maintain Altitude’

How well do you know the people you fly with? In corporate flight departments, you get to know the other pilots pretty well, but in the airline world, crews often meet for the first time only hours before a flight. And it’s difficult to know if the other crew member is a good stick, or even if the person is in good physical condition. On this episode, the lack of familiarity with an FO's health led to an in-flight emergency.

A pilot reacted quickly after the airplane he was flying went into full feather over the Amazon. The outcome was positive, but did he do the right thing? 

After an annual inspection, condition inspection, or even an oil change, the airplane needs to be flown to make sure it’s operating at 100%. And if you’re the owner, you’ve got to do that flying. One pilot did a simple check after factory maintenance, but on his way home, he got a surprise: smoke in the cockpit.  

This week is an amazing tale of a pilot doing something most would never want to do: ferry an airplane across an ocean. Meet the pilot, who in an unfamiliar plane, was forced to put it down in the Pacific and hear what he learned from the experience. 

Dr. Stan Markus is an owner and lover of antique aircraft. And when the engine quit on his Stearman, away from his home airport, he only had a few seconds to find a suitable landing field that would not be a hazard to those on the ground, himself, or his airplane. 

A recent equipment upgrade created an erroneous incompatibility with fuel flow sensing for pilot and social media influencer Kay Hall. Hear how it unfolded in this episode.

Landing in a parking lot on a private pilot checkride provides a powerful lesson in preparation and humility. Dave Schoen  shares a story from his student pilot days.

Joey and Rachel Brown give their Cessna 150 a workout flying from California to Florida and back. It was all good until the final leg, when headwinds and downdrafts exceeded aircraft performance and they were no longer able to maintain altitude (even in a climb configuration). Fortunately, avoiding get-home-itis made for a happy ending.

Flying is unforgiving, soaring even less so. Hear how glider pilot Bob Katz turned a loss of lift out of range of his airport into a picture perfect off airfield landing on a golf course after his Plan A and Plan B didn't work out. But good outcomes of unplanned situations don't happen by chance, every flight is an opportunity to rehearse a "what if" scenario.

A low time instrument pilot launches into IMC with a gradually failing vacuum pump and learns a lesson about proficiency and instrument cross-checking. The wisdom to invite another pilot along as a second set of eyes in the cockpit likely changed the outcome of this lesson.