Stories about Flying

A routine instrument departure turns into a career-defining moment when poor cockpit communication and rushed decisions lead to a serious ATC deviation.

In this episode, Rob Mark shares how one flight exposed the dangers of weak Crew Resource Management (CRM) - and the hard lesson that remaining silent can be just as risky as making the wrong call.

Before 2009, pilots who wanted a career as an airline pilot could easily be hired with as little as 300 hours total time in their logbooks. That all changed after the crash of a Continental Express Bombardier Q400 turboprop with the loss of all aboard while on approach to Buffalo, New York.

Following an outcry from survivors of the Q400's victims, the FAA changed the rules the airlines would need to follow to hire new crewmembers. All new Part 121 pilots - both captains and first officers - would be required to hold an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate.

Louis Smith from FAPA.aero outlined the pay scales for the airlines which makes it pretty clear why airline pilot jobs are so highly sought after.

When a pilot earns their commercial certificate, it can seem like a very, very long road to earn the remaining hours needed to qualify for an ATP certificate. Myself, I towed banner and flew night aerial advertising aircraft, flew a couple of light twins for a company.

Some pilots see flight instructing as the only way to earn this additional time. But for me and a few others, there's an adventure awaiting if they choose to make the effort.

For me, logging the needed 1500 hours included many hours of ferrying aircraft around the country as you'll hear. But my friend Tom Horne - editor-at-large - for AOPA Pilot dove headlong into aircraft ferrying in his early years.

He shares stories about his adventures traveling around the world delivering aircraft across the ocean, at night and in IFR weather ... like his longest trip from St. Johns Newfoundland, to Bangkok, Thailand.

Rob Mark, Stories about Flying

No individual can enhance aviation safety as much as a flight instructor.

Flight instructors possess a powerful opportunity to make a tangible difference in someone’s life, very possibly the rest of their life. Whatever a student pilot learns – good or bad – they learn from us. The habits we teach them, not only how they fly but also how they think about flying, will stick with them long after their flying lessons are over too.

Some instructors today seem to believe their job is to log as many hours as they can. Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. But instructors also need to remember that learning to fly is a business and students are customers. Those students deserve a solid return on the time and money they invest with us.

An instructor sitting in the right seat whose only goal is building time might keep their job, but they don’t deliver on the unwritten promise between a student and the flight school. In addition to getting a student through their checkride that promise says that when we release a newly licensed pilot into the national airspace system, that person is competent and safe.

Here are a few tips to help anyone navigate the flight training industry.

Bare with me here, because in this brief episode, I'll be introducing Jetwhine readers to the Stories about Flying podcast.

Fledgling journalist Brian Coleman departed the US last week after snuggling up with a United Premium Plus seat enroute to the 2026 Singapore Airshow. This will be his first airshow adventure in the Asia/Pacific region. He'll be sending us back some regular reports as he explores the show ... especially after he hooks up with those whacky guys from the Plane Crazy Down Under podcast, Steve Visscher and Grant McHerron.

Enjoy!

Have pilots acting as armchair accident investigators gotten out of hand? Sometimes. But not all accident investigators are created the same.

In the early days of the airlines, there were no Captains or First Officers ... only First Pilots and Co-Pilots. This episode describes an early memo from American Airways about how new male pilots were expected to behave on the line. There were, of course, no female pilots, nor any pilots of color.