Piper builds aircraft for different jobs, from flight training to personal and business travel. Choosing one starts with the mission: how many people you carry, how far you travel and which airports you use. The right model for learning basic skills may be a poor match for a long trip with a full cabin.
Continue reading Choosing a Piper Aircraft: Match the Model to the Mission
V-speeds are named airspeed limits or performance references. They are not divided into airspeed and engine-power categories. Their exact values come from the aircraft’s approved flight manual or pilot’s operating handbook and may change with weight, altitude, configuration or other specified conditions.
Continue reading V-Speeds Explained: Aircraft Limits and Performance
A pilot career does not follow one fixed eight-step ladder. Airline, instructional, corporate and other commercial flying have different entry requirements and lifestyles. Planning around a specific goal is more useful than assuming that each new certificate automatically leads to the next job.
Continue reading Pilot Career Progression: Planning Each Stage
Weather decisions begin before departure and continue throughout a flight. A useful plan connects the available information with the pilot’s qualifications, the aircraft’s limitations and realistic alternatives. This article introduces the subject; it is not a procedure for penetrating hazardous weather or conducting a particular flight.
Continue reading Aviation Weather Decisions: Planning and Limits
An Airline Transport Pilot certificate, or ATP, is a pilot qualification, not an employment category. Some ATP holders fly passenger airlines; others work in cargo or corporate aviation, teach, or no longer work as airline pilots. Counting certificates therefore cannot tell us directly how many people are currently employed by airlines.
Continue reading What an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate Means
The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, high-wing, single-engine airplane familiar to many flight students and private pilots. Its recognizable shape is only the starting point for understanding it. Aircraft built across different decades can have different engines, instruments, weights and equipment, even when they share the 172 name.
Continue reading Cessna 172 Skyhawk: A Model GuideA desktop flight simulator can be an enjoyable way to explore aircraft and navigation. It can also help a student become familiar with some concepts when used alongside instruction. An ordinary computer game is not automatically an approved training device, and time spent playing does not automatically count toward a pilot certificate.
Continue reading Flight Simulator Games and Real Pilot Training
V1 is a takeoff reference speed used in transport aircraft performance planning. It connects two questions: can the aircraft stop within the calculated accelerate-stop distance, and can it continue after the assumed failure of its critical engine? This is an explanation for aviation enthusiasts, rather than a procedure for conducting a rejected takeoff.
Continue reading V1 Speed Explained: Takeoff Decisions
A U.S. private pilot certificate can open the door to recreational flying and further training. The path includes ground knowledge, flight instruction, supervised solo work and testing. It is a proficiency-based process: completing a minimum number of hours does not by itself make a student ready for a checkride.
Continue reading How to Earn a U.S. Private Pilot Certificate
Airplane mode is a device setting that turns off cellular connectivity and changes other wireless functions according to the device. It is useful during a flight, but it is not a promise that every transmitter or feature on every phone behaves identically. Your airline and crew provide the instructions that apply aboard the aircraft.
Continue reading Airplane Mode: Prepare Your Phone for a Flight