In today’s General Aviation (GA) cockpit communications has evolved from the hand signals that pilots and crew used to use in the old tandem seat, open cockpit aircraft.  Today we use amplified microphones and active …

The recent ditching of a U.S. Air jet into the Hudson river highlighted something most pilots shudder to think about: how to survive a water ditching. Recently, DOWNWIND editor-in-chief Richard Edelson had a chance to …

Fly long enough, and unless you are handed the keys to someone else’s airplane on a consistent basis, the buy-vs.-rent dilemma will eventually work its way to the forefront of your aviating consciousness. For the …

Kristina has been affiliated with aviation since birth. She was born an Air Force brat, and her father was a crew chief on the F-111’s. Living on Air Force bases for most of her life …

Every flight has a mission, a purpose, a reason why you will go through all the effort and expense of flying from point A to point B. Granted, some are a little more inventive than …

We’ve all seen them. The guy standing in the sun with his face pushed up against the chain link fence of an airport, watching planes take off and land. Or the guy at your flight …