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No pilot should get caught between the ‘rock’ of a sense of urgency and the ‘hard place’ of terrain while trying to save a few minutes of time by avoiding airspace or a clearance. That ‘get home at all costs’ attitude is a close cousin to the Homesick Angel Syndrome covered previously in these pages, and is the motivating force behind too many pilots’ decisions to press ahead with a flight, or corner-cutting action mid-flight when all of their professional instincts scream “STOP!”

Winter is on an in-bound, heading to most of North America (difficult as it seems to accept while sitting in Wichita with a local ATIS reporting 44°C weather.) When ‘Old Man Winter’ arrives he’s apt to bring his chilly friends who will, ultimately, induce more than a bit of hankering for summer’s swelter again.

Have you noticed the weather lately? It’s certainly been a spring for the record books in the US – and it impacted flight operations. Unusually wet storms from the Mississippi River Basin and points west, north and east – the Ohio River Valley – have produced flooding of historic proportions after the storms battered parts of the country with impassable weather.

It happens even with the best of intentions, and among highly seasoned pilots and rookies alike – whether they are flying pistons, propjets, or jets. It also happens turning wrenches in a hangar, and in ATC tower cabs and Center positions: the insidious, sometimes deadly impact of fatigue.

Preparing passengers for a flight… every time the process feels like a parody: a comedy sketch written at the expense of Flight Attendants everywhere. But every time, we get through the process without a chuckle. Perhaps that is because we must acknowledge a given: Sometimes even the best-planned flights go awry.

Flight crews routinely make judgment calls on virtually every flight. Most of those calls are, thankfully, relatively easy for most of the time. On those few other occasions, however, the judgment call flight crews face involves a seriously difficult, or perhaps even a dangerous decision that will impact all decisions that follow on that flight – maybe all future flights, too, if the decision goes bad.

Happy 2011! Over the next several months we can expect a huge amount of retrospective perspectives - comparisons of our relative safety and security as we approach the 10-year anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on American soil. Due in some measure to an unrelenting atmosphere that promotes fear - partly as a result of repeated failed attacks along with the continuing debate about the proper role of security measures within American life - the phrase “Nine-one-one” continues to

November 18th, 2010 marked the deadline of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) requirement for member states to begin executing their Safety Management System (SMS) implementation plans. While that date has now come and gone, confusion from operators over how this will be enforced continues.

If ever there was a truly timeworn phrase, “Practice makes perfect” is the one. People apply it to pretty much every type of human endeavor, and these three little words even sum up one pillar of aviation safety: to improve your flying, fly more – more often and more challenging.

The crime seldom makes headlines – unless the authorities leak their worries of a potential “terrorist” link in their minds (you could legitimately ask, “What doesn’t?” these days). Essentially, the theft of your airplane is as likely to make news as the theft of your family sedan. Airplane thefts thankfully remain relatively rare, and they seldom rise to the level of attention-getting – absent that imminent-risk factor.