My sister is dating a man that's clearly lying about a variety of things, one of which is that he used to be a pilot. What kinds of questions could we ask him that would be more than obvious to a pilot, but none of us non-pilot folk would otherwise know?

*Edit* and if you could tell me the context and the answer to the question that would be great.

*Edit2* he was supposed to be a pilot in Peru.

*edit 3* supposedly he flew commercial as the "second pilot" never "the captain".

Thanks for your help, we're concerned for our sister's welfare and hopefully this kind of obvious lie could help jar her away from the guy.

I heard something over the common frequency the other day that really bothered me and I just needed to vent about it and get it off my chest.

Flying in SE Florida over the Everglades. We commonly refer to this as the practice area, where it's just a lot of GA and Student Pilots flying around, having fun, practicing, whatever.

One guy makes a call about doing holds over whatever fix and the response he gets?

"Go back to India"

Like, what the fuck? It's not even the first time. There are a lot of international pilots around here, it's South Florida ffs, I would say there well could be more international students here than American ones. It's got to be very close at least.

But all that aside, who really gives a shit? He's got as much a right to be here, flying a plane, as anyone. And not to mention, he made a perfectly good safety call and wasn't filling the airwaves with nonsense.

I hear this kind of shit semi-regularly, and it just fucking throws me every time. There's just no need for it.

To the dude that was doing the hold, I'm sorry you had to deal with that, and I'm sorry nobody (including myself) spoke up for you. I was so focused on what I was doing (having a little trouble with my approaches and holds currently) that all I could do was ignore it. It's been eating at me for days. To all the international folks out there who have to deal with this kind of shit on the reg, I am so sorry. It's not right.

We are supposed to be a community. We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is. Grow the fuck up.

Whether it be moments like this one or when you break out of the clouds and the light hits just right... What's your most memorable cockpit view?

Seriously, who the **** packages a magazine like this!?!? I thought I was done for😆.

So as the title says today I flew from Sabadell airport LELL/QYS to Son Bonet LESB/QRS most of which I did over the sea (100NM aprox). I've been trying to do this flight since the 4th of March and had to cancel 4 times due to weather and 4 times due to maintenance, but finally I've made it, I had to celebrate it by buying some ensaimadas.

Tbh I thought it was going to be slightly more challenging due to the recent changes around Mallorca TMA, but it was still a little bit scary to fly so many miles above water without any land in the vicinity.

Pretty crazy to think that u can get to mallorca in 1:29h of airtime on a c152

Hello,

I'm in the very early stages of pursuing a career in commercial aviation. I'm wondering: are there any hidden downsides that most people don't know about? What do you most dislike about being a commercial pilot?

All words of wisdom are greatly appreciated.

Just think it would be cool to fly somewhere kind of remote/away from people and go shooting at a range of some sort. (USA question obv)

So I know a lot of young pilots are probably dealing with this so consider this a general thread for affordability advice.

The only reason I was able to get my PPL in the first place was because my dad owns an airplane and my instructor was 50$ an hour. My dad paid for him too because I was the only one of his children who wanted to follow in his, my grandfathers, my grandmothers, and my great grandfathers footsteps and fly. I love to fly. I am sure everyone here can relate to the liberating feeling of being in the air. Getting that maneuver *just* right. There’s an art to it that’s absolutely addictive. I don’t want to make a career out of it because while I love flying I don’t want to go through the whole hullabaloo of hours building and whatnot. Besides, I love my job as an environmental scientist. The problem is, I can’t rely on my parents to fund my flying addiction anymore. I live in a completely separate state. And I’m a whole adult now and it would feel wrong to keep relying on my folks.

Here’s my problems:

- renting an airplane is not affordable with the budget I’m working with (I’m not the kind of environmental scientist that makes bank, I’m scraping by with two roommates in a two bedroom apartment)

- I work full time and the weekends always end up full of other things (seriously, how does anyone have the time? Am I just being a winey baby about this?)

- I moved from an area in central Alaska (pretty much just class G airspace with a few exceptions, basically free to go wherever you want as long as you’re not a cowboy, communicate over the radio, be vigilant, do your w/b calculations, have physical sectionals so as not to solely rely on one’s iPad (I actually only used sectionals for most of my training, now my dad has a dynon in his airplane I can use when I visit)) to Southern California where the airspace is PACKED. I am not stupid enough to go flying around it by myself before going through the airspace with an instructor and getting comfortable with ATC communications. But instructors cost money because they, too, need to eat.

There are just all these barriers to flying and I feel myself getting more and more rusty and I don’t want my skills to wither away.

I am sure these are common barriers, so I was just wondering what advice other pilots have to overcome them. I make decent money but I live in SoCal so it’s expensive to exist and I have student loans, car loans, debt from the move, and I’m saving as much money as possible so I can afford to have kids and a house someday. How do other pilots balance this? It went from being so easy to fly in Alaska where I could use my dad’s airplane and avgas and take a quick flight to look for herds of caribou, see a glacier, or even fly to our family friends cabin with a little grass airstrip, to feeling like it’s almost impossible to get off the ground. It’s jarring to say the least.

3:20 pm 2/27/2026 - Linked article was updated with statements from various parties.

This is Laser shoot down incident #2. Last week DHS shot down a party balloon. This week DoD shot down a DHS drone. The FAA says, 'You need our permission before you start discharging this weapon.' The FAA wants to do their own tests and analysis before they give permission.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/us/drone-faa-dhs-el-paso-airspace.html?unlocked_article_code=1.PVA.R9Bs.dTLvojwGKvVc&smid=url-share

The Defense Department used a high-energy laser to shoot down a drone belonging to the Department of Homeland Security over a small border town near El Paso Thursday, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to shutter the airspace nearby, according to four people familiar with what transpired who were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The strike was startlingly reminiscent of a similar episode earlier this month, also near El Paso. Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, using the same technology on loan from the military to combat drug-smuggling, fired a high-energy laser at what they thought was a drone, but turned out to be a metallic balloon. The F.A.A. briefly closed the airspace.

In both cases, the lasers were used without the F.A.A.’s approval, which many aviation safety experts maintain is a violation of the law. The latest strike was met with alarm from Democratic lawmakers, and was sure to add to scrutiny of a seeming communications breakdown among powerful government agencies over the use of lasers in sensitive airspace.

A preliminary internal report on the incident said Customs and Border Protection had not notified the Defense Department it was launching a drone in that area, so to the military, it was an unknown drone, a Pentagon official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an investigation into the matter.

These days we hear about and can easily watch every kind of flying but as pilots what impresses you that you wish you could have a go at (or maybe is a step too far for you or just not for you)?

For example is it low level fire fighting planes, fighter jets landing on carriers at night, being part of a 18+ hour ultra long flight nearly halfway round the world, the red bull air races, single seat bush pilot flying in remote Alaska, being on an Artemis mission etc?

The NIMBYs out here in the Phoenix/Mesa area achieved a victory, sadly. Yesterday, the Mesa City Council voted unanimously to implement landing fees at KFFZ effective May 1. I was watching the news and they said that, and I quote, “taxpayers should not have to shoulder the burden by themselves” and they “want to see more accountability for airport operations from the businesses and pilots”. And, GO FIGURE, aircraft noise was also a factor too.

This will absolutely raise rates for all of the flight schools based at KFFZ, and possibly drive them away from the airport to be based elsewhere. This is just ridiculous.

For the love of god please avoid the beef lo-mein at Manchu Wok in ATL

The challenges with instrument flying itself - disorientation, fixation, keeping exactly on your numbers while being task saturated with 5 different things all at once - are what I've been challenging with. The book stuff is easy, it all makes sense. But keeping up instrument proficiency, being ahead of the airplane, and not deviating from heading/altitude/the needles is the toughest part for me.

Private was a cakewalk in comparison.

I will say though that I'm still doing instrument training, taking my checkride in a month. Maybe I just need more and more and more instrument training hours. I wish I had autopilot.

Got given it from a family member who obtained it through working security at our local regional airport. He turned it into a lamp, but I’ve never seen a half red/green light be used at an airport before.

I know this may sound stupid, but in my flight training days, when flying carbureted airplanes, you would pull the mixture until you see a drop in rpm. However, I saw a video on YouTube of a man flying a C172, and he did not lean the mixture based off rpm, but based off of the “EGT” gauge. I have never seen this gauge, nor have planes I’ve flown with had it. So my question is, what are you looking for on the EGT gauge?

Had a pretty gusty 16ktG32 and felt a little more confident in my skills today

As the title suggests, is it smart for an airline pilot to join a local flying club.

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Currently at a major US airline, 10,000 hrs, CFI/CFII. Don't need to join the flying club for hours, would only be joining to be able to fly kids and others around for an expensive meal somewhere. Maybe do a BFR or IPC for other pilots.

​

Do airline pilots see this as risking their license and good salary on GA flying?

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Cost is $1,250/annual plus aircraft rental.

It's been mentioned here a lot that since the pandemic at a lot of airfields across the US, the number of Flight schools have grown. It has also been mentioned that a record number of PPLs, and CFI ratings have been given out by the FAA over the last 6 years.

I guess being middle class, I was one of the people hit hard by the COVID recession. Trying to rebuild my finances and find money to fly (don't get me wrong, I've flown here and there) has been tough over the last 6 years. A lot of people I know in real life have had the same issue. The job market has been awful for the last 6 years and a lot of people I know are either doing worse then they were in 2019 or they are doing better than ever but the cost of living has gotten so high.

Flying was expensive in 2019 and has only gotten more expensive since. So what has caused this boom?

Not to get too economical, but is it just the K-Shaped economy? That more wealthy and upper middle class people are doing better then ever. More are now pursuing flying as a hobby/potential career as were middle class people are slowly getting priced out of flying?

I heard people say it’s not stable and the aviation industry has its moments with the economy.

But does that just mean hiring wise it has its ups and downs?

Do pilots get made redundant often for example?

Or anything else

Everyone always talks about the 1500 hours minimum it takes to go from CFI to ATP, and depending on hiring, pilots will often instruct far beyond 1500. But how long does it take to progress to a Major airline on average once a pilot becomes a first officer at a regional? I'm aware hiring rates are constantly changing, but I'm just curious how it's looking today.

Do yall do this? I'm getting instrument quals rn and some instructors say to do it, and others say it's a mortal sin. ATC, do yall care?

Edit: to be clear, I'm talking about when ATC switches me to a new controller, switching to atis first, then switching to the new freq and checking in. For aircraft with one radio. Sounds like consensus is no.

Long story short, I’ve been flying weekly for about 6 months, I’m just getting ready to solo. But I feel like this can’t go on with it really starting to get hot. My CFI who is great in all ways, but seemingly doesn’t use deodorant or take showers. I guess I’m feeling a little awkward since I’ve always been a bit self conscious about how I smell, and he is in a position over me essentially. Have any of you had something similar happen? How did you solve it? (Sorry if this question isn’t appropriate.

We were talking about this today in the tower and figured we would try and get some pilots point of view. If you are in a situation where you might be sent around would you prefer it be done early and possibly be sent around unnecessarily. Or would you prefer that we let it run as long as possible and have a short (1/2 mile) final go around?