This story of a recent in-flight structural failure, told by the PIC, reminds us that no matter what happens, we have to fly the airplane all the way to a stop.
On The Cover: Structural failure of the airplane you're riding in can ruin your whole day. But the instructor and student aboard the AA-5 Traveler pictured managed to walk away after their tail almost fell off. They had some help from a chase plane, which identified the problem for them, but the rest of it was skill. See page 16 for more.
I was the CFI, flying with a keen 17-year-old student in a Grumman AA-5 Traveler. As we used to say in the Air Force when describing a flying scenario, “There we were, flying along, fat, dumb and happy.” It’s just a saying, take it easy—we weren’t actually fat, but we were happy, and the student, at […]
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