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Published: 15 May 2025

  By Howard Deevers   Can you fly an airplane with no radio, no lights, no ADS-B, into Class B airspace? A former student called to ask that question. He was looking to buy a Champ that never had an electrical system and wanted to know if he could fly into Chandler from Ryan airport. The quick and modern day answer is no. While Chandler is not IN Class B

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Published: 15 May 2025

A dry winter in southern Arizona and New Mexico has increased the wildfire danger earlier than normal. I am sending out Wildfire Avoidance materials to alert aviators about the possibility of encountering firefighting aircraft at wildfires throughout southern Arizona. The materials have been updated with new information. If you would post the attached documents on your

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Published: 14 May 2025

  In this month’s Scholarship Corner, we will continue to introduce our 2024 scholarship recipients. We had the pleasure of meeting with some of our recent scholarship recipients recently to get an update on their journey towards their aviation careers. I am happy to report that they are working hard and making great progress. It’s always encouraging to see how the APA

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Published: 14 May 2025

   by Jim Timm   These pilot deviations need to be examined to determine if a common thread exists that we should address to help reduce the number of deviations that continue to occur and thus enhance aviation safety. In the reporting period from March 14, 2025, through April 10, 2025, there were 19 pilot deviations reported by the FAA SDL FSDO. These

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Published: 21 April 2025

By Andy Durbin   Most Arizona pilots will have heard that the floors of some MOAs will be, or have been, lowered to the surface.  Did you know that fast jets are also operating down to the surface outside of charted MOAs?  I didn't until I was walking around at Buzzard Roost after landing there earlier this year. For those that don't know Buzzard Roost, it's a

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Published: 20 April 2025

  by Jim Timm   The following are the reports of aviation accidents and incidents that have occurred in Arizona from mid-February through mid-March. We hope to use the following detailed accident/incident information to develop safety programs, briefings, and posters/flyers that would help pilots learn from the mistakes being made by others and be able to take the

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Published: 17 April 2025

  by Mike McCann APA Day Trip Coordinator    Our APA Day trip to Yuma International Airport and the Yuma Landing restaurant was a great success.  Sunny weather (with cool temperatures in Yuma) made for an enjoyable flight. Interestingly, everyone who participated came from the various Phoenix metro airports (FFZ, DVT, 18AZ) with a nice variety of

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Published: 17 April 2025

   by Jim Timm   We had two Near Mid Air Collision incidents reported during the period from February 14, 2025 through March 13, 2025.   DATE: February 16, 2025 LOCATION: Mesa Falcon Field (FFZ) A NMAC was reported when a Pilatus was on a final for RWY 4R at FFZ, and a Cessna was on base to land on the parallel RWY 4L, but flew through the final

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Published: 16 April 2025

By Paul Wiley   This article is intended for pilots flying under both Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR).  It is intended to provide and to summarize some best practices for flying within Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) airspace as recommended by air traffic controllers I have spoken with (from Phoenix and SoCal approach

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Published: 16 April 2025

    Greetings, The Arizona spring weather has been a little unsettled and unfortunately, we were forced to cancel the March Grapevine Camping weekend that was due to be hosted by our friends John and Trish McKenna from The Recreational Aviation Foundation. This was certainly disappointing, but we’ve already planned to reschedule them for the October Grapevine