A Piper Archer pilot finds out that opening a door in-flight is no big deal...until you fly into a cloud...

With the Hawaiian islands as a backdrop, a Beechcraft pilot logs some single-engine time...in a twin...

"Get-there-itis," maintenance issues, and an inaccurate forecast conspire against a cross-country Cessna pilot. "I was a disoriented, low-time VFR pilot in IMC, without a working radio, in Class C airspace, near a large airport. I knew this was often how accident reports began - or ended..."

Inadvertent flight into unreported IMC causes a VFR pilot to reflect on the value of effective flight instruction...

A birdstrike in a 1960 Focke-Wulf P.149D over Palm Beach brings home lessons of "just fly the airplane" and keep everyone calm...

Although it seems ridiculous to an outsider, operating in less than marginal VFR weather is common in the Louisiana oil field. I was in a Cessna 185 amphibian, engine idling, pointed into the 30-plus-knot wind, holding position in the ship channel southeast of New Orleans. Unfortunately, in the chaos that led up to this point, I forgot about the fist-sized hole in the right float...

I had read many times that pilots must fully understand and master their autopilots, but I didn’t fully appreciate the accuracy of those warnings until, at 1,000 feet agl I clicked off the autopilot on the yoke-mounted switch and turned to enter a left base leg to Runway 8...

The air was smooth in the clouds and our airplane was running great at first, but soon the rpm started to drop and we were losing altitude. We suspected carburetor ice and tried to combat it with carburetor heat and full power, yet we still couldn’t maintain altitude. ... There was no radar coverage in our area and no VORs to cross-check our position. We were getting scared...

The airport I landed at was out of fuel so there was no way I could top off my tank for the remainder of my long flight. I could either abort my plans and return...try again another day, or press on...more than 100 miles away, a long way for a little Cub on skis...

Juan soon let me know all was not well. He said our airplane’s flight controls weren’t responding in a normal manner and he shouted over the laboring engine noise, “Estamos en peril!” (“We’re in peril!”). The stall warning alarm blared out imminent danger as our Cessna 150 neared impact with the rough ground...