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This post is to let you know of a website that will be very beneficial if you are flight crew member and you itemize your taxes.

If you haven’t done your taxes yet, you are probably scrambling to get everything in order: W-2’s, 1099’s, etc. You should have gotten everything you need by February 1st.

Now I’ve been doing my own taxes for about four years now. They aren’t hard to do but they aren’t necessarily easy either. I can tell you though, there is one tool that can really help you out, get more money back in your pocket, and save you a lot of time. EZPerDiem.com.

Here is how it works. As a flight crew member, most companies pay you a per diem which typically covers meals and other expenses. However, your company probably doesn’t give you all the money that you are authorized. This is because companies work on a formula that the IRS has developed stating that they are only required to give you so many dollars to cover expenses, if any. It is your responsibility, as a tax payer to claim the rest.

EZPERDIEM.COM provides a simple way to calculate your meal and incidental expenses which is basically the difference between the per diem we are paid by our companies and what the government says we are owed while on a trip. You have to visit their site! It’s not expensive, $29.95 — free to start and if you use the code C1Q4L, you get an immediate 10% off.

Visit EZPERDIEM right now!

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Dear Fellow Pilot:

Tax Day (April 15th) is not far away and you need to start thinking — if you haven’t already — about getting your taxes squared away.

It is not too late to take advantage of EZPerDiem.com to calculate the per Diem you should have been paid while on an overnight. I wrote about it on my article, Pilots: Get More Out of this Year’s Tax Return, if you missed it. You can go over there now and read the article. Or watch the video I created on how it actually works, by clicking over to EZPerDiem.com – More Tax Money Back For Pilots and Flight Attendants

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Well it finally happened to me the other day after only reading about it in quarterly bulletins and newspapers.

Someone pointed a laser at my airplane while I was flying which is both hazardous and reckless.

We were heading into Salt Lake City (KSLC), we were on the downwind for runway 34L about five to 10 miles north of the airport at 11,000 feet, when a very bright light caught my attention at my 9 o’clock position.

At first I was thinking, “What the hell is that?“

It had to be the brightest, green, somewhat scattered light I’d ever seen at night. It wasn’t a fine line, but more like the center of the picture to the right. I asked my first officer if he saw it too and he commented on how bright it was as well.

At this point, a lot went through my mind:

- Is it really a laser being pointed at MY airplane?

- What color are lasers?

- Is there a show going on over there?

- Was this a planned laser event?

- Do I need to report this?

So I watched (not looking directly at it) the point that the beam was coming from for a bit longer trying to determine if there was some other reason for the light.

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The other day we were flying somewhere, it really is a blur sometimes, and part of my pre-flight preparation is to program the Flight Management System (FMS) with all the pertinent information for our flight. It takes about 10 minutes, maybe less if I’m in a rush, to get it to a point that my first officer can double check the work.

Now the Collins FMS 4200 we use allows you to either enter stored routes in the database for quick retrieval or program the route one way point at a time.

You have to be careful either way.

Many times your “stored” route is different from your cleared route or your pre-departure clearance (PDC) route. You need to study your release and clearances carefully and then confirm the route that you have entered. Many times ATC will delete, change, or add a waypoint.

Whether you get your clearance via clearance delivery or through a PDC, if you don’t understand the clearance or you have a question about the routing, pick up the microphone and ask. Don’t take off if there is any doubt in your mind. I’ve become very cautious about this. I’ve learned that if either my first officer or myself have ANY doubt, whatsoever, about the clearance, we call.

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This is the second the part of my recurrent simulator proficiency check (PC) that I did. If you haven’t read the first part, CRJ-200 Recurrent Simulator Proficiency Check – Part 1, just click here.

As a recap, every six months I have to head to the CRJ-200 simulator at FlightSafety in Salt Lake City. This proficiency check (PC) was a little different than all my previous ones because this one was two days long instead on one day long. This new setup had an immediate benefit since the first day was a non-jeopardy training session, which means we could really blotch a maneuver and we would be retrained on it. It also benefited us because it gave us a chance to get comfortable with the simulator again, because the simulator doesn’t necessarily fly like the real airplane. Close but not quite.

On the first day, we did several maneuvers that we don’t normally do like high-altitude stalls, zero flap landings, and complex departure procedures in IMC weather with an engine-out at airports that have rising terrain and high-density altitudes. Good stuff!

Needless to say it was a good experience.

On day two though, we had the official PC.

At a minimum, doing a PC, we are required to comply with the Federal Aviation Regulations, FAR 121.439 (recent experience) and FAR 121.441 (proficiency checks), company procedures and operations, know the CRJ200 aircraft systems and fly to Airline Transport Practical Test Standards (PTS).

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