Search Results for: vfr

During this year’s repositioning of the Pilot’s Lounge from the virtual airport to the EAA convention at Oshkosh, many of our regulars and visitors again partook of a rather cynical variation of the traditional form of recreation-at-the-airport-when-we’re-not-flying: watching arriving aircraft to see stupid pilot tricks.Sadly, we saw a bunch.While the majority of arriving pilots demonstrated […]

COLUMNS Probable Cause #16: Peer-PressurizedA VFR-only Bonanza pilot succumbs to peer pressure and launches into marginal conditions.

This article originally appeared in Aviation Safety, July 2004. Pilots must often deal with a wide range of competing emotions and pressures when faced with less-than-ideal conditions for a planned flight. These can range from doubts about one’s skills and proficiency for the planned flight, to mechanical problems with the aircraft and to adverse weather. […]

AOPA President Phil Boyer says there’s not much room for general aviation in NASA’s and the FAA’s vision of future air travel. The so-called Next Generation Air Transportation System is geared toward commercial carriers and heaps expense on GA while diminishing its access. “But in this nightmare of the future, GA would lose access to […]

This article originally appeared in IFR Refresher, March 2005. Though you may possess a valid medical certificate, as an FAA-licensed pilot you are expected to ground yourself whenever you do not meet the standards of that certificate. When a pilot has a bad cold or some other similar ailment, and especially if he or she […]

I spend a lot of time talking about “the book.” I use the phrase as a catchall for FAA publications. My favorite “book,” by far, is the AIM — The Aeronautical Information Manual. Some might consider that strange in that I’m not a pilot. I’m a controller. You might expect me to spend most of […]

In the annals of business aviation, it will be recorded that Cessna won the race to be the first to obtain full FAA type certification of a very light jet (VLJ). Last week’s achievement doesn’t come without an asterisk, however. The footnote will be necessary since it’s highly likely that Eclipse will deliver examples of […]

What seems to enthusiastic onlookers like one of the longest aircraft development programs, Seawind, hit a major milestone last week with the first certification test flight of a Seawind amphib built at the factory in St. Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec. Details of the flight weren’t released. But until this flight, all other Seawinds, including the […]

Colorado-based Adam Aircraft yesterday told AVweb that it expects full certification of its A500 piston-powered centerline-thrust twin in the “next few days.” According to a company spokesperson, “all the paperwork is complete” and filed with the FAA — except for known icing approval — and the company is waiting to hear back from the FAA. […]

Get deep inside the aviation industry with aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia (Vice President, Analysis, Teal Group). Aboulafia speaks with AVweb on the state (and future) of the industry through topics ranging from pilot shortages to crowded skies and the role of the FAA – from VFR to charter operations to the business impact of terrorism […]