Search Results for: vfr

AVmail: January 6, 2006 Reader mail this week about the TSA chasing airplane “hunters,” IFR vs. VFR, airline pilot woes and more.

TSA and Hunter’s Threats I sent the TSA an email regarding the Missouri hunter that voiced death threats to the pilots at Smartt Airport (NewsWire, Dec. 26).The TSA has been very good about making sure shampoo bottles and nail clippers are harmless. Now they need to step up to the plate and go after the […]

An Alaska Airlines MD-80 landed safely Monday afternoon at Seattle-Tacoma Airport after a foot-long gash opened up in the fuselage at 26,000 feet. A ramp vehicle had dented the airplane just before takeoff… New Jersey has seen 44 aviation accidents so far this year, double the number in 2004. Thirteen people died, the Star-Ledger reported […]

Modifications to the Los Angeles Class B airspace went into effect last week, lowering the base altitudes for several VFR flyways. The new altitudes should have been printed on the back of the new Terminal Area Chart that was published Dec. 22, but due to an internal FAA glitch, the changes weren’t made. “The Class […]

Slow day at the FSS? I’m a student at Daniel Webster College, and one particularly nasty winter morning last year I was calling the briefer before my 7AM flight… Me: Good morning this is N—DW, I’d like a standard VFR brief for the Nashua area and … Briefer (cutting me off): You’re not going anywhere […]

While in the Pilot’s Lounge here at the virtual airport, I got to checking my email and found one that took me to task for asserting that the Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) created as a result of Hurricane Katrina were ill-conceived and poorly planned. I had complained because of the difficulties reported by some pilots […]

Specificity 101 Heard on Philadelphia Approach: Duke 1234: Philly Approach, we’re gonna begin our VFR descent for the field. Controller: Duke 1234, say altitude descending to. Duke 1234: We’re descending for the field. Controller: Roger, Duke 1234, say altitude descending to. Duke 1234: Well, the field elevation is 78 feet, so … hopefully, we won’t […]

Lockheed Martin FSS I’ve had a little different experience with Lockheed Martin FSS than Ted Anderson (AVmail, Dec. 5).I retired from the Oakland, Calif., FSS in 1998. One reason was that I could see the “handwriting on the wall.” The FAA was pouring millions into updating FSS equipment. But between management ineptness and foot dragging […]

FAA Takes Credit? I am sure glad to hear that the Teflon FAA has found something to be responsible for — all those safe flights (NewsWire, Nov. 28). Well, at least I’m glad for the smile it brings. Allow me to state the obvious: Credit goes to those individual cockpit crews and especially those individual, […]