Search Results for: vfr

By LeRoy Cook If you’re looking for a light, fun-flying airplane, you’ll almost certainly want to consider the Kitfox. This iconic little taildragger has been around since 1984, when the original versions were introduced as a step-up from the Part 103 ultralight “vehicles” whose popularity had already begun to fade by the mid 1980s. Providing […]

Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate on Thursday that would require all “U.S.-registered turbine-powered rotorcraft certificated for 6 or more passenger seats” to be equipped with terrain awareness and warning systems (TAWS), flight data recorders (FDRs) and cockpit voice recorders (CVRs). The Helicopter Safety Act of 2020 cites the FAA’s […]

Pipistrel’s Velis Electro became the first-ever fully electric aircraft to receive its type certification on Wednesday. According to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which granted the certificate, the certification process for the aircraft was completed in less than three years. The Pipistrel E-811 engine used on the aircraft became the first EASA-certified electric […]

ForeFlight and Garmin have released upgrades to their electronic flight bag (EFB) apps over the last couple of days that, particularly in the case of the ForeFlight product, represent seemingly minor but functionally significant changes. ForeFlight’s latest update marks an agreement with FlightAware to provide real-time traffic overlays on the ground, using an internet connection. […]

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and the AOPA Air Safety Institute are offering two guides designed to assist pilots and operators return safely to flying after shutdowns due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. For operators such as flight schools, flying clubs and FBOs, the organization’s COVID-19 Flight Operations Guide (PDF) covers developing criteria […]

Technologies develop, sometimes slowly over time, with the kind of sloth that makes you wake up one day, see an evolved landscape, and question your strongly held beliefs. Such as: For any airplane you’d consider flying in instrument conditions, at least a modicum of redundancy is required. We used to want fully distributed systems to […]

This story originally appeared in KITPLANES. By LeRoy Cook The Whisper motorglider from South Africa, designed by Russell Phillips in 2004, served admirably in its intended role as a long-winged self-launching soaring aircraft boosted aloft by an 80-hp Jabiru, Limbach or Rotax engine. But with over 30 Whispers flying, there was obviously a potential for […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]

A pilot friend who knows more than I do about everything once said, “All air traffic controllers should first be pilots.” He was buying the beer, so I agreed. At the time I was both a pilot and a controller. Today, I still fly but haven’t said “Cleared to land” with any authority in years. […]

There are many considerations to work through before your first purchase. Indeed, for the most economically efficient path to the best simulator for your purposes, you should work through all those considerations before making any purchases. Parts of a Sim Want a home flight simulator? You’ll need a chair to sit on and a table […]