Search Results for: vfr

Five people were killed after a tour helicopter autorotated into New York’s East River Sunday evening and turned over after touching down on the water. News reports said the pilot was the sole survivor of the accident. Prior to touching down on the water on inflatable skid floats, the pilot had reported engine trouble to […]

The morning fog rolled across the airport like a vast cotton blanket, smothering runways, parked airplanes and the airport terminal. Within minutes, it pushed up against the tower windows, trying to seal us inside like something out of Stephen King’s The Mist. We quickly flipped on the airport beacon and cut a new ATIS reflecting […]

One of the side effects of the implementation of BasicMed and the longest-running period of economic growth in our country’s history has been that quite a few pilots who stopped flying because of medical and/or economic concerns have decided they can return to the sky. For those affected, it’s splendid news. But the good news […]

A stuffy, runny nose, burning eyes and a nagging headache are bad enough on the ground. But when you’re flying in the system—and can’t just pull over at a rest stop—allergy problems become compounded. If you follow the IMSAFE mnemonic, you should be OK. But if allergies are a constant issue and you need to […]

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

Following a path similar to the FAA’s BasicMed, Australian pilots without paying passengers will now have the option of a Basic Class 2 medical, which can be issued by a general practitioner. “In the interests of public safety, it is important that pilots meet relevant medical standards, but the system must not make unnecessary demands […]

The potential for in-flight icing during an IFR flight—regardless of whether the airplane is approved for flight into known icing or not—means doing serious plotting and scheming prior to departure, and throughout the flight. As has been demonstrated for years, structural icing does bad things to airframes. Best to presume every cloud will contain ice, […]

12/1/2017For Immediate ReleaseCongratulations to David Porter, who recently reported the first flight of his RV-7 and became the official 10,000th Van’s RV aircraft to transition from a collection of parts and take to the skies. We say “official” because there are certainly more than 10,000 flying, but we don’t know about all of them. Many […]

Yes we all fumble for our glasses when we pull out the checklist. And while your distance vision is still sharp when ATC calls out traffic, things get a little fuzzy when you transition back to the panel. Maybe those drug-store cheaters aren’t hacking it anymore as you load your flight plan into your G1000, […]

I’ve been privileged to fly the mountains of the southwest for more than 40 years—with many thousands of hours and more than 10,000 landings. But I’m not an expert, and I would be cautious of anyone who claims to be (Sparky Imeson comes to mind). I have become reasonably proficient at understanding the risks of […]