Search Results for: vfr

Properly managing risk is essential to successfully pursuing life’s more exciting adventures. Activities such as scuba diving, downhill skiing, motorcycling, mountaineering and, of course, flying, all entail elements of risk which we must consider and manage if the thrills we seek are to be experienced more than once. But risk management often is poorly understood: […]

Original, Exclusive Videos from AVweb |Reader-Submitted & Viral Videos For years, we’ve been wondering when someone would get around to producing data-driven charts — that is, a portable or a panel mount that renders charts not from an enhanced PDF but from a database of coordinates it uses to draw the basic map graphics. Now […]

Handling in-flight electrical failures requires knowing the affected systems and where good weather is. Radio silence: that’s what most pilots say got their attention and made them realize they had encountered an in-flight electrical failure. Too bad, because by the time the radios no longer worked, odds are that your electrical system had sucked all […]

Each week, we run a sampling of the letters received to our editorial inbox here in AVmail. One letter that’s particularly relevant, informative, or otherwise compelling will headline this section as our “Letter of the Week,” and we’ll send the author an official AVweb baseball cap as a “thank you” for interacting with us (and […]

An accident synopsis from the NTSB identifies the pilot’s personal texting as a contributing factor in the Aug. 26, 2011, crash of a Eurocopter AS350 B2 helicopter near Mosby, Mo., that killed all aboard. The flight was operated as a medical services mission flown in VFR conditions, carrying three crew and one patient. It crashed […]

A test program in Alaska to integrate the consumer tracking devices Spot and Spidertracks with FAA search-and-rescue has been successful, officials said last week. The Enhanced Special Reporting Service was tested for two years and now has been made an official option for all pilots flying VFR in Alaska. The technology could be a lifesaver […]

Each week, we run a sampling of the letters received to our editorial inbox here in AVmail. One letter that’s particularly relevant, informative, or otherwise compelling will headline this section as our “Letter of the Week,” and we’ll send the author an official AVweb baseball cap as a “thank you” for interacting with us (and […]

Don’t stop me if you’ve heard this: A guy walks into a pilots’ lounge and asks, “Anyone here got an opinion?” Three hours later he staggers out, weighted down by the torments of the flying world. Similar thing happened on our recent Brainteaser survey. A mother-lode of angst burbled out when we fracked the depths […]

So now that all the towers are closed, what are we to do? Will chaos reign? Have the dogs of doom been loosed? Not quite, but depending on where you fly, there could be some challenges ahead that will be unnerving. And just to put some numbers on it, the FAA-announced closures will shutter 149 […]

I don’t remember the exact date, but I overheard this conversation with ATC about 35 years ago. Those were the days when we had the old surplus DGs and transponders were not required near busy terminals. Weather was clear, but a cloud layer had formed over the airport and trapped some students on top. Lost […]