briefs

Nobody likes it when an airport’s Instrument Landing System (ILS) goes down, but it’s happened twice recently at Reno, Nev., and airport officials are fuming. Last weekend, 2,000 travelers were stranded during a snowstorm when the ILS was offline for seven hours, canceling 41 departures and 21 arrivals, the Associated Press reported. Many had to […]

Australia’s aviation agency has grounded helicopters for use in locust-control work after a fatal accident last week, The Australian reported. Pilot Ross Mill, 36, and passenger Ben McDonnell, 33, were killed when their helicopter hit power lines while surveying for locusts. A second passenger, Lucinda Mordue, was seriously injured in the crash, which was the […]

While many segments of general aviation are just creeping back into positive territory from the recent slump, and the airlines are drowning in red ink, the sunny side of aviation these days could be the vertical folks. Helicopter companies are “thriving,” The New York Times reported Monday, and that goes for small operators right on […]

The FAA needs to “move forward expeditiously” to replace aging air traffic control systems, especially at major sites where aging displays are “experiencing significant reliability problems,” a report by the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General said this week. The report reviews the FAA’s Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) program. The condition of […]

https://avweb.com/avmail/ Reader mail this week about the FAA Designee Report, pilot glasses, pumpkin bombing and much more.

_______COLUMNS The Pilot’s Lounge #81: Emergencies — What You Don’t Practice Can KillSeems like all we do in our training (and flight reviews) is practice for emergencies. Then why do pilots keep screwing up when a real emergency pops up? AVweb’s Rick Durden wonders if we’re really practicing the right kind of emergencies — and […]

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Add the urge to show off and an unfortunately placed power line and you get a Thanksgiving tragedy a Mississippi family will never forget. As friends and relatives watched, Tim Mitchell, 38, flew a very low pass in his Cessna 195 over his home in Montgomery County. The plane’s landing gear hit the power line […]

An Alaska pilot clearly made the best of his bad luck this week. In fact, his forced landing and/or crash in a remote area of Alaska sounds, from initial reports, like a week at the beach (a very cold one). On Saturday, the crew aboard a Coast Guard C-130 found Michael Holman, 46, of Wasilla, […]