briefs

_______COLUMNS As the Beacon Turns #76: Who Cares?Remember some of those questions you were asked on your pilot knowledge test or even in the oral exam — the questions that were totally irrelevant to what you really need to know to fly safely? They’re still around, even in the exams for the airlines. AVweb’s Michael […]

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVwebs NO-COST twice monthly Business AVflash? Reporting on breaking news, Business AVflash also focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the Business of Aviation. Business AVflash is a must read. Watch for a Business AVflash regular feature, TSA WATCH: GA IN THE […]

When the skies were empty of civilian aircraft over North America on Sept. 13, 2001, some volunteer pilots took to the air on a unique medical mission. Last week Lifeline Pilots was honored with the National Aeronautic Association’s Public Benefit Flying Team award in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. The Lifeline pilots, Lyle Clapper, Norbert […]

Some people carry signs, others might launch lawsuits, but Jay Wade prefers a more direct approach to possibly saving his job. The 51-year-old Tennessee flight service specialist is launching a bid to take over the whole FSS system through the A-76 competitive outsourcing process now underway. To accomplish his goal, he’ll merely have to convince […]

Some Hollywood stunt pilots are helping NASA ensure a three-year, $200 million experiment doesn’t shatter on the floor of the Utah desert. Somehow, NASA designed an experiment that can withstand the rigors of launch, spend three years in space and survive re-entry, but might not survive a parafoil landing. The Genesis probe carries almost-pure silicon […]

Pilots using busy Teterboro Airport (TEB) in New Jersey are used to sharing the crowded airspace with other pilots — but with Ferris-wheel riders? A major amusement park proposed for an area just south of TEB would include a 400-foot-tall Ferris wheel that would encroach more than 100 feet into the navigable airspace 11,000 feet […]

The closure of Meigs Field (for security reasons, remember?) has been implicated in an incident that gave a Chicago baseball stadium full of people a collective case of the jitters. The FAA is investigating whether an ATA Boeing 737-800 was dangerously (or illegally) low when it passed over U.S. Cellular Field on approach to Midway […]

An All Nippon Airways pilot is being tested for a sleep disorder after he nodded off twice on a March flight — with a government flight inspector in the cockpit. In fact it was the inspector, on board for a routine review, who noticed the 50-year-old pilot was dozing about five minutes after the Tokyo-to-Yamaguchi-Ube […]

Tributes are pouring in for a respected aerobatic pilot who died in a crash in Florida on Friday. Ian Groom, 58, was practicing a flat spin, which he’d earlier said was his signature maneuver, but for unknown reasons his Su-31 didn’t recover and crashed into the Atlantic about 2,000 feet offshore from Ft. Lauderdale. Groom […]

_______COLUMNS Say Again? #36: Spring is Sprung Time once again for the weather to bring nasty thunderstorms into your favorite airspace. Some planes have long had on-board radar, and recently we’ve started to see NEXRAD radar on those GA glass-cockpit displays. This spring, AVweb’s Don Brown finally has NEXRAD available on his radar scope. But […]