briefs

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COLUMNS Probable Cause #7: Marginal VFR and Complacency of the FamiliarAn IFR pilot may choose to fly VFR on a nice day — but how good does “nice” have to be to let go of the IFR safety net? This week’s Probable Cause report investigates the issue, which first appeared in AVweb’s sister publication, IFR […]

Federal Air Marshals “demonstrated remarkable restraint in dealing with” an unarmed man whom they fired upon nine times and killed with at least four bullets outside a parked airliner at Miami International Airport. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office has determined the unidentified marshals were “legally justified” in killing Rigoberto Alpizar when he bolted from the […]

The MIT students and faculty who are developing what they hope will be a practical, roadable, light-sport-compatible airplane say they’ve had offers of deposits, requests for dealerships and interest from hundreds of investors in their creation. As AVweb told you earlier this year, the Transition was runner-up in MIT’s annual Entrepreneurs Contest. Carl Dietrich, a […]

In another twist to the uncomfortable process of bringing Delta Air Lines back from the brink, the airline and its pilots will fight an objection from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. over the deal struck on wage concessions. The pilots accepted a 14-percent pay cut and promised not to interfere with Delta’s plan to dissolve […]

A powered paraglider pilot who calls himself “Super” Dell Schanze is denying he broke any laws last week when he flew low and slow near a busy Utah freeway. Schanze, who has apparently attracted this kind of attention before, admits he was trying to catch people’s eye with the flight as a way to promote […]

Dropping in on the neighbors may be a thing of the past in Scottsdale, Ariz., if the city council proceeds with a revision to its helicopter ordinance. The city law already lays out where helicopters are permitted to land (airports, hospitals, industrial sites, etc.) but it doesn’t specifically exclude residential areas. Jim Heitel, vice chairman […]

A new dimension may have been added to the 10-year effort to prevent fuel tanks from exploding in airliners. The right wing fuel tank on a Transmile Airlines Boeing 727-200 apparently blew up while the plane was on the ground at Bangalore, India, last week. There were no injuries or damage to anything else but […]

The Wisconsin Supreme Court says aviation fuel sellers are allowed to charge whatever they want to for avgas and Jet-A because it does not consider either to be “motor vehicle fuel.” The ruling settled a three-year court battle in which Orion Flight Services had alleged that Basler Flight Service had violated state law by selling […]

COLUMNS Say Again? #63: A Phrase That FitsThe FAA is trying to be a “customer service” organization — which is all well and good unless some customers get quick service and others get 40-mile backtrack because of how they filed their flight plan. AVweb’s Don Brown worries about this and other safety issues in his […]