Commentary

A tale of misconduct by top FAA lawyers How did Bainbridge get in trouble? The O’Brien report The “smoking gun” paragraph Who are these FAA lawyers? That’s the way the system works? How could this happen? Who will protect us from the FAA lawyers? September 14, 1998 Ms. Jane F. Garvey, AdministratorFederal Aviation Administration800 Independence […]

  A RealAudio feed of this entire interview is also available online, in your choice of high-fidelity (16 KHz) and lower-fidelity (6.5 KHz) versions. (Use the lower-fidelity feed for slow Internet connections.) NOTE: To listen to the audio feed, you’ll need RealPlayer 5.0 or 6.0 software, which you can download free from the RealNetworks web […]

I don’t know for sure if this is intended to be a funny story or a plea for advice, butafter two days of internalizing it, I do know for sure that I must put this down on paper. I am one of three family members that are as a group the owners of two FBO’s […]

Recent reporting by AVweb and other aviationpublications illuminating the Civil Air Patrol’s (CAP) participationin Operation Drop-In and related anti-drug efforts by the federalgovernment has highlighted a fundamental shift from the CAP’straditional primary mission, search and rescue. No longer isthe organization’s central focus on its role as the auxiliaryto the U.S. Air Force but, increasingly, it […]

Itwas a beautiful day to go flying. The air was smooth, the airplane performed flawlessly,and the landing was so smooth that one passenger asked “are we down yet?” As youcomplete your after-shutdown checklist and open the cabin door, you spot a stranger in awhite shirt and dark tie walking toward your airplane, and then your […]

After a short rendezvous with friends at the TWA Ambassadors Lounge on June21, 1998, at Saint Louis Lambert Field, we headed for Gate 25 on Concourse C. We were metby a frenzy of news reporters stalking the gate area. Several Saint Louis area televisionstations eagerly awaited the arrival of a father and son, who would […]

Ms. Jane F. Garvey Administrator Federal Aviation Administration 800 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20591 Dear Ms. Garvey: A recent incident demonstrates a number of problems with the current system of FAA handling of alleged violations, and why you were absolutely right to put a stop to the Form 2150-7 “ticketing” plan. A couple of […]

Thismay well turn out to be AVweb’s most controversial editorial since I co-foundedthis publication three years ago. It’s about the FAA’s sudden decision to stop makingairman mailing addresses available to the public, reversing the Agency’s decades-oldpolicy. I first caught wind of this decision a couple of weeks ago, and have discussed itprivately with dozens of […]

One fine hot summer’s afternoon saw a Cessna 182 flying jumpers at a quiet country drop zone. The jump pilot was getting quite bothered with one student’s inability to get out on the strut and was getting impatient at the jumpmaster for not just kicking the student out of the plane. Just then he saw […]

Braly’s article is followed by AVweb’s own comments (by Doug Ritter). “I’m from the FAA and I’m here to help you.” When most of us hear thisphrase, we think of some poor pilot about to be given a lesson in bureaucraticarbitrariness courtesy of the FAA. Unfortunately, it’s not only pilots who must deal witha sometimes […]