Features

Emergency: Declare Early, Declare Often I learned the power of saying things out-loud when I was in “the box” (a Redbird, but close enough for us GA-ers) and the instructor failed stuff on me in IMC and I had to actually use the words “I’m declaring an emergency”. I had never actually used the phrase […]

Weather articles typically focus on big weather makers like fronts, systems, thunderstorms, and the weather they all produce. But atmospheric stability is a less‑talked‑about process that works in the background and “primes” the atmosphere in many ways. While you might dodge thunderstorms and fly past frontal zones, stability (and the lack of it) is embedded […]

After a routine frequency change to Kansas City Center, I had a lot of trouble hearing the controller. On the fourth try I finally heard a scratchy reply: Center: “N327JZ, Kansas City, how do you hear?” Me: “I’ve got you now but it’s weak and broken.” Center: “Welcome to the FAA, where everything is weak […]

The general aviation industry has long known about the vulnerability of the engine-driven vacuum pump. This device supplies the energy to spin vacuum-driven primary flight instruments, typically the artificial horizon and directional gyro of a so-called “steam gauge” airplane. It’s an Achilles heel of an otherwise IFR-capable platform and, although conscientious pilots train for so-called […]

On Ash Scattering I enjoyed your article on ash scattering. I too was asked to scatter the ashes of a dear friend. A few weeks earlier there was a fatal ash-scattering mission in an adjoining state. It was fortuitous for me to read about it before my ash-flight. The 4-person crew was lost when they […]

My career in aviation started in 2006, when I earned my private pilot certificate flying in some of the most congested airspace in the world. Today, I fly mainly Cessnas, but over the years have logged time in Pipers, Diamonds and other aircraft types. My passion for aviation took me to the point where the […]

My home airport often has gliders operating north of the field, which led to the following exchange: Cessna C-FABC: Pitt Tower, C-FABC ready for takeoff 26L, northbound departure. I guess I’ll have to fly west for a while for the gliders? Tower: Negative, I can clear you direct north; the gliders are down for refueling. […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]

Huckleberry Pancakes And Grassroots Aviation Success That was such a lovely piece to read. I was once, decades ago, a young earth bound person who lived, breathed for Aviation and Aviators. My bedroom walls were overflowing with really bad hand drawn pictures of Airplanes, cut out pictures from Flying Magazine and the best…a Marine Corps […]

Now that I could see the airplane, I was pretty sure that It was an Aviat Husky. The down-to-your-shoelaces fog that I’d driven through to the airport was beginning to lose its battle with the sun. When I got out of my car 20 minutes ago, the fog had been the absolute master of the […]