Features

Boeing 737 MAX This MCAS problem reminds me of the “unintended acceleration” of the Audi 5000 from the 1980s. From most of the press reports, it sounded like the car would go full speed on its own, with the brakes failing to work at all, the drivers rendered as helpless passengers as the cars went […]

At Camp Graling, Michigan: Army 12345 (in a pirate voice): “Graling Tower, Arrrrrmy Copter 12345, we be a fleet of three UH‑60s on Charrrrrlie taxiway, ready to set sail to the southwest.” Graling Tower: “Army…(pause)…Army…(longer pause)… Arrrrrmy Copter 12345, ahoy, Matey. Clearrrrred for takeoff, Charrrrrlie taxiway.” Robert Schapiro “Somewhere in the Middle East”

Watching the continuous streaming of a waterfall can be mesmerizing. Something inside all of us expects it to have a beginning or end, so we watch and wait, and eventually we just let it go—realizing that it will continue falling down in that place, sometimes for centuries. The wind is like that too, but we […]

One of the first things student pilots learn is how to recover from a balked landing and go-around. Sometimes, the approach is so bad that we don’t even get to the “balk” part. But when we do—as when recovering from a bounced landing—we’re exposing ourselves to the bottom corner of an airplane’s operating envelope: low […]

Why We Lose Control This analysis is good as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. A common misconception among aviation safety analysts is that pilots are rational, knowledgeable, risk-averse and teachable. Those who go to informal pilot gatherings — not big events and conventions — know that much of the […]

Overheard over South Carolina, with the busy Atlanta arrivals streaming overhead: Delta 1234: “Center, Delta 1234 flight level 230.” Atlanta Center: “Delta 1234, welcome. Cross OZZI at 12,000 and 250 knots.” Delta 1234: “Cross OZZI at 12,000 and 250 knots. And what runway can we expect?” Atlanta Center: “You’ll have to ask Approach on the […]

The aviation industry in recent years has highlighted loss of control in-flight (LOC-I) as the leading cause of general aviation fatal accidents. Many aviation organizations, including government agencies, have devoted considerable time and resources to target this problem and develop effective mitigations to reduce the number of LOC-I accidents. Much of that effort focuses on […]

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 […]

737 MAX Panel: Change The Certification Process My day job is jet engine certification, and we also operate under ODA. The manual of instructions to write your company’s ODA manual (which itself must be approved by the FAA) is 350 pages long. Getting set up under ODA is onerous, to say the least. The FAA […]

I took off from Erie after a major front had passed through much of Pennsylvania and Baltimore and was tracking northeast across Pennsylvania. I ducked underneath the clouds and was flying IFR in mostly VMC with a few scattered clouds. I checked in with Baltimore Approach and it went like this: Me: “Baltimore Approach, Tomahawk […]