Features

Sound judgment is only as good as the information available, the state of mind of the pilot, and his or her ability to rationally perceive a problem. The reality of aeronautical decision making (ADM) often doesn’t fit neatly into the book solution. Nor does analyzing accidents allow us to get into the mind of the […]

Heard from a foreign student turning off after landing at a strange airport.Tower: What are your intentions?Student: Returning to China as soon as possible! Robert Reser

It all started a few decades ago in a place 8500 miles away. Walt Fricke was in the copilot’s seat of an Army helo in the midst of the chaos of a combat assault in Vietnam. When the crew fired the air-to-ground rockets, one exploded leaving the tube. Shrapnel blasted into one of Walt’s legs, […]

If you’ve never wandered the pits at the Reno Air Races, you’re missing out. I’ve crewed twice (crewing gets you a pit pass)—once in Formula One and again in Sport Class—and can’t imagine going to Reno without a pit pass. There are so many amazing people, conversations, and airplanes. While you could simply purchase a […]

Heard over Joshua Approach in the southern California Mojave Desert: Approach: “All aircraft on frequency, turn right five degrees.” After a moment’s pause…. Approach: “All aircraft on frequency, return to previous heading. I am now retired. So long” Stephen Hackney

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

Air traffic controllers have quite a few options for saying one simple thing: “Turn your airplane.” Each vectoring method, like a hammer or a pair of pliers, is a specialized tool designed to fit a particular situation. As you fly, you may hear a variety of vectoring radio phraseology on a daily basis. Like many […]

Last month, on a calm day, we were number two for takeoff on 27R in ATL. Delta was holding short number one. Delta: Delta 123 requests wind check. Tower:No answer Delta:Delta 123 requests wind check. Tower:No answer. After a few seconds Delta cleared line up and wait. Delta: Delta 123 wants a wind check Tower(slowly […]

I just got home after delivering a brand-new American Champion Denali Scout from the factory to a dealer in Boise. One of the integral parts of any ferry flight is a careful preflight inspection—both for the pilot’s safety but also to assure that any little thing that is wrong is fixed at the factory before […]

One of the concerns many pilots express about doing their flight planning on a tablet computer is that they don’t spend time with a chart and a plotter looking over a route. They end up starting a flight with less situational awareness about airports where they can bail out if something goes wrong en route. […]