Features

Every year structural icing claims a small but steady number of airplanes. Many of the accidents are on approach in clear air—after the airplane has already collected a load of ice. We look at them afterward and wonder—the airplane had been doing fine—why did it crash well after it escaped from icing conditions? Full-scale airframe […]

A couple of years ago, flying into ZRH (Zurich, Switzerland), just the day after the landing fees increased once more, we heard the following conversation while on hold between a Cessna 172 on final and the controller. It was a busy day with lots of commercial traffic. Controller: Cleared to land runway 28; winds calm, […]

Last month Icon Aircraft announced it had opened its second Flight Center to support its A5, a light sport amphibian (S-LSA). Based on Tampa’s Peter O. Knight Airport, the Center will provide flight training, sales, demos and service for the aircraft. At first glance, the announcement was generic good news that a general aviation manufacturer […]

Most pilots are content do drone along in the straight-and-level, rarely banking beyond 30 degrees or pitching up and down beyond 10. Meanwhile, aerobatic pilots enthuse in their ability to fly upside down, vertically and in all combinations. Somewhere in the middle of these two extremes are what the FAA calls “performance maneuvers,” generally thought […]

On a recent flight from San Antonio to Fort Stockton the center frequency got very quiet. Me: “Center you still there?” Center (after a few seconds): “Yeah, it’s slow but they won’t let me go home” Jack Ogle

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 atwww.ntsb.gov. Final reports […]

This article started with an email from a reader asking whether a Cessna 150 would be a good floatplane. It morphed from conversations with experienced floatplane pilots about the 150 on floats—okay, but not great—into what makes a good floatplane, what to look for when buying one and what’s involved in putting floats on your […]

Many years ago while flying into MFR (Medford, OR) as a newly minted pilot from a non-controlled airport I was nervous to say the least.I got a right downwind entry clearance but I absentmindedly entered an extended left downwind. Tower: “Experimental 123xy, okay left downwind will work just fine too, and cleared for left base […]

I’ve never felt it was appropriate that a pilot could obtain an instrument rating without flying in the clouds. From a safety standpoint—no matter what type of flying the pilot intends to undertake—it seems beyond ludicrous. I received instrument dual in IMC at a small airport in rural Iowa; one would think that it would […]

Aeronautical decision-making (ADM) is essentially the mental process of gathering and evaluating information pertinent to a flight; listing the options and their attendant risks; and then choosing the best alternatives. It is an iterative process due to the nature of the changing variables inherent in flight. ADM is often a relatively simple and subliminal process […]