Features

During the ’80s, while with Mugu Approach, a controller asked an aircraft “to state position.” Pilot came back: “Fiscally conservative. Socially, somewhat liberal. Two miles west of Point Dume.” Greg Andrewsvia e-mail

A documentary filmmaker says the NTSB got it wrong (or was told to get it wrong) in its findings in the explosion and crash of a TWA Boeing 747 off Long Island in 1996. The NTSB is standing by its conclusion that a spark from wiring in a fuel tank downed the aircraft, not a […]

I’ve been an avionics tech long enough to remember when the extent of new avionics upgrades included a couple of flip-flop Navcomm radios and an audio panel. Even back then, some owners stumbled with otherwise simple switchology. Worse case was a missed radio call. Things have changed. Today’s avionics upgrades usually involve tightly integrated glass […]

Last week at our local airport (CYKF), the automated AWOS/ATIS was out of commission. So one of our well-known ATC guys (Dave Clark, who was working ground control at the time) was heard on the ATIS frequency stating: “The automated AWOS/ATIS is currently unavailable. Winds are light and variable, and vis is CAVOK; runway 14 […]

The NTSB’s recent release of a final report regarding the fatal November 13, 2011, crash of a Cirrus SR-22T shed light on a flight noteworthy for its aerobatics; it also invites speculation regarding the potentially untapped value of recorded flight data in general aviation. Both Avidyne and Garmin produce avionics (the Entegra and G1000, for […]

Two people died doing low-level aerobatics with a wing walker this week, and Jonathan Trappe is ready to launch across the North Atlantic in a boat suspended by hundreds of small helium balloons. Should the government be involved with adventuresome aviation feats? (click to answer) Last Week’s Question: Results Want to see the current breakdown […]

Each week, we run a sampling of the letters received to our editorial inbox here in AVmail. One letter that’s particularly relevant, informative, or otherwise compelling will headline this section as our “Letter of the Week,” and we’ll send the author an official AVweb baseball cap as a “thank you” for interacting with us (and […]

The company that I was with had a chief pilot who liked to play with ATC (in the ’60s): Bonanza 123:“Bonanza 123. Give me the word. I want to make like a bird.” Detroit Tower:“You got the nod. Leave the sod!” Bud Walkervia e-mail

Before there was eBay, Craigslist and Controller.com, not to mention web sites for every imaginable aircraft marque, the one and only place you looked for a used airplane or obscure parts to fix one was Trade-A-Plane, the iconic yellow shopper that, for many of us, was and is a dreamsheet. Despite the onslaught of competition […]

Especially in military operations, it’s impossible to eliminate risk, but it can be minimized. Many of their risk-management techniques can apply to your flying. No matter what we do in an aircraft, we cannot eliminate risk entirely. Instead, we can manage that risk and take positive steps to mitigate or reduce it; in rare cases, […]