Features

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 […]

Yeah, Fear Of Crashes Keeps More People Out Of Aviation Than We Admit It is an interesting conundrum that people get all upset when one of those “dangerous” little airplanes crashes, but simply shrug when there were two or three fatal car accidents on the same day. Safety is a perceptual thing. Flying has always […]

During routine inspections, good technicians dig deep into the airframe looking for structural cracks. And if you’re doing even a causal preflight walkaround it’s not uncommon to find cracks around cowlings, windows and fairings. None of them should be ignored. Surface cracking doesn’t usually mean a cowling or control surface will come apart, but it’s […]

I was flying into Dulles a couple of years ago with my single-engine Comanche. Traffic was landing to the north and I touched down and exited in the first third of the 12,000-foot runway. I contacted Ground and was asked where I was parking. N5109P: “Jet Aviation at Zulu 2.” Dulles Ground: “N5109P turn left […]

The United States. “What a country!” as comedian Yakov Smirnoff once said. It’s equipped with first-class observation systems, sophisticated forecast models, and a lively research community. It has what is undoubtedly the most extensive weather infrastructure of any country in the world, and this is in part due to North America’s notoriously temperamental weather. It’s […]

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 […]

Second Chance Six Great story! My son and I recently bought an RV6A and have found the local airport folks to be VERY helpful as we learn to maintain the plane. Don’t know what we would do without them and the sense of community greatly enhances our ownership experience! dbier I see this as one […]

So here I am. A 23-year-old with my own airplane. I’ve made the investment but don’t (yet) know how to fly it or fix it. I knew that N2165U, my Van’s RV-6, was going to need a lot of love, and I wanted to start immediately so I could fly it as soon as possible. As […]

Returning to Palo Alto airport from the East on a short flight through the busy Bay Area airspace, I was admiring Mount Diablo at 4500 feet when NORCAL instructed, “Skylane XYZ hold your current position.” I was extremely tempted to respond “NORCAL, Skylane XYZ commencing ‘Pugachev’s cobra’ maneuver,” but said instead “Skylane XYZ right 360s.” […]

When you present yourself to a designated pilot examiner (DPE) or an FAA employee for a checkride to add a new certificate or rating, both you and the aircraft are subject to closer inspection than you may be accustomed. Pilots aren’t expected to know the dry torque specification for an engine’s cylinder studs, but they […]