Features

This Week’s Question |Previous Week’s Answers PREVIOUS RESULTS *** Last week, we asked whether aviation experience should be such a big factor in becoming a NASA astronaut. Our question sparked acouple of e-mails about the NASA qualifications, but it also taught us that most AVweb readers think brains and ability rank higher than a pilot’s […]

Anticollision Device Please tell the chaps in Arizona they don’t have to invent the wheel twice (AVwebFlash, Sep. 17). We’ve got want they want. There are hundreds of gliders in Europe equipped with FLARM, a GPS-based anticollision device that works wonderfully. It saves lives!Dr. Richard Bieber AOPA/Lockheed Martin Conflict Of Interest? I notice at AOPA’s […]

It isn’t often that an airline flight crew has time to go to a football game during a layover. Many years ago when I was a plumber on the old DC-8 we used to have beacoup Detroit layovers, which meant we were laying-over in Ann Arbor at the venerated Ann Arbor Inn.Those layovers were seasonal […]

Overheard in IFR Magazine‘s “On the Air” Flying our Bonanza from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Morristown, New Jersey at 6,000 feet with a big thunderstorm to the west, we were handed off to New York approach: Me:Approach, Bonanza Eight Zero Lima level 6,000, heading 270. Approach:Bonanza Eight Zero Lima, descend and maintain 5,000. Me:Okay to […]

Conceived as a next generation bushplane with turbine power, the Caravan was a huge risk for Cessna to take at a time when aircraft sales were collapsing and the selling price of a new turboprop would have to be multiples of the prices for the used, piston-pounding DeHavilland Beavers and Otters with which it was […]

This Week’s Question |Previous Week’s Answers PREVIOUS RESULTS *** Two weeks into the search for Steve Fossett, the aviation community is still doing all it can to find the missing adventurer, despite increasing difficulties in navigating the terrain and gathering new leads. Last week, we asked what AVweb readers thought of the massive search that’s […]

Commercial Airlines Recently my wife and I flew to Seattle from Connecticut. I fly enough to be aware of all the abuses reaped on the passengers by the airlines and the government. I flew in a regional jet from Bradley International in Connecticut to Chicago, where I was surprised to have side-by-side seating (no middle […]

Look at the Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH) or installed placards on most airplanes and you’ll find a notation about “unusable fuel.” Unusable fuel is that fuel in the tank(s) that is not considered to be accessible for running the engine(s). Fuel tank design philosophy provides a sump area into which heavier-than-fuel water or other contamination […]

Overheard in IFR Magazine‘s “On the Air” While flying through Joshua Approach airspace in Southern California: Joshua Approach:“Bonanza Five Victor X-Ray, be advised you have traffic at your 12 o’clock 10 miles, an F-15.” Bonanza 5VX:“Roger, we’ll be looking, no contact.” Approach:“Bonanza Five Victor X-Ray, traffic should be no factor but should be fun to […]

This Week’s Question |Previous Week’s Answers PREVIOUS RESULTS *** Last week, we reported on the NTSB’srecommendation to the FAA that all airplanes be equipped with 406MHz emergency locator transmitters, preferably by February of 2009, and asked our readers what they think of a possible FAA-mandated upgrade. Over half of those who responded said yes to […]