Features

The FAA held its second public “summit meeting” about aging GA airplanes on March 22-23, 2006. More than 170 representatives of government, industry, owner groups and type clubs packed the meeting room in Kansas City to listen to what the FAA had to say on the subject, and to present their views and ideas to […]

IFR Pilot Complacency Re: Probable Cause #7 (May 28):AOPA’s Air Safety Foundation did a study of fatal accidents that showed IFR pilots were responsible for a disproportionate amount of fatalities. In my opinion, they tend to become too comfortable with someone else (ATC) watching out for them. As a long cross-country VFR pilot, I don’t […]

From a neighbor to the north… “Last fall my wife and I headed to Oregon so that I could get some flight training that wasn’t offered here in Canada. We approached the stern looking US Customs agent and got ready for the typical serious and pointed questions. He asked me my purpose of travel and […]

One of the advantages of flying from the Eastern Time zone to the Pacific is that when you get there it always seems early and you always have enough time for a good dinner.Our 6 p.m. arrival in SFO was really a 3 p.m. arrival by their left-coast standards, which left enough time for a […]

Sound familiar? PA-44: Page Traffic, Seminole Echo-Romeo entering the left down wind, we will be simulated single engine… C-172S: Seminole Echo-Romeo, Cessna is following you into the Downwind on the left 45. … We’re single engine, as well.

I need a new phrase. The ones I know just don’t quite fit. There’s a growing trend in aviation — for both pilots and controllers — and it troubles me: We aren’t paying close attention. The “little things” seem to slip through the cracks more often than in the past.I’ll just talk it out and […]

NASA Langley’s Many Wind Tunnels Thanks for the article, “Blended-Wing Prototype Nears Flight Test” (NewsWire, May 11), about model testing of what the article called “the X-48B, an advanced-concept, fuel-efficient blended-wing body, in the Langley wind tunnel in Hampton, Va.” But please note that NASA Langley’s historic Full-Scale Tunnel — important as it is after […]

There’s a club for that, too… An exchange overheard between an Australian charter company and ATC. The company was in mid-April flying a DC-3 carrying a wedding party at 2000 feet over Sydney harbour while the nuptials took place. The flight’s pilot made sure ATC was aware and ready to coordinate a return to the […]