Features

This week, we would like to know your thoughts on holiday travel. For AVweb’s Question of the Week, click here. PREVIOUS RESULTS We received over 800 responses to our question last week on ground obstructions. The majority (70 percent) of our respondents consider radio towers to be a flight hazard — 5 percent did not. […]

This week, we would like to know your thoughts on ground obstructions. For AVweb’s Question of the Week, click here. PREVIOUS RESULTS We received over 700 responses to our question last week on learning to fly. The majority (54 percent) of our respondents indicated that it took them between 40-60 hours to attain their first […]

Communications between the various crewmembers aboard military airplanesis typically accomplished by means of interconnected electronic devices.The interphone system is a vital part of the equipment required for efficientand coordinated flight crew operations. Pilots communicate with navigatorsfrequently to assure mutual understanding of headings to fly, time to goand estimates to targets or destinations. Pilots and co-pilots […]

In a holding pattern behind several aircraft… Pilot: …your estimate for our clearance for the approach. Controller: Bonanza 1234, is there a problem? Pilot: Do the words, “Daddy, I gotta go potty!” mean anything to you? Controller: Bonanza 1234, cleared for the approach.

A sailplane turned final too low to make the desired runway. Equipped with a hand-held microphone, the pilot radioed his intention to change runways … Glider: Glider ABC can’t make 29 taking 24. Unicom: Glider ABC, are you having control problems? Glider: I can eliminate one if I let go of this microphone.

Betty Darst was born November 11, 1939, in Gomer, Ohio. Like all Buckeyes — your author included — she got a healthy dose of Wright pride growing up. Then, in 1979 she moved to Dayton, just a few blocks from the Hawthorn Hill, the Wright home. She’s a lifelong educator, specializing in teacher training and […]

Pilots Say The FAA Is Getting BetterDoes anyone really expect anything to improve at FAA? Has anything improved over the past 4-1/2 decades within this increasingly bloated tax-gobbling group? Nay, only the bureaucracy has increased with each new Administrator. New Administrator Blakey is just another example of increase-the-bureaucracy only for the sake of preserving the […]

Steve McDonald: Pilots Say The FAA Is Getting Better Does anyone really expect anything to improve at FAA? Has anything improved over the past 4-1/2 decades within this increasingly bloated tax-gobbling group? Nay, only the bureaucracy has increased with each new Administrator. New Administrator Blakey is just another example of increase-the-bureaucracy only for the sake […]

Another layover, another motel restaurant, another inane discussion about whatever with the co-pilot “du jour.” With the end of the year looming and tomorrow night’s New Years Eve – a Jackson, Mississippi, layover – on the horizon, it seems time to reflect back on the past and project myself into the future. “My plan,” said […]

Heard at Republic Airport, Long Island. Ground controller to a cargo Beech-18 taxiing in: “What are you hauling today?” Twin Beech: “Ten thousand baby chicks … we had a heck of a job getting them to put their seat belts on.”