Features

Last year’s TWA 800 accidentgenerated an extraordinary amount of public and media interest, perhaps because,thankfully, airplanes don’t often turn into fireballs and fall out of the sky in pieces.Its aftermath has only emphasized the peculiarities of the incident and heightened ourawareness of the political nature of reaction to such tragic events. The initial responseto the […]

I recently participated in a six-state satellite based interactive video conferencethat addressed the concerns and the difficulties that Fixed Base Operators are currentlyexperiencing. The conference took place on November 12, 1997. It’s subtitle was”Survival of FBO’s: can this industry succeed or is it doomed to disappear?” Theconference was attended by Directors of State Aeronautics Organizations […]

Castle Airport, in California’s Central Valley, is the home of a superbaviation museum and a few other attractionswhich make it worthy of a day-trip by general aviation pilots, and especially those withan interest in military aviation history. The airport is located next to the town ofAtwater, north of Merced, making it an easy afternoon trip […]

As a pilot of 38 years experience, I have watched variousnavigation systems of varying degrees of reliability come and go. The trend in generalaviation during recent years has been for everyone to jump on the GPS bandwagon. Hundredsof millions have been spent to install GPS receivers in aircraft of all types, worldwide.It’s a great system. […]

In 1997, the National Transportation Safety Board asked major participants in the investigation to submit their findings and recommendations. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), The Boeing Company, and US Airways all submitted lengthy reports, the full text of which are available here. We were fascinated by the diversity of findings among these three parties, […]

US AIRWAYS PARTY SUBMISSION OF US AIRWAYS, INC.TO THENATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD USAIR FLIGHT 427SEPTEMBER 8, 1994ALIQUIPPA, PENNSYLVANIADCA-94-MA-076SUBMITTED SEPTEMBER 30, 1997 TABLE OF CONTENTS POST-HEARING SUBMISSION OF US AIRWAYS. INC. USAir Flight 427 Crash Near Aliquippa, Pennsylvania September 8, 1994 I. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this submission is to provide the National Transportation Safety Board […]

The full textof the FAA’s Final Rule amending Part 61 of the FARs is available in itsentirety here on AVweb in both HTMLand PDF formats, as is the rathersubstantial list of eleventh-hour correctionsthat the FAA published just days before the new rule became effective. The intent of the rewrite is to clarify and simplify the […]

SUBMISSION OF THE AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION TO THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD REGARDING THE ACCIDENT INVOLVING USAIR FLIGHT 427 NEAR PITTSBURGH, PA ON SEPTEMBER 8, 1994 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY II. B737 FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN III. AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE IV. B737 LATERAL VS. DIRECTIONAL CONTROL AUTHORITY V. HUMAN PERFORMANCE VI. CONCLUSIONS VII. […]

Iknow. You’re thinking “Hey wait, Godfrey! There’s already an article in AVweb’s’Places to Fly‘ section called ‘The Last Fightertown Airshow.’What’s the deal?” Here’s the deal. Fightertown (aka Top Gun) moved its airplanes and pilots earlier thisyear to Oceano, VA and Fallon, NV. So last year’s airshow was the last Fightertownairshow. 1997’s airshow was the last […]

Myairplane and I spent the last four days as part of the static display at NAS Miramar.Miramar’s nickname is “Fightertown” and it’s the home of Top Gun….where thebest of the best American pilots go to train. At least it has been since the end of WWII.This was the last Navy-sponsored air show at Miramar. As […]