Features

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Missouri — From where Dennis Fetters sits, it’s frustratingto try to deliver a low-cost, relatively simple kit helicopter only to have people getupset when problems arise, as they have been wont to do this year on the Mini-500helicopter kits his company, RevolutionHelicopter Corp., manufactures. “We work hard to put together the most-affordablehelicopter kit […]

Top 10 Aviation News Stories | SpecialAwards | Final Flights AVweb’s Top 10 Aviation News Stories Of 1997 10.  John Denver Crash The death of a celebrity in an aircraftcrash will always make headlines. Couple that with the celebrity being the pilot, theaircraft being a homebuilt and questions raised about the pilot’s medical and certificatestatus […]

In-Flight Fire And Impact With TerrainValuJet Airlines, Flight 592, DC-9-32Everglades, Near Miami, Florida HISTORY OF THE FLIGHT: On May 11, 1996, at 1413:42 eastern daylight time, aDouglas DC-9 32 crashed into the Everglades about 10 minutes after takeoff from MiamiInternational Airport (MIA), Miami, Florida. airplane, registration number N904VJ, wasbeing operated by ValuJet Airlines, Inc., as […]

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 […]