Features

Randall Funston of Van Bortel Aircraft Inc. likes to tell the story of how the company got its start. It’s one of those scrappy, bootstrap tales that seems to abound in aviation: “Howard Van Bortel started the world’s largest Cessna dealership in 1985 on a card table in his sister’s living room with $1,000 in […]

On December 24, 2017, a Cessna 340 crashed at Bartow, Fla., during an attempted predawn IMC departure. All five aboard the airplane died. At the time this article was written, it was not yet known what factors, if any, beside the weather may have contributed to this Christmas Eve tragedy. Regardless, the circumstances should remind […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]

Last 747 Is Off The Line End of an era indeed. Not just for one airframe but also as an exemplar of a company that used to epitomize engineering excellence and innovation. David G. I watched one taking off at JFK one evening while sitting in my Hawker on the taxiway. My comment to the […]

Often, the word “front” raises anxiety and apprehension in aviation meteorology. It carries the possibility of showers and thunderstorms, signals a change in the weather regime, and means the distinct possibility of a busted forecast. Thankfully there’s nothing to fear. Fronts are now well understood—computer models have become excellent at handling the underlying air masses that […]

One day while doing an Angel Flight between Santa Monica Airport and Prescott Regional Airport, I heard the following on center frequency: Aircraft checking in: “The last controller said you were the best in the area.” Los Angeles Center: “He’s not lying.” Stephen Bobko‑Hillenaar Carefree, Arizona

Avionics shops have been busy. So busy that the wait to get into some of them is almost a year. There are reasons for that. Installation complexity, airframe teardown and equipment shortages mean a longer stay on the shop floor. To get a feel for how shops and avionics manufacturers rate in the watering eyes […]

I hit a bird once. I was flying a Piper Arrow II, on short final, with landing gear and full flaps extended, when I saw the bird ahead of the airplane. It was maneuvering and, from my perspective, flew in a circle as we neared each other, then disappeared under the left wing. I heard […]

Why Your Performance Charts Are Wrong In my youth I once took off on a golf-lawn quality but slightly wet runway that was sufficient by book figures, only to make it over the fence and adjacent road with shaking knees and at barely enough height not to touch crossing cars. Based on that experience the […]

There’s a performance chart for every basic phase of flight. Pilots use them to determine how fast they can fly, for how long and how much runway they’ll use doing it, among other things. The tables, graphs and charts in the performance section of your typical personal airplane’s flight manual or operating handbook purport to […]