Features

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 […]

When traffic was diminished initially in the pandemic, it sure seemed different flying into New York airspace, with far fewer airplanes and fewer grumpy controllers. In fact, some were actually courteous with terms like “thank you” and such finding their way into transmissions. And then there was this exchange between New York Approach and another […]

Walking the pits at Reno, you pass through a few rows of RV’s, Lancairs, and Glasairs, then a couple of aisles of T-6’s. Next, you come to the big guys—Sea Furies, big Grummans, a Corsair, and finally a couple of rows of Mustangs. This year, when you hit the east end of the Mustangs, you […]

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 […]

Diamond Rollover: Freak Accident Or A Design Flaw? Quite many years ago, I landed at a S. Fla airport with a thunderstorm rapidly approaching and very near the airport. I landed just fine and was cleared to taxi to the ramp that was approximately a mile away. I got about 1/3 of that distance when […]