Features

During one very long day when I was a full time instructor, I ended up with five students in a row all early in the PPL syllabus so I did all the radio calls at our busy, towered airport. On flight five, I called clearance with my call sign and got a casual “Same as […]

There’s an old Buddhist saying that the fool sees only the form, while the enlightened person sees the essence. It’s strange to think that religion could give us any insight into aviation weather. But in the same way that gods tend to be elusive, many of the important details in the atmosphere are unseeable and […]

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 […]

Seeing The Invisible Operating a commercial hot air balloon operation for two decades, your wind summary is spot on. Wind is the engine, directional control or brake for a lighter-than-air (LTA) aircraft and its through understanding critical to safe operations. We use all the elements mentioned in maneuvering a LTA and its understanding critical when […]

One of the best things about going out to visit kit companies—aside from the airplanes of course—is meeting the people that make up our community and industry. I have spent time at so many kit companies that it is hard to visit with all the acquaintances I have made over the years when I get […]

One flight recently, I had an interesting exchange with Jacksonville Approach, south of Jacksonville at 9000 feet. Approach: “N1234, be advised traffic 11 o’clock 10 miles at 9500 can exhibit abrupt changes in altitude and position.” Me: “Will observe. That a military aircraft?” Approach: “I’m not really allowed to say. Just watch out.” That’s a […]

Most pilots venture into windy conditions with enough skills and smarts to know how to either avoid or cope with them. But wind-related accidents are still commonplace, so clearly we don’t always get it right. One reason for this may be fairly simple: With the exception of blowing snow, tornadoes, dust devils and some cloud […]

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 […]

New Research Suggests There’s Still A Lot To Learn From Birds Or… pilots could learn best landing techniques and practice accordingly, enhancing safety in that manner rather than adding complexity to the hardware. Though I do agree, there is a lot to be learned from birds, such as how to stay up all afternoon making […]

Believe it or not, air traffic controllers don’t issue radar vectors for amusement. I know it might seem like it when you’re getting strung out for a sequence or for traffic, watching the time-equals-money clock ticking away, increasing the costs of your flight. My goal as a controller is to get you on your own […]