Features

I was crossing the Sierras on my way to Las Vegas at 15,000 feet in my DA40 NG, which has a maximum operating altitude of 16,400 feet, when Oakland Center came on and told me to climb to 17,000 feet. I responded “unable.” After a significant pause, the controller came back and said, “I don’t […]

We’ve long maintained that one of the best ways for a pilot to enhance his or her aviation risk management is to earn and use the instrument rating. This is especially true if the pilot in question has plans to use their pilot certificate for transportation on anything resembling a schedule. That’s because the skills, […]

FAA Letter Hits, Again, At Illegal Compensation For Carrying Passengers As demonstrated by yet ANOTHER FAA “warning” about “Illegal Charter Operations”–this is going to become a larger and larger issue for Private and Business pilots. It’s too bad–it’s bad for the industry in multiple ways. I can’t blame NATA for trying to protect their “slice […]

It was well after dark when we arrived over the unfamiliar rural airport. We were descending toward that green and white airport beacon, and I thought I could see the headlights of my brother-in-law’s crew-cab pickup truck in the parking lot. “Watch this,” I said to my daughter, and I clicked the push-to-talk switch seven […]

One morning at KAPA (used to be Arapahoe County Airport, now Centennial Airport in south metro Denver, Colorado) I decided to get current in my Super Decathlon. It was a rare morning with no wind and no other aircraft in the pattern of one of the nation’s busier GA airports. After a few close‑in patterns, […]

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 […]

While other low-wing four-place cruisers like the Cirrus SR20 or the Diamond DA40 might break the budget, there’s always the Piper Archer. There is a wide swath to choose from at all price points, and the market has never been stronger. Typically priced from $95,000 for a mid-1970s Archer II to nearly $500,000 for a […]

Buying A Used Aircraft: Cessna 210 Centurion Having owned a 1978 T210 for over 20 years, I found the article accurate but missing one important point: CO in the cabin is a common problem. The aircraft operates with the cabin at negative pressure, and the exhaust is pulled inside the airframe under the cabin floor. […]

The Cessna 210 Centurion offers good range and endurance, loading flexibility and go-places cruise speed. With six seats, the retractable-gear 210 is an appealing step-up airplane to those who got their feet in a 100-series Cessna. But buyers should pick one that’s been well maintained, and learn to fly it right—Centurions are not airplanes for […]

All things being equal, accident data reflect that we pilots are pretty good at dealing with the risks involved with repeatedly causing inanimate objects to leave the ground, move through the air and land. Unfortunately, things are not always equal, and the factors that make us human, such as stress, distraction and impatience, can conspire […]