Features

Some time ago, I wrote about what happens during an emergency in the tower. But wait. There’s more. Of course, few pilots have declared an emergency, and even fewer have actually had an incident or accident. Crashing an airplane is on nobody’s bucket list (I hope), however the probability of surviving a plane crash varies […]

Pilots who have trained in fixed landing-gear airplanes like the Piper Warrior, or the Cessna 172, have long considered a Mooney M20J the logical step-up, as experience begins to gel and additional ratings appear in the logbook. Mooney M20Js typically achieve airspeeds north of 150 knots, and the 201 is known for its low fuel […]

My Class D airport seems to have little airspace it actually controls, having to talk to the overlying center for everything. The most common, of course, is to get an IFR release before any departure. Occasionally, our Tower controllers will try to anticipate to keep the traffic moving. On a recent trip, there was one […]

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 […]

Guest Blog: The Wrong Way To Teach Forced Landings EXCELLENT article! In training, we too often concentrate on whether or not we “made the field”–rather than “what’s wrong?” The author does an excellent job of emphasizing the preflight and flying the airplane–this is as it should be–concentrate on PREVENTING the scenario, rather than “did you […]

When considering the industry’s take on risk management, one of the arrows in the quiver is something called personal minimums. One idea behind personal minimums is that the FAA’s regulations are minimum standards—we’re free to exceed them: If VFR requires three miles and 1000 feet, why not bump that up to five miles and 2000 […]

B18 – Alton Bay, New Hampshire: the only ice runway in the lower 48 with an FAA identifier when the ice is thick enough. The turbulence in the lee of the ridge was a bit rough. My passenger was a friend who is blind. I warned him that it “might be a bit of a […]

Each year, Aviation Safety magazine includes some admonishments to those planning to fly to an airshow. They can be as basic as recommending familiarity with an associated NOTAM or include a detailed analysis of the challenges. In either case, risk-management concepts like checking and understanding weather, and avoiding such human foibles as “get-there-itis,” are incorporated […]

Improper Towing Led To PA46 Nosegear Failure Similar problems can occur in Beech Bonanza and Barons. The scissors that hold the nosewheel straight are of dissimilar metals, so that improper towing will break one of the arms rather than the main structure. Damage here is usually a crack where the scissors join, often obscured by […]

It’s happened. You’ve dreamed of this forever. You can finally afford to step up from the piston-pounders you’ve been flying into the world of owner-flown turbines. You’re excited as a puppy in a shoe closet. Yet, when you discuss the idea with some of your friends with aviation backgrounds you respect, they shift into making-noncommittal-comments-while-nodding-politely […]