Features

In the summer of 1970, at the ripe old age of 16, with a total of 27 hours (13 solo), I convinced my instructor to let me fly my family’s Cessna 140 from Atlanta to Panama City for my first long solo cross country. My instructor, a former Air Force pilot and my Dad, would […]

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 […]

Two Bernies Who Saved Aviation The incongruously named “KSFZ – North Central” leaves local residents of Smithfield, RI unaware that there is an airport in town. And where are the North Left and North Right airports anyway? Funnily enough North Central moniker IS used to help identify a trifecta of fields that used to be […]

We’ve been owning and flying airplanes long enough to know for certain that the sport has many things going for it. But let’s be real—membership also comes with some downsides. This includes rising insurance premiums, ever-changing fuel prices, monthly database updates and, of course, maintenance and upgrades. While we encourage owners to perform as many […]

About 25 years ago, I was working ‘ramp’ for a local airshow. Three Warbirds called the Tower upon their arrival. Number one was P-47 followed by Corsair and lastly a P-40. The P-47 was cleared to land and numbers two and three were in close trail. The P-47 was on the ground and rolling out […]

After the primary flight controls—elevator, rudder and ailerons on conventional airplanes—the most frequently used secondary control is pitch trim. That’s because a typical flight in any airplane involves a range of speeds, and pitch trim is used to minimize control forces throughout the operating envelope. Even if the pilot can supply that force, it’s fatiguing. […]

Can We Finally Prove The Impossible Turn Isn’t Impossible? For 30 years I’ve taught–based on numerous exercises and flight with experts, and by putting hundreds of pilots through the exercise in a type-specific Beech Bonanza simulator–that the decision isn’t between “straight ahead” and “land on the reciprocal runway.” Instead, it is a range of possibilities […]

Even with modern gee-whiz panel integration, there are obvious reasons why the portable com radio soldiers on. When the electrics quit, it could be the last tool in the bag for talking your way down for a landing (and for some, an instrument approach), it’s useful for preflighting and copying a clearance when you don’t […]

News editors across the country were champing at the bit when a privately operated McDonnell Douglas MD-87 was reduced to smoldering aluminum and all 21 aboard escaped serious injury. But spoilsport Mary Schiavo, former DOT Inspector General and CNN aviation expert contributor, laid out some facts about survival statistics in airplane accidents, starting with: “It’s […]

I overheard this exchange with the local TRACON, NorCal Approach, while flying along California’s central valley: NorCal Approach: Cessna XXXX maintain at or above three thousand. Cessna XXXX: Maintain at or above three thousand, Cessna XXXX. NorCal Approach: Cessna XXXX, for your viewing pleasure, at your two o’clock, a heavy C-5 at two thousand. Cessna […]