Features

Pilot Deviations Years ago, while flying for a regional and in ATL Center airspace (it was a very busy time of day) we were handed off to the next controller. As we switched frequencies, I heard the controller basically yelling at another (major) air carrier, based in ATL. “I told you to turn RIGHT to […]

Simply fly long enough and you’ll eventually make a boneheaded or innocent mistake that gets in ATC’s way. Those may say a Pilot Deviation (PD) is where they “screwed up” or “ATC is blaming me for…” I’ve personally heard it put in many different—often creative—ways; I should keep a list. Here is how the FAA […]

I often fly a piston twin into Boston’s Logan Airport. Normally, whether VFR or IFR this requires talking to Center, three handoffs for Approach, two Tower frequencies, and Ground. Each frequency sounds like an auctioneer selling an estate, and it’s difficult to get a word in. But when the pandemic hit its nadir, I was […]

Any pilot who has used a personal airplane for regular transportation has had to negotiate bad weather. By the time you accumulate more than 4500 hours of flight time, it’s likely you have dealt with a cold front or three, plus night IMC and a variety of other challenges. With that kind of flight experience […]

Solar Impulse Lead Partners With Electric Seaplane Venture Bravo on the collaboration. It’s a great team as any battery improvement this partnership offers will be tested in a real world, short haul, aviation environment. Battery technology is rapidly improving. I see it from the RC model realm to some very heavy hitters in the auto […]

After a while, even brand-new pilots start racking up logbook entries in a series of different aircraft. At first, we may not care, grateful for the flight time, and not pay much attention to how each aircraft has its own character. Each one also has its own story, reflected in your pilot’s logbook and those […]

NASA signed a memorandum of understanding this week with the National Science Foundation (NSF) “to collaborate on an initiative to open new avenues to engineering careers for communities underserved and underrepresented in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math].” The collaboration will tap Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) in recruiting and educating the engineers it cites as “essential […]

Flying north from Florida, Jacksonville Center asked for an assist. JAX: “Meridian 821J, we’re not sure the Savannah VOR is working. Would you tune 115.95 and see what you get?” Me: “Sure. (pause) It’s working fine.” JAX: “Thanks a bunch. I bet you haven’t done that in a long time!” Patrick Jebaily Florence, SC

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 […]

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things As an A&P of over 50 years experience, I URGE your non-A&P readers to stay away from cylinder base nuts and don’t go buying cylinder base wrenches to see if things are tight. Mike Busch has a LOT to say about this sort of thing and even […]