Features

While flying from San Jose International airport to Portland International airport we heard the following: Oakland Center: “Delta 123, cleared to descend pilot’s discretion to 240.” Delta 123: “Delta 123 descending to 240, and we’ll do it discreetly.” Daniel Sternbergh San Jose, CA

It’s always been curious to me how the lion’s share of GA training emphasizes landings over takeoffs. Smoothly returning to Earth certainly requires some skill and practice, and often serves as a common yardstick for non-pilots of how good the pilot is. But takeoffs also require skill and practice, and come with some different challenges. […]

SpaceX To (Maybe) Send Starship To 50,000 Feet Love him or hate him, Musk has revolutionized the space launch industry. And, he has done it in full view of the general public, failures and all. Things are about to get even more interesting. A new launch complex is under construction at the Kennedy Space Center […]

It’s Saturday morning at 0730. Weather is VFR and a million, and most of the flight schools and weekend warriors are calling up Ground with the ATIS, ready to go. Add student pilots, crosswinds, a runway closure and more. What are the chances of pilots missing something critical or letting expectation bias hit? That risk […]

If you look at the total number of homebuilt aircraft designs listed in the KITPLANES® online directory, you’ll find a distinct—some might say overwhelming—preference for two-seat machines. Yes, there are a fair number of single-seaters, but most of those designs date back a fair number of years, and one-holers are a bit of a niche […]

In the Innovations building at last year’s AirVenture, Idaho-based Aithre was showing what we think are the most innovative pilot-focused biometric devices we’ve seen. Aithre is an attention getter because surprisingly, there’s been a slow progression of gadgets for minding pilot and passenger health in the cabin. For measuring blood-oxygen saturation, or SpO2, some finger […]

Some years back at Bradley International Airport, there was a local air taxi company that did a lot of their new pilot training on the mid shift. They would go round and round the same ILS pattern for hours apparently swapping seats as the flight went on. Often, as the controller on duty, I 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 […]

Remembering The XB-70 I was lucky enough to have Al White as a good friend. He was the only survivor of the mid-air collision between the F-104 and the XB-70. Al was seriously injured, copilot Carl Cross did not get out of the airplane as it went through extreme gyrations after losing most of its […]

A good pilot is always learning and practicing. Whether your aviating is geared toward a ratings-oriented career or just going for the occasional $100 hamburger, we all should put some effort into maintaining proficiency and enhancing related knowledge. If you’re stuck at home with nothing to do and can’t fly, how can you spend the […]