Features

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 […]

If you live in a highly populated part of the world, the thought of survival equipment for your aircraft only comes up if you are reading about or thinking about taking a significantly adventurous trip—say, across the oceans or to a less-populated part of the world. But if you live in one of those less-populated […]

As a flight instructor we’re always impressing upon our students to read back ATC instructions so there are no misunderstandings. I was flying around the traffic pattern with my student one busy afternoon when an aircraft called the tower seven miles out for landing. The pilot sounded nervous on the radio, but was doing a […]

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 […]

Got My Flying Car So Don’t Need No Stinkin’ BFR If Teslas won’t fly on Mars I also refuse to go. And thanks Paul for the reference to AC 90-66B as I too responded “really?” in falsetto to 1000 ft traffic patterns for piston aircraft. All my “BFRs” (didn’t know that is “old-speak” till you […]

When the light sport aircraft idea first broke ground 20 years ago, the idea was a new class of airplanes bridging between so-called “fat ultralights” and standard-category airplanes whose inflated prices made them unaffordable save for the wealthy few. Two decades later, has the experiment paid off? Yes, but with some qualifications. Light sport airplanes […]