Reader Mail

Shuttle Columbia And Crew Lost On a quiet Saturday morning, the very first day of February, 2003, a Texas weather radar scans the skies, looking for trouble but finding only clear and undisturbed atmosphere. Quite by chance, its probing rays chronicle the most alarming event of this young year, and etch into history what is […]

New Rule Gives TSA Power Over Pilots Regarding Newswire from January 27, 2003:What a joke the new rule is that allows the TSA to pull your pilot’s license if you are a suspected terrorist. I feel much better now, as that means a terrorist is going to say, “Oh no, now I can’t fly into […]

New Rule Gives TSA Power Over Pilots Regarding Newswire from January 27, 2003:The Gestapo isn’t dead … it’s now known as the TSA. In the name of “security” we are now living in a dictatorship. Management is determined to protect their position by creating this dictatorial process with no appeal.Herbert Yuttal New Rule Gives TSA […]

AVweb’s Question of the Week — Personal Jet Aircraft I look at personal jets like I do the concept of personal helicopters (“One in every driveway”): The biggest hazzard to flying since the introduction of the surface-to-air missile. Davis Newman Great Flying, Hawaiian Style I was a bit upset by your reference in the story […]

ADS-B and Aircraft Separation With reference to your ADS-B story, controllers maintain 3 miles separation whether it is VFR or IFR. This is the separation standard for non-heavy aircraft. A heavy aircraft behind a heavy aircraft requires 4 miles separation, VFR or IFR. The difference between VFR and IFR is that during specific VFR conditions […]

Noise Troubles In Brussels Belgium The US isn’t the only country to suffer from unreasonable noise restrictions.First, a little background if you’re not familar with Belgium:The country is split right down the middle between Dutch and French speaking people. Brussels is right in the middle of this split and has some combination of the two, […]

Blue Ribbon Report on Airtanker Safety Just wondering where Mr. Juan Browne (AVmail Jan. 13) got his information. First off, the PB4Y may still yet fly again, pending the release of the official NTSB report. I am a captain on the PB4Y and believe that it is safe and I would fly it again, and […]

Blue Ribbon Report on Airtanker Safety The videotaped catastrophic failure of two airtankers last summer dramatically highlighted an industry long in need of reform. The recent Blue Ribbon Panel Report on Airtanker Safety did an excellent job of listening to and reporting on the concerns of many within the industry. The resultant USFS permanent grounding […]

Sun’n Fun Dates Your news story on the Pre-Sun ‘n Fun Races Set is in error. The race is not early. The published fly-in date for `03 is April 2nd through April 8th. The race is during the fly-in. They published the new fly-in format at last year’s event (no longer Sat.-Sun.).Thanks for the great […]

OZ Flight Display I had the pleasure of flying the OZ simulator during a NASA technology demonstration. The simulator was programmed for an approach scenario for that event. The symbology OZ uses is a little unconventional, but required little explanation. I found the system extremely easy to use, and I was able to maintain a […]