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For pure fun in aviation, not much beats flying seaplanes. The pilots I know who have found room in their aeronautical budget to get a seaplane rating have been uniform in telling me that they had a ball doing so and were glad they did it. As winter weather starts to retreat from the northern […]

We’ll admit our bias up front: We like flight simulators. A lot. Being cheap, we came to like them originally because we could use them to keep our instrument skills up for a fraction of the cost of getting in an airplane and putting on the hood—whether we could log the time or not. As […]

While flying one day in Northern California, I heard the following: Center: “Cessna 1234 are you planning to pass east or west of Mt. Diablo? Cessna: “We’re currently heading south. Center: (with a chuckle) “I understand that you’re heading south. But when you pass that mountain ahead, will it be on your left or right […]

The stomach is often called a second brain—connected, as it were, to the first brain by the vagus nerve. Although your stomach may play second fiddle, when it comes to your personal domain, it’s often supreme ruler. That’s why dealing with dyspepsia can be the first order of business prior to any flight. Matters of […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine, and is published twice a month. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause in the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports […]

From the time I started learning to fly, I’ve watched the odd dance aircraft owners and maintenance technicians do when it comes to fixing a broken airplane. The owner brings in the airplane, mutters something along the lines of “it ain’t right” or writes up a squawk in as few words as possible and departs […]

 Editors Note: This article originally ran in our sister publication,IFRmagazine in the June 1998 issue to recognize the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. With the 70th anniversary approaching, and with the passing of so many of the veterans who acted courageously to supply the citizens of Berlin, we are running it again to […]

At first glance, many readers might think general aviation is as far removed from helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) operations as east is from west. However, there are more similarities than meets the eye, especially when it comes to safety. Let’s have a look at what we, as general aviation IFR pilots, have in common […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine and is published twice a month. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause in the NTSB’s web site at www.ntsb.gov. Final […]

Ford Motor Company recently advertised their new line of truck frames as being made of military-grade aluminum. It’s a new twist on the old hype: made of aircraft-grade aluminum. I suppose the salespeople figure: What could be better than aircraft-grade (or military-grade) aluminum, right? After all, you wouldn’t want a truck frame made of beer-can […]