FAA and Regs

The FAA has posted a new rule requiring owners of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drones) to display an FAA-issued registration number on an outside surface of their aircraft. Previously, drone registration numbers could be placed in an interior compartment as long as that compartment was accessible without using tools. The new rule will not change […]

Since the mid-1990s, the FAA has worked proactively with the aviation community to reduce fatal aviation accidents. This has worked spectacularly well with the airlines, which are much more tightly regulated than general aviation, and the safety record shows it. Until recently, however, these efforts haven’t trickled deep down to GA. That’s changing. Recent, similar […]

One crew member has been rescued and another is missing after a cargo plane ditched about 14 miles off the coast of Florida on Friday.The rescued first officer has been identified as Rolland Silva and he is recovering in a hospital in Florida. The missing captain is Robert Hopkins. The search was suspended on Saturday. […]

Aviation groups are lining up to support a bill that would keep the FAA funded during a government shutdown by temporarily shifting its source of money. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Rick Larsen, D-Wash., introduced the bill on Friday. If passed, the bill would allow money […]

Southwest Airlines is due to conduct its maiden flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, this week as part of its ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards) certification. Partly delayed by the government shutdown, Southwest will complete its ETOPS certification flights over the next few weeks with the goal of launching California-to-Hawaii revenue flights by […]

Five people were killed and three injured in the crash of a Cessna 414A in a neighborhood in Yorba Linda, California, east of Los Angeles. Early reports and video from the scene show aircraft parts on a street in front of two houses on fire. Fire officials confirmed the casualties and said only the pilot […]

A New York Times investigation of the Oct. 29, 2018, Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX crash suggests marketing considerations were at least partly behind Boeing’s and the FAA’s joint decision to not specifically train pilots in the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) that may have played a role in the crash. The Times story quotes […]

Southwest Airlines made an agreement with the FAA to reimburse the agency for recalling one of its furloughed examiners during the partial government shutdown, according to The Wall Street Journal. The arrangement allowed the examiner to perform the final safety inspection signoffs needed for three new Southwest Boeing 737 MAX jets to enter service. The […]

The rebuilt prototype XP-82 celebrated its first official flight on Monday and by all accounts it went well. The Tom Reilly XP-82 Twin Mustang Restoration Project confirmed the flight, which was a lot longer than its first hop three weeks ago. As we reported in early January, the aircraft, which is actually based on the […]

The leadership of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association has distanced itself from any notion that a staff shortage that caused delays at some East Coast airports on Friday was orchestrated to pressure the government to end the shutdown. The union issued a statement shortly after an uptick in sick calls at Washington Center reduced […]