FAA and Regs

If there’s anything certain about second-guessing another pilot’s judgment after an accident, it’s this: The wreckage is Exhibit A if you insisted before the fact—or even after—that he shouldn’t have done whatever he did. If he pulls off what he shouldn’t have done without incident, he’s just crazy. But if he doesn’t, he’s crazy and […]

The Mayo Clinic is now offering a free online BasicMed course for pilots, the organization has announced. The course consists of six modules, covering medical self-assessments, warning signs of serious medical conditions, effects of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, and more. The course takes about 90 minutes to complete and is followed by an online test. […]

They live and fly by different codes in the 49th state, and what might seem stupid in the lower 48 doesn’t move the needle in a place over twice the size of Texas. Consider the De Havilland Beaver that nosed over in the Noatak River. The NTSB heard about the event—word spreads fast in Alaskan […]

An unidentified banner pilot starred in what could become an instructional video on how to ditch an airplane when his Piper Pawnee had engine trouble in the Bay of Biscayne near Miami last Friday. The video, shot from a boat full of people who didn’t seem to realize the gravity of the situation until the […]

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 […]

When an Amtrak express train on its inaugural run from Seattle to Portland (ironically as competition to the dozens of daily flights between the two cities) piled onto a freeway on Monday it was known within hours that the train lacked critical safety equipment and was going 50 mph faster than the limit for the […]

The operator of a drone that collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in September didn’t see the aircraft because he was flying the drone beyond visual range, the NTSB said on Thursday. The operator also lacked adequate knowledge of the regulations and safe operating practices for drone flying, the safety board said. The […]

The FAA has responded to recent complaints from AOPA and others about rising costs and limited access at some FBOs at public-use airports, issuing a document that aims to clarify the issues. The six-page Q&A (PDF) spells out the various obligations of the FAA, the airport sponsors, the FBO and aeronautical users. “This is an […]

So how much would you have to be paid to intentionally ditch a perfectly serviceable airplane in the open ocean? Enough to buy a used SUV? We didn’t think so but Theodore Robert Wright III apparently thought it was worth the gamble and what makes his reckless behavior even more despicable is that he had […]

The pilot who died along with his four passengers in the crash of a Beech Baron on the Caribbean island of St. Croix last week apparently didn’t have the multi-engine rating or night experience that would have been minimum requirements for the flight. David Richardson was the owner of the Baron but the FAA airmen’s […]