FAA and Regs

When an aircraft designer is faced with the problem of tailoring control surface hinge moments as well as the effectiveness of and force required to operate those surfaces, she or he has several available design tools. Two of the most effective are types of aerodynamic balances—the horn and the external-airfoil balance. Horn Balances The horn […]

Michael Huerta, who finished his term as FAA administrator early this month, has joined Macquarie Capital as a senior advisor, the firm has announced. “Michael has an exceptional reputation as a federal administrator in U.S. transportation,” said Nick Butcher, a leader of the Infrastructure and Energy Group at Macquarie.”His deep industry experience, relationships and insights […]

The FAA on Tuesday issued an Airworthiness Directive (PDF) that affects nearly 19,000 Piper PA-28 airplanes, but compliance is fairly simple and cheap. The AD requires aircraft owners to inspect the fuel-tank selector cover to verify the fuel-tank selector placards are located at the proper positions. If not, the placards must be replaced. Piper told […]

The FAA says it’s satisfied by measures undertaken by Transport Canada and Air Canada to address a couple of serious errors by Air Canada crews at San Francisco International Airport in 2017. In July, an Airbus A320 came close to landing on a taxiway occupied by four widebody airliners waiting to take off and in […]

While the National Airspace System remains open and accessible to all aircraft, the government shutdown, which began Saturday morning, could affect thousands of owners, operators and pilots if it persists. Air traffic control and all the associated operations are designated as essential services but most of the FAA’s ground-bound services will be shuttered during 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 […]

Former Major League pitcher Roy Halladay had three drugs in his system when his Icon A5 crashed off the coast of Florida in November. The retired ballplayer had trace amounts of morphine and amphetamine along with an intoxicating level of the sedative zolpidem, commonly known as Ambien, in his bloodstream according to an autopsy report […]

Not to get all metaphysical, but the heart is at the very center of who we are and what we do. It feeds the brain with nutrients and life-giving oxygen, and fuels the cells out to the extremities. Any abnormalities of the heart, especially at the controls of an airplane, can lead to stress if […]

In 2016, the FAA terminated its certification of certain ELTs manufactured by Ameri-King, and this week, Orolia announced it has developed a new version of its Integra model that has been specially adapted and packaged to make it easy to replace the affected ELTs. The new Kannad Ameri-Fit pack is available through Aircraft Spruce, Mid-Continent […]

An Aeromexico Boeing 737 lined up for the wrong runway at San Francisco International Airport last week in the third landing miscue at SFO in six months. The crew accepted a clearance for Runway 28R but set up for 28L instead. There was a Virgin America flight on 28L waiting to take off. Controllers saw […]