Flight Planning

Fourteen aviation organizations including AOPA, EAA and GAMA are asking the FAA to reconsider its position on not allowing pilots access to weather data from hundreds of non-federal weather stations. Currently, non-federal weather stations must be equipped with AWOS-III or better to be included in the FAA’s Weather Message Switching Center Replacement (WMSCR), which collects, […]

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is testing out a program that will allow seaplane pilots to clear customs via its Reporting Offsite Arrival – Mobile (ROAM) app. There are currently only two locations where this service is available for seaplanes: Scott’s Seaplane Base on Crane Lake, and at the Shagawa Lake Seaplane Base in […]

As drones multiply, as they are expected to do, incidents of GPS (or GNSS) jamming and spoofing are expected to rise in concert during the next decade. That poses not just a threat of loss of the vehicles, but also to nearby aircraft and unaware people on the ground, according to Jeremy Bennington of Spirent, […]

Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, will be abuzz on May 5 as the Kentucky Derby will be held that day. The skies above Louisville will also be abuzz with aircraft before, during and after. The FAA has released an air traffic procedures Notam for the Louisville area between May 2-6, with details on how the […]

Change and I have an uneasy relationship, the former claiming I’m slow to embrace technology, unwilling to “try something new.” Sheesh … Change can be so … you know … and so in your face, too. I submit that ADFs and VORs were working just fine—when you could receive them—and I saw no value to […]

The new portable, externally mounted WingBug Air Data, Attitude and Heading Reference System (ADAHRS) from Straight & Level Technologies provides independent flight data for pretty much whichever aircraft it can be clipped to—as long as the aircraft in question doesn’t exceed 200 MPH. The device, CEO and inventor Alex Rolinski explained to AVweb, sends the […]

Jeppesen and aviation hardware and software solution provider Bad Elf recently announced a system that makes updating avionics possible from inside the cockpit. Using the Jeppesen Distribution Manager (JDM) Mobile app paired with Bad Elf’s Wombat accessory, Jeppesen subscribers can wirelessly download updates to their iPhone or iPad, insert the avionics data card into the […]