Flight Training

Let’s start by dispensing with the obvious: “Loss of control in flight” is a lousy explanation, and not much better as a description. Eventually we’ll come up with something better, which hopefully will reflect the myriad ways pilots can let aircraft get away from them. Spatial disorientation in IMC is as different from a moose […]

If I had been sipping coffee on the morning I read Barry Schiff’s column in the April AOPA Pilot magazine, I would have spewed java all over the page, making me look like an unemployed comedian, and making the column difficult to read. Fortunately, the coffee was still brewing. You’re probably an AOPA member, so […]

Almost from the beginning of our flight training, pilots are drilled on simulated engine failures in every phase of flight. Once we’re introduced to dealing with engine failures, we practice and perfect them, and then revisit them to ensure proficiency. This training is necessary because, although generally reliable, small airplane engines do still fail, especially […]

For the second year in a row, FlightSafety International has been named one of Forbes’ “best mid-sized employers.” It is one of 500 companies with more than 1000 employees to be named, and just one of eight in the aerospace and defense industry to receive this accolade. “We are pleased and honored that FlightSafety has […]

The comment period on the FAA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on its rules for drone operations has ended and 899 comments were received on the highly detailed document. The agency says it’s now digesting those comments and won’t give an estimate of how long it will take to turn the NPRM and the comments into […]

Iowa … you know, fly-over country, as in Minnesota pilots fly over us on their way to Sun ‘n Fun, and Sou’westerners cross when heading to Oshkosh. Unless you’re running for president—and who isn’t?—it’s perceived that there’s little reason to land in Iowa. But skip us at the risk of losing New Hampshire and, more […]

AVweb’s weekly news roundup found reports on a special award for Gulf Coast Avionics, a new training system at Pacific Sky Aviation, a drone-based aircraft inspection solution from Rizse, and a new GLIDERBOOKS Academy online ground school course. It also uncovered announcements from the U.K.’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on General Aviation (APPG-GA) regarding how aviation […]

At Aero in Friedrichshafen, Germany, a French company called Elixir was showing a unique two-seat airplane built of molded carbon fiber using technology to build racing boats. The idea is the airplane is both cheaper to manufacture and much cheaper to maintain because it has vastly fewer parts. AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli shot this video summary […]

In aprevious article on altimetry we discussed various matters that affect the accuracy of the barometric altimeter. The major factor being atmospheric pressure, and to compensate we dial the “altimeter setting” or QNH into the Kollsman window. However, another factor typically ignored is the effect of temperature—perhaps because it’s less crucial compared to atmospheric pressure. […]

By about the fifth day of the big U.S. air/trade shows—AirVenture and Sun ‘n Fun—a certain hollow-eyed exhaustion sets in. Vendors at the show can be heard to wonder if the thing will ever end and for us pixel-addled wretches covering the spectacle, we feel as run down as the batteries in our cameras and […]