Flight Training

It was a Tuesday and, while stopped at a traffic light, I watched an average man step off the curb, unaware that Karma was about strike. The light was in his favor but entering the crosswalk he froze. “That average man has a problem,” my wife of 35 years, who understands men with problems, said. […]

High school classes in the U.S. can now sign up to compete in the 2019 Aviation Design Challenge, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association has announced.The annual competition aims to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)education by offering an aviationcurriculum and a virtual fly-off. “This will be our seventh consecutive year hosting this life-changing competition,and […]

Flight schools in Europe that focus on training private pilots now can operate under simplified rules released by the European Aviation Safety Agency last week. The new rules create two types of flight schools—Declared Training Organizations, or DTOs, which can train private pilots, and Approved Training Organizations, which focus on training professional pilots. DTOs now […]

The pace of technological change can be excruciatingly slow sometimes … we’ve been waiting eons now for battery-powered airplanes that never need maintenance … but it’s relentless. I’m reminded of the college classmate who told me, way back in the last century, that she was making a smart choice studying to be a keypunch operator, […]

A bill now under consideration in the U.S. Senate would provide grants to flight schools to help them recruit veterans to train to become commercial airline pilots. The bipartisan American Aviator Act, introduced by Senators Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., proposes to authorize up to $5 million per year to fund the program […]

Forget that shiny new octocopter, a Bay-area startup wants to make your Cessna 172 autonomous. XWing says it has created “plug and play” software that can make most light aircraft fly autonomously. Details on how it works have not been released but the technology will revolve around “sensing, reasoning and control,” according to aviation tech […]

The Air Force is hoping to ease its pilot shortage by speeding up the training of new pilots using virtual reality simulators. The first class of 20 Pilot Training Next (PTN) candidates, 15 officers and five enlisted personnel, finished their course on Friday and 13 of the officers passed. Two officers washed out and were […]

AVweb’s weekly news roundup found reports on the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals’ Annual Convention and Career Expo, new scholarships for female helicopter pilots, a warranty extension on Superior Air Parts Millennium Cylinders and a service center network expansion for RAJAY Turbo Products. The Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) will be holding its 42nd […]

The Delta Air Lines Foundation has awarded $350,000 in grant money to nine aviation maintenance training programs across the U.S., joining a growing list of major aviation companies that have recently taken steps to address predicted shortages of qualified pilots, crew and aviation maintenance personnel. According to Delta, the grant money will help with curriculum […]

Airbus announced the launch of its ab initio Pilot Cadet Training Program last week. The company says the program is designed to “help meet global demand for pilots over the next 20 years.” Airbus’ partner for the program is Escuela de Aviacion Mexico (EAM), which is located close to the Airbus Mexico Training Center in […]