Flight Safety

AVweb’s Flight Safety section offers in-depth coverage of aviation safety topics, including accident analyses, risk management strategies, regulatory updates, and pilot training insights. Designed for pilots, instructors, and aviation professionals, this section provides timely information to enhance situational awareness and promote best practices in flight operations.

Pilot Shortage Threatens Airline Recovery

The pandemic-paused pilot shortage will be felt again by 2023 and back with a vengeance by 2025, according to a new study on the pilot supply. The report, by the consulting firm of Oliver Wyman, says the aviation industry could be short as many as 50,000 pilots worldwide by the middle of the decade after […]

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FAA Engineer Says MCAS Should Be Scrapped

The FAA safety engineer who says he should have signed off on the Boeing 737 MAX Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) during the certification process says the system should be scrapped entirely. Joe Jacobsen told the Seattle Times the system addresses relatively minor control feel issues that pilots can easily adapt to compared to the […]

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Frasca To Expand Manufacturing Facility

Flight simulator manufacturer Frasca International has announced plans to expand its manufacturing facility in Urbana, Illinois. The expansion will add capacity for two additional Level D full flight simulators (FFS), bringing the total number of FFS pads at the location to five. The company says that upsizing will also allow them to build simulators for larger […]

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Steep Turns

Most of us spend our time aloft droning along in straight-and-level flight. For the typical pilot, turns are reserved for the traffic pattern or flying an approach, and occasionally for entering a holding pattern or performing a course reversal. And we rarely exceed 30 degrees of bank. On one hand, that’s okay, since our relative […]

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FAA Selects Airports For Anti-Drone Systems Testing

The FAA has chosen five host airports to test technologies designed to “detect and mitigate potential safety risks” presented by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS/drones). The airports selected are New Jersey’s Atlantic City International Airport (ACY); Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR) in New York; Rickenbacker International Airport (LCK) in Columbus, Ohio; Huntsville International Airport (HSV) in […]

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Accident Probe: Mountain Obscuration

These pages regularly urge new private pilots to go on to earn their instrument rating. Especially if you ever want to use a personal airplane for regular, reliable transportation, the rating is pretty much mandatory. If you’re content to only fly on good-weather days in search of expensive hamburgers and to abandon the peace-of-mind the […]

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FAA Fines Woman $27,500 For Hitting Flight Attendant

A woman who belted a Delta flight attendant in defense of her anti-mask, anti-seatbelt male traveling companion is finding out just how tough the FAA’s new passenger behavior crackdown can be. The FAA announced on Friday it’s proposing a $27,500 civil penalty against the woman, who went after the FA on a plane that should […]

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GAO Reviews GA Ridesharing, Says Opinions Are Mixed

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has dissected the FAA’s freshly enunciated guidance on cost sharing by passengers in private aircraft and reported to Congress that there are a variety of opinions on that policy. The report, submitted last week, doesn’t reach any conclusions or make any recommendations. In fact, the title of the report (Stakeholders […]

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787 Repairs Could Cost Hundreds Of Millions: Report

Reuters is reporting that Boeing will spend hundreds of millions of dollars or more to inspect and repair Boeing 787s that are suspected to have manufacturing flaws in the fuselage skins. Boeing stopped delivering Dreamliners in October and didn’t fix the manufacturing process until February, according to the unnamed sources used for the report. It’s […]

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