Flight Safety

Here in Florida, September was the hottest month on record. Ever. So on Sunday, when the weather finally delivered the fall temperature break, I luxuriated in simply standing in front of the hangar for 10 minutes watching the world go by. And what went by, among others, was what I sometimes call the Cryin’ Shame. […]

The FAA is accepting comments until Dec. 21 on its proposed new ATP certification standards, which have been posted online. The standards were revised by an industry group chaired by David Oord, AOPA senior director of regulatory affairs, working with the FAA’s Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee. The working group proposed the new standards, and the […]

Officials in Indonesia, where a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed into the sea on Monday, killing all 189 on board, ordered on Tuesday that all Max 8 aircraft in the country operated by commercial airlines must be inspected. It was not clear if the aircraft are grounded pending the inspections, or precisely what […]

A Lion Air Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed into the Java Sea just after taking off from Jakarta, in Indonesia, early Monday, and rescuers have begun to retrieve bodies from the site. No survivors have been found. The aircraft, with 189 people on board, departed at 6:21 a.m. en route toPangkal Pinang island, about 400 […]

Thanks to the contents of the FAA’s new airman certification standards (ACS), which are replacing the practical test standards (PTS), most applicants for pilot certificates and ratings must now demonstrate that they can identify, assess and mitigate risk. Although the FAA and industry organizations have developed flight risk assessment tools (FRATs) to help pilots identify […]

As the oft-paraphrased aphorism goes, all is well when the ties that bind us are stronger than the stresses that can separate us. The same goes for parking an aircraft. When we properly secure it after a flight, it’s reasonable to expect it’ll be there when we return. Once we release the ties that bind […]

The Government Accountability Office has bitten on AOPA’s two-year-long campaign to end what it says is gouging by FBOs at some airports. At the request of House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster and aviation subcommittee chairman Frank LoBiondo the GAO is specifically looking at whether the FAA is doing its job ensuring airports that receive federal […]

When Carli McConaughy pulled on the big control column in the middle of the helicopter she was flying in over Honolulu last week, she had no idea what she was doing but she likely saved her own life and those of her fianc and the unconscious pilot beside her. McConaughy, 35, and her newly betrothed […]

A Lion Air Boeing 737 crashed into the Java Sea just after takeoff early Monday and the fate of the 189 people aboard remains unknown. The aircraft was en route toPangkal Pinang island, about 400 miles north, when it went down just off the coast. It crashed into the water13 minutes after takeoff following an […]

Virgin Orbit has rolled out its solution for making space more accessible to those who want to put small payloads into orbit. The company has modified a Boeing 747-400 to take a 57,000-pound, 70-foot rocket on a launcher between the inboard left engine and the fuselage. The rocket, called LauncherOne, was lifted into place and […]