Flight Safety

It’s only within the last 20 years that scientists have identified depression as the precursor to a host of physical ailments—from heart disease to sensitive gut. Whether depression is the cause or depression is the consequence, there is no doubt that feeling low impacts health in negative ways. For BasicMed, the FAA bundles depression, anxiety, […]

Early in our primary training, we encountered the concept of maneuvering speed (VA), or design maneuvering speed as it’s sometimes called. We’re basically told it’s the speed at below which we should fly in turbulence and when entering advanced maneuvers, hence its name. If we’re lucky and have a good ground-school instructor, we’ll also learn […]

The FAA has updated airman certification standards to reflect recent changes in its operation and new rules that have been adopted and they go into effect on June 11. AOPA says the changes were developed by the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee Airman Certification System working group and are mostly designed to accommodate recent changes, such […]

Dan Buchanan, a paraplegic hang glider pilot who performed at airshows all over the world for almost 30 years, died in a crash at an Idaho show on Saturday. Buchanan was doing his routine, which usually included aerobatics and pyrotechnics, at the Gunfighter Skies airshow at Mountain Home Air Force Base. Witnesses said Buchanan had […]

The FAA has issued a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) that will allow pilots to fly two larger Piper aircraft under BasicMed medical certificates. Under BasicMed, pilots are restricted to aircraft certified to carry six or fewer people. Senecas and most Cherokee Six aircraft and their derivatives are certified as seven-seat aircraft although few actually have […]

A young pilot who some sources say is a student ducked power lines, dodged cars, buildings and pedestrians and put her Cessna 172 down without a scratch on a busy Huntington Beach, California, street on Friday. Dash cam and surveillance video showed the unidentified woman maneuvering the aircraft in gusty conditions to avoid obstacles (the […]

Let’s call him Peter. I was his fifth flight instructor since he started learning to fly nine months earlier. He was attempting to obtain his private license within the 365-day period allowed for registered aliens living in the U.S. When we met, my first question was, “How did you go through so many instructors?” Some […]

A district court has restored the demand for the full reinstatement of ATC applicants who claimed they were denied employment because of discriminatory hiring practices by the FAA. The group of would-be applicants filed a class-action suit in 2015 after their job applications were thrown out by the FAA, according to the group’s lawyers. The […]

Two pilots were killed in a crash involving the Siemens-powered Magnus eFusion electric aircraft on Thursday morning in Hungary, local police reported. The aircraft was reportedly flown after a party to celebrate the new company headquarters. Neither pilot has been identified, but one, a 61-year-old, was believed to be part of Magnus Aircraft. Witnesses reported […]

Duo Bails Out Of TBM Avenger I wanted to clarify some apparent misinformation on what I have heard and read: (1) The .50 caliber machine guns in the wings are FORWARD facing. One in each wing. They were simulated, not real. The gun receivers with ammunition feedways, barrels and barrel jackets were modeled from the […]