Flight Safety

The three-day government shutdown that ended Monday had limited impact on the aviation world, but it’s not over yet. The funding bill that was approved to end the impasse will last for only three weeks. During the shutdown, air traffic controllers were on the job, but NATCA President Paul Rinaldi told The New York Times […]

Bell Helicopter responded this week to the NTSB’s recent report on the crash of a Bell 525 during a test flight in 2016. “In the time since the accident, a small team of Bell flight technology engineers, pilots and flight-test specialists have worked with the NTSB through the course of the investigation,” company spokesperson Blakeley […]

The FAA on Tuesday issued an Airworthiness Directive (PDF) that affects nearly 19,000 Piper PA-28 airplanes, but compliance is fairly simple and cheap. The AD requires aircraft owners to inspect the fuel-tank selector cover to verify the fuel-tank selector placards are located at the proper positions. If not, the placards must be replaced. Piper told […]

Pilots tuning into the ATIS at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Saturday got a laundry list of closed taxiways, runway and frequency information, a bird advisory and an apology. ATIS: We apologize for any delay you might have today. Due to our elected leaders’ inability to effectively run (the) government, staffing is short. So sorry. Dilly […]

On Aug 22nd, 2017 while flying near Myrtle Beach, to Triple Tree Aerodrome, SC to watch the total solar eclipse, there was the following exchange. Experimental: Florence Approach, Experimental NXXXX Request. Florence Approach: NXXXX go ahead. Experimental: N7XXXX requests vectors to where the sun doesn’t shine. Florence Approach: Now that’s funny. Martin Heller

Thanks to a big kick from the jet stream, Norwegian Airlines is laying claim to the fastest non-Concorde airline flight between New York and London (Gatwick). The Boeing 787-9 hit a top groundspeed of 674 knots and made it to the airport just south of London in five hours and 13 minutes on Monday, almost […]

Searchers will return to a remote area of the Rocky Mountains near Revelstoke, British Columbia, after relatives of two people missing in a suspected plane crash found a fuzzy drone photo in which the words “help” or “here” appear to be written in the snow. The photo was taken by a commercial drone whose use […]

The FAA says it’s satisfied by measures undertaken by Transport Canada and Air Canada to address a couple of serious errors by Air Canada crews at San Francisco International Airport in 2017. In July, an Airbus A320 came close to landing on a taxiway occupied by four widebody airliners waiting to take off and in […]

While the National Airspace System remains open and accessible to all aircraft, the government shutdown, which began Saturday morning, could affect thousands of owners, operators and pilots if it persists. Air traffic control and all the associated operations are designated as essential services but most of the FAA’s ground-bound services will be shuttered during the […]

In the world of economics, there’s a concept called tragedy of the commons or sometimes freedom of the commons. The underlying principle is that in an economy of shared resources, individual members act against the good of all by consuming more than their share or acting to spoil the resource. The classic example is a […]