Flight Safety

Cellphone video shot by the boaters who were first on the scene at retired Major League Baseball pitcher Roy Halladay’s plane crash showed him doing a low-level steep turn and flying just above the Gulf of Mexico off Florida before he crashed. The video, obtained by TMZ, accompanied a story in which other witnesses said […]

On final approach to Runway 23 in a D-18 Beech at Mansfield Lama Airport, Ohio, we received this inquiry from the control tower: Tower: Beech XXXXX please confirm nose wheel extension? Beech 18: After looking at each other in surprise and much laughing, we responded:“Mansfield Tower, N8504, we don’t have one!” Sue Packer

Air traffic control privatization could trigger government paralysis as the extra $100 billion it costs ripples through the programs that money is needed to fund, according to EAA. The organization cites a memo issued by the Congressional Research Service, which says that because of the dent in the budget caused by privatization “a sequester would […]

Copycat suicide is one of three scenarios being considered by Canada’s Transportation Safety Board in the 2015 crash of a cargo aircraft with a drunk pilot in the left seat.The TSB report on the April 13, 2015, crash of the Carson Air Metroliner in the mountains north of Vancouver says radar tracks show the aircraft […]

There are probably few people who know more about aviation safety than former AOPA Safety Foundation President Bruce Landsberg so it would seem to be a no-brainer that he cap his influential and important career by becoming the newest member of the NTSB. But it’s a political appointment and the politics of aviation safety are […]

Daylight Saving Time got switched off over the weekend, to the anguish of more than a few of my friends. Not only do they like sunlight of an evening, the return of Standard Time means they can no longer deny the nearly imminent arrival of winter and its challenges to aviating. It also seem to […]

Bruce Landsberg, who promoted GA safety for many years at AOPA’s Air Safety Foundation, faced tough questions at a Senate hearing this week regarding his nomination to serve on the NTSB. Six senators signed on to a letter before the hearing asking why he criticized the 1,500-hour rule during his years at AOPA. The rule, […]

The FAA and NTSB both issued safety alerts recently that warn pilots to use proper procedures when operating on runways. The NTSB (PDF) cites several accidents when pilots chose an intersection takeoff to save time, and then lost power. In each case, if the pilot had used the entire available runway, there would have been […]

Many instrument-rated pilots struggle to maintain their proficiency for IFR. Logging the six approaches, holding procedures and course intercepts/tracking required by FAR 61.57(c) can be quite the challenge for pilots who fly infrequently or who are based in regions where good weather is routine. Simulators and training devices can be major boosts to maintaining proficiency, […]

Now that the Part 23 rules to certify airplanes have been revised, the FAA says it’s ready to take on an overhaul of the regulations for certifying helicopters. “The proposed changes are necessary to address modern designs currently used in the rotorcraft industry and would reduce the burden on applicants for certification of new rotorcraft […]