Flight Safety

The House bill to reauthorize the FAA for the 2018 fiscal year—starting Oct. 1—includes ATC privatization, as most general aviation groups had feared. AOPA, EAA, GAMA, NATA, Helicopter Association International and NBAA released a joint statement opposing the bill: “After a thorough and detailed review of Chairman Bill Shuster’s (R-Pa.) proposal to remove our nation’s […]

Air traffic controllers have quite a few options for saying one simple thing: “Turn your airplane.” Each vectoring method, like a hammer or a pair of pliers, is a specialized tool designed to fit a particular situation. As you fly, you may hear a variety of vectoring radio phraseology on a daily basis. Like many […]

“Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob.” – Oscar Wilde I can’t think of a better lead in for the latest round of polling that indicates—surprise—the general public opposes the idea of privatizing air traffic control. The latest run at plumbing public sentiment on this topic was […]

Last month, on a calm day, we were number two for takeoff on 27R in ATL. Delta was holding short number one. Delta: Delta 123 requests wind check. Tower:No answer Delta:Delta 123 requests wind check. Tower:No answer. After a few seconds Delta cleared line up and wait. Delta: Delta 123 wants a wind check Tower(slowly […]

The U.S.’s busiest FAA flight examiner was remembered as a generous, humble man whose love of aviation knew no bounds. Services were held last week at Madison County Executive Airport near Huntsville, Alabama, for Clyde Harold Shelton, who died after a brief illness at the age of 86. He stopped flying last Nov. 30, having […]

I just got home after delivering a brand-new American Champion Denali Scout from the factory to a dealer in Boise. One of the integral parts of any ferry flight is a careful preflight inspection—both for the pilot’s safety but also to assure that any little thing that is wrong is fixed at the factory before […]

The Navy says problems with the oxygen generation and pressurization systems on T-45 and F-18 series aircraft have been a factor in the deaths of at least four of its pilots in the last 10 years and it’s now made fixing the problem a top priority. The announcement came out of a report that was […]

An identical companion bill to the FLIGHT Act introduced earlier this month by Senators Inhofe and Duckworth has been introduced in the House by Representatives Graves and Bustos. With bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, the bill’s odds of becoming law improve markedly, but will still require the support of Republican leadership to advance […]

At the end of Sun ‘n Fun, as I was shooting this video with P-51 owner Louis Horschel, I was marveling at the fact that with only about 100 of these aircraft still flying, it’s still supportable. As Horschel explained, parts are findable, if not readily available, and the economics allow the manufacture of some […]

One of the concerns many pilots express about doing their flight planning on a tablet computer is that they don’t spend time with a chart and a plotter looking over a route. They end up starting a flight with less situational awareness about airports where they can bail out if something goes wrong en route. […]