AVweb’s Flight Safety section offers in-depth coverage of aviation safety topics, including accident analyses, risk management strategies, regulatory updates, and pilot training insights. Designed for pilots, instructors, and aviation professionals, this section provides timely information to enhance situational awareness and promote best practices in flight operations.
Our main airport has several flight schools and they keep us air traffic controllers quite busy. It’s easy to tell when they get a new batch of students—those first radio calls for VFR clearances and eventual taxi and takeoff are usually halting, uncertain affairs, dragging on as students parrot their instructors without truly understanding the […]
Text messaging may be old hat to cellphone users, but it is still new in the air-traffic control system, where the FAA this week announced that it is now operational at Miami International Airport, the 12th busiest airport in North America. The text-based communication system, known as “Data Comm,” represents “a whole new era of […]
NBAA filed a motion in a federal appeals court on Monday seeking a stop to any actions that would affect aviation operations at Santa Monica Airport, while the matter is under judicial review. The FAA and the city have announced plans to close the airport in 2028 and to immediately reduce the length of the […]
When I was preparing this week’s Question of the Week, I was up to the third question when I realized that blood cheering for errant drone pilots to be jailed is not a good thing. In fact, it’s a distinctly bad thing, absent any malicious intent or egregious negligence. To review, this concerns the story […]
On Presidents’ Day weekend, POTUS had West Palm Beach shut down with his TFR. Boca was swamped with corporate and private traffic trying to avoid the TFR restrictions. We were sitting in a long line waiting for departure, with numerous jets lined up for arrival, when a weekend warrior called up tower inbound asking for […]
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta defended the agency’s rollout of the NextGen air traffic control modernization program to a blue-chip business audience last week, saying it’s ahead of schedule and its completion will be worth the wait. Huerta gave pointed remarks to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Summit in response to President Donald Trump’s comments after […]
The pilot of a Hawker Hunter that crashed in 2015 killing 11 people may have confused the aircraft he was flying with another type, the U.K.’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch concluded last week. In its final report on the crash at the Shoreham Airshow in southern England, the AAIB said pilot Andy Hill, an experienced […]
Normally it’s a good thing when a pilot walks away from a crash but a Missouri man may have pushed that sentiment a little. Rather than trying to find the wrecked aircraft, Kansas authorities found themselves looking for its pilot last week. According to the Kansas City Star, Randal S. Shannon’s shattered Maule was in […]
Friends and colleagues of a Vancouver Island flight instructor paralyzed in a training accident are rallying around her trying to ensure she achieves a new dream of somehow continuing to work in aviation. Kristen Ursel, an instructor at the Victoria Flying Club, was with a student in January when their 172 clipped powerlines after a […]
I hate it when someone peers into my eyes and, within a nanosecond to two, sees all the character flaws within. “You’re a rule breaker, aren’t you?” The query was from our team coach, Sally, and on the strength of one minor little transgression, she had nailed me with unnerving accuracy. When we go to […]
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