Flight Safety

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.

Partial Panel Prognosis

Partial panel is often viewed as a loss of vacuum instruments—the gyros. In reality you have a partial panel any time you lose one or more of the required instruments regardless of how they are powered or even their particular function. Losing any instrument deprives you of information that may have a crucial impact on […]

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FAA Orders Mandatory Balloon Checks

All 6,400 hot-air balloons in the U.S. must be inspected to ensure they are not equipped with potentially leaky fuel hoses made of “egeflex” material, the FAA said in an emergency airworthiness directive issued today. The AD is effective Aug. 29, and balloonists have 14 days after that to complete the inspection, which should take […]

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Short Final

Climbing out of my home airport with our friendly (and funny) tower controllers, I heard: Tower: Cardinal XYZ, check transponder. XYZ: Turning it on, sorry, guys, XYZ. Tower: Cardinal XYZ, never admit your mistakes on frequency, just say it was warming up. XYZ: All warmed up! XYZ. Tower: That’s the spirit. Daniel Rasin

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Santa Monica Battle Escalates

Only a few days after losing yet another round in the legal slugfest that continues over Santa Monica Airport, opponents of the airport are turning up the political pressure on the city council, according to the Santa Monica Lookout. Municipal elections are coming this fall and the well-organized anti-airport forces are making it clear to […]

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Time to Stop Flying? An Attorneys Perspective

As the pilot population ages a significant portion of the graybeards (female and male) are now interrupting their muttering about the unfairness of a pilot shortage happening when they’re no longer in a position to take advantage of it with entering into conversations as to when it’s going to be time to pull the mixture […]

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Pilot Spends Night In Tree After Ultralight Crash

Two single-pilot aircraft accidents in Europe this week ended up with crash landings in treetops, leaving one pilot injured and the other in a tree all night waiting to be rescued. A 59-year-old ultralight pilot crashed Monday evening while over woods near Degenfeld in southern Germany, The Associated Press reported. Rescue crews found the pilot […]

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Guest Blog: Flying Just For The Fun Of It

How many of us are interested in fun flying? We occasionally use our airplanes for transportation, but for the most part, don’t we fly for fun? Have you attended a grass-roots fly-in and done some fun flying? If not, you should. Here’s why. Get any group of pilots together and the topic invariably turns to […]

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FAA To Expand Research In Training

The FAA has established 12 Centers of Excellence to pursue research into safety, alternative fuels, airport operations and other aviation topics, and now the agency has announced its next COE will focus on training the next generation of aviation professionals. Teams from the University of Oklahoma and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will lead the new Air […]

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ECi Cylinder AD Takes Effect Sept. 15

The FAA has issued its final rule on the controversial airworthiness directive that will require the replacement of cylinders on 6,200 high-displacement Continental engines. It takes effect on Sept. 15. The AD, which scraps thousands of aftermarket cylinders made by ECi, was initially proposed in 2013 for 520, 550 and some 470 model Continentals that […]

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12 Die In Twin Crashes

A total of 12 people died in two separate crashes of light twins over last few days. A Beech Baron crashed at Shannon Airport in Fredericksburg, Virginia, at midday on Friday and a Piper Navajo went down in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Sunday morning. In both cases, all six aboard each of the aircraft died. Local […]

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