Flight Safety

A new nonprofit group based in southern New England aims to address the deterioration of basic stick-and-rudder skills among pilots, and is starting out with a focus on CFIs, says Bob Berlyn, the group’s executive director. Berlyn, a former airline pilot and CFI, is an FAA safety inspector in Norwood, Massachusetts. “Everywhere I go, I […]

With new FAA rules now in place, as of Monday, for operators to secure a commercial drone certificate, it’s been projected that their numbers will quickly outnumber manned-aircraft pilots. The FAA has estimated the number of certified commercial drone operators could exceed 600,000 within a year, equal to the total number of pilots from student […]

Authorities in Scotland removed two United Airlines pilots from a Newark-bound flight Saturday and charged them with being intoxicated.According to news reports, police charged Carlos Licona, 45, and Paul Grebnc, 35, with violation of the U.K.’s transport safety laws. The pilots were about to depart Glasgow en route to Newark’s Liberty International Airport. There were […]

Tri City Departure: Cessna 12345, squawk 4305 Cessna 12345: Tri City, um, we just noticed we are missing the knob for the last dial on the transponder. Tri City Departure: What number is it on? Cessna 12345: Zero Tri City Departure: Standby, let me see if I can get you a code that ends in […]

The late and much-celebrated fighter pilot General Robin Olds delighted in telling the story of sitting in the front seat of an F-4 headed into visual-range combat in Vietnam and telling his younger backseater that he had it on good authority that what they were seeing wasn’t actually happening. That is, the F-4 design brief […]

AirVenture is about airplanes, but it’s also about people and in this video commentary, AVweb’s Jeff Van West reveals that to attract young people to aviation, we need to show them what they’re interested in. view on YouTube

Mike Busch, the Savvy Aviator and one of the U.S.’s best known aircraft technicians, has been fighting the FAA on what he terms an unnecessary and seriously flawed airworthiness directive regarding barrel-head separations on ECi cylinders for big-bore Continental engines. We’ve given you two options to learn more from Busch about this controversial move by […]

For at least the last 40 years, the precautionary, off-airport landing has rarely been taught. It’s certainly not required on a checkride and pilots who have a mechanical or weather problem are taught to go to the nearest airport and only attempt to land “out” (as glider pilots say) when the engine actually quits. Pilots […]

Marcus Paine, a longtime flight instructor and airshow performer, died Saturday at an Oregon airshow. Paine was reportedly pulling out of a loop just after takeoff in his Stearman when he crashed on the runway at the Airshow of the Cascades in Madras. He was 61. The aircraft caught fire on impact but airport firefighters […]

Tragedy marked the opening of a new general aviation airport in north central China. Michel Leusch, of South Africa, failed to recover from a dive during a performance at the first Silk Road International General Aviation Convention held at Danxia Airport on Saturday. The airport opened Friday and the convention was held to celebrate the […]