Flight Safety

It might seem that in an age of instant online weather, the need for pilot reports, or pireps, would be a thing of the past, but that’s far from true, according to a recent NTSB forum. “Pireps done right have enormous untapped potential to make aviation safer for pilots, passengers, and people on the ground,” […]

As the U.K.’s vote to exit the European Union settles in, we sought out a general aviation perspective from across the Atlantic from Thomas Borchert, editor of the German-language fliegermagazin and from Ian Seager, publisher of the U.K. Flyer magazine. From Germany The overwhelmingly major benefit of the EU for GA pilots has been a […]

This year’s winners of the annual GAMA/Build A Plane design challenge are at work this week in Arlington, Washington, helping to build a brand-new Sportsman airplane at Glasair Aviation. The four students, plus a teacher and chaperone, traveled from Weyauwega-Fremont High School in Weyauwega, Wisconsin, after beating out 76 other teams from around the country. […]

A total of 241 people were saved by firefighters after a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 caught fire after an emergency landing at Singapore Airport early Monday. The aircraft was on a flight from Singapore to Milan when there was an oil leak in the right engine. The crew turned back to Singapore and the engine […]

Landings with faulty gear are common and almost always uneventful but a Canadian seaplane pilot found himself in an unusual predicament on Saturday. The gear on the amphib floats on Paul Armstrong’s Cessna 206 only partly deployed so he was caught between a wet and a hard place. Landing on water would have flipped the […]

Thirty years ago, the idea of carrying sophisticated digital radar in anything under a medium twin would probably have been met with roars of laughter, but technology has brought amazing advances. Now it’s possible for even an ultralight pilot to use the Internet to access essentially the same tools that are available to forecasters. In […]

The comment period on a proposed rule that affects the ELTs on 14,500 U.S. aircraft will expire July 8. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) will require owners of some Ameri-King ELTs to have them thoroughly inspected for function and parts compliance. The rule was written after the agency issued a cease-and-desist order to California-based […]

Two polar station workers in need of medical care were successfully evacuated from the Amundsen-Scott station as the South Pole on Wednesday, according to the National Science Foundation. CBC reported that the Calgary-based Kenn Borek Air flew the two workers from Amundsen-Scott to Rothera, on the Antarctic Peninsula, a distance of some 1500 miles. The […]

Reaction so far by general aviation advocacy groups has been mainly positive to the new rules released yesterday by the FAA to manage small drones (55 pounds or less) in the national airspace. “We commend the FAA for balancing the imperative to maintain safety … with the practical needs of this rapidly-emerging industry,” said Bob […]

The FAA today published its final rule for the commercial use of small drones under 55 pounds. The rule requires commercial drone operators to be at least 16 years old, pass a security background check and hold a “remote pilot certificate,” which can be attained by passing an “initial aeronautical knowledge test” at an FAA-approved […]