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.

Pilot Population Growth: Mixed News

In another chapter of my publishing career that might as well have taken place on Mars, I worked for a company that hit the magic. It started a publication in the craft field right in the midst of an explosive interest in craft revival in the mid-1970s that few knew was happening. (No internet then; […]

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Out-of-Control Departures

A reader of IFR Refresher recently inquired about the ATC/Pilot relationship for departures from airports in Class G (uncontrolled) airspace—specifically executing these clearances, and ATC’s expectations of how that aircraft will maneuver. Hailing from an en-route center where mountainous terrain dominates and TRACONS are scarce, I frequently encounter situations where aircraft request departure off one […]

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Debris Not From EgyptAir Flight

EgyptAir officials said late Thursday that debris spotted in the Mediterranean was not from the missing Flight 804.”We stand corrected on finding the wreckage because what we identified is not a part of our plane. So the search and rescue is still going on,” the airline’s vice chairman Ahmed Adel told CNN. The Airbus A320 […]

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British Pilot Crashes During U.S. Transcontinental Flight

A British pilot flying across the U.S. to commemorate the nation’s airmail pioneers crashed her Stearman in the Arizona desert last week, halting the journey until the biplane is repaired. Tracey Curtis-Taylor, who earlier this year flew the 1942 Stearman from the UK to Australia, said in a Facebook post she’s determined to get her […]

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NTSB, Manufacturers Weigh In On Part 23 Changes

The FAA’s comment period is now closed for its proposed changes to Part 23 aircraft certification, and 61 comments have been logged online. The GA industry has been lobbying for the changes for years, in hopes that it will become easier and cheaper to certify new airplanes and bring new technologies to market. But the […]

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FAA Wraps Drone Detector Test At JFK

The FAA said today it has completed tests of new drone-detection technology at John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York. The tests, which began May 2, studied the effectiveness of a detection system developed by the FBI. Five different rotorcraft and fixed-wing UAS participated in the evaluations, and about 40 separate tests took place, […]

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Short Final

On a flight from Panama City, Florida to Asheville, North Carolina, I heard ATC asking another aircraft if his transponder was on — to which the reply was: “We’re putting quarters in the slot now.” Ray Mansfield

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Have We Hit The Trifecta?

To remain a general aviation participant in good standing—or hell, just a participant of any standing—requires a certain resilience, an almost alien capacity to slough off disaster and munch gleefully on catastrophe. Rolling with the punches comes to mind, but somehow just doesn’t do justice to the gloom that pervades the aviation economy. Now that […]

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Airshow Fatality In Georgia

An Augusta, Georgia, airshow pilot was killed in the crash of his Pitts Special at the Good Neighbors Air Show at DeKalb Peachtree Airport on Saturday. Greg Connell has not been officially identified as the crash victim but his own social media accounts have confirmed the tragedy. Connell was doing a formation routine when his […]

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Third-Class Medical Reform Included In Defense Bill

Third-class medical reform could get another chance of making it to a congressional vote via a defense funding bill that moved through the Senate’s Armed Services Committee this week. The committee voted 23-3 in favor of the bill, which would authorize $602 billion for the Department of Defense and other national security programs. It includes […]

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