Flight Safety

While landing in BOI last week, we overheard this great question from a pilot: Tower:“Cessna 123, turn left, heading 210, runway 28L; cleared for takeoff.” Cessna:“Cleared for takeoff, Cessna 123.” Tower:“Cessna 123, also: Turn left, heading 210.” Cessna:“You want that after we takeoff, right?” Tower:“Yes, that would be best.” I could barely read back our […]

Environmental groups have filed suit (PDF) against the EPA to try and force the agency to set emissions limits for all aircraft. The suit was filed by Earthjustice (on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity) and Friends of the Earth on Thursday, saying the EPA has “delayed unreasonably” coming up with rules for aircraft […]

The family of a well-known movie pilot who died in a crash of a Piper Aerostar in Colombia last September is suing a movie studio. Alan Purwin, 54, was a passenger in the aircraft flown by Colombian Carlos Berl on the flight, which occurred just after production of the Tom Cruise thriller Mena wrapped up […]

In his timeless classic Fate Is The Hunter, Ernest K. Gann regales readers with several tales of in-flight emergencies, hairy takeoffs and grateful landings. Perhaps the book’s most memorable takeoff involves a grossly overweight C-87 departing Agra, India, on a hot day, aimed directly at the nearby Taj Mahal mausoleum. Of course, Gann didn’t know […]

I have always been baffled by the psychology of paying a company a tidy of sum of money to assure that I get one of the first new-and-improved widgets it proposes to make: the pre-production deposit or, as it’s popularly known, a “position.” This is quite common in the aircraft business as most recently demonstrated […]

Ten aviation advocacy groups submitted a letter to U.S. senators this week, asking them to oppose any changes in the FAA Reauthorization Act that would allow local and state governments to create their own rules about drones. Allowing that kind of “patchwork” of laws could “erode, rather than enhance, air safety,” the letter says. It […]

Advocates converged on Washington this week to push for passage of the Safe Skies Act, which would extend to cargo pilots the same rest requirements mandated for pilots who fly with passengers. “This is not a partisan issue, it’s a science-based, common-sense issue,” said Chesley Sullenberger, who has been advocating for the act, at a […]

The Gustaf III airport at St. Bart’s, in the Caribbean, is well known as a challenging one for pilots and a scenic spot for planespotters, but last week, one enthusiast with a camera was caught on video in a close call. The photographer was focused on shooting a single-engine airplane on approach, when another photographer […]

The FAA today published a final rule that allows student pilots to log up to 20 hours in flight simulators, finally reaching the end of a long and twisted regulatory path. The current rules allow only 10 hours to be logged, although many flight schools had permission from the FAA to log up to 20. […]

The FAA issued two direct-to-final-rule Airworthiness Directives today that affect general aviation airplanes. A Cessna AD addresses the elevator trim tabs in about 5,000 twin-engine T310Q, 310Q, and 402B aircraft. Textron already has issued a service bulletin, but allows up to a year to make the fix — the FAA said today it is shortening […]