Flight Safety

Fort Wayne Approach:“NXXX, switch to tower on 119.1.” NXXX:“Switching to tower on 119.1.” NXXX:“Fort Wayne tower, this is NXXX with you.” Fort Wayne Approach:“NXXX, you are still on the approach frequency.” NXXX:“I was just practicing.” Robb Rosebrook

The pilot of a Civil Air Patrol airplane that crashed into a building in Anchorage, Alaska, this week committed suicide, according to media reports Friday.Doug Demarest, 42, died Tuesday morning when the Cessna 172 he was flying hit one of the upper floors of an office building, then struck another building before coming to rest […]

When it comes to the buying of gasoline, I may be the quintessential American in one sense and the atypical American in another. Regardless of what it costs, I’m going to buy it and do what I plan to do. I’m the last guy to care if one station has a price a nickel less […]

When was it, to avoid compromising personal limits, you decided not to fly? Sure, serious deteriorating weather conditions are an obvious one. As I write this, severe turbulence SIGMETS from surface to 5000 feet have been issued over northwest Europe, which for me is an obvious “no flight.” But there are some diehards (or dare […]

Police in Belleville, Ontario, said Tuesday they can’t find any laws to apply against the operator of a drone that was in a head-on collision with a car last Monday. The aircraft hit the grill of the vehicle, which was traveling on a country road, and caused about $1,000 in damage. There were no injuries. […]

A total of 21 people, including three children, were taken to the hospital in Calgary, Alberta, Wednesday after their flight hit severe turbulence on its way from Shanghai to Toronto. The Air Canada Boeing 777-300ER was over Dawson City, Yukon, when it hit the rough patch of air. There’s been plenty of speculation on the […]

Homebuilt aircraft saw a drop in fatal accidents in the most recent year reported by the FAA, the Experimental Aircraft Association reported Wednesday. Aircraft in the FAA’s experimental category had 40 fatal accidents from October 2014 through September 2015, down 20 percent from 51 accidents in the previous fiscal year. There also was a drop […]

The pilot of a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 172 that crashed into a building in Anchorage on Tuesday was a five-year member of the organization but was not authorized to fly the plane that day. The Civil Air Patrol has confirmed that First Lt. Doug Demarest was killed after he took the plane on an […]

Two recent news reports have cited bird strikes and fuel-fed fires as safety concerns for helicopter operators. According to an Associated Press story published over the weekend, operators reported 204 helicopter bird strikes in 2013, a 68 percent increase from 2009. While some of that is due to increased reporting by pilots, the AP says […]

Way back in 1957, when I was an air traffic control trainee at RNZAF station Ohakea, I heard a Bristol freighter report:“We have just passed the Comet.” … then, a few seconds later, add:“The Comet was going the other way.” (The humor relates to the lumbering Bristol compared to the sleek inbound RAF Comet.) Murray […]