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.

Pre-Flight Follies

When did you last experience an embarrassing moment on the takeoff roll? Have you ever had to taxi back to the ramp to deal with a problem discovered during the run-up? Any moments of tension or near-terror because you missed something during the pre-flight? Most pilots can recite at least one tale about discovering they […]

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Aviastar Airline Twin Otter Missing In Indonesia

The search is still underway in Indonesia for a missing DHC-6 Twin Otter operated by Aviastar, a domestic airline. There were unverified reports Sunday that wreckage had been spotted. There were three crew members and 10 passengers on board, according to the Jakarta Post. The aircraft departed from the Andi Djemma Airport in Masamba at […]

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Fasteners Through an Engineer’s Eye

The structure of an airplane and its systems are only as strong and reliable as the joints holding its components together. The strength of a joint is dependent not only on the properties of the fasteners, but on the design of the joint itself. The way the fasteners are loaded, the strength of the parts […]

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Third Class Medical Reform: Hope’s Not Misplaced

Anyone who’s been watching the torturous progress—if it can even be called progress—of the Third Class medical revision can be forgiven for a certain amount of cynicism. Many of us, I think, have given up completely, so much so that earlier in the week, I demurred from even writing about it again. I figured I […]

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Coming For Christmas – A Million Drones

As many as a million new toy drones could be given as Christmas gifts this year, an FAA official said at an Airlines for America event in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Rich Swayze, an assistant administrator for policy, said he heard the one-million figure from “several sources” that are studying the impact of drones. Swayze […]

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Video: How to Take Off and Land a DC-3

As with any airplane there are specific techniques to managing the finer points of the critical phases of flight. Historic Flight Foundation’s John Sessions got some pointers from Dan Gryder when he picked up his refurbished DC-3 at Sealand Aviation in Campbell River, British Columbia. view on YouTube

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Overused Phrase Of The Day: Game Changer

In my lofty role as editorial director here at AVweb, I am also self-appointed Chief of Word Police. We all have our little foibles and sacred cows, no? I actually have only two. I sweep the copy for two things; one is a word, the other a phrase. The word is “upbeat,” the phrase is […]

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Engine Operation Superstitions: Frustrating Persistence

During a recent conversation with a pilot I had just met, he mentioned that one of the things he did as a volunteer pilot for Civil Air Patrol was to tow gliders in the squadron’s Cessna 182. He expressed frustration with the very time-consuming and complex power reduction procedure imposed on the pilots to prevent […]

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Rare C-46 Belly Landed In Canada

One of the last flying C-46 Commandos was likely written off in an off-airport landing in Canada’s Northwest Territories on Friday. A Buffalo Airways Commando suffered engine trouble on a cargo flight from Yellowknife to Norman Wells. The crew tried to divert to Deline, NWT, but apparently didn’t make the airport. The aircraft was belly […]

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Pilot’s Bill Of Rights Changes; One-Time Medicals For Some

Legislation designed to waive the third-class medical for private pilots flying light aircraft has turned into a plan to require one-time medicals for new pilots or those who haven’t had one for more than 10 years, according to remarks made Thursday on the Senate floor by Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. Inhofe, who introduced the Pilot’s […]

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