Flight Safety

Both the good and bad potential of unmanned aircraft systems made the news over the weekend, as the first FAA-OK’d drone delivery of medicine took place in Virginia, and in California, five drones buzzing around a wildfire delayed air operations for 20 minutes while the fire spread. The California drones were presumably operated by hobbyists […]

The NTSB’s preliminary report into the July 7 collision between an Air Force F-16 and a Cessna 150 in South Carolina says an air traffic controller was in contact with the fighter right up to the moment of impact and advised the fighter pilot that he expected the Cessna to pass almost directly below the […]

Maintaining your IFR currency isn’t that hard. Just fly and log in actual or simulated conditions six instrument approaches, “holding procedures and tasks” and “intercepting and tracking” electronic courses within the preceding six months, and you’re golden. Even if you find yourself slightly out of currency in the 11th month, you can go out with […]

Most instrument rated pilots log about 10 percent of their flight time in IMC. That same percentage holds true for night operations. When you combine the two, encountering IMC at night is a rare occurrence for many. Most of us recognize that night IMC presents a high risk environment (statistically five-times more so than day […]

Searchers have found the wreckage of the Beech Bonanza that crashed en route to Bellingham, Washington, over the weekend. Crews recovered two bodies believed to be the step-grandparents of Autumn Veatch, the 16-year-old who survived the crash and walked alone in the wilderness for two days before she was found near a hiking trail, according […]

The inadequate restraint of five large mine-resistant military vehicles being carried as cargo in a National Airlines B747 was the cause of a fiery crash shortly after takeoff from Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan in April 2013, the NTSB said in its probable-cause meeting on Tuesday. All seven crew members died in the crash. At least […]

A teenage girl found along a roadside in a remote area of Washington state on Monday had been walking alone in the wilderness for two days after the Beech A-35 Bonanza in which she was a passenger crashed, apparently killing her two step-grandparents, according to local authorities. Autumn Veatch, 16, was found by hikers near […]

Ho-hum, another weekend, another engine-out landing at a beach resort. Like the one I wrote about last week, this one also made the evening news, albeit for a different reason. And it didn’t occur right on the beach, but on a busy highway choked with beach traffic. Here’s the story. It offers an opportunity to […]

Of all the major components of a conventional airplane, the tail—empennage, if you prefer—may be the least understood. Yes, we generally know it’s there to help balance and stabilize the airplane’s attitude in flight, and to help control yaw and pitch, but that’s often the extent to which we paid attention in ground school. If […]

Naming IFR fixes after celebrities and notable landmarks is a common practice, but renaming them due to political controversy is not. However, that’s going to be the case with three waypoints for West Palm Beach International named after the real estate mogul and would-be presidential candidate: DONLD, TRMMP and UFIRD. The FAA said this week […]