Flight Safety

The FAA will impose new guidance on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) to air medical examiners on March 2. The new rules are much different than the controversial 2013 edict that came from then-Chief Flight Surgeon Fred Tilton, which automatically grounded pilots with body mass index of 40 or more. But it does require AMEs to […]

Fourteen GA groups told the FAA on Friday the agency must straighten out issues with the ADS-B Out compliance rules if aircraft owners are to meet the 2020 deadline for the new equipment requirements. In a letter to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta (PDF), they highlighted concerns including compliance for experimental aircraft, which don’t have type […]

Advocates of third-class medical reform hope their campaign will forge ahead with help from new leadership announced this week in the Congressional GA caucuses. Sens. John Boozman, R-Ark., and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., will co-chair the Senate caucus. In the House, Reps. Sam Graves, R-Mo., and Marc Veasey, D-Texas, will serve as co-chairs. Boozman and Graves […]

A Maryland man pleaded guilty this week to a federal charge of pointing a laser at a Baltimore County police helicopter in 2014, the Baltimore Sun reported.The helicopter was flying over a high school in September when a green laser beam twice illuminated the cockpit, according to the Sun’s report on the court case.Two officers […]

A drone pilot who fought a $10,000 government fine for filming video with an unmanned aircraft in 2011 has settled his case for $1,100 without admitting guilt, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Raphael Pirker, a Swiss citizen, flew a drone over the University of Virginia in 2011 to make a promotional video. In court, he challenged the […]

The bodies of pilot Larry Glazer and his wife, Jane, whose TBM 900 crashed into the Caribbean in September, have been recovered, according to a report in USA Today. The New York couple were flying to their second home in Naples, Florida, when they became unresponsive from an apparent loss of cabin pressure. Air Force […]

Cockpit cameras and improved locator technology are among the recommendations the NTSB put before the FAA Thursday in the wake of investigations including the crash of Air France 447 and the yet-to-be-found Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Following up on a technology forum last fall, the NTSB reiterated its idea thata “crash-protected image recording system” to […]

Avgas prices have dropped enough to garner attention, prompting aircraft owners to ask FBOs if they’ll keep going down like prices at their local car-gas stations. Hoping for $2 avgas is unrealistic, but FBOs around the country told AVweb their posted prices have ticked down in recent months. While they aren’t seeing noticeably higher traffic […]

Drones carrying illegal drugs and contraband have been among the creative ideas used by smugglers, and crashes do happen from loss of control or perhaps weight-and-balance problems. An unmanned aerial vehicle with more than six pounds of methamphetamine taped to it crashed near the San Ysidro, California, border crossing to Mexico, The Associated Press reported […]

I was doing some video shooting at the Sport Aviation Expo on Saturday when an AVweb reader approached me to say hello. It wasn’t long before our conversation devolved into an arm-waving, spittle-flying moment of high dudgeon. We weren’t arguing, but agreeing that the FAA’s baffling announcement that it was withdrawing the tiny little baby […]