Flight Safety

Pilot reportsof unmanned aerial systems have topped 650 so far this year – well over the 238 reported for all of 2014, the FAA said this week. The agency said there was a big jump in sightings this summer, with 138 pilot reports in June and 137 in July. Meanwhile, there were just 52 reports […]

Almost 15 years ago a well-known professional golfer named Payne Stewart was a passenger in a Lear 35 that departed Orlando, Florida for Dallas, Texas. The departure was unremarkable. Three minutes after the last communications with the Lear it made a turn consistent with a human input, but just three minutes later ATC was unable […]

Violent storms in Chandler, Arizona, late Tuesday flipped over airplanes at the Chandler Municipal Airport, scattering them about the field and damaging an estimated 30 aircraft in all. Photos and video at KCHD showed GA airplanes, mostly light singles recognizable by their wings and tails, sitting askew or lying belly-up around the tiedown area. Chandler […]

NASA – which always has a cool setup at Oshkosh, space suits and all – quietly conducted research last month under the radar of the world’s biggest airshow. In the basement of EAA’s Air Academy Lodge, a team of NASA staffers had pilots fly an X-Plane sim to test a cellphone app designed to avoid […]

With the FAA and the aviation community facing increasing pressure to find a way to keep UAS and airplanes separate, a group of four engineering students from the University of Rhode Island have proposed a solution. Their project, which took first place in an FAA design competition, proposes installing a solar-powered drone detection and tracking […]

The erratic work schedules of air traffic controllers often cause chronic fatigue, endangering the system’s safety, according to a 2011 NASA report that The Associated Press saysthe FAA “kept secret for years.” The FAA now has posted the report online (PDF), hours after the AP posted its story.Controllers participating in the study wore a wrist […]

When I was a controller in south Texas, a Piper Tripacer called me in the tower asking to transition through the airspace. Me:“Piper 123, squawk 4352.” Tripacer:“What’s that, tower?” Me:“Piper 123, squawk 4352.” Tripacer:“Tower, I don’t understand you.” Me:“Piper 123, your transponder code: 4352. Do you have a transponder on board?” Tripacer:“No, just me and […]

A lawnmower operator is dead after he was hit by a Ryan PT-22 while cutting the turf runway at Frazier Airpark, near Hollister, California, on Aug. 7. KSBW TVreports Douglas Ralph Jackson, 75, died instantly when the aircraft hit the large riding mower he was on after landing. The unidentified pilot of the Ryan told […]

As anyone who’s paid attention to Central U.S. weather the last few months knows, it’s been a particularly violent spring across “Tornado Alley.” Midwest storms made national news and reintroduced repeat targets—such as Moore, Okla. Well ahead of the storms and far in front of the inevitable miles of destruction images, Americans coast to coast […]

Just Aircraft says water in the fuel caused the loss of their demonstrator SuperSTOL aircraft on Aug. 2. Company founder Troy Woodland was at the controls when the aircraft went down shortly after takeoff at the company’s home base of Walhalla, South Carolina. Although the aircraft was destroyed, Woodland and his unidentified passenger were uninjured. […]