Flight Safety

Assembly has begun on the first prototype of Aero Electric’s Sun Flyer training airplanes, the company announced Monday.Aero said it has contracted with Arion Aircraft of Shelbyville, Tennessee, to build the airplane, which they plan to develop into what may be the first FAA-certified, all-electric aircraft. Arion produces the LS-1 Lightning light sport airplane. “After […]

As the industry continues to push back against the high price of new aircraft, another company has joined the emerging trend in remanufactured aircraft. In conjunction with AOPA, Wichita-based Yingling Aviation announced Monday at AirVenture the Ascend 172, a ground-up remanufacture of the popular Cessna Skyhawk. As are several other shops, Yingling is restoring older […]

Here’s a funny exchange I heard on the radio: Cessna Pilot (sounding like a nervous newbie):“Charlotte Approach, Cessna 12345 at 5,000. Would like to descend to 7,000.” Charlotte Approach:“Cessna 12345, I think you mean you’d like to climb to 7,000.” Cessna Pilot:“Uh, sorry. I’m still a new instrument pilot.” Charlotte Approach (chuckling):“Cessna 12345, climb and […]

Tuesday is the sixth annual Teachers’ Day, in which teachers from all over the U.S. attend sessions on how to integrate aviation topics into their curriculum. AVweb intern Ashley Anglisano spoke with organizer Lyn Freeman of Build-A-Plane to find out what’s on tap for 2015. Duration: 4:19 File Size: 8.1 MB download here

Boeing has advised operators of its passenger jets to no longer accept bulk shipments of lithium batteries, according to a report in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. The shipments, which are legal under FAA rules, have long raised safety questions and many airlines already decline to carry them. Safety tests conducted by the FAA have shown […]

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 […]