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.
Years ago, we were approaching Cleveland on a clear Sunday afternoon. Accompanied by nearly unbearable static, we heard an obviously nervous light plane pilot trying to tell Hopkins tower where he was, how high he was, and what he wanted to do. When he finally (and mercifully) finished, the tower calmly replied with a clearance […]
An Oklahoma Air National Guard student pilot managed to bring an F-16 safely back to his base missing half of the right wing after a midair collision with his instructor over Kansas last October. The Air Force released photos of the aftermath of the encounter in which the unnamed student’s outboard missile severed his instructor’s […]
It’s a fact of aeronautical life that virtually every pilot has to complete some form of recurrent training every two years to fly as pilot in command in Part 91 operations. While FAR Part 61.56 outlines a number of methods of meeting its mandate, another fact of aeronautical life is that most pilots comply by […]
Aviation authorities in New Zealand and Australia have grounded a significant number of Robinson R-44 helicopters in response to a fatal crash in New Zealand last week. The affected aircraft have main rotor blades with the part number CO16-7. The groundings affect 80 aircraft (of 184) in New Zealand and an unknown number of the […]
The Air Force on Friday released its investigation (PDF) of a midair collision of two F-16s in Kansas last fall, citing a student pilot’s loss of visual contact and an instructor’s misperception of a turning maneuver. The two F-16Cs, from the Tulsa Air National Guard Base, were flying a training exercise with a third fighter […]
Probably the most difficult task on the Instrument Rating (IR) practical test is Area VII, Task D: Approach with Loss of Primary Flight Instrument Indicators. But why is the FAA so concerned about this? In their own words from the IR Practical Test Standards (PTS): “The FAA is concerned about numerous fatal aircraft accidents involving […]
Letter of the Week:Drones No Danger I’m a commercial pilot and small drone operator and want to thank you for not joining the unfounded media hysteria over small UAV operation in the U.S. Regarding the “numerous” drone sightings reported by pilots as tabulated by the FAA, I’ve examined them, and the most frequently used words […]
When I was reading over the draft small UAS regs and analysis that leaked out of the FAA over the weekend, I couldn’t help thinking … man, this feels like a breech birth assisted with a crowbar. For one thing, the timing caught the FAA off guard. Thanks to the wonders of the web, the […]
The FAA grounded more than 300 Enstrom helicopters this week, requiring inspections for cracks such as one that might have caused a fatal crash last month in Colorado. The agency’s emergency Airworthiness Directive requires a magnetic particle inspection to detect cracks in the spindle of the main rotor for those with at least 5,000 hours […]
More than half of TransAsia’s ATR pilots are grounded as the airline continues to test their proficiency. Ten of 49 pilots so far are grounded after failing the oral exams TransAsia ordered after the Feb. 4 crash of one of its ATR-72s in Taipei; another 19 are suspended until they take the test, Reuters reported […]
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