Flight Safety

A Hawker Hunter owned by Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), a civilian tactical airborne training organization, crashed Wednesday on approach to Naval Base Ventura County, near Point Mugu, California. The pilot was declared dead at the scene. No one on the ground was injured. An investigation into the cause is underway. ATAC’s website says it […]

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) is reporting that it is increasingly confident that a piece of aluminum it found on Nikumaroro Atoll in the south Pacific is from the Lockheed Electra flown by Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan on their ill-fated circumnavigation attempt in 1937. In a carefully worded statement, TIGHAR personnel […]

While electric aircraft have gotten plenty of gee-whiz press coverage, they lack one thing: credible production airplanes. At Redbird’s Migration training conference this week, Aero Electric Aircraft Corp.’s George Bye pledged to change that by showing up at next year’s event with a prototype of the Sun Flyer, a two-place electric that may become the […]

An unmanned supply rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded shortly after liftoff from a Virginia commercial launch facility Tuesday. The Antares rocket operated by Orbital Sciences Corp. lifted off the launch pad at the Wallops Flight Facility at 6.22 p.m. EDT and exploded seconds later. It was carrying about 5,000 pounds of supplies […]

With a year and 1,300 hours of operation behind them, Redbird says its converted diesel Skyhawks have delivered bulletproof maintenance reliability and significant savings in direct operating costs. At a short briefing during the company’s fourth annual training conference in San Marcos, Texas, Redbird’s Darren Bien told a small group that thus far, customer response […]

A report in Monday’s USA Today about the danger of lethal post-crash fires in GA aircraft is “sensationalistic,” according to GAMA President Pete Bunce. “Once again, USA Today‘s Thomas Frank has not told the full story about general aviation aircraft safety,” Bunce said in a statement released Tuesday morning. In the USA Today story, Frank […]

As if everything in aviation isn’t hard enough to get done, it’s grimly amusing how we’re able to make it harder yet. Just ask anyone trying to get a simple cert project on the FAA’s agenda, much less getting it approved. Even the stuff that should be simple and quick, isn’t. That came to mind […]

Redbird Simulations opens its fourth annual Migration training conference in San Marcos, Texas, today, with two days of forums and industry discussions about training issues critical to the aviation industry. On the agenda will be a brief review of Redbird’s experience in operating its Redhawk diesel Skyhawk conversion and a progress report on the company’s […]

Heard on Columbus Approach Control on Sunday, October 19. This approach controller maintained standard phraseology – twice – then decided to just try plain English, which worked perfectly! Approach:“N1234, Say on-course heading.” Pilot:“N1234. Stay on course heading.” Approach:“N1234, SAY on-course heading.” Pilot:“N1234. Stay on course heading.” Approach:“N1234, what is your current heading?” Pilot:“N1234. Heading: 050.” […]

At Redbird Simulations’ fourth training conference in San Marcos, Texas, AVweb got a look at the latest version of the company’s TRACE technology, which will enable students to teach themselves many of the basic maneuvers necessary to learn to fly. view on YouTube