Flight Safety

All three people on board an Embraer Phenom jet and three people on the ground died when the aircraft crashed into a home in suburban Gaithersburg, Maryland, about 10:45 local time Monday morning. A woman and her two small children, who lived in the house, have been confirmed dead. The house was heavily damaged and […]

One clear Christmas night, my wife and I were returning to San Diego after visiting our son in central California. There was little radio traffic, but check-ins with controllers were invariably prefaced with “Merry Christmas.” So, as we proceeded into Bakersfield’s air space: Me:“Good evening, Bakersfield. Merry Christmas.” Bakersfield Tower:“Humbug.” Me:“Why ‘humbug’?” Bakersfield Tower:“Have you […]

The FAA says it will improve contingency plans so it can better react to emergencies like the fire at Chicago Center in September. An internal review of the response after the sabotage and attempted suicide that shut down one of the country’s busiest ATC facilities says more airspace flexibility and a plan for staff deployment […]

Letter of the Week:Third Class Medical Issues Regarding Woody Beck’s article on the decline of GA: He states the following,“Over the longer term, changes in the third class medical will have no significant impact because its cost is negligible, roughly the cost of 15 gallons of av fuel every two years for us older pilots.” […]

Mooney says it will certify and build its new M10 trainers at its Chino, California, facility initially, but may also build production capability at the company’s long-established Kerrville, Texas, factory. Mooney CEO Jerry Chen told AVweb this week that the company has already worked out the basics of its certification program with the FAA and […]

Keeping your holding skills up to date these days feels like keeping a working fax machine around; well, I suppose this might come in handy. Someday. Maybe. Holds are rare, and the most common ones for the fat middle of GA are holds published on instrument approach charts where you have to make a few […]

Pilots now can log more simulator time toward an instrument rating, under a new rule published by the FAA on Wednesday. A rule issued in 2009 had placed a 10-hour limit on the training devices, but the FAA said since technology has advanced and simulators are more realistic, pilots now can log up to 20 […]

Two men were killed Tuesday afternoon when the light helicopter they were flying in crashed into the roof of a building in North Salt Lake, Utah, authorities reported on Tuesday afternoon. Debris from the crash — the helo’s tail rotor — was found up to a half mile away, suggesting the aircraft may have broken […]

Shortcomings in design and certification ultimately led to the fire in a lithium-ion battery installed on a Boeing 787 in January 2013, the NTSB said on Monday. In the board’s final report on the incident, investigators said Boeing’s safety assessment of the battery, which was part of the data used to demonstrate FAA compliance, was […]

The FAA has rolled out a new online search tool that will help make it easier for pilots to find Notices to Airmen relevant to their planned flight. The tool “means that the days of rooting around trying to find applicable Notams while planning for a flight are just about over,” says NBAA. The new […]