Flight Safety

Almost exactly a year ago, when I fishing around for something provocative to say about Chinese interests buying Mooney, I came up with this nugget: “So personally, I’m okay with the sale of Mooney to a China-based company, but only if it pulls in some investment to get the company to the next stage. Let’s […]

Overheard this exchange in Houston Center the week before Halloween 2014: Aircraft N1Q:“Houston, N1Q. 390. Good evening.” Houston Center:“Good evening, N1Q. That sure is a long N-number you got there.” Aircraft N1Q:“Yes. And it’s hard to remember, too.” Doug Fields

A Learjet 36 carrying a prominent religious leader and eight others hit a construction crane while landing at Grand Bahama International Airport Sunday, killing all on board. Among those killed were Pastor Myles Munroe, his wife Ruth and other passengers and crew. Munroe was leader of the Bahamas Faith Ministries, among the largest religious congregations […]

The pilot who survived the in-flight breakup of SpaceShipTwo in late October told his father he was unconscious for about half of his parachute descent from 50,000 feet but he managed a thumbs-up for the occupants of a chase plane that circled him on the way down. The Mail quoted Peter Siebold’s physician father Klaus […]

At the risk of getting the metaphorical “hook” for expressing the thought, we are about to engage in herding CATs. Most instrument pilots are lucky and only have to deal with one category of ILS approach during their lives. The Category I, or “CAT I”is usually the only kind of instrument landing system approach minima […]

An analysis of the Air France 447 disaster in June 2009 by author William Langewiesche, published in Vanity Fair, provoked reactions from readers as well as fellow pilot and writer Patrick Smith of AskThePilot.com. Langewiesche, in his detailed narrative of the Airbus A330 crash that killed 228 when it stalled into the Atlantic Ocean, argued […]

Four people, including one who was hit by a propeller blade, were taken to hospital with what were reported as minor injuries after an apparent gear collapse on an Air Canada Express Q400 at Edmonton International Airport late Thursday. Christina Kurylo was hit on the head by a propeller blade that pierced the cabin and […]

Now that the debris from the Tuesday election has rained back down from the heavens, how is general aviation likely to fair in a decidedly red Congress? Such that the 113th Congress didn’t accomplish much of anything, are the prospects for GA any better in the 114th, which convenes in January? Based on conversations I […]

The NTSB said Wednesday a “punitive culture and inadequate safety management” along with poor weather caused the crash of an Alaska Department of Public Safety helicopter on March 30, 2013. The single-engine Eurocopter crashed in wooded and snow-covered terrain east of Talkeetna, killing the pilot, another state trooper and the snowmobiler they had just rescued.The […]

The FAA issued a final rule on Wednesday expanding icing certification standards for transport-category airplanes. The new measure requires Part 25 (transport category) aircraft that weigh less than 60,000 pounds to be certified for flight in icing caused by supercooled large droplets — which make up freezing drizzle and freezing rain — as well as […]