Flight Safety

If I were to break down the quest for an unleaded avgas into seasons, I think we’re in the long, hot summer phase. From here until two years from now, progress may be like watching the grass grow. At AirVenture last month, the only meaningful activity was that Shell showed up to talk about its […]

The FAA issued a Notam on Monday restricting U.S. flight operators from flying in the airspace above Syria. Previously, operators had been warned to contact the FAA before flying there. “The ongoing armed conflict and volatile security environment in Syria poses a serious potential threat to civil aviation,” the FAA said. “Armed extremist groups in […]

Seven general aviation advocacy groups said this week they have sent a letter (PDF) to officials in the Transportation Department asking them to expedite a review of the FAA’s proposed rulemaking that would change the requirements for a third-class medical. The groups asked Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to complete the review within 30 days and […]

During the early ’70s, Pappy Wilkes, a former Piedmont Airlines DC-3 captain, was flying a pressurized Queen Air 88 along the east coast of Florida. He had been cleared to climb to 15,000. Being hot and heavy, the 88 was very slow climbing. An impatient ATC controller asked Pappy when he expected to reach his […]

Letter of the Week:Hangar Policy Proposal No doubt this proposal makes sense in some arcane budget discussion among ignoramuses divorced from aviation. But saying aircraft can’t be built in an airport hangar simply to preclude inappropriate use of federally funded airports makes about as much sense as saying birth can’t occur at home because the […]

The owner of a small air charter company and a paramedic were killed when the Piper Navajo the owner was flying crashed near the airport on Grand Manan Island in the Bay of Fundy off New Brunswick Saturday. A nurse and another pilot were injured and are in stable condition in the hospital. The pilots […]

It was an incident, not an accident, and it has wrongly been reported as a pilot’s prosthetic arm falling off. The reality? The pilot of a Flybe airline DeHaviland Dash 8 was flaring to land at Belfast City Airport, Ireland, when the device he used to clip his prosthetic lower left arm to the control […]

In a legal interpretation released Aug. 13, the FAA’s Chief Counsel for Regulations ruled against “peer-to-peer general aviation flight sharing” Internet-based operations that allow private pilots to offer available space on flights they intend to take. AirPooler Inc. had asked the FAA for an interpretation of the regulations-seeking to confirm that a pilot participating in […]

The pilot of a Cherokee that landed on or near the beach in Venice, Florida on July 27, killing two swimmers, told the NSTB he was worried that the aircraft would flip if landed in deep water. In a preliminary report (PDF) released on Thursday, the NTSB said the pilot, identified by local media as […]

AVweb’s weekly review of what’s going on in aviation turned up news that Power Flow had broken its own record for sales of Tuned Exhaust Systems at AirVenture, Oxygen to Go, LLC and its founder Dr. Brent Blue were recognized by Delta Airlines for significant contributions to persons with disabilities, the NTSB has proposed changes […]