Flight Safety

For the second time in less than three weeks, a small plane made a forced landing on a Sarasota County, Florida beach. Television station WWSB Channel 7 is reporting that just before noon Tuesday, the Air Traffic Control tower at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport called 911. A Pitts Special reported an engine power loss and landed […]

If you’ve been reading our news columns or watching the national news, you’re probably aware we had another beach landing in Florida earlier this week. It was Pitts that went into the water off Sarasota’s Siesta Key. No injuries, but the airplane is probably toast. Recall that in late July, just as AirVenture was starting, […]

It’s happened to every pilot at some time or another-suddenly the airplane isn’t doing what the pilot intends. Causes vary-his or her attention is diverted while hand flying, or spatial disorientation does its insidious thing or maybe its an upset due to turbulence. The deviation from the desired attitude can range from “Aw, nuts, I […]

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has decided to exit the electronic flight bag (EFB) market-marking a change in its online flight planning member benefit. Responsibility for FlyQ EFB will be assumed by Seattle Avionics as of Sept. 1. AOPA and Seattle Avionics are reported to be working together to ensure all subscribers experience a […]

Brazilian presidential candidate Eduardo Campos was among those killed Wednesday morning in the crash of a Cessna Citation XL in Santos, Brazil, according to CNN. The exact number of people killed in the crash wasn’t immediately known, but there were no survivors, Agencia Brasil reported, citing officials from Campos’ Brazilian Socialist Party. Campos, 49, was […]

Is a copilot who failed to catch the fact that the captain forgot to lower the landing gear deserving of unemployment benefits? One Iowa judge said yes, but the state’s Employment Appeal Board said no. Donald G. Scarsella “knew what to do, was trained on what to do, was able to do it, was required […]

New rules recently have addressed the safety of shipping lithium batteries in air cargo, but a story in Monday’s Bloomberg News raised questions about their use in electronic devices in the cockpit of passenger airplanes. “Because many airlines are replacing paper charts with laptops and tablet computers, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration conducted tests on […]

I was flying through New York’s air space one typical busy Friday afternoon. The controller on 124.07 was shotgunning instructions out to a dozen or more airplanes when a flight instructor grabbed the frequency and started requesting multiple practice approaches into Danbury (CT), thoroughly describing each missed approach and the path to the next approach. […]

A Sepahan Air Iran-140 (the Iranian-build version of the An-140) crashed shortly after takeoff from Mehrabad Airport Sunday killing at least 39 of the 48 people on board. The nine injured were taken to hospital with various injuries. The Tehran Times reported that an engine failure was being cited as a contributing factor. The accident […]

Thanks to AVWeb for supplying the opportunity for EAA’s guest blog posting about the new FAA hangar-use policy. Anytime we can work together to bring more knowledge and information to aviators, the better it is for all of us. AVweb’s “Hangar Policy Lunacy” editorial last Friday makes the point exactly right: None of us are […]