Flight Safety

For those who thought Amazon.com was not serious about its plans to deliver packages with Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), its petition to the FAA for an exemption to test them outdoors near Seattle, Washington, has been pending since July 9. With the FAA’s recent approval of some petitions for exemption for UAS in the movie […]

AVweb’s weekly search of the news in the world of aviation turned up a new exhibit exploring the future of space travel, a major award for Civil Air Patrol, a partnership to support the Unmanned Aircraft System Community and approval of a new flight simulator for the Socata TBM-series aircraft. Space Center Houston’s newest exhibit, […]

Flying IFR under Part 91 gives us pilots an incredible amount of freedom. Yet, it is this relative freedom from heavy regulation which is largely responsible for general aviation’s safety record, and it, frankly, is not all that great. No, flying little airplanes is not as safe as flying the airlines. Nor is it as […]

The FAA issued a statement Wednesday regarding the status of operations in the Chicago area-and noted that O’Hare operations were the most numerous in the country Tuesday, even as it is working to get Chicago Center fully operational. The full text of the statement follows: “FAA air traffic controllers managed more operations at Chicago O’Hare […]

The FAA has updated its policy on experimental-amateur built (E-AB) aircraft to allow pilots who build their own airplanes to bring along a qualified additional pilot on their initial test flights, EAA said on Monday. “This policy change comes after years of data suggesting that the most accidents in the E-AB fleet occur in aircraft […]

After watching FAA administrator Michael Huerta interviewed on network news last night, I felt so much better. For all the administrators I’ve covered in some way, and that’s about nine, he is absolutely the most skilled at giving polished, content-free answers and he doles these out not just to us ink-stained wretches in the GA […]

Following a fire that knocked out ATC equipment at a facility in Aurora, Illinois, on Friday, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said on Monday the agency will conduct a 30-day review of its contingency plans and security protocols to be sure they address system efficiency as well as safety. “I do understand the traveling public’s frustrations,” […]

I was arriving in the Washington, D.C., area with a destination of Manassas Regional in Virginia. There was a mid-morning thunderstorm that was causing aircraft, including Air Force One, to request deviations when I heard the following. After being denied a 20-degree deviation to the right to avoid weather and given an alternative of 30 […]

Capacity is steadily increasing at airports affected by the sabotage of critical communications equipment at Chicago Center on Friday. As of late Sunday (PDF), the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said 72 flights per hour were getting into O’Hare International Airport and departure delays of 15 minutes in the afternoon were expected to increase to […]

The pilot of Searey homebuilt that was in a mid-air collision with Cessna 172 during a Young Eagles event in western New York said his training kicked in after the two aircraft hit.”I just knew I had to keep flying the plane,” Kevin D’Angelo told a news conference. “As a pilot you train over and […]