Flight Safety

A new Airworthiness Directive (AD) will require initial and repetitive borescope inspections of some 300 PT6A engines and potentially cost operators as much as $18,106,200. Following reports of compressor turbine (CT) blade failures causing engine power loss, the FAA issued an AD Wednesday that requires replacement of blades that fail inspection with a newly developed […]

AVweb’s weekly look at the aviation activities on SocialFlight uncovered everything from an Aire Faire at Bonne Terre through a Horse Bend Festival, a Display Day and a Wings N’ Wheels celebration. The Bonne Terre Aire Festival is taking place on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 6 and 7, at the Bonne Terre, Missouri Airport. From […]

Amazon, Google and plenty of others are eager to use drones; the FAA is facing a deadline to allow them into the airspace; pilots are worried about how this will affect them — and amid all this worrying, NASA scientists are working on new technology that could solve the problem. The solution, says NASA’s Parimal […]

All five people on board a Piper PA-46 Malibu died when it crashed on Sunday, shortly before noon, near the Erie Municipal Airport in Colorado, about 25 miles northwest of Denver. Peter Knudson, spokesman for the NTSB, said the airplane had taken off from Centennial Airport, south of Denver, and was attempting to land when […]

Last Friday, we departed Detroit City VFR northbound in my SR22 for some sightseeing and requested traffic advisories from Selfridge Approach. Shortly thereafter, we heard this exchange: Selfridge Approach:“Cessna XXX, traffic at one o’clock and two miles. A whacko.” Then a brief pause. Selfridge:“Correction: That’s a ‘Waco.’” Cessna XXX:“Maybe he’s both!” Brian Litch

Logbooks as a means of preserving precious memories of flight are way overrated because most of us just jot down the basics, rarely making note of how scared, excited or inspired we were by a particular flight or lesson. So even if I could find my first logbook, it would be of no use in […]

Sure, we know what maneuvering speed is, we learned it in private pilot ground school. You know, Va-Design Maneuvering Speed. “This is the maximum speed at which the limit load can be imposed (either by gusts or full deflection of the control surfaces) without causing structural damage.” That’s the definition straight out of the old […]

Fighter aircraft followed a Cirrus SR22 with an unconscious pilot aboard until it ran out of fuel and crashed in the Atlantic off Virginia on Saturday. The fighters were dispatched after the aircraft, on a flight plan to Manassas from Waukesha, Wisconsin, flew past its destination through restricted airspace around Washington, D.C., which attracted NORAD’s […]

For the second time in one week, a contretemps over reclining an airline seat led to a flight diverting and landing short of its destination. An American Airlines flight bound from Miami to Paris landed in Boston Wednesday night after Parisian Edmund Alexandre, variously reported as 60 and 61, became upset when the passenger in […]

The Recreational Aviation Foundation is making great progress in its effort to amend laws in all 50 states to make it easier for pilots to gain access to privately owned airstrips. AVweb’s Mary Grady spoke with John McNade, an RAF volunteer, about how the RAF is getting it done and why it’s important. Duration: 7:44 […]