Flight Safety

Late on a low-traffic night, an Ozark flight requested landing instructions into Des Moines, reporting his altitude as 6,000 feet. He was given clearance since no other traffic was in the area. After a few seconds, the Ozark pilot again called, saying:“Uh, that 6,000 feet — that shoulda been 5,000 feet. Gee, this thing’s got […]

The non-pilot owners of a remote but locally important private airport in northern California have launched a national fundraising campaign to raise the $60,000 needed to keep it open. Ocean Ridge Airport has been in the Bower family for more than 30 years and they’ve always patched the holes and painted the markings themselves to […]

A Fort Myers, Fla., pilot landed his Piper Saratoga safely last week at Page Field after a bird strike shattered the pilot’s side windshield. The impact was caught by the cameraRob Weber set up behind him in the cockpit. Fortunately the windshield was just strong enough that the bird bounced off as the plastic shattered. […]

St. Barts, in the eastern Caribbean, is famous for having a short, narrow runway with a tall hill off one end. It’s tricky to get into, and more than one pilot has come to grief in trying. In this video, AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli reviews a landing that went wrong and why. view on YouTube

The Bower family of Gualala, California would like nothing better than to keep their private, public-use airport open – but since they don’t fly themselves, they’re hoping those with some skin in the game will pay the $60,000 necessary for repairs. AVweb’s Russ Niles spoke with Julie Bower about the unique situation in a remote […]

Letter of the Week:The Rest of the Story The new rest rules do not cover cargo flights, nor do they cover foreign flights in U.S. airspace. But the basics should be that professional pilots take care of their bodies, including getting adequate rest. Carriers give crew regulated rest periods, but unless the FAA wants the […]

Authorities in Abu Dhabi detained 12 people but didn’t file any charges after five separate fires were deliberately set aboard an Etihad flight from Melbourne, Australia. Distraught passengers reported smoke and flame pouring from bathrooms on the Boeing 777 ER at various times during the flight, which included a two-hour diversion to Jakarta. A comprehensive […]

Bucking the downward trend of general aviation, the U.S. Parachute Association (USPA) is reporting record-high membership for the second consecutive year. With roughly 3.2 million skydives made last year in the U.S., it announced that more and more people are taking not only a first leap but continuing to pursue skydiving as a hobby and […]

The one-day NTSB investigative hearing into the Aug. 14, 2013 crash of a UPS jet on approach to the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth (Alabama) Airport included evidence that the flight crew was fatigued, and that the captain had said the schedules were “killing him” and he “couldn’t keep this up.” According to the San Francisco Chronicle, documents and […]

You are on approach in busy airspace with an even busier cockpit…you are changing frequencies, receiving vectors, looking for traffic. You are well into the descent phase. As you flip through your kneeboard to get ready for the final phases of flight, you instinc- tively start looking for the runway. You see one in front […]