Flight Safety

Legally, 14 CFR 91.123 says, When a pilot is uncertain of an ATC clearance, that pilot shall immediately request clarification from ATC. Seems easy enough, but under pressure of time, heavy weather and busy controllers we are tempted to assume that ATC knows its intentions and to accept a clearance as given. Egregious errors appear […]

The fragile relationship between avionics shops and aircraft owners is sometimes stressed at the end of a project. Thats partly because some owners have unrealisticexpectations, assuming the aircraft will be released right after a flight test. On the other hand, shops create stress for themselves when they overpromiseand offer the impression that work on the […]

The following takes place at a high-altitude sector with multiple air carrier aircraft: Pilot 1(apparently meaning to talk to the passengers) :“This is the flight deck. Air traffic control has – uhh -” [unkeys] ATC:“Darn. I wanted to hear that.” Pilot 2 (cheerfully) :“Yeah. He was gonna blame you!” Cheryl Bavistervia e-mail

Less than 20 minutes after departing Mid-Continent Airport, Kan., Friday, a 1975 Cessna 500 Citation I carrying California faith healing pastor Ed Dufresne, 72, and his pilot Mitchell Morgan, 49, crashed in a field, killing both men. The aircraft reached an altitude of 16,500 feet before it was lost from radar shortly after 10:15 a.m. […]

Letter of the Week:Me-Too Mooney? News of the imminent resurgence of Mooney spawned two reactions in me. I’m happy that owners of the breed are likely to have a secure supply of spares to keep their birds flying. I have fond memories of a variety of Mooneys. Most of my M-20 time is in a […]

Incoming Mooney president Jerry Chen, a Taiwan native who holds a doctorate in aeronautical engineering, told AVweb Friday he intends to keep the heralded airframe manufacturer in its hometown of Kerrville, Texas. AVweb interviewed Chen at the Chinese International Aviation Convention in Xian, China, where Mooney is exhibiting an Ovation and an Acclaim. Those two […]

This summer, a company called Universal Helicopters was called on to fight fires in Canada using the Bell 407, an aircraft often associated with executive or VIP transport, and AVweb spoke with one of the aircraft’s pilots about his experience. Geoff Goodyear said the aircraft was contracted to serve as a firefighter because clients found […]

AVweb speaks with Universal Helicopters pilot Geoff Goodyear about his experience flying the Bell 407 to fight fires in Canada this summer and the advantages helicopters bring to the task. Duration: File Size: download here

When the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators announced last month it would hold its first pilot-seminar weekend in Texas at the end of October, Redbird Skyport’s $1 avgas was promoted as an extra incentive to attend — but that was before Redbird decided to end the promotion early. But Redbird has announced the offer […]

Vulnerable. Thats essentially how Eric Geisleman and a group of aviation safety researchers described flight crews when it comes to operating transport category flight control systems. Are general aviation pilots just as vulnerable? That’s debatable. One article (Flight Deck Automation: Invaluable Collaborator or Insidious Enabler?)that was published in the July 2013 Ergonomics in Designfocused on […]