Flight Safety

During the ’80s, while with Mugu Approach, a controller asked an aircraft “to state position.” Pilot came back: “Fiscally conservative. Socially, somewhat liberal. Two miles west of Point Dume.” Greg Andrewsvia e-mail

AVweb’s “FBO of the Week” ribbon goes toCirrus Aviationat McMinnville Municipal Airport (KMMV) in McMinnville, Oregon). ReaderDaryl Medd(and several other members of the organization) told us how Cirrus Aviation stepped up to make the 2013 Cessna Pilots Society gathering a smooth, trouble-free celebration: The fine folks at Cirrus Aviation were there making sure all the […]

As I mentioned in Sundays blog, the Asiana crash in San Francisco on Saturday was unusual for being unusual. There just arent many Part 121 crashes these days. But its unusual for another reason: the NTSB is making effective use of social media, specifically Twitter, to pass on snippets of information as they become available. […]

Nine passengers and the pilot aboard a de Havilland Otter air taxi died when the aircraft reportedly crashed on takeoff at the airport in Sodotna, AK late Sunday morning. The aircraft burned before firefighters could reach it. The airplane reportedly belonged to Rediske Air, of Nikiski, AK and may have been an Otter converted to […]

A pilot aboard Asiana Flight 214 called for a go-around 1.5 seconds before the tail of the aircraft struck a seawall off the end of Runway 28L and San Francisco International Airport Saturday morning. At a news conference Sunday, NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said the cockpit voice recorder also recorded a crew member calling for […]

On Saturday afternoon, I was grinding away on the cross trainer at my local gym watching CNN try cover the Asiana crash at San Francisco. I say “try” because reporters with absolutely no meaningful information were attempting to fill air time. Nothing new about that. For the hour or so that I watched the coverage, […]

The CEO of Asiana Airlines has ruled out technical issues with the aircraft involved in Saturday’s landing accident in San Francisco. “For now, we acknowledge that there were no problems caused by the 777-200 plane or (its) engines,” Yoon Young-doo said at a news conference in Seoul Sunday. Yoon would not be drawn into blaming […]

Solar Impulse may be racing weather as it takes off on the final leg of its so-far successful flight across the U.S. The solar-powered aircraft, which has flown from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., over the last few months, is scheduled to leave Dulles Airport for JFK in New York early Saturday. Pilot Andre Borschberg […]

A documentary filmmaker says the NTSB got it wrong (or was told to get it wrong) in its findings in the explosion and crash of a TWA Boeing 747 off Long Island in 1996. The NTSB is standing by its conclusion that a spark from wiring in a fuel tank downed the aircraft, not a […]

I’ve been an avionics tech long enough to remember when the extent of new avionics upgrades included a couple of flip-flop Navcomm radios and an audio panel. Even back then, some owners stumbled with otherwise simple switchology. Worse case was a missed radio call. Things have changed. Today’s avionics upgrades usually involve tightly integrated glass […]