AVweb’s Flight Safety section offers in-depth coverage of aviation safety topics, including accident analyses, risk management strategies, regulatory updates, and pilot training insights. Designed for pilots, instructors, and aviation professionals, this section provides timely information to enhance situational awareness and promote best practices in flight operations.
Much of aviation involves black and white decision-making; we have to do many of the tasks we do in a closely prescribed way or risk dying. There is no appeal or plea bargain for violation of a law of aerodynamics. If we are in a single-engine airplane and the engine quits under about 500 feet […]
After a tremendously successful Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) Assisted Special Issuance (AASI) program for Third-Class medical certificates, the FAA’s chief physician, Federal Air Surgeon Jon Jordan, M.D., recently decided to expand the program to include Second- and First-Class medicals. This is great news, both for AMEs who have spent a lot of time with their […]
I spend an awful lot of time trying to explain how the system is supposed to work. Those explanations are often at odds with what people have experienced first-hand. This leaves a lot of people confused. It just leaves me frustrated.But no matter how conscientious we are, things can and do go wrong. As a […]
This is the seventh in a series of excerpts that began with Chapter One. Chapter Thirteen: Crosswind Circuits A very stiff breeze was blowing as I drove out to Dairy Flat, but I have given up hope of finding an ideal piece of weather for a lesson. I try to hold on to the thought […]
No one wants to fail when taking an exam, least of all a checkride for a pilot certificate. But there are some easy-to-learn ways of making sure that you pass your test on the first try, including how you train, what you study, whether your paperwork is in order and finally whether you can actually […]
A couple of months ago we got into an extended discussion of emergencies here in the Pilot’s Lounge at the virtual airport as a result of a gear-up landing gone seriously wrong. The column that evolved generated a fair amount of comment, including one from Dr. Alex Aimette, who has taught surgery for some years […]
AVweb’s Rick Durden recently corresponded with a surgery instructor who described one of the methods he used to teach new surgeons: He had them write down everything that could go wrong during an upcoming operation and then set out what should be done to deal with each anomaly. When he became a pilot, Dr. Aimette […]
Dodging airborne 737s is one thing, but dodging airborne Chevy Trailblazers is a totally different situation. As usual, the drive to the airport proved to be much more dangerous than the flying trip. I had avoided a major roadway boning on the way to work and was still a little shook up about it as […]
A number of readers were unable to view the images associated with thedestruction of a C-130 that touched down at night on a runway that was (unbeknownst to the crew) undergoing a facelift. So we’ve stripped out the images and made them available online, for the benefit of those readers who can’t view them in […]
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), in coordinationwith the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Air Force RapidCapabilities Office, is conducting a series of tests through Jan. 20of a ground-based low-intensity Visual Warning System in the NationalCapital Region. The system being tested is intended to warn pilots who are violatingthe Air Defense Identification Zone […]
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