Risk Management

The NTSB issued a Safety Alert (PDF) on Friday reminding general aviation pilots they should calculate weight and balance before every flight. Between 2008 and 2016, the board said, incorrect or neglected performance calculations were cited as a probable cause in 136 GA accident reports. In one-third of those accidents, people died. “Overloading aircraft or […]

An effort to change the current certification rules for airline pilots through legislation has stalled, but an “administrative fix” could still come to pass, according to a report this week in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill news site. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said he will drop […]

The pilot of a helicopter that autorotated into New York’s East River Sunday evening told investigators that one of the passenger’s bags may have inadvertently bumped the emergency fuel shutoff. The AS350 reported engine failure before it autorotated into the river, appearing to touch down on skid-mounted floats. The pilot, 33-year-old Richard Vance, was the […]

 Editors Note: This article originally ran in our sister publication,IFRmagazine in the June 1998 issue to recognize the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. With the 70th anniversary approaching, and with the passing of so many of the veterans who acted courageously to supply the citizens of Berlin, we are running it again to […]

A new report this month from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) says the Federal Aviation Administration lacked effective management controls over the “project level agreements (PLAs)—an internal control mechanism for documenting the agreed-upon work and managing project execution” for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). This program was implemented to meet the […]

Red Bull Air Race selected the VectorNav VN-300 Dual Antenna GNSS-Aided Inertial Navigation System (INS) as the primary source of aircraft telemetry data for the Master Class raceplanes participating in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship. The February inaugural event of the 2018 season saw the VN-300 used for the first time in all […]

At first glance, many readers might think general aviation is as far removed from helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) operations as east is from west. However, there are more similarities than meets the eye, especially when it comes to safety. Let’s have a look at what we, as general aviation IFR pilots, have in common […]

Loss of control continues to be the leading cause of general aviation fatalities, and the NTSB is working to change that. On April 24, the board will host a meeting of experts to discuss the problem and explore solutions. The program, set for April 24 in Washington, D.C., will comprise three roundtable sessions on pilot […]

I just pulled down from a dusty shelf in my office a plaque awarded to me for an important aviation achievement. It was presented to me personally by none other than famed flight test pilot and Collier Trophy winner Scott Crossfield. More on that in a moment. The reason I retrieved it relates to something […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine and is published twice a month. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause in the NTSB’s web site at www.ntsb.gov. Final […]