Risk Management

Mike Slackfounded the law firm of Slack and Davis, headquartered in Austin with offices in Dallas and Fort Worth,which provided much of the background information for the controversial USA Today story that examined general aviation safety a couple of weeks ago. Slack, an IFR-rated pilot and owner of a turbo 182 and a T-6, told […]

Letter of the Week:USA Today‘s Strategy Only a personal injury lawyer would write a Lettre de Cachet like the black adventure story published in USA Today. My sympathies for their reduced ad revenues and declining circulation. But holding public executions and sensational smear campaigns has never worked for any publication. Even the networks hesitate to […]

Arent we pilots a confident crowd? We are so certain of our flyingskills that its always the other pilot, the below average mope, that people should be worried about. Because, in a time of need, we truly know we will rise to the challenge and our innate aeronautical skills will be there to save ourselves […]

AVweb’s weekly review of the news in aviation revealed a weather research project looking for pilot volunteers, new sunglasses from Scheyden Precision Eyewear, the schedule for the first ICAO Global Aviation Cooperation Symposium and new dates for the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo. Researchers at Purdue, Western Michigan, and Kent State Universities are conducting FAA-sponsored research […]

An extensive report on general aviation safety in USA Today this week doesn’t convey the whole story, says GAMA President Pete Bunce. He took a break from his work in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to talk with AVweb’s Mary Grady about ongoing efforts to build safer airplanes. Duration: 8:47 File Size: 8.0 MB download here

Pilots who live in Florida, and especially on the west coast of Florida, have this problem. Its called the Gulf of Mexico. Nice beaches and all, and warm for nine months a year, but if youre going anywhere west of about 85 degrees longitude, youll have the argument with yourself about cutting the corner across […]

Today, the NTSB released its preliminary accident reporton the May 31, 2014, fatal accident of a Gulfstream G-IV at Hanscom Field, Bedford, Mass.-it stated that although the mechanical control lock was in the off position, the Fight Data Recorder (FDR) indicated the elevator position throughout the event was consistent with the control lock being engaged. […]

The NTSB says that data recovered from the flight data recorder (FDR) a Gulfstream IV jet that was involved in a fatal crash at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., Saturday indicates the crew aborted the takeoff after reaching about 165 knots. The thrust reversers were apparently deployed and brake pressures were rising, according to NTSB […]

If you were asked to describe the great technological challenge of the age, what would it be? Cracking fusion as an energy source? The 1000 wh/kg lithium-ion battery? Cheap turbine engines made of plastic? For me, it would be a flashlight that does what its supposed to for, say, at least a year after purchase. […]

I dont know whether to be shocked, surprised or skeptical of this weeks reports that Customs and Border Protection is re-examining its policies toward stop-and-search of private aircraft. For now, I think Ill go with skeptical. The reasons are several, chief among them being that CBP is a giant, complex and largely opaque bureaucracy of […]