Risk Management

Pilots decide to buy their own airplane for a variety of reasons. It could be a business decision, helping ensure cover-age of a relatively wide sales area, or perhaps an aerial photography business. Specialized flight training-like acro, or a quicky instrument rating-also can be a reason. Recreation or personal transportation is yet another. One of […]

The TSA says it’s unlikely security processes at U.S. airports will change much following the shooting at LAX on Friday. The agency said in a statement that“passengers may see an increased presence of local law enforcement officers throughout the country” but there are no immediate plans to arm security staff or change procedures. Meanwhile, 23-year-old […]

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 […]

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

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 […]

New rest rules for pilots approved by the European Parliament Wednesday and now seeking approval of the EU Council of Ministers may face another hurdle — BALPA, a British pilots union, says it is preparing a legal challenge, Express.co.uk reported Thursday. BALPA believes the new rules could create circumstances that would allow for pilots to […]

According to figures release by the FAA, fatal accidents involving aircraft registered in the experimental category fell 25 percent from 2012 to 2013, EAA reported. For 2012, 73 accidents involved fatalities in the category. In 2013, the number dropped to 55. The number of lives lost to accidents was also down, but by a lower […]

Furlough of FAA aviation safety inspectors and NTSB accident investigators may put the country in default of its obligations under an aviation treaty that sets standards for safety for ICAO, former FAA lawyer Loretta Alkalay told Forbes magazine this week. The U.S. failure to approve a federal budget and subsequent partial government shutdown has furloughed […]

Did you know theres a multi-billion dollar industry devoted entirely to sleep disorders? If only they knew that the rock-solid way to bring on the deepest of sleeps is to enroll in a Flight Instructor Refresher Course. Let the serious snoring begin. I know this because Im now in the midst of my tenth or […]