Risk Management

First reports regarding the fatal crash of a Lancair 320 piloted by U.S. pilot David Riggs while flying in northeastern China for a movie state that he was attempting to “waterski” the aircraft across the surface of a lake, on its wheels, in bad weather. Chinese officials said Wednesday that a substantial portion of the […]

Transitioning to your first aircraft that has ice protection equipment beyond a heated pitot tube is a big step for a pilot. Having a full complement of ice protection usually gives pilots warm fuzzy feelings about being able to complete more trips and handle any ice related problems that arise. Unfortunately, the current regulations and […]

Years ago in a sleepy college aircraft economics class, welearned the pecking order of items to consider when acquiringan aircraft. The short list included the usual items of damage history,engine time, avionics, operating costs and a variety of other factorsmaking obvious sense. But one aspect of aircraft acquisition wewerent taught is an issue thats gained […]

A computer security company, TrendMicro, Thursday reported that it has found a particular family of malware gathering information “related to the civil aviation sector.” The company says that the intentions of the latest targeted information gathering are not clear, but the programs are “now being used to gather intelligence about the civil aviation sector in […]

The definition of what it means to be a good pilot may be changing. AVweb speaks with former Northwest captain and Embry-Riddle educator Jack Panosian to explore the question of what’s more important in keeping passengers alive: stick and rudder skills or systems management. Duration: File Size: download here

After two recent high-profile crashes (UPS and Asiana Airlines Flight 214), both involving fatalities, media reports have questioned the role of automation in the cockpit and in the opinion of former Northwest Captain and current Embry Riddle educator Jack Panosian, those concerns may not be unfounded. Panosian told AVweb Thursday that his observation is that […]

A 22-year-old instructor suffered an engine out while flying with his 18-year-old student in a Jabiru J-170 at Victoria Point, Australia, two weeks ago and all ended ruggedly, but well, for the pair in a sequence that was captured by an in-cockpit video recorder. Authorities are investigating the cause of the off-airport landing while onlookers […]

“Would you like to declare an emergency? the controller asked with practiced coolness. Looking at the stopped and feathered left engine on the Cessna 310R Id had for just 10 days, there was only one possible answer: Yes. Moments before, the engine had started vibrating so violently I was afraid it would shake the plane […]

Heres my definition of a bad day: You overhauled your Barons IO-520s a couple of years ago using cylinders from ECI and now the FAA would like you to remove those jugs and replace them with something else. Round it off and call that about $25,000. Thats the basic gist of a proposed airworthiness directive […]

If the world is full of opposites-and I think it is-the opposite of critical thought is group think or herd mentality. Group think is the tendency to go along with whatever new idea or trend comes along because, well, everyone else thinks its a good thing. Its just laziness by another name and were all […]