AVweb Insider

Now that the FAA is actively seeking proposed unleaded replacements for 100LL, the covers are about to be removed from what can generously be described as the hard way to solve a problem. Last week, the FAA called for the fuels industry to submit proposed unleaded replacements for avgas by July 1, 2014, after which […]

Let’s say your airplane just came out of annual and the shop hands you a single-line invoice for $9,307 dollars. Nothing is itemized; no parts or labor breakout, no list of what was repaired. Would you pay it? Not just no, but hell no.Yet that’s about what happened when EAA decided last week to knuckle […]

Now that the iPad and tablet-type computers have become all but standard equipment in the cockpit, so are reports of their failures trickling in. I got a note from a former airplane partner last week reporting that a primary app on his tablet failed and wouldn’t restart, killing access to charts and approach plates. How […]

Over the weekend, I spent some time reviewing our poll last week asking, in a time of budget cutbacks, whether EAA should be expected to cover the FAA’s costs of staffing the tower and arrivals during AirVenture this year. A strong majority, almost 60 percent, think the FAA should shoulder the bill, while 22 percent […]

When I was at Aero in Germany in April, one of the head-turner airplanes there was a scale P-51 Mustang LSA proposed by FK Lightplanes. See a video about it here. The reaction to this was interesting to watch and once again demonstrates how pilots love to complain about lack of innovation and then bitch […]

This is supposed to be a blog about FAA customer service, but allow me to digress for a moment. At the tragically young age of six, I was diagnosed with FFPS-form fill-out psychosis syndrome. This manifested itself in the nuns sending notes home to my parents commenting on little Paul’s art and coloring projects being […]

For a number of months now, I’ve been reporting on the November 2009 Norfolk Island ditching of a Westwind jet.The Australian Transportation Safety Board’s investigation of this accident has been widely regarded as a mess, criticized equally by the Australian pilot community, the press and lately, by the country’s Senate. As we reported over the […]

A couple of news stories this week about Virgin Galactic’s progress in putting tourists into space raises the perennial question: Can it made safe? Flying in space will never be truly safe, but then again, flying in the atmosphere is not completely safe, either. There are risks involved any time you accelerate a person to […]

It’s been clear for a long time that the pilot population is in decline, but the reasons why and the ways to change the trajectory seem to be somewhat less clear. Plenty of theories and proposals have been floated, and various advocacy groups have taken aim at the issue, but so far nothing seems to […]

I’m lucky to be here, I’ll tell ya that. The other day, I just about fell out of the open door of the Cub, a mile south of the airport. For months, I’ve been fooling around trying to get a portable radio to work suitable for pattern communications, without success. I’ve been through two Icom […]