AVweb Insider

When a link to that video of the Liberty Foundation’s B-17 blazing away in a field near Aurora, Illinois arrived yesterday, I immediately suffered that sinking feeling that all of us have when seeing a crash that could involve loss of life. Happily, that wasn’t the case. But my relief was short-lived when I realized […]

Imagine driving home when you hear your name on the radio: “…and our next caller is looking for Michael Harris, license BFG-277. He just passed the Kennedy tollbooth, and three minutes ago a traffic camera spotted him on Broadway. He’s made this trip every evening for 10 years – home, to 1020 Bell Street…… On […]

With avgas sustaining above $5 a gallon, there’s a certain mindless comfort in reading news reports that imply that biofuels, when scaled up, will be half the price. A couple of recent developments might encourage this thinking (or not), but I think it’s worth planting the seed of permanent skepticism.Pixeling into my inbox today was […]

Following last week’s blog on fatal accident stats, Dan Gryder sent me a note offering a theory on stall-related fatalities. His view is that one reason for these otherwise inexplicable fatalities is that as part of the standard training regime, most private pilots aren’t instructed to detect and respond to loss of thrust on takeoff-basically […]

At last month’s Society of Aviation and Flight Educators symposium in Atlanta, we spent a lot of time talking about the overall GA fatal rate of accidents, but not much time was spent on the specifics of the accidents themselves. So in this blog, I’m examining one year’s worth of fatal accidents. The included chart […]

Trying to make sense of where the aviation fuel market is going can make your head hurt, and we in the aviation press often don’t help. Specifically, we continue to perpetuate the idea that Swift Fuel is a “green” renewable when, in fact, the company has plainly said that’s just one possibility. Herewith are two […]

Is it time to eliminate the Third Class medical requirement? Reader Steve Waechter wrote me last week to remind me that I promised to lend support to this idea. So I’m following up to do just that. But to tell you the truth, I’m not as sure about this as others seem to be. As […]

This weekend is the second International Learn to Fly Day, an effort to find more pilots to add to the long-dwindling ranks. The numbers of general aviation pilots have been in decline for quite a while now, as the younger generations seem more and more distracted by too many other ways to spend their time […]

In this week’s verdict on the collision between a GOL 737 and an Embraer Legacy, the Brazilian government proved that its justice system couldn’t untangle itself from its internal politics after all. As we reported this week, the court convicted Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino of negligence, claiming the two turned off or failed […]

The other day, as I was trying to get a couple of lead balance weights to stick to the rear wheel of my motorcycle, I should have said a silent prayer. Not to get them to stick, but in gratitude for living in Florida where we can still touch lead. I guess that’s no longer […]