AVweb Insider

The stuck mic is an occupational hazard unique to aviation. Even the baristas at Starbucks are miked up these days, but at least their foibles aren’t broadcast to an entire universe of fellow professionals and recorded for the entire world to hear, as was that Southwest skipper’sadolescent rant that hit the mainstream media this week. […]

Even in Paris, the most romantic city on Earth, romance seems scarce in this harsh and angry age. The historic airfield at Le Bourget may conjure up memories of the adventure of flight, from Lindbergh’s landing after crossing the Atlantic, to the launch of the Concorde. But at the big international air show taking place […]

Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to download the video directly. Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to download the video directly. This being the centennial of U.S. Naval aviation, I expect we’ll […]

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 […]