AVweb Insider

Remember that great closing scene in The Bridges at Toko-Ri where admiral Tarrant, upon contemplating the loss of Brubaker, ruminates, “Where do we get such men?” For all the wrong reasons, I thought of that the other week when I was talking to Dave, one of the local IAs here. While I was fooling with […]

Excuse me, but I think I’m having a moment here. I never really embraced the idea that people, as they age, revert to their teenage selves. But I think it’s happening to me. When I was callow lad of 17, I built myself a hotrod—small-block Chevy, Duntov cam, glasspacks and a succession of gas-guzzling carburation […]

When the investigators get around to completing their probe of the BA 777 fire and evacuation in Las Vegas last week, the look-see into the engine will be interesting enough. But I think I’m going to be just as interested in what they learn about how the evacuation was handled. Specifically, what role did the […]

If you’re a YouTube aviation video junkie, you’ve probably seen this one of what’s called a blade-out test. It’s intended to prove that the containment around a high-bypass turbofan engine can prevent shrapnel from ricocheting outside the engine in the event that the fan loses one or more blades. Or the engine core comes asunder. […]

I’ve been watching Diamond’s autonomous and fly-by-wire research for more than three years now, but I was mildly surprised to learn this week how far they’ve come with it. I wasn’t quite expecting the full autonomous flight tests so soon for light GA aircraft. But we’re there. It makes me wonder who else is doing […]

During the six hours that elapsed between the time I decided to write this blog and my actually pushing the button to publish it, 16 people were killed in fatal auto accidents in the U.S. None were killed by drones, nor probably even nicked. How do I know about the car wrecks? I don’t. I […]

Wisdom and ignorance reside at the opposite ends of the metaphysical spectrum, but of the two, ignorance is by far the more persistent. If you wanted a permanent, one-time-forever paint for your house, you’d make it out of ignorance. Or maybe ignorance is like the tide, for as soon as it recedes, it’ll be back […]

I get a certain perverse pleasure out of fishing for stupidity and not to make light of my fellow aviators’ misfortunes, the Grand Banks of stupidity is found in the NTSB accident database. Here, you will find a vast and ever varied trove of trained, government-certified airmen enlisting the aid of perfectly serviceable airplanes to […]

I don’t know if you bothered to click on the video linkfor yesterday’s coverage of NASA’s crash work on ELT performance. It’s worth watching. But the part I’m most interested in occurs at 1:47. I’ve taken the liberty of re-editing the video and placing it in a viewer here. Note how ineffective the single shoulder […]

The FAA has some serious explaining to do following a tragic accident in Long Island last weekend that killed one person and injured another. As we reported, a Bonanza pilot had engine trouble and the controller vectored him toward a runway at the former Grumman Bethpage airport. Unfortunately, that airport has been closed for some […]