AVweb Insider

I’ve been covering and writing about businesses of various kinds for a long time and I’m trying to recall if executives always coveted buzz phrases they way they do now. Probably they have, but I just found it less obnoxious when I was younger. (Now, everything is obnoxious. Didn’t I warn you about being on […]

I’m up early every morning and my normal sweep of the overnight aviation news turned up that stunning video of the ATR crash in Taipei. Even in my pre-caffeinated state, the video practically lifted me out of my chair. My brain couldn’t quite parse what my eyes were seeing. And now, what I think all […]

I think most of us follow aviation record attempts with interest varying from not at all to enough dedication to bookmark the inevitable website tracking the breathless progress across the heavens. It has always been thus. I suspect a lot of people opening newspapers on May 21, 1927, wondered why the editors were bannering the […]

Last Sunday’s Cirrus ditching off Hawaii was so well documented via video that it has raised some interesting questions about how the CAPS system performed. Not the least of these was that seemingly interminable nosedown moment after the initial deployment. Did that take longer than it was supposed to? Not really, according to Boris Popov […]

I’m figuring at the very least, CPO Kurt Fredrickson and PO2 Tara Molle deserve a nice fruit basket and future Christmas cards from Cirrus. In the course of their normal duties, these two Coast Guard NCOs delivered promotional gold for Cirrus when they edited a stunning video of the Cirrus SR22 ditching off Maui on […]

I bet the Maalox was gurgling away at 800 Independence Ave. on Monday when the news broke that the Secret Service found an errant drone on the White House grounds. Fortunately, the impending blizzard that’s going to kill everyone in the northeast pushed the story below the fold, but I’m sure the FAA phones were […]

I was doing some video shooting at the Sport Aviation Expo on Saturday when an AVweb reader approached me to say hello. It wasn’t long before our conversation devolved into an arm-waving, spittle-flying moment of high dudgeon. We weren’t arguing, but agreeing that the FAA’s baffling announcement that it was withdrawing the tiny little baby […]

Well, I think we can safely kiss good-bye any hope of meaningful changes to the third class medical requirements for private pilots. I base that theory on the nasty note AOPA President Mark Baker sent to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx last week on the topic. (PDF) But what I can’t figure out is which is […]

Since I’m not the guy for writing apologias for anything, I have to be honest about this: Every year I walk through the main gate at Sebring’s Sport Aviation Expo, I wonder if this show has enough economic momentum to survive for another year. For those accustomed to the size and energy of Oshkosh or […]

Fresh into an all-New Year, it’s tempting to hope that somehow, this year things will be different. The old traps and habits and flaws of the past will fade away, as transient as champagne bubbles and confetti, and life will be shiny and new. Yet a few weeks later we find ourselves back in our […]