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Sixteen people died last week in four GA accidents in the West. Tuesday evening, a medical helicopter from Santa Rosa, Calif., hit a mountain in bad weather, killing the pilot and two nurses on board. Also on Tuesday, a Lear 24B bizjet flying from California to Idaho crashed in the Mojave Desert, killing both pilots. […]

A report yesterday in London’s The Mail on Sunday newspaper — that two light planes loaded with explosives had been seized by authorities at a Saudi Arabian airport — was later denied by authorities. According to The Mail, the aircraft were discovered near Riyadh’s King Khalid airport, and were intended to be used in a […]

Security Concerns Affect Holiday Travel… With this year’s busy holiday travel season coinciding with high security alerts, AOPA is reminding GA pilots to fly with extra care. “Think about how your flight looks to security officials on the ground,” said AOPA’s Andy Cebula. He advised pilots to avoid loitering near facilities such as powerplants and […]

The EAA’s Wright Flyer — the one that everyone saw on the 17th — is now back in Virginia and will be heading for Dearborn, Mich., in a few weeks, to its permanent home at the Henry Ford Museum. It will never fly again. A second copy of the airplane was sponsored by the late […]

Back home in Virginia after the Outer Banks trip, Hyde found some notes written by Wilbur Wright, which eerily predicted the experience of Hyde’s team. On May 5, 1904, Wilbur wrote that he and Orville were working in secret, and “so far we’ve not been subjected to the slightest disturbance from the press.” On May […]

The Wright Flight Nobody Saw… While millions watched on Dec. 17 as the EAA’s Wright Flyer struggled along its rail and failed to get aloft, only a few people were present on Dec. 3, when the aircraft successfully left the ground and flew for more than 100 feet. “We had video of that flight, and […]

While the rest of us are learning this stuff as we go along (sometimes the hard way), at least one aviation school has included a security component in its curriculum. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University now offers a BSc. in Global Security and Intelligence Studies. The course is run in conjunction with aviation-related studies and includes foreign […]

Is the terrorist threat lower here … or does the TSA believe these checks are worthless … or is someone actually standing up for our “freedoms” … or maybe our pilot lobbying groups are just better than theirs? Whatever the case, it’s Australia — not the U.S. — that will have all pilots submit to […]

Banner Towers, DC-3 Affected… Despite some ominous rumors, GA remained (at least through Christmas Eve) relatively unaffected by the increase in the terrorist alert status to Orange, or High — exceptions include a smattering of TFRs chasing the President, a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) for the Chicago lakefront and rules resurrected for Potomac, College Park […]

It’s been almost two years since the FAA published the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that began the process of creating the new aircraft and certificate class. It was originally thought that it would take a year to get to the final rule but ironing out all the new standards and compliance methods took time. Last […]