Multimedia

We’re a fan of physicist Scott Manley’s spaceflight-focused YouTube channel. Now that he’s working on his private certificate he has discovered certain … umm … anomalies in the way instructors explain things. This includes the deadly blackhole of why wings generate lift. Even he punts on this one, referring to channels with aerodynamicists who don’t […]

In this brief video, AOPA Air Safety Institute’s Richard McSpadden runs through the likely scenarios that resulted in the June 4, 2023, crash of a Citation in Virginia southwest of Washington, D.C. The pilot became unresponsive and F-16s dispatched to intercept the flight observed him slumped in the pilot seat. Two scenarios seem likely: The […]

Basic Med went into effect in May 2017 with high hopes. A recent FAA analysis of the program reveals that some 40,000 pilots have taken advantage of it. But the report also shows that Basic Med hasn’t really revitalized aviation in ways that some of hoped for. Veteran Aviation Medical Examiner Bill Blank wrote a […]

Pilots are often nervous about flying into or around airports with skydiving operations. There’s really no need to be, as Paul Bertorelli explains in this AVweb video. Just avoid the airport by three or four miles on the downwind side when transitioning and don’t overfly a dropzone airport if you’re landing there. Just fly a […]

Students of space history will remember that Apollo 12’s most memorable claim to fame was being struck by lightning during the launch phase. Yet the mission carried on was considered a success. Less successful was NASA’s trajectory of the S-IVB third stage. It was supposed to be sent into a distant solar orbit but because […]