News

COLUMN INDEX Probable Cause #26: Four MinutesFew things demand getting the airplane on the ground more quickly than an in-flight fire. Here’s why.

COLUMN INDEX Pelican’s Perch #83: The Shell ReportShell’s recent Tech Talk has great advice for how to run engines — and some real bloopers.

Gear-up landings make regular appearances on the local news but not many of them involve police using a Taser gun on the volunteers who turn out to help. According to the Fresno Bee, Merced County Sheriffs Department was called to Castle Airport in Atwater, Calif., last Thursday after a report that a Piper Arrow pilot […]

A German paraglider was frostbitten and bruised from being pummeled by orange-sized hail, but lived to tell the tale of being sucked up inside a thunderstorm and spit out at 30,000 feet. Ewa Wisnerska was practicing for a meet in Australia when the storm hit. Another competitor, He Zhongpin of China, was killed in the […]

University of Utah researchers are working on a device, which, if it works, could help prevent one of the most common causes of aircraft fires. Prof. Cynthia Furse and her students are hoping to create a wire fault detector that works while the plane is in the air. During flight, condensation can trigger tiny short […]

AOPA announced last week that U.S. pilots are one step closer to being able to file their medical renewal information online. The FAA has agreed to accept printouts of AOPAs Turbomedical form as long as theyre signed in the presence of an AME or the doctors staff. Turbomedical is described as a medical assistant designed […]

Thirty years after the worst aviation disaster in history, a permanent reminder of the runway collision at Tenerife Airport in the Canary Islands will be erected on a mountain there. The 60-foot steel sculpture entitled De Wenteltrap (means spiral staircase) was created by Dutch artist Rudi van de Wint. It was commissioned by Foundation Relatives […]

The 18th annual Women in Aviation International (WAI) conference closed on a high note Saturday night after the three-day event broke the record books. More than 3,200 attendees packed the exhibit hall at Disney’s Coronado Springs Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., and the association sold 214 booth spaces, up from last year’s 180 spaces. On […]

While some aviation groups say the FAAs current funding proposal will be the end of general aviation as we know it, the lobby organization that is generally credited with its creation says its a good first step. The Air Transport Association, which represents most U.S. airlines, has been pushing for a user pay system to […]

Alaska could become a real-life test bed for technologies anticipated to be part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System under a complex agreement recently (and secretly) signed by the FAA and many of Alaskas aviation groups and companies. The Business Journal of Alaska obtained a copy of the agreement and says it calls for […]