News

A malfunctioning router was behind the system-wide slowdown of the air traffic control system last Thursday. The glitch occurred in Salt Lake City at the fortunate hour of about 5 a.m. EST. At that time, the router’s impending failure resulted in the delivery of misinformation about flight paths and weather to controllers. The problem remained […]

Although supplies are limited, Teledyne Continental said this week that it’s beginning to ship replacement valve lifter units to replace several thousand faulty units installed in O-240, O-360, O-470, O-520 and O-550 engines. TCM says “an issue” with a vendor component required the recall of those defective lifters under MSB09-8. The affected lifters are subject […]

Proposed Senate bills in the wake of Northwest Airlines’ October 21 NORDO flight past MSP have some pilots on edge, fearing they may bring about “grotesque consequences,” according to an article published Thursday in USA Today. Because the now notorious Northwest pilots of Flight 188 claimed they had been distracted by laptops, electronic devices in […]

Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to download the video directly. Solar Impulse, the manned aircraft that will attempt to travel nonstop around the world flying day and night on solar energy alone, moved under its own power for the first time last week. […]

The FAA’s flight plan processing automation failed on Thursday morning, causing widespread flight delays and cancellations nationwide. It’s the second time in 15 months that a widespread outage has degraded the agency’s ATC automation, forcing controllers to enter flight data into ARTCC processing systems by hand. FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto told the Wall Street Journal […]

The crew, a medical team, the patient and the patient’s spouse aboard a medical evacuation flight from Samoa to Australia were uninjured after the Pel-Air Westwind jet ditched in the open ocean in weather that prompted the pilot to ditch rather than trying for the airport at Norfolk Island. In a news release Pel-Air Chairman […]

photo by Ralph Pettersen There’s no more dangerous type of word in journalism than the superlative and since aviation is full of the biggest, fastest, oldest, and coolest things on the planet you’d think we’d know better. Our inbox filled Tuesday with readers pointing out that Buffalo Airways does not operate the last C-46 Commandos […]

Owners of older Mooneys now have a new option when it’s time for an engine overhaul. Lycoming recently received the FAA OK to replace the original IO-360 Lycoming engine in Mooney M20E, M20F and M20J models with a new or remanufactured IO-390-A3A6 engine. The engine provides more horsepower as well as improved climb and cruise […]

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last week hosted the first meeting of a new advisory committee on the future of the country’s aviation industry. “This is not going to be just another advisory committee,” LaHood said in his blog post. “I am not commissioning some report to fill space on my bookshelf. This committee will […]

US Airways Capt. Chesley Sullenberger said the new book Fly By Wire, by William Langewiesche, “greatly overstates how much it mattered” that the Airbus A320 he ditched in the Hudson had some automated systems, according to The New York Times. Sullenberger told the Times, “There are some situations where the automation will protect a pilot, […]