Recent Updates

More than 2,000 FAA inspectors and engineers furloughed due to the partial government shutdown that began on Dec. 22 have been recalled to work, according to an FAA statement made on Tuesday. The latest revision of the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) plan for operations during the shutdown (PDF) now categorizes a total of 3,113 Aviation […]

A friend used to delight in telling a joke about the Georgia State Patrol officer who pulls over a couple of rednecks in a pickup, taps his nightstick on the driver’s window then reaches in and pummels the guy for two minutes. “Why’d you do that?” complains the driver. The officer explains one should never […]

The flight was delayed but not enough to cause us any difficulty so my son and I were pretty receptive to the pleasant surprise that lay at the end of the bridge at the new gate. We and about 150 slightly inconvenienced fellow passengers were put on an A330 instead of the A320 we were […]

The last scheduled passenger flight of a Boeing 727 was reportedly conducted Jan.12 by Iran Aseman Airlines. The aircraft, a relatively new Boeing 727-200 Advanced (it was built in 1977), flew as EP851 on a domestic flight from Zahedan to Tehran. The low-key final flight marked the end of a remarkable 55-year run for the […]

A GoFundMe campaign aimed at supplying groceries and gas money for local air traffic controllers not receiving pay during the partial government shutdown has been suspended by its founder due to the potential for ethics violations. Hearing that some controllers were struggling after missed paychecks, general aviation pilot Graeme Smith started the GoFundMe campaign on […]

In the airline and military realm, fly-by-wire control has become old hat but because of expense and certification complexity, the technology hasn’t trickled down to light aircraft general aviation. Some in the industry, however, believe that digital control architecture and the enhanced stability it can offer might make airplanes easier to fly and would thus […]

Textron Aviation has announced that it will be offering improved flight deck capabilities for 2019 Cessna and Beechcraft piston models. According to the company, the upgraded features include new standard and optional equipment as part of Garmin’s G1000 NXi next-generation flight deck and are designed to provide “enhanced control and connectivity in the cockpit.” Along […]

More than two months after the crash of a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX off Indonesia, divers have recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the seabed. The recorder was dug out from beneath 26 feet of mud on the floor of the Java Sea. The aircraft dove at high speed into 100 feet of water […]

Fifteen people died when a Boeing 707 cargo plane overran the runway in bad weather at Fath Airport in Karaj, near Tehran, went through a perimeter fence and buried its nose in a house. Only a flight engineer survived. No one on the ground was injured. The old airliner shed most of its parts as […]