The event perhaps most demonstrative of what can happen as an aircraft ages occurred on April 28, 1988, over Hawaii. Thats when an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737-200 operating in scheduled passenger service as Flight 243 between Hilo and Honolulu lost part of its cabin roof while in cruise at FL240. The crew successfully landed the airplane after diverting to Maui. Of the 89 passengers and six crewmembers aboard, there was one fatality-a flight attendant who was swept overboard during the decompression event.

A long-time pilot-friend of ours tells a story about his first check ride for the commercial certificate. Everything was going relatively well until the examiner asked him to perform the eights on pylons maneuver. His response was something along the lines of, Yes sir, thank you, sir, and what altitude would you like, sir? The examiner ended the check ride and told him to come back after talking with his instructor about pivotal altitude. When he did, he learned that the correct pivotal altitude for a given groundspeed allows a banked line of sight from the cockpit directly parallel to the lateral axis of the aircraft to the pylon, a stationary object on the ground. Our friend went on to be one of the first pilots to fly the Airbus A300 in the U.S., for Eastern Airlines.

The SAIB is focused on ELTs from ACR Electronics, Inc. (ACR, formerly Artex Aircraft Supplies, Inc., and Chelton Avionics, Inc.), models G406-4, C406-1, C406-1HM, C406-2, C406-2HM, C406-N and C406-NHM. According to the agency, these ELTs may not transmit alert and location signals in the case of an accident involving an aircraft to which they are mounted due to an inoperative or a deteriorated G-switch. The SAIB states that an ELT mounted in a high-vibration environment, for example in the tail of a helicopter, could have its acceleration sensor deteriorate after having been subjected to high levels of shock and vibration for five years or more. The new SAIB recommends best practices for the inspection, modification and replacement of these ACR ELTs located in high-vibration environments. In our view, these recommendations can be applied to similar ELTs from other vendors.

Everything we do in life carries risk. An undesired outcome often is influenced by factors we cant control-someone running a stop sign, for example, or a perfectly good engine deciding to fail. But many other risks of a specific activity can be anticipated. Its why we wear a helmet when riding a bicycle, or earn our instrument rating if we regularly fly an airplane beyond the traffic pattern. Serving as a pilot in command offers many ways to increase our risks, but it also brings opportunities to mitigate them.

When we first learned of the breadth of the detonation problem, we contacted XP-400 engine owners and paid to have them ship their engines to our facility for evaluation, Superiors Bill Ross told sister publication Kitplanes. We disassembled, inspected and tested the key components in each engine, he said, but even after adjusting the ignition timing specification, the results were still unsatisfactory. In response, the company decided to ground affected engines and create a buyback program.

The first evidence of a retractable landing gear design was in Europe circa 1911, but a working example didnt show up on aircraft until after WWI. As airplanes got heavier and faster, meanwhile, airport infrastructure-which mainly consisted of an open field and a windsock- couldnt keep up. As a result, some of the fastest airplanes in the 1920s and 1930s were seaplanes, even with the aerodynamic drag their floats imposed. By the time WWII erupted, the latest airplanes were equipped with retractable landing gear, even if in a conventional, taildragging configuration. Still, many long-range, multi-engine airliners of the day were seaplanes.

Last year was a good one for general aviation manufacturers. According to the airframers trade association, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), global airplane shipments increased 4.7 percent in 2018, to 2443. Billings-what you and I pay for a new aircraft-increased 1.5 percent, from $20.2 billion to $20.6 billion. Meanwhile, worldwide rotorcraft shipments also rose-by 5.4 percent-from 926 to 976 units. The only disappointment in the year-end was that rotorcraft billings decreased slightly, by 0.7 percent, possibly reflecting growing demand for less-expensive training helicopters.

the fact sheet suggests. Finally

UDRI’s test was conducted “at a higher speed than the combined maximum speed of the drone and airplane

If your heading matches a value in the top half of the OBS, then you have correct sensing and To/From indications.