Rob Mark

The FAA is still struggling to find enough qualified people to staff air traffic control facilities around the country, according to a DOT report released yesterday. Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), called the staffing situation a crisis, claiming controller numbers stand at their lowest level in 27 years. The […]

An Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) composed of both aviation and medical experts, working in conjunction with commercial airlines and pilots’ unions, will strive to create a holistic approach to improving pilot mental health evaluations, in part by encouraging voluntary reporting of pilot mental health issues. “While some conditions automatically disqualify someone from flying, many pilots […]

As notam warnings for potential GPS interference continue for flight operations during portions of June near the U.S. Navy’s China Lake Air Warfare Center in the western Mojave Desert, the FAA on Saturday alerted operators to a specific threat, one the agency said could affect flight-stability controls for Embraer Phenom 300 aircraft. The agency said […]

Although millions of people have seen Chicago from the air each year flying into O’Hare, Midway or a half dozen GA airports, only a handful have been lucky enough to capture a glimpse of the Windy City with the wind blowing across their faces in the front seat of a 1930s-era Stearman biplane. Eight lucky […]

The pilot of an Embraer Phenom 100 failed to turn on either the jet’s engine anti-ice or structural de-ice system during the last 15 minutes of a December 8, 2014, instrument approach despite flying in known icing conditions. The pilot also selected an approach airspeed that was too slow for flight in ice, according to […]

Williams International’s new FJ33-5A turbofan engine on Monday was awarded its FAA Part 33 type certificate. The company used what it learned in development of the earlier FJ44-3AP and FJ44-4A powerplants to give the new FJ33-5A more than 2,000 pounds of thrust, improved fuel economy and a better than 6-to-1 thrust-to-weight ratio. The FJ33-5A — […]

When the NBAA’s single-pilot working group, an offshoot of the association’s well-known safety committee, met in person for the first time 18 months ago, its goal was simple: bring together whatever resources it could muster to help stem the rising accident rate for people operating airplanes for business with themselves as the only pilot. The […]

Owners of pre-NG Pilatus PC-12s hankering to upgrade their airplane’s original P&W PT-6 engine, can now add a Hartzell five-blade composite swept-tip propeller when the work is completed by Broomfield, Colorado-based Finnoff Aviation. The upgraded prop, now standard on new PC-12s, is 5 pounds lighter than the original aluminum four-blade Hartzell standard on nearly 800 […]

When the National Transportation Safety Board agreed to take part in a Smithsonian Channel series about aircraft accident investigation, chairman Christopher Hart and other members of the staff never expected their day-to-day work to become a topic of conversation to members of Congress. But Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and the Senate Appropriations Committee recently demanded […]

There seems to be no holding back Embraer’s expansion of its Melbourne, Florida, manufacturing home, as the company opened an expanded Legacy 450/500 business jet production facility on June 2. The site originally opened in 2011 as the final assembly location for the Phenom 100 and 300 family of jets. This week’s ribbon cutting added […]