Rob Mark

The U.S. Department of Transportation recently announced a new FAA rule in the Federal Register created to enhance the professional development of pilots operating at Part 121 and Part 135 commercial carriers. A DOT news release announcing the effort said, “All captains are now required to receive leadership and command training, as well as mentoring […]

The 350 pilots and other employees of St. Louis-based Trans States Airlines have been on the edge of their seats following announcements last year, such as the cancellation of the company’s order for 50 Mitsubishi regional jets because of scope-clause concerns, or that sister company Compass Airlines last year lost a major contract for flying […]

The Flight School Association of North America is worried about the backlog of applicants nationwide still waiting for their check rides to prove they meet the FAA standards for a given pilot certificate. FSNA said last week in a news release that, “This backlog is affecting the pilot production pipeline nationwide. Waits for practical test […]

NASA plans to uses the new Artemis program to land the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024 to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. Artemis is also the first manned mission away from earth in decades. Of course, being a piloted program, NASA realizes it’s going to need […]

On February 18, uAvionix introduced a new ADS-B transponder–the tailBeaconX–to its general aviation and urban air mobility product lineup. The tailBeaconX is a LED rear position-light replacement incorporating a 1090MHz Mode S (ES) ADS-B Out transponder, satellite based augmentation system (SBAS), global positioning system (GPS) position source, and dipole antenna. Like the earlier the skyBeacon […]

One highlight of last fall’s NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas was the media extravaganza created when Gulfstream Aerospace unveiled a mockup of its newest airplane, the G700, an ultra-long-range business jet able to fly as many as eight passengers up to 7,500 nm. The Vegas stage built to Gulfstream’s specification at Henderson Executive Airport included five […]

A Cirrus SR22T, N288WT, on January 27, 2020, crashed in mountainous terrain about five miles northeast of Aspen, Colorado (ASE), not long after takeoff. Both occupants, a couple from Verona, Wisconsin, near Madison, survived the mid-morning crash without injury after the pilot activated the aircraft’s ballistic parachute system. Rick Beach, safety chairman at the Cirrus […]

The National Transportation Safety Board on Friday published a number of details the board has gathered from ADS-B tracking data, ground-based video camera footage and witnesses since the January 26 crash of a Sikorsky S76, N72EX, in the hilly terrain near Calabasas, California. The flight, operated under Part 135 by Island Express Helicopters Inc., was […]

Ever wondered how to convince a young person of the thrill, the fun, and the unbelievable personal and professional exhilaration they might experience should they aim their sights on a career in aviation? In a world often overrun with handheld technology spewing endless streams of social media content that doesn’t seem to fully answer that […]

Investigators at the site of the January 26 crash of a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter—which claimed the lives of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his young daughter and seven others—said the aircraft missed clearing the hill it struck near Calabasas, California, by some 30 feet. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Bill English made a point during a […]