Rob Mark

Before aviator and businessman-explorer Steve Fossett died in 2007, the Perlan I stratospheric glider’s record flight above 50,000 convinced him and his partners, NASA test pilot Einar Enevoldson and meteorologist Elizabeth Austin, that higher altitudes were certainly possible. In the next month or so, the pressurized Perlan 2 plans to make the team’s dream of […]

Yesterday, the FAA’s Part 107 small UAS rule took effect, essentially eliminating the need for commercial drone operators to file time-consuming exemption paperwork to use their machines, as long as pilots abide by Part 107, of course. The agency’s explanation yesterday of efforts to minimize risk to people on the ground and in the air […]

The new airman certification standards (ACS) unveiled in June were created to update elements of the private pilot and the instrument rating knowledge exams, both of which were often riddled with outdated or confusing questions that did little to evaluate an applicant’s decision-making or risk-management skills. Along the way, the ACS morphed into a systematic […]

Operators of drones weighing more than half a pound need to earn an FAA remote pilot certificate. The only exception is recreational operators. The FAA begins accepting applications for the new Part 107 remote pilot certificate August 29. The agency’s recreation versus commercial operator decision tree should get applicants headed in the right direction. Remote […]

While the use of tablet computers as portable electronic flight bags (EFB) has certainly cut down on the paper most pilots carry with them these days, one item that hasn’t changed in the move to electronic charting is the symbology displayed on those charts. No EFB in the world will help a pilot who doesn’t […]

Pilots familiar with OpenAirplane, the service that created a universal rental-pilot system, will see FlyOtto, a new Web-based charter booking service, as a no-brainer. But FlyOtto creators Rod Rakic and Adam Fast wanted to focus FlyOtto on people who don’t know the first thing about chartering an airplane. Rakic told Flying, “People using FlyOtto may […]

Mention pilot shortage these days and most people assume some segment of the airline industry is facing dwindling numbers. But the U.S. Air Force said recently it too is having trouble finding enough good people to fly its aircraft. Unlike the regional airline segment, however, the USAF already knows they’re going to be about 700 […]

A new FAA order — specifically JO 7110.65, paragraph 5-7-1 — may leave some pilots wondering if they’ve misunderstood ATC’s instructions when they’re asked to fly airspeeds such as 255 or 195 knots, speeds all calculated in 5-knot increments. At or above FL 240, crews can expect Mach number instructions in 0.01 increments for turbojet […]

The FAA has selected teams from the University of Oklahoma and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) to lead the new Air Transportation Center of Excellence focused on Technical Training and Human Performance (COE TTHP). The COE will conduct technical training research and development for air traffic controllers, aviation safety inspectors, engineers, pilots and technicians, as well […]

While the GA community is certainly optimistic at hearing the 25th annual Nall Report’s announcement of a positive improvement in GA’s fatal fixed-wing accident rate, one positive year can’t quite be called an industry trend. Using 2013 data, GA’s fatal rate declined 19 percent, for the first time falling below 1.0, to 0.99 per 100,000 […]