Stephen Pope

A New Jersey couple is lucky to be alive after ditching their single-engine Piper Cherokee Six in the frigid Hudson River on Sunday night about five miles north of the George Washington Bridge. Yonkers police officers responded to 911 calls by boat, rescuing the couple about 20 minutes after the airplane went into the water. […]

The NTSB on Thursday said the Boeing 787 Dreamliner battery that caught fire earlier this month in Boston shows evidence of thermal runaway, a serious condition in which an increase in temperature causes progressively hotter temperatures. Still unclear is the question of which occurred first, the thermal runaway or a short circuit in the battery […]

Renowned aerobatic champion Kirby Chambliss walked away from the crash of his Red Bull Zivko Edge 540 on Wednesday after suffering an engine failure while practicing for an airshow in El Salvador. Preparing for the upcoming Ilopango Air Show scheduled for this weekend, Chambliss was in formation with fellow airshow pilot Skip Stewart when the […]

Most all of us keep detailed logbooks recording the numbers of hours we’ve flown as PIC in the various aircraft types we frequent. Another type of record you might consider keeping is a “lessons learned” log that includes not just the basics of how long you flew and where you went but also a detailed […]

The FAA and EASA have temporarily grounded the U.S. and European fleets of Boeing 787s after a second incident involving a battery fire forced a Dreamliner to make an emergency landing in Japan on Wednesday. The FAA said Boeing would have to demonstrate that the lithium ion batteries involved were safe before 787 flights could […]

An AgustaWestland AW109 crashed in thick fog into a construction crane atop a London residential high-rise on Wednesday morning, killing the pilot and one person on the ground and sparking a fire when the helicopter plunged to the ground. According to news reports from London, 13 others were injured in the crash near a busy […]

The plight of the glider pilot who was arrested for overflying a nuclear powerplant in violation of zero federal or local laws reminds me of another instance in which overzealous police overstepped their bounds after a pilot did exactly what he was supposed to be doing. It happened on New Year’s Eve in 2003. My […]

Recognizing that pilots’ stick-and-rudder skills may be atrophying in an increasingly high-tech world, the FAA has issued a new safety alert for operators (SAFO) reminding crew members to continuously maintain and improve their hand-flying skills by switching off the autopilot every once in awhile. An analysis of flight operations data including several incidents and accidents […]

Garmin today introduced a series of VHF comm and navcom radios that redefine what the modern aviation transceiver can and should be. The GTR 225 and GNC 255 series stand-alone radios replace Garmin’s SL 30 and SL 40 units with a modern take on the trusty VHF navcom by including features like automatic frequency lookup […]

Eclipse Aerospace has submitted a proposal for a U.S. Air Force request to supply a “large fleet” of very light jets (VLJ) for use as basic trainers. The Air Force is seeking to replace its 20-year-old fleet of business jets to support its Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT) Multi-Place Training Track. Cost will be a […]