Stephen Pope

The FAA is warning pilots flying in the Southeast that ADS-B and TCAS traffic avoidance technology will be disrupted the entire month of September from Virginia to Florida because of “military activities.” The National Business Aviation Association is complaining that such testing needs to be preceded by more warning. The FAA’s NOTAM on the signal […]

Van’s Aircraft has shipped the 1,000th RV-12 kit, making it one of the most successful light sport aircraft to hit the market since its introduction in 2008. Van’s said it has shipped 937 RV-12 kit empennage packages, plus a number of fly-away S-LSA RV-12s built at the company factory in Oregon. More than 400 RV-12s […]

So far it’s unconfirmed, but the FAA is taking seriously a report that a Piper twin was involved in a midair collision with a UAV over northern Illinois on August 27. Maybe we should be calling it a UFO, since the FAA’s incident report refers to a collision between the Piper Apache and an “unidentified […]

Over the last few days I’ve been getting a lot of advice from a lot of people who I would say are a lot smarter than me and who have a lot more experience, in aviation and in life. It’s gratifying to know there are accomplished folks who are willing to take the time to […]

Embraer’s Legacy 450 business twinjet received FAA type certification yesterday, three weeks after notching its Brazilian approval. With the certification papers in hand, Embraer Executive Jets plans to start customers deliveries as early as next month. The “mid-light” Legacy 450 is the first in its category with full fly-by-wire technology and side-stick flight controls, which […]

We explain the popularity of seaplanes in New England’s most inaccessible state.

The XTI TriFan 600, a conceptual three-rotor vertical takeoff and landing airplane now in the early developmental stage, would be easy to dismiss as just another fantasy of well-intentioned aviation dreamers. Until you realize who those dreamers are. The new XTI Aircraft based in Denver is headed by a veteran leadership team that includes Jeff […]

The most recent general aviation safety report from AOPA’s Air Safety Institute shows an “unprecedented” decrease in non-commercial airplane accidents, dropping below 1,000 annually for the first time. It’s tempting to correlate the drop in GA fixed-wing accidents with a reduction in overall flight hours, but FAA estimates show that the safety improvement notched noteworthy […]

Plan your flights on your desktop or laptop computer, automatically sync them to ForeFlight Mobile on your tablet and then use ForeFlight Connect to sync directly with your avionics in the cockpit. That’s the vision ForeFlight’s creators have for their flight planning subscription service with new web browser capability now in beta testing. Whether they […]

Thankfully midair collisions are rare, but when they do occur they’re usually fatal. As you probably know already, see-and-avoid techniques remain the foundation of avoiding midair collisions when flying VFR, but there are other precautions you as pilot in command can take to reduce your risk of tangling with other traffic inflight. A rash of […]