Stephen Pope

Here’s a very cool video of a P-51 Mustang and F-22 Raptor formation flight that lets the viewer scroll around the screen for an unprecedented 360-degree view of the action. From the camera position in the P-51’s rear seat, viewers can use their mouse (or finger if watching on a touchscreen tablet) to look in […]

Reports of close calls with personal quadracopters and other remotely piloted UAVs are on the rise, with the latest scary story coming from the pilot of a SkyLife medevac helicopter in Fresno, California, who says he came “within about 15 feet” of a drone yesterday afternoon before making a sharp turn to avoid a collision. […]

The FAA has finally had enough. After a sharp rise in close encounters this year between remotely piloted UAVs and commercial aircraft, the agency is now warning drone pilots that they face stiff penalties, criminal charges and even prison time for unauthorized flights. The FAA says there have been 650 reports of UAV sightings by […]

Some pilots aren’t totally sure of the differences between a spin and a spiral dive. That’s OK in the classroom setting when discussing aerodynamic theory, but it can be dangerous in the cockpit should either flight condition be allowed to develop and the pilot doesn’t immediately know what’s going on or the corrective actions to […]

The National Transportation Safety Board released aviation accident statistics for 2014 showing a slight increase in fatal general aviation accidents, which rose from 222 in 2013 to 253 in 2014. The overall number of GA accidents dropped slightly from 1,224 in 2013 to 1,221 in 2014, but the accident rate increased from 6.26 per 100,000 […]

A traffic conflict with a microlight is being considered as a factor in an unstable approach flown by the pilot of an Embraer Phenom 300 that overran the runway at Blackbushe Airport outside London last week, crashing in a fireball and killing the 11,000-hour pilot and three members of Osama Bin Laden’s family. UK accident […]

Just Aircraft, maker of the SuperSTOL bush plane that crashed last week in South Carolina with company co-founder Troy Woodland at the controls, issued a statement blaming the mishap on water contamination in the fuel. The company also heaped praise on the airplane’s steel tube cage for allowing Woodland and a passenger to escape the […]

Just Aircraft cofounder Troy Woodland and a passenger were unhurt in a serious crash of Woodland’s SuperSTOL demonstrator after an apparent engine failure over hilly terrain near the company’s factory in Walhalla, South Carolina. Woodland attempted to land the airplane on a newly built residential street where homes have yet to be constructed, but the […]

A historic World War II Spitfire fighter was damaged in a crash at Biggin Hill Airport outside London this week, but its owners vowed the warbird will fly again after the pilot performed a “textbook” emergency landing. Media outlets reported that pilot Dan Griffith lost power moments after takeoff and managed to put the airplane […]

Crash investigators believe with a “high degree of certainty” that the wing part that washed up on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean last week indeed did come from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 — though they have stopped just short of confirming a definitive positive identification. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced yesterday that […]