Stephen Pope

The United Airlines fleet is back in the air after a sudden computer glitch yesterday grounded its airplanes worldwide, impacting nearly 5,000 flights. United issued a statement blaming the problem on “a network connectivity issue this morning,” and apologizing to customers for any inconvenience. Later Wednesday, Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said United’s outage was […]

The aviation world hasn’t witnessed this type of intrigue in 106 years — at least as far as an English Channel crossing is concerned. Seeking to replicate Louis Blériot’s famous overwater flight in July 1909, two would-be electric-airplane producers, Airbus and Pipistrel, are preparing to make historic Channel crossings this week in battery-powered prototypes. But […]

Tuesday’s deadly midair collision of an F-16 and Cessna 150 in South Carolina was the first in the United States between a military and civilian airplane in a decade, highlighting how rare such tragedies are while also pointing to the need to remain especially vigilant when airplanes of vastly different performance capabilities mix in the […]

An Air Force F-16 fighter jet and a Cessna 150 collided over South Carolina this morning, scattering debris from the airplanes over a wide area. The collision occurred about 11 miles north of Charleston near the uncontrolled Moncks Corner Airport in the vicinity of a number of military jet routes. The F-16 pilot safely ejected. […]

After making a few circuits in the pattern in a Legend Cub at the Sentimental Journey Fly-in in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania — the site of the original Piper Cub factory — I stuck around to watch the other taildragger pilots do their thing. I was heartened that every single one of the Cub drivers made […]

Sporty’s, along with partners Appareo Systems and ForeFlight, today introduced the next-generation of Stratus ADS-B receivers offering improved performance, better signal reception and much, much more. Like their predecessors, the new Stratus 1S and Stratus 2S models offer integration with the ForeFlight Mobile app for subscription-free weather, ADS-B traffic, WAAS GPS position and all-day battery […]

Facing staunch opposition in the aviation industry to a plan to privatize ATC and levy user fees, Congress has opted to delay the FAA’s reauthorization spending bill until at least September. The move makes it appear increasingly likely that the FAA will require a stopgap funding bill to keep money flowing after the agency’s current […]

It’s eerie seeing what appears to be a run-of-the mill general aviation airplane starting its engines by itself and taxiing out to the active runway before taking off with nary a human onboard. UAVs are nothing new, of course, and futurologists tell us self-driving cars will be in dealer showrooms before we know it, but […]

To the relief of a great many pilots, Apple’s latest iOS 8.4 update for the iPhone and iPad, released this week, fixes a major bug in iOS 8.3 that has been preventing the use of many external GPS receivers with apps like ForeFlight Mobile. GPS and app makers say they have successfully tested iPads running […]

Representatives from the FAA and general aviation community gathered this week in Washington for a GA Safety Summit aimed at developing strategies to reduce the risks of personal flying for business and pleasure. The FAA noted that last year 434 people were killed in 251 general aviation accidents, a trend that has remained stubbornly flat […]