Stephen Pope

Tragedy struck the otherwise successful and upbeat U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, last week when two people were killed in the crash of an Aero Adventure amphibious LSA near the main runway at Sebring Regional Airport. Officials identified the victims as pilot Dennis Day of Groveland, Florida, and Jason Sponks of Orlando. The […]

Remember when we made a big deal last month about the FAA permitting more training time in flight simulators to count toward the instrument rating? Well forget about it. The FAA formally withdrew that policy today, and then reinstated the mind-boggling requirement that instrument students wear Foggles or other view-limiting devices while flying on instruments […]

Canada’s Bombardier said today it is halting its Learjet 85 development program amid weak business jet demand and will lay off about 1,000 employees at its sites in Querétaro, Mexico, and Wichita, Kansas. The Lear 85 is the first all-composite business jet from Bombardier, and was to become the new flagship of the Learjet division […]

After three long years marked by a series of unexplained delays, AOPA President Mark Baker sent a blistering letter to the head of the Department of Transportation this week to tell him pilots are fed up with the government’s foot dragging over 3rd class medical reform. Writing to DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx that it is […]

You know that New York City is home to some of the busiest airspace anywhere, and here’s the video that proves it. Created by Keith Smith, founder and CEO of PilotEdge, the live ATC service for flight simulators, the YouTube video depicts 24 hours of New York-area traffic condensed into 24 action-packed minutes. The screen […]

The National Transportation Safety Board today released its 2015 list of “Most Wanted” transportation safety improvements, and at the top of the list cited loss of control in general aviation as among the most pressing dangers demanding urgent attention. “While airline accidents have become relatively rare in the U.S., pilots and passengers involved in general […]

The U.S. Sport Aviation Expo kicks off tomorrow in Sebring, Florida, with a renewed emphasis on showcasing dozens of affordable light aircraft including LSAs, Experimentals and even refurbished airplanes. On display for the first time at the Expo will be AOPA’s “Reimagined 152,” a partnership with Aviat to build and sell fully refurbed Cessna 152s […]

CNN has become the first news organization in the United States approved to use UAVs for reporting after the FAA granted the cable news network a special flight exemption. CNN is partnering with the Georgia Tech Research Institute to test camera-equipped drones for newsgathering and reporting. The FAA will analyze data from the tests to […]

Flytenow, the Uber-style flight-sharing service that the FAA shut down last year for allegedly acting as a de facto conduit for illegal air charter activity, has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the decision. Flytenow’s website lets private pilots post upcoming trips that travelers can then arrange to ride along on provided they help […]

In an effort to make already-safe airlines even safer, the FAA yesterday issued a final rule requiring most U.S. carriers to create formal safety management systems (SMS) by 2018. Many airlines have already voluntarily created SMS programs, which include formal, top-down, organization-wide approaches to managing safety risk. An SMS gives an airline a set of […]