Stephen Pope

The FAA is unlikely to meet its 2015 deadline for integrating UAVs into the National Airspace System as the agency grapples with a number of significant safety and certification issues, according to a report by the Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General. The 33-page report notes that the FAA has yet to reach […]

The Pilot’s Bill of Rights championed by Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe and passed into law two years ago has been so successful that a summer 2014 sequel is in the works. Inhofe’s Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2 is being crafted to address continuing “unfair practices and regulations toward the aviation industry” by the FAA. Looking […]

President Obama’s choice to head the National Transportation Safety Board is winning unanimous praise in aviation circles, and for good reason. Christopher Hart, an NTSB board member since 2009, is an active GA pilot who holds a commercial license with multi-engine and instrument ratings. He will succeed Deborah Hersman, who left the NTSB to head […]

Chances are you’ve come across descriptions of how constant-speed propellers work, oh, about a thousand times since your piloting days began. Instead of rehashing how they operate, let’s talk about tips you can use to get the most out of your constant-speed prop. The first tip is offered with safety in mind: After you push […]

You’ve never seen anything like this. Extremely strong winds at the USAF Academy Airfield in Colorado Springs, Colorado, caused a dangerous emergency situation for pilots of four tow planes sitting on the tarmac as a 55-knot spring gust front swept across the airport recently. Two of the four pilots were forced to take to the […]

A passenger was killed and the captain nearly struck by a bullet on Tuesday night as gunmen opened fire on an airliner landing at the main airport in Peshawar, Pakistan. According to news reports, a female passenger sitting next to her daughter died in the attack and two flight attendants were injured when at least […]

Michael Whitaker, the FAA’s Deputy Administrator in charge of NextGen implementation, told a Senate committee yesterday that the agency has made “significant progress” in a number of key technology areas, stressing that the 2020 ADS-B equipment mandate is not in jeopardy of slipping. Whitaker told members of the Senate Commerce Committee that the construction of […]

A second flying example of the World War II-era de Havilland Mosquito flew for the first time in 48 years as Reno race pilot Steve Hinton lifted off in the restored bomber on June 16 from Victoria International Airport on Vancouver Island in far western Canada. The newly completed de Havilland 98 MK.35 is a […]

The National Transportation Safety Board released its final conclusions about what caused the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 in San Francisco last July, blaming the pilots for making a series of critical missteps related to the Boeing 777’s automated systems. At a hearing in Washington, D.C., this morning, the NTSB highlighted one mistake in […]

Reaction by pilots and aviation leaders to a scathing three-part special report in USA Today yesterday on air safety titled “Unfit for Flight” has been overwhelmingly negative, with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association calling the series of articles “extremely flawed, sensational, one-sided and inaccurate.” AOPA said the report “gets the general aviation safety record […]