Stephen Pope

In 2012, USA Today reporter Thomas Frank was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He didn’t win. Maybe coming so close to claiming journalism’s top accolade and missing out ate at him. And so he set his sights on a tantalizing new subject – the miserable safety record of little airplanes – that could finally […]

When we make a turn in flight, why do we use the rudder? We all know from the books the answer is to “correct for adverse yaw” — which is just a fancy way of saying to overcome drag from the aileron. When you initiate a turn, which should you move first, the aileron with […]

Richard Rockefeller, the nephew of former vice president and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, died on Friday morning when he crashed in his Piper Meridian in poor weather soon after takeoff from Westchester County Airport outside New York City. Rockefeller, 65, had flown his PA-46 from his home in Maine to celebrate his father David […]

Accident investigators are focusing on two perplexing clues as they try to determine what caused the deadly crash of Gulfstream IV in Bedford, Massachusetts, on May 31 after the jet failed to lift off from the runway during what should have been a routine takeoff. The first mystery concerns the GIV’s flaps. Investigators found the […]

An epic air race across the heart of China? Apparently it’s really happening, with a qualifying event planned for this September in conjunction with the upcoming Open Skies General & Business Aviation Leaders Forum in Xian, China. Pilots of light piston airplanes are being invited to participate in the race next year from Istanbul to […]

The FAA has given approval for oil company BP and UAV maker AeroVironment to fly an AeroVironment Puma for pipeline surveys in Alaska, marking the first time the agency has authorized commercial UAV operations over land. “These surveys on Alaska’s North Slope are another important step toward broader commercial use of unmanned aircraft,” said Transportation […]

The military scrambled a pair of F-15s on Saturday after the pilot of a small airplane strayed into the Washington, D.C., Flight Restricted Zone, prompting the evacuation of the Capitol, Library of Congress and Supreme Court for a short time. The fighters escorted the airplane to the airport in Mount Airy, North Carolina, where the […]

Cockpit voice and flight data recorder information recovered in the wreckage of a deadly Gulfstream IV crash at Hanscom Field outside Boston on May 31 reveals the crew experienced some type of control problem at very high speed late in the takeoff roll. All seemed normal to the GIV pilots as they advanced the power […]

After 9/11 the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency’s authority and funding saw massive expansions as its mission swelled from border security to a statutory mandate to keep a watchful eye for terrorist threats anywhere in the country. Part of that broadened authority includes the CBP’s General Aviation Pilot Certificate Inspection program, which as you […]

A 24-year-old woman was accidentally killed on Tuesday when she walked into the spinning propeller of a Twin Otter on the ramp at the Ohio skydiving business where she worked. Sarah Rhoads, a well-liked manager for Start Skydiving at Middletown Regional Airport, was pronounced dead at a local hospital after suffering severe head injuries, authorities […]