Aviation Safety

Short-field landings have been part of my flying right from the onset of private pilot training. My instructor had flown in the Alaska Bush, and was very comfortable operating out of short airports, grass or otherwise. The go-to runways near me were Cranland Airport (28M), in Hanson, Mass., and Myricks Airport (1M8) in Berkley, Mass. […]

A Cessna 340, apparently making a low-altitude, high-speed pass over the runway at Watsonville, Calif., catches up to and collides with a Cessna 152 on final approach, killing four. A Piper Meridian overshoots the turn to final for Runway 30L at North Las Vegas and flies into a Cessna 172 on final for 30R, also killing […]

In your Editor’s Log in the July 2022 issue, “Gangbusters,” you comment on remarks made by Pete Bunce of GAMA on GA aircraft sales growth this year. You state that “Bunce attributes at least some of his industry’s sales growth to ‘regulatory reforms…that enable new technology and new aircraft and entrants.” You then proceed to […]

A Twitter acquaintance recently posted a link to a Cessna 172N Skyhawk that was for sale. His comment had to with the Apollo 618 Loran C navigator and ADF receiver the airplane still had in it: “Why would you choose to list a Loran and an ADF in your aircraft sale description?“ It’s a good question, […]

Cessna T182T Turbo Skylane Cracked And Leaking During an annual inspection, the overboard exhaust pipe was discovered cracked and leaking at the wastegate attachment flange. Part total time: Unknown Cessna T206H Turbo Stationair Defective Weld Defective part is cracked at a weld and had to be replaced under warranty. The defective part came in a […]

Years ago, when I was working on my flight instructor certificate, I was doing a lot of flying. Necessarily, much of it was from the right seat, but I also flew a lot on the left side, for personal and business travel. I had become comfortable in either seat of the airplanes I was flying. […]

June 1, 2022, River Falls, Wis. Grumman AA-1B Trainer/TR-2 At about 1215 Central time, the airplane was substantially damaged in an off-airport landing shortly after takeoff following engine failure. The student pilot received minor injuries and the flight instructor received serious injuries. Visual conditions prevailed. The student pilot reported that, as the airplane was about […]

Even before I started taking flying lessons, I was exposed to aviation. Without a formal frame of reference, I absorbed what little I could from other pilots’ stories, reading about flying in books and magazines like this one and, tragically, learning how some of them came to grief. That usually involved poor weather. It took […]

On July 27, 2022, the FAA proposed a new airworthiness directive (AD) that would require repetitive inspections of turbocharged, reciprocating engine-powered airplanes and helicopters, and turbocharged, reciprocating engines with “spot-welded, multi-segment v-band couplings at the tailpipe to the turbocharger exhaust housing flange.” Under the proposed AD, the clamps/couplings would be inspected annually, regardless of their […]

The day started out with perfect July flying weather in Washington State. I convinced my girlfriend to fly with me to Stehekin State Airport (6S9), located at the end of the beautiful, 50-mile-long Lake Chelan, where millions of years ago, glaciers scooped out the valley. I was well-prepared for the flight and even put a […]