Aviation Safety

Planning a flight in an airliner is much like making the same flight in a GA airplane, except its completely different

squat ground stance
ûand long wing combine to make landing an
ûadventure for those not watching airspeed.üüüüüüüüü”

Non-precision approaches can involve either a plunge to MDA or a stabilized approach. Your moving map can make stabilized safer

The quest for the sensation of speed led two young flight instructors on a buzz job through the mountains – with predictable results

I have been flying for 19 years and now fly corporate/mission operations overseas. The overseas operations, which I have done for six years, have provided many excellent learning opportunities – as well as some scary moments.

Last week we were returning from an international, operating our Twin Cessna in and out of marginal VFR/IFR conditions.

When descending for the main international airport it is always imperative to monitor every transmission. This is doubly true in developing countries. Although this particular airport is an international airport, the radar operates perhaps 30 percent of the time and ATC uses broken English and fluent French. In many instances there are two and…

About the time this issue comes out, millions of people will be traipsing off to the homes of friends and relatives for the Thanksgiving holiday. Lots of them will fly. Some of them will fly themselves.

In our case, a customary trip is Orlando to Atlanta, where one grandpa and at least one grandma is usually waiting to scoop up the kids with raucous greetings.

The perennial question is how to get there.

By airliner, the trip is slightly more attractive than in times past because the airlines woes have kept the lid on fares to some extent this year. Checking reservations late in October, I can get five tickets on either of two airlines for a couple hundred apiece. Total cost for the…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. Click here to view “Flight Control Hardware.”

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During an aircraft accident investigation, an investigator discovered that the starter and the generator 6-gauge wires had numerous lateral splits in the wire insulation. The accident was not related to the defective wire insulation.

Splitting of the wire insulation appears as small, fine dark scratches on the outer covering of the wires and runs lengthwise along the wire. In some cases, the wire insulation splitting has penetrated the covering and exposed the center elec…

Contrary to Bill Kights view expressed in Facing Formations [Airmanship, October], the leaders of the Mooney Caravan believe that our loose in-trail arrangement combines inclusiveness and safety by providing spacing in the most crucial phase of flight – landing. This years experience, with multiple changes in runway assignments and strong crosswind conditions was a case in point.

Flying into Oshkosh with a group of like-minded pilots is a high point in the year for those of us participating in the Mooney Caravan. We have worked hard over the last few years to develop procedures that allow pilots of varying degrees of training to safely participate in this unique experience.

In my…

At about 14:30 PST, a Beech 95 hit the ground after an inadvertent shutdown of one engine while landing at the Henderson airport. Neither the instructor nor the student pilot was injured. Investigators determined that the aircraft was on approach when the student pilot, who was flying, changed fuel tanks. He inadvertently shut off fuel to the right engine as he was looking for traffic. There was confusion in the cockpit and the appropriate emergency procedures were not executed. The flight instructor had assumed control when the aircraft struck the ground with a windmilling propeller….

At about 17:20 EST, an Aerospatiale 355 medical helicopter was destroyed when it struck a house while attempting a precautionary landing due to weather. The pilot, flight doctor and flight nurse sustained serious injuries. The helicopter departed St. Vincent Hospital to transport a patient from William County Hospital to the Medical College of Ohio. When he was approximately 4 miles to the west of St. Vincent, the pilot elected to return because of weather. While en route to St. Vincent, the pilot received a report from a company pilot who was operating between St. Vincent and William County. That pilot reported 2 to 3 miles of visibility and one or two snow squalls that could easily be circ…