Aviation Safety

Since the dawn of flight, pilots have been forced to validate their infatuation with aviation by giving a convincing answer to the simple question, Are airplanes safe?

Click here for January accident totals.

January 01, Hollywood, Fla.
Piper Navajo
At about 18:02 eastern time, a Piper PA-31-250 operating as a Part 135 air taxi flight ditched into the Atlantic Ocean about 300 yards from shore. The pilot and three passengers were seriously injured and a fourth passenger died. The aircraft originated from the Bahamas at about 16:35. The pilot initially declared a minimum fuel status to Miami Center, then told the tower controller he would have to ditch short of the coastline.

January 02, Boise, Idaho
Beech Baron
At 10:45 mountain time, a Beech 58P on a post-maintenance te…

The finer points of IFR flying, distilled from decades of flying IFR in both GA and transport airplanes

Even a subtle sign of flame or smoke in the cockpit is a bona fide emergency. It demands immediate action.

Everyone knows finding the right flight instructor is a crap shoot, so whats that say about the state of the industry?

It was a fairly nice November morning, and I had booked a Cessna 172 from John Wayne Airport to Catalina for a day trip to celebrate with my wife on our anniversary.

The weather was VFR and was forecasted to remain that way until 1900 local. As we approached Catalina, I could see the low clouds just west of the island with their eastwardly movement hampered by a weak high that sat over the area.

The tour bus took us from the airport to Avalon and would not return until 1600 local. The entire time in Avalon, I was checking the weather on my cell phone, worried that the weather would not hold. The bus ride back was a miserable 30 minutes as I watched the sky and monitored ASOS.

Whe…

Early on a beautiful February morning, I departed on a 370 nm flight from Orlando to Atlanta in a VFR Citabria. Winds aloft were light and the air was smooth, but the tranquility was battered at my mid-flight fuel stop.

As I rounded out to settle into the three-point sweet spot for landing, the aircraft unexpectedly bounced. I reined it in, a bit flustered by the momentary loss of control, and taxied to the ramp.

Later, when landing at my destination, the approach was only slightly complicated by a mild crosswind. Again, as I started to settle into the three-point attitude, the airplane took an unexpected hop. Because I was a bit tired after four hours of hand-flying, I wasnt so quic…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. Click here to view February ADs.

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The FAA is reminding owners of retractable-gear Cessna single-engine airplanes of problems that may arise in the main landing gear actuators of retractable-gear 172s, 182s and all 210s.

Cessna service bulletin SEB01-2 specifies inspections, modifications and replacements that should be made to maintain the integrity of the actuator housings. The NTSB has issued two Safety Recommendations on this issue, but the FAA has so far declined to make the service bulletin into an AD.

Aero…