Briefing

Canada Eyes Tightening Medical Standards Canada’s Transportation Safety Board is recommending Transport Canada update guidance to civil aviation medical examiners to tighten pilot medical standards. The TSB found a heart attack suffered by a pilot to have contributed to a 2021 crash. The pilot died and his passenger was badly hurt. The board cited a […]

FAA Studying Unleaded Gas Transition The FAA temporarily stopped its investigation into whether Santa Clara County in California is violating grant agreements by refusing to sell leaded gasoline at the county’s Reid Hillview and San Martin Airports. In exchange, the county has agreed to consider taking part in a study into the transition process from […]

New Misfueling Guidance Issued Transition to unleaded aviation gasoline led the National Air Transportation Association to issue new guidance on preventing misfueling aircraft. Misfueling most commonly happens when piston twins are filled up with JetA. There is concern that the varying grades of unleaded fuel appearing at airports could lead to aircraft needing high-octane fuel […]

Single Pilot Plan Panned The leader of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says he thinks it will be decades before single-pilot passenger airline operations are allowed. Director General Willie Walsh said that despite the apparent push toward autonomous airliners with a human backup, he doesn’t see it happening anytime soon. “I don’t expect to […]

Pilots and Emotional Intelligence Pilots tend to have lower emotional intelligence scores than the rest of the population and researchers are looking at what that means for training and culture at aircraft operations. “Overall, the findings show that pilots tend to have lower trait EI scores, indicating less confidence and reliance on their emotional world, […]

Pandemic Creates BizAv Boom The post-pandemic hangover has turned out to be a tonic for business jet manufacturers who are tapping a new market created by the general travel hassle COVID-19 spawned. In its annual forecast of business aircraft activity, Honeywell predicted sales of business aircraft would jump 15 percent over the next 10 years, […]

FAA Rejects 750-Hour FO Exemption The FAA has denied Republic Airways’ request that graduates of its in-house training program called Leadership in Flight Training (LIFT) be allowed to become first officers with 750 hours of flight experience rather than the mandatory 1500 hours for most candidates. The agency allows military or ex-military pilots to take […]

COMMERCIAL ACCIDENT RATE DROPS The global accident rate for commercial flights dropped by 9.8 percent in 2021 over 2020 according to stats released by the International Civil Aviation Authority. The rate fell to 1.93 accidents per one million departures in 2021 down from 2.14 per million the previous year. The report covers all commercial fixed-wing […]

NO PILOT SHORTAGE SAYS ALPA The Air Line Pilots Association says there is no pilot shortage, but instead is just a shortage of talent in the executive suites of the airlines. The union is particularly focused on upending Republic Airways’ attempt to gain an exemption to the 1500-hour experience minimum for new airline pilots for […]

New NOTAM Guidance Issued The FAA has issued new guidance to airport operators on how and when to issue a NOTAM and it appears to be an effort to clean up a system bogged down in irrelevant and confusing information. Advisory Circular 150/5200-28G has a host of housekeeping and updating sections, but it also issues […]