Search Results for: Citation X

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are on the scene attempting to determine what caused an Augusta 109E helicopter to crash onto the rooftop of a Manhattan skyscraper on Monday afternoon, killing the pilot and causing a fire atop the building that briefly caused panic for those inside and on the streets below. The corporate helicopter, […]

It seemed like it would be a routine Sunday trip back to Wichita for the crew of a corporate Cessna Citation CJ3. But when a handful of abnormal alerts popped up on the ECAM (electronic centralized aircraft monitor) display, the pilot in command went on alert as well. With a “PFD Compare Fail” noting a […]

Just off the shore of northwest Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, is HEVVN, an oft-used fix for pilots crossing the Gulf from the southern U.S. over to Florida. I was recently in Alabama and heard this exchange with Atlanta Center.

A series of recent events involving the mixing of an incorrect additive into jet fuel dispensed at a Florida airport has triggered safety warnings to both turbine operators and fuel handlers. Diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) is a colorless fluid derived from urea and is injected into the exhaust on diesel-burning vehicles, but is not approved […]

In 2009, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed in the Buffalo, New York, metropolitan area, killing all 49 passengers and crewmembers on board and one person inside the house into which the Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 crashed. The extensive post-crash investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the pilots were completely at fault. The captain […]

The accident occurred nine years almost to the day after an 18,600-hour airline transport pilot flew a Beech Baron into the lake just after departing from the same airport on a nighttime positioning flight. In the case of the Citation, the Board surmised that due to the pilots recent transition from a Citation Mustang with a different panel layout, he might have been unaware that hed never engaged the autopilot as hed presumably intended. On the night of the Baron accident, ceilings were 25,000 feet and visibility unrestricted, but the moon and city lights were behind the pilot once he turned north over the lake.

True story: A USAF F-105 Thunderchief pilot was shot down over North Vietnam, ejected and landed in the jungle. Coming up on his emergency radio, he was told a rescue mission was on the way, to hide out and to come back up on the frequency in an hour. The pilot waited for what seemed like an hour and called back; he once again was told to call back when the hour was up-in 55 more minutes.

There are plenty of reasons to want to own and fly a jet. Jets are made for capable, reliable transportation. They come equipped ready to do the job with pressurization, anti-icing and deicing, and substantial turbine-style cockpit displays and avionics. Most important, they come with jet engines. There is nothing better than jet engines. They […]

Your home field is non-towered, and the AWOS says the winds are fierce out of the west. If it was VFR, Runway 27 would rock. However, theres nasty precipitation starting five miles east of the airport. The RNAV 27 approach would drive you right through it. Youve already been beaten up enough for one day. Instead, the reported 800 foot ceiling inspires you request an RNAV approach to Runway 36 with a circle to Runway 27. The circling mins are 600 feet for your aircraft category. Youll stay close to the airport and once you get underneath, you can bring it around to land into the wind on 27.

FlightSafety International has entered a joint venture with TRU Simulation + Training. The two high-end flight training providers have teamed up as FlightSafety Textron Aviation Training to provide services for operators of Textron Aviation’s Cessna, Beechcraft and Hawker models. Using 89 simulators, FlightSafety Textron Aviation Training will provide training for 48 aircraft models, including Cessna […]