Search Results for: general aviation inc

One of the biggest challenges with which each aircraft owner must contend is maintenance. The FARs state the owner/operator is the party responsible for ensuring all applicable inspections and maintenance requirements are complied with for continued airworthiness. Typically, the owner/operator lacks certification to perform the required maintenance and inspections necessary for continued airworthiness and engages certificated mechanics and inspectors to perform the require tasks. While the system usually works well, horror stories do arise. Logbooks go missing, what was scheduled to be a week-long annual inspection can turn into a months-long, expensive ordeal.

I’ve been attending the annual U.S. Sport Aviation Expo for the last few years. It’s held in Sebring, Fla., in late January, and features the latest and greatest found in the light sport aircraft (LSA) market from around the world. It’s a much smaller show than the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual extravaganza in Oshkosh, Wis., or even the Lakeland, Fla, Sun ‘n Fun fly-in. That’s okay, because it’s also much more accessible. This year’s event was no different: It afforded attendees the opportunity to perform an up-close-and-personal check on the LSA industry’s pulse.

The reports, preliminary and final, too often contain this fateful 10-word sentence: “The pilot did not obtain a weather briefing before departing.” It runs right up there with the tried-and-failed “continued VFR into IMC.” How and why any pilot would fly without a weather briefing almost defies logic these days. Accurate weather information has never before been more plentiful or accessible. The FAA even recognizes a pilot can fulfill all legal requirements of a pre-flight briefing without dialing a Flight Service Station on 1-800-Wx-Brief. Thanks to the wonders of technology, even flight-critical information—Notams, TFRs and the like—can be accessed independently.

The NTSB (or FAA when delegated by NTSB) investigates fatal accidents and the Board issues reports on the probable cause of the accident. The reports also list contributing factors to the accident. Typically, the final reports are peppered with words such as loss of control, controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) and other language describing the final event in the accident sequence and attributing it to one or more other events. But rarely does the report explain the “why” of the accident or the “how” of the pilot’s or other participants’ actions relating to the “why.” For example, in a loss-of-control accident, why did the pilot lose control of the aircraft and how did he or she place themselves in that predicament?

(March 2012) When Matt Norklun decided to go surfing in the Bahamas, the airlines were not an option. The 6-foot-6-inch Norklun loaded up his airplane with his two brothers and three surfboards. Considering the size of the occupants and their cargo, you might assume Norklun owns a Beechcraft Baron or a Cessna Caravan. He doesn’t. […]

Amidst all the numbers and trends reported at the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) annual press event in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, the recurring message was, “it could have been worse.” It could have been. GAMA member companies delivered 1,865 airplanes in 2011, a 3.5 percent decline compared to the 1,932 delivered in 2010. Dollar […]

(March 2012) One of the things nearest and dearest to a pilot’s heart is the freedom to move about, to explore, to discover and to see new places with fresh eyes. This element of discovery is a central part of what flying is to me and why I love it so. It’s been that way […]

(February 2012) Increasingly, flight is automatic. Navigation no longer requires an ounce of brains. Auto-pilots climb and descend, hold altitude, track waypoints and execute entire flight plans while idled crews ponder football scores. Autoland systems bring airplanes safely to earth, and even to the decks of aircraft carriers, in zero-zero weather. Only one phase of […]

Do you ever look to the skies and wonder what airplanes are flying above you? If you have an iPhone 4S, you can simply ask Siri – the service that not only answers your questions, but actually talks back too. But apparently it’s important to use proper language when you talk to Siri, just like […]

Aviation member organizations are celebrating a historic victory with Congressional passage of an FAA reauthorization bill yesterday that includes no user fees. While celebration is certainly in order, a major, troubling part of the bill has escaped largely unnoticed: the mandated opening of U.S. airspace to drone aircraft — aka, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in […]