Search Results for: general aviation inc

They are leviathans sleeping on the tarmac. Towering amphibious floatplanes, boasting adventures of which their landlubbing cousins only dream. Nearby, small flying boats, engines mounted oddly above the fuselage, ponder remote lakes brimming with bass. If youre pondering whether to take the aqua plunge, the next question is floats or boats?

Flying boats, or hull designs, splash down on their bellies and have small floats, or sponsons, under each wing for stability on the water. Floatplanes are common aircraft that sit atop two pontoons. Which you choose will depend upon your anticipated missions and your budget. The decision may also have a substantial impact on your future safety.<...

The sad state of flight instruction is nothing new to any general aviation pilot who has tried to find someone good when it came time to upgrade a rating, get a biennial flight review or take an instrument proficiency check.

Think you can make it all the way through a license or rating without losing at least one instructor to the call of higher pay at a commuter airline? Bet ya cant.

Until recently, my CFII of choice was an anomaly – a dedicated professional who was a skilled veteran with a love of teaching, not just a kid looking to build time before jumping to the airlines.

Thats all changed now. My CFI (sounds as possessive as a high school romance, doesnt it?) went and becam…

Put a dozen pilots in a room, and odds are youll hear a series of shocking stories of derring do as well as a parade of tales about other peoples mistakes. Put 200 in a room, and you might see something different.

The National Transportation Safety Board hosted a symposium in late September that brought together accident investigators, regulators, flight training experts, mechanics and manufacturers, among others, to discuss ways to make general aviation safer. The NTSB billed it as the first-ever General Aviation Accident Prevention Symposium. For several days, engineers, mechanics, human factors experts and flight training specialists examined a variety of common general aviation acci…

Recently I had my own almost accident, which reminded me of a problem that is only going to get worse.

It was Thanksgiving Day and the traffic going into Denver International was normal for any holiday. Our Boeing 727 was cleared for the visual approach and landing behind an Airbus 319. Since the 727 is heavier than the Airbus, and since we had sufficient separation distance, the thought of a wake vortex encounter didnt enter my mind.

Just as I started to flare, we hit the Airbus wake and suddenly my wing dropped. It only takes 12 degrees of wing dip to strike an outboard flap during a normal landing in the 727. For a few moments, that wake had more control over the aircraft than…

The pilot reported for work as scheduled at 2 a.m. for a Part 135 light cargo flight, flying a Piper Lance from Burbank, Calif., to Phoenix, Ariz. He arrived at Phoenix and managed to get about five hours of sleep, waking at about noon local time.

On the next leg of the flight – the return to Burbank – he took off at 20:55 local. Several hours later, while maintaining a constant altitude, heading and airspeed, he collided with a mountain near Palm Springs -about 10 nautical miles south of his usual course. The investigators could find no evidence that indicated that the pilot had attempted to avoid the collision.

Investigators could find no mechanical reasons for the crash. After exam…

In March 1997, our unit was going through recurrent ground school and reassembling from the lunchtime break when the former chief pilot walked in with a pale face and grimly announced to the room, Hey guys, the factory just had an accident. They were taking pictures and collided. They lost both aircraft and everyone on board.

The news hit us in the stomach. We all looked at each other with dismay. The aircraft collided during a photo shoot. Given the beauty of the DC-3s turboprop conversion, I could hardly blame them for wanting to take some airborne promotional pictures.

Witnesses saw the aircraft at approximately 500 feet to 700 feet agl flying close together headed north. The D…

There isnt a pilot out there who doesnt harbor a flying fantasy of some sort. Some dream of bouncing around the country in a J-3 Cub. Others want to fly the biggest jet or the hottest stunt plane or fly every kind of aircraft that can still stretch the chains of gravity.

For a relatively large number, nothing gets the blood pumping like the prospect of manhandling a warbird through tortured paces, drawing a bead on some unlucky prey like the ultimate computer game come to life. It is for these people that an entire segment of the aviation industry was born.

Fighter fantasy flights have been offered in various locations around the country for years. Usually staffed by ex-fighter pilot…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.

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The FAA has issued a reminder to pilots operating aircraft equipped with carburetors that gascolator problems are common and generally result in engine failure in flight.

Gascolator inspection during preflight can easily detect and prevent the most common gascolator problems.

The gascolator contains a fuel filter screen and a sediment bowl that serves as a water separator. Usually a gascolator has a wire bail holding a glass or metal bowl in place. There are three primary gascolator malfunctions, each of which can lead to a loss of power due to interruption…

Sometimes you look at an FAR and have to scratch your head. What, you ask yourself, can that possibly have to do with flight safety? The various rules, placards and limitations seem to be written more for the FAAs lawyers than for pilots and their passengers.

Sadly, many of the notes, warnings and cautions in aircraft manuals and some of the FARs are written in blood. But violation of an FAR doesnt automatically mean that the flight was unsafe. It all seems so confusing.

When I was a private pilot, a lot of the rules seemed difficult to understand. It took an instrument rating before I understood control zones. It took a flight engineer certificate and a graduate school education…

Most pilots would agree that collision avoidance is desirable. The FAA agrees, and long ago made the desirable mandatory. FAR 91.113 states that all pilots have the responsibility to see and avoid each other regardless of flight plan or aircraft type, when weather conditions permit.

IFR and VFR pilots in VMC have the same responsibility to ensure that no two aircraft occupy the same space at the same time. No excuse will suffice if metal meets metal when visual meteorological conditions prevail. The FAAs logic is similar to that expressed in signs common on Texas ranches that proclaim that trespassers will be shot, and survivors prosecuted.

With this heavy burden upon all pilots, loo…