Emergency Procedures

The loss of aviation safety leader, pilot, and friend Richard McSpadden from the AOPA’s Air Safety Institute causes reflection.

Chris Shields and Connor Cvetan jumped into action after hearing an emergency call on the radio.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s Air Safety Institute (ASI) has released a new episode of its Reality Check video series focused on a topic that never seems to lose any energy, at least in the debate: the 180-degree turn back to the runway after an engine failure just after takeoff. Traditionally, most of the […]

An in-depth look at the accidents that result from loss of power on departure.

Airline flying is pretty cushy work most days, particularly at the major US carriers, with largely reliable aircraft, a fairly robust support network, and nearly universal procedures that keep everyone on roughly the same page. Most airline pilots, by temperament and long experience, are perfectly content with the atmosphere of ordered boredom that normally reigns […]

A lot has been written over the past few years about pilots relying on the automation to fly the airplane to the detriment of actual hands-on-the-stick piloting skills. I have long been baffled by pilots’ reliance on the autopilot. But perhaps this attitude comes from my Air Force training early on and particularly from a […]