FAA

“We swung over the hills and over the town and back again, and I saw how a man can be master of a craft, and how a craft can be master of an element. I saw the alchemy of perspective reduce my world, and all my other life, to grains in a cup… And I […]

It was a dark and stormy night; my electrical system had failed, and the battery was dead. Descending lower and lower in the murk, looking for familiar landmarks, I saw—dead ahead—the magnificent Jeremiah Morrow Bridge spanning the Little Miami River on Ohio’s Interstate 71. My only option was to fly beneath that high-and-wide span and […]

In a move that has caused aviation associations across the board to band together in protest, on July 12 the FAA released a “clarification” on flight training in experimental aircraft that puts into formal policy a letter of guidance issued in June. In effect, the new policy adds a requirement that AOPA’s president and CEO […]

The FAA and the Aircraft Electronics Association announced on June 23 that it has accepted the association’s petition for approval of its avionics repair apprenticeship program, and that completion of the program satisfies the requirements for issuance of an avionics repairman certificate. The program validates the way that many new avionics repair technicians come into […]

“Any other traffic, please advise.” Probably few radio communications that pilots make incur such wrath as that request, which many pilots still make at the conclusion of an initial call to a unicom frequency when approaching a nontowered airport. And it was just one of the topics covered by a panel of experienced GA pilots, […]

The full breadth of general aviation aircraft offers something to suit every potential pilot—and that includes those that fall under special airworthiness categories. The rising popularity of experimental aircraft, such as the RV series from Van’s Aircraft, turns upon their high performance-to-cost ratio and a serious fun factor driven by models that range from fabric-covered […]

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has now published a final rule (232-page PDF) that outlines regulations for the use of an electronic Pilot Records Database (PRD) to facilitate the sharing of pilot records among air carriers and other operators in an electronic data system managed by the FAA. The final rule for the PRD requires […]

In March 2020, Flying reported on an airworthiness directive focused on corrosion concerns on most models of the Cessna 210. On Tuesday, May 11, the FAA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that may broaden the scope of that original AD to include both the Cessna 210R and N models, as well as all […]

The flight training industry—and aviation as a whole—suffered a blow whose full ramifications still remain to be seen when on April 2, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit made its ruling on Warbird Adventures, Inc., et. al. v. FAA. The ruling declined to reverse an emergency cease-and-desist order meted […]

The FAA on April 9 proposed an airworthiness directive for inspections of all models of Boeing’s 777 jetliner. The directive is based on the agency’s discovery of five 777s of various models with missing rivet heads used to join the aircraft’s skin. This directive is the second to affect the 777 in less than two […]