FAA

The FAA recently published advisory circular 91-92, a guide to assist pilots in completing a comprehensive preflight briefing. The AC, aimed at Part 91 operators, will serve as an educational roadmap for the development and implementation of preflight self-briefings, including planning, weather interpretation, and risk identification/mitigation skills. The guide says, “Pilots adopting these guidelines will […]

As part of the overhaul that the FAA’s pilot certificate testing system went through beginning in 2011, the agency has produced a regular update of several components of the system, and communicated those changes through its main training and testing page on the FAA website. A recent update that becomes active on March 29 includes […]

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) joined five other aviation associations recently in opposition to two New York City bills that would severely restrict helicopter operations in the city and create additional paperwork requirements. The March 9 letter to Peter Vallone, chairman of the New York City Committee on Economic Development, was co-signed by representatives of the […]

Textron Aviation has gained FAA certification on the King Air 260, as it closes down production of two key models in Cessna and Beechcraft history—the Citation Sovereign+ and the King Air C90GTx. Flying contacted Textron Aviation for its official comment on the changes: “Textron Aviation continually aligns its product offerings with current and future market […]

Written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the old nursery rhyme goes like this: “There was a little girl, / who had a little curl, / right in the middle of her forehead. / When she was good, / she was very good indeed, / and when she was bad she was horrid.” This sums up three […]

Many people have learned to fly with medical anomalies that years ago would have instantly disqualified them; hearing issues and color blindness are two of the most familiar. The work around is to apply for a waiver of the standard medical certificate as laid out in FAA Order 8900.1. In addition to making certain a waiver applicant […]

The FAA and industry jointly grant a handful of awards for general aviation pursuits each year, and the GA Awards leadership recently announced those they have honored for 2021. The awards for National Flight Instructor, Aviation Technician, and FAASTeam Rep of the Year will be presented at EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in July. The […]

As part of the FAA’s Airport Unmanned Aircraft Systems Detection and Mitigation Research Program, the agency released the names of the five host airports that will become testing sites to evaluate technologies and systems that could detect and mitigate potential safety risks posed by remotely piloted aircraft. The FAA plans to test and evaluate at […]

The FAA last week announced in a news release a $5.4 million dollar fine against the Chicago-based Boeing Company, the aerospace manufacturer whose reputation was severely crippled following the grounding of its 737 Max in March 2019. Over the past two years, the company has continued absorbing both financial and reputational hits against the Max […]

I recently selected 32 accident analyses, from the nearly 500 that I have written since I took over Flying’s Aftermath column in 1980, and assembled them into a book called Why? Thinking About Plane Crashes. It’s available from Amazon as a paperback or an e-book. I hope someone will buy it. I would pledge that […]