FAA

The FAA issued its final version of an updated Part 23 that overhauls the airworthiness standards for general aviation airplanes weighing less than 19,000 pounds with 19 or fewer seats. The agency, as well as the industry, hopes the new rule reduces the time needed to economically move safety-enhancing technologies for small airplanes into the […]

The FAA plans to update aviation’s general flight rules section — Part 91.176 — with new performance-based guidelines aimed at improving flexibility for operators of aircraft equipped with an Enhanced Flight Vision System (EFVS). The rule, effective March 13, 2017, will allow aircraft on an IFR flight plan in most categories to fly a straight-in […]

The FAA has issued an interim cease-and-desist order to stop the city of Santa Monica from evicting American Flyers and Atlantic Aviation, the two major FBOs at the Santa Monica Airport. The order does not protect the businesses for the long term as it is only “intended to maintain the status quo at SMO until […]

While most UAS operators were overjoyed at last August’s release of Part 107 governing drone use, the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) says there is work yet to be done to safely integrate these aircraft into the National Airspace System. In a critical audit on UAS operations released earlier this month, the […]

There’s nothing a huge bureaucracy dislikes more than being embarrassed in front of the public, yet this past week the FAA had to stand ready to take a few knocks after a couple of air traffic controllers in the Boise control tower appear to have been asleep when aircraft called. A story from the Sacramento […]

David Melcher, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), began Tuesday’s annual media luncheon by alluding to the continuing social media “saga” created throughout 2016 by President-elect Donald Trump. Melcher was referencing a tweet posted just a few hours before the lunch, in which Trump called the cost of the two new Air […]

One of the highlights of the 2016 Flying Aviation Expo was the spirited debate between renowned aviation educators John King and Rod Machado over the FAA’s newly implemented Airman Certification Standards, which replaced the decades-old Practical Test Standards. The debate was as informative as it was entertaining, with King and Machado breaking out the facts […]

An FAA review of helicopter incidents and accidents over the past five years has identified several accidents in which loss of control (LOC) was encountered immediately after liftoff while light on the skids/gear, or from other issues caused by missed checklist items. With those operational issues in mind, the agency recently issued a safety alert […]

The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) says that, according to FAA data, fatal accidents in experimental amateur-built aircraft declined 17 percent for the 12-month period ending September 2016, compared to figures from a year earlier. The FAA specifically listed 33 accidents in the most recent period versus 40 during the prior year and 51 for the […]

Trio Avionics, a California maker of autopilots for the Experimental-Amateur-Built (EAB) aircraft market, says it’s working with the FAA and its project partner to develop an STC that would bring its non-TSO’d Pro Pilot autopilot to the Cessna 172 and 182. Other certified production models would follow after receipt of the initial STC, says Paul […]