Pilot Proficiency

On Monday FAA Administrator Michael Huerta met with general aviation leaders to discuss improving safety. There were 259 fatal accidents in 2013 with 449 total lives lost. That represents virtually flat numbers over the past six years, though the nature of accidents is changing. For example, accidents attributed to controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) are […]

With one day left to go in the month, January 2014 is shaping up to be one of the safest ever in terms of general aviation fatal accidents and fatalities. Perhaps coincidentally, it was also one of the coldest months in decades. There have been four fatal crashes this month in the United States involving […]

A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) instructor pilot and student now have an uneven number of takeoffs and landings in their logbooks. Both qualified for membership in the Caterpillar Club by ejecting from their Beechcraft CT-156 Harvard II trainer during a routine training mission. The Harvard II is the Canadian version of the Texan II […]

The volunteers in Wichita, Kansas, have been hard at work restoring Doc, a B-29 Superfortress, since the project resumed nearly one year ago. “We have made significant progress recently hanging the first engine on the airplane,” said Jeff Turner, chairman of the board of Doc’s Friends, the non-profit organization set up to restore the Superfortress. […]

We’ve recently had a Tanis engine preheater installed in our Diamond DA40 to deal with the ill effects of the arctic polar vortex blast — words that should never follow each other in a single sentence, in my opinion. The preheater is designed to keep the cylinders warmed to a temperature 70 degrees above ambient […]

If you wish to honor one of aviation’s true stars, Bob Hoover, while rubbing elbows with some of the most influential people in aviation, here is your chance. At the end of February, a series of events has been planned in the Los Angeles area to celebrate the life of the iconic pilot and person. […]

In our FBO Spotlight series, we’re highlighting FBOs around the country that have received rave reviews from our readers. This latest Spotlight is brought to you by Vincent Latona, who has recently flown into Scottsdale Airport in Scottsdale, Arizona, in a TBM 850. Here’s what he had to say about one of the airport’s FBOs, […]

The mysterious early morning crash of a Cessna 172 on October 29 just became a little less mysterious. Canadian pilot Michael Callan’s blood alcohol level (BAC) has been reported by the Tennessee state medical examiner as 0.081 percent — more than twice the FAA limit of 0.040 percent and just in excess of Tennessee’s threshold […]

What does it take to build the coolest airplane ever? In the case of college student Luca Iaconi-Stewart’s creation — which definitely gets our vote for most spectacular paper airplane — the answer to that question is five years of effort and an abundance of glue and manila cardboard folders. The 22-year-old constructed this incredible […]

Henry Ogrodzinski, a “beloved gentleman-statesman” of aviation who for the past 18 years served as president and CEO of the National Association of State Aviation Officials, died at his home in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 65. Ogrodzinski, known as Henry O to friends, began his aviation advocacy […]