What do you get when you take a super rare astronomical phenomenon, confine it to a 70-mile swath across the United States, make it so that driving anywhere in that patch of temporary darkness is going to be nightmarish? You get a perfect storm for unprecedented light plane traffic, and that’s apparently just what we more »

Blackhawk Modifications celebrated Eclipse Day on Monday with the announcement that it had earned FAA STC approval for its modification package that puts new, more powerful Pratt & Whitney PT6-67A turboprop engines on existing King Air 350s. Blackhawk president Jim Allmon said the certification process included 172 flight hours over the course of 132 flights, more »

As pilots, we’re undoubtedly alike in that we keep our eyes and ears open for cool things to do with a plane. Go see a total eclipse of the sun? We’re there. So being that we pretty much think alike on such things, it should come as no surprise that there will be a lot more »

While the FCC is unlikely to start putting pilots in jail for misuse of the common emergency frequency, 121.5, the commission’s message is crystal clear: dialing up 121.5 is for real emergencies and pilots need to respect that fact. The commission has a point. There are plenty of frequencies for pilots to use for communications more »

Six years and more than 15,000 volunteer hours went into the construction a flyable replica of the World War I-era Morane-Saulnier Type L “Parasol” before the plane made its U.S. debut at this year’s AirVenture. The project was a joint venture between the Association Héritage Avions Morane-Saulnier and French aircraft manufacturer Daher. The lovely little more »

The recent announcement by DeLorean Aerospace that it’s developing what many are referring to as a “flying car” has garnered a lot of attention. For starters, yes, it’s that “DeLorean.” The start-up aviation company is run by a nephew of the infamous car maker John DeLorean whose cool gull-wing-door speedster starred in the mega hit more »

This Monday, the NTSB released an update on the August 12th crash of a Virginia State Police helicopter in Charlottesville, Virginia that killed Virginia State Police Officer-pilots H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Berke Bates, 40. The NTSB reported that the Bell 407 helicopter left Charlottesville airport at 3:54 pm. From 4:04 to 4:42, the aircraft more »

With the United States economy sluggish as ever despite a hot stock market, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s 2Q sales numbers aren’t as much a surprise as a continuing frustration. GAMA’s president and CEO Pete Bunce characterized it like this. “Results for the second quarter of this year,” he said, “are very much like the more »

Celebrated airshow pilot Sean D. Tucker mentioned last June that he was considering stepping away from a solo performance career that spans 40 years and more than 1,275 performances after the 2018 season. Sadly for anyone who has seen him perform—and perhaps even more-so for those who haven’t—it looks like he’s sticking to that plan. more »

To go along with its Oshkosh announcement of two new digital flight control systems—the S-TEC 5000 and the S-TEC 3100—Genesys Aerosystems also invited owners of 3100-compatible aircraft to enter a drawing to win a new S-TEC 3100 autopilot. Needless to say, there were plenty of pilots lining up to participate. Genesys gathered 394 qualified entries. more »

The City of Santa Monica isn’t wasting any time trying to get ahead of the pending lawsuits about its agreement with the FAA over immediately shortening the runway at Santa Monica Airport (KSMO) and closing the airport by 2028. On Tuesday night, the Santa Monica City Council officially approved a runway-shortening contract with engineering firm more »

There’s a new proposal on the table at the FAA that would make gaining RVSM approval for flight above 29,000 feet a whole lot simpler for U.S. aircraft. Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) was established starting in 1997 to reduce the vertical separation between aircraft operating between Flight Level 290 and 410 from 2,000 feet more »

The NTSB released earlier this week the final report on the crash of an Icon A5 amphibious LSA at Lake Berryessa, California, on May 5th of this year. The findings were consistent with what Icon suspected early on in the investigation, that the pilot accidentally flew at low level into a canyon with no possible more »

As you’ve likely heard, Lycoming released a Service Bulletin (SB632) recently calling for the inspection of late model engines or those engines overhauled within the past couple of years that might have connecting rod bushings (made from November of 2015 to November of 2016) that don’t fit properly and are therefore subject to damage, potentially more »

If you had a giant jet and 18 airborne hours to kill, what would you do? For a Boeing test crew, the answer was ‘get creative with your flight track.’ While conducting Extended-range Twin-engine Operations (ETOPS) testing on a 787 Dreamliner, the crew took it for a cross-country spin at 39,000 feet that traced a more »

The EAA Pilot Proficiency Center at AirVenture 2017 surpassed its previous records for attendance, and if you had a chance to go last year but not this year, you might be wondering how that was possible, since the Center was packed from early to late last year as well. The Pilot Proficiency Center aims to more »

Since it introduced the first model five years ago, the Garmin D2 (for “Direct To”) has been a popular item for the company, and every year or two it comes out with a new model that’s slimmer, better looking and more feature-rich. This year’s D2 watch is up to Charlie (the Bravo was the second more »

The highly successful auction of a 2017 Vision Jet—a partnership between Sporty’s and Cirrus Aircraft—was held over the week of AirVenture. The idea was that if the winning bid came in over the price of the aircraft, the additional funds would go to charity. Sporty’s reports that the Vision Jet model on auction cost $1,927,653 more »