mtrescott Like many ideas, the Clear lane at airport security checkpoints was born of necessity—the long security lines after 9/11—and seemed brilliant at the time. Why not provide a private sector alternative, fast passage through security lines, to the TSA? But last week Clear, owned by Verified Identity Pass Inc, became one more wreck along the … Read more
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” So begins Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities. But it’s just as true today if you fly with a GPS receiver. When you know which buttons to push and it does what you want, times are indeed good. But when you … Read more
It's probably just a coincidence, but the timing couldn’t be more ironic. Aviation news was dominated last week by 3 days of NTSB hearings that sought the cause of the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash that destroyed a home while en route to Buffalo, NY. Throughout the hearings, pictures emerged of pilots who were fatigued … Read more
[Update: Take our new GPS Survey here] Last year, the FAA asked me to write a series of safety tips they could email to airmen registered at www.faasafety.gov. If you’re unfamiliar with the Web site, go there now to register to receive email notification of safety seminars in your area. You’ll also find useful online … Read more
Inside a General Aviation Institution: Sporty's When you think of organizations that are working hard to preserve General Aviation, AOPA and EAA immediately come to mind. But Sporty’s, best known for its catalog mailed monthly to virtually every pilot in the U.S., is also working to nurture a vibrant GA pilot population. As founder Hal … Read more
[UPDATE: See Comments for reference to NTSB report for similar crash of Atlantic Coast Airlines in 1994]Last week’s aviation news was dominated by the NTSB hearings that sought the cause of the Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash that destroyed a home while en route to Buffalo, NY. Info on crash details was released on the … Read more
Yesterday, in Part I of this article, I talked about the “Impossible Turn,” the risky maneuver of attempting to turn back to the runway after a takeoff engine failure. The article must have struck a nerve, as I think it generated more reader comments, which you can read here, than any previous article. A couple … Read more
An email exchange I'll share reminded me of this quote from Rod Machado: "The most important decisions you’ll ever make in an airplane should be made before you enter the airplane." If you haven’t previously thought through and decided what you’ll do if the engine quits on takeoff, I encourage you to take a few … Read more
Video virals are the rage. It’s easy to find a viral video definition; it’s much harder to figure out how to get onto the list of viral videos of the year. But a blog posting today tells how one company made the now famous reconstruction of the “Miracle on the Hudson” water landing join the … Read more
Last year, my imagination was captured by the ICON A5 trailerable seaplane. Last week I talked with Carl Deitrich and wrote about his Terrafugia Transition roadable airplane (think flying car). Just before I published the article on the Terrafugia, I found in my pile of press releases one from Samson Motorworks with an update on … Read more