After my first solo, that wondrous moment of suddenly feeling in control of the plane and realising that I could fly, dammit! I kicked into high gear. There was only one week of the course left. Desperate to catch up, I got up earlier and earlier, leaving my seven-year-old son fast asleep for the childminder…
Read more… 17 Dec 10
I wrote previously about the Qantas flight QF32 Airbus A380 which made an emergency landing in Singapore last month. Investigation: AO-2010-089 – Inflight engine failure – Qantas, Airbus A380, VH-OQA, overhead Batam Island, Indonesia, 4 November 2010 Following a normal takeoff, the crew retracted the landing gear and flaps. The crew reported that, while maintaining…
Read more… 10 Dec 10
Our flight to Gatwick was cancelled so I spent the day peering at webcams all over the UK to see the status of the airfields. It’s great to see how many UK airfields have web cams showing the apron and the runway and even more so when you get to look at snow whilst sitting…
Read more… 3 Dec 10
The Aviation Herald has the details of the final report by the Dutch Safety Board regarding the Easyjet near miss in Amsterdam. The article includes a translation of the probable cause in English. It sounds like it was a close call: Report: Easyjet A319 at Amsterdam on Mar 5th 2007, began takeoff without clearance An…
Read more… 26 Nov 10
There is a great set of photographs making the rounds of single-engine aircraft flying in formation over water. When I first saw them, I wasn’t sure if they were real or photoshopped. I found out on the PPRuNe Forums that the photographs are real and show the South African aerobatic team the Flying Lions, photographed…
Read more… 19 Nov 10
On the 19th of February 2023, a private pilot arranged to meet with a flight instructor at Birr Airfield to fly a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. That morning, the flight instructor…
On the 9th of August 2024 at 16:22, Voepass flight 2283, a scheduled flight from Cascavel, Paraná, to Guarulhos, São Paulo entered a flat spin and crashed into a residential…
There are a number of reasons why you might need to quickly point out the differences between a General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and a Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon. You might…
A few days ago (21st of May 2024), Singapore Airlines flight SQ321 encountered heavy turbulence on a passenger flight from London-Heathrow to Singapore. There were 229 on board, including eighteen…
This video of a mid-air wheel exchange goes viral once a year or so, but I never get tired of watching it. Last week, it showed up on Reddit and…
This week, we have a guest post by J.B. Rivard who wrote an article for the American Aviation Historical Society (AAHS) and used one of my articles as a reference.…
Mistakes were made. All of them were mine. Before I left for Dresden, I planned out my full itinerary. Berlin is a much busier airport than Tallinn, so I needed…
I’m in Dresden at the moment and I’m afraid I haven’t had a free moment to write you a new article. Luckily, lots of other people are on the internet…