Latest Posts   –  Page 13

Overrun in Ireland

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 arrived early. He was rostered to do a local flight with a new club member. He held his commercial licence but was presumably new to…

Read more… 4 Oct 24

Rotation Gone Wrong: The Critical Error Behind LATAM’s Milan Tail Strike

On the 9th of July 2024, flight LA8073, operated by the Chilean airline LATAM, departed from Milano Malpensa for a passenger flight to São Paulo, Brazil. However, during the take-off run the “back end suddenly dropped after an apparent malfunction”, as Italian newspaper Corriere delle Serra described it. I still can’t watch the video without…

Read more… 27 Sep 24

Icing, Systems, and Human Factors: Preliminary Findings on Voepass flight 2283

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 district, killing everyone on board. CENIPA (CENtro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos), the Brazilian Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Centre, is charged with…

Read more… 20 Sep 24

Vintage Chipmunk Crash at Jandakot

On Wednesday, the ATSB released an urgent advisory asking all owners of the vintage aircraft DHC-1 Chipmunk to check their rivets. This advisory came as a part of the still in-progress investigation of a fatal crash at Jandakot Airport on the 26 of April 2024. The DHC-1 Chipmunk is a two-seater single-engine aircraft introduced in…

Read more… 13 Sep 24

Over-The-Top Gun: When Overconfidence Meets Gravity

I’m excited to share this guest post with you, by our own David Provan! It’s a great piece about his early experience flying the Champ. Over-The-Top Gun by David Provan I was eighteen in 1961. I’d not long done my first ever solo flight on an Aeronca Champion 7EC at Middle Districts Aero Club, Palmerston…

Read more… 7 Sep 24

Motor Glider’s Unexpected Touchdown on the A419

A few days ago, on the 27th of August 2024, a Grob G109B landed on the A419 road in Gloucestershire. The Grob G109B, developed by Grob Aircraft in Germany, is a motorised glider, which sounds like it could be a contradiction in terms. The two-seater low-wing aircraft is capable of both powered and unpowered flight.…

Read more… 30 Aug 24

Accident Reports

TNflygirl and the Beech Debonair

On the 7th of December 2023, a Beech 35-C33 Debonair crashed into terrain. The private pilot and the passenger, the pilot’s father, were both killed on impact. The private flight…

At All Costs

On the 11th of December 2024, the passenger in the right seat of a 1973 Grumman AA-5 was recording a video as they approached Pearland Regional Airport in Texas. The…

Demystifying

Trump Threatens to Ground Canadian Aircraft Over Gulfstream Certification

The US President, Donald Trump, posted the following to Truth Social last night. Based on the fact that Canada has wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream 500,…

Another quick round of questions and answers

It’s time for another Questions and Answers session. I started this series a few years back, when a reader asked if there was a way to pose aviation questions outside…

History

Four Point Two Stars Where You Only Stop If You Have To

I always look up airports when I’m writing about them, partly out of habit and partly because I’m afraid I’ll miss an important detail. When I was writing Any Landing…

Gladys Ingle Inflight Wheel Change: Emergency Action or Stunt?

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…

Fun Stuff

Aviation Stories You Might Have Missed

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season. This week, I’ve put together a compilation of interesting items in the press that you might have missed while enjoying…

Nathan Pyle Strange Worlds

Thank you so much for all the kind words. I don’t quite have the wherewithal to respond to each of you individually but I very much appreciate all of you…