Latest Posts   –  Page 20

Night Flying (PPL)

I’ll be in Switzerland all week, hoping that the weather is good enough for the AXALP 2023 airshow. To tide you over, I thought it might be fun to revisit an old piece that I wrote about learning to fly at night. Maybe it will shed some light on the recent night-flying posts. This was…

Read more… 15 Oct 23

The Illusion of a Perfect Landing

On the 6th of February 2010, at about half past four in the afternoon, an SAS flight took off from Copenhagen Airport for a short flight to France. Amazingly, everyone survived. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-81. The MD-81 is the longer variant of the MD-80: a five-abreast single-aisle airliner designed as the second-generation…

Read more… 13 Oct 23

Descending into Illusion: The Black Hole Effect

With no moon or city lights to guide you, the runway lights up ahead should be a beacon of safety. However, it might be a trap known as the black hole effect. Understanding our position, motion and attitude is critical to safe flight. Spatial disorientation is a collection of sensory illusions which lead us to…

Read more… 6 Oct 23

Final Report from the Contained Engine Failure of United flight 328

On the 20th of February 2021, United Airlines flight 328 made international headlines when a fan blade separated from the right engine shortly after take-off. Flight UA328 was a scheduled domestic flight from Denver International to Honolulu, Hawaii. The aircraft was a Boeing 777-200, registration N772UA, built in 1994 and powered by two Pratt &…

Read more… 29 Sep 23

ATC, Ambulance Needed, Accident Report and AXALP ’23

I have too many things I want to tell you about and not enough time to write them all so here’s a quick collection for you. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the Bank Holiday chaos in the UK when the air traffic control sub-system failed. There was a lively discussion and I’d like to…

Read more… 22 Sep 23

Low Altitude, High Risks: Fifteen minute flight turns fatal

It was an overcast day on the morning of the 8th of September 2011 when people in West Liberty, Ohio, heard the sounds of a low-flying aircraft approaching. The Cirrus SR22 had left Bellefontaine, Ohio at a quarter past 11 for a short flight, just fifteen nautical miles south to Urbana, where he planned to…

Read more… 15 Sep 23

Accident Reports

Bomber 139's Third Run: What the Investigation Found

In order to follow this analysis, you’ll need to have the details of the flight and the crash from last week’s article about the flight. When we last saw Bomber…

Bomber 139's Third Run: Downhill to Disaster

On the 6th of February 2023, a Boeing 737-3H4 Large Air Tanker crashed into a ridge line of 222 feet elevation in Fitzgerald River National Park in Western Australia. There…

Demystifying

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…

Durga Puja Pandal Shows Air India Flight 171 Crash

The following video from a religious festival in West Bengal, India, has caught a lot of social media attention. It shows a detailed representation of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner…

History

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…

The Disappearance of the Hawaii Clipper May Not Be as Mysterious as Was Thought

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.…

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…