Latest Posts – Page 33
Upside Down SR22 Goes Viral On Tiktok
This might destroy my street cred, but I’m not going to lie: I loved Top Gun: Maverick. Yes, it is effectively military fan fiction. Yes, it was odd that they kept talking about “there’s a 5th generation fighter out there” to avoid naming a plane to keep the enemy anonymous. Yes, it was silly and…
Read more… 24 Jun 22
Preliminary Details of a Helicopter Crash in New Jersey
I don’t normally write an article based on a preliminary report; however, this one made me sit back in my chair. On the 4th of June 2022, a Bell 407GXP helicopter, registration N98ZA, crashed near Fairfield, New Jersey. The Bell 407 is a single-engine helicopter with a four-blade “soft-in-plane” design rotor, which means that it…
Read more… 17 Jun 22
Bird Opens Cargo Door on A320
On the 20th of June in 2011, an Airbus A320-212, registration CS-TKJ, taxied to runway 05 at Aeroporto de Madeira for a scheduled morning flight from Funchal to Copenhagen with seven crew members and 105 passengers on board. A plane spotter taking photographs of aircraft at the threshold of runway 05 took a photograph of…
Read more… 10 Jun 22
The Human-Machine Interface: Reports from ASRS
CALLBACK is a NASA publication from their Aviation Safety Reporting System which takes anonymised ASRS reports and presents them in a “lessons learned” format. Every month, they focus on a different aspect of aviation safety, One issue that they have focused on recently, which coincidentally fits in with some of the accidents that we have…
Read more… 3 Jun 22
Avro York Runway Excursion at Stansted
While researching another subject, I discovered this accident report from 1956 which I just had to share with you. Normally, an aviation accident investigation is done by a group of experts who must come together to create a report of their findings and analyses. A good report is informative and clear in its conclusions; to…
Read more… 27 May 22
I am a teapot
A reader contacted me to ask about a missing flight 404; they had heard on a trivia podcast that the original computer error message 404 was based on two flights 404 that disappeared. I tracked down the podcast episode and while talking about the number 4 and then the 404 File Not Found error, they…
Read more… 20 May 22
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…
