Latest Posts   –  Page 97

Cessna Missing Barrington Tops and the 2013 Search

Special thanks to Mark Nolan who filled me in on this and made scans of the original investigation available to me so that I could use primary sources for this post. On the 9th of August in 1981, a Cessna 210 registration VH-MDX was on a booked flight from Prosperpine to Bankstown, with a refueling…

Read more… 11 Oct 13

We’ve Lost the Cabin: Update on Southwest Flight 812

Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board released an accident brief about the emergency descent of Southwest Airlines flight 812 to Yuma, Arizona on the 1st of April, 2011. At 34,000 feet, climbing through to FL360, there was a loud sharp noise. The cabin experienced rapid decompression. Shawna Malvini Redden, a passenger on the flight,…

Read more… 4 Oct 13

The Incredible Story of David Riggs

It made international news: David Riggs’ body was discovered on Friday by a search and rescue team diving a lake in northeastern China after a Lancair 320, carrying the pilot and his translator, struck the surface and crashed. David Riggs, notorious stunt pilot who lost his pilot’s license twice, had been in the news –…

Read more… 27 Sep 13

Loss of Control – Collision with Water

Transportation Safety Board of Canada – Aviation Investigation Report A10P0147 Loss of Control – Collision with Water Atleo River Air Service Ltd. Cessna 185F, C-GIYQ Ahousat, British Columbia 29 May 2010 The first thing that struck me about this TSB Canada report was the title. Loss of control seemed an odd description and certainly isn’t…

Read more… 20 Sep 13

Unexpected Uses of Drones

I’ve become mildly obsessed with drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) after watching the excellent quadcopter demonstration on Ted. Raffaello D’Andrea: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters In a robot lab at TEDGlobal, Raffaello D’Andrea demos his flying quadcopters: robots that think like athletes, solving physical problems with algorithms that help them learn. In a series of…

Read more… 13 Sep 13

Aviation News and Posts that Made Me Smile

So, I’m finally back online but boy, do I have a lot of catching up to do. Here’s a number of links, photos and videos that made me smile as I started reading through the aviation news that I had missed. Young pilots praised for ‘textbook’ crash landing at Victoria Point – ABC News (Australian…

Read more… 6 Sep 13

Accident Reports

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…

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…

Demystifying

How to tell an F-16 Fighting Falcon from a Eurofighter Typhoon

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…

Extreme Turbulence in Singapore Airlines flight 321

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…

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

Terminally Early: The Berlin Viewing Platform

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…

A Few Good Stories

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…