System

Weather and NOTAMs are a huge percentage of the mountains of data controllers process daily, and a significant chunk of that comes from pilot reports. Some pilots wonder how the information they share gets processed by ATC. As one IFR reader expressed: It appears that most reports of icing/tops/bases that are reported to ATC never make it into the PIREP system.

Air traffic controllers need better training to effectively assist aircraft in distress, the NTSB said in a safety-recommendation report released in September. In September, the FAA began offering a $500 rebate to aircraft owners who upgrade to ADS-B-capable avionics. New FAA rules that became effective in August make it easier for operators to secure a commercial drone certificate, and its expected their numbers will quickly outpace manned-aircraft pilots. NTSB staffers who investigated the ditching of USAir 1549 in the Hudson River in 2009 say the Hollywood movie about the event, Sully, portrays them in an inaccurate and unfair light.

In the June issue, a reader had a question regarding the TERPZ FIVE departure at BWI. Your response in a lost com scenario was that you should climb to TERPZ at 11,000 then climb to your filed altitude after 10 minutes. I disagree. In the regs, 91.185 offers clear altitude guidance in a lost com situation. It is simply the highest of 3 altitudes-the altitude in your clearance, the altitude you were told to expect, and the highest IFR altitude. No mention is made about waiting for 10 minutes nor about a filed altitude.

Airports are usually born in the lesser-populated outskirts of their namesake town. Over time, they often find themselves enveloped by suburbs and industry. This close contact inevitably leads to tension, as city populations and aviation traffic demands grow in parallel, spurring a need to reign in the noise. Noise abatement often begins with good neighbor policies-typically voluntary, common-sense practices designed to assuage the locals.

While we usually train by flying right to minimums and then frequently flying the missed, how often in our actual flying do we miss and do it again, or divert to an alternate? How often do we get caught by surprise when the ceiling were expecting to break out of is lower than we thought (or lower than we need)? For those of us operating under 14 CFR Part 91, how often do we consider or actually find ourselves pushing the looser legal limits of landing under IFR?

Controllers cant just look where the traffic is now. Were mentally projecting every route ahead to see future conflicts. If Ive got two 120-knot aircraft at the same altitude converging on a point 20 miles away, in 10 minutes theyll be waving to each other. Something-like an altitude change-must be done in 10 minutes. If I need to use immediately in that altitude clearance, I screwed up by waiting way too long.

After selecting a specific approach, reviewing the other approaches might provide useful information. For example, until recently one Runway 16R approach at Reno/Tahoe (KRNO) had the note: Caution: intensive glider activity between PYRAM and WARMM up to 12,000. Seven other approaches transit the same area but offer no such warning.

The FAA issued its final rule in August on a controversial airworthiness directive requiring the replacement of aftermarket ECI cylinders in 6200 Continental aircraft engines. It took 13 years from start to finish, but in July the SolarImpulse team succeeded in its quest to fly a solar-powered aircraft around the world. It may not be the worlds sleekest or most beautiful aircraft, but the Airlander 10 is unique, and in July it left its hangar and flew for the first time. The number of general aviation accidents decreased in 2015 compared to the year before, continuing a recent trend, according to the 25th Joseph T. Nall Report by AOPAs Air Safety Institute.

Checklists get taken for granted-settle into your seat in the cockpit, pull out the booklet or laminated cards, turn to the Before Engine Start page and start following the steps. Fire up the engine(s) and proceed down to After Engine Start and Before Taxi. Sound familiar? For most flying under 14 CFR Part 91, this read-then-do routine is the norm all the way to Parking and Securing. While many pilots with a fair amount of experience-particularly those with their own aircraft-will often go a step beyond and make their own checklists, there are far more efficient methods to get things done on time and in the proper order.

The AC defines an EFB as an electronic display system intended mainly for cabin or cockpit use. To that end, an EFB can display aviation data such as charts and make basic calculations such as time, fuel and distance calculations. An EFB can also include other databases, perhaps FARs, or additional applications such as crosswind, weight-and-balance and holding calculators.

Some users of the National Airspace System live by Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and some do not. This is arguably the most significant difference between air carriers and general aviation when it comes to training, testing, and cockpit cultures. This is also, by some measures, a factor in accounting for the differences in accident rates. General aviation, particularly the single-pilot, personal-flying kind, relies not on the use of SOPs, but basic personal minimums for aeronautical decision making.

After a long struggle and many failed attempts by general-aviation advocacy groups, new federal legislation was passed this summer that mandates changes in the way private pilots are medically certified. The B-29 Doc took to the air in July for the first time in 60 years, following thousands of hours of restoration work by scores of dedicated volunteers. With a deadline of 2020 looming for the owners of more than 100,000 general-aviation aircraft to install ADS-B capabilities, the industry and regulators are creating incentives to encourage owners to upgrade sooner rather than later. On July 4, Siemens completed the first public flight of its hybrid-electric motor installed in an Extra 330LE aerobatic airplane, from an airfield near Dinslaken, Germany.