Jun 30th, 2011 at 3:00PM: Last year H.R. 5900 was signed into law requiring the FAA to set a new 1,500 hour minimum flight time requirement for any new airline pilots including small companies hiring co-pilots for their 19-seat airplanes.
The law is mandated to take effect by August of 2013 and was one of the recommendations to come from the Colgan Flight 3407 accident in Buffalo, even though both accident pilots had ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
NTSB posts
Cockpit Chronicles: Landing an airline pilot job just got harder, but here's one way to do it.
Jun 30th, 2011 at 3:00PM: Last year H.R. 5900 was signed into law requiring the FAA to set a new 1,500 hour minimum flight time requirement for any new airline pilots including small companies hiring co-pilots for their 19-seat airplanes.
The law is mandated to take effect by August of 2013 and was one of the recommendations to come from the Colgan Flight 3407 accident in Buffalo, even though both accident pilots had ...Cockpit Chronicles: Airline de-icing
Feb 23rd, 2011 at 9:00AM: Not only does the frosty precipitation add weight to an aircraft, but it also disrupts the flow of air over the wings and tail and can cause an accident if the circumstances are just right. The FAA and NASA have gone through great lengths to teach pilots about the adverse effects that snow and ice can have on an airplane.
But the most important lesson pilots learned from was from the infamous ...Cockpit Chronicles: Nearly a near midair collision
Nov 12th, 2010 at 5:00PM: "Traffic, Traffic!" Announced the computer voice from the speaker on the ceiling just above me.
This is something we hear frequently enough, perhaps once every three or four flights when an airplane in close proximity is climbing rapidly with a clearance to level off 1,000 feet below us. The TCAS (Traffic Collision and Avoidance System) is just giving us a warning that, should the airplane not ...Turbulence hurts: leading cause of in-flight injury
Jul 22nd, 2010 at 9:00AM: If you aren't splattered in a fatal crash, you're most likely to be injured by severe turbulence. Don't get shaken up by this, though, odds are the biggest risk you'll face is a middle seat sandwiched by garlic-eater and a heavy talker (choose which way you want to read that one). While you can't be saved from the people around you, you can protect our body from a bouncing plane: put on your ...Pilots forced to talk about work in the cockpit
Feb 25th, 2010 at 12:00PM: Big Brother may not be watching, but he'll be listening. A new recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board would involve the use of "black box" recordings to monitor the conversations that occur among pilots in the cockpit. This comes on the heels of several high-profile incidents in which pilots were distracted. According to a report by USA Today, this would be the first time that ...Plane Answers: NTSB glosses over fatigue in the Colgan crash
Feb 4th, 2010 at 3:30PM: As a pilot, I feel the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has failed me. They're tasked to investigate accidents and report on them so the aviation community can hopefully avoid similar mistakes. They also submit recommendations to the FAA for changes they feel will make air travel safer.
But I have to question the impartiality of the NTSB after seeing the outcome of the Colgan 3407 ...Drunk pilot arrested in London
Nov 13th, 2009 at 1:00PM:
After (another) pilot was found drunk in London this week, the issue of pilot inebriation has become a frequent discussion topic. Since 1997, 11 commercial pilots, on average, have tested positive for alcohol every year. According to FAA regulations, pilots can't fly with a blood alcohol content of above 0.04 percent (it's 0.02 percent in Great Britain). Last year, 13 pilots tested ...
Irony: NWA pilots land late because of scheduling discussion
Oct 27th, 2009 at 4:00PM: The investigation into the overshooting Northwest Airlines flight continues. The National Transportation Safety Board has found that the pilots were distracted by conversations and the use of personal laptops when flying 150 miles past Minneapolis. One of the topics being bandied about was scheduling, though I suspect it didn't involve the impact of a late arrival because of a missed airport. ...Plane Answers: "Chit-chat" did NOT doom Colgan flight 3407
May 25th, 2009 at 12:00PM: Welcome to Gadling's feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away!
Allow me to invoke some commentary in lieu of today's usual Plane Answers post.
So much has been written about the Colgan Dash 8 accident in Buffalo, NY. As I've written before in a ...Helo pilot grounded because of in-flight porn star tryst
May 15th, 2009 at 4:00PM: Definition of good sex: you're willing to come back for more Definition of great sex: you're willing to piss away your pilot's license Definition of unforgettable sex: "great" sex with a porn star
David Martz is stupid enough to make receiving oral sex unpleasant. How? He was videotaped(!) on the receiving end of a passenger's lips while flying a helicopter around San Diego. If this is some ...Buffalo crash pilot lied on job application
May 13th, 2009 at 6:00PM: Remember that plane crash in February, in Buffalo? There were 50 fatalities. Well, it turns out the pilot would have lost his job if he hadn't lost his life. Marvin Renlsow, who was a pilot for Colgan, reportedly falsified his job application by not disclosing two failures on flight tests in small planes. Had his supervisors known, he "would have been immediately dismissed."
Currently, the ...
