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Top Stories
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Article
The fuel didn't look right—and it didn't smell right: It was completely clear, like moonshine, and it had a dank, musky odor. AOPA Editor at Large Dave Hirschman shares what happened when he flew his Experimental-category RV-3B powered by a 160-horsepower Lycoming IO-320 engine sipping Swift Fuels' 94UL. Find out how the aircraft performed with 94UL versus 100LL...
 
AOPA Live This Week
Arizona offers aviators jaw-dropping scenes, including the Grand Canyon. Learn what else you can do on the way to or from the AOPA Fly-In at Prescott Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Also this week, one of the real-life passengers portrayed in the new movie Sully about U.S. Airways Flight 1549 went on to earn his own pilot certificate; and 15 years after general aviation was all but banished from Washington, D.C., College Park Airport, the world's oldest continuously operating airfield, doggedly continues to operate. Watch AOPA Live This Week®, Sept. 15...
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AOPA Fly-Ins
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Article
Ernest A. Love Field is a modern high-desert airport serving Prescott, Arizona, a charming city that retains much of its Old West flavor. It's also a hotbed of flight training activity, between a growing Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus and several commercial flight schools. Visit this unique educational environment for the last AOPA Fly-In of 2016. Read more...
Article
Whether you are wacko for Wacos or want to experience the bizjet world through a tour of Duncan Aviation, the AOPA Fly-In at Battle Creek, Michigan, has something for everyone. Check out these top 10 reasons you won't want to miss the fly-in Sept. 16 and 17. Read more...
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Technique and Safety
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Video
The AOPA Air Safety Institute looks at flying the traffic pattern and how pilots' actions or inaction can put them at an altitude where an inadvertent stall or spin may be unrecoverable. This altitude is described as the "red zone," where pilots must concentrate on keeping the airplane, themselves, and their passengers safe. Please share the video, made possible by The Tom Davis Fund, with others so they, too, can increase safety in the traffic pattern. Watch the video...
Article
The AOPA Air Safety Institute joined the FAA in urging Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone owners to leave them on the ground. Read more...
Video
Pilots can learn from others' mistakes, so it helps to review accidents to understand how to avoid a similar fate. The AOPA Air Safety Institute's Accident Case Study: Cross-Country Crisis probes a pilot's ill-fated decisions, which led to a fatal accident. The story illustrates why constantly assessing decisions correctly before and during a flight is so important. Watch the video...
Login required
Enjoying the fall weather, you plan to fly from Vermont's Burlington International Airport to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. But you'll have fog to contend with before landing at Nantucket Memorial Airport. With this quiz from the AOPA Air Safety Institute, see how you fare on this instrument flight. Take the quiz...
Article
Aviation Performance Solutions will provide onsite trainers to teach U.S. Army instructors how to prevent loss-of-control accidents under a seven-year contract. Read more...
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Advocacy
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Advocacy
The FAA has announced that its Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) rebate reservation system will be available sometime during the afternoon Sept. 19, allowing aircraft owners to apply online for a $500 rebate toward the cost of installing ADS-B Out equipment in their aircraft. Read more...
Advocacy
Does smarter mean safer when pilots use the in-flight weather information available on mobile devices and apps in their cockpits? Or does the data deluge create a false sense of security when a glance out the window would have led to a change of course? Read more...
Advocacy
AOPA is working to ensure that obstructions limiting use of existing and soon-to-be-published instrument approaches at California's Santa Monica Municipal Airport are mitigated promptly, and that an expected prohibition on night use of the procedures is lifted once the hazards are removed. Read more...
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Health
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Pilot Protection Services
If you research your aches and pains online, check the sources you use and don't succumb to cyberchondria. Dr. Jonathan Sackier recommends proactively taking care of yourself to prevent health problems from the start. Read more...
Webinar
Receiving a letter from the FAA stating that your application for a medical certificate has been denied can be devastating. Is there a way to get it back? AOPA Director of Medical Certification Gary Crump and AOPA Pilot Protection Services Attorney Jared Allen will discuss the issue during a webinar Sept. 28 at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Read more...
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Technology
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Article
Virgin Galactic has resumed flight tests less than two years after a catastrophic failure attributed to human error claimed the co-pilot's life and delayed the dream of launching civilians into space. Virgin Spaceship Unity, the product of a collaboration between Virgin Galactic; its subsidiary, The Spaceship Co.; and Scaled Composites of Mojave, California; flew for the first time Sept. 8, securely attached to its mother ship. Read more...
Article
The Graflight 8 diesel engine aiming to be the first clean-sheet diesel made specifically for aviation to reach the market has taken another step toward certification. Engineered Propulsion Systems announced Sept. 12 that the Graflight 8 design has been "frozen," capping a years-long development program and marking an important step toward FAA certification. Read more...
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Article
The FAA has granted Piper Aircraft a production certificate for the M600 single-engine turboprop. Read more...
Article
Recent real-world tests demonstrated that the best defense against a rogue drone depends a lot on the drone, what you're trying to defend, and where it is situated. A high-speed flying net and an integrated electronic detection and jamming system won the top prizes as The MITRE Corp. evaluated 42 systems developed in eight countries with $100,000 up for grabs for the best drone grabbers. Read more...
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Travel
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Slideshow
Pilots, aircraft, and ground-based aviation enthusiasts descended on South Carolina's Triple Tree Aerodrome near Greenville for the tenth annual Triple Tree Fly-In Sept. 7 through 11. The airfield's signature 7,000-by-400-foot bentgrass landing strip was the star attraction, followed closely by Southern hospitality. Read more...
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Financial
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Article
Yingling Aviation in Wichita, Kansas, announced that it has launched a dealer network to sell its remanufactured Cessna 172s. Read more...
AOPA Aviation Finance
Danny Schnautz turned to AOPA Aviation Finance to finance the purchase of his Mooney Ovation 2 because he didn't want to be "stuck out there on his own" during the buying process. Read more...
Member benefit
If you're an AOPA member who is nearing retirement and needs life insurance (or more of it), AOPA offers a Senior "50+" Group Term Life Insurance Plan. Read more...
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News and Notes
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Article
Austrian race pilot and extreme sports athlete Hannes Arch was remembered as a "life-loving adventurer" and a world-class athlete, both in the cockpit of high-performance aerobatic airplanes and in the mountains he loved, lived in, and worked in throughout his life. Arch, 48, was killed Sept. 8 while flying a helicopter in the Austrian Alps. Read more...
Online resource
Teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 have until Sept. 30 to apply for $115,000 in scholarships through the AOPA You Can Fly High School Flight Training Scholarship and AOPA AV8RS Scholarship programs. Twenty flight training scholarships will be awarded to high school students ages 15 to 18, and four scholarships will be awarded to AOPA AV8RS members ages 13 to 18. Learn more about the scholarships and apply today...
Article
The fifty-third National Championship Air Races kicked off Sept. 14 at Reno/Stead Airport in northern Nevada. The races continue through the weekend, concluding with the Unlimited Gold championship on Sept. 18. Read more...
Redbird preps for Migration
Redbird Flight Simulations Inc. announced Sept. 13 that Cirrus co-founder and CEO Dale Klapmeier will deliver the Oct. 25 keynote during the annual Migration flight training conference in San Marcos, Texas. According to a news release, the Oct. 24 through 26 event "serves as a focal point for flight training professionals to discuss innovative instructional techniques, newly developing technologies, and successful business strategies." Visit Redbird's Migration registration page for more information.
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Career Opportunities
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AOPA career opportunities
Ever dream of turning your passion for aviation into a career? AOPA is looking for a government affairs federal and state vice president, Central Southwest regional manager, account executive, annual giving manager, administrative assistant, donor relations director, development communications director, high school aviation initiative manager, flying clubs initiative senior manager, New York You Can Fly ambassador, aviation technical specialist, product marketing specialist, advertising-marketing coordinator, and member services representative. To learn more about these and other AOPA career opportunities, visit AOPA Online.
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Question of the Week
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Question
A pilot carrying passengers landed 45 minutes after sunset but wasn't night current. Did he violate a federal aviation regulation?
Answer
The regulation covering night currency, 14 CFR 61.57, states that a pilot is required to be night current to carry passengers for the period beginning one hour after sunset and ending one hour before sunrise. This pilot was on the ground well before that. However, being legal and current isn't always the same as being proficient or safe. Remember that night landing currency can count for day currency as well, and certificated flight instructors don't count as passengers. So if you aren't current or confident, take a CFI along—you might just learn something.
Got a question for our technical services staff? Contact AOPA.
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 Education and Seminars
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Flight Instructor Refresher Courses
Sep 17-18 - Phoenix, Arizona; and Sandston, Virginia
Sep 24-25 - Colorado Springs, Colorado
Oct 1-2 - Windsor Locks, Connecticut; and Hollywood, Florida
Oct 8-9 - Santa Clara, California; and Nashville, Tennessee
For a complete schedule, see AOPA Online. Can't make it in person? Sign up for the Air Safety Institute's Online eFIRC.
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Air Safety Institute Safety Seminars
Sep 19 - Reno, Nevada; The Woodlands, Texas; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Sep 20 - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Houston, Texas; and Sacramento, California
Sep 21 - San Antonio, Texas; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and Milpitas, California
Sep 22 - Santa Rosa, California; Austin, Texas; and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
Topics vary—for details and a complete schedule, see AOPA Online.
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Rusty Pilots Seminars
Sep 17 - Battle Creek, Michigan; Santa Paula, California; Roanoke, Virginia; Winter Haven, Florida; Medford, New Jersey; and Trenton, Maine
Sep 24 - Westminster, Maryland; and Columbus, Ohio
Oct 1 - Prescott, Arizona; Wichita, Kansas; Camarillo, California; Renton, Washington; and Carlsbad, California
Oct 7 - Fort Myers, Florida
For a complete schedule, see AOPA Online.
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ePilot Editors:
Alyssa Miller
Jim Moore
David Tulis
Production Assistant:
Melissa Whitehouse
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Contributors:
Mike Collins
Sarah Deener
Dave Hirschman
Tom Horne
Alton K. Marsh
Warren Morningstar
Dan Namowitz
Jill W. Tallman
Elizabeth Tennyson
Ian J. Twombly
Julie Summers Walker
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