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Top Stories
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Advocacy
The FAA is demanding answers from city officials in Santa Monica, California, and is clearly unwilling to accept at face value claims that the city will provide fuel, flight training, and aircraft maintenance services after kicking the current providers out of Santa Monica Municipal Airport. Read more...
 
Advocacy
AOPA and the National Business Aviation Association have jointly filed a motion to intervene in a case before the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit regarding the continuing operation of Santa Monica Municipal Airport. Read more...
Advocacy
The Los Angeles Times has joined the chorus of voices urging the city of Santa Monica to keep its airport open and operating on reasonable terms even as legal maneuvering over the future of the California field continues. Read more...
AOPA Live This Week
The aviation community lost a great advocate and passionate pilot with the passing of Arnold Palmer. Although Palmer's achievements as a golf legend were widely known, his accomplishments in the cockpit are no less impressive. This week's show comes to you from Prescott, Arizona, home of the final AOPA Fly-In of 2016 on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, where we will bring you up to date on the latest developments in the battle over the future of California's Santa Monica Municipal Airport. Also this week, a grass runway with a rich history in Pennsylvania draws a collection of rare taildraggers and their pilots for a picnic. Watch AOPA Live This Week®, Sept. 29...
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AOPA Fly-Ins
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Article
The Old West meets the high desert in Prescott, Arizona, which is both a destination and a gateway to Arizona's scenic wonders. Pilots in the Southwest will want to be there Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 for AOPA's fourth and final 2016 fly-in. Read more...
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Technique and Safety
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Accident analysis
To a pilot in a difficult situation, a sharp air traffic controller can be the best friend in the world. However, not all controllers have firsthand experience in the cockpit, and the depth of their understanding of what a pilot in distress might be going through varies. Even the best can't part the clouds, restart the engine, or turn darkness into daylight. Read more in this special report from the AOPA Air Safety Institute.
Online resource
Cockpit distractions, confusing airport layouts, and miscommunication can result in trouble when taxiing to and from the runway. The AOPA Air Safety Institute's Safety Spotlight about runway safety offers help. Tackle the complexities of airport surface operations after reviewing videos, quizzes, flash cards, and the recently updated Runway Safety online course. Learn more...
AOPA Premier Partner sponsored content
Many pilots shy away from landing at a busy Class B airport, but watching a Cessna 172 land between Boeing jets at Boston's Logan International Airport is interesting whether or not you ever want to do it. Listen to the rapid-fire ATC communications and watch pilot Keith Smith slip into a smooth landing in this video from AOPA Premier Partner PilotWorkshops. Watch the video...
Online resource
The AOPA Air Safety Institute's Flight Instructor Refresher Course is the most comprehensive FAA-approved CFI renewal program available—and it puts all of its revenue back into developing free safety initiatives. Not a CFI? No problem: You, too, can learn what an instructor needs to know. The two-day, in-person course provides an opportunity to network with other flight instructors in your area, while the online course can be completed at your convenience at home. Learn more…
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Advocacy
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Advocacy
Twenty-one organizations representing hundreds of thousands of general aviation and business pilots have sent a letter to the National Transportation Safety Board asking the panel to "publicly convey that general aviation is one of the safest modes of transportation in the United States." Read more...
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Health
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Pilot Protection Services
Flu viruses can be detected year-round in the United States, but the bug is most common between December and March, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As flu season nears, find out what the CDC recommends regarding the flu shot. Read more...
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Technology
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Video
Celebrating 70 years of flight research, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center has released a YouTube video highlighting the technological advances made over the decades, from supersonic travel to space exploration and atmospheric research. The center also provides a glimpse into the new technologies that it is testing, including supersonic aircraft quiet enough for overland routes. Watch the video...
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Gear
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Article
ForeFlight customers who want in-cockpit satellite weather from engine start to shutdown can now get it through SiriusXM. Read more...
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Travel
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AOPA Pilot magazine
To promote and publicize their general aviation airports, many states have "passport" or ambassador programs in which they offer a passport book that can be stamped to keep a record of landing at each airport; pilots present it to claim an incentive prize. In Maine, it's a lobster dinner. In Virginia, North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Carolina, you can get a leather flight jacket. In New Jersey there's an instrument flying course, and in North Carolina a pilot's watch. In some states it's cash. Find out if your state offers rewards...
Online resource
Some of the world's most beautiful natural landscapes are just across the Canadian border, and autumn is a colorful time to enjoy them. Check out AOPA's travel resources, including a short video, to prepare you with everything you'll need for a general aviation flight north. Learn more...
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Financial
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Article
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. announced Sept. 28 that it sold the last G150, ending a 10-year production run for the model that replaced the G100. Today almost 120 G150s crisscross the sky for operators in the United States, Canada, Central and South America, Europe, and Asia, the company said. Read more...
AOPA Aviation Finance
Rebuilding an aircraft engine is expensive. JP Guilbault used AOPA Aviation Finance to refinance his Cessna 172S, secure a lower interest rate, and use the remaining principal to rebuild the aircraft's engine. Read more...
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News and Notes
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Article
Arnold Palmer, a man remembered as "The King" of the fairways and as an accomplished pilot, died of heart complications Sept. 25 at age 87, according to Reuters. Read more...
Article
Flying a rock star to and from a gig; earning an instrument flight instructor certificate; and qualifying in Australia to fly large, experimental drones before turning 19, Colorado teen Olivia Scout Lockhart has already packed quite a lot into an aviation career that has only just begun. Read more...
Article
More than 35 years after President Ronald Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers who had gone on strike in the midst of a bitter labor battle, the FAA still faces periodic waves of shortages. For the first time in seven years, however, the FAA is poised to catch up with recruiting efforts, at least in the near term: The agency is on track to hire 1,781 new air traffic controllers before the end of December. Read more...
Article
Among the turbine crowd, the TBM Owners and Pilots Association ranks high when it comes to its members' enthusiasm for the airplane. Many of its 805 members have owned successive TBMs as these single-engine turboprops have moved through their design evolution: the TBM 700, 850, 900, and most recently, 930. Read more...
Article
A new flying club in Florida helped a rusty pilot return to active status on the club's very first flight when the group's president completed a flight review in its leased Cessna 172. Read more...
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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, Great Lakes regional manager, account executive, annual giving manager, 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, and advertising-marketing coordinator. 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
While discussing IFR lost-communications procedures, you and the other members of your flying club agree on what route and altitude should be flown, but there is a difference of opinion as to when to descend from that altitude and when to attempt an approach. Where can you find the answer?
Answer
You can find the answer in 14 CFR 91.185(c)(3). The basic rule is that if your clearance limit is a fix that starts an approach, you should commence your descent or your descent and approach "as close as possible" to the expect-further-clearance (EFC) time or ETA (if no EFC time is provided). If your clearance limit is not a fix from which an approach starts, you should leave the fix at the EFC time or upon arrival (if no EFC time is provided) "and proceed to a fix from which an approach begins," then follow the previous rule for commencing the descent and approach. For more information on this topic, read this AOPA Online article. This FAA flow chart illustrates the decision process.
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
Oct 1-2 - Windsor Locks, Connecticut; and Hollywood, Florida
Oct 8-9 - Santa Clara, California; and Nashville, Tennessee
Oct 15-16 - Columbia, South Carolina; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Wichita, Kansas
Nov 12-13 - San Diego, California
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
Oct 5 - West Lafayette, Indiana
Oct 6 - Zionsville, Indiana
Oct 8 - Watkins, Colorado
Oct 10 - Herndon, Virginia; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Danville, Kentucky
Topics vary—for details and a complete schedule, see AOPA Online.
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Rusty Pilots Seminars
Oct 1 - Prescott, Arizona; Wichita, Kansas; Camarillo, California; Renton, Washington; and Carlsbad, California
Oct 7 - Fort Myers, Florida
Oct 8 - Morrisville, North Carolina; Stevensville, Maryland; Pearland, Texas; Watkins, Colorado; and Grantsburg, Wisconsin
Oct 12 - Middleton, Wisconsin
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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