Free Republic

U.S. airlines are facing what threatens to be their most serious pilot shortage since the 1960s, with higher experience requirements for new hires about to take hold just as the industry braces for a wave of retirements. Federal mandates taking effect next summer will require all newly hired pilots to have at least 1,500 hours of prior flight experience—six times the current minimum—raising the cost and time to train new fliers in an era when pay cuts and more-demanding schedules already have made the profession less attractive. Meanwhile, thousands of senior pilots at major airlines soon will start hitting the...

The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel has asked the Attorney General and Legal Advisor to the Government, Yehuda Weinstein, to launch a criminal investigation against the people who signed a petition calling on IAF pilots to refuse orders if they are told to attack Iran. A letter from the Forum's representative, Attorney Yossi Fuchs, mentions that according to media reports, 400 people, including senior members of academia, have signed the letter. Fuchs quotes Article 110 in the criminal code that says that "whoever incited or tried to persuade a person serving in the armed forces to disobey a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Pilot’s Bill of Rights, which made it through the legislative process in “record time,” according to an official with the Experimental Aircraft Association, has been approved by both the Senate and the House of Representatives and is now on President Obama’s desk awaiting his signature. The president has 10 days from the time it made it to his desk on July 26 to sign the bill, said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate General Aviation Caucus and a CFI with more than 10,000 hours who introduced the bill. “We have every reason to...

Two Brazilian air force pilots could be collared by the long arm of the law after making a low-altitude supersonic fly pass which shattered every window of Brazil's Supreme Court. If they know what's good for them, it might be a good idea to keep flying and put as much distance between them and the angry lawyers inside the blown-out building Swooping low over the structure housing the Supremo Tribunal Federal in Brasilia, the two French-made Mirage 2000 jets generated a massive shockwave - destroying the building's glass facade. The war planes had been taking part in the ceremony of...

Famed Southwest Virginia spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers will posthumously receive the Silver Star next week in honor of his captivity in the Soviet Union more than 50 years ago.

U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Henry thought the tiny red dots on his skin were insect bites. But as he relaxed at a Florida beach house with a fellow pilot on a day off in 1990, he noticed he was the only one getting bitten. Henry wouldn’t learn until later that the dots were capillaries breaking under the strain of nitrogen bubbles that had formed during his latest flight in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, 10 hours earlier. He would find out the hard way how much worse it could get. Henry had been flying the U-2 since 1987, and...

Air Force leaders provided an update on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board study into the F-22 Raptor life support systems and flight operations during a briefing in the Pentagon March 29. Retired Gen. Gregory Martin, an aviator and a former commander of two major commands, chaired the nine member SAB team which studied the aircrafts' on-board oxygen generation systems and briefed its findings and recommendations in trying to determine a root cause for pilots experiencing unexplained physiological events with the F-22 Raptor. "From April 2008 until May 2011, the Air Force experienced 14 physiological incidents with the fleet of...

A US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) panel investigating a series of hypoxia-like incidents afflicting pilots flying the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor has not discovered what is causing the problem, but service officials vow they will find the root cause. "I am convinced there is a root cause," says Maj Gen Charles Lyon, Air Combat Command's (ACC) director of operations. "I want everyone to know--particularly those who operate it and their families--we will not rest until we find that root cause." The USAF is continuing to test the F-22's life-support systems to try to determine what is still causing...

They're already allowed to carry guns in the cockpit, but many pilots say that's not enough to keep aviation as safe as it should be. They want police-like authority to holster a weapon all day long, whether they're at the controls, riding in back of a plane or eating lunch in a terminal. "That would put us in line with standard law enforcement," said Marcus Flagg, president of the Federal Flight Deck Officer Association, which represents thousands of armed pilots. He declined to say exactly how many pilots now carry guns, but he said the number is just behind the...

"Must not say Osama instead of Obama..."

For more than two years, the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 over the mid-Atlantic in the early hours of June 1, 2009, remained one of aviation's great mysteries. How could a technologically state-of-the art airliner simply vanish? With the wreckage and flight-data recorders lost beneath 2 miles of ocean, experts were forced to speculate using the only data available: a cryptic set of communications beamed automatically from the aircraft to the airline's maintenance center in France. As PM found in our cover story about the crash, published two years ago this month, the data implied that the plane had...

DALLAS — In a case involving Continental Airlines, a federal appeals court says benefit administrators don't have the power to decide whether employees' divorces are real or fake. Continental sued nine of its pilots, claiming that they got "sham" divorces so their ex-spouses could tap their lump-sum pensions while they still worked for the airline — then remarried the same partners. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a lower-court ruling that employers can't consider or investigate why employees get divorced or whether the divorce is genuine. The appeals court dismissed Continental's 2009 lawsuit, which was filed...

Pilots refuse to fly Independence Day atheist banners by John Jalsevac July 4, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An atheist organization that sought to celebrate Independence Day by flying banners promoting atheism all across the United States nearly ran into a major snag – most of the pilots working for the advertizing company refused to fly the banners. USA Today reports that 4 out of 5 pilots working for Fly Signs Aerial Advertising refused to participate in the campaign, which involved banners saying, “God-less America,” and “Atheism is patriotic.” Only 17 of the company’s 85 pilots agreed to participate. USA Today quotes...

Aircraft DATE:18/02/11 SOURCE:Flight International Vibrating cockpit seat proposed for pilot alerts By David Kaminski-Morrow Boeing has floated the possibility of using vibrating cockpit seats as an alternative mechanism to visual and aural indicators on the flightdeck. Its suggestion is contained in a newly published patent document that details a proposal for a module mounted beneath the pilot's seat which, once triggered, would provide a tactile signal to the crew. While the document mentions various types of alerts requiring immediate pilot action - such as terrain-avoidance or stall-warning alarms - it says there are several other instances during flight where the...

The next generation of Top Guns may be gamer geeks. That's because the X-47B just took its very first flight, heralding a whole new era of military flying--automatic or remote-piloted, stealthy, deadly combat aircraft. Technically the X-47B is an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV), but what it really is is an evolution of those Global Hawk and Predator drone aircraft that made the Iraq War look like a computer game when viewed at the military's tech hubs, mixed in with the same kind of stealth technology that makes the B-2 Spirit bomber such a powerful, frightening tool of force projection....

'Flying Wild Alaska' hits the airwaves Van Williams | Arctic Sounder | Dec 29, 2010 For years, the Tweto family of Unalakleet took Alaskans to the air as owners of Era Aviation. Now, their story is hitting the TV airwaves, thanks to the Discovery Channel. Meet the unconventional family that rules Alaska's most dangerous skies in a new 10-part reality series, 'Flying Wild Alaska,' which premieres Friday, Jan. 14. Watch how their airline is a lifeline to the Bush by delivering key goods that otherwise wouldn't arrive. Where the road ends, the Tweto family's adventure begins. And it's all caught...

Over a third of U.S. Air Force (active and reserve) have taken the new PT (Physical Training), and the results are better than expected. As of September, only 17.5 percent failed the test. It was only four months ago that the air force began enforcing new physical fitness standards. Initially, a little over 20 percent failed. The air force expected as many as 40 percent to flunk. Those who fail have 90 days to get ready for another try. An airman is subject to discharge if they fail two tests in a row, or four in 24 months. Each airman...

Intelligent advanced aircraft is one thing, but if the Air Force wants to be in prime warfighting condition, its pilots had better come with advanced weaponry, too. That’s why the Air Force wants neuroweapons that can enhance airmen’s performance, while degrading the mental states of their foes. The Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing just updated a call for proposals that examine “Advances in Bioscience for Airmen Performance,” according to Wired's Danger Room. The initial announcement came out last November, but no one has yet come up with new stimulants that help airmen focus, or models that fuse...

Two Navy helicopters from North Island Naval Air Station were damaged, and their pilots are now grounded, after some bizarre flying over Lake Tahoe last week. A Navy spokesman confirmed Thursday that a video posted on YouTube is genuine footage of two MH-60 Romeo helicopters from North Island’s Helicopter Maritime Strike 41 squadron. The video shows the $33 million helicopters flying low over the lake. One seems to lose control, spinning and crashing into the water. The pilot then regains control and pulls the craft back into the air. The Navy wouldn’t identify the pilots or say whether the...

A JetBlue pilot who was abruptly removed from duty in the crew lounge of Boston's Logan International Airport was carrying a gun, a Massachusetts State Police spokesman told ABC News. -snip - The pilot, whose name has not been released, was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, officials said.