63 Flight School Kidnapping, Suggestions for Improving Modern Avionics, IFR Questions + GA News

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he general manager at IASCO Flight Training in Redding, CA and his assistant were arrested on Friday, May 25, 2018 on suspicion of kidnapping one of the students and trying to force him to return to China. Police were tipped off around 7:15 a.m. by the student's brother, who lives in Shanghai, China. The student recorded the encounter, and you can click here to listen to it. Caution: it contains a lot of foul language.

Baihan Fu called the Redding Police Department after receiving information that his brother, Tianshu Shi, was assaulted earlier in the morning. Officers went to Redding Municipal Airport, where IASCO trains its pilots, and arrested Jonathan Lipton McConkey, 48, about an hour after the call came in to police. They also arrested Kelsi Hoser, who the department identified as McConkey's assistant.

Shi, who also goes by the name Chris, was visibly distraught and shaken, when he spoke to a reporter. He alleged McConkey gripped his right arm and hurt him and told him he needed to get on the plane to go to the Bay Area and on to China. Shi called his brother Fu in China to tell him what was happening. Fu, who Shi said spoke better English, reported to Redding police what was happening to his brother.

Later in episode 63, listeners respond with suggestions up on what avionics manufacturers could improve. Suggestions include developing standard operating procedures and workflows pilots can use to improve safety, better documentation, APIs so that simulator manufacturers don't have to emulate avionics, easier updating of navigational databases and firmware, and making avionics as easy to use as an iPhone.

Also, Max answers listener questions about IFR, including what in-flight equipment failures must be reported to ATC, and whether to delete the airport from a flight plan when it precedes an instrument approach.

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