Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

The FAA issued a new Airworthiness Directive today that warns of a failure by the flight guidance control system (FGCS) in certain Embraer E170s and E190s to display some “caution” messages when warranted. Embraer has found that that certain Honeywell Primus Epic software loads–namely, versions 17.3, 17.4, 17.5, 17.6 and 17.7 installed in the E170 and versions 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6 and 4.7 installed in the E190–triggered the failures. If the failure of one FGCS channel during a given flight goes undetected and another failure occurs on the second FGCS channel, the system’s autopilot could issue a hardover command, causing a sudden roll, pitch or yaw movement and reduced controllability of the airplane, according to the AD. 
The AD takes effect on October 2. It requires that operators perform a functional check of the FGCS channels engagement within 300 flight hours of that date and then at least every 600 flight hours thereafter until they install Primus Epic software version 19.3 or higher. The AD requires operators to install the new software within 10 months of the effective date.

Embraer E-Jets Subject of New AD

The FAA issued a new Airworthiness Directive today that warns of a failure by the flight guidance control system (FGCS) in certain Embraer E170s and E190s 

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