Aviation News

The Air Force’s most experienced active duty pilots are being offered up to $600,000 in bonuses if they sign up for a 12-year extension. FLYING Magazine reported last week that the Experienced Aviator Retention Incentive (EARI) and Rated Officer Retention Demonstration program will give the most valuable pilots up to $50,000 a year for 12 […]

Van’s Aircraft has confirmed it will raise prices for parts, kits and accessories an average of 32 percent to stem the bleeding from its struggling enterprise. It’s also changing ordering processes and making a fundamental accounting change in the way it handles customer deposits. In a post on its website on Saturday, first reported by […]

NTSB officials and panelists at a summit Wednesday on pilot mental health said they were optimistic the issue would be addressed by the aviation community. Speaking at the daylong meeting held by the NTSB in Washington, speakers pressed home the need to allow pilots with mental health issues safe ways to seek treatment for their illnesses. […]

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported Jenny Blalock, 45, an aviation vlogger, died when the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza she was piloting crashed in Giles County, Tennessee, Thursday morning.  Blalock had gained a following of nearly 16,000 subscribers on YouTube sharing aviation videos and documenting her flights under the username TNFlygirl.  Data from FlightAware.com shows the aircraft registered to Plantation Reclaimed Inc. It took off from […]

In a Dec. 7 press release, ATP Flight School announced it has placed an order for an additional 40 Textron Aviation Cessna Skyhawk single-engine piston aircraft, with delivery scheduled to begin in 2026.  According to the Florida-based pilot training program, the latest agreement marks ATP’s fourth fleet purchase amounting to a total of 135 Cessna Skyhawks […]

Representatives of Van’s Aircraft told an Oregon bankruptcy court they expect about 70 percent of existing customers to accept a price increase (reported to be 30 percent) on the parts they have on order with the company. Company officials and lawyers were in court on Thursday to begin the process of moving the company into […]

According to the just-released National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) preliminary report (Accident Number CEN24LA037), the pilot of a pressurized Lancair LX7 was having a Wile E. Coyote-kind of day on Nov. 11, 2023. At 25,000 feet on a flight from Midland, Texas (KMDD) to Aero County Airport (T31) near McKinney, Texas, the turboprop-powered Lancair was […]

In a move under consideration for “decades,” the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced yesterday (Dec. 6) it plans to mandate that aviation repair stations in foreign countries require their employees to submit to drug and alcohol testing if they perform safety-sensitive maintenance procedures for U.S. airlines. According to the FAA, such testing is rare, […]

The U.S. military announced yesterday (Dec. 6) that all V-22 Osprey tiltrotors are grounded as a result of the preliminary investigation into the U.S. Air Force aircraft that crashed off the coast of Japan last week, killing all eight crew members. Investigators found evidence of material failure in the debris recovered from the water. In […]

In conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Park Service (NPS) has introduced strict new rules for air tour operators conducting sightseeing within national parks. The new restrictions stem from the National Park Air Tour Management Act of 2000—legislation signed into law requiring operators conducting commercial air tours over national parks, or over tribal […]