briefs

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AVmail: August 8, 2005Reader mail this week about user fees, Homeland Security restrictions ofall types, digitally modified photos and much more.

COLUMNS The Pilot’s Lounge #90: State Aeronautics Commissions — Fiddling While Airports Disappear?It’d be nice if the people in charge of airports at the state level helped fight airport closures, given the importance of airports to a state’s economy. But AVweb’s Rick Durden just hasn’t seen it happen and, in fact, has seen such commissions […]

Combine landing 4,000 feet long on a wet runway with a tailwind and the result is what happened in Toronto last Tuesday, according to investigators. Canadian Transportation Safety Board investigators have practically ruled out a lightning strike and hydroplaning as contributing factors in the accident, which resulted in only minor injuries to a few of […]

AOPA says the FAA is cracking down on “illegal” charter, and what the agency considers against the rules might surprise you (or strike you as bizarre). “We know of crackdowns in at least two districts and that’s prompted questions from members,” said AOPA spokesman Woody Cahall. “They want to know what the FAA considers an […]

Two men in a Cessna 152 died Thursday after the plane collided with a float-equipped Beaver near Renton, Wash., and plunged through the roof of a vacant elementary school. The Beaver, with five people aboard, was able to land safely. Both planes were headed to the Renton Airport. The pilot of the floatplane said the […]

The transition from public to private operation of the flight service station system continues with high hopes for better service. AOPA President Phil Boyer said the program is on track to have Lockheed Martin take over the system as scheduled on Oct. 4. Lockheed Martin got the $1.9 billion contract in February and appeals by […]

Chinese officials are predicting general aviation will be worth $9 billion annually there in 10 years and western companies are now establishing ground-floor opportunities there. Diamond Aircraft, in partnership with Binzhou Degao General Aviation Co. in East China’s Shandong Province, is set to start building DA40 aircraft with the first one rolling off the assembly […]

The Government Accountability Office says countries that have privatized air navigation services have cut costs and their safety records haven’t suffered. The GAO looked at the private systems in Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to see how they stacked up (no pun intended) and what it found could fuel debate in […]

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVwebs NO-COST twice monthly Business AVflash? Reporting on breaking news, Business AVflash also focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the Business of Aviation. Business AVflash is a must read. Watch for a Business AVflash regular feature, TSA WATCH: GA IN THE […]