briefs

There’s nothing like a good tailwind to help you get in the record books. But what’s interesting about this speed record was that a record was set in both directions. The National Aeronautic Association has formally recognized the March 20 round trip, by David Riggs and Jeff Acord, from Los Angeles to Phoenix in an […]

There was a get-acquainted session of sorts at AOPA headquarters in Frederick, Md., earlier this week and those who shook hands and traded business cards hope that GA will be stronger because of it. Airplanes that are, or will soon be, registered as Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) were flown to Frederick so that AOPA staffers […]

Canada’s Transportation Safety Board suggests poor lighting, tired pilots and the wrong autopilot selection were behind a near-disaster at Edmonton International Airport on Feb. 25, 2004. The TSB, which investigates, but does not pass judgment on, aircraft mishaps, said in its report that the crew of the First Air Boeing 737 landed beside the runway […]

Congress appears to be loosening the purse strings for the cash-strapped FAA. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development has approved $14.4 billion in spending for the FAA for the 2006 fiscal year. That’s up $877 million (about 6 percent) over last year. Whether it’s enough to quell the numerous funding-related […]

Eclipse Aviation is strongly denying a report in at least two Russian publications that it intends to build airplanes there. The stories, one in the Izvestia Daily and one in MosNews quoting the Izvestia report (our Russian’s a little rusty and we couldn’t find an English version of Izvestia), claim to quote the president of […]

AVmail: June 20, 2005Reader mail this week about the New York TRACON, airliner safety, volunteers to protect planes at EAA AirVenture and more.

COLUMNS Motor Head 7: Are We Making It Harder Than It Needs To Be?For many years, FADEC electronic engine systems have been like glass cockpits in the low end of GA: just over the horizon. Well, glass is here, but FADEC is still not available in mainstream, certified aircraft. AVweb’s Marc Cook has some thoughts […]

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The methodology used by the FAA to estimate hours flown each year by the GA fleet is inadequate, the NTSB said in a report released last week. As a result, the true accident risk for domestic general aviation operations has likely changed less during the years since 1985 than FAA data would suggest. An accurate […]