briefs

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https://avweb.com/avmail/ Reader mail this week about the crashes of the Bushmaster and Pinnacle airliner, the first homebuilt in Canada, pilots vs. controllers and more.

____ATIS Gems in the GPS AtticIf you fly short hops in your GPS-equipped airmobile, you may not have had time to ponder what else your GPS can do besides “Direct-to” and short flight plans. Next time you have an hour or two in cruise, try out these unexpected bonuses in your box.

Remember PATCO, the air traffic controllers union of the 1980s, whose members were fired en masse after a strike? The union, though long quiet, has not gone away, and last Friday went to court to try to get jobs back for some of its members. Four plaintiffs, along with the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization […]

Vision Microsystems, a manufacturer of engine-monitoring systems for experimental and certified GA aircraft, will merge with JP Instruments, the two companies announced last week. Vision, headquartered in Bellingham, Wash., will continue as a division of JPI, headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif. The founder and president of Vision, Lance Turk, will retain responsibility for Vision’s product […]

Mooney has had a somewhat bumpy run the last few years (wow, that was hard to say with straight face) with changes in ownership, court battles and stalled production. But this year the reorganized Mooney Airplane Company has been rehiring workers, showing at new venues (the company made its first-ever appearances at NBAA and Reno […]

We’re not sure if Murphy’s Law applies here or not … something went wrong, but not as wrong as it might have. On the one hand, pilot Denis Murphy, 49, of Florida, has ditched twice in just over a year. On the other hand, he survived both times with only minor injuries. Last Thursday, charter […]

President Bush signed a tax law last week that will extend the “bonus depreciation” breaks that have been credited with boosting aircraft sales by as much as 30 percent. The law extends the “placed-in-service” date for business aircraft to qualify for bonus deprecation until Dec. 31, 2005. The break provides a real buyer incentive, said […]

Nobody seems more excited about the Sport Pilot era than the powered-parachute community, and in their latest eruption of enthusiasm, the PowerChute Education Foundation (PCEF) has announced plans for a coast-to-coast trip for next spring. The 3,000-mile, 53-leg excursion aims to educate the public about sport flying and raise money for charity. Pilot Baron Tayler […]

Satellite data made further inroads into GA cockpits last week, when Garmin introduced the GDL 69, a remote sensor that receives broadcast weather data from XM Satellite Radio and delivers the data to Garmin’s avionics systems. The GDL 69 brings reliable, near-real-time weather information to the Garmin cockpit, Garmin said on Thursday. “The GDL 69 […]