briefs

https://avweb.com/avmail/ Reader mail this week about civilian astronauts, ATC staffing, presidential TFRs and more.

____________NEWS FEATURES The Wide, Wild Skies Of AlaskaThe vastness of Alaska presents both an enticement and a threat to the pilots who fly there. AVweb Newswriter Mary Grady visited Anchorage this summer and filed this report on how Alaska’s aviation community is working to get the job done without getting killed in the process.

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The world’s biggest lighter-than-air flying event, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, wrapped up its 33rd annual edition yesterday in Albuquerque, N.M. For nine days, 750 balloons from all over the world participated in activities ranging from mass ascensions with all the balloons taking off together, to special-shape rodeos, to balloon glows with acres of tethered […]

As the legacy airlines struggle to avoid bankruptcy, several are duking it out with their workers, slashing pay and benefits. In the process, some airline pilots are speaking out about the frustrations of their jobs — it seems it’s just not as much fun as it used to be. To squeeze out more productivity, airlines […]

The Maori, New Zealand’s native people, triggered an uproar last week when they said they may start charging fees for the use of airspace above Lake Taupo, a popular tourist destination on the North Island. The fees would apply not only to floatplane landings, but overflights … bungee jumping … and bridges across the rivers […]

The FAA is increasing efforts to study airline maintenance mistakes and find ways to prevent them, The Charlotte Observer reported on Thursday. Such errors have been blamed for contributing to the crashes of commuter planes in Charlotte, N.C., and Cape Cod, Mass., last year. Two new inspectors who specialize in maintenance “human factors” have been […]

More aircraft will be patrolling the border between the Northeastern U.S. and Canada, now that a new Air and Marine Operations (AMO) Center has opened in Plattsburgh, N.Y., on the site of a former Air Force base. (All of North America can now sleep a little easier.) The center is the second of five new […]

The Yankee Air Museum‘s 50,000-square-foot hangar, at Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti, Mich., burned to the ground Saturday evening, destroying at least four airplanes and countless aviation artifacts. The crew of a B-25D who had just returned from a flight were able to save the airplane and the museum’s two other flying classics — a […]