briefs

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_______COLUMNS The Savvy Aviator #9: Don’t Go OverboardEngine problems are serious and need to be fixed promptly. But don’t overreact. If one cylinder goes south, there’s seldom a need to replace the other five, or to “major” the engine before its time.

In the eyes of the FAA, George Brunstad is a decade too old to fly an airliner but that didn’t stop him from making a transoceanic crossing of a different sort. The retired American Airlines pilot, from Ridgefield, Conn., became the oldest person to swim the English Channel last Saturday. Brunstad celebrated his 70th birthday […]

A wealthy aircraft collector (is there any other kind?) is going to great lengths, and depths, to add to his inventory. Don Brooks, of Douglas, Ga., is mounting an ambitious operation to recover the wreck of a B-17 on the bottom of a lake in Labrador in northern Canada. “There’s very few B-17s remaining,” Brooks […]

The FAA is modernizing its flight medical process, but we’ll let you decide if that’s a good thing. Integic Corp. has been given a $12 million contract to continue the work it did to computerize the application system. The previous contract created an “automated and secure system for electronically submitting, managing and processing medical certification […]

The FAA says the runways of the nation are a safer place to be thanks to its program to reduce runway incursions. At a news conference Tuesday, Administrator Marion Blakey said there’s been an overall drop of 20 percent in runway incursions over the past five years and the number of serious near-collisions has dropped […]

Depending on the circumstances, the sound of a helicopter can be among the most welcome or most obtrusive sounds and that is the dichotomy facing civic officials in rural Bedminster, N.J. The State Police want to move a rescue helicopter from Newark to nearby Somerset Airport in a bid to better cover the emergency needs […]

We’ve grown used to a presidential visit closing aviation facilities but the effect is usually temporary. Las Cruces (New Mexico) International Airport closed one of its three runways indefinitely after George W. Bush’s entourage left an indelible mark. A C-17 accompanying Air Force One created ruts more than 2,500 feet long when it backed up […]

Eight sporty aircraft zooming over — and under — downtown Budapest at speeds up to 250 mph drew hundreds of thousands of spectators on Aug. 20, Red Bull says. Flying a track above the Danube River, the racers were required to fly between inflated pylons, underneath a bridge — twice — plus execute half and […]

A new policy in Alaska that allows forest fires to burn unfettered unless structures are threatened has some aviation operators upset. “It’s been a hot and dry summer here, great flying weather,” R.D. Rosso, owner and chief pilot of Denali Air, told AVweb last week. “But I’ve lost more flying days to smoke this year […]