briefs

With the fire season under way out West, pressure is intense to get the fleet of air tankers that was grounded in April back in the air. But this week, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is still struggling to get data needed to specify a “life limit” on some of the grounded aircraft. Officials […]

Garmin says it expects to start deliveries this month of its GNS 480, which the company says is the first GPS navigator approved for precision approach operations. The unit will make it possible for pilots to complete an approach in low instrument conditions at airports that lack an Instrument Landing System (ILS). Upon FAA approval, […]

This week, helicopters came under scrutiny following an FBI alarm that they might be used by al Qaeda in terrorist attacks. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security sent the alerts last Friday night to 18,000 police and government officials, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Security was tightened at heliports in New York City […]

As if to remind us that messing about with rockets is not as easy as it looks, a thankfully unmanned test flight by Space Transport Corp. — an X Prize contender based near Seattle — took to the air on Sunday and promptly exploded. A spooky photo in the Seattle Times shows the decapitated plastic […]

First it was Vice President Dick Cheney at Adam Aircraft in June, and yesterday, President Bush chose Eclipse Aviation as his rallying point in Albuquerque, as he and Sen. John McCain blasted through New Mexico. Is it something about aviation companies that gives panache to the Republican campaign stomp, or is the industry maybe seen […]

Statistics show the number of pilot-caused runway incursions is slowly declining overall, but the percentage caused by GA pilots is on the rise. By taking a new 60-minute course, you can earn points with the FAA, just in case you ever need them: “If involved in a runway incursion, the FAA will normally be more […]

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https://avweb.com/avmail/ Reader mail this week about Oshkosh, Sport Pilot, new and old engines and much more.

_______COLUMNS The Pilot’s Lounge #77: FBO Professionalism; An Oxymoron?Who was it said you can’t get good help anymore? With unemployment higher than usual, you’d think FBOs would be able to hire (and train and hold on to) professional, customer-service-oriented staff. AVweb’s Rick Durden thinks any FBO that doesn’t strive for professionalism will soon go out […]