briefs

The FAA’s controversial Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) was the subject of a complaint from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) last week, as glitches plague the system in the Detroit Terminal Radar Approach Control room where it was installed last month. But what really got NATCA rankled was that the FAA is […]

The FAA on Thursday unveiled a new Web-based product that offers warning to pilots about icing hazards up to 12 hours in advance. The Forecast Icing Tool provides a high-tech color weather map and/or a flight-route display of icing potential at flight levels from 3,000 to 18,000 feet. The user can view freezing-level graphics with […]

___________WHAT’S NEW What’s New — Products and ServicesEach month, AVweb will bring you a quick survey of the latest products and services for pilots, mechanics and aircraft owners. This month we have a new audio panel, fiber-optic post lights and more. In some cases, AVweb has actually examined the product; in other cases, we are […]

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVwebs NO-COST twice monthly Business AVflash? Reporting on breaking news, Business AVflash also focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the Business of Aviation. Business AVflash is a must read. Watch for a Business AVflash regular feature, TSA WATCH: GA IN THE […]

If you’re planning on flying into Lakeland, Fla., for Sun ‘n Fun, be on the alert for large formation skydiving over Zephyrhills Airport between April 14 and April 18, sunrise to sunset. Zephyrhills (ZPH) is located 16 nautical miles northwest of Lakeland, on Lakeland’s 332-degree radial. The airport will be the site of a world […]

The Lancair Company announced on Monday it will receive FAA certification of its new turbocharged Lancair Columbia 400 at the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In in Lakeland, Fla., next week. The company says the new airplane will be the world’s fastest certified piston single. “We feel confident that the Columbia 400 will be faster than any […]

A private jet charter company flying out of California’s Van Nuys Airport allegedly used the planes to transport illegal drugs and promoted its service as friendly to drug traffickers, authorities said last week. Eight suspects, including a co-owner of the company, SmoothAir Aviation, were arrested after a yearlong investigation focusing on the company’s ties to […]

A Mitsubishi MU-2 turboprop that crashed near Pittsfield, Mass., about 5:30 a.m. on March 25, fell nearly 12,000 feet in less than a minute, the NTSB reported in its preliminary findings, released on Saturday. Several witnesses said they watched the cargo aircraft descend in a flat spin, making grinding, whining or howling sounds. It impacted […]

Little ultralight aircraft might seem to us like the least likely vehicles of fear and destruction, but apparently not everyone sees them that way. Last week, after Hamas threatened to destroy the Knesset building in Jerusalem, one member of that legislature worried that terrorists might attack by air, landing on the long flat roof with […]

The wreck of a Navy Corsair that was salvaged from a North Carolina swamp in 1990 is now the subject of a court battle in Minnesota. Late last month, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Navy seeking the return of the Corsair from aircraft restorer Lex Cralley. The Navy is […]