briefs

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____________BRAINTEASERS Interactive Quiz #75 — Aerodrome OperationsYou can successfully fly hundreds of miles across burning sands, frozen tamarack, and deadly L.A. freeways, but all that Zen-like aero-bliss can turn to grief if you don’t understand the operating rules in the airport environment. Have fun navigating the following scenarios.

The FAA has made the VFR transition “mini-route” across the east end of Los Angeles International (LAX) available anytime, as of yesterday, AOPA reported this week. Since the establishment of the route by the FAA in June 2002, internal logistical problems at the tower had restricted its availability, AOPA said, and it was open only […]

Chelton Flight Systems, maker of a certified synthetic-vision wonder-box (that may represent the first generation of the kind of instruments that will usher the SATS program into reality) issued a Service Bulletin last month requiring owners to upgrade their software to prevent the FlightLogic EFIS from giving “hazardously misleading guidance into non-protected areas in certain […]

The state of Rhode Island has issued a revised aircraft-use-tax regulation, after an emergency regulation issued in April raised concerns among aviation advocates when it apparently tried to impose a 7-percent “use tax” on transient aircraft, which the state Tax Division said was not its intent. After some discussion with aviation groups about the rule’s […]

The National Park Service (NPS) will stop selling tickets online for the First Flight Centennial celebration, set for Dec. 12-17, this Sunday, Dec. 7, at 10 p.m. EST. Tickets for the 16th and 17th have already sold out, and the rest are going fast. Recently, tickets have appeared for sale on eBay and in newspaper […]

British pilot Polly Vacher landed her single-engine Piper Dakota in Antarctica on Monday, about halfway through her solo flight circling the globe via both poles. Vacher, 59, left Scotland in May, headed north across the pole, then flew across Alaska, North America and South America en route to the Antarctic peninsula. She plans to fly […]

Last summer, Russia’s government asked the country’s aviation industry to come up with a plan to grow more competitive, and this week, The Moscow Times reported that it has seen a draft of that plan. The draft calls for privatization of the industry as well as consolidation, and would create a consortium known as the […]

In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published Monday, the FAA proposed that Stage 4 noise standards for all new designs for transport category aircraft and subsonic jets should take effect as of Jan. 1, 2006. “This noise standard would ensure that the latest available noise reduction technology is incorporated into new aircraft designs,” the NPRM […]

_______COLUMNS TPL #68: Of Good, Evil And Little Airplanes We don’t often speak of evil in regards to anything that happens in aviation. But after dealing with people who seem to be intentionally malicious, it takes a strong dose of medicine — hanging out with joyous pilots — to get back in balance. AVweb’s Rick […]