briefs

This week, Diamond Aircraft announced its selection of the Garmin G1000 integrated avionics system for the new DA42 Twin Star. The G1000 system is configured with two 10-inch displays, a primary flight display (PFD) and a multi-function display (MFD), in landscape orientation. The avionics suite boasts a number of features, including: WAAS-capable IFR, oceanic-approved GPS, […]

Ever wanted to meet the controller working your flight face to face? Well, here’s your chance to address a room full of them, but don’t be surprised if they have a thing or two to say about pilot performance. The occasion is the National Air Traffic Controllers’ Association annual conference, Communicating for Safety, April 29 […]

A crack started at a half-inch rivet on the left wing of a 57-year-old PB4Y-2 fighting a Colorado forest fire last July. The crack spread, and the air tanker burst into flame and crashed to the ground, killing both pilots. That was the conclusion of a Forest Service investigation, the Associated Press reported last week. […]

The Transportation Security Administration announced last Thursday it has committed $8 million to train pilots to carry arms by October. Forty-four pilots attended the first 48-hour session, and were deputized as Federal Flight Deck Officers just over a week ago. Training includes defensive tactics, instruction in the use of force, information on how to safely […]

Pilots are not the only ones raising concerns about security measures — last week, both the American Civil Liberties Union and Department of Transportation spoke up on behalf of commercial airline passengers. The ACLU Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to force the government to talk about its secret “no fly” and other […]

Maybe you can see forever, on a clear day, but it’s getting harder and harder to fly there — especially for GA pilots, who have to avoid 16 security-related TFRs scattered from coast to coast and “pop-up” TFRs that follow President Bush everywhere he goes. EAA complained last week that presidential TFRs in Ohio created […]

The Paris Air Show, coming up June 15-22, is apparently feeling the freeze from the Pentagon’s recent aversion to France. The U.S. Defense Department announced Thursday it will cut back sharply on participation in this year’s show. No high-ranking officials will attend, no U.S. aircraft will join the daily flyovers, and static displays will be […]

British Airways is expected to soon resume scheduled service to Baghdad, which was suspended in 1990, Virgin Atlantic would like to beat them to it… Ron Dittemore, manager of NASA’s space shuttle program,

With most airlines losing money, last month seemed like an odd time to launch a new carrier, but Hooters Air nonetheless jumped into the breach … and so far, seems to be surviving. Although its bright orange-and-white planes, bearing the Hooters logo and carrying Hooters waitresses clad in hot pants, flew at only about one-quarter-full […]

Besides (theoretically) crashing into nuclear plants, or ferrying corporate honchos and busloads of cranky passengers from A to B, we like to think that now and then somebody finds a real useful mission for an airplane. And we’d like to think that NASA’s airborne laboratory, a highly modified DC-8, has some useful goal in its […]