briefs

Flying is expensive enough without giving more than your share of hard-earned dollars to Uncle Sam. Pilots are reminded to consider all their basic business expenses, training deductions and sales and use taxes. Commercial operators (more than 50-percent business use) can look into the new “bonus” depreciation option for new aircraft and aircraft equipment purchased […]

The FAA has been ordered to provide more graphics of TFRs and other NOTAM information in a federal spending bill signed by the president last week. “… the committee believes that advisory graphics can be conveyed through direct user access terminal system (DUATS) and other sources including the Internet,” reads part of the bill, which […]

Well, now just what did the FBI expect? After more than a year of urging people to be on the lookout for anything suspicious, airborne or otherwise, the feds seemed surprised when the folks in Bloomington, Ill., started worrying about their Cessna 182. Never mind that the same plane has passed overhead repeatedly at various […]

Flying around nuclear power plants has always been a bad idea but the Transportation Security Administration has just made it somewhat perilous. At the TSA’s prompting, the FAA has issued an advisory NOTAM notifying pilots that if they are seen flying “suspiciously” around nukes, they can expect to be tracked down by the police or […]

You’ve seen it all over the aviation press and you’ve heard it’s a new airplane that’s apparently all that it’s cracked up to be. Now’s your chance to find out for yourself and pose your toughest questions to the president of the company. On Wednesday, starting at 2 p.m. Eastern, Adam Aircraft CEO Rick Adam […]

Reducing major airport congestion and refocusing on aviation safety goals underpin a $14 billion reauthorization budget for the FAA for fiscal year 2004. The budget, which is marginally larger than the $13.6 billion budget for FY 2003, will take a bigger bite out of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund but there will be no […]

After more than 30 years and 7.6 billion miles of traveling, it appears the venerable Pioneer 10 spacecraft has sent its last signal to Earth. Pioneer’s last, very weak signal was received on Jan. 22, NASA reported Tuesday. “Pioneer 10 was a pioneer in the true sense of the word,” said Dr. Colleen Hartman, director […]

We’ve all heard Winston Churchill’s memorable tribute to the airmen who fought in the Battle of Britain: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Now, 63 years after that fateful assault, when the Royal Air Force warded off a German invasion of Britain, plans are […]

Today’s youngsters may have to live with the TV images of two space shuttle disasters, but astronaut Sally Ride found last week that they are undaunted in their fascination with orbital flight. “Space touches something very deep in a lot of people, including the kids we saw here today,” Ride said, while visiting the San […]

The Sikorsky S-92 helicopter has been selected by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) to receive the Robert J. Collier Trophy for 2002. The S-92 is the only helicopter to be certified under the FAA’s latest standards for transport-category rotorcraft (FAR Part 29). It was singled out for the Collier award because it incorporates multiple improvements […]