briefs

Here’s a number to put in your little black book. It’s 866-GA-SECURE (866-427-3287) and it will be a direct line to the national Response Center where pilots can report any suspicious activity. Transportation Security Administration director Adm. James Loy announced the toll-free number, in taped remarks, at AOPA Expo 2002 last Saturday. The number will […]

Perhaps AVweb should start dispensing financial advice after the next stock market crash. In the wake of the crash of a King Air that killed Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone and members of his family, The Wall Street Journal has published a list of tips that it believes can make your next charter flight safer. Numero […]

Some of the FAA’s unionized members are taking their message and their fears to the streets at Detroit Metro Airport today. “This is very significant because it is the first time in our memory that multiple FAA unions are combining forces to hold an informational picketing,” said Jim Pratt, a union spokesman. Pratt, in an […]

Virginia has become the latest state to freeze aviation program funding but that may be temporary. The state government has frozen spending of the $14.2 million budget until Dec. 1. Virginia is facing a $2 billion budget shortfall and all government agencies have been told to trim 15 percent. The funding freeze may force some […]

Canadian pilots are footing the bill for Nav Canada‘s labor relations problems, says the president of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association. In his column in the COPA newsletter, Kevin Psutka said the 3-percent hike in user fees levied by the privately run air traffic services provider is “unfair.” The yearly fee, which gives pilots […]

The public hearing into the crash of an American AirlinesFlight 587, which crashed in New York last November 12 killing all 260 aboardand five on the ground, has degenerated into a polarized blamefest over ruddermovement. There’s now no argument that five full back-and-forth deflections ofthe A300-600’s rudder (that generation of aircraft did not have fly-by-wirerudder […]

When the occupants of Sen. Paul Wellstone’s charter aircraftwere bouncing through the muck of a late fall storm last week, it’s hard toimagine a 12-year-old fraud conviction against their pilot would have made muchdifference to them or in any way impaired that pilot’s abilities. But in theabsence of anything new in the investigation of the […]

As AVweb reportedlast week, work is progressing toward a mid-2003 launch of the Light SportAircraft / Sport Pilot classifications. EAA has been the catalyst behind thecreation of the new category and last week reported that much of the grunt workis almost done. A committee of more than 200 industry and governmentrepresentatives has produced a standards […]

If you’re flying in Texas, today, please heed this reminderthat the president … or someone else important … is at his Crawford ranchovernight. The usual flight restrictions have been replaced by a TFR with aradius of 30 nautical miles and a ceiling of 18,000 feet. It’s in effect from 5p.m. local time today through noon […]

FAA system specialists say there’s no way the FAA can safelymeet a November 17 target to deploy the controversial STARS system inPhiladelphia. Tom Brantley, vice president of the Professional Airways SystemsSpecialists Union, told Aviation Weekly there will only be three people trainedto maintain the new gear by then. Up to eight will be needed to […]