FAA and Regs

The FAA’s Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative (PAFI) will resume testing a possible unleaded replacement for avgas this fall, according to AOPA. The FAA suspended most PAFI testing operations in June to assess issues related to the differences between 100LL and the two unleaded test fuels—one developed by Shell and one by Swift Fuels. That announcement […]

In the last two years, 596 aircraft in the U.S. landed or almost landed on the wrong runway or wrong airport, and 85 percent of those events involved general aviation aircraft, according to the FAA. At a recent Safety Summit held in Leesburg, Virginia, the FAA said these types of incidents are one of the […]

Bloomberg is reporting that Pratt & Whitney has been quietly assessing excessive vibration in its new-design geared turbofan engines in the latest of a string of teething problems with the fuel-sipping design. Bloomberg says a vibration issue has caused cockpit alerts in A320neos that have been delivered to airlines all over the world. Pratt told […]

AVweb‘s weekly news roundup found reports on a new exhibit at the Tillamook Air Museum, a research team looking for ASRS report from GA pilots, installation of a new in-flight connectivity system on a Bombardier Challenger 300, an updated white paper for business aircraft operators and an agreement between Hawaiian Airlines and MINT Software Systems. […]

Swift Fuels Suspends PAFI Activities I’m not at all surprised to see Swift bow out. They began life as a biotechnology company shopping microbial technology that might be used to produce aviation fuel. The economics were rarely discussed. During the clean energy boom eight years ago they (and other marginal concepts) were able to find […]

The Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) has asked for a review of FAA enforcement of rules regarding instructions for continued airworthiness (ICA) such as aircraft maintenance manuals. In a comment filed with the U.S. Small Business Administration National Ombudsman’s office, ARSA stated that it believes “the FAA strictly enforces the requirement that repair stations possess […]

Swift Fuels announced that it has suspended its work activities with the FAA’s Piston Alternative Fuels Initiative (PAFI) unleaded 100LL replacement fuels program on Wednesday. The company says that it is now focusing on testing a high-octane unleaded avgas replacement that is not part of PAFI and working privately with the FAA and OEMs to […]

The powerful radio control aircraft lobby is squaring off against the FAA, Department of Defense and some members of Congress over the future of their hobby, and the government departments may be outgunned politically. At issue is the so-called Rule 336 that essentially exempts those flying model planes for “hobby and recreation” from the long […]

The FAA this week issued an Emergency Order revoking the repair station certificate for Sensenich Propeller Service in North Windham, Connecticut. The FAA alleges that the repair station and its accountable manager, between March 2015 and at least February 2017, “knowingly and intentionally” performed maintenance on 47 McCauley propellers for 45 separate aircraft that was […]

The FAA has issued a statement warning operators of unmanned aircraft (UAS/drones) to stay away from wildfires. The agency emphasized that while proper use of drones for firefighting missions can provide a lot of useful information, unauthorized flights risk lives, especially since firefighting operations typically occur in the same airspace as the majority of hobby […]