AVweb Insider

As NBAA’s Convention opens today in Orlando, I haven’t heard much talk about the general mood of the industry. At AVweb, we’ve enjoined ourselves from writing stories that contain the word “recovery” or “rebound,” not because we’re opposed to optimism but because anyone who says the aviation economy is about to turn is probably too […]

From the how-gullible-do-you-think-I-am? file comes this item: I was on a commercial flight last month when, after the cabin door was dogged down, a flight attendant announced that her cabin detector showed that four iPhones, three Droids and a iPad were still turned on. Yeah, right. Step back here to seat 26A and I’ll show […]

When I attend conferences and seminars like this weeks Redbird industry training meeting, I always groan when the schedule is passed out. Im the poster child for a bored audience member and you never know how these things are going to flow. I figured Redbird was dialing my number when they were describing the need […]

So what to make of Rod Hightower’s sudden departure as EAA’s president? I found it both unsurprising and surprising. It’s unsurprising because we’ve been hearing for months that EAA staff and companies and entities dealing with the association have been unhappy with Hightower’s management style. Brusque, high-handed and unyielding come to mind. If you’re a […]

If you’re given to semantical flights of fancy, you can build quite a spirited discussion about the difference between cheap and frugal. But leave me out of it. I’m utterly comfortable with my innate cheapness; frugality isn’t a trackable target on my radar.That’s why I tilt positively toward the idea of airplane partnerships and flying […]

One of the first emails I got from a reader while I was at AOPA Summit was a breathless account of how few people had flown into Palm Springs for the show. Well, so what?There’s no question that attendance is down across the board for shows like Summit. Compared to the era of artificial prosperity […]

Red Bull didn’t favor us with Felix Baumgartner’s medical telemetry during yesterday’s record Stratos skydive so I don’t know what his heart rate was when he swung his boots over the door sill. Mine was about 140.I had the unavoidable feeling that something wasn’t quite right. His voice sounded slurred to me and he failed […]

Plenty of breathless ink and commentary has been focused on the Red Bull Stratos jump this week, but it occurred to me that the biggest survival challenge isn’t flight above the Armstrong line or delicate balloon plastic, but frustration. I was watching the Red Bull live feed when they scrubbed the attempt today. The disappointment […]

Once you’re done with the Sunday football games, I recommend tuning into The Discovery Channel’s Plane Crash, which, in a feat of copywriting hyperbole grand even by television standards, bills itself as “the most daring mission in aviation history.” Kinda makes you wonder where they’d rank Apollo 11.But on to the show. The story is […]

This week’s dustup over Sporty’s complaint to AOPA raising the issue of predatory competition reminds me of what I thought two years ago when we interviewed the association and companies on this very topic. Not to put too delicate a point on it, but welcome to the cannibalistic phase of your aviation industry experience. The […]