AVweb Insider

Walking around in our bright green AVweb newsteam shirts at shows like Sun ‘n Fun has a certain advantage I had never figured on when I picked that color out of a catalog. People stop us all the time to ask questions, offer opinions and make interesting comments about what they’ve seen or heard. There’s […]

Redbird Takes FlightAt the Piper booth Wednesday morning, Jerry Gregoire of Redbird Simulation took delivery of a new Seminole painted in the company’s swirling red livery. As you’ve probably read, Redbird has an intriguing project underway in San Marcos, Texas to basically re-invent flight training by basing it heavily on flight simulation.Gregoire said Redbird has […]

In terms of marketing thrust, big events like Sun ‘n Fun are like a giant oil tanker navigating through reefs. Sometimes, by the time you realize you need to turn the thing, it’s too late. In marketing terms, audience interest can evolve and move on before you’ve realized what’s happened. And that’s why shows like […]

There’s a dark joke in skydiving that has the budding young student facing his instructor in freefall at 3500 feet. The student duly yanks the main parachute and it fails. The student resorts to the reserve, only to have it refuse to exit the container. The instructor shrugs his shoulders and puts his thumbs tip […]

It first registered with me because of the odd way in which it was presented. In an almost pitch-black tent with a cold January breeze blowing through, EAA President Rod Hightower was addressing fold-up tables full of members of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers’ Association at Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring a couple of months ago.”Anyone […]

Wherever I travel these days-and lately, that’s a lot-the subject of GA’s future comes up. Or more accurately, does it even have one? This was raised consistently in my swing through Europe last week. I was asked several times what my opinion of the LSA market was, of the certified segment, of engine and avionics […]

Diamond Aircraft CEO Christian Dries is characteristically blunt and never more so when talking about the sorry state of the GA market. “If you told me five years ago that two thirds of Diamond’s turn over [revenues] would be from military and government, I wouldn’t have believed you.”But that’s what it’s come to for Diamond […]

Early into our conversation this week with Diamond CEO Christian Dries, he asked if we thought a well-equipped, fast twin could compete against an equally fast but less efficient single. He has in mind, of course, what Diamond has always had in mind: taking on the Cirrus head-on with the diesel-equipped DA42 twin.My answer? Hell […]

click for a larger version I’m sure most of us complain bitterly about the price of avgas, but our usual response is to simply fly less. Other factors contribute to that so fuel becomes the easiest and most convenient excuse. At some point, we’ll have to decide to fish or cut bait and exit the […]

Sometimes I feel like a bug smashed on the windshield of aviation progress. At least that’s the impression I got on Thursday at Rotax’s giant factory here in Gunskirchen, Austria, when I walked into a big product display tent set up on factory grounds. This was one of those giant Taj Mahal-type tents reminiscent of […]