AVweb Insider

It may seem like only yesterday, but the light sport aircraft rule is coming up on its seventh birthday and if everyone or anyone was expecting explosive growth out of this segment, they’ve had to settle for mere endurance. That’s my impression of the mood at the seventh U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring which […]

Surviving an airplane crash-or any kind of accident, really-often turns on the most random twists of luck, like sitting in the only seat in an entire row that’s otherwise shredded or being ejected and landing on something soft. But surviving the impact is one thing, living through an extended period without rescue is quite another […]

Sometimes, the more you learn about a thing, the more information you gather and the more people you talk to about a specific topic, the harder it is judge. That’s definitely the case with aviation biofuels which are, in a sense, leading the charge towards a greener, bio-based fuel economy. I have pored over dozens […]

From out of the blue came this week’s announcement that Piper will discontinue selling the PiperSport LSA, an airplane it conveniently nameplated from the Czech Aircraft Works Sport Cruiser. If the timing of this is a little surprising, the decision itself isn’t, at least to me. Piper announced the airplane at last year’s Sport Aviation […]

Back when I was first starting out, I spent some time at a local airport and wrote a newspaper profile about a small airline based there. The day the story came out, an airplane crash at the field took the life of a local pilot, a young guy who crashed on takeoff, and died when […]

Last week’s news stories on business jets used by governors raised the ever-sordid notion that anyone who sets foot in a Citation is a fat cat. And if the airplane is state supported, the cat is fat on the backs of taxpayers. In the current season of overspending government, it’s fruitless to try to explain […]

Editor’s Note: In my earlier blog on the FlightPrep patent, I complained that they were not responsive to some basic questions. Here’s what they had to say, unedited. Russ NilesEditor-in-Chief Q: What does FlightPrep’s online flight planning patent mean for the industry?A: It means that we have a patent for a specific online flight planning […]

I’ve never been much of a believer in filing VFR flight plans and, for reasons I’ll get to in a moment, I’m still not. I think they often cause more trouble than they are designed to prevent and end up wasting everyone’s time and energy. And yet…I still teach students to use them because as […]

For as long as I can remember, the powers-that-be in general aviation have been worrying that there are too few new pilots. Recently, AOPA said as many as 80 percent of prospects who start flying lessons never get a certificate. That seems like a pretty low completion rate. Maintaining the flow of money to keep […]

Several times I’ve asked FlightPrep what their goal was with the patent they received on online flight planning. The first time was Jan. 21, 2010 right after they announced the patent and here’s the email exchange with then-CEO John Bouyea.“What does this mean for all the other online flight planners out there John?”The answer: “We […]