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Lycoming Gets New Manager… The man who stickhandled Lycoming through some of its most difficult periods is, “taking on an assignment for Textron Systems,” company spokeswoman Karla Sexton told AVweb this weekend. Mike Wolf, who as president of the engine maker took a highly personal role in dealing with some of the biggest product recalls […]

Mounting a round-the-world flight for charity takes organization, up-front funding, pilots and, of course, an airplane. Or does it? Some enterprising do-gooders in Sutton, England, have been circling the globe without ever leaving the ground. Using a homebuilt flight simulator, World Flight volunteers take the controls over a period of about a week in a […]

Now, not all fundraising flights are carried out in cabin-class comfort, nor are their causes quite so mainstream. Dr. Edwin Galkin and Capt. Richard Sollner returned home to Manville, N.J., on Aug. 14 after a 27,500-mile circumnavigation in a Cessna 210. This was their second trip around the world in aid of sufferers of a […]

Fundraisers Going Global By King Air… Government warnings aside, there still are some people using airplanes for some very good things. Take, for instance, the King Air Foundation. Although the foundation’s primary purpose is to commemorate the “world’s most successful” business/commuter turboprop, and in particular the original aircraft used by Olive Beech, the foundation is […]

Brimming with empathy, many of us would yet be lying if we didn’t admit to wondering what this far-away (for a lot of us, anyway) disaster might do to our insurance rates. The quick answer is probably not much. Sterling (of AOPA) said he doubts there will be any directly related rate increases because the […]

There are also some cruel ironies. Mallard said many airplane owners rushed to move their aircraft to “safer” areas only to have the storm shift suddenly eastward and put them in harm’s way. Others found hangar space for aircraft usually left outside only to have the hangars collapse. Some owners weren’t about to surrender to […]

Insurers Prepare For Writer’s Cramp… For a group of folks that is about to write checks worth millions of dollars, aviation insurance underwriters we’ve spoken with are actually showing some optimism as the figures come in from Hurricane Charley’s Florida rampage. “It’s beginning to look like it’s not as bad as we thought,” said Avemco […]

AVweb offers on-location accounts of Hurricane Charley’s impact on GA from AVweb Editorial Director Paul Bertorelli. See also contributions from aviation journalist Tim Kern… Paul Bertorelli’s coverage of the damage at Punta Gorda. Paul’s image gallery. Warning: The gallery includes images of aircraft in severe distress. (If bent metal makes you ill, avert your eyes.) […]

Clarke Thomas, president of Fostaire Helicopters, told NATA how the episode unfolded: “We got a call from a prospective customer asking about a scenic flight. They wanted to know how close they could get to the St. Louis landmarks, and they said price was no object. That raised a red flag right away because any […]

The incident was made public nearly immediately when the American Association of Airport Executives sent out a notice to warn other airport operators that the same trick (“be on guard for trickery … as well as terrorists”?) might be tried on them. That notice quickly cascaded across the Internet. On Thursday, GA advocates one after […]