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GA Strategy Proves … Something… The news media took a lashing from GA last week, in a turnabout that ended with two NBC-TV reporters under arrest and GA advocacy groups in an uproar. The two reporters, “Middle-Eastern-looking” men working undercover, went to St. Louis Downtown Airport on Wednesday and asked about chartering a helicopter. (Recall […]

At Lake Wales Airport, about 50 miles south of Orlando, all the hangars were virtually destroyed, contributing writer Tim Kern reported to AVweb yesterday. At Orlando Executive Airport, about 40 small aircraft were torn from their moorings, and Kern was told that no small aircraft on the field escaped damage. Kim Showalter, who with her […]

Every building on the Punta Gorda (Charlotte County) airport was damaged, Bertorelli said. “A large steel hangar south of the terminal area collapsed entirely … Aircraft of various sizes were scattered across the airport’s broad terminal ramp area, and at least four had been blown into the terminal walls.” Several rows of T-hangars were demolished, […]

Airports At The Center Of The Storm… When deadly Hurricane Charley tore across the Florida peninsula on Friday, it drove right through what must be one of the highest concentrations of GA aircraft in the country. Newscast after newscast showed videos of trashed hangars and wrecked airplanes, a DC-3 belly-up in Orlando with its wings […]

When a 66-year-old man was killed Sunday in Lexington, Tenn., while flying an ultralight aircraft, at least one news report on the accident noted that new FAA rules are about to take effect that will attract more pilots to sport flying. “Under the new rules, an estimated 15,000 people will now earn FAA certificates to […]

In Texas last week, a string of aircraft crashes (as AVweb reported Monday) had less fortunate outcomes. While 20 fatalities in one week — even in a state as big as Texas — is likely to shake up any local aviation community, the impact is being felt far beyond the border. Among those who died […]

Neophyte Safely Lands Airplane… A woman who had taken only a few flying lessons was able to safely land a Piper Malibu in Laconia, N.H., on Monday after the pilot, her father, became incapacitated. Jennifer Truman, 30, brought the plane back safely, talked down over the radio by an air traffic controller. “It was a […]

But while FAA officials have showed sympathy to EAA’s “sound philosophical rationale,” they have also “raised several thorny, practical concerns,” EAA said. Among these is the question of whether building a process to earmark requests for sport-pilot medical credentials and segregate them from requests for third-class-medical reinstatements would “result in the creation of an unwieldy […]

Despite recent meetings among EAA staff, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and Federal Air Surgeon Jon Jordan, EAA said on Tuesday “the specific recourses available to pilots who have FAA medical denials or revocations on file remain unclear.” EAA said the FAA’s preamble to the final rule suggests that, in addition to the traditional special-issuance process […]

FAA And EAA Hashing Out The Details… Nothing about the final version of the Sport Pilot rule has caused more consternation than the driver’s-license-medical provision. What rankled most with the GA community is that it’s possible for two pilots to have identical medical conditions, only one is brand-new to flying and the other is a […]