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The golf course was built by the city, with FAA approval, on the condition that 10 percent of the revenue from the course (green fees are $69, with a cart, in high season) be put into an airport improvement fund. The agreement also stipulated that any future airport expansion be carried out on the golf […]

FAA Demands $13.3 Million… The golf course might win. A 20-year-old agreement between the feds and a city is now contested. It seems an FAA grant paid for (most of) the cost of 267 acres of land for future airport expansion in Ocean City, Md. The FAA now claims that Ocean City isn’t living up […]

Although it appears the airlines are embracing the inflatable seatbelts to possibly squeeze in more seats or enhance passenger comfort, Amsafe says there are sound safety reasons to equip aircraft with its airbags. It cites an NTSB study that estimates that 77 percent of aircraft accidents are survivable, but unconscious victims die in the post-crash […]

Airlines are the main marketing target for Amsafe and dozens have already installed the airbags, but usually only on specific seats in the aircraft. If you want the additional safety an airbag might offer, choose a seat in the first row or right behind any mid-cabin bulkheads. However, you may be trading the additional breathing […]

Mooney Latest To Offer Airbags… If safety sells, Mooney may be hoping a new airbag option on its Ovation 2 DX/GX and Bravo DX/GX models will help its customers forget about the parachutes proliferating on at least one worthy competitor. For an extra $6,000, Mooney buyers will now be able to add Amsafe seatbelt/airbag combinations […]

The Palm Beach situation could be a microcosm of the double-whammy effect of 9/11 on both commercial and private aircraft operations. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, corporate aviation traffic is up by 25 percent at PBI, largely because of the increased hassle and inconvenience of commercial air travel caused by beefed-up security precautions. At […]

Isolated To Palm Beach… As air traffic volumes — both GA and commercial — rebound, we can’t help but wonder if Sunday afternoons at Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) are a harbinger of things to come, particularly if the air taxi business takes off the way some predict it will. The FAA now routinely cuts […]

According to the Cessna Twin Spar Corp., an owners’ group, the 400-series AD is only the tip of the iceberg. “We have been assured by Cessna and FAA personnel (speaking off-the-record) that ALL twin Cessna models will soon be affected by similar ADs,” according to the group’s Web site. At the meeting, the FAA said […]

Meanwhile, Cessna twin drivers are also facing the prospect of a complicated, $70,000-per-aircraft Airworthiness Directive affecting their 400-series models. During a two-day meeting earlier this month with owners and industry reps, the FAA “made the case for potential structural problems with the twin Cessnas’ wing spars,” according to AOPA‘s Luis Gutierrez, “and justified the agency’s […]

T-34 Wing-Spar AD Takes Effect Today… When the FAA published a rule a couple of weeks ago declaring invalid all the alternative methods of compliance (AMOCs) it had previously OK’d for dealing with T-34 wing-spar concerns, it left the fleet up in the air, so to speak. Would the new rule, which takes effect today, […]