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Congressmen Join Fray… Two more congressmen and the state of Tennessee have joined the fight against a controversial set of proposed rules governing air tour operators and sightseeing flights by businesses and charity groups. The National Air Tour Safety Standards were introduced as a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) last October amid howls of protest […]

Chicago officials have vigorously defended Meigs’ closure and the relatively small fine isn’t going to change their minds on the future of the airport. However, Meigs supporters did their best to draw what encouragement they could from the announcement of the investigation. “It’s good there will be an investigation and the public will hear about […]

Soon after the excavators had done their work, the FAA acknowledged that Daley had the legal right to close the airport. However, federal law requires that an airport owner give at least 90 days of notice. In an emergency, or for national security concerns, only 30 days of notice is required if the airport has […]

But Airport Won’t Reopen… The city of Chicago could face almost $100,000 in fines for its sudden closure of Meigs Field last March 30 but an incipient FAA investigation won’t bring the beloved airport back to life. As AVweb told you last Thursday, the FAA has agreed (almost a year later) to an investigation into […]

Following the lead of Cirrus, Diamond and Cessna, Mooney announced this week that buyers will soon have the option of equipping new Ovations and Bravos with Garmins G1000 primary flight display system. But unlike Cirrus, Mooney says it will also retain the steam-gauge option for owners who arent ready for the brave new world of […]

LanShe’s Lake And Micco… If you want to do your part for GA growth, there are plenty of airplanes out there ready for a new owner. Lake’s four-place amphibian, the LA-4-200 EP, first built in 1983, has been revived by LanShe Aerospace of Fort Pierce, Fla. LanShe is now taking orders at a price of […]

Cessna led the pack, delivering 588 single-engine piston planes, plus 67 of its Caravan turboprops; and Cirrus Design was close behind with 469 sales. Diamond came in third, delivering 228 of its DA20 and DA40 models. New Piper completed 185 single-engine deliveries plus 44 sales of light twins. Raytheon sold 55 Beech Bonanzas plus 107 […]

Little Airplanes Leading The Way… Last year, 1,519 new single-engine piston airplanes were sold in the U.S., an 11.2 percent jump over the year before, the General Aviation Manufacturer’s Association (GAMA) reported yesterday in its year-end report. Worldwide, the growth was even stronger, 14 percent over 2002, or 1,825 new singles. The positive growth, especially […]

The implied but unarticulated subtext of the WABC story, as well as the recent CBS network report, is that small airports and small airplanes are lacking in intrinsic value to society, and thus present an unnecessary threat. Yet a tragic story from Hawaii last week showed that people do value the services based at these […]

The WABC story did mention that perhaps a small aircraft is no more dangerous than a truck or a car packed with explosives. Yet some of the “porous” airports housed larger charter planes, WABC said. And the report noted that the Department of Homeland Security has made recommendations for improvements at small airports, but it […]