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While the Pennsylvania politicians couldn’t (wouldn’t) come up with $6,630, their counterparts in Florida’s Martin County are getting set to part with millions to protect Witham Field. The FAA has approved the county’s plan to buy homes near the end of the main runway and to soundproof others, all at taxpayers’ expense, to ease the […]

One Pilot’s Donation Saves Airport… Hardly a week goes by that angry airport supporters don’t fill a council chamber somewhere trying to save their local strip, but it’s not often one of them puts his money where his mouth is. Enter Robert Kimball, who set an example (or an uncomfortable precedent) a week ago by […]

Perhaps the episode confirms such terrorism tips are actually followed up but Mike said he thinks his experience shows something else. “It’s like all the other measures they’ve taken in the name of [GA] security,” he said. “They’re all window dressing.” He noted that if he’d actually been a terrorist, finding the FBI card under […]

Since the aviation merchandise (and “hazardous materials”) arrived while he was at work, they were received by the building manager and held for Mike to pick up. Mike says he believes someone working in the building manager’s office looked at him, looked at the kind of stuff he was getting in the mail, and then […]

How You, Too, Could Get A Visit From The FBI… His only crime is fastidious attention to his airplane but an AVweb reader says the long arm of the law reached out and touched him because of his passion. Mike, who asked that his last name and hometown not be used (AVweb has verified his […]

But while the Department of Transportation is busily planning for the future, the folks at the White House are worrying about today’s bottom line. In a proposal due next Monday, the Bush administration will propose a 16-percent cut in spending on air-traffic-control equipment and facilities, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The $471 million cut […]

Mineta said the FAA already has set in motion plans to build seven new air traffic control towers, five new terminal air traffic control facilities, and new advanced radar systems at 12 airports, and to install the STARS air traffic control system at 14 airports. He added that seven airports are building new runways and […]

Technology, Infrastructure Needs To Modernize… The U.S. airspace system is bursting at the seams, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said this week, and if thousands of “micro-jet” air taxis and unmanned aircraft start sharing the skies too, demand for services will intensify. In a speech at the Aero Club in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Mineta announced […]

Although the FAA’s $60 billion reauthorization bill stretches over four years, GA advocates don’t have to wait four years to take their next shot, West said. The spending bills still need to be voted on every year. “Appropriations is an annual process, and we can work for GA relief in fiscal year 2005,” he told […]

No Surprise — No Relief… A $100 million provision for relief to GA companies hurt by the airspace restrictions following 9/11, in keeping with the fate of all other such efforts so far in Washington, has failed to make the final cut in the 2004 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. As late as last week, the provision […]