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A California man has filed a class action lawsuit in California against Lycoming over the engine maker’s handling of potentially defective crankshafts in as many as 5,000 engines. In a claim filed this week Richard Bristow, a Mooney owner, says that Lycoming should issue a recall of the engines and bear all the costs of […]

Boyer is not the only GA leader ready to give Peters an earful about the needs of GA pilots. NBAA President Ed Bolen said, “I look forward to working with Mary and ensuring that she is fully aware of the concerns of business aviation.” GAMA President Pete Bunce said, “We congratulate Ms. Peters and look […]

Within hours, AOPA, NBAA, EAA, and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) had issued statements reacting to the announcement. Their main concern — what will be Peters’ position on user fees for GA? AOPA said the nominee would pose both an “opportunity and [a] challenge.” Her position on user fees is far from clear. In […]

Mary Peters has been nominated by President Bush to take over Norman Mineta’s cabinet seat as Secretary of Transportation, the White House announced on Tuesday. Peters was formerly the head of the Federal Highway Administration and director of the Arizona Department of Transportation. She is currently working in the private sector as a transportation policy […]

The senator from New York is not the only voice in Washington calling for change. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., and Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill., who are both on the House transportation committee, have demanded an investigation by the Transportation Department’s inspector general, USA Today reports. “In aviation, there’s no curb to pull over and look […]

“It isn’t just about one-person midnight shifts and airports like LEX,” Ruth Marlin, executive vice president for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), told The Eagle Tribune. “The FAA is short-staffed at O’Hare, Atlanta and Dallas towers. If you don’t have enough people, you either can’t provide the service or can’t maintain the safety […]

Although conflict over staffing levels for air traffic control has been simmering for years between the FAA and the controllers union, last week’s fatal crash in Lexington, Ky., has upped the rhetoric. The FAA said this week that towers at Duluth, Minn., and Fargo, N.D., were the only towers besides Lexington that have both ground […]

AOPA is a big supporter of ADS-B as long as it includes free weather and traffic information and the cost of the electronics is reasonable, AOPA’s government affairs expert Andy Cebula told an “Industry Day” on ADS-B hosted by the FAA last week. “AOPA has worked on ADS-B for more than a decade, and we’re […]

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said the crash of Comair Flight 5191 might have been avoided if the CRJ-100 had been equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). Blakey told reporters at a news conference at UPS’s headquarters in Louisville that ADS-B’s LCD screen (not unlike a host of vastly more affordable products currently available to the […]

The Lexington tragedy had reporters all over the country phoning their local airports trying to determine if such a catastrophe could happen in their town. In Akron, Ohio, the local paper discovered that Akron-Canton Regional Airport had only one set of eyes looking out for air traffic in the wee hours, but was assured by […]