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Two Died In Fiery Crash It’s unusual for the NTSB to complete its investigation of a GA accident and find no fault with the pilot. But in its probable-cause report on a September 2002 crash in New Jersey, issued last week, the safety board found that a bad bolt caused the engine of a Piper […]

NBAA’s annual convention is coming up in Orlando next week, and a brand-new company will be there to unveil its plans for a brand-new bizjet. The Spectrum 33, a 10-seat, all-composite twin turbofan, is the latest contender to enter the growing small-jet market. The aircraft, about the size of a Cessna CJ2, will cruise at […]

Light Sport Aircraft On Display With two GA shows in Florida coming up back-to-back, we can only hope that the hurricane season is really over. So far, the weather is looking great for Tampa, where the three-day AOPA Expo opens today. U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will open the show, as guest speaker for this […]

About 90 airplanes are on the ground at the airport and about 400 pilots have passed the necessary security procedures to operate there. A plan is in place to allow those airplanes to be flown off the field tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. (Hopefully, nobody had other plans.) Wartofsky said he is hopeful that a mutually […]

David Wartofsky, owner of Potomac Airfield, told AVweb yesterday that he is working to get the situation rectified. He says the security procedures he has put into place at Potomac are not exactly those prescribed by the TSA plan, but in fact are enhanced. “It’s like if they told you to use 25-watt light bulbs […]

Potomac Airfield “Not In Compliance” The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Tuesday informed Potomac Airfield — one of three small GA airports in the Washington area that operate under special post-9/11 security regulations — that its security program has been suspended, effectively closing down operations. “The airport was told it is not in compliance with […]

The battle between Cirrus and Cessna continues to be neck and neck. Although Cirrus has delivered more four-place piston aircraft overall this year (447 to Cessna’s 424) Cessna had a strong third quarter and sold 173 aircraft compared to Cirrus’s 152. Columbia (formerly Lancair Certified) is experiencing a healthy surge in sales. It sold 40 […]

Numbers Still Look Good After a year of steady increases, sales of GA aircraft leveled off in the third quarter of 2005. According to stats released by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, sales in Q3 were even with or down slightly from the second quarter of 2005 but they’re still up considerably over the same […]

The Masters of Disaster are gone forever but the show must go on. The X-team, of which Younkin and Franklin were members, offered a replacement show called Tribute to the Masters to its bookings for the balance of last summer. It’s now getting geared up for a return to the spectacular performance that had been […]

Although unnecessary regulations can hamper air shows, it’s usually economics that kills them and that may be the case of a large Canadian show which might, unfortunately, be remembered for the deaths of two of the best aerobatic pilots anywhere. The Saskatchewan Air Show, in Moose Jaw, ended July 10 when Jimmy Franklin and Bobby […]