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The crew of the JetBlue flight that got all the attention took off from Burbank, Calif., bound to JFK in New York, last Wednesday, with 146 passengers and crew on board. The flight crew observed illumination of a caution light upon retracting the landing gear after takeoff, the NTSB said. They consulted with officials from […]

Latest Incident One Of Seven While last week’s A320-stuck-nosegear incident attracted nonstop (some might say breathless, excessive and overblown) live TV coverage, it was hardly an unprecedented event. It’s happened at least six times before to Airbus aircraft, and each time the pilots made safe landings and nobody was hurt. Considering that about 2,500 A320s […]

U.S. Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi last week introduced legislation that would quickly make available up to $20 million right away to make emergency repairs at airports in the Gulf Coast region damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The money would help to jump-start repairs as Congress works to allot millions more in the 2006 fiscal year […]

In Beaumont, Texas, air traffic controllers in the tower worked overtime to help the military airlift 4,000 people, many of them sick and elderly, out of danger before Rita hit, the FAA said. Operation Brother’s Keeper, which organized relief flights after Katrina, offered to help aircraft owners to relocate their aircraft out of harm’s way […]

The Same, But Different With Hurricane Katrina’s mass destruction fresh in everyone’s mind, the approach of Rita with Category 5 winds triggered a massive response — only this time, instead of waiting till after the storm, the chaos began even before the storm hit. Along the Texas coast, air ambulances and other aircraft from across […]

The Baton Rouge tower now is staffed with four positions, up from two, and the radar room has five, up from three. The new staffers came from New Orleans Lakefront Airport, where the ATC facilities remain closed, and two volunteers from Dallas-Fort Worth. Even with the extra staff — who spent a couple of weeks […]

A Tale From The Tower As tough as things got in the two weeks following Katrina’s assault on the Gulf Coast, as hard as the work was, however long the hours and thick the traffic and the stress of constantly revamping procedures trying to make it all work, “It felt good to do it,” air […]

The RANS S-7 Courier is now nearing approval as an S-LSA, Dan Johnson reported last week in his Sport Pilot Blog. For $75,000, RANS will offer a factory-built S-7S with a Garmin GPS/COM and a transponder. Also, more flight schools around the country are offering sport pilot training. St. Charles Flying Service, in St. Louis, […]

The EAA Sport Pilot Tour will be holding events around the country again this winter, bringing new LSAs to airports, where pilots can get to know them. The New Orleans stop scheduled for November has been postponed until next year. The tour has added a stop at McKinney Field in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 12. […]

Sebring V.2, And New Taildragger School To Open As the Sport Pilot era enters its second year, the number of certified S-LSAs (Special Light Sport Aircraft) is up to 15, with the FAA’s acceptance of the AveoUSA SportRider last week. The Italian design is built in the Czech Republic and sold in the U.S. by […]