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And for the gadgetly inclined, you may need to seek a twelve-step program after AirVenture. Every kind of aviation-related tool and toy imaginable is on display, and among the highlights are Garmin’s next-generation navigation system, the GPSmap 396. It’s a GPS navigator that combines XM-based weather datalink with XM audio and terrain alerting of the […]

While part of the show’s focus may be on little airplanes, those who build the bigger stuff have plenty to talk about, although the recent flurry of new-product announcements seems to have waned. Last year, Diamond Aircraft’s new Twin Star, with its efficient diesel engines, was among the most visited booths. This year, Diamond is […]

Light Sport Meets The Heat At AirVenture The grounds were already hot at OSH yesterday (have a quick look around our pre-show gallery number one and number two) … the temperature rose pretty high, too. EAA AirVenture has become such a huge event that it’s almost impossible to encapsulate and in earlier issues we’ve told […]

Meanwhile, Aero GP’s predecessor, the Red Bull racing series, will hold events throughout Europe this year before ending the season in its only North American stop Oct. 8 in San Francisco. The precise location of the race hasn’t been listed on the Web site but it should be available, along with a course map, in […]

Air Racing On A Figure Eight Combine elements of the Reno Air Races, the World Aerobatic Championships and the military’s William Tell competition into one action-packed afternoon and you have some idea of what Jeff Zaltman had in mind for Aero GP, which is being described as the aviation equivalent of Formula One auto racing. […]

The AFL-CIO got into the scrap late Wednesday with a call for FAA Administrator Marion Blakey to stop what it termed the FAA’s “national media assault on workers.” Edward Wytkind, president of the transportation trades department, also called on the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the costs of the “taxpayer-funded misinformation […]

The union said the FAA’s PR effort is an indication of the agency’s misplaced priorities. “This highly coordinated media assault is a disappointing indication of how much time and energy the FAA is prepared to expend in attacking air traffic controllers …” NATCA President John Carr said in a release. “America’s 14,500 air traffic controllers […]

Agency Holds 20 News Conferences The next stage of contract negotiations between the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association unfolded Tuesday as the two sides traded proposals in Washington. But the actual negotiations took a back seat to the massive public-relations and political campaign being waged between them. The FAA held news conferences […]

Gray’s case is further complicated by his British citizenship. When the TSA first adopted its pilot security review standards, it appointed itself the sole arbiter of who presented a security risk. The lack of checks and balances outraged aviation groups (and plenty of congressional leaders, too) and the rules were modified to give U.S. citizens […]

A British pilot, who works for an American regional airline, is suing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to find out why they deem him a “threat to aviation or national security.” Robert Gray says the agencies have refused (on security grounds, of course) to tell him why he shouldn’t […]