News

Lockheed Martin announced Oct. 15 that five satellite flight service stations will be closing in February and AOPA was quick to take exception with the way the change in service was made. “We are extraordinarily displeased that the FAA, which is supposed to be managing this contract, did not consult with its ‘customers’ before allowing […]

Textron Thursday announced a nearly 20-percent decline in third-quarter profits and plans to shrink its workforce through layoffs and workforce consolidation that along with other measures could save the company $40 million per year. The company’s financing division — which, among other things, provides financing for buyers of new and used Cessna business jets — […]

American Airlines has entered into a purchase agreement with Boeing for 42 787-9 Dreamliners (with options for up to 58 more), expecting first deliveries in 2012, but its pilots retain the right to have a say in that. The airline believes the up-to-290-passenger, 8,500-nm cruising jet could theoretically operate on every route it currently serves, […]

According to preliminary figures released Thursday, overall transportation fatalities in the United States fell 4 percent year over year from 2006 to 2007 and did include a larger reduction in aviation fatalities. Aviation deaths, specifically, decreased from 784 to 545, with general aviation as the segment’s largest contributor. In 2007, nearly 90 percent of aviation […]

A wrongful death suit that originally levied a $10.5 million judgment against the EAA and the Northwest Experimental Aircraft Association (NWEAA) has seen a reversal judgment in a Washington court of appeals. The court found that Don Corbitt was alive in the wreckage of his RV-6A after it crashed shortly after departure at the Northwest […]

Officials Thursday released the names of four victims killed when a medical transport helicopter crashed in a field in Illinois Wednesday night and as the Association of Air Medical Services prepared for its annual conference held this year on Oct. 20-22. The aircraft came to rest near a newly damaged AM radio tower. As the […]

The EPA has specifically cited airplane fuels among “significant sources of lead” and there is new concern among pilots that engines burning leaded fuel may be targeted by new standards for lead in the air set Wednesday night by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s new limit is the first update since 1978, according to […]

Several skydivers made successful jumps at Mount Everest last week, using specially made parachutes and oxygen systems. The highest jumpers departed their Pilatus Porter aircraft at 29,500 feet, and landed at what the trip organizers called “the highest drop zone in the world,” Shyangboche, at 12,350 feet. A total of 41 jumpers, both tandem and […]

A proposed rule from the Transportation Security Administration aimed at general aviation could have “serious implications,” says AOPA. “This proposed rule is an unprecedented imposition of security requirements on the general aviation community, affecting 10,000 individual operators and hundreds of airports,” said Andy Cebula, AOPA executive vice president of government affairs. “An overwhelming majority of […]

You might think that an autopilot would be the last thing that pilots of sport airplanes would yearn for — after all, isn’t the whole point of sport flying, to fly? — but Dynon Avionics says interest has been keen in their new autopilot system, now available. The kit fits several Vans RV models and […]