News

copyright AOPA That first solo flight is special for all pilots, but for a mother and son in Texas, it was even better sharing the experience. AOPA reports that Steve Poteet, 43, watched as his mother Sylvia, 64, soloed recently at Seymour Municipal Airport in Seymour, Texas. Then we hugged, high-fived, and I got in […]

The confirmation of Acting FAA Administrator Robert “Bobby” Sturgell, who seemed like a shoo-in when President Bush nominated him in October to take on the administrator job for the next five years, now is encountering political turbulence. Powerful members of Congress from the Northeast are saying they will oppose the appointment unless Sturgell agrees to […]

A week after it bought the airport, TAG is asking the British government to ease restrictions that cap flight operations, particularly on weekends and holidays. The airport is currently restricted to 2,500 weekend and holiday operations a year (the airport is closed on Christmas Day and Dec. 26, the Boxing Day holiday in Britain) but, […]

The Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing company (the same firm that will build Cessna’s Light Sport Aircraft) rolled out the first ARJ21 “Flying Phoenix” regional jet on Friday. According to United Press International, the aircraft is the first-ever clean sheet airliner design by the Chinese. A 20-seat business variant is planned but the up and down world […]

In case you’re wonder whether this diesel aircraft engine thing is going anywhere, Thielert, which makes the market-leading Centurion 2.0 liter mill announced this week that it now has 250 authorized service centers worldwide. Of those, 58 are in the U.S. and the company is busily training its first “native speaking” U.S. technical representative to […]

The U.S. Air Force will train about 925 new pilots in 2008, a decrease of about 12 percent from the 1,100 that will graduate this year, the Air Force Times is reporting. The Times says there will be a slight bump in trainees in 2009 to about 1025, which is expected to remain constant for […]

An online reservation service for people looking for charters and air taxi flights predicts the cost of flying in style will drop in the coming year. Taxijet.com says the announcement that Eclipse Aviation has achieved certification of its Avio NG avionics system should spark the boom the market has been straining to hear. “That means […]

Embraer has completed a 200,000 sq. ft. hangar at Gaviao Peixoto, near Sao Paulo, for final assembly and interior installation on its Phenom 100 and 300 light jets. The state-of-the-art facilities will turn out 120 to 150 Phenoms a year. It will start working on the backlog of 700 Phenoms in 2009. “I am absolutely […]

AOPA’s annual Nall Report (PDF) says 2006 was the safest year ever for general aviation operations. According to the report, there were 6.32 accidents for every 100,000 hours flown in 2006 compared to 7.19 in 1997. The report bases its analysis on trends, rather than year-to-year statistics. There’s been an increase in the number of […]

The FAA has amended its controversial rule requiring pre-takeoff ice inspections to allow Part 135/125 operators the same flexibility as larger carriers when there is threat of ground contamination by ice and snow. Last year, the FAA enacted a rule that required a visual or tactile inspection of wings and control surfaces within five minutes […]