News

Miscommunications are a major cause of runway incursions, the FAA said in a safety notice issued this week. Statistics show that incursions this year are higher than last year, with 139 incursions so far in FY2007, compared to 117 in the same period the year before. The incursions included incidents such as crossing hold-short lines […]

Two airliners came within about 50 feet of colliding at a runway intersection at San Francisco International Airport two weeks ago, the NTSB said on Monday. At about 1:30 p.m. on May 26, the tower air traffic controller cleared SkyWest Airlines Flight 5741, an Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia, to land on Runway 28R. “Forgetting about the […]

About 17 homebuilt hot-air balloons and 50-some pilots and friends gathered in Amherst, Mass., recently for the third annual Experimental Lighter-than-Air (XLTA) fly-in. The event is hosted by Dan Nachbar, who has been developing an unusual “personal blimp” that he calls Alberto, which has attracted considerable attention. The craft is designed for pure pleasure flying, […]

Traditionally, creating aerial photographs for mapping has been a pretty complex exercise, involving loads of expensive equipment, big stable aircraft and a highly trained crew. But now the John Deere company has developed a simple digital system that can be strapped on to any small single-engine airplane and flown by any commercial pilot. The system […]

Cape Air, a local airline based in Hyannis, Mass., on Tuesday voluntarily grounded 34 of its 49 Cessna 402 piston twins that fly in New England, the Caribbean and Florida after experiencing three engine failures in three weeks. Two failures occurred in late May, and the third on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Boston Globe. […]

AOPA is asking pilots to continue reporting their experiences with Lockheed Martin’s Flight Service Station (FSS) system, noting that the this feedback provides an important cross-check on the data supplied by Lockheed to the FAA and other overseers. “On a day when Lockheed Martin reported that the longest hold time for the entire system was […]

Launching a new brand identity this September and a new 35,000-sq-ft facility in Henderson, Nev., 10-year-old Jet Source of Carlsbad, Calif., has announced plans to offer fractional jet ownership (including Spectrum twinjets) through three unique offerings targeting business travel, personal travel and licensed pilot travel. The company, which shares its Carlsbad home with Spectrum Aeronautical […]

JetDirect Aviation Holdings, through acquisition of Sunset Aviation in northern California, will add a ninth regional base of operations and increase its combined fleet to more than 130 managed aircraft. JetDirect says its retail charter business and Sentient Jet Membership Program tripled in size over the past two years and that it already claims its […]

The CAE SimuFlite Northeast Training Center, located near the Morristown Airport in New Jersey, last week opened its doors as the company’s newest business aviation training center, while CAE simultaneously announced plans to expand that center from six to 12 simulator bays to meet demand. The company is aligning itself for profitable positioning with regard […]

Sir Richard Branson on Tuesday announced the launch of Virgin Charter, a new online marketplace catering to “buyers and sellers of private aviation services.” The “full-service marketplace” allows sellers to offer their inventory to a larger customer base without necessitating a change in the way they normally do business. Virgin Charter does not own or […]