News

In a 4-3 vote, the Blaine, Wash., city council voted last month to close the local airport, but supporters are continuing to try and save it. Although the same council voted in October to keep the facility open, according to AOPA, they wanted the FAA to kick in the full $16 million needed for improvements […]

The FAA is proposing $75,000 in fines for alleged maintenance violations on the state of North Dakotas three aircraft, including its King Air B200 thats regularly used to fly the governor and other dignitaries. The Bismarck Tribune says North Dakota is fighting the assessment and contends that the aircraft are properly maintained although it did […]

The state of Georgia is expected to adopt a plan that would put its entire fleet of aircraft under a single agency to reduce costs and increase efficiency. And, according to an Associated Press report, among the Georgia Aviation Authoritys first tasks will be to chop the existing fleet of 74 aircraft by about 20 […]

The National Business Aviation Association is asking members (and presumably anyone else who might be affected) to write the mayor and council of Centennial, Colo., to oppose a plan to build 1,600 homes less than half a mile from the busy runways at Centennial Airport (KAPA). A developer is asking the city to annex property […]

Transport Canadas plan to transfer some safety oversight and inspection responsibility to the countrys airlines, along with an aggressive cost-cutting regime, are being criticized by a prominent safety expert. According to the Ottawa Citizen, Virgil Moshansky, who headed a commission of inquiry into a 1989 Air Ontario accident that killed 24 people, told a House […]

Mexico hopes to be the next big thing in aerospace manufacturing, thanks to what one analyst says is a 30-percent cost advantage over the U.S. At a conference in Dallas last week, Mexican government official Eduardo Solis said Bombardier will be building regional jets in his country by 2011 and that the companys parts plant […]

The families of former New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor Tyler Stanger claim the crash of their Cirrus SR20 into a Manhattan apartment building was caused by a catastrophic failure of the flight control system. A statement released by Todd Macaluso, the lawyer representing the families of Lidle and Stanger, claims […]

In a letter sent to customers late last week, Eclipse Aviation President and CEO Vern Raburn admitted that the start-up aircraft manufacturer is having production problems. “It is natural for a new airplane company to experience growing pains as it transitions from development to a predictable production rate. However, our journey has introduced far more […]

This year’s edition of the Helicopter Association International’s annual convention, Heli-Expo 2007, concluded Saturday afternoon at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla.. The showroom floor hosted more than 500 exhibitors and 35 helicopters on display. According to HAI, exhibitors reported high levels of activity at their booths, and vendors were able to interact […]

AVMAIL INDEX AVmail: March 5, 2007Reader mail this week about airport problems and aging pilots, and a lot of discussion of the DFW fuel emergency fiasco.