News

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.

WHAT’S NEWWhat’s New for March 2007This month AVweb’s survey of the latest products and services for pilots, mechanics and aircraft owners brings you Rotax training classes, multimedia courses, a dictionary, a Mode S transponder and more.

COLUMN INDEX Leading Edge #2: Standard Operating ProceduresSOPs provide middle-of-the-envelope safety…and the basis for more advanced flying.

COLUMN INDEX Across the Pond #1: Dysfunctional EU Family This week AVweb introduces a new columnist, Liz Moscrop, whose monthly Across the Pond column will explore GA issues in Europe. This month she looks at the challenges of multiple aviation authorities.

Although windborne debris was at first dismissed as a cause for the 14 cracked aircraft windshields last week at Denver International Airport, investigators now are saying FOD, or foreign-object debris, was indeed to blame. Microscopic analysis showed fine particles caused pitting that in turn caused cracking, NTSB investigator Jennifer Kaiser told the Denver Post. The […]

According to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, an ABC News story — cited in Monday’s AVwebFlash — regarding a controller’s emergency handling on Aug. 31 of an American Airlines jetliner at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport “left out huge gaps.” NATCA Dallas TRACON representative Mike Conely maintains that it was the “operational supervisor in charge’s decision,” […]

The Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 executive-jet programs are moving forward on schedule, Embraer said Tuesday. Final assembly of the Phenom 100 prototype is ready to start within the next few weeks at the company’s main plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The jet will be powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW617F turbofan engines, […]

Don’t waste another minute making “tedious” logbook entries, says fboweb.com. Now, it may be hard to justify calling a two-minute-or-so chore “tedious,” but plenty of pilots find their logbooks getting behind, or just give up altogether on keeping them up to date. Fboweb.com will take care of that recordkeeping for you, but with a few […]