News

Tornado Alley Turbo has issued a mandatory service bulletin (PDF) and asked the FAA to issue an airworthiness directive for the owners of up to 950 Cirrus SR22TN aircraft that may have Champion RHB32S fine wire spark plugs, TAT is sounding the alarm and can only include the aircraft with which it is directly involved […]

In our story last week about the Unleaded Avgas Transition team’s deliberations, we reported that the committee increasingly believes a direct drop-in unleaded replacement isn’t likely. But one reader wrote to ask about the recently approved 100VLL, which the FAA announced as an approved fuel in SAIB NE-11-55. Isn’t this a direct drop-in? Yes, it […]

EAA and AOPA are jointly proposing a plan to the FAA to allow so-called “driver’s license medicals” to be used for some pilots who now must maintain a minimum third-class medical. In a joint announcement at AOPA Summit on Saturday, AOPA President Craig Fuller and EAA President Rod Hightower said the proposal will be submitted […]

Friday, the NTSB released its preliminary report on the Sept. 16 crash of Jimmy Leeward and his Unlimited Reno Racer, Galloping Ghost. The crash has so far been responsible for the death of Leeward and 10 of the spectators in attendance at the Reno Air Races where Leeward was flying in an Unlimited heat, that […]

The FAA Thursday proposed a $2.4 million fine for Cessna due to the company’s failure to follow quality control measures in production of specific Corvalis parts built in Mexico. According to the FAA, on Dec. 6, 2010, a high-performance, four-seat, composite fixed-gear Corvalis flown by an FAA test pilot experienced separation of a seven-foot section […]

An arm of Canada’s federal government has served a six-month eviction notice on a major aviation museum in the country’s largest city. Workers at the Canadian Air and Space Museum in Toronto got to work last Tuesday to find the locks changed and an eviction notice on the door. The museum is on former Canadian […]

Authorities in Canada’s Northwest Territories are saying it’s a miracle more people were not killed and injured when an Arctic Sunwest Airlines Twin Otter floatplane crashed on a busy downtown street in the Territories’ capital city of Yellowknife just after the noon hour on Thursday. The two pilots aboard the big turboprop twin died in […]

First Cargolux Airlines on Sept. 16 decided to delay taking delivery of the first two 747-8 freighters and now, for separate reasons, Atlas Air has canceled orders for three of jets. The 747-8 was originally scheduled to enter service two years ago but early flight tests led to a wing redesign. Cargolux based its decision […]

NextGen air traffic control improvements are championed by government officials, but one former government official argued through an editorial this week that ATC may fare better in private hands. According to Peter Orszag, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, NextGen is “a step in the right direction.” But because it’s being rolled […]

One reason we don’t know more about why Boeing aircraft suffered fuselage skin cracking can be tied to regulatory decisions made by the FAA. A Southwest Airlines 737-300 suffered a crack in its fuselage on April 1, and an American Airlines 757-200 suffered a tear in its skin last year. Both incidents led to the […]