News

Washington State aircraft owners are getting ready to fight a new tax that could add hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year to their fixed costs. State Sen. Cheryl Pflug told the Washington Pilots Association that a citizens’ commission on tax preferences has recommended a 1 percent yearly excise tax based on the value […]

The FAA could soon implement a changeover from “position and hold” to “line up and wait,” to conform with international phraseology standards, NBAA said this week. If approved later this month, the new terminology could be implemented as soon as this June. It’s long overdue, according to NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman. She said the NTSB […]

Economic forecasts for the coming year may be mixed, but the FAA is bullish on its expectations for air traffic at next month’s Super Bowl. “A large number of aircraft” are expected to arrive in the South Florida metropolitan area during the period from Jan. 26 to Feb. 8 for the Pro Bowl and Super […]

A Lockheed Constellation whose history includes flying in Canada, life as a restaurant in Toronto and twenty years in the elements has found salvation and a new life at Boeing Field’s Museum of Flight in Seattle, Wash. Currently, the Connie is undergoing restoration at Boeing’s Plant 2 building thanks in part to a large financial […]

The passengers aboard a Horizon Air flight to Portland in late December got there on time and made history in doing so. They were aboard the first Part 121 passenger flight to complete a WAAS Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV) and without the satellite-based gear they would likely have ended up somewhere else. It […]

The FAA says it has delayed until December a deadline originally set for April 10 that requires manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus to install upgraded cockpit voice and flight-data recorders, because manufacturers failed to plan ahead. Manufacturers petitioned for additional time in what the FAA calls a “decision by the industry not to comply” on […]

ECi has submitted to the FAA an alternate method of compliance (AMOC) that addresses inspections required by an FAA AD affecting some 18,000 ECi parallel valve “TITAN” cylinders available for Lycoming 320, 360 and 540 engines. The AD was issued on the last day of 2009 and the inspections aim to spot cracking at the […]

The NTSB has published a final rule amending its regulations and reporting requirements regarding aircraft accidents and specifying the sort of accidents that must be reported immediately. Incidents making the list now include specific EFIS system and PFD or PND failures, and specific collision avoidance system advisories received while operating on an instrument flight plan […]

The Coast Guard says LORAN-C isn’t necessary for maritime navigation and the Department of Homeland Security says it’s not needed as a backup for GPS, so by Feb. 8, you may not have it available to you, either. That has some pilots very concerned about the lack of a land-based redundancy for GPS. That doesn’t […]

2009 was the “most successful year in Pipistrel’s 22 year history,” seeing increased production and sales, plus the hiring of new employees, the company announced this week. Translated into numbers, Pipistrel’s production and sales increased by more than 50 percent when compared to its 2008 numbers. It completed its 300th aircraft from the Sinus-Virus light […]