News

The FAA has tightened up its treatment of pilots convicted of alcohol-related driving offenses. In the latest issue (PDF) of the Federal Air Surgeon’s Medical Bulletin, AMEs are advised that first-time DUI and DWI offenders don’t necessarily escape the agency’s scrutiny as they have in the past. As noted by Aero Legal ServicesUnder the new […]

China intends to design and build its own engines to power the so-called Big Plane, the C919. The AVIC Commercial Aircraft Engine Company was formed last January and it has a model of its SF-A engine on display at the China International Industry Fair in Shanghai. The company said it will have a detailed design […]

North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan will propose a measure to ban the use of laptop computers and other “personal electronic devices” in airliner cockpits in response to the distraction of two Northwest Airlines pilots last month that they say led to their missing their destination of Minneapolis. Dorgan, chairman of the aviation subcommittee, told the […]

Small general aviation airports around the country have raked in $1.1 billion in federal “earmarks” since 2001, USA Today reported this week. The earmarks are funds requested by lawmakers to support specific projects. USA Today says corporate jets, private pilots, and cargo operators like UPS and FedEx have benefited at the expense of taxpayers and […]

There has been another change at the top of Piper Aircraft. President John Becker, who’d been in the position less than six months, resigned Monday, according to TCPalm.com He will stay on until Dec. 1. Becker was the former vice president of engineering and took over the president’s post when former CEO Jim Bass announced […]

Although customers may not notice much besides lower prices and newer aircraft, there are some who are mourning the demise of Midwest Airlines as it was previously structured. Republic Airlines bought the carrier in July and on Monday the last “legacy flight” of a Midwest Boeing 717, with an original Midwest crew, landed at Milwaukee’s […]

Although Garmin debuted the premium priced GPSMap 696 only a year ago, it’s rolling out yet another new portable navigator model line this week at AOPA Summit in Tampa, Florida. The new product line is called aera, and although its features and capabilities are similar to the popular GPSMap 396/496 series, the aera line will […]

For the first time in its eight-year history, the 2010 annual meeting of Cirrus aircraft owners will not be held at the company’s headquarters in Duluth, Minn. Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association President Curtis Sanford announced to members that they will meet in Dayton, Ohio June 17-20. “We have had seven very successful Migrations in […]

The Coast Guard Sunday called off the search for survivors of a midair collision between a Guard C-130 and a Marine AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter off San Clemente Island on the southern California coast. There were seven people on the Herc and two in the helicopter when they collided late Thursday in what witnesses reported […]

Carroll’s first two videos Dave Carroll, YouTube’s favorite musical advocate for the proper treatment of luggage (famous for his YouTube video “United Breaks Guitars”) may have a new gripe — again, with United. Last week, Carroll arrived at Denver International from Regina, Saskatchewan on a United Express flight operated by Skywest Airlines. He was told […]