Maintenance

A publication for antique car buffs is reporting the Environmental Protection Agency is intent on ending the production of ethanol-free gasoline, known in aviation as Mogas. Hemmings Daily said the Renewable Fuels Standard issued by the EPA a couple of weeks ago sets eliminating ethanol-free gasoline as a goal. It quotes the EPA as saying […]

This article started with an email from a reader asking whether a Cessna 150 would be a good floatplane. It morphed from conversations with experienced floatplane pilots about the 150 on floats—okay, but not great—into what makes a good floatplane, what to look for when buying one and what’s involved in putting floats on your […]

The computer user refrain of “unplug it and plug it back in again” now applies to Boeing 787s. On Dec. 2, the FAA issued an airworthiness directive that required operators of all Dreamliners to power their aircraft down completely and turn them back on again by Dec. 9. The order came after the FAA said […]

The Atlanta Technical College, in Atlanta, Georgia, is no longer certified to offer aviation maintenance technician training, the FAA said this week. The FAA issued an emergency order alleging that the college failed to keep proper records for students. Some grade records were incomplete or lacked instructor signatures, the FAA said, and several students who […]

Blackhawk Aircraft Modifications says it expects to be able to deliver re-engined King Air 350s that will offer significant performance improvements from the factory models by May of 2017. Blackhawk will begin flight testing a 350 with Pratt & Whitney Canada XP67A engines this month. The airplane came with PT6A-60A engines developing 1050 horsepower and […]

Competition is always intense in the business aircraft market and a new front has opened that’s affecting the whole industry. There’s a shortage of maintenance technicians and companies are getting innovative to attract and retain the people who keep their products flying. Bombardier recently announced it is hiring an additional 200 techs to beef up […]

The Canadian government has begun laboratory testing of two unleaded aviation fuels that the FAA is also testing as possible replacements for 100LL. Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) is using its altitude chamber at its Ottawa research complex to put Swift 102 and Shell’s candidate fuel through its paces. Pervez Canteenwalla, the researcher heading up […]

There are two ways to look at the ongoing FAA fuels testing project called the Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative. One is that no news is good news and things must be perking along as planned. The other is that no news is bad news and that things aren’t going as planned or else we would […]

Canada’s National Research Council is doing independent ground testing of two alternatives to 100LL avgas that are undergoing tests by the FAA. The Canadian organization is comparing the performance of Swift Fuels’ and Shell’s lead-free aviation fuels to regular avgas in an altitude chamber that allows it to replicate flight conditions in the controlled environment […]

Rockwell Collins has significantly broadened its customer base with the $6.3 billion acquisition of B/E Aerospace. The iconic avionics and electronics maker is now in the cabin completion business but the two worlds are not that far apart. B/E is a Florida-based supplier of business jet cabin fittings from galleys to lavs. All those things […]