Maintenance

The FAA issued two direct-to-final-rule Airworthiness Directives today that affect general aviation airplanes. A Cessna AD addresses the elevator trim tabs in about 5,000 twin-engine T310Q, 310Q, and 402B aircraft. Textron already has issued a service bulletin, but allows up to a year to make the fix — the FAA said today it is shortening […]

Swift Fuels has signed a deal with global aviation fuel wholesaler Avfuel Corporation to distribute its 94 MON unleaded aviation fuel. The company announced the deal Friday during Sun ‘n Fun and says the deal is “a framework agreement to serve as a template allowing equitable distribution processes amongst the major avgas distributors for Swift […]

ICON Aircraft CEO Kirk Hawkins says the company is open to changing its controversial buyer’s agreement based on the feedback it’s receiving on the document and “doing what is ultimately right for our owners, the industry and the company.” What exactly that means isn’t clear in the open letter (PDF) sent to aviation media on […]

Sporty’s has teamed up with Mike Busch’s Savvy Aircraft Maintenance to offer what they call an aviation version of AAA. The Breakdown Assistance Program will give round-the-clock help for pilots who get stuck on a trip with a broken airplane. “Traveling by GA airplane can be one of the most exciting and valuable benefits of […]

Although the design is more than four decades old, the Cessna 177 Cardinal—with its racy sloped windshield, wide doors and strutless wings—looks more modern than the newest Skyhawks coming out of Cessna’s Independence, Kansas, plant. Yet, sadly, the Cardinal is a poster child for why innovation and audacity in general aviation development has often met […]

The Experimental Aircraft Association’s Kermit Weeks Hangar is just down the road from the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. While the museum is the public face of EAA, the Weeks Hangar is where the action is. In the most basic sense, it’s a maintenance and restoration facility. But that’s a bit like calling the […]

The FAA has determined that Huntington Beach, California-based avionics manufacturer Ameri-King Corporation has manufactured, sold or distributed parts and articles for installation on FAA type-certificated aircraft that did not conform to an approved design, but were otherwise represented as FAA-approved. As a result, the agency has issued an emergency cease and desist order to Ameri-King, […]

In Monday’s AVweb Flash, we ran an article from the March 2014 issue of Light Plane Maintenance entitled “The Dangers of Jump-Starting.” The article discussed an accident that occurred where the pilot of a Diamond DA-42 with a flat battery jump-started both engines—contrary to the POH. The pilot’s actions started an accident chain that culminated […]

The problem of jump-starting your plane is you have no idea of the condition of the battery once it starts, and it will be at least 90 minutes cruise or possibly not at all before the battery has any true backup value. A strong case can be made that you are operating an un-airworthy airplane, […]

A 30-year-old man is in jail after causing up to $30,000 worth of damage to a former military aircraft that he thought belonged to Microsoft founding partner Paul Allen. The man was spotted inside the fence at Arlington Municipal Airport, north of Seattle, allegedly breaking pieces off the exterior of a Dornier Alpha Jet, a […]