Ownership

At this week’s Redbird Migration conference, I wrote a short straightnews piece quoting the proposed direct operating costs for an electric trainer of about $5 an hour. That number came from George Bye, whose Aero Electric Aircraft Corp. appears poised to bring an electric-powered trainer to market within…well, it’s on the horizon. A couple of […]

Buying or selling a used general aviation airplane is not fun. A root canal is probably more pleasant. Pilot training does not include education on airplane selection and evaluation, there are no regs on sales standards and no consumer watchdog agency to go after unscrupulous sellers. Sellers often spend hours answering telephone calls from tire […]

With a year and 1,300 hours of operation behind them, Redbird says its converted diesel Skyhawks have delivered bulletproof maintenance reliability and significant savings in direct operating costs. At a short briefing during the company’s fourth annual training conference in San Marcos, Texas, Redbird’s Darren Bien told a small group that thus far, customer response […]

When looking at the Piper Lance/Saratoga, it’s important to remember that all airplanes are compromises. Since most of us lack an unlimited budget, we’re often forced to choose between going fast in a relatively small cockpit or dragging around a larger cabin more slowly. It’s simple, really: The “go-fast” airplane will get us to our […]

AVweb’s weekly foray into all that is going on in aviation revealed news of EASA certification of a new Airbus helicopter, a free ForeFlight manual, the identity of the keynote speaker at Redbird Migration next week and availability of a free insurance review. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certified the new EC135 T3/P3 by […]

At NBAA, Nextant showed off a mock-up of its new G90XT King Air C90 remanufacture. The airplane will include GE engines and a Garmin G1000 suite. view on YouTube

We get a steady trickle of press releases from the mash-up of companies that now comprise Textron Aviation-Cessna, Beechcraft and Hawker. The other day, we noticed something: the press releases are coming through not with the Textron Aviation moniker but the badges of the individual companies. At the static display on Monday, I noticed the […]

Since this spring, Garmin has been delivering the new G5000 to the OEM market, but now it’s starting to offer retrofits in the from of a Beechjet 400/400A mod. Garmin’s Scott Frye gave AVweb a briefing on the new program. view on YouTube

The U.S. Marine Corps announced that it is determined to meet its goal of having its first squadron of 10 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters ready for combat in July 2015. In an interview with Reuters, outgoing Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos was asked if the Marines would miss the target date for declaring an […]

AVweb‘s weekly review of what is happening in aviation uncovered news of an invitation to fly in and help out with Bahamas Habitat, a record-setting third quarter for Embraer, a collaboration in the development of the Sun Flyer electric airplane, and an announcement that Hartzell’s developmental activities for its new five-blade prop will be showcased […]