Ownership

The FAA’s rules currently prohibit civil aircraft from exceeding speeds in excess of Mach 1 over U.S. land areas, and the FAA says that’s not going to change. However, the agency said this week it wants to support the development of civil supersonic aircraft, and will propose two new rules that suggest a move in […]

The Citabria’s annual inspection was so close to completion I became giddy with irrational exuberance that after a month of slathering new parts on the old machine, I might fly again. But not to be. The delay was two miscreant bolts that hold the tailwheel rudder horn to the rudder. The rudder horn connects the […]

ASTM has developed a new international standard for ice detectors for GA aircraft. The detectors could be used to enhance pilot awareness of icing conditions and the standard was developed with the FAA’s Non-Required Safety Enhancing Equipment policy in mind. The is designed to make safety-related equipment more accessible for small aircraft by eliminating most […]

For many aircraft operators, a tug is a must-have hangar accessory. Chino, California-based AC Air Technology has devised a unique take on the tug with its line of remote-control tugs running on rubber tracks. The tugs attracted lots of attention in the outdoor exhibit area at this year’s Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida. In […]

A Chicago pilot and his passenger survived bailing out of their TBM Avenger on May 7 over northeastern Arizona. Ron Carlson and Kenny Franzese hit the silk near Fort Apache in Navajo County after an apparent engine failure in the freshly restored warbird. The two were ferrying the big single-engine torpedo bomber from Phoenix to […]

On a strong domestic economy, sales of general aviation aircraft rose during the first quarter of 2018 over the same period last year, the General Aviation Manufactures Association said on Thursday. The rosy sales picture was largely driven by increased turboprop and piston helicopter sales, GAMA said. And while both unit volume and sales revenue […]

Legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives seeks to create a program to bring more people into the aviation maintenance workforce. If it passes a House vote, the Aviation Workforce Development Pilot Program Bill, H.R. 5701, would provide grants of up to $500,000 for activities that support aviation maintenance workforce development. Twenty aviation […]

A decade of low interest rates on aircraft loans continues to stimulate aircraft sales, but worries about inflation are pushing rates up, says Airfleet Capital, a leading aircraft lender. While no spikes are expected short term, the market is definitely headed higher, says Airfleet’s Jim Blessing. In this podcast recorded last month at Sun ‘n […]

You can say a lot of things about light sport airplanes, but one of them isn’t that the sky has been darkened with 1320-pound wonders. Sales remain modest at best and a company selling 30 or 40 a year has a smash hit. Now comes new startup Vashon to reset that equation with a heretofore […]

A decade of low interest rates on aircraft loans continues to stimulate aircraft sales, but worries about inflation are pushing rates up, says Airfleet Capital, a leading aircraft lender. While no spikes are expected short term, the market is definitely headed higher, says Airfleet’s Jim Blessing in this podcast recorded at Sun ‘n Fun 2018. […]