Ownership

The FAA on Tuesday issued an Airworthiness Directive (PDF) that affects nearly 19,000 Piper PA-28 airplanes, but compliance is fairly simple and cheap. The AD requires aircraft owners to inspect the fuel-tank selector cover to verify the fuel-tank selector placards are located at the proper positions. If not, the placards must be replaced. Piper told […]

While the National Airspace System remains open and accessible to all aircraft, the government shutdown, which began Saturday morning, could affect thousands of owners, operators and pilots if it persists. Air traffic control and all the associated operations are designated as essential services but most of the FAA’s ground-bound services will be shuttered during the […]

In 2016, the FAA terminated its certification of certain ELTs manufactured by Ameri-King, and this week, Orolia announced it has developed a new version of its Integra model that has been specially adapted and packaged to make it easy to replace the affected ELTs. The new Kannad Ameri-Fit pack is available through Aircraft Spruce, Mid-Continent […]

Discovery Aviation has started production of a new version of the XL-2, a two-seat trainer first FAA-certified in 2004, the company announced last week. The IFR-certified XL-2 features a Garmin G500 dual-screen flight display, as well as DME, ADF and an option to add an autopilot. The XL-2 runs an IOF-240 engine from Teledyne Continental, […]

Dynon effectively stirred the avionics-for-certified-airplanes pot at EAA AirVenture 2017 when it announced that its experimental-only Skyview HDX glass suite would be available for certified aircraft—with the first STCs expected by the end of the year. As an integral part of the program, it was launching an entire product line called Dynon Certified. The first […]

Some financial analysts predict that the tax reform recently enacted will see corporate earnings grow in the 8 to 12 percent range in 2018. As all of us in the general aviation industry know, this projected growth could have a positive trickle-down effect for our market. In my segment of the industry – avionics manufacturing, […]

Garmin’s G1000 NXi integrated flight deck is now included as standard equipment in Piper’s Meridian M500 single-engine turboprop and the Mirage M350 piston single, Piper announced on Monday. The company also plans to offer the system as a retrofit option (via STC) for both airplanes, as well as the Matrix, that are currently equipped with […]

Some years ago, I had one of those “what in the world are they thinking?” conversations with a pilot who was towing gliders as a volunteer for the Civil Air Patrol. While he thought it was important to volunteer for a good group, he was ready to quit because of a screwy power reduction procedure […]

There is now more competition in the growing retrofit autopilot market as Garmin announced it has earned an STC (supplemental type certificate) for its GFC500 entry-level autopilot. With roots planted in the experimental aircraft market, the GFC500 joins other experimental autopilot models (including TruTrak’s Vision and Trio’s Pro Pilot) that have been awarded an STC […]

GE Aviation announced Thursday it had successfully test run its partially 3-D printed Advanced Turboprop engine, which is set to power the Textron Denali single turboprop. Details of the test were scant in the GE press release but “early indications show that we will meet or exceed all the performance numbers we have quoted for […]