Business & Military

Sun ‘n Fun played host on Wednesday to an aviation career fair inviting employers, pilots and mechanics to mix, mingle, interview and trade resumes. Fourteen aviation employers were in attendance, including most of the big regional airlines. Skywest, Envoy, ExpressJet, Frontier, Spirit and Republic all sent pilots or hiring reps to fish for fresh talent. […]

If drones can do pipeline patrol and survey work, why can’t a light sport aircraft do the same? That’s the question the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association is asking the FAA to consider and the answer may eventually result in an approval for just such work. “We’ve adopted the term aerial work, which is a European […]

For many Mooney owners — and a few would-be buyers — a second cabin door has always been on the wish list and on Tuesday at Sun ‘n Fun, Mooney delivered just that. The company rolled out the fully certified Acclaim Ultra, sporting both the new left-side cabin door and a lighter, spiffed-up interior. Mooney […]

Some FBOs are charging too much for minimal services to general aviation pilots, AOPA said in a report posted online last week. “No one is watching,” said AOPA general counsel Ken Mead. “There’s a fox in the henhouse and no one is paying attention.” AOPA has complained to the FAA, citing incidents of transient pilots […]

Embraer Executive Jets delivered the first Phenom 100 EV to an undisclosed U.S. customer last Friday, the company announced this week. The new aircraft model has been certified both in Brazil and the U.S. An evolution of the Phenom 100, which entered service in 2008, the Phenom 100EV delivers enhanced performance, with new avionics and […]

The first Airbus A319neo flew for the first time, on Friday, the company has announced. The airplane took off from Hamburg, Germany, and landed in Toulouse, France, five hours later. The crew used that flight time to assess the general handling of the aircraft and check the main systems, the company said. The airplane now […]

The Sunwing Airlines pilot who passed out in the cockpit of the Boeing 737 he was supposed to fly on Dec. 31 has been sentenced to eight months in jail by a Canadian court. As we reported earlier, Capt. Miroslav Gronych, a Slovak flying on a work permit in Canada, had to be woken up […]

The Antonov 132, a twin turboprop developed for multipurpose military and civil use by a Saudi-Ukrainian partnership, flew for the first time on Friday. The airplane took off from Kiev, Ukraine, and flew for 1 hour and 45 minutes. The aircraft is intended for operation on short- and medium−haul routes, the company said, and will […]

A California flight school’s financial woes are threatening the training futures of dozens of foreign flight students. Mazzei Flying Service, of Fresno, is out of money and is suspending almost all training effective immediately. Students from Taiwan, Indonesia and India who are training to become airline pilots back home have an uncertain future. “As of […]

The Air Force is moving ahead with plans to allow its pilots to interrupt military service to fly with airlines. It’s one of the measures being considered to stem the exodus of experienced military aviators to commercial aviation. “Our senior leaders are going to start collaborating with the airlines in May to see if we […]