Recent Updates

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) released the results of its annual Compensation Survey last week, showing an overall increase in pay for industry employees of 3 to 4 percent on average compared to the 2017 survey results. The 2018 survey collected salary data on 16 job descriptions from 790 member companies that represent 4,130 […]

The Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) has asked for a review of FAA enforcement of rules regarding instructions for continued airworthiness (ICA) such as aircraft maintenance manuals. In a comment filed with the U.S. Small Business Administration National Ombudsman’s office, ARSA stated that it believes “the FAA strictly enforces the requirement that repair stations possess […]

Garmin announced that it has acquired Flight Plan LLC (FltPlan), an electronic flight planning, scheduling and trip support service provider that includes the FltPlan.com website and FltPlan Go mobile app. According to the company, FltPlan has more than 165,000 registered users and its services are used to create approximately 6.3 million flight plans annually, making […]

Swift Fuels announced that it has suspended its work activities with the FAA’s Piston Alternative Fuels Initiative (PAFI) unleaded 100LL replacement fuels program on Wednesday. The company says that it is now focusing on testing a high-octane unleaded avgas replacement that is not part of PAFI and working privately with the FAA and OEMs to […]

Swift Fuel’s announcement that it’s bailing out of the FAA’s troubled Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative had an inevitability about it. Following the FAA’s announcement in June that it was suspending work on finding suitable unleaded replacements for 100LL, a not-that-subtle whiff of a certain metaphor related to chairs on the deck of a doomed ocean […]

I was doing traffic pattern work in a Citabria on a Friday afternoon at a busy, towered, Class D airport. Meanwhile, the business jet traffic was picking up, and the tower controller was doing an admirable job working our touch and goes in between the jet arrivals and departures. Lear123 (just departed): KXYZ Tower, be […]

Engineers from NASA and Boeing have successfully used “shape memory alloys” to fold a full-sized wing section from an F/A-18 Hornet jet, NASA has reported. The technology enabled the team to fold the wing section in the lab 90 degrees, with very precise control enabling them to select any position within that sweep. The ability […]

California-based SkyRyse announced the launch of a new emergency response service using semi-autonomous aircraft and introduced its advanced pilot assistance system (APAS) on Tuesday. According to the company, APAS automates, adapts and enhances control systems on compatible aircraft by using artificial intelligence, a camera and sensor suite, and decision-making algorithms. For the immediate future, a […]

Lake Aircraft has gone up for sale before, several times, but this week the company announced it’s trying again to find a new owner for its assets, including the only FAA-certified single-engine amphibious airplane on the market. The offering includes all the intellectual property and equipment needed to manufacture the Lake Renegade, Seafury and Seawolf […]