Recent Updates

AOPA will back off on using Canada as a flawed example of privatized air traffic control after its Canadian counterpart protested AOPA’s “lack of understanding of the situation in Canada.” Bernard Gervais, president of the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association, particularly chafed at a column written by AOPA President Mark Baker in the September edition […]

Members of Congress are back in their home districts this month, leaving Washington quiet and empty, but that doesn’t mean the efforts of general aviation lobbyists who oppose ATC privatization are on hold. “The GA community can’t let its guard down,” said Mark Baker, president of AOPA, in a statement issued last week by several […]

Piston airplane sales are up for the second quarter of 2017, compared to the previous year, ending a three-year slide, according to General Aviation Manufacturers Association data. In the first half of the year, airframers delivered 468 piston airplanes—265 in the second quarter alone—up 5.6% from the first half of 2016 during which 443 piston […]

About a year ago I began working for a company that does aerial survey (patrol) of pipelines. My job is to fly a Cessna 172 parallel to petroleum-carrying underground pipes while looking for what is euphemistically referred to as conflicts. Conflicts can be a wide variety of issues—leaks, damaged pipe above ground, equipment on top […]

Could the future of personal aviation be a DeLorean? Paul DeLorean, nephew of the “Back to the Future” stainless steel car creator in the 1980s, is proposing a dual ducted-fan VTOL aircraft to compete with a host of variations on the same theme and with similar boasts about performance and environmental friendliness. DeLorean Aerospace has […]

British authorities are proposing to regulate the sale of laser pointers to curb attacks on aircraft. The U.K. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial has issued a “call for evidence” into possibly licensing the sale of small lasers. “Used irresponsibly or maliciously, these products can and do wreak havoc and harm others, with potentially catastrophic […]

All flying units of the U.S. Marines will take a 24-hour operational pause over the next 10 days “to focus on the fundamentals of safe flight operations, standardization, and combat readiness.” Because the days off will be scattered among all the units over that time period, the Marines say there will be no operational impact. […]

Think how boring life would be without the starry-eyed dreamers, the unshakeable optimists and the grand visionaries who are utterly incapable of allowing even the slightest harsh reality to tarnish that bright future just over the hill. That would pretty much describe the people ushering in the next big thing in aviation: the on-demand urban […]

Virginia authorities Sunday confirmed that two state troopers were killed on Saturday when their state police helicopter crashed while patrolling near the demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia. State police identified the victims as pilot Lt. H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, 40. Both men died at the scene. The aircraft went down around […]

After initial trials with the Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine, the Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano, the Textron Scorpion jet, and the L-3/Air Tractor AT-802L Longsword at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson told reporters that combat trials were a likely next step in the OA-X light attack demonstration […]