Recent Updates

The FAA has announced (PDF) it will allow drop-in replacement of electronic attitude indicators, without a vacuum-driven backup, as long as there’s a backup power source for the electronic instrument. The new policy applies to aircraft weighing less than 6,000 pounds. The agency said it has determined that electronic attitude indicators are more reliable and […]

Conflicts involving amateur-operated drones made the news again this week, one involving an irritated neighbor who disabled one with a gun. In Louisiana, Aaron Hernandez lost his $1,200 quadcopter Monday night while flying it around his father’s house outside Baton Rouge. Hernandez told WBRZ 2 the neighbors had expressed objections to his drone flying before, […]

AVweb’s search of what’s new in aviation found a few STC milestones reported byPlane Dynamix,Power Flow and Hartzell Propeller, and an announcement from Sonex Aircraft ofscholarships established in memory of Jeremy Monnett and Mike Clark.Plane Dynamixannounced its acquisition of Art Mattson’s line of FAA-approved airframe and engine STCs for Piper PA-28 series aircraft. Many of […]

The FAA, behind schedule in finalizing regulations for commercial use of unmanned aerial systems, will be ready by June 17, 2016, according to congressional testimony Wednesday by the agency’s deputy administrator. Michael Whitaker told a House aviation subcommittee, when pressed for specifics, that June of next year would be a realistic time frame for the […]

Burt Rutan is the 2015 winner of the National Aeronautic Association’s Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy. The trophy is awarded annually to a living American for “significant public service of enduring value to aviation in the United States.” It’s the latest in a long list of awards for the prolific aircraft designer, who retired from Scaled […]

The FAA on Tuesday announced its largest-ever civil penalty against a drone operator, proposing a fine of $1.9 million against SkyPan International, based in Chicago, for “careless or reckless” operations. The FAA says SkyPan conducted 65 unauthorized commercial drone flights to take aerial photographs in New York and Chicago between March 2012 and December 2014. […]

Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport has been named as the first test facility for the FAA’s new Virtual Air Traffic Control Tower technology, the agency announced last week. Currently, the field is non-towered. The new system, which will be up and running by next summer, is expected to help attract commercial operators to the airport. “The […]

Monday’s unfortunate on-duty death of an American Airlines captain en route to Boston from Phoenix ignited the usual talking-head idiocy on the cable channels. Well, maybe it wasn’t the usual idiocy, but extra-special idiocy in that some thick-headed broadcasters couldn’t seem to grasp that yes, the first officer—demoted to “copilot” by the less sophisticated news […]

A helicopter pilot credited with saving the life of an injured hunter in New Zealand is facing a possible jail sentence because he did the flight with his license suspended for a suspected medical issue. Stuff.co reported Monday that police seized Dave Armstrong’s logbooks after the flight in April of 2014 and now he’s facing […]

China’s largest aviation company says it’s building the first of 50 aviation “industrial bases” aimed at serving the country’s general aviation market. The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) Chairman Lin Zuoming told the Xinhua News Agency the 30-square-kilometer (11.5-square-mile) complex will include manufacturing, research and training facilities. The groundbreaking for the first one was […]