Recent Updates

A review of press releases this week found one issued after Republic Airways Holdings announced that it would hire half the pilots it expected to because of a lack of candidates that meet new FAA experience rules. Craig Moffatt, President of Teamsters Local 357, which represents the more than 3000 pilots who fly for the […]

In the world of military aviation, the piston engine was left for dead sometime in the 1950s and it would still be thus if drones hadnt come along. But piston engines swinging old-school props give unmanned aircraft something that jet engines cant: unrivaled mid-altitude efficiency and endurance. So as unlikely as it seems, drone technology […]

The FAA has announced that it will be hiring 10,000 controllers over the next decade, with 6,000 in the next five years. It is accepting applications now. Successful applicants must be U.S. citizens, able to start training before their 31st birthday, and willing to relocate to to an air traffic facility based on the FAAs […]

The thousands of airline pilots who are furloughed or working overseas when they would prefer to fly for a U.S. airline and live in this country makes it clear that no shortage of trained and qualified airline pilots currently exists in the United States, according to the Air Line Pilots Association, Intl (ALPA). There may […]

The House Transportation Committee has approved a bill that would ban passengers from talking on their cellphones in flight. The bill, which still must be debated by the full House, would ban only voice communications and would allow passengers to text, go online and email while on aircraft. A similar bill has also been proposed […]

Cessna will no longer sell the Skycatcher LSA, and the 80 or so aircraft still at the factory will be kept for use as spare parts, AOPA reported on Monday. A Cessna spokesman told AVweb an official statement would be released early on Tuesday, but by mid-afternoon the company had not posted an update. The […]

At least 77 people, many of them women and children, may have been killed in the crash of an Algerian military transport aircraft Tuesday in northern Algeria. The C-130 was initially reported to be carrying 99 passengers and four crew but the Algerian government corrected that late Tuesday.The aircraft was taking military personnel and their […]

Letter of the Week:The Real Costs of the Super Bowl? Regarding the story about the NFL not being charged for air traffic services for the Super Bowl: There is a lack of understanding of the difference in cost of supporting AirVenture and the Super Bowl. I am a retired controller who worked EAA three times […]

The Mooney production line will start moving Feb. 26 and the first new Mooney to be built in almost five years, an AcclaimTN Type S, should be ready for a flight test within days after that. Mooney CEO Dr. Jerry Chen said the production start comes after a couple of months of intense activity at […]

Agence France-Presse is reporting that a Turkish airliner made an emergency landing in Turkey due to a hijacking attempt. Other reporters are adding details on Twitter. So far, they’ve said that the Pegasus plane contains 110 passengers, and that the hijacker attempted to divert the plane to land in Sochi during the Winter Olympics opening […]