Just wanted to add my two cents to your latest Letters to Editor about Bush vs. Kerry and the state of GA. Neither of the two will have a significant effect on GA. We need to focus our attention on those members who supposedly support us in Congress. They will by far impact us more […]
Placing the blame
Cork Biemond makes a good point about the unfairness of the Sport Pilot driver’s license medical ruling excluding pilots who have previously been denied (Unelected bureaucrats pervert sport pilot) in the Oct 15 issue. He puts the blame on the wrong agency, however. Remember that the FAA approved the rule as it was originally written […]
Sport Pilot: A disaster waiting to happen
I fear that I may be one of the few pilots in the country who does not warmly welcome the announcement of the new Sport Pilot ruling by the FAA. My concern is not with aircraft that fall in the lighter-than-air, weight-shift, gyroplanes and powered parachutes categories. Rather, my fear resides with the proposed Sport […]
Retired Cessna president joins Javelin management team
Another coup for Aviation Technology Group, the Colorado company that’s bringing the Javelin jet to market: Charlie Johnson, former president and COO of Cessna, just joined the company as executive vice president of operations. Just two weeks ago, Horst Bergmann, former president and CEO of Jeppesen, also joined the company’s executive management team. The jet, […]
Safire assets auctioned off
Meanwhile, another very light jet hopeful, Safire Aircraft, saw most of its office equipment and shop tool inventory auctioned off late last month. The sale was forced by the owner of Safire’s former headquarters in Opa Locka, Fla., in an effort to recover some $60,000 in unpaid rent. It was reported that Safire’s CEO, Camilo […]
PA is cracking down on drunk flying
The Pennsylvania legislature has passed the Flying While Impaired Bill, which makes flying while drunk a misdemeanor, punishable by a $5,000 fine and possibly some jail time. The bill, which awaits Gov. Edward Rendell’s signature, was in response to the arrest of John V. Salamone last January after he took a four-hour joy ride while […]
101st anniversary coming up
A quick reminder: The 101st anniversary celebration of powered flight is set for Dec. 17 at the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
G1000 certified for Mooney
The FAA has certified the Garmin G1000 in Mooney’s Ovation and Bravo aircraft. An STC was awarded to Garmin in November. Mooney has incorporated the approval into its Type Certificate. Meanwhile, Mooney continues growing, opening a sales office in Wichita, which new CEO Gretchen Jahn calls the “center of the universe” for aviation.
Pork to the rescue
Pork is great in barbecue, but generally undesirable in Congressional budgets. Fortunately for NASA’s scramjet project, members of Congress from Tennessee, where the X-43A scramjet testbed was built, have thrown some pork into the hypersonic research recipe: $25 million worth. NASA had intended to scrap its hypersonic research after the second X-43A test, conducted in […]