FAA officials are noting the $500 ADS-B rebate ends soon. Aircraft owners have until Sept. 18, 2017, to make a reservation to qualify for the rebate.
“But it goes away Sept. 19, as the FAA has no plans to extend the program now,” an FAA official said, noting “there is plenty of room for more sign ups at the moment.”
How did you spend the longest day of the year? Miles Daisher spent the extra hours of daylight on the summer solstice, June 21, 2017, by throwing himself off a bridge — 63 times, to be exact.
The feat earned him the record for the most unassisted BASE jumps in 24 hours. [Read more…]
CNBC released the results of a quarterly “All America Economic Survey” June 20, 2017, conducted by Hart Research Associates on a wide range of topics, including public-private partnerships, infrastructure, and a proposal to spin off the air traffic control system from the FAA into a private non-profit corporation. [Read more…]
On this day in history, June 23: Solar Impulse 2 successfully completed the world’s first solar-powered flight across the Atlantic on June 23, 2016, establishing a world first and setting four FAI world records.
It was 31 years ago when newlyweds Jude and Mike Dennis, the founders of Oregon Aero, took off for an epic trip in the AirCoupe Mike shared with his brother.
“We loaded her with camping gear and cameras, and left Oregon on a two-month adventure that took us to all four corners of the country,” Mike recalls. “We dropped in on friends and relatives, but mostly camped by the plane or, when it rained, slept on the FBO sofa.”
“Two months in half the cubic volume of a phone booth was the acid test for a relationship,” he continues. “It must have worked. We came home and founded Oregon Aero, which we still run together.”
In fact, the AirCoupe was the genesis of Oregon Aero. [Read more…]
U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster has introduced a modified version of his legislation to privatize air traffic control.
The revised bill would spin off ATC from the FAA, creating a private non-profit corporation run by a board of directors nominated by the aviation industry and the federal government.
First introduced in February 2016, the bill died with little support from other lawmakers and lots of opposition from the general aviation community. But now, with President Trump’s backing, the reintroduced bill has more support than before due to changes that exempt general aviation from ATC user fees, according to the Pennsylvania Congressman.
But that’s not what the GA alphabet groups are saying. [Read more…]
LAKELAND, Florida — The Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE) on the campus of SUN ‘n FUN on the Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport will align the stars for students by bringing the only public planetarium to residents in Polk County thanks to the GiveWell Community Foundation’s Impact Polk Annual Grant Program.
The planetarium will reside on the SUN ‘n FUN Expo Campus in the interactive learning lab for group tours and museum guests. [Read more…]
An Astronomy Night Fly-In is planned this weekend, June 23-24, 2017, at Havana Regional Airport (9I0 – Niner-India-Zero) in Illinois.
“We will have nine ‘Deep Space’ telescopes set up from the University of Illinois Astronomy Club,” reports Michael Purpura, Illinois State Liaison of the Recreational Aviation Foundation
To give us just an idea of what to expect, Bob Martin snapped these pictures the other night at the airport just as the sun was going down. [Read more…]
The Hill is reporting that a Senate committee did not include President Trump’s controversial proposal to separate air traffic control from the federal government in a must-pass aviation bill.
The post reports that Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who leads the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said the Senate’s long-term reauthorization of the FAA will not include the spinoff plan, citing the lack of support for the idea on his panel. “We don’t have the votes to pass that in our committee at the moment,” the story quotes Thune.
Thune said the House of Representatives will have to take the lead on efforts to transfer the country’s air navigation system to a private corporation.
Meanwhile Thune noted that final touches are being added to the FAA reauthorization bill. The FAA’s legal authority expires at the end of September.
July 2, 2017, marks the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan. Since their disappearance, no one has been able to find them, despite numerous attempts.
This week, National Geographic Society’s Archaeologist-in-Residence, Fred Hiebert, along with the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), will embark on a mission to solve the mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart. The team sets sail from Fiji June 24.
They’ll be using a team of human remains detection dogs from the Institute for Canine Forensics (ICF) to test what they call the Nikumaroro hypothesis [Read more…]
