News

Van’s Aircraft Co. enters 2005 with a new milestone: 4,000 RV aircraft have taken to the skies. The Aurora, Ore.-based company has been producing kit planes for 31 years. For those of you who like to do the math, that’s an average of one new airplane in the air every 2.8 days.

Mooney delivered its first G1000-equipped Ovation2 GX last month to Daryle Scott, president and CEO of Venus Swimwear of Jacksonville, Fla. Scott took delivery Dec. 15, less than a month after the glass cockpit was certified for the Ovation2 and Bravo. This is Scott’s third Mooney Ovation.

The same day Raytheon’s newest bizjet, the Hawker Horizon, was granted a provisional type certificate, the first Horizon was delivered to Wichita real estate developer Jack DeBoer. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW308A turbofan engines, the Hawker Horizon can fly six passengers and two crew 3,100 nautical miles.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has taken the FAA to task for pop-up TFRs. In a new report, the GAO criticized the FAA for not developing a “standardized, documented way to review and revalidate security-related TFRs.” The report notes that the number of TFR violations is up since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as […]

Sport Pilot Practical Test Standards are now available online at AFS600.FAA.gov. The first Sport Pilot Designated Pilot Examiner initial qualification course will be held Jan. 17-22 in Sebring, Fla. Just eight participants will take the course. The next course is set for Feb. 28-March 5, also in Sebring.

The first of four Eclipse 500 flight certification aircraft made its maiden flight Dec. 31, “as we promised,” CEO Vern Raburn said. It made two flights on that first day of operations with production Pratt & Whitney Canada 610F turbofan engines. The flight of N503EA initiated a 15-month program that ultimately will involve seven airframes, […]

Aviation lost many of its most notable people last year. General Aviation News would like to pay tribute to some of those people, who had such a profound effect on all of our lives. JEROME F. LEDERER Jerome F. Lederer, whose work made aviation safer for all of us, died Jan. 6. He was 101. […]

When Isabelle Chinuhuk asks her parents, Jenifer and Jamie, “How did I get here?” they can honestly answer “by float plane.” The little girl was born Dec. 26 aboard a Pacific Airways deHavilland Beaver en route to Ketchikan. The Chinuhuks live in Metlakatla and didn’t expect the baby until mid-January. Pacific Airways is a scheduled […]

Most pilots agree that you can’t have a good airport without a good restaurant, so when The Narrows Landing restaurant opened last summer at the Tacoma Narrows Airport (TIW) in Gig Harbor, Wash., there was dancing in the hangars. Owners are Hal, Dossie and Tom Barker. Tom, in addition to being the chef, is Hal […]