WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) needs to implement more efficient performance-based navigation procedures, clarify third-party rules, and assure that Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedures can be used at congested airports. That was the gist of findings in a study by the Inspector General’s office of the Department of Transportation. The […]
Opinion
Prediction 2011 – Students soar
2011 will be an amazing year for General Aviation. The following is one of a series of absurd (unless they come to fruition) predictions. The quotes are manufactured (by me) and the only thing standing in the way of making these a reality is the cajones to make it so. Student pilot retention rate soars […]
Prediction 2011 – Funding, NextGen
2011 will be an amazing year for General Aviation. The following is one of a series of absurd (unless they come to fruition) predictions. The quotes are manufactured (by me) and the only thing standing in the way of making these a reality is the cajones to make it so. Congress grows a pair In […]
There is no I in team and other motivational considerations
Jamie Beckett is a CFI and A&P mechanic who stepped into the political arena in an effort to promote and protect GA at his local airport. I suspect there is not a single man in America who hasn’t heard a coach bellow through the locker room, “There is no ‘I’ in ‘team,’ gentlemen!” Winning or […]
Prediction 2011 – Growth
2011 will be an amazing year for General Aviation. The following is the first in a series of absurd (unless they come to fruition) predictions. The quotes are manufactured (by me) and the only thing standing in the way of making these a reality is the cajones to make it so. Growth is coming In […]
Breezing through the Bahamas
Dan Johnson, president of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association, is an expert on Light Sport Aircraft. When my former home state of Minnesota grappled with enough snowfall to collapse the Metrodome’s inflated roof, I was still hanging out in the Bahamas (yeah, I know, tough job…). After the first International Sport Pilot Fly-In concluded, all […]
First International Sport Pilot Fly-In
Dan Johnson, president of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association, is an expert on Light Sport Aircraft. “Too much fun!” was a common exclamation of my Alaska ultralight friend Mike Jacober. His signature phrase ran through my head as 18 airplanes, mostly LSA, arrived at the Freeport, Bahamas, airport for the first International Sport Pilot Fly-in […]
Congress approves yet another FAA reauthorization extension
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FAA stays in business with another three-month authorization extension after the Senate passed the bill during its weekend session. The House had passed the extension Dec. 2. This is the 17th extension for the FAA, a record number for any government agency. The agency has not had full reauthorization since 2007. […]
Field of Dreams: 9N1
LETTER TO THE EDITOR I really enjoyed the article about Van Sant Airport (Fields of Dreams: Saved but not immune from the times). I flew there in my Cessna 170B back in the early ’70s. At that time, the Smella family ran the operation. I got my first taste of soaring there and got my […]

