Folks have seen that plenty of Rotax seminars are offered in addition to video lectures, but they’ve seen less of such offerings for Jabiru, the second most common brand on LSAs. The truth is, the easygoing folks at Jabiru USA regularly hold engine seminars. The upcoming editions of these training sessions occurs Sept. 10-12 and […]
Opinion
Coalition works to meet 100LL challenges
A coalition of aviation alphabet groups and petroleum industry associations is striving to meet the challenges created for general aviation by recent government decisions to phase out 100 low-lead avgas. Elimination of 100LL was brought about by a petition from the Friends of the Earth to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2006. This led to […]
An appropriate address
Arguably the most successful light aircraft seaplane producer is Progressive Aerodyne and its SeaRey amphibian. How successful? In January, it delivered SeaRey kit #500 to an owner in Belgium. That impressive number doesn’t tell the whole story, which centers around the tight community of SeaRey builders who often help each other — and not solely […]
Sharing the sky with unmanned aircraft
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Interest is increasing to use more unmanned aerial vehicles for security, law enforcement, weather studies, and other dangerous or dull jobs and this is posing big challenges for the FAA and pilots. These vehicles — called Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) by the FAA — have proved themselves valuable where they have been […]
Who will survive in LSA world?
One of the oft-repeated questions about this new thing called LSA is: “When will the shakeout occur? When will some of these 75 companies disappear… and which ones will fail?” First, my ability to see the future is no better than anyone else. We’ve lost a few suppliers (Taylorcraft, Urban Air, Spain’s CAG, Higher Class). […]
TSA nominee gets committee nod
Without a confirmed head for more than a year and a half and after three trys, the Transportation Security Administration may soon have an administrator. On Thursday, June 17, the Senate Commerce Committee favorably reported John Pistole out of the committee to be TSA administrator and an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland […]
The Perfect Pilot
Does the perfect pilot exist? If you ask most pilots, they’ll jokingly reply, “Sure, you’re looking at him.” But it’s no joke to Bill Rhodes, who is heading up the Airmanship Education Research Initiative (AERI). A retired Air Force officer, he specializes in professional ethics, having served as head of the philosophy department at the […]
FAA issues runway crossing clearance changes
Pilots operating at airports with air traffic control towers will get new phraseology to make taxi clearances clearer. Starting June 30, 2010, air traffic controllers will no longer use the term “taxi to” when authorizing aircraft to taxi to an assigned takeoff runway, according to FAA officials. With the change, controllers must issue explicit clearances […]
Kirk would be proud
Icon Aircraft’s Kirk Hawkins would be proud. While in a Tacoma-area Apple Store this past weekend to buy a graduation gift, I struck up a conversation with one of the store employees. When I told him I published General Aviation News, in response to his asking what I did for a living, he immediately asked, “Have […]