If Cessna Aircraft Co. is the successful bidder for Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Corp., the plant will stay in Bend, Ore., Cessna CEO Jack J. Pelton said at AOPA Expo. Pelton noted that the Columbia workforce, with its experience in composite construction, is in the region and that Cessna’s manufacturing facilities in Kansas are at capacity, […]
New airport slated for Central Texas
A private investor has purchased a small airport in Central Texas with the intent of turning it into a larger general aviation facility. Ron Henriksen, a Texas businessman and pilot with strong ties to aviation, has purchased the privately owned, public-use Bird’s Nest Airport located approximately 12 miles outside of Austin. He recently constructed Houston […]
Flock of bizjets in development
Demand for new business jets, and VLJs in particular, is strong and growing, according to speakers at an AOPA Expo forum earlier this month. One speaker listed 22 new jets in development – not all of them VLJs, however – and seven more that have been certified recently. The panel was in agreement that the […]
FAA wants aircraft equipped for ADS-B by 2020
The FAA has issued a notice of proposed rule making that spells out initial equipment requirements for the Next Generation of air traffic control. The proposal would require all aircraft flying in the nation’s busiest airspace to have satellite-based avionics by 2020, enabling controllers to track them using Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B), which is […]
Bush TFR ‘kills’ a fly-in
Some of the pilots flying to the annual Hagerstown Fly-In in Maryland in antique airplanes without radios found themselves in unexpected trouble Oct. 7. At least a dozen flew into airspace they didn’t know had been restricted for a visit by President Bush to a memorial service for firefighters. According to the FAA, an unusually […]
Demand still high for airparks
I’ve been working pretty consistently in recent days cleaning up our residential airpark directory, Living With Your Plane. With about 600 airparks in the directory, it is a never-ending job to keep the information current. Since most residential airparks are managed by the residents in a homeowners association or something like that, officers and contact […]
The Largest OSH Formation?
Meg Godlewski’s article in the Aug. 24 issue, Formation flight honors Van’s RVs, quoted Stu McCurdy as stating that the 35 ship RV formation flown this year was the largest ever at Oshkosh. He is not even close to correct! In 1999, the T-34 Association put up a 61-ship formation, and I am quite sure […]
Success of Edge speaks for itself
In the story Wonder Woman: Patty Wagstaff Commands the Skies in the July 20 issue, writer J. Douglas Hinton asked: “We’ve noticed that some of the better known aerobatic pilots, such as Kirby Chambliss, have switched to the Edge and others, the French CAP. What’s your take on that?” Wagstaff replied: “Every airplane is a […]
Visser Spot On
I think Ben Visser was spot on in his Sept. 7 piece, The definition of insanity, when he cites the old 80/20 rule regarding 100LL use. I believe it is indeed 20% of the GA fleet, the Navajos, the Barons, the Cessna 400 series, etc., that are burning 80% of the 100LL produced. But I […]