Is there a link between flying at night and flying drunk? Researchers at Johns Hopkins University say a recently completed study seems to point to one. According to their findings, 52% of alcohol-related aircraft accidents happen between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. Continued flight into deteriorating weather, something that leads to accidents even when the […]
2005 funding for NTSB increases
Congress recently passed legislation increasing the 2005 funding for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Congress appropriated $2 million above the requested budget for the NTSB and directed the agency to use the extra funds to hire additional accident investigators for its regional offices.
Steve Fossett to launch round-the-world flight flight Salina, Kansas
Salina, Kan., may not be the center of the world, but it’s close enough for aviation adventurer Steve Fossett. The record-setting pilot plans to use the Salina airport for the beginning and end of his attempt to fly the first solo, non-stop, non-refueled circumnavigation of the earth. Fossett will fly Scaled Composites’ Model 311, a […]
Global Express XRS completes maiden flight
Bombardier’s new-generation Global Express XRS business jet has successfully completed its maiden flight. During the four-hour, four-minute flight, the bizjet reached an altitude of 47,000 feet and a maximum true airspeed of 518 knots (596 mph). The jet, which can fly 6,150 nm nonstop, is expected to receive its Certificate of Airworthiness shortly. Customer deliveries […]
Kodiak completes 50th flight just 3 months after maiden flight
Quest Aircraft’s Kodiak has successfully completed its 50th flight, just three months after the airplane took its maiden flight. With 40 flight hours on the prototype, the company is approaching its formal certification flight test program. The utility aircraft has successfully flown at maximum gross weight as well as in various CG scenarios, including extremes […]
Let’s Talk: What we have here is a failure to communicate
Aviation must learn to speak with one voice, writes Steve Bill Hanshew elsewhere in this issue of General Aviation News. It is a theme which we have tried to nurture in the past, with little to show for it. We still think it a good — indeed a vital — idea. Hanshew cites the National […]
Less than a warm welcome
I too, like Brian Sheets, have less than a “warm welcome” for the Sport Pilot certificate. I believe that when you have three government agencies, DOT, OMB and the FAA, very seldom does anything good come of it. Sport Pilot is an example of government at its finest. Take something simple and make it complicated. […]
Sport Pilot Safe Pilot
In the Letters to the Editor in the Dec. 10 issue, Brian Sheets of Beaverton, Ore., presents his grave concerns about the potential disaster that will befall all of us after people have availed themselves of the advantages of the Sport Pilot Rule (Sport Pilot: A disaster waiting to happen). On the other hand, I […]
Get the word out
I’m a GA mechanic in southeastern Ohio and I work for an outfit that owns two PA-28-181 Archer IIIs, a 1995 model and a 1996 model. Both are equipped with a Lycoming O-360-A4M and a 10-5193 carburetor. The most recent revision to the TCDS 2A13 shows a specific requirement for a 10-6102 carburetor for that […]