Archive for the ‘News’ Category

The Republic is safe again. Until next time.

We are happy to report Congress finally got around to doing at least part of its job and earlier today passed legislation extending FAA funding. For those who care, the Senate adopted by unanimous consent a House-passed bill containing the extension along with a provision eliminating funding for the Essential Air Service (EAS) program. The [...]

Ice Chest Malfunction

We had a really great time meeting listeners last evening at the 2nd annual UCAP beer bash. Part way through the evening we suffered a near tragedy, seen below. No worries, there were no fatalities. Photo: Randy Dufault

Congratulations to the 2011 Bax Seat Trophy recipient

Fellow av journalist and podcaster Roy Beisswenger. As host of the Powered Sport Flying Radio Show and editor of its monthly magazine, Beisswenger will receive the Bax Seat Trophy tonight. Established by Flying Magazine, the award is given annually to a journalist who communicates the excitement and romance of grassroots aviation. Beisswenger’s weekly two-hour radio show [...]

Senator Inhofe strikes again

I’ve been puzzling over what my response is to Senator Inhofe’s proposed “Pilot’s Bill of Rights”, and so far I’m just speechless. http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/1947-full.html#204929

World’s Largest Flying Airship Coming to Oshkosh

I’m really looking forward to seeing this thing at OSH. I’ve seen it from a distance a couple time in San Francisco. But I think getting right underneath it could be really cool.

Amanda Franklin

Our thoughts and prayers are with Kyle and all of Amanda’s family. It is with a broken heart that I tell you that my beautiful girl Amanda passed away at 10:10 central time this evening. Beside her was her adoring husband Kyle, her mother Jeanie, her brother Matt, her sister-in-law Michelle and her devoted mother-in-law [...]

AFR447 Update: Why Can’t Airline Pilots Recover From Stalls?

The French equivalent to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board — the (Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile, or BEA) — this morning released an update to its ongoing investigation into the June 1, 2009, crash of Air France Flight 447. The aircraft, an Airbus A330, disappeared over the equatorial Atlantic [...]

AcroCamp II is coming

Airspeed’s Steve Tupper has announced the “casting call” for the second of his oh-so-cool AcroCamp events. Last May Michigan’s Pontiac Airport hosted four “campers”, two acro CFIs, a video crew, and some groupies (me!) for a total immersion, multiple day course in the basics of acrobatic flight. Now he’s getting ready for the second edition. [...]

UCAP Meetup airport to change name

A rose by any other name. We had a great meetup at Barnes in west central Massachusetts awhile back. Now they’re changing their name to better reflect their situation. “Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport”. “It is primarily perception,” Barnes [sic?] said of the name change. “Companies and their pilots look at a municipal airport as a small [...]

Air France 447 Data Recorder Recovered

Investigators have located and recovered the memory unit of the flight data recorder of a 2009 Air France flight — a remarkable deep-sea discovery they hope will explain why the aircraft went down in a remote area of the mid-Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board. … Last month, the agency said the undersea search [...]


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