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You might have missed it, but the French accident investigation branch, the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses, has formally recommended that mandatory "triggered data streaming technology" be installed aboard airliners.

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Square's credit card reader for the iPhone.

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Anybody who visited Oshkosh this year and spent more than about five minutes at the ICON Aircraft exhibit surely wasn’t surprised to learn that the would-be manufacturer of the A5 amphibian light sport aircraft – an undeniably cool LSA that looks like a winged Jetski and will sell for around $139,000 – took a ton of order deposits. The pitch by ICON salesmen was an in-your-face, buy-this-airplane-and-you-won’t-regret-it assault that you’d never experience over at Cessna, Beechcraft, Piper or Cirrus.

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As a flight instructor, I find it particularly difficult to read about airplane accidents – fatal or not – that could have been prevented by better choices and, in some cases, better training. Flight instructors need to focus less on teaching their students to pass the FAA test and more on becoming good pilots that make good decisions. An organization called SAFE (Society of Aviation and Flight Educators) and several aviation companies are focusing their efforts on revamping flight training to teach safer pilots.

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FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt made a lot of new friends in Oshkosh on Thursday when he showed up for his previously scheduled Meet the Administrator forum at AirVenture despite the fact that the FAA had essentially been shut down for a week. During the hour-plus long forum, Babbitt answered questions from EAA President Rod Hightower and from members of the press and AirVenture visitors about subjects ranging from NextGen avionics to user fees.

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