Mark Phelps

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) maintains that its Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) was drawn up with input from the industry it is meant to address. The overwhelming majority of some 4,800 respondents disagreed, and expressed their opinions during the proposal’s public comment period. LASP aims to set airline-style security procedures for general aviation aircraft […]

A spokesman for a group of Eclipse 500 owners sounds less than thrilled with some plans to resurrect the manufacturer. Randall Sanada of Jet Alliance said the Eclipse Owners Group would, itself, like to buy the assets of Albuquerque-based Eclipse, which is now facing Chapter 7 liquidation proceedings. He called the efforts of others to […]

Every spring the FAA accident records are littered with a few reports of runaway aircraft — the result of hand propping gone awry. Usually, no one is injured. But innocent aircraft parked nearby are often victimized. In some cases, the errant aircraft will actually take off and fly around until it runs out of fuel […]

The TSA’s Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) reached the end of its comment period last week to a fresh round of raspberries-not only from the aviation peanut gallery but also from the state legislature of Alaska. State Senator Gene Therriaut and Representative Mike Kelly proposed anti-LASP resolutions in their respective chambers. National Air Transportation Association […]

Totally fair or not, for a newspaper reporter, the irony was just too juicy to resist. Big Three auto industry executives flying ‘luxury jets’ to Washington to plead for a taxpayer bailout. The story caused a national sensation and set packs of other reporters on the scent, hoping to share some of the glory of […]

I remember a story from years ago about a group of local kids near an airport who broke into several airplanes and stole avionics. They were found out when someone heard an ELT whoop-whooping on 121.5 and they tracked it to the trunk of a junk car where the kids had stashed the loot-after unwittingly […]

Last month, when Eclipse shifted from Chapter 11 reorganization to Chapter 7 liquidation, the logical questions became, “Will someone step in?” and, “What can be done if someone does?” The answer to the first question came in the form of an announcement from a man named Phil Friedman that he would bid for the assets […]

If ever there were an object lesson on preflight checks, the NTSB investigation into the fatal crash of a factory demonstrator Remos GX light sport aircraft in January indicates that the left aileron might not have been properly connected. The trailerable Remos has folding wings, and the NTSB wrote: “… the left aileron’s quick release […]

A segment in President Obama’s budget proposal has opponents of general aviation user fees sounding the alarm. Page 129 of the budget “proposes repealing some aviation excise taxes and replacing these taxes with direct user charges.” The charges, generally a synonym for fees to use specific FAA services-including air traffic control-are said to total some […]

The safety level for professional flight operations goes up several notches with a two-pilot crew. I don’t think that’s just because the workload is so great that two are needed. But rather, I believe the second person in the pointy end serves as a second pair of eyes — not just to watch for traffic, […]