Mark Phelps

With the holidays coming up, I hope you’ll be flying someplace interesting. If not, you can relieve some of the boredom at home by taking an online mini-course, or reviewing some of your old DVD courses left over from training days — just be sure they’re not too out of date as to airspace changes […]

Mexican aviation crash investigators have ruled out sabotage as the cause of the Learjet 60 accident that claimed all nine on board, including the country’s Interior Minister. There was concern that the accident could have been an act of sabotage, in part because the Interior Minister, Juan Camilo Mourino, had been a high-profile force in […]

Over the past six weeks, most major general aviation aircraft manufacturers have been forced to scale back operations based on the current international fiscal crisis. Mooney Airplane Company will now build new aircraft only as they are ordered; and factory workers have been sent home until enough new orders come in (service and support employees […]

According to the latest report from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, increases in shipments of jets (up 30.1 percent) and turboprops (up 13.7 percent) put 2008 figures for the first three quarters up by 2 percent compared with the same nine-month period last year. The gains in sales of turbine-powered aircraft offset a drop of […]

Eclipse Aviation employees were promised last Friday that their paychecks for the first two weeks of November would be delivered by last Tuesday. They were not disappointed, as company management was able to secure the financing needed to pay workers-at least for now. Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Eclipse would not comment on its financial state, but […]

Responding to a marketplace reluctant to commit, Diamond Aircraft is making the grass in its pasture a little greener for DA40 prospects who may be teetering on the fence. Among the incentives to buy now: For every DA40 bought and delivered before the end of this year, the company is offering free maintenance-including parts and […]

To an industry thirsting for relief from the current world financial crisis, the Middle East is a bubbling oasis of sales activity. At the recent Middle East Business Aviation (MEBA) show in Dubai, Wall Street’s woes seemed foreign, indeed. Business jet manufacturers were finding cash buyers for their wares with no sign of a credit […]

Aspen Avionics’ Evolution EFD1000 Pilot Primary Flight Display is now available as a factory option on the two-seat Diamond Aircraft DA20 for less than $8,000. That makes the DA20 the only certified glass-cockpit-equipped aircraft available for less than $200,000, according to its manufacturer. Diamond Aircraft President Peter Maurer said the glass-equipped DA20 will allow flight […]

For pilots who might have found Honeywell’s Apex glass avionics suite’s joystick controller a challenge in turbulence, relief is on the way. Apex users can now opt for a trackball to replace the joystick-said to be awkward to manipulate in turbulence. The trackball cursor control device (CCD) has a hand rest and uses computer mouse-like […]

On a flight in his Cessna single over the southern UK, 65-year-old Jim O’Neill suffered a stroke that reportedly caused a blood clot to press on his optic nerve, impairing his vision to the point where he could not see the instrument panel in front of his face. Otherwise mostly unaffected, O’Neill coolly radioed for […]