Mark Phelps

Just four years after picking up the fragments of the old Eclipse company, Eclipse Aerospace will have the first all-new model on display at the NBAA show in Las Vegas next month. The Eclipse 550 is based on the original 500 as modified by the new company’s “Total Eclipse” program. About 50 of the original […]

Faced with crippling losses of an estimated $995 million in the last quarter, Canadian-based BlackBerry has sold its Bombardier Global Express and shuttered its Waterloo, Ontario, flight department. The staff will be among 4,500 to be laid off, a cutback confirmed in a company statement issued last week. “In light of the company’s current business […]

“Please don’t shoot the messenger,” is the plea from the support team at Hilton Software, developers of the popular WingX series of iPad and iPhone apps for aviation. Last week, Hilton sent out notices to subscribers warning them not to upgrade to iOS 7, the newest operating system from Apple. Some customers immediately fired back […]

Sunstate Aviation in Phoenix took delivery of the 100th Quest Kodiak turboprop single last week. In a ceremony at Kodiak’s factory in Sandpoint, Idaho, Quest CEO Sam Hill said, “Since the beginning, we have been committed to building a rugged, reliable aircraft that provides operators the versatility to accomplish any mission.” Sunstate founder Mike Watts […]

The current issue of FAA Safety Briefing targets aviation citizenship among general aviation pilots. It urges us to show our responsibilities toward fellow pilots by sharing values, customs and culture with the rest of the aviation community. Feature articles in the September/October 2013 issue include primers on developing intervention strategies for fellow pilots who may […]

A meeting today of an industry-government advisory committee formed by the FAA Administrator Michael Huerta will set priorities in anticipation of a variety of budget scenarios. Implications of this fall’s coming budget battles could weigh even more heavily on aviation infrastructure than initially expected. At risk are core elements of the NextGen air traffic modernization […]

FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said the goal of a new FAA project is to place no less than a billion gallons of alternative jet fuel into service by 2018. To that end, the agency has established a Center of Excellence (COE) to research potential fuel technologies. Funding will amount to $4 million per year for […]

With the confirmed death toll now standing at eight from Colorado flooding, a large group of Boulder-area parents are breathing easier today. A group of 85 fifth-grade students and their 14 adult chaperons were airlifted from a nature center where they had been stranded on a weekend field trip. Seven helicopters from the Colorado National […]

AvMap’s $1,200 Ultra electronic flight information system (EFIS) is now available for sale. This is a non-TSO’d panel-mount instrument for the experimental and LSA market. It cannot be installed legally in a certified airplane. AvMap’s Ultra competes with other 3.5-inch CRT displays such as the Dynon D6 and D10. Introduced in August at EAA AirVenture, […]

A Schweizer SGS 2-33A sailplane came up a bit short of the intended runway on Sunday. The unidentified teenage pilot, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets and an experienced glider pilot with a private pilot’s license, landed on the roof of a convenience store a half mile short of his intended runway at […]