Mark Phelps

Jim Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association agrees with the FAA’s stance that residential through-the-fence (RTTF) arrangements are bad for publicly funded airports. He said, “Due to the intrinsic nature of residential properties, as compared with commercial properties, RTTF agreements limit the flexibility of airport sponsors to expand according to the needs of […]

After test deployments in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, Louisville and Philadelphia, the FAA announced last week it has approved full deployment of Automatic Dependent Surveillance — Broadcast (ADS-B) technology. The agency reported ADS-B will be fully operational by 2013. Tests of the combination satellite and ground-based hardware proved it would operate in the most […]

For the 15th time, Congress has voted for a 90-day extension on FAA funding. The last long-term funding plan expired in 2007. Bills to establish a new long-term program to fund the agency have been proposed, but always fall short of the needed support for a variety of reasons having little or nothing to do […]

I was flying to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, for parking at the Dassault Falcon Jet flight ops department. When I was about two miles to the northeast of the field for Runway 24, the controller told me to do a 360 for jet traffic landing on Runway 19. Old Bonanzas are great short field […]

Last week, the FAA announced it was merging two safety programs for efficiency and to “help guide safety decisions” in the future. Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers have long been able to confess their gaffes in a “non-punitive environment” through the FAA’s Safety Action Programs — ASAP (Aviation Safety Action Program) for pilots and ATSAP […]

In a move aimed at helping bring aviation jobs back, the Senate has approved continuing the bonus tax incentive through the end of this year for new aircraft purchases. The rule allows companies or individuals buying new aircraft to record the purchase’s depreciation in the first year, rather than stretching the tax benefits over five […]

J. Mac McClellan, former editor-in-chief of Flying, has joined the Experimental Aircraft Association’s publications staff. Beginning next month, he will share his expertise with EAA members through his ‘Left Seat’ column and other features in EAA’s flagship publication, Sport Aviation, as well as online through EAA’s e-publications. With more than 10,000 hours of flying experience, […]

Several readers responded to my posting last week on the phrase “Over and Out.” Brian Long suggested that “Over and Out” could be appropriate, after all. For instance, Brian suggests, when the conversation is ready to end: “Both parties should sign off, so the first party provides ‘(callsign) over and out’ to indicate his/her signing […]

Cessna told workers on Tuesday it is forced to further pare its workforce with 700 more layoffs across the board. This announcement came on the heels of a vote by Cessna’s 2,500 union employees on Saturday not to strike. The no-strike vote meant the union accepted by default a new contract they had voted by […]

Mike Houghton, president and CEO of the Reno Air Racing Association made the call to cancel flying on Sunday’s race day. “It was a safety issue,” he said. “Our number one priority is the safety of our pilots.” Though he was declared winner based on the best qualifying time, Steve Hinton, 23, said he was […]