Mark Phelps

The AOPA Flight Safety Foundation has released its latest Joseph T. Nall Report on general aviation safety (click here to access the report online). This year’s report covers 2008 accident data, the most recent available for complete analysis. And new for this year, the report now covers helicopters and for-hire GA operations involving aircraft weighing […]

Aspen Avionics has partnered with a pair of third-party shops to earn several supplemental type certificates for helicopter applications. Announced at Heli-Expo in Houston, the STCs include those for installing Aspen EFD1000H flight display systems in Bell 206 and 407 models. As with fixed-wing applications, the EFD1000H replaces the six fundamental mechanical flight instruments with […]

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) has announced plans to partner with Swift Enterprises to switch to lead-free renewable fuel in its fleet of 45 Cessna 172 training aircraft. Swift developed the biofuel that was tested by the FAA Technical Center “with promising results” according to ERAU. The university chose Swift fuel because it has already passed […]

With more than 50 helicopters on display, this year’s Heli-Expo bucked the worldwide recession in its own peculiar way. The rotorcraft industry has always been an economic enigma. It is fragmented into many diverse elements, including: training, corporate transport, emergency medical services (EMS), offshore oil support, electronic newsgathering, law enforcement, and utility (logging, pipeline work, […]

We all have our trepidations about instrument flying. My colleague, Flying contributing editor Tom Benenson once told me he’s most apprehensive when taking off into a low ceiling. It makes sense, with such a high workload — retracting gear and managing power, monitoring engine instruments, making radio calls, switching frequencies, turning to an assigned heading […]

At its Annual Industry Review and Market Outlook Briefing on Tuesday, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association delivered expected bad news about last year. It was awful. “One of the toughest years ever for general aviation manufacturers,” according to a GAMA statement. Overall industry billings dropped 21.4 percent to $19.5 billion from $24.8 billion in 2008 […]

Robinson Helicopter has begun accepting $75,000 deposits for its Rolls-Royce turboshaft-powered R66. First flown in 2007, the R66 is in the process of FAA certification, and the company reports it will not assign serial numbers or delivery dates until that certification is received. Base price of the R66 with standard equipment is $770,000. The R66 […]

Partly in response to pressure from survivors of Colgan Air Flight 3407, the Senate will schedule time next month to debate aviation safety reform and the FAA operating budget. The agency has been operating with temporary funding measures since the last long-term budget expired several years ago. The current short-term funding agreement expires on March […]

According to reports in the Grand Forks Herald, the Air Force is looking to establish a series of airspace blocks in North Dakota to accommodate unmanned aerial systems (UASs). The blocks, said to be roughly 40 miles by 50 miles on average, would be configured in three tiers — 6,000 feet to 10,000 feet; 10,000 […]

A Cessna 337 Skymaster, a centerline-thrust piston twin, crashed on the grounds of New Jersey’s Monmouth Executive Regional Airport (BLM) on Monday afternoon in good weather. All five on board were killed, including three adults, a teenager and a younger boy. The flight originated at the airport about seven minutes before the crash, and some […]