Mark Phelps

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, among others, is thankful for small favors when it comes to President Obama’s vacation week on Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. For the first time since post-9/11 temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) were instituted to protect the president, general aviation aircraft are allowed within the 10-nm inner ring […]

(Image: AOPA) I spent much of last week on a short vacation. My wife, twin 7-year-old sons and I hiked from museum to museum under the veil of sterile airspace that hovers over our nation’s capital. It was a little depressing to visit my friend Mary Miller at Signature DCA only to compare the abandoned […]

Bill Boisture, chairman and CEO of Hawker Beechcraft, has warned employees that further layoffs and employee-benefit cutbacks are likely. Boisture blamed low buyer confidence, difficulties in securing financing, and political disparagement of corporate aviation for the company’s dire straits. Only an artificial ‘paper gain’ resulting from a bond buyback kept Hawker Beechcraft from losing money […]

Representatives of the air traffic controllers’ union challenged specific language in the NTSB’s report on last week’s tragic midair collision above New York’s Hudson River. And late Monday, the safety board announced it had changed the wording. The union acknowledges that the on-duty tower controller was engaged in an inappropriate phone call, and that his […]

An existing FAA airspace working group has met and will make recommendations to improve safety within the Hudson River VFR corridor. Among possible changes, the group could recommend making it mandatory to monitor the advisory frequency and report entering and leaving the airspace. Other good practices that are now voluntary could become mandatory. Currently, a […]

It wasn’t long after the accident before harsh words began flying over the viability of ‘see and avoid’ in such crowded airspace. With scores of tour helicopters mixing with fixed wing traffic, there was no shortage of criticism launched at the FAA for allowing such “chaos” to persist. Calling the corridor “an accident waiting to […]

For former President Bill Clinton, the unofficial diplomatic mission to recover two detained journalists started with a private jet. Clinton tapped Boeing Business Jet owner Steven Bing for use of his jet to fly to North Korea on August 3 in an effort to free the imprisoned journalists. Clinton returned in the jet the next […]

Aviation research firm ARG/US reported that business aircraft traffic in July increased by 6% compared with June. Flying was down a relatively low 7.9% in July compared to the same month last year. For the past 12 months, total flight activity has slowed by 22% year over year. ARG/US uses air traffic data that is […]

A Cessna Citation I that crashed on takeoff on March 4, 2008 was brought down by large birds, according to findings by the National Transportation Safety Board. Birdstrikes were apparently suspected when the preliminary report was written days after the accident, which killed both pilots and three passengers on departure from Wiley Post Airport in […]

If the NTSB has its way, pilots will be asked to record information on sleep apnea issues on their medical certificate form. Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition that interrupts breathing during sleep, breaking the sleep cycle and inducing fatigue. The recommendation letter from the NTSB, dated Aug. 7, also suggests that the medical form […]