Mark Phelps

As more “progress payments” come due, jet manufacturers face challenges as customers might have difficulty raising the cash. Progress payments are scheduled payments toward the sales price, agreed to under a sales contract, and made at fixed dates as the delivery date approaches. According to business aviation analyst Brian Foley, a new, stricter credit culture […]

According to a report from parent company Textron, Cessna delivered 84 Citations in the second quarter of this year, compared with 117 for the same time period last year. Revenues also decreased by $630 million, a shortfall of some 42%. Profits were down also, to $48 million (from $214 million) due to low sales volume […]

My July 16 Flying Tip discussed vertigo and how insidious a hazard it can be. Dennis Doyle of Tahoe Turbines in California responded with his own tip — a sort of ‘poor-man’s synthetic vision’ that uses your imagination instead of a computer database. Doyle wrote that he has been flying since 1965 and developed his […]

At a Wednesday press conference Jeppesen announced that it was providing Aspen Avionics with a new kind of data set that provides the Aspen-equipped airplane owner with a way to update multiple data sets at the same time. In one fell swoop, the user can install NavData, obstacles, terrain and cultural data on the Aspen […]

Geo-referenced approach plates and a new, larger screen are the big advances for Bendix-King’s new AV8OR Ace portable navigator. Building on the success of the original AV8OR, the Ace incorporates all its features, including available weather and traffic, but with an expanded seven-inch version of the touch-screen display. That makes it easier to read the […]

The Icon A5 was introduced at last year’s AirVenture, and this year it’s back, in flying form. True, the airplane flying here in Oshkosh is a non-conforming prototype. It flew in to Wittman Field early in the week for display, and is expected to make three flights tomorrow from the Vette/Blust Seaplane on Lake Winnebago […]

If airshow attendance were an overall economic indicator, then it might be time to start reloading the 401k. At the approximate halfway point of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh (July 28-August 2), the association reports attendance is up by as much as 10%. The North 40 parking and camping areas are jammed, and incoming aircraft have been […]

At the Avidyne press conference on Tuesday, company founder and CEO Dan Schwinn said that he hasn’t heard any customers complain that the new Avidyne R9 lacked features-it is, in fact, loaded with new capabilities-but he said that he had heard a few potential customers wishing that it cost less. With this mind, Schwinn formally […]

The Yuneec E430 electric light sport airplane has made an appearance at EAA AirVenture, and is scheduled to fly for the crowd at least once before the end of the show this weekend. Built in China and shipped to the U.S. last week, the two-place high-wing composite aircraft is powered by a 40 kilowatt (approximately […]

Doug Reeves, of Highland Village, Texas, received this year’s Gordon Baxter journalism award. The award is given annually to an EAA member who best perpetuates the Gordon Baxter tradition of communicating the excitement and romance of grassroots aviation. Bax wrote his Bax Seat column in Flying for some three decades. He went west in 2005. […]