Mark Phelps

My bags are packed. The venerable V-tail is perky and ready. Even the weather looks like it ought to cooperate for my trip to aviation’s equivalent of the Promised Land — Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and the annual EAA AirVenture. If you’re looking forward to the same pilgrimage next week, there might be a few checklist items […]

Dating back to the 1970s, the Aero Commander line of piston singles had limited success in the marketplace, but the airplane still enjoys strong support among its proponents. They appreciate its large, comfortable cabin and two-door ease of entry, as well as its tall, trailing-link landing gear and sleek appearance. Now, a former Commander owner […]

The National Transportation Safety Board has determined that mountain downdrafts-as strong as 400 feet per minute-exceeded the climb capability of Steve Fossett’s borrowed Bellanca Decathlon. He crashed into the side of a mountain in eastern California after taking off from a friend’s ranch airstrip for a pleasure flight. High density altitude (estimated at 13,000 feet) […]

Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes Magazine and the owner-pilot of a 2005 Cirrus SR22 GTS will address the opening session of this year’s National Business Aviation Association Convention. The meeting runs from October 20-22 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Karlgaard will be the keynote speaker. He said, “I look forward to […]

Icon Aircraft has announced a fresh round of equity financing for its unique A5 light-sport-capable amphibian. The company plans to have an A5 flying-from land and water-at this month’s EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh. Founded by former fighter pilot and current airline pilot Kirk Hawkins, Icon holds a $40 million sales backlog and is sold […]

Cessna’s parent Textron has announced the cancellation of the Columbus large-cabin jet program. First announced in 2006, what would have been the largest Citation had notched orders for some 70 units at a price of $27 million each. The current sales climate caused Cessna to suspend development of the Columbus a little more than two […]

Cirrus Aircraft has announced a partnership with Aerospace Products International (API) in which the latter would take over distribution and logistics services for Cirrus. API will support Cirrus owners, operators and service centers worldwide. Under the brand “Cirrus Parts by API,” the Memphis, Tennessee-based company will have responsibility for “all field supply chain services and […]

Vertigo, or spatial disorientation, is a tough concept to those who’ve never experienced it. Not the extreme dizziness you get when you spin around with your forehead on a mop handle and then try to walk a straight line. Rather, it’s the more subtle form that can be the most profound danger to new instrument […]

Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Nashville to Baltimore on Monday were jolted by a loss of cabin pressure caused by a one-foot-square hole in the upper fuselage. Passenger oxygen masks deployed, the crew initiated an emergency descent and diverted to Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia where the Boeing 737 landed uneventfully. No […]

When James and Kathy Wiebe acquired the production rights to the Kitfox-Lite kitplane, they formed Belite Aircraft, with the intention of placing the aircraft on yet a further weight reduction program. The result is a redesigned version of the legacy Kitfox; this one aimed at an empty weight of less than 245 pounds. That would […]