Rob Mark

Another investment in the future of aviation continued this week when Lilium Aviation announced a successful round of funding, led by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings and at least four other groups. When added to the initial funding the German company Lilium has already received, the company’s investment kitty now tops the $100M mark. The […]

One Aviation said last Friday that it successfully flew an aircraft carrying the proof of concept wing shape of the new EA700 Project Canada from the company’s Albuquerque headquarters. GAMA president Pete Bunce said this flight represents the leading edge of the eventual certification of the EA700 under the new Part 23. The modified wing […]

Text-based area forecasts (FA) have for decades confounded both student and experienced pilots, at least until they completed the training to decode them. Before takeoff, an aviator might have come face-to-face with these expected weather conditions in eastern Pennsylvania: PA NJ NERN PA … SKC or SCT 060. 06Z SCT-BKN CI. OTLK … VFR, SE […]

The month-long suspense that’s been building over about a possible United Technologies/Rockwell Collins deal finally ended Tuesday morning with an announcement Bloomberg called “one of the biggest in aviation history.” United Technologies chairman and CEO Greg Hayes confirmed his company will purchase Rockwell Collins for $30 billion. Rockwell shareholders will receive $140 per share of […]

For decades prior to the advent of electronic instrumentation, flight instructors regularly taught pilots not to trust fuel gauges lest a failure leave them unknowingly running on empty. Despite more accurate measurement systems, fuel mismanagement still ranks number six on the NTSB’s list of GA accident categories, accounting for roughly 50 accidents each year, some […]

Pilots who see the words “flying” and “Oshkosh” in the same sentence this week can be excused for thinking someone’s already planning for next year’s AirVenture. But not so. The skies over Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh will soon be filled with aircraft preparing for the weeklong U.S. National Aerobatic Championships hosted by the International […]

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association and Build A Plane opened registration earlier this week for the 2018 Aviation Design Challenge. The annual competition promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills through aviation to U.S. high school students. This year, 93 schools from 31 states and Washington, DC, registered for the competition, an 18 percent […]

Following the early July close call at San Francisco International airport when an Air Canada A320 nearly touched down on an active taxiway, rather than Runway 28 Right where the aircraft was cleared, the FAA published a number of best practices to call more attention to arrival issues. Safety alert for operators (17010) looks at […]

The Part 13 complaint the AOPA filed yesterday with the FAA on behalf of its membership focused on egregious FBO pricing at three primarily GA airports: Chicago’s Waukegan (UGN), Asheville NC (AVL) and Florida’s Key West International (EYW). The Part 13 complaint process is an informal method for impacted parties to ask the FAA to […]

The number of single-engine airplanes capable of hauling a ton of cargo or six people around are pretty limited these days. Cessna’s Caravan is a top choice, but that $2.2 million price tag often puts it well out of reach for many pilots. When I spent a day with a Cessna Turbo 206 in Wichita, […]