Flying Staff

Last month’s FAA computer overload that delayed hundreds of flights has been addressed, and the agency announced an update will be in place by year’s end. Memory upgrades are expected to improve reliability as early as next month, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, which quoted Hank Krakowski, chief operating officer of […]

European private equity firm Permira agreed last month to sell business aviation service company Jet Aviation for a reported $2.25 billion. Permira bought the Swiss-based general aviation conglomerate in 2005 for an estimated $700 million from an ownership group led by the Hirschmann family. The late Carl Hirschmann founded Jet Aviation decades ago. With its […]

Almanac data stored in the receivers of some early Garmin ‘Flybuddy’ GPS units has led to degraded operation. Affected units, according to a service advisory from Garmin, include all Model 819 and Model 820 Flybuddy GPS units and Model 2001/2101 systems with TSO-C115b GPS sensors. The company noted that Model 2001/2101 systems with later TSO-C129 […]

It’s official. With the introduction of the G3 version, the seminal Cirrus SR20 piston single is all grown up. I hadn’t fully realized that until recently, when I had the lucky chance to fly a pair of SR20s, one really old one (well, as old as they get) and one brand spanking new one, in […]

I had no preconceived notions or expectations as I rolled into the parking lot at the northern end of Lake Washington. The Seattle sky was a typical mixture of grey confusion, the clouds in various meteorological forms. A small swath of orange glowed in the distant northwest, a feeble reminder that the earth still revolved […]

Often considered one of the best barometers of general aviation health, the numbers for used turbine aircraft sales continue to decline overall, though sales outside North America are on the rise. According to AvData, based in Utica, New York, business jet sales in North America were down from 199 in June 2007 to 116 in […]

The FAA has announced more specific plans to begin scaling back its commitment to VOR stations beginning in 2010. Seen as a measure of commitment to GPS as a primary source of navigation information, the move, nevertheless, has some concerned. Reliance on GPS as primary source guidance is contingent on the adoption of wide area […]

The Transportation Security Administration has issued two new documents encompassing security action items (SAIs) for FBOs and for aircraft operators. The documents amplify and restate many of the same recommendations in the originally issued documents from May 2004, including limiting or prohibiting vehicle access to ramps, locking fences and gates, installing surveillance equipment, encouraging based […]

Thai businessman Supap Puranitee ordered his Cessna Mustang on the day it was announced at NBAA 2002. He took delivery of his VLJ, the 100th Mustang off the production line, last week at the Cessna plant in Independence, Kansas. Cessna delivered 45 Mustangs in its first partial year of production last year, and expects to […]