Flying Staff

Diamond recently announced that it would upgrade the Williams FJ33 turbofan on its single-engine D-Jet to a more powerful version on all of its production airplanes. The new powerplant, a 1,900 lb thrust Williams FJ-33-4A-19, will replace the 1,564 lb thrust Dash-15 variant. Several factors drove the decision to make the switch, says Diamond, but […]

The first prototype of Cessna’s light sport aircraft entry, the model 162 SkyCatcher, made its inaugural flight recently from Cessna’s R&D facility in Wichita. Cessna test pilot Dale Bleakney was at the controls for the one-hour flight, during which he checked out the airplane’s basic controllability and stability. Cessna planned to continue development flight testing […]

The 34th Annual Sun ?n Fun Fly-In is set to get underway. This year?s special guest stars, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds precision flight demonstration team, is scheduled to headline. The show runs from Tuesday, April 8, through Sunday, April 13. Like AirVenture, Sun ?n Fun got its start as a small, local event that […]

USAIG, one of the largest aviation insurance companies, is offering up to a 7.5 percent premium credit to owner pilots who attend annual formal recurrent training classes. That is in addition to the company?s policy of no hull loss deductibles, $5,000 per person medical payment coverage for pilots and passengers, and up to $250,000 voluntary […]

The fuel filler caps on the new Cessna Skyhawk 172TD aren’t your garden-variety flip-lid 100LL caps like I’d pried (or twisted) open countless times before. These babies are industrial, overbuilt Teutonic-looking things, placarded in bold letters to make it clear what kind of fuel to use: “Jet-A Only.” They seem emblematic of this new breed […]

The National Weather Association is offering a free ?Weather Theory for Pilots? interactive course on its website. The course covers basic atmospheric theory, including moisture, vertical motion and stability, and is designed for new or low-time pilots. This course compliments other online courses already offered by the NWA that address flying when thunderstorms are present […]

Bombardier confirmed, as first reported in Flying, that the company’s next generation Learjet will be built entirely from composite plastics. The new Learjet 85 would be the first transport category airplane with an all-composite airframe, and is the first in the Learjet, Challenger or Global Express line from Bombardier to use composites for primary structure […]