Stephen Pope

The Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (ABACE) opened today in Shanghai amid a backdrop of increasing U.S.-China cooperation in business aviation and continued signs of growth in the long-gestating Chinese bizav market. Fractional ownership giant NetJets affirmed its plans to start operations in China next year. NetJets China will launch in the first quarter […]

The Obama Administration on Monday said it is extending a research program aimed at developing aviation biofuels by five years. Known as “Farm to Fly,” the initiative involves the FAA, airlines and biofuel producers in an effort that seeks to increase domestic production of drop-in aviation biofuels to 1 billion gallons per year by 2018. […]

As the fate of 149 of the country’s contract control towers hangs in the balance, pilots and the traveling public face another imminent threat to their ability to fly: the furloughs of thousands of air traffic controllers at airports and center facilities across the country beginning on April 21. The FAA says the furloughs are […]

Lancair announced a new kit pricing format for the Legacy two-place single, choosing an “all inclusive” model that includes everything needed to build one. The revised pricing is intended to take the guesswork out of budgeting and allow builders to better manage their time. The hope is that more kits become finished airplanes. The Legacy […]

The House and Senate this week introduced bills to block the FAA from closing 149 control towers at airports across the country as part of government sequestration cuts. The Senate bill, called The Protect Our Skies Act, would prohibit the FAA from closing any control towers, including those operated by the FAA and FAA contractors, […]

Diamond Aircraft introduced a new version of its DA40 piston single that brings a number of welcome improvements to the cockpit. The DA40 XLT model for 2013 features wider front seats, air conditioning, burl-wood and carbon-fiber trim accents and other improvements that elevate the Austrian-designed four seater into a luxury cruiser. Not only are the […]

Aviation groups and many members of Congress are reacting negatively to the Obama Administration’s budget plan for fiscal year 2014, slamming the proposal for once again including a provision for a $100-per-flight user fee. The White House’s user fee proposal appears to have little chance of making it into a final budget package after 223 […]

Once again the White House’s annual budget proposal calls for a $100 per-flight user fee on certain general aviation aircraft. While talk of user fees used to send chills through the industry, this time around the reaction has been one of confident resolve rather than fear. Here’s what’s changed. In the last few years the […]

Avidyne and MIT researchers have been working for the past three years on improved ADS-B traffic alerting algorithms that the FAA hopes to use as the baseline standard for the entire avionics industry. Now the collaboration has led to the development of an Avidyne traffic alert feature called VeriTAS that has the goal of providing […]

Even if you only fly VFR in good weather, it pays to check for the location of instrument approaches along your route of flight. Just as you always ensure that your course doesn’t take you dangerously close to terrain or obstacles, you also want to avoid flying through the inbound course of an approach that […]