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Not many years ago your airborne weather information was limited to what you could see out the windshield and what information you were able to gather on the radio from Flight Service-if you could reach them. Plus, reported weather was limited. Thus, it was nearly impossible to form a full, accurate mental image of the weather. …

The first FAA-approved commercial drones launched on September 12 from a ship in the Chukchi Sea, off the North coast of Alaska. The ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system weighs just 44 pounds and has a 10-foot wingspan. It will conduct surveys of ice and marine mammals in the vicinity of drilling rigs. The UAS will be allowed to fly 24 hours a day at heights up to 2,000 feet and out of the line of sight of operators on the ground. The U.S. Air Force also said in September it has successfully flown the first of its mothballed F-16 fleet as a drone, which will be used for target practice.

The Vietnam War was in full swing when I graduated high school. The economy was in the toilet and airlines were furloughing. There were countless military pilots looking for jobs. It was a terrible time to launch a professional pilot career.

After almost five years of quiet at the Mooney factory in Kerrville, Texas, the assembly line re-booted in February and the classic Acclaim Type S was back in production. The company has risen, yet again, thanks to a fresh infusion of cash from new investors, and new corporate leadership. The new Acclaim models will feature the TSIO-550-G turbo-normalized engine by Teledyne Continental Motors and an upgraded Garmin G1000 integrated avionics suite.

Everyone seems to be on the constant descent final approach (CDFA) bandwagon these days, telling us to avoid the trusted and long-used dive-n-drive technique on non-precision approaches. To be clear, I am not arguing against using a CDFA technique. Indeed, CDFA is a valuable tool. Add the availability of an advisory glideslope from modern navigators-although not required for a CDFA-and CDFA becomes as simple as an ILS. So, why use dive-n-drive at all? Im glad you asked.

I made up my mind to sell my house at that fancy Florida fly-in community the day a joker from the homeowners association scoffed at my Skyhawk and asked, You flew all the way from Chicago in that thing?

The FAA is moving forward to integrate autonomous aircraft into the National Airspace System — at an excruciatingly slow speed for operators eager to use unmanned aerial systems, but perhaps still too fast for pilots worried about safety and separation. The six sites are in Alaska, Nevada, North Dakota, Texas, New York, and Virginia. The FAA wants to see data showing that UASs can operate safely amid manned aircraft, and said the testing will continue until at least February 2017. The FAA also said it will establish rules to protect privacy as well as to ensure safe operations.

Structural failure accidents, often from getting too friendly with thunderstorms, kill both people and what little good press GA is able to garner. In the last decade, 50 accidents-about 10 per cent of all accidents-were due to in-flight structural failure. Worse, even with better weather data in flight, these accidents arent going away.

After weeks of speculation, Textron announced in late December that it would buy Beechcraft Corp., for $1.4 billion. Textron is the parent company of Cessna, Bell Helicopter, and Lycoming. The acquisition of Beechcraft is a tremendous opportunity to extend our general aviation business, said Textron CEO Scott Donnelly. Textron also will take on the profitable service business for Hawkers orphaned jet line, creating opportunities to convert those owners, as well as pilots upgrading from the…

For many, the cockpit weather product of choice is SiriusXM Satellite Weather (XMWX). Thats partly because of Garmins highly popular line of GPS portables with optional satellite XM receivers. That started with the GPSMAP 396 in 2002 and continues with the current aera series and GPSMAP 696. Theres also the GDL 69-an XMWX receiver compatible with most Garmin panel-mount devices. As dominant as Garmin and SiriusXM are in datalink weather, there are other choices. …