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Responding to the challenges of the current economy for general aviation, Hawker Beechcraft Corp. (HBC) this week delivered 350 pink slips to salaried staff. In a letter to employees, CEO Bill Boisture also outlined the schedule and details of 800 job losses for union-represented hourly workers that had been announced in September. In the Oct. […]

Pilots like to talk about speed and how fast they fly, often to the exclusion of other aircraft characteristics; its fun to go fast, no doubt. Witness how many aviators seek out the fastest flivver their finances can support. But the ability to power up to cruise, trim for speed, engage the autopilot and start fiddling with an iPod requires far less skill and hand-flying ability than working at the lower end of the airspeed dial. And we dont learn much at the top of the green. Demonstrating slow-flying skills takes up part of our training time; slow flying is an item in the FAAs Practical Test Standards for sport pilot certificates on up.

Todays typical flight training curricula are largely maneuver-based, with little emphasis on higher order pilot skills, especially risk management. At its heart, the typical curriculum is designed to train a pilot to pass the practical test for the certificate or rating he or she seeks. A rare curriculum includes training to identify, assess and mitigate risk. In previous articles, Ive asserted the root cause of many accidents-and perhaps most fatal accidents-is poor risk management (Aviation Safety, July 2010, “TAA Training”). I also postulated better risk management training, especially in risk mitigation, could be an effective way to reduce these accidents (Aviation Safety, September 2010, “Train to Mitigate Risk”).

We spend a lot of time and space here fretting about training. In this issue, for example, regular contributor Bob Wright discusses the need for and obstacles to better integration into our training infrastructure of risk management concepts. Similarly, were always writing about getting with an instructor and practicing various maneuvers or procedures. But none of this is easy, nor inexpensive.Weve also railed from time to time about what Ill call the “FBO experience.” Too often, when a well-off prospective student and airplane owner drives his or her luxury SUV out to the airport to inquire about flying lessons, they are greeted in a dingy, poorly lit building by an uninformed employee who shrugs, saying, “Our flight instructor is up with a student.”

“Taming the tailwheel” was the catchy title for an all-day seminar I attended recently. The program, a FAAST (FAA Safety Team) sanctioned event, was sponsored by EAA Chapter 146 at the Kline Kill Airport (NY1) in Ghent, New York. There were perhaps 40 of us in attendance, and almost all flew conventionally configured airplanes with […]

Ed Tripp had a career that spanned half a century of aviation publications, including Car & Driver, Air Progress, AOPA Pilot, Business & Commercial Aviation and Flying. He died of cancer Oct. 16 at his home in Cincinnati. Tripp was publisher of Flying‘s landmark 50th Anniversary issue in 1977. Born in Boston, he served in […]

After conversations with some 3,000 aircraft operators, Hawker Beechcraft Corporation decided that its next Beechcraft Premier model wouldn’t be a Beechcraft after all. “The Premier II should be a Hawker,” is the message HBC got from customers — and that’s what it will be, the Hawker 200. Shawn Vick, HBC Executive Vice President delivered the […]

With the recent change in China’s air space rules for general aviation, the announcement by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and the Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA) to reintroduce the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (ABACE) is very timely. First held in Shanghai in 2004, the early ABACE shows, said NBAA president and […]

They weren’t quite dancing in the aisles at the 63rd annual meeting and convention of the National Business Aircraft Association. But at least the funeral march that has prevailed the past two years seems to be a thing of the past. The show wraps up later today at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta […]

If business jets could qualify as angels, the Cessna Citations participating in the Cessna Citation Special Olympics Airlift would have earned their wings. On July 17, 2010, an armada of Citation business jets carrying some 800 Special Olympics athletes and coaches winged their way from airports all across the country to Lincoln Municipal Airport (KLNK) […]