Aviation News

Best known for offering adventure rides in vintage military aircraft, Warbird Adventures, Kissimmee, Florida, now offers flight instruction in Robinson R44 rotorcraft at as little as $340 per hour, including the cost of the instructor. Introductory flights are available for as little as $125 (for 15 minutes). DVD recordings of the flight experience are available. […]

Airline passengers still face an uphill battle on this, the busiest week of the year for travel. But once on board, they are likely to find fewer traffic-related delays. That’s the good news for the airlines. The glass-half-empty crowd recognizes that the lack of traffic is due to fewer flights, fewer available destination airports and […]

At a Nov. 17 roundtable, Lorraine Howerton, vice president of legislative affairs for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, harked back to the first lesson medical students learn. “Do no harm,” she told leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and aviation subcommittee. “Leaders in Congress and the industry seem to agree that imposing […]

Amir Tirosh, a former Israeli Air Force pilot and founder of avionics company AirGator, died Friday in the crash of a Piper PA-28 near Dutchess County Airport in upstate New York. A passenger was critically injured and airlifted to a hospital where he remains in critical condition. Founded by Tirosh in 2000, AirGator developed its […]

Though delays of 45 to 80 minutes are fairly routine in the airline industry, the cause of last Thursday’s glitch should be familiar to anyone with an Internet connection. A malfunctioning router in Salt Lake City at 5 a.m. caused misinformation within the ATC system related to flight plans and weather. The system slowdown was […]

Building on its successful fractional equity program, Dallas-based PlaneSmart has launched a new scheme to get pilots into a late-model Cirrus. The new program allows customers to sign onto a fractional lease, as opposed to purchasing an equity position in an aircraft. The result is lower up front cost, though the monthly management cost is […]

The Northwest Airlines overflight last month has generated significant interest in what devices pilots carry into the cockpit and how they use them. The Senate has proposed legislation banning all personal electronic devices, but pilots have objected. They maintain that they use their laptops, smart phones and other devices to enhance the information they have […]

Randy Babbitt is concerned for his job, should unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) expand their horizons within U.S. civilian airspace. Referring to the August collision over the Hudson River, he told a gathering of the Aerospace Industries Association last week in Phoenix, “Can you even imagine if one of those aircraft had been an unmanned system? […]

With a high pressure system forecast to continue dominating the weather, today looks like good VFR day in the New York City area. Pilots planning to navigate the Hudson River Class B exclusion zone need to be aware of new rules that are in effect. Following the fatal collision this summer between a VFR Piper […]

A Nov. 6 fatal accident near Agnos, Arkansas, further mars the record of the Zodiac CH601XL light sport aircraft. The type has been cited for possible problems with its controls that could lead to aerodynamic flutter and in-flight breakup. Six previous in-flight breakups have led the Experimental Aircraft Association to urge operators of the type […]