EARHART RESEARCHERS FOUND "DEBRIS FIELD"
Researchers who combed the sea bottom off a remote Pacific island for Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra say raw video shows "manmade objects," but they are stopping short of saying the mystery of her disappearance has been solved. "It's still very early days but we have man-made objects in a debris field in the place we'd expect to find it if our theory about the airplane is correct," said Ric Gillespie, director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), in a statement Saturday. The news comes on the eve of the airing of a Discovery Channel program on the TIGHAR expedition to Nikumaroro in July. The group believes the Electra was swept offshore sometime after Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan made an emergency landing on the island. More...

FRENCH TEAM UNLIMITED GLIDER CHAMPION
Laurent Aboulin, of France, won the unlimited class in the World Gliding Championships in Uvalde, TX on Sunday. Dozens of teams competing in three classes flew prescribed courses with a minimum of three waypoints in closed loop over more than 200 miles over 13 days of competition. First place in the 18-meter wingspan (about 60 feet) class was Jerzy Szemplinski, of Canada and the top pilot in the 15-meter class (which flew 12 flights) was Sebastian Kawa, of Poland. Full results here. The top U.S. entrant in the unlimited class was Dick Butler, who came seventh. It was his aircraft, Concordia, with its 92-foot wingspan that was the talk of the meet, nicknamed the Olympics of Gliding, however. More...

COMPETITION GLIDERS COLLIDE: NO SERIOUS INJURIES
Gliders competing in the 15-meter class at the World Gliding Championships collided Friday and one crashed, but there were no serious injuries. Competition officials said late Friday that Louis Bourderlique, of France, and Peter Hartmann, of Austria, came together about 30 miles from Uvalde, Texas, the base airport for this year's competition. Bourderlique flew his damaged aircraft back to Uvalde while Hartmann bailed out and landed safely by parachute. Bourderlique was uninjured, while Hartmann was picked up by helicopter from his landing site, returned to Uvalde and then taken to hospital for a checkup. More...

LOWER COSTS VIA AIRCRAFT CERTIFICATION REFORM?
The FAA submitted a report to Congress this week titled Aircraft Certification Process Review Reform, which could ultimately affect the cost of new aircraft, and GAMA has now issued a cautious but positive response. According to GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce, the report is "an important first step" toward improving the efficiency of the certification process. Technological advances are expected to create an increasing demand for product certification. Bunce says the FAA is now publicly committed to "dramatic process improvement" and the agency has worked "diligently" with industry representatives to create metrics that will evaluate progress. But, says Bunce, "much work remains." More...

LSA HOPEFUL FACES FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING
LISA Airplanes' amphibious AKOYA LSA turned heads at AirVenture Oshkosh 2012, may have prompted some head scratching with its $350,000 price tag, and may now add some head shaking as the company enters receivership "to protect its future." Receivership is a type of corporate bankruptcy in which a court-appointed "receiver" is given the responsibility to recoup unpaid loans owed by the company. LISA says that it was engaged in fundraising negotiations in July "bound to the commercial development of the company" that were meant to provide the manufacturer with progressive long-term funding. But "selected investors were not able to fulfill their commitment." LISA describes its receivership as a "period of transition" and says customer deposits are unaffected. More...

HONEYWELL'S 3-D PREDICTIVE WEATHER RADAR
Honeywell's IntuVue 3-D radar predicts what storms contain hail and lightening, identifies turbulence and allows pilots to determine the top and bottom of storm cells, giving up to 10 minutes advance warning for jets. Honeywell says the system is an upgrade that provides pilots with more tools to make safe flight-path decisions while en route. It works by analyzing data captured through algorithms as radar scans an area from the ground to 60,000 feet and up to 320 nautical miles out. Weather is color-coded with turbulence is shown in magenta. Storm cells are analyzed and those that display the characteristics for hail and lightning production are assigned an associated icon. Honeywell says the range of the system's turbulence detection sets a new standard for the industry. More...

NATIONAL AVIATION DAY PASSED QUIETLY
It was National Aviation Day in the U.S. on Sunday, marking what would have been Orville Wright's 141st birthday. The day passed unnoticed in most places although it's been a nationally proclaimed special day since 1939, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt deemed the nation's first pilot of a powered aircraft worthy of remembrance on his birthday. As national observances go, it's not a particularly significant one. At his discretion, the sitting president may order federal buildings to fly the flag and he might encourage people to take part in activities that bolster aviation. Wright Brothers Day is also observed Aug. 19 as is White Cane Safety Day and Carl Garner Federal Lands Cleanup Day. The First Flight Society held a full program of events Sunday to mark the day. More...

SNOWBIRDS PREPARE TO RETIRE CT-114 TUTOR
The Canadian Forces Snowbirds aerobatics team has flown the CT-114 Tutor since 1971 and now, according to documents obtained by Canada's The Citizen, they are in the early stages of finding replacement aircraft. Amid tight budgeting guidelines and looming modernization costs across the whole of the Canadian Forces, authorities are prepared to spend $755 million for a new Snowbirds jet fleet. Tutors have been in the Canadian Forces inventory since the 1960s and the Snowbirds currently operate 11 of them. Nine fly formation maneuvers when two solo aircraft are included. Two jets are kept available as spares. It is not yet clear if the military will be replacing all of the aircraft to create a fleet of equal number. But the current Tutors are scheduled to retire by year-end 2020. More...

VIDEO: PLANEDRIVEN'S ROADABLE AIRPLANE
The problem with flying cars is that it's a lot harder to make a car fly than it is to make an airplane drive. That's the thinking behind Trey Johnson's roadable Glasair Sportsman, which we filmed at Oshkosh. He flew it in and drove it around town a couple of times. We're not sure what kind of demand there is for this sort of thing, but it's fun to watch it come together. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: WHAT IS IT WITH FLYING CARS?
Maybe we should blame Popular Mechanics for all those magazine covers featuring — artist's conception only — a flying car in every garage. The idea has never worked, and it's probably never going to work, yet it persists and draws more interest than a lot of practical designs that just aren't as sexy. Or, as Paul Bertorelli surmises on the AVweb Insider blog, maybe they just don't have that edge-of-sanity dingbat factor. Just because people won't buy crazy doesn't mean they don't want to watch people try to pull it off. Read more and join the conversation. More...

SURVEY: HOW ARE YOUR GAMIJECTORS WORKING?
General Aviation Modifications has been out there with a staple of eninge mod business: Custom fuel injectors called GAMIjectors. If you have GAMIjectors on your airplane, our sister publication, Aviation Consumer, would like to know how they're working out for you. Click here to take the survey. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something 255,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: CURIOUS ABOUT CURIOSITY
Imagine the technical challenge of flying a Toyota Camry to Mars and plopping it down in one piece. NASA has done just that with the Curiosity rover, although it's a tad more sophisticated than the Toyota. And at $2.5 billion, you could cover Mars in economy cars. Resident cheapskate Paul Bertorelli offers this question on the AVweb Insider blog: Could a private company like SpaceEx do it for less? Read more and join the conversation. More...

VIDEO: AIRPLANE CRASH IN-COCKPIT FOOTAGE -- STINSON 108-3
Video of a plane crash as it was experienced from the right seat, inside the cockpit. The accident took place on Saturday, June 30, 2012 near Bruce Meadows airstrip, not far from Stanley, Idaho. More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: HANGAR 9 (ABERDEEN REGIONAL AIRPORT/KABR, SOUTH DAKOTA)

AVweb readers often discover great FBOs on their individual journeys to Oshkosh for AirVenture. This year was no exception, as we received quite a few nominations during the weeks after the show.

Our latest "FBO of the Week" is one of these, recommended by annual patron Les Smith - Hangar 9 at Aberdeen Regional Airport (KABR) in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Les had high praise for H9 and its staff:

Hangar 9 greeted our arrival with a lineman ready to marshall us in. Free refreshments (a variety of drinks and snacks) were available. An Oshkosh special price for fuel was in effect [during our visit]. Owner Darryl Shook was very hospitable. He provided a late-model loaner vehicle and hangared our Cardinal overnight against potential storms — not forecast, but hey, this is South Dakota — and offered recommendations for both food and lodging. KABR is a natural stop for our Seattle area trip to/from Oshkosh, and Hangar 9 is a natural for a friendly, helpful FBO.

Keep those nominations coming. For complete contest rules, click here.

AVweb is actively seeking out the best FBOs in the country and another one, submitted by you, will be spotlighted here next Monday!

SHORT FINAL

Heard on KBIS tower frequency years ago:

Tower:
"NorthWest XYZ, cleared to land, 31. Be advised of model rocketry testing from the United Tribes Educational Center just west of the airport."

Northwest XYZ (with a Texas drawl) :
"Ah liked it bettah when they only used bows and arrows."

Rob Scarlett
via e-mail

HEARD ANYTHING FUNNY ON THE RADIO?
Heard anything funny, unusual, or downright shocking on the radio lately? If you've been flying any length of time, you're sure to have eavesdropped on a few memorable exchanges. The ones that gave you a chuckle may do the same for your fellow AVweb readers. Share your radio funny with us, and, if we use it in a future "Short Final," we'll send you a sharp-looking AVweb hat to sport around your local airport. No joke. Click here to submit your original, true, and previously unpublished story. More...

MEET THE AVWEBFLASH TEAM

AVwebFlash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the world's premier independent aviation news resource.

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