The FAA says it needs to train 11,700 new air traffic controllers in the next eight years to cover retirements and budget-related staff cuts but the Washington Times reports the General Accounting Offices is worried the agency's training arm won't be able to do it. For the past several years, the FAA has been trying to devise programs to speed up the training of controllers. The result is that it now takes 2.68 years to certify a controller compared to 1.9 years in 2009. Read More

After two recent high-profile crashes (UPS and Asiana Airlines Flight 214), both involving fatalities, media reports have questioned the role of automation in the cockpit and in the opinion of former Northwest Captain and current Embry Riddle educator Jack Panosian, those concerns may not be unfounded. Panosian told AVweb Thursday that his observation is that stick and rudder skills may be falling down the list of important assets required by professional pilots -- but that's not entirely bad. Modern jets, he says, generally are not hand-flown aircraft and some have been designed from the outset to be flown for nearly the entire flight on automation. Read More

The definition of what it means to be a good pilot may be changing. AVweb speaks with former Northwest captain and Embry-Riddle educator Jack Panosian to explore the question of what's more important in keeping passengers alive: stick and rudder skills or systems management. Read More

Piper Aircraft has announced the successful completion of a 2100-mile round-trip flight in a Piper Archer flying with 93 octane unleaded automobile gasoline provided by Airworthy AutoGas LLC. The company says the flight was conducted as a demonstration and test of Airworthy's specially formulated auto gas. It is a continuation of previous joint testing that saw Piper conduct other flight test regimes with the fuel at its Vero Beach headquarters. For the latest flights, Airworthy provided fuel at predetermined stops along the Archer's route. The Archer flew with a standard Lycoming 0-360, which is approved for 93 octane unleaded fuel. Read More

Virgin Galactic tested its SpaceShipTwo, space-tourist-carrying vehicle Thursday over the Mojave Desert, exceeding Mach 1 and achieving an altitude of nearly 70,000 feet while demonstrating less than rock-solid stability. The vehicle was dropped at 46,000 feet and climbed under rocket power for 20 seconds, reaching 69,000 feet and 1.43 Mach (nearly 1,100 mph) with two pilots, Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols, aboard. According to the company the six-passenger vehicle reached its "highest altitude and greatest speed to date." Video posted on YouTube by Virgin Galactic displayed the suborbital vehicle oscillating in roll (verbally noted by a test pilot in the video) during portions of the flight. (Video after the jump.) Read More

Thursday, Pipistrel announced its new Sinus Flex model, an aircraft that the company says offers its pilot "three aircraft in one" with the use of interchangeable wing tips. The company says the "Flex wingtips" can be swapped out in "about five minutes." The outer five-foot portion of each wing can be replaced with either a shorter or longer structural wing extension. Effectively, the company's "Flex" offering is a standard Sinus model with the addition of interchangeable wing tips. The shorter tips turn the model into the short-winged, faster-cruising and easier-to-store Virus model. The bolt-on long-wing tip extensions convert the plane into the company's Sinus motorglider. Read More

Bombardier has sold its Flexjet fractional business to U.S. private equity firm Directional Aviation Capital in a deal that could reap the Canadian bizjet maker up to $5.2 billion in orders. Bombardier sold Flexjet, which currently operates 79 mostly high-end aircraft, for $185 million. But the deal comes with a firm order for 85 aircraft worth $1.8 billion and options for 160 more to bring the total potential to $5.2 billion. Read More

A teenaged member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets was taken to hospital with minor injuries Sunday after his Schweizer SGS 2-33A glider ended up on the roof of a convenience store about a half mile short of the runway at Langley Regional Airport in the Vancouver suburb. It's not clear if the unidentified pilot, who would be at least 16 but no older than 18, intended to land on the roof but it turned out better than many thought it might. Read More

The Colorado town that will vote in October on a controversial ordinance to issue hunting licenses to shoot down unmanned aircraft over the town has been flooded with applications already and prompted the town to put a whimsical spin on the plan. More than 1,000 people have sent Deer Trail Town Clerk Kim Oldfield $25 for the license, which, if legalized in a referendum by the 380 registered voters in the town of 600, would give them the right to bring down a UAV over the town. Read More

At AirVenture, the really cool airplane wasn't from an airplane manufacturer but from Redbird, the guys who build motion simulators. They showed off a nicely refurb'd Cessna 172 with a diesel engine from Continental, and they invited us to come fly it at their San Marcos, Texas Skyport. So we did. In this video, we offer a detailed analysis of the Redhawk, along with a closer look at the airplane's performance and cost figures. Read More

As the FAA updates its written knowledge exams, bringing them into the light of the 21st Century, perhaps ADF and VOR questions will go the way of gas-operated landing lights. Embrace this age of aviation enlightenment by acing this quiz.

Take the quiz.

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