RUSSIA LIBERALIZES AIRSPACE
Russia has restructured its airspace in a move that's bound to foster more GA activity in the country. Gone is the requirement to submit a detailed flight plan at least 24 hours in advance. Flight notification can now be done an hour in advance online. The changes were announced in April and went into effect Monday. According to TASS the new rules and airspace designations "are designed to meet the standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)." Perhaps the biggest change is the creation of uncontrolled airspace. More...

GAO: FAA DELAYS HURT AVIATION INDUSTRY
The FAA needs to a better job of issuing certifications and approvals, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a recent report. A lack of efficiency and consistency in how the FAA interprets its own rules adversely affects the aviation industry, causing delays and higher costs, the analysts found. To improve its performance, the GAO says, FAA should develop a process to track how long it takes to act on requests for certification or approval and the causes of each delay, then use that data to assess the extent of delays and figure out how to better allocate resources to reduce wait times. Also, the GAO says, the FAA should use that data to create a system of measurable performance goals and track performance toward those goals. More...

CESSNA TURBOPROP NOT READY FOR AOPA
Cessna says its single-engine turboprop is not ready for prime time and will not be shown at AOPA Summit in Long Beach next week. It had been widely speculated that the company would unveil the project at the show but Bob Stangarone, Cessna's VP of Corporate Communications, said the company is a long way from that. "What we're flying is neither a prototype nor proof of concept aircraft. It's a technology demonstrator to help us determine how we could best fill the gap between the Corvalis and the Citation Mustang," Stangarone told AVweb. "Any new aircraft introduction would be some time away." More...

TAIWAN CHARTER EYES CHINA MARKET
The first business jet to be registered in Taiwan is a G550 and its owner hopes increased commerce between Taiwan and China will lead to the creation of a brisk charter business between the two countries. Win Air held a grand opening for its new charter and jet management service in Taipei last week and owner Terry Gou told Focus Taiwan it's the first business of its kind in Taiwan. Win Air already had two U.S.-registered Gulfstreams in operation before it put Taiwanese marks on its newest aircraft. The company flies primarily to Europe and the U.S. right now but Gou is hoping a change in regulations will lead to exponential growth of his business to 20 aircraft. More...

CARAVAN TKS RETROFITS UNDERWAY
TKS glycol-based anti-icing retrofits are now available for Cessna Caravans through CAV Aerospace in Salina, Kan. Cessna announced the availability of the TKS system on new cargo-pod-equipped Caravans in 2008. In the meantime, CAV has been developing the retrofit, which was adopted by FedEx Express for its fleet of 250 Caravans. It was announced two weeks ago that Yingling Aviation, of Wichita, will install the CAV system on the FedEx Express Caravans. CAV is turning its attention to the remaining 1,200 aircraft in the fleet and the first one to undergo retrofit is certainly no stranger to flying in icing conditions. More...

MILLER PROMOTED AT BBA

BBA Aviation

Mary Miller is now VP of Industry and Government Affairs for BBA Aviation's U.S. operations. She was formerly VP of Customer Relations for Signature Flight Support, a BBA company.
More...

WHO'S WHERE? YOU TELL US
Get a promotion or a new job? Your colleagues want to know about it, and AVwebBiz can get the word out. Drop us a line about the staff appointment, with a nice recent photo, and we'll do our best to include it in our new section, "Who's Where." The items will be permanently archived on AVweb for future reference, too. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: FEDEX AND UPS — NEW TERRORISM TARGETS?
Could be, but it seems to AVweb's Paul Bertorelli that the first step to keep their airplanes from being blown up is to have a peek inside packages coming from Yemen, the world capital of terrorist bomb-making. On the day explosives were recovered last week, the two companies shipped a total of thirteen packages out the country. Hard to imagine the clerks were too busy to wonder why a printer was being shipped from Yemen to the U.S. when you could buy a new one for less than the shipping cost. Of such stuff is knuckleheaded airline security made. Read more and join the conversation on the AVweb Insider blog. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: A NEAR MID-AIR — BLINDED BY THE SIGHT
On the AVweb Insider blog, Paul Bertorelli devolves to the philosophical in describing nearly swapping paint with a Cherokee on Sunday. Soiling your underwear will do that to you. But it does bring to mind something we've all experienced: Looking without seeing and seeing without comprehending. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: GLASS PANEL REDUNDANCY
Ever wish you could ride along with Aviation Consumer editor Paul Bertorelli and Kitplanes editor Marc Cook on one of their story-finding expeditions and join in the heated discussion of a hot button aviation topic like — oh, say — whether it's acceptable to fly IFR without iron gyros to back up the data from your trusty G3X? If you insist on getting into the middle of this, don't miss Marc's commentary on why he's comfortable with his glass panel's built-in redundancy. More...

VIDEO: IPAD VS. GARMIN'S 696
With Foreflight or WingX loaded, the iPad aces the plate reader function, hands down. But how about for all-purpose cockpit navigation? Looks to us like the 696's robust GPS wins that round. But there could be an interesting and less expensive compromise, as this video reveals. More...

15 YEARS AND NOW 15 GRAND GIVEAWAYS ... IT'S YOUR CHANCE TO WIN 100,000 AIR BP BRAVO REWARDS POINTS

Now's your chance to win 100,000 Air BP Bravo Rewards Points — there are more than 45 million reward options available through the Bravo program — as we celebrate our 15th Anniversary! All you have to do is click here to enter your name and e-mail address. (You only have to enter once, and you'll be entered in our prize drawings for the entire year — so if you've already entered, you're all set.)

And no, we're not going to rent or sell your name, ever. Tell your friends, and invite them to sign up for AVweb so they can qualify for our 15 Grand Giveaways prize drawings, too. (We won't spam them, either — but we hope they will sign up for our newsletters.)

Deadline for entries is 11:59pm Zulu time Friday, November 5.

Click here to read the contest rules and enter.

MEET THE AVWEBBIZ TEAM

AVwebBiz is a weekly summary of the latest business aviation news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the internet's aviation magazine and news service.

The AVwebBiz team is:

Publisher
Timothy Cole

Editorial Director, Aviation Publications
Paul Bertorelli

Editor-in-Chief
Russ Niles

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Features Editor
Kevin Lane-Cummings

Webmaster
Scott Simmons

Contributors
Jeff van West

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