HUERTA CONFIRMED TO FAA POST
Amidst the tension of the economic discussions in Washington on New Year's Day, the Senate was busy confirming the nominations of political appointees and Michael Huerta was one of them. Huerta, who has held the post of acting administrator since former Administrator Randy Babbitt stepped down more than a year ago, was among dozens of nominations approved as part of the session ending package. Huerta will be playing catch-up on a number of fronts as the agency deals with a major modernization push in the face of tighter budgets and a rough economy. In a podcast interview at AirVenture 2012, a cordial but non-committal Huerta admitted as much. More...

FAULTY BRAKES SUSPECTED IN RUSSIA CRASH
Although early reports of a fatal Tupelov 204 crash in Russia cited pilot error as the likely cause, investigators now are saying the airplane's brakes or thrust reversers may have failed. "After landing, the pilot used all the available brake systems on the plane, but for some reason the machine did not stop," a member of the investigation team told the Interfax news Agency on Sunday. The Red Wings jet was landing at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on Saturday with eight crew on board. Five of them -- the captain, first officer, a flight engineer and two flight attendants -- were killed when the aircraft failed to stop after landing, ran through a barrier onto a highway, and broke apart. More...

CHINA TESTING C-17 LOOKALIKE
China's aviation technology gap may have closed somewhat in recent days with announcements of some breakthroughs that may make it less dependent on the West for stuff it needs to advance its aerospace industry. Just after Christmas, photos were "leaked" of what appears to be the country's most ambitious aircraft to date, the Y-20 transport. The photos, purported to be of a test aircraft undergoing taxi tests, outwardly show a clone of Boeing's C-17 Globemaster, although the engine openings on the Chinese version are considerably smaller than the high-bypass turbofans on the C-17. If the performance of the Y-20 comes anywhere close to that of the C-17, China will soon have a long-range, heavy-lift capacity it has so far lacked in home-grown aircraft, but skeptics abound. Nevertheless, China does appear to be moving forward with development of some key technologies needed to build truly modern aircraft. More...

STRANDED U.S. BIZJET LEAVES IRAN
An American-registered Dassault Falcon 900 took off from an Iranian airport Monday about three weeks after it had made an emergency landing. According to The Associated Press the aircraft was on its way to Rotterdam from Abu Dhabi in early December when a technical fault forced a diversion to Ahvaz in southwestern Iran. There was a single passenger and two crew members on board the aircraft at the time and they left the country immediately after landing. More...

ONE NEW AIRPORT OPENED IN 2012
Buried in all the statistics that surface at this time of year when analysts try to determine what, if anything, the activity of the previous year says about how things will be in the coming years is this grim fact: Only one new airport opened in the U.S. in 2012. The forward-thinking folks of Stockton and Plainville, Kansas celebrated the opening of the $6 million facility in April. Rooks County Regional Airport is midway between the two centers. It has a 5,000-foot runway and room for airport businesses, and replaced seldom-used grass strips in both towns. Although city and county officials hope the airport will eventually help attract new business to the area, the immediate concern was that fixed-wing medevac aircraft had nowhere to land. It looks like there will be at least one new airport completed in 2013. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: ALTERNATIVE FUEL COOPERATION
Canada's National Research Council and the FAA are collaborating on finding a replacement fuel for 100LL. In a post to the AVweb Insider blog, Russ Niles asks the question, "Where's the rest of the world?" Read more and join the conversation. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: YOU'RE WORRYING ABOUT THE WRONG THING
That's especially true if you just sunk several thousand bucks into a traffic box to find airplanes that are unlikely to kill you. In an analysis and commentary on the AVweb Insider blog, resident blogger Paul Bertorelli crunches the numbers and reveals that stalls and stall-related accidents continue to be near the top of a long list of dreary ways that pilots manage to kill themselves. Why can't we do better? Why is it that some pilots seem conceptually unable to grasp that beyond a certain angle of attack, the wing will simply no longer deliver useful lift? We're not sure there's an easy answer -- or maybe any answer at all -- but we do know that owners worrying about mid-airs are suffering from misplaced fears. Read more and join the conversation. 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...

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...

VIDEO: MEET MID-CONTINENT'S SAM
As much as we love them, iron gyros are on their way to the scrap heap of history. They're even losing their value as backup instruments to glass panels now that glass itself has become more reliable and affordable enough to replace even analog backup devices. In this new video from AVweb, Aviation Consumer's Larry Anglisano examines a new product from Mid-Continent Instruments and Avonics called the SAM. It fits into a small space on the panel and can be backed up with its own lithium-ion battery. Installation considerations are mimimal, but here's a close look at how the instrument looks and performs. More...

VIDEO: L-3'S TRILOGY BACKUP GYRO
Glass panels have become standard in new aircraft, and now that more legacy airplanes are retrofitted with these systems, there's a growing market for backup gyros. That market has clearly stated a preference: Backup glass units are making inroads. In this AVweb video, Larry Anglisano of Aviation Consumer and Kirk Fryar of Sarasota Avionics give us a tour of the L-3 Trilogy. More...

MEET THE AVWEBBIZ TEAM

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

The AVwebBiz team is:

Publisher
Tom Bliss

Editorial Director, Aviation Publications
Paul Bertorelli

Editor-in-Chief
Russ Niles

Webmaster
Scott Simmons

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Contributors
Kevin Lane-Cummings

Ad Coordinator
Karen Lund

Avionics Editor
Larry Anglisano

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