We're foregoing our usual Friday podcast in favor of three bonus casts from our sister publications, Aviation Consumer, Aviation Safety, and IFR Magazine. If enjoy AVwebAudio (and AVweb's G.A. coverage in general), then you may want to check out their web sites and learn more about them. At the very least, you can listen to these three special podcasts and benefit from their perspectives on the world of flying.

Look for a brand-new, exclusive AVweb audiocast on Monday.

HONEYWELL'S APEX COMES OUT OF THE GROUND
For months — if not years — we've been hearing about Honeywell's new APEX EFIS system. We clapped eyes on it for the first time at the NBAA show in Atlanta in a second-generation PC-12. (You'll find a full report on the airplane in the November issue of Aviation Consumer.) Meanwhile, we interviewed Pilatus North America's chief pilot, Peter Duncan, who gave un a brief tour of APEX.

Click here to listen. (11 MB, 12:06)

GLENN PEW GOES BEHIND-THE-SCENES OF ASRS FOR IFR MAGAZINE
Pilots often think of the ASRS as a "get out of jail free" card, but it's more than that. IFR chats with Linda Connell, Director of the Aviation Safety Reporting System at NASA Ames Research Center. Get to know the program, how it works, and what it can do for you.

Click here to listen. (16.5 MB, 18:07)

A CHAT WITH NTSB VICE-CHAIRMAN ROBERT SUMWALT
AVweb Contributing Editor and Aviation Safety magazine Editor-in-Chief Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside sat down recently with Robert Sumwalt, vice-chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Portions of their wide-ranging interview on Sumwalt's aviation background, increases in general aviation's accident rate, and light-aircraft flight data recorders are included in this month's Aviation Safety magazine podcast.

Click here to listen. (15.8 MB, 17:15)

CHESAPEAKE SPORT PILOT — TRAINING A NEW BREED OF PILOT
When the Light Sport Aircraft category and the Sport Pilot certificate were created a couple of years ago, proponents claimed a new era in aviation had begun because learning to fly would become so much more accessible under the relaxed training and medical rules. Well, if the experience of Chesapeake Sport Pilot is any indication, it would seem the original boosters were right on the money. AVweb's Russ Niles spoke with Tim Adelman, who helped found the flight school only seven months ago and has watched it grow faster than he ever imagined it would.

Click here to listen. (8.5 MB, 9:16)

CIRRUS "EXPRESSES INTEREST" IN COLUMBIA AIRCRAFT
Things got a lot more interesting in the Columbia Aircraft saga in the last week, with Cirrus Design expressing interest in a takeover that seemed to be sewn up by Cessna. Cirrus CEO Alan Klapmeier told AVweb's Russ Niles that he wasn't about to let Cessna buy his company's main competitor in the high performance market for the $22 million that is on the table right now. Klapmeier has plenty more to say about the deal that will have a significant impact on the future of the piston single market, whichever way it goes.

Click here to listen. (8.3 MB, 9:05)