PIPER TO STAY SAYS VERO OFFICIAL
The chairman of the Indian River County Commission, Gary Wheeler, says a deal is all but sealed to keep Piper Aircraft in Vero Beach. Wheeler said the commission will vote Jan. 15 on a $12 million incentive package, which, if approved as expected, will be enough to keep the planemaker and its 1,100 existing and 500 future employees in the resort community. "Everything's ironed out and ready for approval for the county commission," Wheeler told The Palm Beach Post. Piper officials have not confirmed that the company is staying. More...

AIRLINE PASSENGER GROUP CRUNCHES NASA STUDY DATA
The Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights (CAPBOR) has compiled and made available on its Web site a spreadsheet that the group claims brings some clarity to the results of NASA's controversial National Aviation Operational Monitoring Service (NAOMS) project. NASA collected surveys frommore than 30,000 pilots between 2001 and 2004, including 4,777 responses from general aviation pilots. But it's unlikely anyone looking at the results could conclude much from the data in its raw form. CAPBOR founder Kate Hanni and researcher Mark Mogel told AVweb that their group does not have the resources to reformat the general aviation responses, but hopes that by publishing thespreadsheet they can increase political pressure on the FAA and the airlines. More...

SOUTH AFRICA STANDARDIZES PILOT TRAINING
South Africa has revised pilot training and examination standards to try and stop an upward spiral of accident rates that generally bucks the trend of other countries with active GA communities. Starting Jan. 1, flight schools had to follow a standardized training syllabus and administer standardized exams that are in line with training in other countries. Until then, it was up to individual schools to decide what was taught and what was tested. Fatalities in GA accidents doubled from 18 to 36 from 2005 to 2007 and all other accident indicators were on the rise, but there was still some lingering defense of the ad hoc training system. More...

BRITISH FLIGHT SCHOOL SUES DIAMOND OVER DIESELS
Millen Aviation Services of Kent, England, filed a lawsuit on Dec. 17, 2007, against Diamond Aircraft Industries in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, over their Thielert diesel-powered DA40s. "The claim for damages is based on our experience with our two DA40 1.7 TDIs, their extremely poor reliability, highmaintenance costs, waiting time for spare parts and, our firm belief of their premature release to market without sufficient research, development and testing," company partner Mike Millen said in a prepared statement. Diamond did not immediately respond to AVweb's request for comment. More...

BAGGAGE DOOR IMPLICATED IN KODIAK CRASH
Survivors of the crash of a Piper Chieftain that killed six people off Kodiak Island in Alaska last weekend say the nose baggage door came open as the aircraft was taking off. The plane crashed into the ocean about 100 yards from the end of the runway and a taxiing floatplane picked up the four surviving passengers. Opening baggage doors have been cited as factors in two previous Chieftain crashes in Alaska, according to The Juneau Empire. In both previous incidents the door came loose and hit the wing or propeller, resulting in the crash. It's not clear if that happened in this accident and NTSB investigator Clint Johnson refused to speculate on the door's role in the accident. The Servant Air flight was carrying a group of Russian Orthodox faithful to an Orthodox Christmas celebration at Homer, Alaska. Meanwhile, the FAA has cleared another Alaska carrier of wrongdoing in another high-profile accident there last summer. More...

BACKED-UP SINK CRIPPLES 747
It's often said that aircraft accidents are the result of a series of seemingly innocuous events strung together and the crew of a Qantas Boeing 747 might agree with that. The flight from London to Sydney was 15 minutes from touchdown for a scheduled stop at Bangkok when it lost power from all four engine-driven generators. Backup batteries kept all those displays in front of the pilots glowing through a safe landing but the battery power likely wouldn't have lasted more than another 45 minutes and that would have knocked out the radios and all of the electronic instruments. "In this case it looks as if it has gone to the last stage of emergency power for communication and navigation," Dr. Arvind Sinha, director of aerospace at RMIT University in Melbourne, told the Sydney Morning Herald. "After that it comes down to the skill and experience of the crew." He added that the loss of all four generators is "unheard of" but Murphy can and does find a way, this time through a sink with a clogged drain in the first class galley. More...

AIRPORT "SCHEDULE ADJUSTED" TO ACCOMMODATE RACE
We've all seen aircraft and various types of vehicles "race" at air shows but authorities in Auckland, New Zealand, cleared both runways at the country's largest airport, without actually closing the airport, to stage just such a spectacle. Now, the Kiwis do love their sport and the race between an Air New Zealand Boeing 777 and a racing car was to promote an international A1 Grand Prix event at Lake Taupo later this month. Car and plane roared down parallel runways not once but twice, reaching speeds of almost 200 mph before the 777 wouldn't stay on the ground any longer and the car was running out of runway. The plane won the first race and the car nosed ahead in the second race. More...

ON THE FLY ...
NATCA declares "staffing emergency" in New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Southern California ...
Eclipse to reveal new long-term financing Monday...
Air Show Buzz's Person Of The Year is Raptor Pilot Maj. Paul "Max" Moga...
FAA employees getting a raise. More...

Columns | Features | What's New | Calendar | Brainteasers

A PILOT'S HISTORY: CHAP. 5 -- THE HUMP
The war is over, but Carl Moesly's work with the Army isn't done. He has to fly over the Himalayas into China ... and there are still Japanese soldiers there. More...

PROBABLE CAUSE #49: DISTRACTION
When things start to go wrong, fly the airplane first. Don't let tunnel vision steer you down the wrong path. More...

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: IS 2008 THE YEAR YOU BUY?
With everyone knee-deep in resolutions and financial planning for 2008, it might be a good time to ask those of you in the market just what type of aircraft you might purchase this year. Plus: Find out what AVweb readers predicted will be the top story of 2008. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something that 130,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: PRIOR AVIATION (KFBL, BUFFALO, NY)

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Prior Aviation at KFBL in Buffalo, New York.

AVweb reader John LaCourt recounted his experience at Prior:

On our first flight to my wife's old home town we flew to Buffalo with family friends. With only a hour or so notice, Prior Aviation met us at the ramp, provided two rental cars — one of which was a Red Mustang that made our friends' day. We asked for hangar space due to impending freezing rain and were provided with a heated hangar at less than half the cost of similar space at our home airport. When we arrived ahead of schedule for departure, they had the plane ready, fueled at reasonable rates, and gave us helpful hints as to taxi insturctions we would receive with a clearance. Hats off to Prior; we will certainly use them on future trips!

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!

PICTURE OF THE WEEK: AVWEB'S FLYING PHOTOGRAPHY SHOWCASE
Welcome back to AVweb's "Picture of the Week" feature! Jerry L. Morris of Dahlonega, Georgia sped past our astonished eyes with this shot of "a copy of a 1910 Hanriot taken at [the] September 2, 2007 Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome Air Show" to take this week's top spot.

We've been riding high on reader submissions for quite some time, but this week saw the tide of photos ebb a bit. We realize that everyone is recuperating from the holidays, but we start to feel a little unloved if we get fewer than a hundred photo submissions in a week. (Yes, we're incorrigible. And you can submit your photos here.) More...

AOPA PILOT 2008 PHOTO CONTEST

medium | large While we run a weekly photo contest ourselves, there's no such thing as too many beautiful airplane pictures, and AOPA is also giving you the opportunity to showcase your finest work. You'll only win cash in the AOPA contest (rather than the coveted AVweb ball cap), but you can't have everything. Last year's winner was Marcia Gitelman, who snapped this from the lead aircraft in a flyover at Ormond Beach, Fla. By all means, feel free to run your submission past our esteemed judges before you enter AOPA's contest.

More...

AVWEBBIZ: AVWEB'S BUSINESS AVIATION NEWSLETTER
HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVweb's NO-COST weekly business aviation newsletter, AVwebBiz? Reporting on breaking news, Business AVflash focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the business aviation industry. Business AVflash is a must read. Sign up today at http://www.avweb.com/profile/. More...

MEET THE AVWEBFLASH TEAM

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

The AVwebFlash team is:

Publisher
Timothy Cole

Editorial Director, Aviation Publications
Paul Bertorelli

Editor-in-Chief
Russ Niles

Managing Editor
Meredith Saini

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Features Editor
Kevin Lane-Cummings

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