THIELERT: NO WARRANTY SUPPORT FOR DIAMOND DIESELS
Owners of Diamond aircraft with Thielert diesels are getting bad news this week. Thielert says it won't support warranty claims and any owners who need parts and services to keep their airplanes flying will have to pay upfront. As we've reported on AVweb, Thielert declared bankruptcy two weeks ago and is now undergoing financial restructuring. In the meantime, the company pledged to continue building and shipping engines and parts, but buyers will have to pre-pay and await delivery. One DA42 owner has already contacted us expressing unhappiness about this policy. Diamond told us Wednesday that it doesn't yet know if it will step into the breech and support owners who have warranty claims. "We're relatively early into this, we're still making a lot of decisions on how to handle this. I can't give you an answer on that right now," said Heike Larson, Diamond's VP of sales. Meanwhile, Diamond predicts it will have its own line of Austro four-cylinder diesels certified in Europe by this summer and plans to unveil the powerplant at the Berlin Airshow in two weeks. More...

EMBRAER TO BUILD PHENOMS IN FLORIDA
Embraer will build a $51 million plant in Melbourne, Fla. to assemble Phenom 100 and 300 models. The announcement was made Tuesday afternoon in Melbourne, According to TCPalm.com, the Brazilian planemaker could break ground within weeks on a 15-acre site at Melbourne International Airport. The plant would employ about 200. Flight testing would also be carried out there as would various engineering and design functions and delivery preparation. More...

AERION SALES SUPERSONIC
Aerion says it's racking up orders for its supersonic business jet at the rate of "a billion [dollars] every two months. In an email to media in advance of next week's EBACE business aviation show in Geneva, company spokesman Jeff Miller said the order book for the $80 million jet is now at more than 40 and represents more than $3 billion in advance orders since the company began taking orders earlier this year. Although Aerion won't be having a formal news conference at EBACE, all of its chief executives will be there and available for questions from media and those who want to fly really fast. More...

VIPER AIRCRAFT INTRODUCES THE FANJET
For the homebuilder who likes to go fast, Viper Aircraft has just released the newest member to their personal jet family, the Viper FanJet. This new aircraft is 17% larger than the existing model, the Mk II. This increase in space allows for pilots over 6' 5" tall to comfortably fit in the pressurized cabin, 25 cubic feet of cargo space, and the ability to utilize a turbofan engine for better fuel economy. The standard power plant for the FanJet is the Pratt & Whitney JT-15-4D turbofan engine. Compared to the MKII's J-85 engine, the company says the JT-15 burns less than half the fuel while still providing over 2900 pounds of thrust. At economy cruise and full fuel this engine will provide a 1500 nautical mile range. "This is definitely a multi-purpose airplane," Viper Aircraft VP Dan Hanchette told AVweb. "With full fuel and economy cruise this is a great cross country airplane. But load the aircraft with only 1 1/2 hours worth of fuel and the FanJet will retain the same power-to-weight ratio as the MKII giving you a very capable, high-performance aircraft." More...

NTSB: PILOTS NEED BETTER INFORMATION ABOUT TURBOCHARGER FAILURES
The emergency procedures provided to pilots for coping with turbocharger failures in flight are inadequate, the NTSB said this week, and the FAA should require manufacturers to revise pilot operating handbooks. In a fatal crash in May 2004, the NTSB says, the turbocharger failed on a Cessna T206H, and investigators found that in-flight emergency procedures in the POH did not provide a way to assess the difference between an engine and a turbocharger failure. The POH also did not provide any clear guidance about how to handle such a failure once a pilot identified the problem. Manufacturers of aircraft equipped with turbochargers still have not voluntarily improved emergency procedures for turbocharger failures, and accidents and incidents continue to occur, the NTSB says. More...

FAA SAYS EMERGENCY MEDICAL HELICOPTERS NEED SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS
Three men died last weekend when an emergency medical-services helicopter crashed near Madison, Wis., and this week the FAA responded with an update on its work to address safety concerns about such flights. The NTSB reported on the helicopter emergency medical services fleet in 2006, and asked the FAA to impose stricter requirements on all such operators. "While the FAA has not ruled out proposing new or changing existing rules, the agency has prompted significant short-term safety gains that do not require rulemaking," the FAA said in a statement on Tuesday. The agency said it is focusing on better training for flight crews; encouraging the use of technology such as night-vision goggles, radar altimeters, and terrain awareness and warning systems (though such systems don't work optimally in helicopters, the FAA says); and more detailed, airline-type FAA oversight for operators. "Safety improvements are needed," the FAA said. More...

TRYING TO SAVE FUEL? AOPA HAS POINTERS
Prices at the pump are sure to rise with summer here, and AOPA this week has some suggestions about how to minimize the pain. Three simple techniques can result in "significant savings," AOPA says: leaning the fuel, economy cruise settings, and gradual descents. Such efforts can save hundreds of dollars in fuel costs, AOPA says. Meanwhile, a report from the Environmental Protection Agency shows that carbon-dioxide emissions from aviation overall have decreased since 1995. That conclusion is already being disputed, though -- a blogger at Wired.com says the data doesn't include fuel burned for international flights. More...

NEW MAINTENANCE-MANAGEMENT SERVICE OFFERED FOR GA OWNERS
Owners of high-performance GA aircraft who want their airplanes perfectly maintained but don't want to spend the time to oversee every detail now have another option -- they can hire a professional to manage their airplane, for a modest annual fee. Mike Busch, a general aviation maintenance expert, announced on Monday the launch of Savvy Aircraft Maintenance Management (SAMM), a new company providing professionally managed maintenance for owner-flown aircraft. The service will cover high-performance single-engine airplanes to cabin-class twins and very light jets. "Professional maintenance management has long been the norm for corporate jets, but has never been available for owner-flown aircraft until now," Busch said. Annual fees range from $500 to $1,000 for most piston aircraft. SAMM assigns an account manager to act as the owner's advocate and ensure that the aircraft receives the best possible maintenance at the lowest possible cost. More...

SILVER STATE STUDENTS SUE LENDER
When Silver State Helicopters, which operated flight schools in 17 states, closed its doors in February, hundreds of students who had paid thousands of dollars up front were left high and dry. Now, a California law firm representing two of those students has filed suit against KeyBank, which loaned them the money to give to Silver State. The school required students to pay the full $69,900 tuition before training started, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Wednesday, and it provided access to "preferred" private lenders, such as KeyBank. The law firm, Pinnacle Law Group in San Francisco, alleges that the bank and the flight school worked together to "ensnare" the students. Further, the bank "intentionally omitted" a federally required consumer protection clause from its loan documents, Pinnacle says. More...

UAVS MAY PATROL HIGH ARCTIC
With ice floes melting in the Arctic Ocean, maritime traffic is increasing across the Northwest Passage -- a fuel-saving shortcut between Asia and Europe. To ease security concerns about all that traffic, the U.S. Air Force wants to step up deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles in the vast Arctic region. "There's some extensive work that has to be done with the Federal Aviation Administration and Transport Canada," Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart told The Associated Press, "to ensure that we use these systems in a way that doesn't provide a challenge for our general aviation friends." He said air traffic congestion in the region is a problem, and UAV operators must be trained to navigate in the North's heavily wooded terrain. Gen. Renuart commands the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which commemorated its 50th anniversary this week. More...

CIRRUS MIGRATION COMING UP IN JULY
Lots of type clubs have a fly-in over the summer, but the one for Cirrus owners, the annual Migration to their factory in Duluth, Minn., has achieved a certain standout quality. Maybe it's because last year, the migrants were the first to get a sneak look at Cirrus's new personal jet mockup. Or maybe it's just that the Migration has become more than just a social gathering and qualifies as a bona-fide event, complete with seminars, exhibits, factory tours, parties, a banquet, activities for the whole family (including tennis, golf, and fishing on Lake Superior), and renowned aviation guest speakers. This year, Rod Machado will be there, to give a talk on single-pilot flying strategies. The fly-in will run from July 10 to July 13. More...

ON THE FLY ...
New flight patterns at Newark are confusing pilots, controllers say...
New Learjet 85 will have PWC Pw307b engines, Bombardier says...
The 2008 Milton Caniff "Spirit of Flight" Award goes to the X Prize Foundation...
AeroLEDs now offers AeroSUNLite aircraft lights, smaller and less expensive...
Hawker Beechcraft's Hawker 750 has received EASA certification...
Online discussions about DayJet continue in the blogosphere. More...

AVWEB WILL BE AT EBACE
One of the most respected shows for business aircraft is the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition in Geneva and AVweb will be there to capture all the announcements and inside stories of the event. Exhibitors, now is the time to flood our inbox at newsteam@avweb.com with what you're planning for the show. Coverage begins Tuesday May 20 and runs through Friday May 23. If you don't want to miss it, but sure to add our business aviation newsletter, AVwebBiz, to your AVweb e-mail subscriptions. (Log in here and click on "Update E-Mail Subscriptions.") 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...

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

BRAINTEASERS QUIZ #133: STUFF YOU SHOULD'VE LEARNED IN GROUND SCHOOL
Chances are you learned how to convert Celsius to Frankenstein, but can you remember all the other testable -- and forgettable -- minutiae from your primary training days? Neither can we, so let's see what you know.

Take the quiz.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: ARE AIRCRAFT ENGINES GOING DIESEL?
Between new designs, new fuels, and better engineering, aircraft engines can be the most dynamic segment of the aviation business. Diesels have garnered a lot of attention lately, and we'd like to know whether you think this is a genuine shift in thinking or just a fad. Plus: Did AVweb readers see a future for air taxi operations when we asked them last week? More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: OUR HONDA WISH LIST (AN AERODIESEL ENGINE!)
"What's needed here is for Honda to stop screwing around with four-cylinder gasoline engines and to get busy with aerodiesel" — so says AVweb Editorial Director Paul Bertorelli in the latest installment of commentary and criticism on our blog, the AVweb Insider. Read more here. More...

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: PATTY WAGSTAFF INTERVIEW AND FLIGHT
Ride along with Patty Wagstaff as she flies her airshow routine at Sun 'n Fun 2008, courtesy of AVweb's Glenn Pew. Or, if you're easily queasy, just close your eyes and listen to our post-flight interview with Patty about how it feels to fly the maneuvers and what it's like to perform. Special thanks to our friends at Bose Corporation and Aircraft Spruce & Supply Co., whose good people stepped up when we needed them and helped make this video happen. And very special thanks to Patty's main sponsor, Cirrus Design, maker of the airplanes that changed the industry. (Click through to watch.) More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: QUALITY AVIATION (KFBL, FARIBAULT, MN)

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Quality Aviation at KFBL in Faribault, Minnesota.

AVweb reader Rick Lemon made a day stop at Quality while touring a nearby college with his daughter and wife:

Jerry [from Quality] met me at the plane and provided a courtesy car for the day. The car itself was fun — a recycled police car, so you couldn't open the back seat door or the window from inside. While I was gone, a thunderstorm blew in and Jerry put my plane in a hangar to avoid any possible hail damage. He refueled the plane even though it's advertised as self-serve.

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
With storms sweeping the country, we've spent a lot of time indoors this week. At least our readers have been kind enough to send us a few video clips original photos to brighten our days. Seems the least we can do to return the favor, for all the rest of you who don't get the pleasure of rifling through our submission boxes. This week's top photo arrived over the information superhighway from veteran submitter Gavin Conroy of Blenheim, Marlborough (New Zealand), and we immediately knew it would be our "Picture of the Week." (There's something fun about a photo you can flip in all directions and still enjoy it!) More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something 200,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? 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

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Features Editor
Kevin Lane-Cummings

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