CONTROLLERS AS AIRSPACE POLICE?
If you've ever missed a turn, set the altitude bug incorrectly or committed any of thousands of sins that air traffic controllers routinely catch and help correct every day without much fuss, those days are apparently over. The FAA has apparently ordered controllers to violate pilots for any and all errors and has threatened to discipline them if they don't file the reports. While the FAA says it's just enforcing rules already in place, the head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association say it's yet another burden on an already-overworked workforce that will pit controllers against pilots. "We are not the FAA police! The FAA's and controller's mission is to provide the safe and efficient movement of live air traffic," said NATCA President Patrick Forrey. "The fact that the FAA is now disciplining controllers for not 'policing' pilot actions as they relate to flight regulations is indicative of the tyrannical and oppressive culture the FAA has created." The FAA, as might be suspected, has a different view.

Related Content:
Be sure to listen in to The 25Zulu Show on Gold Seal Live Aviation Talk Radio Thursday night about 9:30 p.m. EDT as AVweb Editor-in-Chief Russ Niles gives his views on the FAA's recent decision to step up enforcement of minor pilot errors through the controller reporting method now in place. (Hint: He doesn't think much of it.)

More...

FAA TO ASSESS ASTM PROCESS USED BY LSA MANUFACTURERS
FAA staffers will check a random sample of 29 light sport aircraft manufacturers over the next 10 months to assess how well they are applying the industry's consensus-based ASTM standards, EAA said last week. A meeting between FAA officials, EAA staff and LSA manufacturers at EAA AirVenture laid out the details of the FAA plan. The agency is trying to "get a picture of the health of the industry overall," one FAA staffer said at the meeting, and is not aiming to conduct a compliance audit of any particular manufacturer. Two teams of two FAA inspectors will assess each company, spending an average of eight hours to gather information and data for analysis. "By comparison, a compliance audit conducted by LAMA (Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association) takes 30 to 40 hours or more," LAMA chairman Dan Johnson told AVweb on Wednesday. The FAA will report the results of its research in September 2009, Johnson said. More...

CIRRUS SJ50 VISION JET CHOSEN FOR SATSAIR AIR-TAXI OPERATIONS
SATSair, an air-taxi operator based in Greenville, S.C., has announced it will add Cirrus Design's new SJ50 single-engine jet to its fleet of 26 Cirrus SR22s. The jets will expand the range of the company's present air-taxi services, SATSair CEO Steve Hanvey said on Tuesday. "Our business model is based on operating single-pilot and single-engine planes at the lowest cost of operation, when utilized in a network across a given geographical area," he said. "The Vision is an excellent next step to a mixed fleet that will continue to provide personal service to our current customer for legs longer than our traditional 200 to 250 mile trips." He added that the Vision parachute is an important consideration for single-pilot operations. The company has placed an initial order for five jets, Hanvey told AVweb on Wednesday, but expects to expand the fleet in the future. More...

ERAU ONLINE AVIATION COURSES OPEN TO ALL
If you'd like to learn more about aviation but don't necessarily want to go back to school, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has a new online program that can fill that need. The school is offering 23 new aviation courses online, and no enrollment in the university is required. Just sign up online, pay your $99 per course, and start learning. The courses cover topics such as meteorology, high-altitude flying, cold-weather operations, North Atlantic procedures, and many more operational and performance-related topics. "The technology of aircraft navigation, cockpit automation, and aircraft systems requires continued training," said Thorsten Hisam, director of the Office of Professional Education at ERAU. More...

NINE DEAD IN HELICOPTER CRASH; SKYHAWK HITS HOUSE IN OREGON
A Sikorsky S-61N helicopter used by the U.S. Department of Forestry to fight fires crashed at about 7:30 p.m. local time Tuesday in a remote wooded area about 35 miles northwest of Redding, Calif. Of the 11 firefighters and two pilots reported to be on board, nine were unaccounted for and presumed dead and four with serious injuries were taken to hospitals, the NTSB and news reports said on Wednesday. The helicopter was destroyed in a post-crash fire. It was owned and operated by Carson Helicopters, based in Grants Pass, Ore. Bob Madden, a spokesman for the company, said preliminary indications suggested that neither weather nor visibility should have played a role in the crash. The S61 can be outfitted to carry water or fire-retardant chemicals to drop on a fire, he said, or to transport up to 15 passengers. On Monday morning, a Cessna 172 crashed into a vacation home on the Oregon coast near Portland, killing three children in the house and two adults in the airplane. Three other people in the house were seriously hurt. More...

NTSB: MINNESOTA JET HIT ILS STRUCTURE ON GO-AROUND ATTEMPT
A Hawker 800 jet that crashed in Minnesota last Thursday, killing all eight on board, had already touched down but then ran about 1,000 feet beyond the end of the runway into a grass field where a wing hit an ILS antenna, the NTSB said late last week. "The antenna stands about 8 feet high and straddles the width of the runway," said Steven Chealander, of the NTSB. He added that according to witnesses at the scene, after touching down, the engines powered up and it appeared that the crew was trying to take off again, but the jet never became airborne. When the wing hit, the airplane rolled over and broke apart, coming to rest in a cornfield. The airplane, operated by East Coast Jets, crashed about 10 a.m. last Thursday at Owatonna Degneer Regional Airport in Minnesota during a light rain. "We are looking at everything," Chealander said. "There is no single focus at this point. It is a multiple-focus accident investigation." Former NTSB chairman Jim Hall said the FAA should require flight data recorders or cockpit video recorders in corporate and charter aircraft to aid in accident investigations. More...

AN AERIAL "GET WELL" FOR AILING AVIATOR
When the Oregon Aero SkyDancer wrote "Get Well Alan" in white smoke across the blue sky above Oshkosh last week, it wasn't only to express the company's wishes to the crowds at EAA AirVenture. Alan Henley, the lead pilot for the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team, who was spending the show in a hospital bed instead of performing in the airshow as planned, was able to share in the moment. "Our original intent was to capture it in photos and video to send to [Alan and his family] to cheer them up. But the way everything came together was incredible!" said Steve Oliver, of the skywriting team. At the time of the skywriting, Henley's wife, Jennifer, was with him in his hospital room, and they were able to watch the skywriting in real time from a computer that had arrived just an hour earlier. "At that moment, everyone on the grounds, in addition to the aerobatic community, was thinking of Alan and wishing him well," Oliver said. Henley is recuperating from an accidental fall at his home that left him paralyzed, and he will require extensive rehabilitation. More...

CHINA, MEET GA; GA, MEET CHINA
Corporate aircraft have been flying into China for years, of course, but the launch of the Olympics in Beijing this week will bring general-aviation aircraft into the country in unprecedented numbers, and the country's aviation infrastructure will never be the same. U.S. officials are pressuring China to open up its skies, which are 80 percent under military control. "We certainly remain hopeful that ... there will be shifts to accommodate the civil aviation growth that has been forecast," Dorothy Reimold, the FAA's acting assistant administrator for international aviation, said on Monday. The GA fleet in China could expand from just over 700 aircraft today to as many as 10,000 by the year 2020, she said. FBO operator Jet Aviation is readying to serve that market, with a brand-new facility opening at Beijing's Capital International Airport (PEK) this week just in time to help handle the Olympics influx. The FBO will provide "around the clock in-house border police and customs clearance, security checks, baggage screening and metal detection capabilities ... for fast, secure passenger and baggage handling," the company said in news release. Also, earlier this month, aviation regulators in China sought to "rein in" pilots and restrict them from shopping around for jobs during the rise in traffic, Reuters reported. Such job-hopping was characterized as a threat to air safety. More...

ON THE FLY ...
AOPA will hold its annual expo November 6-8 in San Jose, Calif....
U.S. pilot Kirby Chambliss won last week's Red Bull Air Race...
The approval process for a spaceport in Alamagordo, N.M., is moving forward...
Reaction and commentary contine on Eclipse Aviation shake-up...
Delta Air Lines to roll out in-flight wireless by this fall. More...

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

BRAINTEASERS QUIZ #136: ADRIFT IN AN UNSTABLE SKY
In a stable world, the weather is never claggy, airplanes fly upright and avgas is 50 cents per gallon. Sorry, this quiz is in the real, unstable world, so straighten up and answer right.

Take the quiz.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: THE BIGGEST NEWS OUT OF AIRVENTURE '08
AVweb covered plenty of product announcements and breaking news at EAA AirVenture last week. Now we'd like to know what you consider the biggest news to come out of Oshkosh this year. Plus: See how AVweb readers rated their airport's security as we look at the results of our previous Question. 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...

AVWEB'S AIRVENTURE 2008 VIDEO ROUND-UP
This year at EAA AirVenture we brought you fourteen video reports over the course of seven days. We realize the news was flying fast and furious during the show, so just in case you missed any of our reports, you can catch them all here. (Click through to watch.) More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: THREE WING FLYING SERVICES (KBDR, STRATFORD, CT)

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Three Wing Flying Services at Igor Sikorsky Memorial Airport (KBDR) in Stratford, Connecticut.

AVweb reader Paul McGhee tells us why Three Wing is an outstanding FBO:

I was stuck at BDR as thunderstorms popped all around the area. Even though I hadn't purchased a thing, the manager offered me the crew car so I could get breakfast. When I finally gave up, the line guys helped me get a car rental and tied me down. All this and the lowest fuel prices in the New York airspace area.

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
We're not sure how Raymond Thabet of Québec City, Québec (Canada) found himself in the position to take this shot of the RAF's Red Arrow Aerobatic Team commemorating the city's 400th anniversary — but we're glad he did! While we were gallivanting around the show grounds in Oshkosh, AVweb readers have kept busy, stuffing our submission box with dozens of the coolest airplane photos we've seen all year. So great was our embarrassment of riches this week that we stripped out the most recent photos and rolled them over (sights unseen) to next week. (That means anyone who submitted after Sunday of this week will be considered alongside the coming week's entrants.) Now, without further ado, let's delve into the photos you sent in while we were away! 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

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Features Editor
Kevin Lane-Cummings

Webmaster
Scott Simmons

Contributors
Mariano Rosales
Jeff van West

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