WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND ON GA
With the U.S. presidential election less than two weeks away, AOPA has released the answers it received from candidates John McCain and Barack Obama on topics of interest to general aviation pilots and aircraft owners. AOPA has not endorsed either candidate, but asked about a range of issues including user fees, the next FAA administrator, airports, ATC privatization, and more. Senator McCain, a former naval aviator and former chair of the Senate's aviation subcommittee, can cite more experience with aviation issues. Senator Obama notes that GA accounts for over a million jobs in the U.S. and says he would "engage the general aviation community in the FAA decision-making process." As for user fees, Senator McCain doesn't express any vested interest in any particular funding system, but says it is critical for some kind of system to be put in place as soon as possible. "I fear that it will be very difficult to adequately fund the FAA while the aviation community is in a civil war over funding," he told AOPA. Senator Obama said simply, "I believe we must continue to use an appropriate mixture of reasonable taxes and fees to fund the FAA." To read the full text of the candidates' response to AOPA, click here. More...

UNION DECRIES FAA CHANGE IN CONTROLLER TRAINING
The FAA wants to change the way air traffic controllers are trained, dividing the job into two specialties for working in either a tower or a radar center. Most controllers currently are trained in both functions. John Wallin, president of the controllers' union local in Memphis, told The Associated Press that cross-training is important for effective coordination when both facilities work together. "Controllers who work in the tower will no longer have the experience that radar controllers have and that could lead to a disaster because they're not going to know what each other is doing," Wallin said. But the FAA says it is simply more efficient to train workers for just one job. "It's simply focusing their training to do precisely what they're going to be doing," FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto told the AP. The union also said the changes would mean a cut in controller salaries and would limit staffing flexibility, especially in emergencies. At the nation's largest airports, the two controller functions already are separate, but Wallin said most of those controllers have already worked at smaller facilities where they got experience in both the tower and the radar center. More...

FUTURE UAV PILOTS MAY SKIP REAL FLYING
Unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming more vital all the time to military operations, and as their capabilities develop, demand for trained pilots is expanding. "[UAV] missions are no longer support operations, they are the operations," USAF Col. Scott Murray told Defense News recently. The Air Force is working on a report, to be released in December, that will lay out plans for UAV development through 2047, according to Defense News. Meanwhile, the Air Force will start next year for the first time to train UAV pilots who will not have any actual flight experience. The training will be a "beta test," according to Aviation.com, but if it is successful, the Air Force hopes to create a separate training track specifically for UAV operators, rather than choosing trainees from the pilot pool. "Fully half of the aircraft that the Air Force will be buying in the future are going be unmanned," Col. Curt Sheldon told Aviation.com. "Getting in early is not a bad thing." More...

THIELERT HOURLY COSTS DOWN SLIGHTLY
Owners of Thielert aircraft engines who have been impacted by the company's bankruptcy proceedings now can expect some relief, the company said on Monday. Bruno Kubler, insolvency administrator for Thielert Aircraft Engines, said owners of the Centurion 1.7 and Centurion 2.0 engines can expect lower costs thanks to the development of a new fuel feed pump, which will extend the maintenance intervals from 300 to 600 flying hours, and the lowering of costs for transmission inspections by about half. Inspection costs for the clutch of the Centurion 1.7 also have been lowered, Kubler said. However, clutches and transmissions still will have to be replaced after 300 flying hours, the company said, adding that "an increase up to 600 flying hours is not yet possible for safety reasons." The statement adds that "concerted efforts to extend the life span of these components continue to be carried out with absolute priority." More...

HAWKER 4000 SEIZED IN CIGARETTE-TAX CASE
The first Hawker 4000 corporate jet that was delivered to a customer has been seized by federal investigators in connection with an alleged tax-evasion scheme, according to reports this week in the Associated Press and the Wichita Eagle. Gary Hall, a Kansas businessman, took delivery of the $21-million Hawker bizjet in a ceremony at the Beechcraft company in Wichita in June. He and seven others have been charged with scheming to avoid paying $25 million in taxes on cigarettes. Hall's lawyer Dan Monnat said the federal charges involve the complex structure of cigarette taxes in the state of Oklahoma. "Gary Hall is a well-respected businessman and philanthropist," Monnat said. "He vigorously asserts his innocence of these accusations and welcomes a jury trial that will make that clear." As for the fate of the Hawker: "If he's acquitted, he'll get his plane back," Jim Cross, a spokesman for the Kansas U.S. Attorney's office, told the Eagle. More...

U.S. PILOT FIRED ON UFO DURING COLD WAR
Classified British documents from 1957 that were released this week reveal that a U.S. fighter pilot flying from an English air base was ordered to open fire on a massive unidentified object that had lit up his radar screen. Retired pilot Milton Torres, of Miami, is not named in the documents but has long maintained that the incident took place. Torres was flying an F-86D Sabre and was told to fire all 24 of his rockets at a mysterious object visible on radar above the North Sea. It was moving erratically and was almost the size of an aircraft carrier, according to the documents. It appears to be the only time that a military aircraft has been ordered to fire on a UFO. "It was an amazing night, and I never thought the truth would be told," Torres said. "But I still don't know what it was." He told Sun Media that he believes the unknown aircraft -- which he saw only as a radar blip -- was a spaceship. "I don't believe it was of this Earth," he said. "It moved faster than anything we were capable of." As he closed in on the blip's location, it vanished from his instruments, he said. More...

ON THE FLY ...
Two single-engine Cessnas collided in midair above Colorado on Wednesday, nobody was hurt...
The NTSB has published an update on last month's South Carolina Lear jet crash...
Charley Fox, a legendary WWII fighter pilot from Canada, died last week at age 88...
The Copperstate fly-in runs Thursday through Sunday this week in Casa Grande, Arizona...
The world's largest airship is now flying from Texas to San Francisco...
Atlantic Monthly reporter Jeffrey Goldberg tried, without success, to arouse the suspicion of the TSA. More...

ECLIPSE SELLING OFF DAYJET FLEET
It wasn't that long ago that the waiting time for an Eclipse 500 was measured in years, but chances are you could have one in a few days if you don't mind a blue stripe down the side. Eclipse Aviation is holding a dispersal sale of the 28 aircraft returned by DayJet when the incipient air taxi operator ceased operations in September. Eclipse spokeswoman Alana McCarraher told AVweb the aircraft, which have between 150 and 450 cycles on them, are being sold "as is," which, as it turns out, is quite variable. The aircraft come in a variety of configurations, but none of them has flight into known icing or the latest Avio NG 1.5 avionics package. 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

THE SAVVY AVIATOR #63: RECOMMENDED OR REQUIRED?
Your aircraft is undergoing its annual inspection, and your IA tells you that he has to perform some costly maintenance task because the manufacturer says it's required. But is it really? More...

ACROSS THE POND #22: REPORT FROM EUROPE
AVweb's European correspondent Liz Moscrop pays a fond farewell to the Robin and the Kestrel manufacturers and tells why it is vital to speak up in Europe now. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: FRESH BLOOD FOR AVIATION, ONE WAITER AT A TIME
We've all heard how difficult it is to get new people involved in aviation, and at this year's NBAA Convention AVweb Editor-in-Chief saw how easy it can be to spark an interest in aviation — and why it doesn't always work out. Russ shares his tale (and that of Dan-the-possible-pilot-in-waiting) in the latest installment of our AVweb Insider blog. More...

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: HOW MUCH SPECIALIZATION IS TOO MUCH?
This week, the FAA said it wants to create separate training regimens for tower and radar controllers, and the Air Force said its next batch of UAV pilots won't have actual flying experience. AVweb wonders if this kind of specialization is a good idea and wants to hear what you think. Plus: Find out what AVweb readers said about the TSA's latest security NPRM in response to last week's 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...

FBO OF THE WEEK: HOMESTEAD EXECUTIVE JET CENTER (X51, HOMESTEAD, FL)

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Homestead Executive Jet Center at X51 in Homestead, Florida.

AVweb reader Skip Weld has been there twice and found them to be an outstanding FBO on both visits, going "far beyond what a normal good staff would do":

They have offered to stay late or open after hours ... [even] offering me the code for the pilots room so I could wait out bad weather in comfort. When I was too tired to fight bad weather, they made sure I got into a reasonably priced hotel at a good price, made sure I knew where to eat, and picked me up the next morning and brought me to the airport. All because I filled up with fairly-priced self-serve gas. (They also have full serve.) It is clean and neat [and] doesn't have gold-colored fixtures in the bathroom! ... I will be back every time I am going to the Homestead race track.

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!

AVWEB'S NBAA CONVENTION 2008 VIDEO ROUND-UP
In case you missed any of our videos from the 2008 NBAA Convention & Trade Show in Orlando, Florida, you can watch all eight of them (plus two shorts you may find interesting) right here. (Click through to watch.) More...

PICTURE OF THE WEEK: AVWEB'S FLYING PHOTOGRAPHY SHOWCASE
We love a photo that can stir up multiple reactions, and this week's top shot, from Kasi Reames of Aurora, Illinois, does just that. By turns warm, isolated, eerie, and radiant, we're settling on the singular adjective evocative to label Kasi's photo — taken at a Southwest Airlines waiting room at Kansas City International Airport. 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
Jeff van West

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