CIRRUS GOES TO THREE-DAY WEEK
Cirrus Design has gone to a three-day work week (from four) in an effort to balance production against reduced demand. Company CEO Alan Klapmeier also told the Duluth News Tribune last week that the 2009 target for introduction of its SRS light sport model will be pushed back because of a slowdown in the LSA sector. Development of the Vision SJ50 personal jet will not be affected. "We're looking at the situation progressively, on a week-by-week basis," he said. Without an increase in demand, the three-day week will be in place at least until the end of the year, Klapmeier told the newspaper. More...

GA PILOTS AID MEXICO'S HURRICANE VICTIMS

Click for images from Alamos

The small Mexican village of Alamos, close to the Gulf of California and the Copper Canyon region, is a popular destination for GA pilots from the Southwest, who enjoy its quiet colonial charm and mountain scenery. But last week, the small local airstrip at Alamos became a lifeline, as villagers struggled to recover from a devastating hurricane that caused floods and landslides and destroyed several local bridges. "Hurricane Norbert washed away over 100 homes and damaged an additional 150 homes, all belonging to Mexican families who lost basically all their worldly possessions," Jack McCormick, president of the Baja Bush Pilots, told AVweb this week. So McCormick put out the call for help to the GA community, and last weekend 31 fully-loaded small aircraft departed from the U.S. to bring food, bedding, diapers, tarps, tools and more to the village. More...

U.S. PILOTS WILL AVOID CANADA UNDER NEW ELT RULES: AOPA
AOPA has told the Canadian government that American pilots will stop crossing the border in droves if it means spending thousands of dollars on a new 406-megaHertz ELT. Transport Canada is considering making the installation of the devices mandatory in all aircraft flying in Canadian airspace as of Feb. 1, 2009. AOPA says a survey of members who routinely fly north indicates 51 percent will find somewhere else to go rather than spend the money on equipment that's not required in the U.S. On Feb. 1, the search-and-rescue satellites will stop monitoring the 121.5 MHz frequency emitted by the majority of small aircraft ELTs and will only look for 406 signals. American authorities have essentially left it up to aircraft owners to decide whether to equip with the satellite-friendly ELTs. AOPA has suggested Transport Canada allow American aircraft to carry handheld 406 beacons as a compromise to the new regulation, but AOPA's Canadian counterpart, the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association, wants the whole notion of mandatory 406 equipage scrapped because there are better technologies available. More...

COLUMNIST BAFFLED BY CRASH VICTIMS' SUIT
New York Times business travel columnist Joe Sharkey says he was unaware of a lawsuit launched against him by the relatives of victims of a Brazilian plane crash until he read about it in an American online publication. The suit was launched by Rosane Gutjhar, the widow of Rolf Gutjhar, who was among 154 people who died when the GOL Boeing 737 they were on collided with an Embraer Legacy 600. The Association of Relatives and Friends of GOL's Flight 1907 Victims issued a news release that Sharkey was on the Legacy, which made a safe emergency landing at a Brazilian military base, minus a winglet and part of its tail. Sharkey wrote extensively about the accident, defending the business jet's pilots and blaming Brazilian controllers for the tragedy. In the suit, Gutjhar is seeking compensation for "moral damages" she claims were caused by Sharkey's accounts of the developing story. Sharkey told AVweb he can't comment directly on the suit since he hasn't seen a copy but he defended his reporting and commentary about the accident. "Obviously, anyone who followed my reporting knows that I have consistently expressed the deepest sympathy for the relatives of those who were killed," he said. More...

NEW FAA ONLINE RESOURCE OFFERS LESSONS FROM THE PAST
Pilots know they must always keep learning to keep safe, and one way to keep sharp is to study the mistakes made by others. To promote that effort, the FAA has created an online safety library thatteaches "lessons learned" from some of the world's most historically significant transport airplane accidents. The FAA said that even though some of the accidents happened as long as 40 years ago, they all teach timeless lessons that are relevant to today's aviation community. More...

NEW AIRCRAFT ON THE EDGE
Something we like about aviation is that someone is always thinking about new ways to use it or apply it, and a couple of ideas have been floated recently that stretch current technology, not to mention the imagination. Now the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) spends most of its time (and considerable budget) out on the edge, and its latest invitation to the dreamers and thinkers out there isn't new, but it may be something whose time has come. DARPA is calling for proposals to develop a submersible airplane that can cover 1,l00 nm (the last 100 nm at sea-skimming height), then travel underwater for 12 nm to drop off commandos. Then it has to be able to loiter in the area in seas of up to 13 feet, presumably waiting for pickup. DARPA doesn't say it'll be easy, but it does want to know if it's possible. Meanwhile, British firm Falx Airis hoping to develop a hybrid electric tilt-rotor personal aircraft that will go up to 230 mph. More...

LIVING THE AVIATION DREAM
There are plenty of people who live and breathe airplanes, but it may not be too long before 37 California families get to live with their airplanes. Bob Banman and Bill Lindsay, a couple of aviation buffs, have navigated the regulatory waters to create a 37-condo development on the airport at Santa Paula, Calif., a quiet farming community about 60 miles north of Los Angeles. Now there are plenty of residential air parks where owners have their homes and hangars on the runway, but in the Sky Lofts of Santa Paula, their $800,000 home is their hangar. More...

ON THE FLY ...
Vancouver Airport Authority eyes Gatwick bid ...
Patty Wagstaff faces criminal charges Tuesday ...
American pilots flew 757 on batteries alone. More...

AVMAIL: OCT. 27, 2008
Reader mail this week about the TSA, ADS-B, ATC, FSS, NTSB, and more acronyms. 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...

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

FLYING THE PAR
It can best the ILS for minimums and requires no fancy equipment, yet this approach is becoming a thing of the past. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: UNBUNDLING — THE SENSIBLE WAY TO PRICE AIRLINE FARES?
Air Canada unbundled its airfare structure in 2004. Could the same solution keep U.S. passengers from getting steamed when charged to check a bag? In the latest installment of our AVweb Insider blog, Editorial Director Paul Bertorelli lays out the case for a la carte air fares. More...

NO MORE NICKEL-AND-DIMING? MAKING A LA CARTE AIRLINE FARES WORK
Last summer, the airlines got deservedly bashed for charging customers to check bags. Although the execution was ham-handed, the concept might not be. In this podcast, Robert Buckman of Amadeus (a travel industry IT giant) explains why a la carte pricing is the way of the future. More...

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: ONE-WINGED RC LANDING
Last week, we mentioned all the great radio-controlled flyer videos that have found their way to our inbox over the last couple of weeks. Just today we came across a new one (from AVweb reader Mike Whaley) that takes the cake. As Mike writes, making a successful landing with one wing is an impressive feat "in any scale." More...

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...

FBO OF THE WEEK: WESTERN AVIATION SERVICES (TJBQ, AGUADILLA, PUERTO RICO)

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Western Aviation Services (WAS) at Rafael Hernandez Airport (TJBQ) in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

Almost all of this week's nominations came from pilots who experienced Hurricane Omar evacuations firsthand and made it through with the help of outstanding FBOs and careful planning — but the fact that Western Aviation was nominated by a group of some 30 pilots at various airports ("TJSJ, TJIG, TJAB, TSTT, TSTX, and others," according to the form) made it stand above the rest. So did AVweb reader A.B. Ravelo's rundown of everything the team at WAS did for the GA community. Here are some of the highlights of A.B.'s account:

The panic button hit all regional aviation as the storm had projected winds of 105 mph. ... Mr. Ruben Hernandez, owner of Western Aviation Services, and his team went into high gear and offered hangar facilities free of cost to over 60 aircraft and ramp facilities to another 20. BQN controllers saw over 100 flights in less than four hours, as King Airs lined up on the downwind for Runway 8, behind C-150s and others. Overnight, the storm's easterly track pushed it out of range, and it became a non-event. However, the Good Samaritan spirit of WAS and their staff are ... [the reason why] the folks at WAS are your first friends when traveling into the Caribbean USA.

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!

SHORT FINAL

While I was on short final into KFHU (Fort Huachuca, Sierra Vista Arizona):

Shadow-1:
"Shadow-1 at runway 26, ready to take off."

Tower:
"Shadow-1, hold short for landing traffic."

I then looked over at the holding aircraft and noticed that it was a Military UAV, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. This being the first one I'd ever seen, I struggled between landing my plane and looking at the UAV. Landing the plane finally caught my attention.

After landing, while on rollout, I overheard:

NXXXXX:
"Tower, was that an unmanned airplane I just passed?"

Tower:
"NXXXXX: Yes, it was."

Shadow-1:
"There is actually a man sitting somewhere ... ."

Mark Harris
Flagstaff, AZ

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
Jeff van West

Click here to send a letter to the editor. (Please let us know if your letter is not intended for publication.)

Comments or questions about the news should be sent here.

Have a product or service to advertise on AVweb? A question on marketing? Send it to AVweb's sales team.

If you're having trouble reading this newsletter in its HTML-rich format (or if you'd prefer a lighter, simpler format for your PDA or handheld device), there's also a text-only version of AVwebFlash. For complete instructions on making the switch, click here.

Aviate. Navigate. Communicate.