BABBITT HITS LACK OF COCKPIT PROFESSIONALISM
FAA administrator Randy Babbitt spoke last week at a meeting of the International Aviation Club, calling for improved standards in the cockpit, making examples of pilots who demonstrated poor professionalism, and punctuating it with the statement, "Fly right or don't fly at all." Babbitt cited Flight 188's overshoot of MSP and the crash of Flight 3407 near Buffalo, N.Y., as examples, citing unprofessional behavior in the cockpit. Specific to Flight 188, Babbitt said in part, "It doesn't matter much whether they were using their laptops, or re-enacting the Lincoln-Douglas debates," adding "there is no substitute for situational awareness." Speaking of the pilots of Flight 3407, Babbitt said "the one thing those two were supposed to do is the one thing they didn't: pay attention." Babbitt did not mention last month's other major oops -- Flight 60, the loaded 767 that landed on an active taxiway at Atlanta Hartsfield -- but said that when it comes to safety, "'close enough' is never good enough." Babbitt then used the platform to push for cooperation and partnership with regard to rapid implementation of NextGen air traffic control technology and hardware. More...

1549'S JEFF SKILES TAKES ON 3407 AND PILOT STANDARDS
Jeff Skiles was serving as first officer to Sully Sullenberger when US Airways Flight 1549 successfully ditched in the Hudson and last week he sat beside Scott Maurer, father of a victim of Continental Connection (Colgan) Flight 3407, to push for changes in minimum federal standards for pilots. While 1549 ended relatively well, all aboard Flight 3407, plus one on the ground, perished when that commuter flight fell into a Buffalo suburb early this year. Skiles said the cockpit transcript from Flight 3407 indicated to him that the pilots of that flight "had no idea what they were doing and shouldn't even have been there," GoUpstate.com reported. Skiles and Maurer held a press conference at the Maurers' home Thursday, asserting that standards for commercial pilots should be similar, regardless of how many passengers they're flying. "You used to have five years or more in the industry before you could even look at getting a job at a regional airline," said Skiles, who added that the "fast-food wages" at commuters means "you cannot get trained professional pilots" to fill those jobs. Skiles and Maurer are urging legislative action, and some feel there's more to the problem. More...

EAA RECOMMENDS GROUNDING ZODIACS UNTIL FIXED
The FAA's special review of the Zodiac CH601XL and CH650 has implicated "several areas of concern" within the aircrafts' design that may couple with operational aspects to cause in-flight structural failures. EAA is now urging operators to not fly the aircraft until operators comply with a forthcoming Safety Directive/Safety Alert from the Zodiac's manufacturer. The FAA determined that stick force characteristics, airspeed calibration, structural stability, wing structure and flutter all conspire to the detriment of the design's overall safety. The agency studied five in-flight structural failures in the U.S. involving two S-LSA aircraft, one E-LSA experimental, and two experimental Zodiacs. More...

MIDDLE EAST INTEREST STRONG IN AERION SUPERSONIC BIZJET
Aerion, which aims to deliver the first supersonic business jet, has been delayed in that goal by the state of the economy, but presently claims 50 letters of intent that represent an order backlog of $4 billion -- nearly 25% of which comes from customers in the Middle East, Pakistan and India. The U.S. restricts overland flight speeds to below Mach 1 for aircraft like the Aerion, but other countries do not have the same restrictions. The company is still in discussions with potential partners and says interest in the program "has not lessened" and it is "encouraged by our discussions." Aerion expects to be the first company to bring a supersonic business jet to market with what it expects to be its own $80 million offering. Still, Aerion says it will be another nine to 12 months before a technical assessment phase that will look at everything from the jet's aerodynamic design to plans until successful certification is complete. The target is to reintroduce supersonic commercial flight by the middle of the next decade. More...

GAMA: GENERAL AVIATION AIRPLANE SHIPMENTS DOWN
Year over year, general aviation airplane shipments fell by nearly half, with pistons leading the way, over the first three quarters. Year-over-year totals show 2,982 total units (all general aviation shipments) in 2008 to 1587 units in 2009, with industry billings down 23.5 percent. GAMA released the figures along with a statement from its president and CEO Pete Bunce, who said that aside from the economy, "unwarranted negative attacks on business aviation" were a "contributing factor" leading to the disappointing figures. Bunce's statement did not offer evidence other than the correlational evidence of falling figures, but added that "90 percent of the identified S&P 500 companies are business aircraft users," which GAMA suggests shows a powerful connection between well-run companies and those that use business aviation. That says little of piston aircraft shipments, which fell from 1646 units delivered in the first three quarters of '08 to 679 units delivered for the same period in '09. That's a negative change of 58.7 percent. The other segments -- business jets and turboprops -- were more fortunate. More...

NETJETS TO LAY OFF 495 PILOTS
The slowdown in corporate flights has forced NetJets Inc., which early this year initiated voluntary unpaid leaves of absence and early retirements, lay off up to 495 pilots early next year. NetJets currently owns more aircraft than demand warrants as business clients seek to cut expenses. The pilots could see pink slips as early as mid-January 2010. The company has contacted the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), which has for nearly a year been working to create pilot assistance initiatives should mass layoffs come to pass. Affected pilots will be provided a Web-based resource center that includes guides for financial, unemployment and retraining benefits along with insurance options. Dues collected from the pilots for the past seven months will be refunded and subscriptions to two aviation job Web sites will be provided for a period of one year. More...

THE FIGHT FOR HANGAR HOMES
The reason the FAA now prohibits hangar homes next to publicly funded airports is based on noise considerations, but no data exists to back that position, according to ThroughTheFence.org (TTE) which seeks to "stop the FAA insanity." Airports all over the U.S. have so-called "through-the-fence" agreements with adjacent landowners that allows them to taxi their aircraft from their homes to the airport. But the FAA is now officially discouraging the practice as set forth in the most recent Airport Compliance Manual dated Sept. 30, 2009. TTE says the FAA's noise concerns are based on anecdotal information and that the FAA acted without seeking public comment or input on the topic. TTE believes that one benefit the FAA is removing by prohibiting hangar homes near airports the FAA is the potential security benefits of placing on airport property people with a vested interest in that property. The group put FAA administrator, Randy Babbitt, on the spot at the AOPA Summit. More...

TRACE ENGINE: THUNDER AND ORENDA LIVE ON
Students of piston engine development will probably recall the Thunder engine, a big honking V-8 aircraft engine adapted from a GMC truck engine. The project floundered and was picked up by Canada's Orenda and eventually by a Texas company called Trace. In this podcast recorded at NBAA Orlando, AVweb's Paul Bertorelli got an update on the Trace engine from Kevin Brower. More...

AOPA SUMMIT 2009 PHOTO GALLERY

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The AVweb staff have packed their bags and are on their way home from the first AOPA Summit in Tampa, Florida — and guess what editor Mary Grady found on her digital camera? If you said "a bunch of great photos that AVweb didn't get a chance to share with us during the show," you'd be right. Let's have a look at some of our favorite snaps from the show. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: AOPA'S TAMPA SUMMIT — RANDOM OBSERVATIONS
Leading with: Should it be called that or something else? Big plusses, says Paul Bertorelli in his show-closing installment of the AVweb Insider blog, include the Inescapable Dave Hirschman, Joe Shepherd's Electra, and a lot more going on than you might have expected — not the least of which were the babes in the Dominican Republic booth. More...

AOPA SUMMIT 2009 COMPLETE COVERAGE ROUND-UP
A complete recap of our podcasts, videos, blogs, and news reports from the 2009 AOPA Summit in Tampa, Florida. More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: WELLS AIRCRAFT (KHUT, HUTCHISON, KANSAS)

AVweb readers did a lot of traveling last week, and we heard about some pretty terrific FBOs. Topping the list is Hutchison, Kansas FBO Wells Aircraft, located at KHUT and recommended to us by Bill Lavender. Here's Bill's story:

Traveling to a trade show, the prop started surging. [We] landed at [the] destination, and the good folks at Wells stopped all work and pulled the aircraft into the shop. Realizing I needed to be back in the air the next day, my aircraft was put front in line, the prop governor replaced, and we departed on time. There were no overnight hangar fees, and the courtesy car took us to the hotel and picked us up. (Again, no fees.) We did not need any gas, so all was done [under the auspices] of good service to the customer. The owner greeted us at the door and waved goodbye as well!

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 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...

SHORT FINAL

Yellowknife Tower:
"British Airways, this is Yellowknife Control."

[No response.]

[Long pause.]

Yellowknife Tower:
"Cherokee XYZ, this is Yellowknife Control."

Cherokee XYZ:
"Yellowknife, this is XYZ."

Yellowknife Tower:
"We gave you the wrong transponder code on takeoff; please change to 1234."

[Pause.]

Yellowknife Tower:
"We mistook you for British Airways."

Cherokee XYZ:
"Easy mistake."

Chris Holloway
via e-mail

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
Mariano Rosales

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