FAA FUNDING LOOKS LIKELY
Government leaders appear ready to speed through passage of a four-month funding extension for the FAA when they get back to work this week. In sharp contrast to the rancorous debate that resulted in the FAA going temporarily unfunded last July, House and Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle seem unified in efforts to pass a "clean" funding bill, stripped of all the hot-button partisan clauses that bogged the earlier one down, as early as Monday. Passage would give the legislators time to wrangle over the contentious side issues without crippling the agency. The current funding package runs out on Friday. More...

PODCAST: 9/11 RECORDINGS -- UNIQUE INSIGHT
Audio collected on September 11, 2001 has been compiled by the Rutgers Law Review for a presentation titled "A New Type of War." AVweb has organized a series of recorded segments from that presentation to provide insight into the day from the perspective of the pilots, crew, controllers and military personnel who lived it. The following audio describes or includes some of the final moments for 92 people aboard American Airlines Flight 11; 65 aboard United Airlines Flight 175; 64 aboard American Airlines Flight 77; and 44 aboard United Airlines Flight 93. Your discretion is advised. More...

LAV-LOCKED PAX DRAW FIGHTERS
Three people who locked themselves in an airliner bathroom on a flight to New York on Sept. 11 will likely get to explain exactly what they were doing in there to the Secret Service and FBI. The three passengers, whose gender distribution was not immediately known, went into the lav at some point during the American Airlines flight from LAX to JFK and stayed there until after it landed. The aircraft was escorted part of the way to New York by two F-16s and landed otherwise uneventfully at 4:10 p.m. EDT. More...

SUNDAY A GOOD DAY TO FLY
The FAA posted a flurry of new TFRs in the hours before Sunday's somber anniversary, but almost none of them had anything to do with the day we'd all like to forget. Of course, anyone who might have tried to fly near Lower Manhattan, Washington, D.C., or Shanksville, Pa., could have expected, at the very least, a really bad day. By late Sunday, there were no reports that anyone had done so. There were also TFRs for several airshows and the International Council of Air Shows listed at least a dozen shows in North America on Sunday. But by far the majority of new TFRs are the work of forces much more powerful than any wingnut terrorist cell. Forest fires are closing big blocks of airspace throughout Texas and the West. More...

VICTIM'S IPHONE HELPS LOCATE PLANE CRASH
Reports that the location of a Chilean military transport CASA 212 Aviocar that crashed Sept. 4 at sea, killing all 21 aboard, was identified thanks to a victim's submerged iPhone may be overstated, but the phone's role is still compelling. A Google-provided translation of text from an original Argentine source states that a victim aboard the high-wing twin turboprop owned an iPhone 4 and equipped it with an app called "Find my iPhone." The translated article states that the smartphone was "still transmitting its signal" after the crash and allowed for underwater triangulation to pinpoint the crash site near Robinson Crusoe Island. While that may not be the case, one victim's relatives' use of the app did help authorities find the crash site, and the process may have made an argument for real-time telemetry. More...

BREATH TESTS MANDATORY FOR INDIAN PILOTS
The Hindu is reporting that the government is finished implementing a program in which all airline pilots in the country must submit to a pre-board breathalyzer test. The newspaper says the Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced last week that 100 percent of crews now undergo the pre-flight check. The program was initiated last year in light of random checks conducted in 2009 and 2010 that nabbed 57 "tipsy" pilots trying to go to work. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something 255,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

FORTY-SEVEN YEARS IN AVIATION: A MEMOIR; CHAPTER 5: BASIC FLIGHT TRAINING, PART 1
In the fifth chapter of his memoir, Richard Taylor moves to Enid, Okla., in 1955 to begin basic flight training. Ground school includes the requisite navigation courses (albeit celestial navigation), Morse code, and even the operation of atomic bombs. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: CLIFF ROBERTSON -- PILOT/ACTOR
Actor Cliff Robertson was a fixture around Oshkosh because, besides acting, he was an accomplished pilot, too. Robertson died over the weekend, a day past his 88th birthday. On the AVweb Insider blog, Paul Bertorelli reveals a couple of interesting coincidences about Robertson's intersection with history. Read more and join the conversation. More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: CAPITAL CITY AIRPORT (KFFT) (FRANKFORT, KY)

AVweb's latest blue ribbon goes to the FBO at Capital City Airport (KFFT) in Frankfort, Kentucky.

AVweb reader Graeme Lang has been going there for a while and sung Cap City's praises:

Having been involved with this FBO for some time now, I have always seen a complete commitment to the highest in customer service and overall standards. Their manager, Jay Vedelli, has just recently retired, but I have seen no decrease in the service provided. They stay very competitive on fuel prices, have on-site maintenance, will run you anywhere you need to go in their van, and will do all of this with a smile! I highly recommend Capital City Airport in Frankfort!

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!

VIDEO: AEROTREK'S BARGAIN LSAS
The way Rob Rollison figures it, most LSAs are overpriced, which is why he's marketing his nicely made Aerotrek airplanes at a base price under $70,000. Although most invoice for more than that, they still sell for less than $100,000. In this brief video, AVweb's Paul Bertorelli flies the Aerotrek 220 taildragger version and finds that it has great visibility, excellent climb performance and features you might not expect to find in a bargain airplane. More...

VIDEO: ELECTROAIR'S ELECTRONIC IGNITION
Electronic ignition for certified airplanes has been somewhat of a hard sell, primarily because owners don't always see clear benefits in either fuel economy or reliability. Electroair would like to change that with its new certified system for four-cylinder Lycomings. Here's a quick video tour of how the system works. More...

SHORT FINAL

LH741:
"Tower, give me a rough time-check!"

Tower:
"It's Tuesday, sir."

Jim Moore (and friends)
via e-mail

HEARD ANYTHING FUNNY ON THE RADIO?
Heard anything funny, unusual, or downright shocking on the radio lately? If you've been flying any length of time, you're sure to have eavesdropped on a few memorable exchanges. The ones that gave you a chuckle may do the same for your fellow AVweb readers. Share your radio funny with us, and, if we use it in a future "Short Final," we'll send you a sharp-looking AVweb hat to sport around your local airport. No joke. Click here to submit your original, true, and previously unpublished story. 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
Mariano Rosales

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