AVIATION SUBCOMMITTEE SUGGESTS GPS PROTECTIONS
The government announced Wednesday that "further investment cannot be justified at this time" to help LightSquared gain approval for its wireless broadband system and new GPS standards may be coming, Inside GNSS reported. The words were delivered by U.S. deputy Secretary of Transportation John Porcari in an aviation subcommittee hearing. Porcari concluded that LightSquared's most recent proposals were "simply not practical." LightSquared on Tuesday had asked the FCC to create technical standards that could protect GPS receivers from interference in the case that neighboring spectrums, such as those eyed by LightSquared, were utilized. And there may be some movement in that direction, perhaps not in the way LightSquared had hoped. More...

EAA, AOPA MOVING FORWARD WITH MEDICAL CHANGE REQUEST
AOPA and EAA are on track to submit a request to the FAA within the next one to two months, asking the agency to allow more pilots to fly without a medical certificate, AOPA said this week. Once the request gets to the FAA, however, the groups expect some delay, due to the recent resignation of Administrator Randy Babbitt and his replacement with an interim administrator. "AOPA and EAA strongly believe the exemption they plan to request is the next logical step in the journey begun when the FAA permitted sport pilots to use the driver's license medical standard," AOPA told AVweb this week. "Further, the associations believe the exemption will maintain or enhance aviation safety by improving knowledge and awareness of aeromedical factors through recurrent education for all pilots utilizing the exemption, and by encouraging pilots to continue flying aircraft with which they are already familiar." More...

STOLEN PLANE CRASHES IN CALIFORNIA
A Cessna 172 that was stolen in Concord, Calif., over the weekend, crashed Sunday afternoon near Fresno, killing the person at the controls, who NTSB investigators said was not certified to fly the airplane. Felix Boston, of Walnut Creek, owned the airplane, and told the Fresno Bee he was unaware it was missing until he got a call from the NTSB. The 172 severed power lines and crashed into the bank of a canal, just about a quarter mile from a new housing development. The person who died has not been identified, but a local TV station described him as "a parolee in his 40s or 50s." More...

FAA FUNDING BILL AND THE LABOR HURDLE
Long-term funding has finally returned to the FAA after a half-decade hiatus, and the bill will fund system upgrades, initiate a pathway for domestic drone use, and also address a key sticking point -- rules that affect pilot unions. Last summer, Congressional-level disagreements over language that would alter how airline workers could unionize and operate in part led to a temporary shut-down of non-essential operations at the FAA. For some time, it was thought that an agreement on long-term funding for the FAA would bypass labor issues, but the new bill does make changes to current union rules. For its part, ALPA criticized the bill for its inclusion of "provisions unrelated to aviation safety" but said that "the compromise was necessary to set the stage for the passage of this extremely important funding bill." Other unions were not as accepting. More...

RED BULL HIGH-ALTITUDE JUMP BACK ON TRACK
A plan to fly to 120,000 feet in a helium balloon then parachute back to Earth is back on schedule this week after a long hiatus, Red Bull said on Tuesday. The Red Bull Stratos team is working with Col. Joe Kittinger to break the record he set 52 years ago for the longest jump. The effort began in 2005 but was put on hold in 2010 while a legal challenge was sorted out. The dispute was settled out of court, a Red Bull spokesperson told AVweb, and the team is now making final preparations for the record attempt, to take place in Roswell, N.M. Felix Baumgartner, a certificated helicopter and balloon pilot and record-setting B.A.S.E. jumper, will make the jump. More...

ANOTHER AVIATION MOVIE IN THE WORKS
Hollywood's aviation films often prove disappointing to aviators -- though it might be argued that a bad flying film is still better than none -- and another one now in the works, starring Denzel Washington, provides a fresh chance to see if Hollywood can portray the life of a pilot in a way that rings true. Flight, which started production last October, tells the story of an airline pilot, played by Washington, who becomes a hero after coping with an in-flight emergency but then is revealed to have problems with drugs and alcohol. The director is Robert Zemeckis, who also directed Forrest Gump, Back to the Future, and Cast Away. More...

NOMINEES ANNOUNCED FOR COLLIER TROPHY
Four nominees were named last week by the National Aeronautic Association for the 2011 Robert J. Collier Trophy, which honors the "greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America." The nominees are: Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, the Lockheed C-5M Super Galaxy, the Gamera human-powered helicopter, and Pipistrel's Taurus G4 electric-powered airplane. "We are very proud of the nominations we received for the 2011 Collier Trophy," said NAA Chairman Walter J. Boyne.  "Each of them -- in their own way -- mark significant progress in the advancement of aviation and aerospace on the planet, and we certainly welcome them to the Collier selection process."

Related Content:

• POLL: Which Accomplishment Should Win This Year's Collier Trophy?

NEW CEO AT HAWKER BEECHCRAFT
Hawker Beechcraft's board of directors has named high-profile corporate fix-it man Steve Miller as new CEO of Hawker Beechcraft Inc., shifting former CEO Bill Boisture to the role of chairman of the company's operating subsidiary Hawker Beechcraft Corp. Miller was tapped to take over as chairman of American International Group (AIG) 18 months ago to help it continue its return to profitability and pay back more than $130 billion bailout money to the U.S. government. Known as "The Turnaround Kid" on Wall Street (he's 70), Miller has headed up companies like Bethlehem Steel and Delphi Corp. as they emerged from bankruptcy. Hawker Beech is still solvent but it has asked creditors for concessions on the terms of its operating line of credit. More...

AVWEBBIZ: AVWEB'S BUSINESS AVIATION NEWSLETTER

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Delivered every Wednesday morning, AVwebBiz focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the business aviation industry, making it a must-read.

Add AVwebBiz to your AVweb subscriptions today by clicking here and choosing "Update E-mail Subscriptions."

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: COLLIER NOMINEES ANNOUNCED
Who do you like for aviation's most prestigious prize for, as the Collier folks say, "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year"?

Plus: Last week, we asked AVweb readers if there were circumstances under which pilots should face criminal charges for pilot error; click through to see the breakdown of answers. 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...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: WHAT'S EAA UP TO?
Building out its base, that's what. And the only way to go is toward a broader, more general interest aviation audience that's not interested only in homebuilding. But on the AVweb Insider blog, Paul Bertorelli asks if that doesn't make it look just like AOPA? And do we need to belong to both? Read more and join the conversation. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: GIPPSLAND'S AIRVAN -- WHAT "NICE FLYING" REALLY MEANS
Experienced airplane people say FAR 23 is a good guideline to build safe, flyable airplanes. If the Gippsland GA8 is an example of that, they're right. On the AVweb Insider blog, Paul Bertorelli offers some thoughts on why the Airvan is such a nice flying airplane. More...

VIDEO: WHERE'S MY FLYING CAR?
A practical flying car with everyman usability has so far eluded the public, but we may have already been introduced to a design that could lead to a breakthrough. Some of the major challenges of producing a point-to-point simple and safe to operate vehicle are technological in nature. Autonomous navigation (enter the destination, press a button, and allow the vehicle to navigate, communicate with, and autonomously avoid other aircraft) may be one key to safely organizing masses of flying vehicles in the same airspace. And as society progresses, the gap between the dream and reality may be shrinking. More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: GOLDEN EAGLE AVIATION (K06A, TUSKEGEE, AL)

AVweb's newest "FBO of the Week" is Golden Eagle Aviation at Moton Field Municipal Airport (06A) in Tuskegee, Alabama. Reader Billy Tyndall tells us how an unplanned stopover made Golden Eagle a standard by which other FBOs are measured:

On a cross-country flight in my Sport Cub from North Carolina to Arizona, I encountered adverse weather and landed at Moton Field Municipal Airport in Tuskegee, Alabama to wait it out. The rain which arrived took three days to pass, and during that time the staff at Golden Eagle Aviation made those days the most enjoyable of the trip. Sylvester and Minnie run the FBO with such personality and warmth that transient pilots immediately feel at home. They helped us with the standard FBO offerings, such as avgas, computer access, and coffee, and went further to see that we found the cultural and culinary assests of Tuskegee, which were many. When it was time to leave, Sylvester improvised an apparatus to preheat the cold engine in the Cub, even though the climate in Tuskegee doesn't normally require preheating engines. He went the extra mile to get us back in the air, and we'll remember his FBO for their caring actions!

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
This week's winning photo comes from Sammy Mason of Santa Paula, CA. Click here for the rest of this week's submissions. More...

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