Volume 10, Number 33b -- August 12, 2004

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The Top Headlines From AVweb's Expanded, Illustrated News Coverage At AVweb's NewsWire.

SPORT PILOT MEDICAL RULE UPDATE...
Nothing about the final version of the Sport Pilot rule has caused more consternation than the driver's-license-medical provision. What rankled most with the GA community is that it's possible for two pilots to have identical medical conditions, only one is brand-new to flying and the other is a former pilot whose FAA medical has been denied or revoked, and the novice will be able to fly as a Sport Pilot and the former pilot won't. EAA has been fervently working with the FAA at the highest levels to work out this "ambiguity," and on Tuesday they released a report on their progress so far. More...

...IT'S GOING TO TAKE TIME...
Despite recent meetings among EAA staff, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and Federal Air Surgeon Jon Jordan, EAA said on Tuesday "the specific recourses available to pilots who have FAA medical denials or revocations on file remain unclear." EAA said the FAA's preamble to the final rule suggests that, in addition to the traditional special-issuance process for reinstating medical eligibility, the agency will develop a modified, or alternative, set of procedures specifically for those seeking medical reinstatement for sport-pilot flying only. (Goody, more rules.) At Oshkosh, the general buzz leaned toward interpreting this to mean that the FAA would essentially hash out a new set of standards, somewhere below what is required for a third-class medical, and establish a procedure that would allow denied or revoked pilots to qualify to regain their wings. More...

...THAT'S FAA TIME
But while FAA officials have showed sympathy to EAA's "sound philosophical rationale," they have also "raised several thorny, practical concerns," EAA said. Among these is the question of whether building a process to earmark requests for sport-pilot medical credentials and segregate them from requests for third-class-medical reinstatements would "result in the creation of an unwieldy bureaucracy." (The FAA and unwieldy bureaucracy ... say it isn't so.) Furthermore, the development of specific, modified criteria for evaluating sport-pilot reinstatement requests poses challenges. EAA said it believes "these obstacles are surmountable." FAA has agreed to additional discussions. More...

GA IN THE NEWS -- GOOD, BAD, AND UGLY...
A woman who had taken only a few flying lessons was able to safely land a Piper Malibu in Laconia, N.H., on Monday after the pilot, her father, became incapacitated. Jennifer Truman, 30, brought the plane back safely, talked down over the radio by an air traffic controller. "It was a fairly decent landing, a little bumpy," Gilford Fire Lt. Michael Balcom told the Concord Monitor. "She came in and cut the engine right away. There wasn't any damage to the plane." The pilot's wife, in the back seat, had also passed out. Early reports said carbon monoxide in the cabin was suspected. (Just because it's summer, that doesn't mean you're safe.) The flight had left Laconia only a short time before More...

...TEXAS CRASHES IMPACT GA...
In Texas last week, a string of aircraft crashes (as AVweb reported Monday) had less fortunate outcomes. While 20 fatalities in one week -- even in a state as big as Texas -- is likely to shake up any local aviation community, the impact is being felt far beyond the border. Among those who died last week were at least three pilots whose professional lives were devoted to GA businesses. Richard Fisher, the owner of Oklahoma City-based Aviation Flight Specialists, a corporate charter company, was the pilot of a twin-engine Aerostar that crashed into a house shortly after takeoff near Austin on Aug. 3. His five passengers also died. On Aug. 4, Don Brooks, the sales manager for autopilot manufacturer Century Flight Systems, died in a Piper PA-32 that struck power lines. He was a passenger in the aircraft, and the pilot also died. Joel A. Smith, 69, one of three men killed when a single-engine Mooney M-20J crashed while trying to land at the Olney, Texas, airport, had worked as a test pilot at Mooney Aircraft Co. for more than 26 years. More...

...THE PUBLIC AND PRESS MEET LSA
When a 66-year-old man was killed Sunday in Lexington, Tenn., while flying an ultralight aircraft, at least one news report on the accident noted that new FAA rules are about to take effect that will attract more pilots to sport flying. "Under the new rules, an estimated 15,000 people will now earn FAA certificates to operate more than 15,000 existing ultra-light-like aircraft," said a story in the Jackson Sun. "Another 12,000 pilots and new aircraft will be certified over the next 10 years." Some of those may be past pilots returning to the sport (some sources report this was the case in Lexington). While the story was not alarmist, the juxtaposition seems sure to raise questions in the reader's mind about the safety of all those thousands of new aircraft (and pilots). More...

AOPA-ASF LAUNCHES FREE RUNWAY-SAFETY COURSE ONLINE
Statistics show the number of pilot-caused runway incursions is slowly declining overall, but the percentage caused by GA pilots is on the rise. By taking a new 60-minute course, you can earn points with the FAA, just in case you ever need them: "If involved in a runway incursion, the FAA will normally be more lenient to those who have passed the Runway Safety course and who meet other criteria," says the FAA Office of Runway Safety. Starting today, AOPA's Air Safety Foundation is offering a free online course, "Runway Safety: Safe Flying Starts and Ends on the Ground," to help keep pilots focused on the dangers and out of trouble. Pilots who complete the course and pass a quiz can print out their own certificate, qualifying for the FAA Wings program. More...

PRESIDENT BUSH VISITS ECLIPSE AVIATION
First it was Vice President Dick Cheney at Adam Aircraft in June, and yesterday, President Bush chose Eclipse Aviation as his rallying point in Albuquerque, as he and Sen. John McCain blasted through New Mexico. Is it something about aviation companies that gives panache to the Republican campaign stomp, or is the industry maybe seen as crucial to the swing vote? Mr. Bush led an open question-and-answer session yesterday at Eclipse, and talked with CEO Vern Raburn about entrepreneurship. He also spoke with two Eclipse employees about their jobs, and noted that he had stopped at Eclipse in 1990 as a candidate, when the company had 18 employees, and now it has 330. More...

X PLODED: A BAD DAY FOR X PRIZE ROCKETEERS
As if to remind us that messing about with rockets is not as easy as it looks, a thankfully unmanned test flight by Space Transport Corp. -- an X Prize contender based near Seattle -- took to the air on Sunday and promptly exploded. A spooky photo in the Seattle Times shows the decapitated plastic head of a dummy that was the craft's only unfortunate occupant. The undaunted team said at its Web site Monday they already know what went wrong and "the problem ... is easily resolved." One of the solid propellant engines over-pressurized and severely damaged the remainder of the engine assembly, the team said, apparently because the propellant was mis-formulated. "This is a short-term setback that will help us in the long run," the team said. More...

HELICOPTERS LATEST FOCUS OF TERRORIST FEARS
This week, helicopters came under scrutiny following an FBI alarm that they might be used by al Qaeda in terrorist attacks. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security sent the alerts last Friday night to 18,000 police and government officials, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Security was tightened at heliports in New York City and elsewhere, but reports said that some officials were skeptical of the substance of the alerts and questioned whether they were based on any credible or current information (we love an election year). Federal officials also required heliport operators to turn over details about employees for background checks. More...

NEW GARMIN UNIT CAN PROVIDE WAAS PRECISION APPROACHES
Garmin says it expects to start deliveries this month of its GNS 480, which the company says is the first GPS navigator approved for precision approach operations. The unit will make it possible for pilots to complete an approach in low instrument conditions at airports that lack an Instrument Landing System (ILS). Upon FAA approval, Garmin said, the GNS 480 will utilize satellite-based navaids for precise lateral and vertical approach guidance -- similar to ILS operations -- without the need for ground-based navaids of any kind. "WAAS precision approaches promise to redefine the airspace system in terms of navigation and capacity, " said Gary Kelley, Garmin's director of marketing, in a news release. More...

AIRPLANES AND FIRE
With the fire season under way out West, pressure is intense to get the fleet of air tankers that was grounded in April back in the air. But this week, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) is still struggling to get data needed to specify a "life limit" on some of the grounded aircraft. Officials at Lockheed Martin said it might take as long as four months to collect the data required to satisfy the U.S. Forest Service that the P2 tankers, built in the 1940s, are airworthy. NIFC spokesperson Rose Davis told AVweb on Tuesday that they don't have a timeline in place, they are just working through the process. More...

ON THE FLY...
SJ30 jet completed high-speed dive testing to Mach .90...
Delta wants $1 billion from pilots to avoid bankruptcy...
Lightning cracked a cockpit window in a JAL 777...
Boeing Wichita yesterday marked final work on 757 with a ceremony...
Texas man who took a joy ride in stolen 172 got six years in prison...
Boeing is on a search to hire thousands of engineers and technicians. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Drop us a line. Heard something that 130,000 pilots might want to know about? If it caught your eye, it will probably interest someone else, too. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. More...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB
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BUSINESS AVFLASH
HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVweb’s NO-COST twice monthly Business AVflash? Reporting on breaking news, Business AVflash also focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the Business of Aviation. Business AVflash is a must read. Watch for a Business AVflash regular feature, TSA WATCH: GA IN THE "SPOTLIGHT". Sign up today at http://www.avweb.com/profile/ More...

AVWEB'S QUESTION OF THE WEEK ...
This week, AVweb wants to hear your predictions about LSA — and what will happen when the first major accident occurs in a Light Sport Aircraft. PLUS: Results of last week's poll on new high-tech instrument panels. More...

AVWEB'S PICTURE OF THE WEEK ...
Seaplanes and air shows and fighters and — well, you just wouldn't believe the great stuff we got in the "POTW" contest this week! And as much as we hate to repeat a theme the very next week, we just had to award this week's grand prize (an authentic AVweb staff baseball hat) to Lacey Hartje for her dynamic ultralight photo. EAA readers, take note — this is the kind of shot that belongs on a Sport Pilot brochure! More...

AVflash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest aviation news, articles, products, features and events featured on AVweb, the Internet's Aviation Magazine and News Service. http://www.avweb.com

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Today's issue written by News Writer Mary Grady:
http://www.avweb.com/contact/authors.html#mgrady
AVweb's editorial team: http://avweb.com/contact/authors.html.

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