BIZAV UNITES TO OPPOSE USER FEES
Congress must continue to have authority over the FAA, user fees must be avoided, and the general public -- which benefits in broad ways from a robust aviation system -- must continue to fund at least 25 to 30 percent of the FAA budget. So decreed Ed Bolen, president of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), at a press conference yesterday, joined by Pete Bunce and Jim Coyne -- leaders of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and the National Air Transportation Association (NATA). The three said they are willing to pay their fair share of running the system, but they are already doing that by paying fuel taxes, which are easy to collect and efficient to pay. More...

PISTONS, BIZJETS, A CONFUSING MIX WITH USER FEES
Transportation Norm Mineta added fuel to the fire on Tuesday morning when he emphatically told a House Appropriations Committee that no user fees on GA are under consideration (see AOPA's Web site for a video of his statement). Questions were raised at yesterday's press conference -- whether he meant piston aircraft only, as opposed to all segments of GA, which would include business jets. "It's a confusing situation," said Coyne yesterday. But he added that there is unanimous opposition among all segments of GA. "AOPA and EAA also are united against user fees," he said. Even if the FAA fees were to focus on bizjets and let the smaller operators off the hook, they know better than to think they wouldn't be next in line. "It's a Pandora's box," he said. More...

FAA, NATCA SPAR OVER RUNWAY PROCEDURES
By March 20, air traffic facilities that want to continue to use taxi-into-position-and-hold (TIPH) need to notify the FAA, spokeswoman Laura Brown told AVweb on Tuesday. They don't have to eliminate the procedure. "They can keep using it," she said. But they will have to conduct a safety analysis to show it can be used safely, and also show that there is a safety or capacity reason to justify its use. "They should stop using it if they don't need to," she said. "But if they want to keep using it, they need to make the case for why to use it." The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), reacting to an FAA notice that went out last week, says eliminating TIPH would decrease safety, increase delays, and lower capacity. More...

FAA SETS PARAMETERS
In a general notice (GENOT) sent out to air traffic facilities, the FAA says that air traffic managers must review the impact that airport configuration and local conditions may have on TIPH operations, and prepare a facility directive that prescribes local procedures. The GENOT (click through for the pdf file) also stipulates what staffing must be in place and how workloads can be distributed. The action followed a high-profile runway incursion that took place at Los Angeles International Airport last month. A departing Skywest turboprop was told to taxi onto the same runway on which a Southwest Airlines 737 had been cleared to land. At the same time, a taxiing Air Canada jet was told that it could cross the other end of the runway on its way to the terminals. More...

ASF REPORTS DECLINE IN GA ACCIDENTS
The AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF) has released the 2005 edition of its Joseph T. Nall Report, a review and analysis of the past year's GA accidents. The report shows a historic low for aviation accidents in 2004, the ASF said. There were 6.7 percent fewer total accidents in 2004 than in 2003, and fatal accidents declined by 7.1 percent. "Although the accident rate is down this year, there is still work to be done," said Bruce Landsberg, ASF executive director. "Pilot error continues to top the list of accident causes." Nearly 25 percent of the 45 fatal weather-related accidents involved thunderstorms. The report emphasizes the importance of hazardous-weather avoidance and the need for pilots and controllers to work together. More...

NTSB WANTS TERRAIN WARNING FOR HELICOPTER CREWS
The NTSB on Tuesday asked the FAA to require turbine-powered helicopters that carry six or more passengers to be equipped with a terrain awareness and warning system. "It is well past time for the benefits from these standard safety devices to be made available to passengers on helicopter transports as they are on fixed-wing planes," said NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker. "More than 2 million passengers are carried on Gulf of Mexico oil industry operations alone." The recommendation is part of the NTSB's final report of a fatal helicopter accident in the Gulf of Mexico in March 2004. More...

SIKORSKY WORKERS CONTINUE STRIKE
Helicopters sit and wait on the factory floor in Stratford, Conn., as over 3,000 workers at Sikorsky Aircraft have taken to the picket line in a dispute over health-care coverage. The company proposed to double health-care co-payments right away and then hike them another 15 percent over three years, union officials told The Associated Press. Sikorsky says it's the same deal that salaried workers get. The workers sacrificed their paychecks and have been getting stipends from a union fund since the walkout began last month, but a few workers reportedly crossed the line to go back to work this week. More...

MORE ON AIRCRAFT POLLUTION
Contrails, those wispy white condensation trails that form behind airplanes, may seem harmless enough. Yet astronomers say they are one more problem making it harder for them to use their telescopes. While some contrails dissipate quickly, others can persist or even develop into high-level cirrus clouds. "We know from satellite imagery that clusters of contrails can last for two days," Danish astronomer Holger Pederson told BBC News. "If carried by the upper jet stream through the troposphere, they can travel hundreds of kilometers." Contrail proliferation, combined with the effect of a warmer and cloudier climate, could make ground-based astronomy impossible within 40 years, the experts told BBC. If that's not adequately guilt-inducing, "Flying kills," according to George Monbiot, a columnist for The (U.K.) Guardian. More...

SJ30 MANAGEMENT SHAKEUP, AS JET PASSES ICE TEST
Sino Swearingen President Carl Chen, who had been credited with helping to bring the SJ30 small business jet quickly to FAA certification, has left the company. The company announced his departure last Thursday, saying he had left to "pursue other interests." But according to the San Antonio Express-News, Chen has filed suit against the company, saying he was fired due to political pressure from Taiwan. He is seeking $300,000 in back pay and benefits. Swearingen is on the verge of expanding its manufacturing capacity as it begins to fill almost 300 orders for the SJ30. Meanwhile, the bizjet has completed its required flight test in actual icing conditions, the company said this week. More...

LSA MANUFACTURERS EXPAND PRODUCTION
With Sun 'n Fun coming up soon, the first year of Special-Light Sport Aircraft manufacturing is about to wrap, and the new industry is making plans to expand. "I'm only guessing here, while we wait for federal N-number registrations to catch up," says Dan Johnson, EAA's LSA marketing consultant, in his sport-plane blog, "but I'd say deliveries of SLSA may have numbered 500 aircraft in 2005." Johnson says he expects to see at least twice that many deliveries in 2006. TL Sport Aircraft plans to quadruple production of the popular StingSport, and Flight Design has announced plans to double output of the CT next year. More...

ON THE FLY...
EAA B-17 Aluminum Overcast flew Tuesday, repaired from 2004 accident...
Gulfstream will expand in Savannah...
CAF air show April 8 in Burnet, Texas...
Five Spitfires flew above Britain to mark the airplane's 70th anniversary...
Scammers are targeting aircraft owners, says AOPA, so beware...
FAA AD mandates overhaul of some MT-Propeller Entwicklung props. More...

FBO OF THE WEEK
AVweb's "FBO of the Week" contest is sponsored by Aviation Safety magazine.

We need your help to identify and acknowledge the best FBOs in the world. Whether it's your local FBO or a recent fuel stop, tell us what made it a memorable (or not so memorable) visit. Nominate your favorite FBO today. More...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB
COLUMNS
As the Beacon Turns #99: Fuel for Thought
There's nothing like running out of fuel to put your pilot ego in check. Especially when you end up on the evening news because you set it down on an interstate highway. Real courage is when you stand up and tell your story to your fellow pilots, as Michael Maya Charles relates in his latest As The Beacon Turns column.

More...

AVWEB'S 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...

QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Unions -- good or bad for the aviation industry? Ballot-stuffing aside, this week AVweb wants to know where you stand on the issue of unions. (No, you don't get a grey-area third option this time.) PLUS: Results of last week's question about your faith in Lycoming. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
What have you heard? There might be something to it. If you've heard something that 130,000 pilots might want to know about, don't be shy. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. Our best stories start with you. More...

PICTURE OF THE WEEK
"Picture of the Week" submissions were down a bit this week — numbering less than 50 for the first time in ... um, in recent memory. Nevertheless, there were quite a few noteworthy submissions, including this week's winning photo from Jason Apol of Hopkins, Michigan. Jason's winning shot was fairly representative of this week's entries, too — most of which were taken at night and with prolonged exposures. But let's not leave Jason to do all the heavy lifting on his own.  We'll need your participation to get "POTW" numbers back up, so don't forget to submit your aviation photos. If your photo is chosen for our top spot, you'll end up with a sharp new AVweb baseball cap.  (Look for yours in the mail soon, Jason.) More...

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