FAA SAYS 12 YEARS IS SOON ENOUGH TO REPLACE SOME CRANKS
It's not often the FAA is more liberal than a company Service Bulletin in its handling of a potential safety issue but that appears to be the case with a proposed ADaffecting thousands of suspect crankshafts in Lycoming engines. Lycoming's Mandatory Service Bulletinrequires crank replacement the next time the crankcase is split or at next overhaul, but in any case, no later than Feb. 21, 2009. The MSB also includes a 90-percent discount on parts costs (leaving a bill of a couple thousand dollars, plus labor). But an earlier service instruction says engines must be overhauled when they reach their TBO or after a maximum of 12 years from new or overhaul. The FAA says the 12-year time limit is reasonable for low-use engines and it won't insist that crankshaft replacement match Lycoming's MSB schedule. However, those who don't go along with Lycoming's timetable could end up paying far more for the crankshaft and related parts, something AOPA isn't happy about. More...

CRANK FAILURE IN FLORIDA?
As if to punctuate Lycoming's difficulties, authorities are investigating an incident at St. Augustine Airport in Florida last Tuesday in which the prop on a newer Cessna 172 came off shortly after the aircraft took off. Sources say the aircraft was about 100 feet off the ground when the prop departed. There's no confirmation of what caused the prop to separate or whether there's any link to the crankshaft issues covered by the AD. The pilot, who may have been an instructor with a student, was able to land the aircraft safely on the airport. More...

HOUSE COMMITTEE WANTS AIRPORT MONEY BACK IN BUDGET
Against a backdrop of restraint and intense lobbying for increased funding by other government agencies, the FAA may be forced to accept an extra $1.4 billion or so that it doesn't want (or the administration doesn't want it to have). The House Transportation-Treasury subcommittee late Thursday decided to boost the FAA's budget to $15.2 billion this year, including about $1 billion for airport improvements the administration was prepared to drop. The cuts to the Airport Improvement Program would hurt many projects but it would have been particularly tough on small, GA-oriented airports. More...

CUTS WOULD DELAY, DERAIL PROJECTS
As AVweb told youa couple of weeks ago, the potential loss of the AIP money is a serious concern to many local airport authorities. Maryland, for example, seems to recognize the positive influence of general aviation, particularly to the tourism-driven economy of the Eastern Shore, and several airports in that area are undergoing some kind of improvement or expansion. The various airport authorities are looking for about a total of $10 million in federal funding for the projects, which range from runway expansions to equipment repairs. A reduction in grants could prolong the work. "If Congress does reduce spending, it would not stop our extension; (rather) the project would be funded over two years, although we anticipated a single-year grant," Robert Bryant, manager of the Salisbury-Ocean City: Wicomico Regional Airport told the Salisbury Daily Times. More...

AOPA'S LOBBYING AGAINST USER FEES GATHERS STEAM
AOPA says it's added two more influential politicians to what it says is a growing list of legislators who are opposed to FAA user fees. At a "town hall meeting" in San Diego last week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) (a pilot and AOPA member) said via video presentation that he opposes fees. "If a general aviation user fee is what the FAA has in mind, they won't get my support," Issa is quoted by AOPA as saying. Meanwhile, AOPA is continuing to question the FAA's justification for a wholesale change to its funding mechanism. More...

PRO-USER-FEE EFFORT TARGETS BUSINESS AVIATION
The application of user fees may come down to a definition of general aviation. Those who speak in favor of fees (generally airline representatives) usually point to business aircraft as examples of how unfairly treated the airlines (which normally carry hundreds more passengers per plane) are and American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey was beating that drum at an Executives' Club of Chicago luncheon last week. In fact, he said, airlines are subsidizing other industries through the current tax system, which he says results in airlines picking up 90 percent of air traffic control costs even though they generate only about two-thirds of the traffic. "Crazy as it sounds, under the current system, the airlines -- one of our country's most important, but least healthy industries -- are actually subsidizing the corporate travel of other -- presumably much healthier -- entities, as well as individuals who can afford their own jets," Arpey is quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times as saying. Ed Bolen, president of the National Business Aviation Association, said the issue is more complex than a simple mathematical equation. More...

WISCONSIN ALLOWS AVIATION FUEL PRICE WARS
The Wisconsin Supreme Court saysaviation fuel sellers are allowed to charge whatever they want to for avgas and Jet-A because it does not consider either to be "motor vehicle fuel." The ruling settled a three-year court battle in which Orion Flight Services had alleged that Basler Flight Service had violated state law by selling fuel below cost in a price war at Wittman Field in Oshkosh in 2002. But the Supreme Court ruled that aircraft fuel is not covered by the Wisconsin Unfair Sales Act, which says motor vehicle fuel prices must include a profit margin of up to 9.18 percent. More...

WING TANK BLOWS IN 727
A new dimension may have been added to the 10-year effort to prevent fuel tanks from exploding in airliners. The right wing fuel tank on a Transmile Airlines Boeing 727-200 apparently blew up while the plane was on the ground at Bangalore, India, last week. There were no injuries or damage to anything else but it brought into sharp focus the NTSB's 10-year battle to prevent fuel-tank explosions after the NTSB determined a belly tank blew on a TWA Boeing 747 in 1996 off Long Island, killing everyone aboard. (Though more people were killed, that incident was not the first of its kind.) The FAA is now preparing a final rule (from this NPRM) that may require systems to prevent fuel-tank explosions to be retrofitted on all airliners. But the rule applies only to center tanks and not wing tanks like the one that cooked off last week. The proposed rule is being opposed by the Air Transport Association. More...

SCOTTSDALE LOOKS AT RESIDENTIAL HELI BAN
Dropping in on the neighbors may be a thing of the past in Scottsdale, Ariz., if the city council proceeds with a revision to its helicopter ordinance. The city law already lays out where helicopters are permitted to land (airports, hospitals, industrial sites, etc.) but it doesn't specifically exclude residential areas. Jim Heitel, vice chairman of Scottsdale's Planning Commission, told the East Valley Tribune the new ordinance would make it clear that "residential areas are meant to be residential." In 2003, the commission's board of adjustment turned down a homeowner's request to build a helipad. A large, circular cement pad was poured anyway and the owner says it's a driveway. Some helicopter operators are wondering why the rule is needed since the air isn't exactly thick with helicopters. More...

POWERED PARAGLIDER PILOT DRAWS (UNWELCOME) ATTENTION
A powered paraglider pilot who calls himself "Super" Dell Schanze is denying he broke any laws last week when he flew low and slow near a busy Utah freeway. Schanze, who has apparently attracted this kind of attention before, admits he was trying to catch people's eye with the flight as a way to promote sales of paragliders, one of his businesses, but he said he did it within the rules. "I was flying over a wide open field. As far as I know I did everything correctly," he told the Deseret News. "I just happen to be the type of person that attracts more attention than anyone else on earth." However Schanze, who admitted to flying over the freeway at a height of more than 500 feet, may have violated an FAA regulation that prevents flying that kind of aircraft over congested areas. More...

DELTA PILOTS FIGHT RETIRED DELTA PILOTS AND PENSION AGENCY
In another twist to the uncomfortable process of bringing Delta Air Lines back from the brink, the airline and its pilots will fight an objection from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. over the deal struck on wage concessions. The pilots accepted a 14-percent pay cut and promised not to interfere with Delta's plan to dissolve the existing pension plan. As part of the deal, pilots will get a $650 million note from the airline and also receive a $2.1 billion unsecured claim. The PBGC says both those financial instruments should go to PBGC because it will become the trustee of the pension if it is abandoned by Delta. The deal is also threatened by a group of retired Delta pilots. More...

MIT FLYING CAR ATTRACTING INVESTORS
The MIT students and faculty who are developing what they hope will be a practical, roadable, light-sport-compatible airplane say they've had offers of deposits, requests for dealerships and interest from hundreds of investors in their creation. As AVweb told you earlier this year, the Transition was runner-up in MIT's annual Entrepreneurs Contest. Carl Dietrich, a Ph.D student in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, the principal designer of the vehicle and president of Terrafugia Inc., the company formed to develop it, said interest has come from all over the world. He told Bloomberg News at least 75 pilots have offered to put deposits on the (currently quoted near) $148,000 invention, which hasn't yet proceeded past the mock-up stage. More...

AIR MARSHALS CLEARED IN PASSENGER SHOOTING
Federal Air Marshals "demonstrated remarkable restraint in dealing with" an unarmed man whom they shot nine times and killed outside a parked airliner at Miami International Airport. The Miami-Dade State Attorney's office has determined the unidentified marshals were "legally justified" in killing Rigoberto Alpizar when he bolted from the aircraft after the Air Marshals say he told other passengers that he was carrying a bomb and would detonate it. (AVweb has found no report that includes a named witness aboard the packed aircraft who heard the man say he had a bomb.) The names of the Air Marshals were not released and they will be flying again, "shortly," according to a TSA spokesman quoted by the Miami Herald. More...

ON THE FLY...
Leaked report said human error caused Helios crash...
No one hurt after taxiing plane hits police car...
New Extra aerobatic plane goes to Goulian...
3,500 school children visit Potomac Airfield. 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...

PODCASTS
Online Now: Listent to, or take today's news with you via AVweb's downloadable podcasts. It's news you won't find anywhere else. Find exclusive interviews featuring Light Sport guru Dan Johnson, Excel Jet's Bob Bornhofen, Adam Aircraft's Joe Walker, FAA administrator Marion Blakey, Cirrus Design's Alan Klapmeier and more. AVweb's Podcast index, is available online -- pick and choose your interets, or subscribe free to AVweb's podcasts and receive them automatically for listening on your computer, iPod, or while traveling with any MP3 player. More...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB
COLUMNS
Probable Cause #7: Marginal VFR and Complacency of the Familiar
An IFR pilot may choose to fly VFR on a nice day -- but how good does "nice" have to be to let go of the IFR safety net? This week's Probable Cause report investigates the issue, which first appeared in AVweb's sister publication, IFR Refresher.

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WHAT'S NEW
What's New -- Products and Services
This month AVweb's survey of the latest products and services for pilots, mechanics and aircraft owners brings you a Rotax engine school, wrap-around display for FTDs, flip-up sunglasses and much more.

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...

FBO OF THE WEEK: CROTTS AIRCRAFT

Nominate an FBO|Rules | Tips | Questions | Winning FBOs

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to CROTTS AIRCRAFT at KDDC, Dodge City, Kansas.

ALAN OCHS wrote in to tell us, "THE STAFF AT CROTTS AIRCRAFT ARE THE BEST. THEY ALWAYS GO THE EXTRA MILE TO KEEP PEOPLE FLYING. I HAVE SEEN THEM COME OUT AFTER HOURS, ON SUNDAY, TO HELP PILOTS IF YOU NEED A FUEL STOP, OR JUST A CUP OF COFFEE, IN THE MIDWEST ,THIS IS A GOOD PLACE."

Keep those nominations coming.

Click here to nominate your favorite FBO and here for complete contest rules

AVweb is actively seeking out the best FBO's in the country and another one, submitted by you, will be spotlighted here next Monday!

SHORT FINAL...
Sound familiar?

PA-44: Page Traffic, Seminole Echo-Romeo entering the left down wind, we will be simulated single engine...

C-172S: Seminole Echo-Romeo, Cessna is following you into the Downwind on the left 45.

[pause]

... We're single engine, as well. More...

AVwebFlash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the internet's aviation magazine and news service.

Today's issue was written by news writer Russ Niles (bio).

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