FAA PROMISES -- AND DELIVERS -- CHANGES
For pilots discouraged by their encounters with government beauracracy, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey on Wednesday brought a morsel (or two) of hope. The agency has cut the time it takes to process special-issuance medical certificates from several months to an average of 16 days. Investments in new technology have paid off in making such change possible, she said. Further, many pilots will soon be able to cut back on the number of times they must visit an FAA medical examiner for a certificate renewal. The FAA plans to issue a proposed rule that would reduce the frequency of renewals from 6 months to 1 year for first-class certificate holders, and from 2 years to 5 years for pilots under age 40 who have third-class certificates. More...

CHANGES IN FUNDING ARE COMING
Blakey said she's determined to change the way the FAA is funded once the current structure expires in 2007. However, she expects that a contribution from the General Fund and continued oversight by Congress will be part of any new plan. She also tried to reassure the crowd that whatever plans and proposals eventually emerge, "We do not want to in any way stifle the general aviation community." The current airspace system needs an overhaul, she said, because it's simply not capable of handling the projected increase in airplanes and traffic. "We have to transform the system," she said, with new technology and efficient infrastructure, to ensure that it will continue to be safe and meet the needs of all users. More...

CHANGES AHEAD FOR HOMEBUILT AND AGE-60 RULES?
In response to a question from the audience, Blakey said that a newly established Aviation Rulemaking Committee will soon begin a review of the rules that govern homebuilders. She said "commercial entities" have made use of the 51 percent rule in ways in which it was never intended. The homebuilt category is meant to allow hobbyists to build their own airplanes, but its application to ever-more-sophisticated aircraft has raised concern. Also, when an audience member asked for clarification of the agency's position on the contentious Age-60 rule, she seemed to soften a bit from the agency's long-held "neutral" stand. More...

ECLIPSE RECEIVES PROVISIONAL CERTIFICATE
With balloons, banners, and crowds of special guests, Eclipse Aviation hosted a big celebration yesterday at their pavilion just off Aeroshell Square. Just seven years after announcing a radical plan to build a small jet unlike anything else then on the market, Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn took possession of an official Type Certificate from the FAA. Eclipse flew in 170 of its workers for the event, and dozens of them, wearing white T-shirts labeled "We Did It," looked on and cheered as Raburn accepted the certificate from Acting Secretary of Transportation Maria Cino. The certificate is provisional, and won't allow the company to start customer deliveries yet. They can, however, start to train pilots in the jet. "Today's announcement is significant because it means we anticipate no further major hurdles in the process to award full Type Certification to the Eclipse 500," FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said in a news release. More...

SERVICE NETWORK TO EXPAND
Eclipse also announced plans yesterday for the further development of its service and support network. In addition to previously announced Factory Service Centers now in the works for Albuquerque, N.M., Gainesville, Fla., and Albany, N.Y., four additional sites will open by the end of this year. The goal is that by 2008, an Eclipse Service Center will be within a 60-minute flight of virtually all customers in the lower 48 states. "Eclipse is dedicated to expanding access to private jet travel throughout the nation, particularly in areas that are currently under-served by commercial airlines," Raburn said. More...

LOW NOISE FOR NEIGHBORLY RELATIONS
Eclipse also said yesterday that noise tests have shown the Eclipse 500 to be quieter than any other jet aircraft as well as virtually all multi-engine turboprop and piston airplanes. Since the 500 is designed to land at small GA airports, quiet operation is an important part of ensuring public acceptance of the added traffic of some 2,500 Eclipse jets due to enter the airspace system. "We set out to provide our customers and the aviation communities they frequent with an aircraft that produces exceptionally low noise on takeoff, in the air and on landing," said Raburn, "This is a very, very community-friendly airplane." More...

CREATING OPTIONS FOR CIRRUS CUSTOMERS
Although Cirrus has proven to be the GA success story of the new century, like every other airplane manufacturer, it still works hard to find to more buyers. As we reported in Thursday's AVweb podcast, Cirrus is now offering the option for buyers of its new airplanes to hire a professional pilot and flight instructor for a year -- to live near the buyer -- so the new owner can learn the ropes at his or her own pace and schedule, and if he or she feels like it, train the rest of the family, too. But that's only one of a broad palette of initiatives Cirrus announced at this week's AirVenture show designed to make getting into one of their airplanes safer and more affordable. More...

THEN NEXT SMALL JET WILL BE SMALLER
Alan Klapmeier, CEO of Cirrus Design, gave reporters at Oshkosh a brief update on the future Cirrus Jet... "I have no pictures, no specifications, no price, and no dates to announce," he said. Such details will be forthcoming at a later date. But he did confirm that a jet is in the company's future. It would be "a logical step-up path for Cirrus owners," he said. He aims for it to be the lowest, slowest, and shortest-range aircraft in the small-jet field. "It will be a personal jet," he said, "not a VLJ." The candid nature of Klapmeier's comments may imply to some that the jet's cost will also be correspondingly curtailed, but ... see above. Of the details offered: it will have a single engine, and a parachute will definitely be part of the package, he said. More...

POST CRASH, WHAT'S NEXT FOR SPECTRUM
Spectrum's principals and associated manufacturer Rocky Mountain met Wednesday to discuss future plans, including certification of the Spectrum 33 light jet and matters far more personal. The light jet and its test crew were lost Tuesday at about 4 p.m. in a crash at Spanish Fork-Springville airport. It's been just four months since Linden Blue, veteran pilot, founder and managing director of Spectrum Aeronautical, LLC, had his dreams take flight aboard a carbon fiber 10-seater design-prototype ultimately aiming for a performance goal 415-knot cruise at 45,000 feet and 2,000 nautical range. It's been some forty flights since the jet's first. More...

AIRSHARES ELITE, AOPA TEAM UP TO MENTOR NEW PILOTS
Yesterday at Oshkosh, AirShares Elite said it will donate $100,000 worth of free flight time to help encourage AOPA's latest effort to recruit new pilots. In the few weeks since AOPA launched its revitalized Project Pilot at its annual Open House in Maryland, nearly 1,000 AOPA members have already signed up to be mentors and recruit new flyers. "When I learned that the pilot population had declined by 25 percent over the past 25 years, I knew that we had to inspire more people to move from being wannabe pilots to gottabe pilots," said AirShares Elite CEO David Lee. Lee said he hopes that introducing interested newcomers to flight in a Cirrus will help to convince them of the benefits of GA flying. More...

D-JET MAKES A QUICK STOP AND GO
Diamond's newest project, the single-engine D-Jet prototype, made its world debut at AirVenture on Wednesday morning. The jet rolled in to a welcome from officials from EAA and the FAA, then was displayed at Aeroshell Square before flying back home to Canada mid-afternoon to get back to work. Diamond CEO Christian Dries said the five-place jet is "extremely comfortable" to fly in, and so far has logged about 30 hours aloft. Labeling it as a "personal jet," Dries said its target market is the 500 to 700 hour owner-pilot. With that in mind, the aircraft is designed to be safe and easy to fly. More...

PAPER THIN (ALMOST) AND SUNLIGHT READABLE
Makers of electronic flight bags and cockpit computers have struggled with making the things readable in direct sunlight and no one has really figured out an elegant way to display approach plates. But at AirVenture 2006, we saw an intriguing gadget that appears to have broken the code. The eFLYBook from Arinc was described by a company representative as "electronic paper." And it is, too. It's an impressively thin tablet computer (Linux based) about the size of a standard approach plate. Rather than a backlit LCD display, the eFLYBook uses proprietary technology from iREX that works sort of like a high-tech Etch-a-Sketch, requiring only tiny amounts of power and displays in a black and white (ish) format. More...

MOONEY SELLS A FAST ONE; HINTS AT FASTEST
Mooney Airplane Company delivered its first Ovation 3 this AirVenture to Andre Kulaga. "I studied airplanes for the last couple years, and compared the price, performance, and the quality of the work," said Kulaga, "...and I think Mooney is the best airplane out there." The Ovation 3 is the normally-aspirated version of Mooney's twin-turbo Acclaim. There is some contention as to whether the Acclaim has displaced the Columbia 400 as the fastest piston single, but, according to Gretchen Jahn, CEO of Mooney airplane company, that uncertainty won't last long. More...

VISTANAV OFFERS A VIRTUAL WINDOW
With so many Tablet PC and Pocket PC navigators available, where do you even begin? A good place might be to leave the regular Oshkosh product hangars and go out to the flymarket looking for Mercury Computing's VistaNav booth. VistaNav's 3D synthetic vision recreates the view out the front of the airplane, complete with terrain, runways, and highway-in-the-sky (HITS) guidance. This actually isn't new, but newly completed -- in fact, a patent was filed the day of the announcement -- with three new features that help with approaches, emergencies, and collision avoidance. As for the unit's price: $4,300. If you were expecting something higher ... you can always buy more. Of course, this isn't a certified product. ... It simply appears that it may be a highly capable, practical and affordable one that would probably be nice to have. More...

VIRTUAL AIR SHOW -- FROM US, TO YOU...
AVweb Audio News: You won't hear it anywhere else. Let us know what you think.

AVweb's Oshkosh Picture Galleries. (See F-22's in very odd attitudes, warbirds, LSA's, and more.) Wish you were here ... you, and your air conditioning.

Cessna -- a sleeping giant stirs. Hi-resolution images:
Cessna NGP, the advanced concept.
Cessna LSA

Garmin GPSMap496 review. Try before you buy.

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, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. Our best stories start with your tips.More...

YOU WON'T HEAR IT ANYWHERE ELSE
Click here to download. Garmin talks shop about its latest leading-edge glass — and Chelton responds. A Swedish group tells how they took Diamond's DA42 across the Pacific and will continue around the world. Cirrus's Alan Klapmeier talks about his company's program that leaves buyers with a new airplane plus a CFII (for a year). ECI's Ed Salmeron explains the latest improvements his company's products add to aircraft engines. And you'll hear exactly how controllers at Oshkosh manage 2500 operations a day, both when things go right — and otherwise. Check AVweb's audio news index for more... More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: OCEAN AIR AVIATION, NORTH BEND, OR
AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Ocean Air Aviation, at KOTH, North Bend, OR. Offering up Ocean Air, Scott Burton told us, "The elegant and relaxing facilities make it worth the stop coupled with the extraordinary service and friendly people. Denise runs that FBO as best as I have ever seen and always with a smile. Truly one of the best FBOs I have been to, and the service is impeccable." Keep those nominations coming — click here to nominate your favorite FBO and here for complete contest rules. AVweb is actively seeking out the best FBOs in the country, and another one, submitted by you, will be spotlighted here next Monday! More...

AVwebBiz
HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVweb's NO-COST twice monthly AVwebBiz? 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 an AVwebBiz regular feature, TSA WATCH: GA IN THE "SPOTLIGHT." Sign up today at http://www.avweb.com/register More...

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