KERSHNER: AN EDUCATOR AND A GENTLEMAN
Many aviators got their first introduction into the mysteries of flight via the manuals of William K. Kershner, pilot, flight instructor and author. Kershner died Monday, at age 77, in Sewanee, Tenn., after a prolonged battle with cancer, AOPA reported today. "Bill will be remembered as an enthusiastic pilot, great educator and friend," said Bruce Landsberg, AOPA Air Safety Foundation AOPA director. "I called on him periodically to discuss airmanship or procedural issues. From traffic patterns to aerodynamics of stalls to IFR techniques, I could always count on Bill for good advice." Kershner was also "admired and liked by everyone he ever met, and that’s a rare man," says Ralph Hood, a columnist for Airport Busines. More...

A LONG CAREER IN AVIATION
William Kershner soloed at age 16, in 1945, flying an Aeronca Defender from a grass strip in Clarksville, Tenn. He wrote his first flight manual in 1959, and his last book, Logging Flight Time, in 2002. The memoir chronicles his 60-plus years of flying both civilian and military airplanes. AVweb Editor In Chief Chad Trauvetter remembers him as a gifted instructor. "I was in a CFI refresher class at Embry-Riddle where Kershner taught the session on spins," he says. "He was not only a great teacher, but he did it in a way that made you bust out laughing. Before showing a self-produced video showing him doing a spin with 13 turns in a Cessna 152, Kershner said he told the cameraman on the ground to 'keep filming no matter how big the airplane gets in the viewfinder.' The entire class erupted in laughter." More...

CHELTON OFFERS DISCOUNT TO D2A CUSTOMERS
When Direct To Avionics (D2A) closed its doors last month, buyers who had paid up front for Chelton Flight Systems avionics they never received were left hanging. This week, Chelton released a statement saying it will help out those customers by offering replacement Chelton and Pinpoint Inertial components at prices significantly below their own manufacturing cost: $10,300 for a dual Integrated Display Units (IDU) and a single Pinpoint Inertial ADAHRS/GADAHRS system, or $4,000 for a Pinpoint Inertial ADAHRS/GADAHRS. Chelton's statement also says that all orders it had received from D2A before it closed were fulfilled, although some D2A customers reportedly paid for, but did not receive, all or part of the products ordered. "Chelton Flight Systems will continue to sell its synthetic vision components into the experimental market through existing Chelton dealers," the statement says, and will also continue to provide customer technical support and warranty service to all existing dealers and aircraft builders. More...

LANCAIR PROPOSES 50-50 DEAL
It wasn't just individual homebuilders who were hurt when Direct To Avionics closed. Lancair International also dealt with the company. "The D2A business failure is one which has touched all of us in one way or another," Lancair CEO Joseph C. Bartels wrote in a memo to customers this week. He says that Lancair Avionics is reviewing its contracts with customers, and notes that "on several occasions I spoke with customers and explained that I was concerned about paying 100 percent up front for the Chelton package." He proposes that Lancair Avionics will split the cost, 50-50, to acquire from Chelton the items which D2A failed to provide, at Chelton's discounted price. "Those customers who participate as requested will receive a special discount on any item that they purchase through Lancair which will total at least that amount equal to their contribution to this effort," Bartels said. More...

BLUE MOUNTAIN ALSO STEPS IN
Blue Mountain Avionics, of Copperhill, Tenn., has posted an offer on its Web site to give Oshkosh show-special pricing on its EFIS/One units to all Direct To Avionics customers who lost money. "Our condolences to everyone who lost a deposit on a Chelton EFIS when DirectTo Avionics went bust," it says at their Web site. "Hope this helps a bit." The company joins OP Technologies, which also made an offer last week to help ease the pain. More...

JURY AWARDS $10.5 MILLION FOR FATAL AIRSHOW CRASH
The family of a man who died after crashing at the Arlington (Wash.) Fly-in in 1999 was awarded $10.5 million this week by a jury that found EAA and the Northwest EAA didn't provide adequate fire and emergency response services, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on Wednesday. Don Corbitt crashed while attempting to take off in his homebuilt RV-6. According to the plaintiffs' lawyers, Corbitt survived the crash but died in a post-crash fire, and rescuers on the field took more than five minutes to respond. EAA spokesman Dick Knapinski told AVweb on Wednesday that "EAA's position on the accident and related matters differ from the plaintiff's position. Although a jury verdict has been rendered, there are still post-trial proceedings that further address and could materially affect the jury decision. As the case is still active in the courts, it would be premature to comment further at this time." More...

NEED MAINTENANCE? WHEN ONE DOOR CLOSES, OTHERS OPEN WIDE
Whatever you might say about the aviation industry, you can't say it’s not proactive. Over the last week, competitors jumped to the plate to scoop up customers dismayed by the closing of Direct To Avionics. And now, repair shops are speaking up to welcome owners of older aircraft who have been turned away elsewhere. Lynn Nichols, president of Yingling Aviation at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, told AVweb on Wednesday that airplanes 18 years old and up are welcome to darken his hangar door anytime. "We believe we can provide them with what is arguably the best service available," he said. "We have established maintenance procedures, tooling and expertise working on Cessna single and twin-engine aircraft, and located across from the factory, so if we run into an anomaly, Cessna’s product support is minutes away.” More...

NTSB BLAMES CREW FOR PINNACLE AIRLINES CRJ CRASH
The NTSB on Tuesday blamed the pilots of a Pinnacle Airlines Bombardier CL-600-2B19 regional jet for the crash that killed them both in October 2004. "This accident was caused by the pilots' inappropriate and unprofessional behavior," said NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker in a news release. "Simply adhering to standard operating procedures and correctly implementing emergency procedures would have gone a long way to averting this tragic accident." But a contributing factor, the Board said, was that the engine cores locked, which prevented at least one engine from being restarted, and the airplane flight manuals didn't communicate to pilots the importance of maintaining a minimum airspeed to keep the engine cores rotating. The Safety Board also recommended that the FAA should require air carriers to provide their pilots with opportunities to practice high-altitude stall-recovery techniques in the simulator. More...

FAA INFO: DANGERS OF NOISE-CANCELING (ANR) HEADSETS
The idea is simple enough: What you don't hear could kill you. The Flight Standards Service last week released an InFO to alert operators that "noise-canceling" headsets might be susceptible to "misdetection" and subsequent electronic attenuation of some things you'd probably rather hear. (Note: The memo might also pertain to what many pilots refer to as active noise reduction [ANR] headsets, but that specific verbiage was not used.) The alert states that the range of frequencies attenuated by a noise-canceling headset is often proprietary and may not be publicly available. This makes it "difficult to assess any effects" of attenuation, particularly as they pertain to things like communications, abnormal mechanical noises, audible alarms, vibrations, wind noises and other sounds that might alert an unattenuated observer to impending doom. For now, rather than regulate, the FAA's solution involves passing the buck to you. More...

LORAN'S LAST CHANCE?
With GPS available everywhere, cheap and reliable, do we really still need Loran, the venerable long-range navigation system? The U.S. Department of Transportation on Monday issued a request for public comment to search for reasons to continue to maintain the aging system -- or not -- beyond the end of fiscal year 2007 (Sept. 30). At question is whether Loran should be decommissioned; maintained as is; or upgraded to be used either as a back-up or as a complement to GPS. If you have an opinion, DOT wants to hear from you by February 7. More...

BUILD A PLANE, WATHEN FOUNDATION JOIN FORCES
Build A Plane, a nonprofit group that has donated more than 30 aircraft to schools in the U.S., has teamed up with the Thomas W. Wathen Foundation in Riverside, Calif., an aviation-education operation based at Flabob Airport. The new partners aim to develop world-class aviation education curricula to motivate students to learn science, technology, engineering and math. "It’s really a dream come true for us," said Lyn Freeman, founder of Build A Plane. "The goals of the Wathen Foundation are in perfect alignment with Build A Plane’s, and I felt this was a once in a lifetime opportunity." Freeman will oversee the growth of the new aviation education task force. More...

ON THE FLY
Evektor now up to 12 SportStar Flight Centers...
FAA will restrict D.C. airspace for State of the Union, Jan. 23...
Workers at NetJets won a better contract, Teamsters say...
The F-35 flew for the second time on Monday...
PATCO wants to represent workers at FAA contract towers...
Diamond's mock-up of the D-Jet cabin is back on tour...
Aircraft anti-icers contain toxic additives, study finds...
FAA's Nick Sabatini updates NextGen airspace plans. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. 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. What have you heard? More...

PROBABLE CAUSE #23

COLUMN INDEX

Probable Cause #23: Unnatural Selection
The NTSB suspects a dry fuel tank in the crash of a Cessna 340, but did the loss of an engine on an approach have to end in tragedy?
More...

AVWEB DAILY NEWS COVERAGE
You can now get the latest general aviation news from AVweb -- the world's premier independent aviation news source -- as it happens at AVweb.com. Or sign up for our news feed and have the most recent headlines pushed directly to your RSS-based news reader. Either way, you'll be able to read the same concise, but comprehensive, news stories that you've come to expect from AVweb. And for major breaking general aviation news, AVweb will send out news alerts via e-mail to keep subscribers informed. Don’t worry -- you'll also continue to receive AVwebFlash every Monday and Thursday. More...

AVWEB'S BUSINESS AVFLASH
HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVweb's NO-COST twice monthly business newsletter, 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. Sign up today at http://www.avweb.com/profile/. More...

AVWEB AUDIO NEWS
AVweb posts audio news on Mondays, plus a new in-depth interview each Friday. In last Friday's podcast, you'll find an interview with Professsional Aviation Maintenance Association president Brian Finnegan. aviation forecaster Richard Aboulafia. And AVweb's podcast index includes interviews with aviation forecaster Richard Aboulafia; NORAD; Bill Lear, Jr.; NATA President Jim Coyne; Eclipse Aviation's Vern Raburn; Honda Aircraft's Jeffrey Smith; and Cirrus Design cofounder and CEO Alan Klapmeier. In Monday's news summary, hear about Mooney laying claim to the fastest piston single with the certification of the Acclaim, Thielert AG's successful year, a 15-year-old who's building his own RV-7A, OP Technologies move to steal Chelton's experimental EFIS customers who ordered equipment from now-defunct distributor Direct To Avionics and more. Remember: In AVweb's podcasts, you'll hear things you won't find anywhere else.

Brought to you by Bose Corporation. More...

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: IT'S THE PAPER-OR-PLASTIC QUESTION AGAIN — BUT THIS TIME, WITH PILOT'S LICENSES
The FAA has proposed phasing out paper pilot licenses in favor of newer, counterfeit-resistant plastic licenses without a certificate holder's photo. Do you agree with the FAA's move from paper to plastic, and (if so) should the newer licenses also include a photo?

Plus: Results from last week's Question! In 2007, do AVweb readers plan to log more, fewer, or about the same number of hours in the air as they did in '06? More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: MILLION AIR KRIC

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Million Air at KRIC in Richmond, Va.

AVweb reader Joe Stubblefield said the facility treated him like he was royalty.

"After meeting our 172 and picking us up in a van to drop us at the office only a couple hundred feet away, we asked for a ride to the museum and were give the crew car -- an S-type Jaguar. All that and saving the $50 landing fee by getting a little fuel from them at a really fair price, too. Great folks and service. Made us feel like royalty among the jets and King Airs."

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
Each week, we go through dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of reader-submitted photos and pick the very best to share with you on Thursday mornings. The top photos are featured on AVweb's home page, and one photo that stands above the others is awarded an AVweb baseball cap as our "Picture of the Week." Peter Schultz takes home top honors this week for a snowy photo that comes not from his home state of Idaho — but from an area near Bermel, Afghanistan. The chopper's crew are members of the Idaho Army National Guard serving in the area. One of the unabashed perks of working on "Picture of the Week" is getting to see this kind of photo — those that remind us how much natural beauty and wonder are to be found in all sorts of places. Factor in the comments and insights of the AVweb readers who submit photos to our weekly contest, and it's like having a guided tour of the world show up in our inbox every week.

Thanks, Peter — and everyone else who submits. Keep sending us photos and comments from your part of the globe, and we'll keep running 'em here!

Want more? There are over a dozen new reader-submitted photos waiting for you at AVweb.com today! 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 Contributing Editors Mary Grady (bio) and Glenn Pew (bio).

Click here to send a letter to the editor. (Please let us know if your letter is not intended for publication.)

Comments or questions about the news should be sent here.

Have a product or service to advertise on AVweb? A question on marketing? Send it to AVweb's sales team.

If you're having trouble reading this newsletter in its HTML-rich format (or if you'd prefer a lighter, simpler format for your PDA or handheld device), there's also a text-only version of AVwebFlash. For complete instructions on making the switch, click here.

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