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Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told Bloomberg News on Thursday there will be no mention of user fees in the House’s version of the FAA reauthorization
bill. The Minnesota Democrat (Cirrus' headquarters in Duluth is in his district) said “none of what the [Bush] Administration is proposing” is in the House bill. "We're plotting a path to
achieving it without the Administration's fees," he said. Just what that path is wasn’t clear, but Bloomberg seemed to gather from its interview with Oberstar that he believes the existing system
of fuel taxes on general aviation and ticket and cargo taxes on commercial aviation will sustain the FAA as it embarks on a massive modernization program. Last month the Senate approved a $25 per
flight “modernization surcharge” on business aircraft (everywhere except Alaska) in its FAA reauthorization bill, but it’s getting major opposition from GA groups that fear the
establishment of a user-fee billing and collecting system will just open the door to more of the same. The Air Transport Association, which lobbied tirelessly to have user fees implemented, is still
holding out hope that the House bill will address what it sees as inequities in the funding of the airspace system. "We're tired of subsidizing corporate aviation," ATA spokesman David Castelveter
told Bloomberg.
Epic Aircraft of Bend, Ore., said its very light jet, dubbed the Elite, made its maiden flight on Thursday morning. The twinjet is a
joint venture between Epic parent company Aircraft Investor Resources (AIR) and Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing (TAM) of Georgia (the former Soviet bloc country). According to Epic, the initial flight
was flown by test pilots Dave Morss and Len Fox and lasted more than 40 minutes while the crew explored the aircraft’s control characteristics and low-level performance capabilities. (For more on
this flight, listen to our exclusive interview with Epic Aircraft CEO Rick Schrameck.) The carbon-fiber Elite, which is powered by two
3,120-pound-thrust Williams FJ33-4 engines, is expected to fly at speeds up to 410 knots, have a range of more than 1,600 nm and have a full-fuel payload of 1330 pounds. The VLJ's flight deck features
the Garmin G900X avionics system. The company said the Elite Jet will first be available later this year as a seven-passenger kitbuilt aircraft, with an eight-passenger version slated to be certified
in late 2009. The Epic Elite is scheduled to make its public debut next month at EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh, Wis. The company's jet will be joined at the airshow by its turboprop single brethren –
the Epic LT and Dynasty, now in certification testing in Canada. Epic's second jet, the single-engine Victory, is also scheduled to fly to Oshkosh, after making its first flight early next month.
According to Epic, the Victory, which was publicly announced in April at Sun 'n Fun, is a clean-sheet design that has been in development for only seven months.
Op Technologies has asked the FAA for a supplementary type certificate (STC) to install its advanced Electronic Flight
Instrument System in to Cirrus SR22 aircraft. Op Technologies traditionally supplies the experimental market but is trying to get STC approval in the SR22 for its Pegasus system, which isn’t
listed on its Web site but might be the launch name for a certified version of its existing products. Cirrus spokeswoman Kate Dougherty said Op is undertaking the project independently and it’s
not something spearheaded by Cirrus. “We are happy that others take initiative to build on our technology,” she told AVweb on Sunday. The FAA says it has some concerns about the STC,
namely protection from High Intensity Radiated Fields and the way the gear is wired to other stuff in the panel (“coupling to cockpit-installed equipment through the cockpit window
apertures”) and is inviting comments until July 9. Just what the Cirrus installation will entail isn’t clear, but Op offers some interesting features in its experimental models. The Flight
Op EFIS includes synthetic vision and a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) system as options.
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A California court held a hearing last Monday in a class-action suit filed against Lycoming in California over an AD affecting 3,774 Lycoming 360- and 540-series engines. In the lawsuit, plaintiff Richard Bristow, a Mooney owner, maintains that Lycoming should bear all the costs of replacing
the problem crankshafts, which the manufacturer previously did when similar troubles plagued its other engines. While the judge believes the class-action case has merit under California's tough
consumer laws, Robert Mills -- the San Rafael, Calif., attorney who filed the suit –- said a technicality is preventing the case from moving forward. Bristow's Mooney is titled under a limited
liability company and as such is the owner -- and the real plaintiff -- in the court's eyes, and the rub is that the California consumer law is applicable only to consumers, not companies. Mills
believes the judge will allow him to find an alternate plaintiff to proceed with the case, so he is seeking "an aircraft owner affected by this AD that lives in California, bought the aircraft in
California and took title as an individual," and in addition must still own this airplane. Anyone meeting these requirements can contact him via his law firm's Web site. The AD, effective Nov. 3, requires owners to replace the crankshaft either at normal overhaul, when the crankcase is split for any reason or within 12 years of the time
the crankshaft was put into service. Replacement parts will cost about $16,000 per engine, though Lycoming is offering to reduce that price to $2,000 (parts only) for three years. Mills, as well as
seven other law firms, is also involved in the filing of a class-action lawsuit for affected owners in the other 49 states.
FAA modernization is looking more appealing after a domino-effect computer failure affected parts of the air traffic control system
on Friday. The flight planning system in Atlanta failed, so the agency routed them to a system in Salt Lake City, which couldn’t handle the extra load. That forced controllers to manually enter
flight plans, slowing traffic to a crawl. Bad weather along the Eastern Seaboard added to the woes. The computer outage didn’t last very long for most places, and the system was back up by 11
a.m., but New York’s screens were blank for an extra two hours. Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told The Associated Press that hundreds of flights
into and out of JFK, LaGuardia and Newark were delayed two to three hours. Southwest Airlines said 40 percent of its flights were delayed.
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The author of the Mountain Flying Bible appears to have broken one of the Ten Commandments of wilderness crash survival last week
and lived to tell the tale. Sparky Imeson, 61, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Jon C. Kantorowicz, 58, of Great Falls, Mont., the pilot Imeson was teaching canyon flying techniques, survived the crash of
Kantorowicz’s Aviat Husky in the Elkhorn Mountains but both suffered a variety of injuries. Kantorowicz told the Great Falls Tribune they hit a downdraft when they were expecting lift and
couldn’t fly out of it. Imeson, who’s written several books on mountain flying, apparently ignored the first rule of wilderness search and rescue, opting to hike for help (or possibly a
cellphone signal) instead of staying at the crash site with Kantorowicz. And, as usually happens, searchers found Kantorowicz and then went looking for Imeson. Kantorowicz used a piece of his
Husky’s windshield to signal a rescue helicopter last Monday, a day after the crash. Meanwhile, Imeson was struggling through the wilderness with a compression fracture in his back, broken ribs,
a broken toe and a deep gash on his forehead. Because of the back injury he had to lift his legs with his hands to get over fallen trees that covered the old forest fire site. "I didn't think the
terrain was as bad as it was," he said, referring to downed trees. "I walked 13 hours the first day and five-and-one-half hours the second," told the Tribune. He was found about a mile and a half from
the crash site. Both men are expected to recover.
Adam Aircraft late last week officially announced that Zhong Hang Tai
General Aviation Airlines, based in Hainan, China, has placed a firm
order for 50 A700 very light jets (VLJs). The order was formalized
during the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition
(EBACE) last month and facilitated through a partnership with
Ameritech. Jason Fan, CEO of the airline, said the choice came down
to interior cabin space. "We made the A700 our choice because it has
the largest cabin space of all the VLJs," and its twin tails "remind
people of a Formula 1 race car," according to Fan. A700 owners
in China that are part of this program "will be served by a
professional pilot/aircraft manager" available to operators for
flights and training through a renewable six-month term.
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The FAA has amended its National Air Tours rule to ensure that the EAA’s Young Eagles flight familiarization program for young people can continue basically unchanged. The rule, which
tightened regulations for most types of sightseeing flights, contained wording that banned so-called charity flights from taking place in experimental aircraft. However, in its amendments, the FAA
said that wasn’t the intention. The experimental ban applies only if the flight is done for compensation or hire. There was also some confusion over the application of EAA’s FAA exemption on
Young Eagles flights. The agency thought all Young Eagles flights were undertaken under the exemption it issued to EAA for the program, but EAA uses the exemptions only for the very few flights that
are done for compensation or hire. “We therefore clarify that the final rule applies to only Young Eagles flights that are flown for compensation or hire, but the rule does not apply to other
Young Eagles flights,” the amendment said. It took effect June 7, two days before EAA celebrated Young Eagles Day.
A new Web site, GAFlightStatus.com, says it offers "a
full-featured system" that may be used by operators to publish live
flight status, boarding and arrival information -- even if that
flight is flown exclusively under visual flight rules. The system can
be accessed online or from any Web-enabled cellphone and displayed on
systems that "recreate the status board displays of larger
international hubs." The information presented can be updated at any
time during the flight and can automatically provide flight status
changes to customers via text message or e-mail updates, aside from
offering an online presentation. The company hopes its system
will allow smaller operators, such as charter or air-taxi services
that might run without a dedicated dispatching staff, to offer
patrons a new level of professionalism, but extends system use even
to private pilots flying rented aircraft.
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The demand for airliners (particularly lightweight, fuel-efficient ones) is causing a supply crunch of a different kind. Carbon
fiber, the matrix that gives composite material its outsized strength, has quadrupled in price to $20 a pound because of Boeing’s and Airbus’s increased use of it in aircraft. "Boeing and
Airbus are scarfing up what's available," Mike Musselman, editor of High Performance Composites magazine, told USA Today. "The rest of the folks get what's left." Most of the airframe on
Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner is composite, and composite components have long been used on Airbus aircraft. Carbon fiber producers are responding by increasing production and prices. Zoltek
spokesman Kevin Scholt said his company has tripled production in the past year. "We've been able to raise prices significantly in a two-year time frame," he said. The shortage is hitting a wide
spectrum of products that also benefit from the material’s light weight and high strength, including the auto industry and sporting goods manufacturers making everything from hockey sticks to
bicycles.
After the private European companies picked to build the controversial Galileo space-based navigation system couldn’t find a way
to make it work financially, the European Union has decided to build the system itself, at an estimated cost (some say conservative) of $4.6 billion. The system, which will use 30 satellites and is
touted as being more accurate than the U.S. Air Force’s GPS, is expected to be operational by 2012. Last month a consortium of eight European companies walked away from the project, saying the
costs were too high. Although the U.S.-based system works fine in Europe, the European Union sees developing Galileo as a high-tech job creator, which is not enough for critics who say it isn’t
needed. But while GPS is fine for civilian aircraft, the strategic advantages of a proprietary satellite navigation system are likely the impetus behind the EU’s decision. GPS signals can be
degraded, distorted and shut off at the discretion of the U.S. Air Force, something European military leaders are likely not happy about.
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South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is suing three aircraft maintenance companies that worked on the engine of his Piper Cherokee before he said it lost power and caused him to make an
off-field landing in May 2006…
The Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson has opened a new hangar that is home to some rare aircraft. A PBM-5A Mariner, the only one left, is there as is an F-107 Ultra Sabre, one of two. An
SR-71, an A-10 and a B-18 and a pre-WWII bomber also share the space…
On July 2 it will be 25 years since Larry Walters hooked weather balloons to a lawn chair and took his epic flight over Southern California. Walters, then 33, got to 16,000 feet, alarming
airliner crews and air traffic controllers, before popping a few balloons to descend. He was rescued dangling from electric wires in Long Beach.
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. You're a part of our team ... often, the best part.
HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVweb's NO-COST weekly business newsletter, AVwebBiz? Reporting on breaking news, Business
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AVweb posts audio news on Mondays, plus a new in-depth interview each Friday. In last Friday's podcast, you'll hear AOPA's Randy Kenagy
on the FAA flap over IFR-certified GPS receivers. And AVweb's podcast index includes interviews with Eclipse Aviation's Vern Raburn; Xwind's Brad Whitsitt;
BoGo Light's Mark Bent; DayJet's Ed Iacobucci; Pogo Jet's Cameron Burr; Teal Group's Richard Aboulafia; Air Journey's Thierry Pouille; Epic Aircraft's Rick Schrameck; Cessna's Jack Pelton; Embraer's
Ernest Edwards; LAMA's Dan Johnson; Piper's Jim Bass; AOPA's Andrew Cebula; Hawker Beechcraft's Jim Schuster; and Avfuel's Craig Sincock. In today's podcast, hear Rick Schrameck of Epic Aircraft talk about the first flight of his company's very light jet. Remember: In AVweb's
podcasts, you'll hear things you won't find anywhere else.
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AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Indianapolis Aviation at KUMP in Indianapolis, Ind.
AVweb reader Bill Johnson said the FBO staff is not only helpful, but honest, too.
"If your travels take you to Indianapolis the best airport is UMP. Phylis Denny and Larry Schmaltz run Indianapolis Aviation. Customer service is excellent and the facilities are great. Before I
could call them with a question on my fuel bill, they called me to tell me they had found a discrepancy in my favor. If I'm in Indy, you'll find my plane at Indianapolis Aviation at UMP."
AVweb is actively seeking
out the best FBOs in the country and another one, submitted by you, will be spotlighted here next Monday!
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This week, we cast our far-roving eye toward the viral video clips of Australia (specifically, Wangaratta, Victoria — a well-known source of "POTW" submissions for AVweb). YouTube user hyperscale treats us to some candid video of a Curtiss P-40N Warhawk taxiing and taking off from Wangaratta.
Don't see a video screen?
Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.
If that doesn't work, click here to download the video directly.
Don't forget to send us links to any interesting videos you find out there. (Try as we might, we can't
seem to goof off enough to see all the videos on the Web!) If you're impressed by it, there's a good chance other AVweb readers will be too. And if we use a video you recommend on
AVweb, we'll send out an official AVweb baseball cap as a "thank you."
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 Russ Niles (bio) and Glenn Pew (bio) and Editor In Chief Chad Trautvetter.
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.
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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.
Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, 
Epic Aircraft of Bend, Ore., said its very light jet, dubbed the Elite, made its maiden flight on Thursday morning. The twinjet is a
joint venture between Epic parent company Aircraft Investor Resources (AIR) and Tbilisi Aircraft Manufacturing (TAM) of Georgia (the former Soviet bloc country). According to Epic, the initial flight
was flown by test pilots Dave Morss and Len Fox and lasted more than 40 minutes while the crew explored the aircraft’s control characteristics and low-level performance capabilities. (For more on
this flight, listen to our 
A California court held a hearing last Monday in a 
FAA modernization is looking more appealing after a domino-effect computer failure affected parts of the air traffic control system
on Friday. The flight planning system in Atlanta failed, so the agency routed them to a system in Salt Lake City, which couldn’t handle the extra load. That forced controllers to manually enter
flight plans, slowing traffic to a crawl. Bad weather along the Eastern Seaboard added to the woes. The computer outage didn’t last very long for most places, and the system was back up by 11
a.m., but New York’s screens were blank for an extra two hours. Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told The Associated Press that hundreds of flights
into and out of JFK, LaGuardia and Newark were delayed two to three hours. Southwest Airlines said 40 percent of its flights were delayed.
The author of the Mountain Flying Bible appears to have broken one of the Ten Commandments of wilderness crash survival last week
and lived to tell the tale. Sparky Imeson, 61, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Jon C. Kantorowicz, 58, of Great Falls, Mont., the pilot Imeson was teaching canyon flying techniques, survived the crash of
Kantorowicz’s Aviat Husky in the Elkhorn Mountains but both suffered a variety of injuries. Kantorowicz told the 
Adam Aircraft late last week officially announced that Zhong Hang Tai
General Aviation Airlines, based in Hainan, China, has placed a firm
order for 50 A700 very light jets (VLJs). The order was formalized
during the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition
(EBACE) last month and facilitated through a partnership with
Ameritech. Jason Fan, CEO of the airline, said the choice came down
to interior cabin space. "We made the A700 our choice because it has
the largest cabin space of all the VLJs," and its twin tails "remind
people of a Formula 1 race car," according to Fan. A700 owners
in China that are part of this program "will be served by a
professional pilot/aircraft manager" available to operators for
flights and training through a renewable six-month term.
The FAA 
A new Web site, 
The demand for airliners (particularly lightweight, fuel-efficient ones) is causing a supply crunch of a different kind. Carbon
fiber, the matrix that gives composite material its outsized strength, has quadrupled in price to $20 a pound because of Boeing’s and Airbus’s increased use of it in aircraft. "Boeing and
Airbus are scarfing up what's available," Mike Musselman, editor of High Performance Composites magazine, 
After the private European companies picked to build the controversial Galileo space-based navigation system couldn’t find a way
to make it work financially, the European Union has decided to build the system itself, at an estimated cost (some say conservative) of $4.6 billion. The system, which will use 30 satellites and is
touted as being more accurate than the U.S. Air Force’s GPS, is expected to be operational by 2012. Last month a consortium of eight European companies walked away from the project, saying the
costs were too high. Although the U.S.-based system works fine in Europe, the European Union sees developing Galileo as a high-tech job creator, which is not enough for critics who say it isn’t
needed. But while GPS is fine for civilian aircraft, the strategic advantages of a proprietary satellite navigation system are likely the impetus behind the EU’s decision. GPS signals can be
degraded, distorted and shut off at the discretion of the U.S. Air Force, something European military leaders are likely not happy about.
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 
HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVweb's NO-COST weekly 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 
