VICTORY IS IN THE AIR FOR EPIC AIRCRAFT
Epic Aircraft CEO Rick Schrameck confirmed to AVweb that the company's very light jet (VLJ) single, dubbed Victory, made its maiden flight on Friday at 7:30 a.m. from the Redmond (Ore.) Airport. The Friday morning flight lasted about 50 minutes, during which time Epic test pilot Len Fox flew the Williams FJ33-4A-powered airplane with the gear extended to examine its basic flight characteristics at altitudes up to 14,000 feet. The all-composite jet single took a few more laps in the air on Friday afternoon and over the weekend, and at press time it had logged about seven hours, Schrameck said. He noted that the five-place aircraft is performing well, and added that it needed only 1,500 feet of runway to land after its initial jaunt. The Victory's achievement is astonishing given its short seven-month design to first flight timeline (rivaling that of the famed P-51 Mustang), as well as because it follows the first flight of the company's other clean-sheet jet -- the Elite Jet twin-engine VLJ -- by only a month. Epic plans to bring the Victory to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., along with the Elite Jet and the Epic LT and Dynasty turboprop singles. More...

POINT2POINT AIRWAYS’ AIRCRAFT REPOSSESSED
A North Dakota air-taxi service that was heavily funded by state and local governments has defaulted on its aircraft lease payments, and its aircraft, a Cirrus SR22 and a Diamond DA42 Twin Star, have been repossessed by the bank holding the leases on the airplanes. The Fargo Forum reported last week that Point2Point Airways owes Northland Financial $362,000. A judge ordered the company to repay the money and started the clock on interest on June 26 at the rate of $70.90 a day. Point2Point quit flying at the end of April after a tough winter. More...

NEW FAA MIDAIR INCIDENT REPORTING STANDARDS IMPLEMENTED
According to the FAA, 4.5 miles is the new five miles. USA Today reported last week the agency has adopted new reporting standards for air traffic separation errors that, among other things, give controllers a 10-percent margin for error in maintaining the once-sacrosanct five-mile spacing. The newspaper paraphrases Tony Ferrante, director of the FAA's Air Traffic Safety Oversight Service, as saying the half-mile fudge factor is designed to encourage controllers to tighten up traffic at busy airports without risking being cited for busting the five-mile barrier. The new standards also, at the stroke of a pen, dramatically reduce the incident rate by reclassifying some separation errors, adopting new standards for others and eliminating 25 percent of those that are now reportable. More...

PATCO PRESIDENT TURNS DOWN CONTROLLER JOB
Ron Taylor has been out of work in his chosen field for almost 26 years, but that doesn't mean he's going to take the first offer that comes along. Taylor, the president of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) whose members were fired en masse by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 when they went ahead with strike action, says he's been offered a job as an air traffic controller by the FAA in his old facility at West Palm Beach, Fla., but he's not taking it. In a news release, Taylor said he's not about to work for the FAA's new starting wage, which was imposed as part of the enforced settlement of a labor contract with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) last year. He said he was offered about a third of what an experienced controller would make, and he's not about to accept the "inadequate, substandard and discriminatory salary that the Agency has offered to me." According to FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown, there are plenty of people anxious to take Taylor's spot. More...

THREE SLOTS OPEN FOR $250,000 PERSONAL AIR VEHICLE CHALLENGE
Think you have the airplane/flying car of the future ready to show its stuff? There could be $250,000 in prize money waiting for you in the first annual Personal Air Vehicle Challenge. The CAFÉ Foundation, a group of homebuilders that evolved into an organization promoting the flying-car concept, is organizing the event and it’s funded by a $2 million injection from NASA in something called the Centennial (referring to the centennial of flight) Challenges. The first contest gets under way Aug. 4, and organizers say three slots have opened up by competitors withdrawing. Given the parameters of the competition, it’s perhaps easy to understand why these folks didn’t think they would measure up. More...

WATER SKIMMING PLANE SCARES TUBERS
The Sheriff’s office in Butte County, Calif., is investigating an impromptu Fourth of July air show that reportedly scared people tubing on the Sacramento River and resulted in a small aircraft being forced to land on a gravel bar after pursuit by a police helicopter. According to the Chico Enterprise-Record, Sgt. Dave Lilygren of the neighboring Glenn County Sheriff’s department was patrolling the river when he saw the aircraft drop its wheels in the water and skim the river for about a half mile, crossing under the Gianella Bridge. More...

MEDICAL FLIGHT PILOT REPORTED RUNAWAY TRIM
A pilot of a Cessna Citation 550 carrying an organ transplant team that crashed in Lake Michigan in early June reported to air traffic control that the aircraft had runaway trim, as AVweb previously reported. An investigation update from the NTSB says a pilot is also heard telling the other pilot to take the controls of the aircraft while he pulled circuit breakers. The aircraft crashed a short time later, killing all six people on board. According to the NTSB, the aircraft took off from General Mitchell Field in Milwaukee and climbed to 4,400 feet in two stages within the first two minutes. It then descended at 2,260 fpm until it crashed. More...

NEW PRESIDENTIAL HELICOPTER FLIES
The next president will have an "Oval Office In The Sky" aboard what is described as the most technologically advanced helicopter ever built. According to a news release, the AgustaWestland/Lockheed Martin VH-71 flew for the first time on July 3 and test pilots reported the aircraft performed well on the 40-minute flight at Italy-based AgustaWestland’s facilities in Yeovil, England. The flight occurred 30 months after the controversial contract was awarded (this will be the first Marine One that isn’t designed and built by a U.S. firm) and the company says it’s on track for on-time delivery of the first aircraft in late 2009. Although it’s a European design, the presidential helicopters are being developed with Lockheed Martin and will be assembled by Bell Helicopter in Texas. More...

COMMUNITY HELPS PARALYZED PILOT FLY AGAIN
Oakland, Calif., pilot Quincey Carr might yet achieve many of his dreams after going through a nightmare for the past year. Carr, 22, was getting his hair cut last Aug. 11 when, for no apparent reason, a man shot him five times as he sat in the barber chair. At the time, Carr had paid to earn his private pilot certificate by working three jobs. He was heading for his commercial ticket when the seemingly senseless violence almost sent him on another journey. Carr almost didn’t survive the shooting but, as he recovered from his multiple injuries, he never lost his desire to fly. The shooting robbed him of the use of his legs but, according to the Alameda Times-Star, with some help from the local aviation community, his family and church, that won’t be an obstacle to his resuming flying. Local pilots, with help from his congregation, have raised almost $10,000 to buy hand controls and to pay for more training. More...

BRITISH BALLOONIST SETS TRANS-ATLANTIC RECORD
British adventurer David Hempleman-Adams set a record Friday after flying a helium balloon from Newfoundland and Labrador to the French countryside near Dijon. According to Canadian Press, he used the smallest helium balloon ever to make that kind of trip. He took off from St. John’s on Monday and spent four almost sleepless days crossing the pond. The balloon gondola was so small it had a flap cut in the side so he could stick his feet outside to sleep. He never used the flap. "The French countryside is gorgeous," he wrote in his blog. "Thank God I'm over land." More...

BATS HOLD KEYS TO FUTURE UAVS
The Air Force is putting $6 million into a Brown University project that’s trying to apply the amazing flight capabilities of bats to agile stealthy unmanned aircraft. The team of researchers speculates that bats are wired for flight with an array of sensors on their highly flexible wings that allows them to perform maneuvers that would send a bird or an airplane tumbling from the sky. The Air Force is hoping it might be able to replicate bat flight to some degree with electronic sensors and computers and achieve some of the nocturnal mammal’s aerial prowess. "The Air Force envisions a future in which they have lots of autonomous air vehicles that can take on different kinds of missions and that don't have pilots," Sharon Swartz , an evolutionary biologist at Brown who is helping run the project, told the Boston Globe. More...

ON THE FLY
Boeing celebrated 787 rollout on Sunday…
Germany’s air traffic control system may be privatized…
Klapmeier brothers honored by Aero Club of New England. 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...

AVWEBBIZ: AVWEB'S BUSINESS AVIATION NEWSLETTER
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 http://www.avweb.com/profile/. More...

Columns | Features | What's New | Calendar | Brainteasers

PROBABLE CAUSE #36: STACKING THE DECK
A rusty pilot attempts to ferry a twin with fuel-system and propeller problems. More...

THE NEW FLIGHT SERVICE: AN INSIDER'S VIEW
This week a Flight Service Specialist provides an interesting opinion on the whole issue of privatization of Flight Service. 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 hear you'll hear Dick Knapinski give a preview of EAA AirVenture 2007. And AVweb's podcast index includes interviews with AOPA's Andrew Cebula; Cirrus Design's Alan Klapmeier; NBAA's Harry Houkes; Reason Foundation's Robert Poole; SATSair's Sheldon Early; Epic Aircraft's Rick Schrameck; AOPA's Randy Kenagy; 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 and LAMA's Dan Johnson. In today's podcast, hear Alfred Repetti of BusinessJetSEATS and Earthjet's Dean Rotchin talk about their partnership to deliver per-seat air taxi service using the existing bizjet fleet. Remember: In AVweb's podcasts, you'll hear things you won't find anywhere else.

More...

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: AN INSIDE LOOK AT CESSNA'S CITATION MUSTANG
Take a quick tour of Cessna's introductory jet with AVweb Video Editor Glenn Pew. Some may refer to the Citation Mustang as a very light jet or "VLJ," but others are calling it a whole new breed of personal jet. (Click through to watch.) More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: ATLANTIC AVIATION KISM

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Atlantic Aviation at KISM in Kissimmee, Florida.

AVweb readers (and Cessna Pilot Society members) Dave Kalwishky, Greg Wright, Gene Cartier, Gilberto Velez-Domenech, Ray Mozingo and Keith Dorken said the facility's staff rose to the occasion during a fly-in for their annual get-together.

"We had a group fly-in to ISM and we used this FBO. They did a great job of parking the 25 of us, brought us ice cold bottled water when we came in and gave us rides on golf cart from our plane to the FBO," noted Kalwishky. Velez-Domenech added, "Each and every person in the staff made me feel like I was their most important customer. They were efficient, courteous, friendly and always had a smile on their faces."

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!

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: RELENTLESS #42 AT THE RENO AIR RACES
Feeling the need for speed? "Video of the Week" has your Monday morning pick-me-up, courtesy of a 2005 CW Films documentary on the Reno Air Races. Featured is pilot Kevin Eldredge of the Relentless Air Racing Team. (Click through to watch.) More...

SHORT FINAL

Overheard in IFR Magazine's "On the Air"

Heard one day near Chicago:

Chicago Center: Southwest Two Four One Three, traffic at your nine o’clock, three miles.

Southwest 2413: What kind of a plane is that?

Center: Beech Seven Two Two, what type plane are you flying?

Beech 722: Bonanza F33A.

Center: Southwest did you copy?

Southwest 2413 [other pilot’s voice]: I don’t know why he wants to know — he can’t afford it.

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