BIZJET RECOVERY ON THE WAY
The Gerson Lehrmann Group has issued its take on the state of business aviation and it claims there are a few things working in the industry's favor. For one thing, airlines are going out of business or cutting back flights and destinations to avoid that, leaving business aviation as an increasingly attractive option for business owners and execs whose travel needs haven't disappeared in the current climate. "In the weeks and months after 9/11 when the airlines were in lockdown and security requirements made airline travel, if not impossible, extremely unpleasant, business aviation had its finest hour," the analysts said. "Every business jet on a charter certificate was booked." More...

CBAA STARTS TODAY
The Canadian Business Aviation Association annual convention begins today in Montreal with the upbeat theme of "Moving Canada's Economy," but the main presenters will likely be tempering the mood with some sober comments on the state of the economy and the industry. The business part of the convention starts Thursday with the Teal Group's Richard Aboulafia giving his overview and forecast of aviation industry. Aboulafia will no doubt review his most recent report, which predicts continued challenges for business aviation through 2012, before growth returns. More...

RUSSIAN BIZAV HIT HARD
The plunge in oil prices has hit Russia's elite business sector hard and the effect is being felt by the fledgling business aviation industry. Forbes Magazine has profiled the pioneering company in business aircraft charter in Russia and, like business everywhere, Kurosh Tehranchian and Nikki Rokni, of Ocean Sky, are feeling the pinch. The husband-and-wife business was started four years ago and brought much of the structure and form to the current charter and management business. Now the wealthy people they served are cutting back. "They had overstretched themselves," said Tehranchian. More...

NEW YORK'S AVIATION TAX BREAK DUE TO EXPIRE
Five years ago, New York passed a law that exempts general aviation aircraft repairs, maintenance and parts from state sales tax, but that tax break will expire on Dec. 1 if legislators don't re-enact it. Albany County Airport Authority CEO John O'Donnell told the Albany Times-Union this week that the exemption created "a substantial boom in business," and he is working for its renewal. In addition, he'd like to see sales tax on aircraft purchases eliminated. Like other states, New York is looking for ways to boost revenue rather than offer exemptions, but O'Donnell says many nearby states provide sales-tax relief and such taxes can be an important factor when companies are deciding where to locate. The current exemptions were a factor in deciding to build a HondaJet maintenance facility in New York, Molly Martin Pearce, a spokeswoman for HondaJet East, told the Times-Union. "Some of our other candidate sites were in states that didn't have this exemption," she said. More...

NEW BRANSON WEST GA AIRPORT TO OPEN THIS YEAR
As the first privately built commercial airport in the U.S., Branson Airport got a lot of attention when it opened earlier this month, but another airport is due to open nearby soon -- a municipal general aviation field. While that's not a first, it happens all too rarely in these times when the news is more often about GA fields closing down. The Branson West Municipal Airport is just about 20 miles from Branson, Mo., and will feature a 5,000-foot airstrip, a taxiway, a terminal building, fuel, and about 30 hangars. The airfield is now under construction, after years of planning, and is expected to be up and running by this December. More...

FAA BIRD RADAR TESTS TO EXPAND THIS SUMMER
The FAA has been experimenting with ways to detect bird movements with radar for quite a while, but since an airliner had to ditch in New York in January after its engines ingested birds, interest in the systems has intensified. The FAA told the Wall Street Journal this week that a test of avian radar in Seattle, which started in 2007, has been promising, and new experiments will be deployed this summer in Chicago and New York. "We're very excited about the technologies out there and the ones to come," said Michael O'Donnell, FAA director of airport safety and standards. The FAA system still gets too many "false positive" radar returns to be reliable, showing returns from ground equipment, airplanes, weather, and even insects. However, a company that makes bird-detection equipment for the military told the WSJ its gear is ready now to be deployed in control towers. "The notion that these bird radars aren't ready for prime time is wrong," said Adam Kelly, chief technology officer for DeTect. "You can tell the difference between small birds that would just be a blood smear on a plane or big birds that could be catastrophic." More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: COLGAN — NO EXPERIENCE EQUALS NO JUDGMENT
Regardless of the probable cause, the first officer of Colgan Flight 3407 admitted she had never seen ice and couldn't make judgments about it. To AVweb's Paul Bertorelli, that, more than anything, points to a broken advanced training system in general aviation. And in the latest installment of our AVweb Insider blog, Paul says the aviation press has a hand in it. More...

IFR MAGAZINE TALKS TO 2009 ARCHIE AWARD-WINNING CONTROLLERS
IFR magazine editor Jeff Van West goes behind the scenes and talks to some of the controllers who won Archie awards this year for helping save pilots' lives. It turns out that success boils down to one word: teamwork. More...

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: F-16 FIGHTING FALCON COCKPIT TOUR
At Edwards Air Force Base, AVweb had the chance to take a quick look around the cockpit of an F-16 Viper — F-16 folks never use the official name of "Fighting Falcon" — courtesy of military test pilot Desmond Brophy. If you're wondering what test pilots are doing in a relatively senior and proven airframe, the answer lies in continuous improvement and the fact that the airframe itself is far from the only thing that changes the flight characteristics of a modern fighter. These aircraft are inherently unstable, and, though they are flown by pilots, it's computers that keep them in the air. When changes are made to the hardware, software, or weapons systems that give these aircraft their edge, test pilots are sent up to evaluate the effects of those changes on the aircrafts performance, capability, and controllability. But enough with the big picture — click through for your guided tour of the front office. More...

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: FIDDLING AROUND AMERICA, PART 1
Russ Niles files the first report from his grand DC-3 tour of America with Dan Gryder and the band. They got rained in at Litchfield, Illinois. More...

Don't Miss Our Live Broadcast Wednesday Morning

Russ and Dan will be broadcasting live on Wednesday, May 27, at 10am EDT (2pm GMT) from Great Lakes Air at Mackinac County Airport (a former "FBO of the Week" winner!) before taking to the skies again.

Tune in here for the live feed.

ATTENTION, AIRCRAFT OWNERS/OPERATORS: AVIATION CONSUMER WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH ELECTRONIC TACHOMETERS
Our sister magazine, Aviation Consumer, wants to hear about your experiences with aftermarket electronic tachometers. We'd like to know why you installed an electronic tach; which one you chose and why; how easy or complicated the installation and paperwork were; how well you like the product; and whether you'd do it again. We'd also like to know about any warranty work you may have had and if you're happy with the tach's internal lighting, if any. Please also tell us where you mounted the electronic tachometer and a rough idea of how much you spent, including installation. Please send a note to aviation_safety@hotmail.com and let us know your experiences, including the nature of any problems. (The results will appear in a future issue of Aviation Consumer. For subscription information, click here.) More...

WHO'S WHERE? YOU TELL US
Get a promotion or a new job? Your colleagues want to know about it, and AVwebBiz can get the word out. Drop us a line about the staff appointment, with a nice recent photo, and we'll do our best to include it in our new section, "Who's Where." The items will be permanently archived on AVweb for future reference, too. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something 200,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

MEET THE AVWEBBIZ TEAM

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

The AVwebBiz team is:

Publisher
Timothy Cole

Editorial Director, Aviation Publications
Paul Bertorelli

Editor-in-Chief
Russ Niles

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Features Editor
Kevin Lane-Cummings

Webmaster
Scott Simmons

Contributors
Jeff van West

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