FAA FATIGUE RULES DELAYED TILL NEXT YEAR
The FAA is behind schedule on its proposal for new rules addressing pilot fatigue, and they won't be out until sometime early next year, Peggy Gilligan, the FAA's associate administrator for aviation safety, told a Senate panel on Tuesday. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate aviation subcommittee, said lawmakers were running out of patience with the FAA, which had said earlier this year the NPRM would be out by this fall and then extended that to the end of the year. Gilligan also told the aviation subcommittee the new rules will not allow pilots to take naps in the cockpit as a fatigue-fighting strategy, as some other countries allow. "The crew has to come to work prepared for the schedule they are undertaking," she said. "We can manage and mitigate their fatigue through the regulations sufficiently that they should be alert throughout that flight." John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, raised the issue of long commute times for pilots. "The regional carriers, especially, they lose a contract and all of a sudden, people who lived in Cincinnati for 20 years, flying out of their home base, now have to commute overnight," said Prater. But Gilligan said that issue may be addressed by FAA guidance to operators rather than in the new rules. "How to do it is hard," she said. "But we know we do need to address it." More...

DREAMLINER MAY FLY DEC. 22
The Seattle Times is reporting that the beefed-up wing root structure of the Boeing 787 survived testing on Monday and the aircraft is scheduled for a first flight on Dec. 22. Quoting unnamed sources, the newspaper said it had been told that while engineers have not yet given the final approval on the tests, those who conducted them have declared them a success. Just before the twice-delayed first flight in June, a wing stress test revealed delaminations in support stringers where the wing meets the fuselage. More...

AVIATION NEEDS NEW ORDERS NOW
The aircraft industry needs new orders now if it's to avoid even deeper cuts in the future, even though the economy seems to be on the mend according to a Canadian study. The Conference Board of Canada report (free registration required) says order cancellations over the past year have cut backlogs at Bombardier and other companies. It says that although things are looking up for the economy, bizjet orders tend to lag up to two years behind the return to prosperity and that could leave a big gap between when the airplanes currently on the books are built and the next ones are started. Conference Board spokesman Michael Burt told the Montreal Gazette that the overall trend is positive but it's a question whether recovery will happen quickly enough for aerospace. "We are moving in the right direction," he said. "The question is how quickly we move in the right direction." More...

BEAVER CRASH CAUSE UNKNOWN
The pilot of a Beaver floatplane that crashed appears to be the only one who can shed light on the cause of the accident, which killed six passengers on Sunday off British Columbia's west coast. The Seair Beaver had just left Saturna Island, about 30 miles south of Vancouver, when witnesses said it "nosedived" into the water. The unidentified pilot and a female passenger survived but the other six, including a six-month-old baby, never got out and the airplane sunk to the bottom of the shallow strait between B.C.'s mainland and Vancouver Island. The aircraft was recovered Tuesday but so far officials have said there is nothing unusual about the wreck. It will be examined thoroughly but the pilot, who remains in hospital with multiple injuries, has not yet provided a statement. More...

FAA MANDATES: DON'T BUFF FROST, REMOVE IT
The FAA this week published a final rule prohibiting takeoffs with "polished frost," which it defines as "frost buffed to make it smooth," on the wings, stabilizers and control surfaces of aircraft operated under fractional or charter rules. The rule requires operators to remove any frost adhering to critical surfaces prior to takeoff. Since most such operators already were prevented from using the procedure under FAA operating specs, the change mainly affects operators in Alaska, FAA's Les Dorr told AVweb on Tuesday. Out of 188 aircraft affected by the new rule, 177 are in Alaska. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said the FAA has advised pilots not to take off with frost or ice contaminating their wings for years, "because it made good sense. Now, it's the law." The change, however, does not apply to non-fractional operators flying under Part 91, although of the 12 frost-related accidents the FAA identified, 9 involved such operations. Those accidents, the FAA says, would not have been prevented by this new rule. "Nevertheless," the FAA said, "these accidents illustrate the risk involved in flying with polished frost." More...

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: IFR CHECKS OUT THE GARMIN G600 FOR INSTRUMENT APPROACHES
IFR Magazine's Jeff Van West flew Garmin's corporate Mooney to see how the G500/600 retrofit glass cockpit performs for instrument approaches. He also looks at how the unit stacks up against fully-integrated systems like the G1000. More...

FRANCE PROMOTED AT NATA

Michael France

Michael France is the new director of regulatory affairs at the National Air Transportation Association. He was formerly the manager of regulatory affairs. More...

NELSON JOINS AIR BP
John Nelson is the new salesman for Air BP in the Southeast. He's a chemical engineer, pilot and founder of an FBO accounting software company. More...

SKYTECH EXPANDS

Skytech

Skytech is bucking the downturn and just opened a new facility at Carroll County Regional Airport (KDMW) where it will continue to deal in high-end single Pipers, Cessnas, and Pilatus aircraft. The company also recently completed a facility in Charlotte with an eye to serving the rebounding market in two years. 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

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 AVwebBiz. For complete instructions on making the switch, click here.

Aviate. Navigate. Communicate.