September 22, 2010

By The AVweb Editorial Staff

Introducing: Our Best Pilot Headset Ever NEW Bose A20™ Aviation Headset Bose was the first to introduce active noise reducing headsets to aviation more than 20 years ago, forever changing the way pilots fly. Now the Bose A20™ Aviation Headset sets an entirely new standard, providing significantly greater noise reduction than currently available. It also features an improved level of comfort, clear audio, Bluetooth® connectivity, auxiliary audio input and priority switching. Learn more. AVflash! Front-Loaded Tax Break for New Owners back to top  Sponsor Announcement Senate OKs Tax Break For Aircraft Sales The Senate has OK'd the continuation of a tax break for companies that buy airplanes before the end of this year, and both the National Business Aviation Association and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association welcomed the news. The tax break, known as "bonus depreciation," allows companies to take a bigger tax deduction in the first year of ownership rather than spreading it over five years. One general aviation manufacturer said the provision helped close 55 percent of its aircraft sales last year, according to GAMA. "This incentive is a critically needed measure for bringing back jobs and boosting economic recovery in our industry," said GAMA President Pete Bunce. NBAA President Ed Bolen called on the House to quickly approve the House bill to allow time for sales to close before the end of the year. "Accelerated depreciation is a proven investment incentive, and could significantly benefit the business aviation community," Bolen said. Aircraft purchased before the end of 2010 must be placed into service by the end of 2011 to use the bonus depreciation option. "Our industry has been waiting for this key measure to be passed to help in our recovery," said Bunce. "We look forward to swift passage of this bill in the House and to the president's signature on this important piece of legislation." View Trade-A-Plane's New Edition at No Cost on Your Mobile Device! Just enter Trade-A-Plane.com/mobile. Search for aircraft (hourly updates). Find companies, products, and services. Locate dealers/brokers. Call or e-mail sellers, and click directly to their web sites. With our web and mobile editions, you can view all of our ads at no cost, all the time! Call (800) 337-5263, or visit us online. Embry-Riddle to Expand? back to top  ERAU Considers Third Campus If there's any truth to the maxim that the right time to expand is when times are tough, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University may be poised to test that. The country's largest aviation education institution is considering a third campus to complement the current facilities in Daytona Beach and Prescott, Ariz. ERAU President John Johnson told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that Houston, Los Angeles and Rockford, Ill., are being considered for the new facility, which he said will be similar in scope to the Daytona main campus but much smaller. Johnson said the university is looking to serve untapped markets. "We are not expanding for the sake of expanding. We are trying to make it possible for students to get an Embry-Riddle education who currently would not come to either Daytona or Prescott," he said. Johnson said no decision has been made on whether to expand, much less where, but Rockford is rolling out the red carpet. The town's airport, about 80 miles west of Chicago, is already used as a bizjet reliever airport and local officials clearly think ERAU would be a good fit. There's even talk of a taxpayer-funded $35 million building to lease to ERAU. "We are very impressed with some of the things they have to offer," Johnson said. "But we also have not ruled out Houston or Los Angeles either." The expansion discussions are going on even though enrollment is down slightly at both the main campuses and its satellite operations all over the world. Exhilaration: Found Your search for the ultimate aircraft will take you many places. But the true enthusiast is always led back to the Pilatus PC-12 NG. + 280kt max cruise speed zip + Pilot's dream primus apex avionics + Stretch-way-out cabin comfort + Proven dirt-strip capable + Reconfigurable seating in-a-flash + Quick-to-the-air learning curve + Lift a ton, go have fun Pilatus. Destination: Found Pilatus-Aircraft.com Finding the Funds back to top  Aspen Runway Extension Funding Possible A runway extension at Aspen-Pitkin Regional Airport may happen sooner rather than later. Aspen officials have been told they may need a resolution in place to accept about $14 million in federal funding for the extra 1,000 feet of runway, which would allow larger regional airliners to use the airport, which serves popular resort areas in the region. Aspen was told earlier that it didn't make the funding list for this year but it now appears that some projects that were approved have been delayed. The FAA's fiscal year ends Sept. 30. If the money is approved, crews would be able to get some preliminary work done on the project before the snow flies. The runway would be built over the water wells serving a neighboring community and a deal for alternative water service needs to be struck. Meanwhile, an airline service bottleneck has been solved for the coming winter. Republic/Frontier Airlines had planned to sell off all its Q400 aircraft and they were the only aircraft that could serve Aspen. That would have left United as the only airline with scheduled service. Republic/Frontier elected to hang on to enough turboprops to maintain service this winter. Delta Airlines has terminated service to Aspen. JA Air Center — When It Comes to Garmin Avionics, Go with a Name You Can Trust! Since 1965, pilots have trusted the avionics experts at JA Air Center. Whether you're looking for ship-in repair, custom installation, or a mail order purchase, no one knows avionics better than JA Air Center. Call (800) 323-5966 or click here. BUY, SELL, or TRADE your avionics and GPS equipment at JA Air Center Not Everyone Is in Favor of Expansion ... back to top  Neighbors Object To Long Beach Changes Opposition is mounting to the FAA's proposal to greatly expand the Class C airspace around Long Beach Airport in California. Pilot groups, both local and national, have weighed in on the consequences for GA, which include the impact on local flight schools, which will have to go further afield for practice. The latest round of opposition is a natural extension of the shift in airspace use. Earlier this week, the six municipalities that surround Long Beach and will inherit the increased training and other light aircraft traffic all passed resolutions opposing the change. The FAA says the change is needed to allow controllers to sort out the increasing mix of airline, business and recreational traffic around the popular airport. The comment period on the proposal has now ended and the final decision is expected soon. Get More Rewards Faster with WingPoints®! Reward yourself when you refuel with WingPoints from Phillips 66® Aviation. Start earning points immediately, and earn double points when you use WingPoints with any Phillips 66 Aviation branded card. Get your card today! Who's Where back to top  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. See What You've Been Missing! Active-Surveillance Traffic Now Available Starting at $8,490 Avidyne announces new full-featured TAS605 and TAS615 models, along with the lowest price available for dual-antenna, active traffic with our TAS600. All TAS600 Series systems provide timely audible and visual alerts with the precise location of conflicting traffic. Patented Top & Bottom directional antennas detect other aircraft sooner and more accurately. Avidyne's TAS600 Series are the smallest, lightest, best performing, and most affordable active TAS systems available. Click here to learn more about the TAS600 Traffic Systems. AVweb Media: Look, Listen, Laugh and Learn back to top  Video: An Illuminating Look at LED Landing Lights Original, Exclusive Videos from AVweb | Reader-Submitted & Viral Videos Don't look now, but LED landing lights have gotten brighter and better over just the last year. In this video, AVweb takes a look at some of the current offerings and concludes they perform better than the old standby 5509 tractor bulb. 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. WingX Pro7 Moving Map for iPad! The $99 Moving Map — WingX Pro7 Moving Map for iPad is now available for your iPad. See your location on the approach chart; Approach Charts and Airport Diagrams are now geo-referenced*, and all are stored right on the iPad! WingX Pro7's interactive moving map displays Class B, C, and D airspaces; animated weather images; A/FD; AOPA Directory with Yelp integration; route planning, FARs, METARS, TAFS, winds, and temperatures aloft; TFRs' text and graphics; an E6B; and more. WingX is also available for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Android. Click here for more information. Help Us Celebrate AVweb's 15th Anniversary back to top  15 Years and Now 15 Grand Giveaways ... It's Your Chance to Win a PMA6000B Audio Panel from PS Engineering You could win a PMA6000B audio panel from PS Engineering! All you have to do is click here to enter your name and e-mail address. (You only have to enter once, and you'll be entered in our prize drawings for the entire year — so if you've already entered, you're all set.) And no, we're not going to rent or sell your name, ever. Tell your friends, and invite them to sign up for AVweb so they can qualify for our 15 Grand Giveaways prize drawings, too. (We won't spam them, either — but we hope they will sign up for our newsletters.) Deadline for entries is 11:59pm Zulu time Friday, September 24, 2010. Click here to read the contest rules and enter. Congratulations to David Durnan of Somerville, Massachusetts, who won our last prize, a Bose Aviation Headset X! (click here to get your own from Bose) Rod Machado Private Pilot Training AVweb Bookstore now features professional pilot Part 141-approved training kits based on Rod Machado's text books and work books. We find Machado's teaching style memorable, interesting, fun, and a welcome alternative to Brands X and Y. Many flight schools and college programs agree, citing higher test scores and pass rates since making the switch. Machado Private Pilot Kit / $194.95 Call (800) 780-4115 or click here for more information. The Top Reporter on Our Crack Staff ... Is You! back to top  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. You're a part of our team ... often, the best part. Looking for Low-Cost, Yet Effective, Marketing Options? Let AVweb assist your company in creating effective direct-response marketing campaigns to generate leads. No other digital aviation news media reaches more qualified subscribers more often. Text messages in newsletters combined with online banners reach over 255,000 readers monthly and deliver more new users to sponsor sites weekly than most print publications do monthly. Click now for details. Names Behind the News back to top  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.