| Follow Us On: |  |  |  (Artist's rendition) | By Robert Goyer — Word has leaked that Google is planning to unveil some hardware later this year that will get pilots dreaming and developers drooling. Google's sunglasses are designed to house a head-up display. The glasses, according to a report in the New York Times and on several tech websites, will cost several...[ more]  (Photo courtesy of Embraer) | By Robert Goyer — According to Hawker Beechcraft Corporation Chairman Bill Boisture, the Air Force has decided to restore the company's failed bid to win the potentially lucrative contract to build 20 light air support (LAS) aircraft for delivery to Afghanistan with potential follow-on...[ more] By Stephen Pope — Microsoft made its highly anticipated, new-generation flight simulation game available for free download a day earlier than originally announced, but that only seemed to ensure the negative reaction to Flight, available for the PC, came early as well. Pilots generally are giving...[ more] By Robert Goyer — For those operators who have several pilots flying for them, or even a changing cast of characters, the use of electronic charts, principally iPad charts, has offered great savings over the past couple of years. Now ForeFlight, which has developed the best selling charting...[ more] By Stephen Pope — The FAA has shot down a proposal that sought to expand driver's license medicals to all pilots flying aircraft weighing 6,000 pounds or less — but that hasn't stopped AOPA and EAA from continuing to push for the change. The agency denied a 2009 petition calling for the switch...[ more] Avemco Owned Aircraft Insurance
Get A Quote Avemco.com. By Robert Goyer — Before you click on this video of an event that was captured back in the 1960s of a hand-propped airplane going out of control on the ramp, realize that nobody got killed and no limbs were lopped off. But it is still terrifying to watch. When it picks up after the FAA's opening...[ read more and see video] By Pia Bergqvist — After a decade-long hiatus, Santa Monica Airport's Museum of Flying, which was originally founded in 1974, opened its doors last weekend. Located on the south side of the runway adjacent to a large DC-3 monument maintained by the City of Santa Monica, the exhibit area houses...[ more]  (Photo courtesy of Virgin Galactic) | By Bethany Whitfield — The space tourism venture launched by billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson is looking to test fly SpaceShipTwo outside of Earth's atmosphere before the end of this year, the company said earlier this week. To date, the carbon-composite spacecraft has completed 16 glide tests, as well as...[ read more and see photos] Start Pac® Portable Power Units Superior Technology. Superior Support. Click here to learn about all our products. By Robert Goyer — The FAA has released a notice of proposed rulemaking that will drastically alter the landscape of the professional flight training industry. The NPRM is the next step toward creating a set of FARs to put into action the law passed by Congress and signed by President...[ more] How does a $1,000 gift certificate toward any King Schools course of your choosing sound? To enter the giveaway, simply put your pilot knowledge to the test with these three video-based quiz questions. Who knows, those three questions could put a $1,000 gift certificate in your hands! [ take the quiz here] Flying reader Larry D. Cosby recently stopped by Co-Mar Aviation in a Piper Cherokee. Here's what he has to say about the experience: "Crew van took me and my son to a local restaurant for dinner and returned us to the airport. They then delivered us to a local hotel for an overnight stay, then came...[ more] By Robert Goyer — Precise control of an airplane's power is not that big a deal, that is, unless you want to fly precisely. In that case, it's an absolutely critical part of the equation. Unless you control your ship's power very accurately, you can't nail the numbers, and nailing the numbers is the key to nailing...[ more] |  | Tip of the Week Sponsored by Virgin Galactic reps say they're preparing to test fly SpaceShipTwo beyond Earth's orbit by year's end. Here's a closer look at what could become the world's first commercial space tourism vehicle.
View the photo gallery here.   | |  By Robert Goyer
The FAA has released a notice of proposed rulemaking that will drastically alter the landscape of the professional flight training industry. The NPRM is the next step toward creating a set of FARs to put into action the law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in 2010. There are numerous safety initiatives contained within the law, but the one that likely will have the most dramatic effect will be the provision that calls for first officers to hold an Airline Transport Pilot certificate. As we wrote at the time the bill came to the fore, there's no data to correlate a FO having an ATP certificate with any change in safety. There very well might be some safety advantage to be found there, but we know of no study that suggests a link. Moreover, we don't know how, given the exceedingly small number of air transport accidents and the causal complexity of those accidents, that any such link possibly could be established. The change in hours required for FO's is staggering. Currently they can start flying the right seat of an RJ with 250 hours, the minimum needed for a commercial. In reality, few have even close to as few hours as that, but many have far fewer than 1,000 hours. The ATP requirement will boost that number to 1,500 hours, a level of...[ more]  By Stephen Pope A few weeks ago we reported on an upcoming job fair being put together by Wasinc International, China's largest pilot placement firm, and hosted by Pan Am International Flight Academy at its training centers in Miami and Las Vegas. What was unusual about the event was the airlines being represented. There were 12 Chinese carriers in attendance, all of them desperate to fill pilot seats in the fastest growing economy in the world. How did it go? The job fairs were held this past weekend, and the airlines there hired nearly 100 U.S. pilots on the spot. I took a closer interest in the event because I was just down at Pan Am getting my commercial multi rating and plan to go back for a type rating. Greg Darrow, Pan Am's head of sales and an airline captain himself, said the job fairs were the first of their kind and reflected the explosive growth of aviation in China. "For a guy with no wife and kids, going to China to fly would be an adventure of a lifetime," Darrow said. "It's really an amazing place." I couldn't imagine dropping everything and signing on with a Chinese...[ more] | |  |  Flying Quote of the Week
"In soloing — as in other activities — it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it."
— Amelia Earhart
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