AOPA News
Build a Plane builds two planes, Day 1
“Get ready to drink from the firehose.” If you’re in aviation, you’ve probably heard that phrase before—particularly if you did an accelerated rating or a type rating. Today I heard that phrase applied to the process of building an airplane. “Building an airplane” and “drinking from the firehose” are generally not concepts that you hear in [...]
Strange But True General Aviation News
Release the crabs!! The New York Police Department’s aviation unit used a helicopter and night vision goggles to pursue four men trying to take 200 horseshoe crabs out of Sheepshead Bay, reports the New York Times.  The police arrested two of the four suspects.            [...]
Designs from a new generation
A week from today, two teams of high school students will be rolling up their sleeves to start putting together two Glasair Sportsman 2+2s. The teams, from high schools in Saline, Mich., and Canby, Minn., were the winners of a nationwide aviation design challenge competition sponsored by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and Build A [...]
Strange But True General Aviation News
Do the crime, do the time. Â Stephen Paul Riley of Olney, Texas, is facing 10 years of hard time for shooting several times at a crop-dusting aircraft that flew over his property, reports WFAA-TV. Â Olney had threatened to shoot any aircraft flying over his ranch. Maybe a catching a ride on a different private jet [...]
Strange But True General Aviation News
I guess that’s one way to get rid of bees.  A helicopter in Pima County, Ariz.’s Search and Rescue Deputies was used to rescue hikers being attacked by bees, reports KVOA-TV.  The helicopter flew down to 50 feet to blow the bees away from the hikers. Here’s a novel way to save your crops from [...]
AVWEB
Thielert Founder Jailed As Trial Proceeds
Frank Thielert, founder of Thielert Aircraft Engines, which produced Centurion diesel engines for the aviation market, last week was jailed by a judge in a German bankruptcy court who reportedly considered him a "flight risk." According to the Google translation of a story in the Hamburg Abendblatt newspaper, the judge said Thielert faces several years in prison if convicted on charges that investors in his company were "systematically deceived." The Thielert AG company went public in 2005 and declared insolvency in 2008.
FBO of the Week: Atlantic Aviation (KAUS, Austin, Texas)
AVWEB FUEL FINDER - CURRENT PRICE FOR 100LL: $6.02 (no change from last week)CURRENT PRICE FOR JET A: $5.41 (up 1¢ from last week)Fuel prices provided weekly by AirNav, based on prices from the past 2 weeks. Changes are relative to last week's prices.
AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Atlantic Aviation at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (KAUS) in Austin, Texas.AVweb reader Diane Myers let us know about their outstanding service:We always park at Atlantic in Austin. Large airport means more expensive fuel, but their service is outstanding. Two years ago, we needed maintenance on Sunday after Thanksgiving. They called out a mechanic. He was out of town but called his co-worker to drive out to the airport to fix our problem. Great service!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!
Short Final
Back in the '70s, a Southern gentleman friend was an airline pilot who owned a C-182 that he called "Juan" — as in "Juan Eighty-Two." His N-number ended in 4Q, and if he either wanted a laugh or didn't like an ATC instruction, he acknowledged with, "Roger. Four Q." Pronounced in that Southern-gentlemanly style that sounded more like, "Roger. Fork you."Bless his heart, he always gave me a $20 bill any time he came in the shop. And now you know why we now need a full N-number readback!Tom Ciuravia e-mail
Video: Diamond DA40 Tundra Edition
It turns out there's money in Russia, and people want to fly sophisticated airplanes into places where the runways suck or don't exist. Diamond has risen to the challenge with its DA40 Tundra edition. Paul Bertorelli recently had a flight demo in the airplane and prepared this video report.
New Aircraft Rental Service Launched
There's a new way to rent an airplane at six airports across the U.S. and the founders of OpenAirplane hope it will modernize and rationalize the way people rent aircraft. The online service puts renters and aircraft owners together with an eBay twist. "Both pilots and operators contribute to a reputation system, creating first of its kind transparency for the community," said OpenAirplane spokesman Rod Rakic. OpenAirplane launched today with affiliates in New York, L.A., Chicago, San Jose, Kissimmee and Detroit and almost 6,000 pilots have registered even though the service has been in a beta mode until today. Rentals can be arranged through almost any kind of Web device and it's open to anyone with an FAA pilot certificate from Sport Pilot to ATP and it's free for pilots and the aircraft providers to join.
