Blog Posts

FAA held a customer service seminar last week in Chicago. I always chuckle a bit when someone combines the FAA acronym with anything that even sounds like customer service. Sorry PT & DB. But then, today’s my birthday so I suppose most readers will …

If you haven’t heard, the Internet and blogs like JetWhine are killing print journalism. Slowly, community journalists, everyday people with an interest in their community, are becoming our primary source of news. If you doubt this, watch TV news a…

Maybe I haven’t had enough coffee this morning, but I’m not sure how to take an article in the current issue of Wired, “Air Repair: Key to Eliminating U.S. Flight Delays? Redesign the Sky Over New York City.” It reminds me of that 1976 cover of the…

I don’t know what makes me more angry, the story in the Wall Street Journal that claims investigators are pointing the finger of blame at the pilots of the Dash 8 Q400 in the Buffalo crash a few weeks ago, or that from a pilot-training perspective w…

A confirmed rotorhead, I recently invested some unexpected free time looking into the NTSB’s public hearing on Safety of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) Operations. I didn’t have the time to watch four days of video available, so I sett…

The heart and soul of social media – blogging, Twitter, podcasting and a host of other new tools – is its ability to create a buzz around an issue – often within within seconds – much the way we saw with Janis Krum’s TwitPic post of a US Airways Air…

After reviewing thousands of comments about the fed’s proposed policy and procedural changes affecting the 51-percent rule, the Amateur-Built Aviation Rulemaking Committee completed its mission, submitted its final recommendations to the FAA, and c…

The past six months have not been easy for the aviation industry, or any other industry quite frankly, as we’ve all witnessed the bottom falling out of the marketplace. No one has any idea whether we’ve actually hit the bottom or not, nor does anyon…

Like a lot of aviators, I like to read about the problems faced by other pilots to learn how they dealt with them, and to refresh my memory of lessons I’ve already learned. A number of aviation publications present these scenarios, but none beats Ca…

The JA Air Center opened its new four-building campus, which covers 150,000 square feet, on December 1, 2008. As the airport’s primary FBO, the company had to add flight services–charter, training, and aircraft rental–to its well known menu of avio…

Remember the old days, back when people had little respect for business airplanes simply because they knew next to nothing about them? Those were the good old days until the guys from the motor companies jumped on their airplanes in Detroit to head …

Manufacturers of light-sport aircraft have not escaped the recession. According to several reports, this segment of the aviation industry has not been hit as hard as the manufacturers of heavier general aviation airplanes and the LSA fleet grew by 3…

Although the challenge arrived in a private e-mail a few minutes ago, one Jetwhine reader demanded in no uncertain terms that a simple video about the death of an old airline to strengthen another is only part of the tale. What about the companies t…

For anyone who ever built model airplanes using a spray gun or just an aerosol can, this is all going to seem pretty familiar. To everyone else, this clip is simply one step – although a very visible one – in the process of airline evolution. Enjoy.…

Showered daily with foul news about the economy overall–and aviation in particular–I wasn’t looking forward to talking with a dozen avionics shops across the country for a magazine assignment. Hearing bad news first hand would be slightly more pain…

I have the good fortune to be one of the aviation resources some media folks call upon to translate complex aviation babble into language even my 14-year old daughter can understand. We don’t have too many good-news stories in the airline industry t…

Designing, testing, certifying, and producing a new aircraft engine is never an easy process. A sour economy that sends investors into hiding just makes the process that more challenging. But the three-cylinder, six piston diesel/Jet A  Gemini 100 …

After just digging out from under 10 inches of lake effect snow in Chicago, I walked in to find these great shots from a Jetwhine reader. Thanks Alan J. They reminded me of a time when an instructor once encouraged me to try landing a Cessna 150 so …

It’s another frosty night in Chicago, but I stayed at work late to write because the issue of who will become the next FAA Administrator is really gnawing at me. Like the November election, this administrator choice is going to be an important one …

Reveling in good news is how I always try to start the new year, but finding it in aviation has been a challenge in the relentless headwind of layoffs, furloughs, shutdowns, and bankruptcy filings. But I did find some, in my own backyard, at OSH, be…

Rob Mark So here we are, nearly ready to turn off the lights on 2008 in order to be prepared to bring them up on 2009 and all of it happening as economies all over the world unravel. The aviation manufacturing industry has not been immune to the hi…

By Rob Mark Is there anything more stressful than knowing you want to buy your budding aviator something, but knowing full well that the economy has taken a toll on your pocketbook? Sure they might love anything you buy them now, but after Christmas…

Anyone who has blogged for more than a week will tell you that new media writers don’t press keyboards because we crave the fame and fortune of a successful media empire like Jetwhine (ahem). Most of us have long ago learned to cope with those accol…

A good question, posed by Matt Thomas in his comment about New Book Holds Hope for Aviation’s Future. “Do they risk finding other things to do that are perhaps more fun?” he asked on the next line, referring to pilots in general and not the subject…