Business Aviation Posts

The 2026 Singapore Airshow About this time of the year, journalists from around the globe pack a couple of bags and head for Singapore to attend the annual international air show. I’ve actually never made it to Singapore and I won’t this year. But I…

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Raytheon-Hawker-850XPi/1976827/L If you follow business aviation stories, you’ve probably read about the loss of two Hawker jets – an 800XP and a 900XP – in the past two years. Both accidents evolved from similar circu…

Why Business Aviation Needs Better Storytelling By Paula Williams, ABCI “Those who tell the stories rule the world.”  – Native American proverb. In February 2025, Senator Edward Markey reintroduced his “Fat Cat” tax bill—officially known as the F…

By Paula Williams In the 1990s, when I studied journalism at the University of Utah, my heroes were Edward R. Murrow, David Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstein. I believed firmly in the importance of the Fourth Estate—journa…

Safe Initial Climbs Can Mean Tradeoffs A pilot’s first takeoff in a jet airplane is a true rite of passage, almost as eye opening as a first solo. Push those power levers forward, and a pilot’s body is soon pressed back against the seat. That feedba…

In the Citation III Confessions of a New Corporate Pilot Life would be sweet, I thought, now that I’d successfully passed my Cessna Citation III (CE-650) type rating check ride (this was a few years back). It meant I’d be flying my first swept-wing …

Decades ago, when I learned to fly, it was well-known that a commercial co-pilot/first officer was allowed to occupy the right seat of a transport airplane only if they’d proven themselves subservient enough to understand that the guy in the left se…

Two stories reported near April 1 suggested a cruel prank. Just before 4/1 came news that the FY 2025 budget proposed to raise the per-gallon tax on business jet fuel nearly 400%, to $1.06 per gallon. As a reminder, aviation fuel taxes are how the g…

I have many fond and a few not-so-fond memories of flying business jets in the corporate world. But then, everyone needs to begin somewhere. Rob Mark A crusty old chief pilot once told me early in my jet flying career that, at times, I seemed a bi…

Since there’s no statute of limitations on dumb, I present to you a flight that was not one of my finer moments. My co-pilot’s name has been changed to be certain he doesn’t receive any head-shaking comments from his flying buddies. RM ____________…

Talking last week to a 30-something professional pilot about his journey to a Gulfstream cockpit, he brought my interrogation to a dead silent stop with his answer to one question. After he summarized the chronology of his pilot certificates and rat…

TAXI TROUBLES Flying on-demand Part 135 airplanes can be a tough life, with pilots often spending their day waiting for that firefighter-like call to swing into action—calls that always seem to happen near the end of the day. We fly in all kinds o…

ADM—Aeronautical Decision Making—is a system of thinking that benefits all aspects of life on the ground as well as in the air because it is a reflective way of processing situations composed of often uncertain variables. These situations prepare us…

Reprinted courtesy AOPA Turbine Pilot – illustration by John Holm By Rob Mark If you’ve yet to endure the two or three solid weeks of grueling classroom and simulator training known as initial, you will, if you decide to call the cockpit your home.…

A freshly minted CFI friend of mine called me recently almost completely out of breath with the exciting news that he’d managed to grab a few hours of loggable time in the right seat of an old Citation II, a bird that certainly turned out to be a gr…

Boeing 737 MAX 7 For the thousands of us who call the aviation industry home, 2020 turned out to be a year we’ll be glad to see the end of although the change of calendars won’t wipe away many of this year’s problems. The highly-contagious coronavir…

Aviators live and die by their acronyms, so reading one unfamiliar motivates a frenzy of catch-up research. A short news item about changes ICAO recently made to special procedures for in-flight contingencies in oceanic airspace focused on something…

Nothing in the world seems to make sense anymore. On Monday (September 14), GAMA published its aircraft shipping and billings report for the second quarter, and it’s not good. Every category took a significant hit. The surprise was that piston airpl…

Concentrating on a short-term goal is natural when facing unpleasant restrictions, but these inconveniences pale in comparison to the long-term consequences. What unites both timeframes is the inescapable reality that as individuals, societies, and …

In the cover feature of the September 18, 2019 New York Times Magazine, William Langeweishe presents a cogent, comprehensive, and nuanced answer to its interrogative headline, “What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 Max?” The subhead summarized the…

It’s been so long that I don’t remember when I started reading the FAA Aerospace Forecast, but I anticipate each update with eager curiosity, and the FAA just released its crystal ball for Fiscal Years 2019-2039. What interests me most are the gener…

Just six months on the job as Enstrom Helicopter’s production test pilot, Cody Parkovich traces his position to the night he was bartending in Marinette, Wisconsin, just across the river from Menominee, Michigan. “That night I found out, when I was …

An AirVenture visit to the EAA Innovation Center is always worthwhile because you never know what you’ll find in its cool, air conditioned and dry interior. Some of the cooler technology was a 3D printer that was hard at work recreating what looked …

It all began last month with the White House’s infrastructure plan that included severing the decades old ties between the FAA and its air traffic control system. President Trump said he supported the split, an effort that would be financed by user …