The week’s news was filled with everything from cries for help to a world’s first certification of a new type of plane.
- FAA is asking for money from the general fund, as ticket taxes, a prime source of funding, have dried up during the pandemic slowdown.
- Pipistrel’s electric plane has earned EASA certification, the first such approval that we know of. Getting the FAA’s okay might prove trickier, as U.S. regulators work to get their arms around this new form of propulsion and what it means to certification, ongoing airworthiness and safety.
- NBAA is going forward with its early October NBAA/BACE convention in Orlando, Florida.
- The Civil Air Patrol bought 17 brand-new Cessna piston singles, most of them Skyhawks, but the order also a couple of Skylanes and one Turbo 206.
- The FCC issued a controversial approval for a new spectrum use that aviation groups are up in arms over, fearing for the integrity of GPS and other radio based technologies.
- AOPA reported that private contractor NavCanada is increasing user fees for flights in Canadian airspace by nearly 30%, based on the downturn caused by the pandemic.
- Garmin Pilot, the all-in-one charts, moving-map and data app has added a number of new features, including night mode and improvements to its logbook and menu systems, among a number of others. Look for a review on Plane & Pilot
- AIN reported that the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) has seen strong equipage rates in ADS-B and concludes that the great majority of needed ADS-B upgrades for planes that regularly fly in ADS-B mandated airspace has been done.
