114 NAFI Members Sign Petition Calling For Ouster Of Current
BoD
ANN REALTIME UPDATE 02.02.09 1500 EST: One
hundred fourteen... and counting. That's the number of
people who have signed a petition
calling for the immediate resignation of the current Board
of Directors for the National Association of Flight
Instructors.
ANN Daily Touch N Go: 02.02.09 (ANN's
Short-Form Daily News Program)
ANN Daily Aero-Briefing: 02.02.09
(ANN's Long-Form Daily News Program)
ANN Special Feature -- "Currency," Versus Safety:
02.02.09 (ANN Special Report, with CFII Bob Miller
of "Over The Airwaves.")
Alliant Techsystems successfully conducted a full-scale
separation of NASA's Ares I-X Forward Skirt Extension at its
Promontory facility last week, in preparation for this summer's
flight test of Ares I-X.
Carrier-Based Multi-Mission Aircraft Completes 35-Year
Career
The US Navy retired the last Lockheed Martin S-3 Viking from
fleet service in ceremonies at Naval Air Station Jacksonville
Friday morning, closing out the aircraft's distinguished 35-year
Naval career.
Suit Claims Cessna Knew Plane Was Poorly Designed For Icy
Conditions
A lawsuit filed last year in the February 2007 crash of a Cessna
208B Grand Caravan was refiled in US District Court by the Nebraska
pilot and his family last week to include more defendants in the
case.
Sikorsky Aircraft achieved a major milestone in its X2
Technology demonstrator program by successfully ground testing the
aircraft with the pusher propeller installed and spinning for the
first time.
Court Case Seeks To Stop Destruction Of 160-Year-Old
Cemetery
More than 150 family members of people buried in St. Johannes
Cemetery, located next to Chicago O'Hare Airport, have filed a
petition to stop the City of Chicago from removing those graves to
make way for new runways and terminals at O'Hare.
Harbin Facility Will Manufacture Composite Parts For A350 XWB,
A320
European planemaker Airbus and a group of Chinese industrial
partners signed a contract Monday to establish a Joint Venture
Manufacturing Center in Harbin, China to manufacture composite
material parts and components for the Airbus A350 XWB program and
Airbus A320 Family aircraft.
Just when you thought
the dust had cleared surrounding aerobatic ace
Patty Wagstaff's unfortunate brush with the law at last year's
AirVenture, a whole slew of new details has emerged.
COSPAS-SARSAT turns off satellite detection of the 121.5 MHz and
243 MHz emergency radio beacons Sunday. In order to track the new
406 MHz generation of emergency radio beacons, the US Coast Guard
selected Becker Avionics' SAR MAN-PACK for ground operations.
At the ever-intriguing 2008 ICAS Convention, ANN's Editor-In-Chief, Jim Campbell, caught up with Master Rigger, Allen Silver, to get caught up on parachute regs, technology and associated issues. Allen is a "Rigger's Rigger" and one of the most knowledgable guys in the craft.
At the ever-intriguing 2008 ICAS Convention, ANN's
Editor-In-Chief, Jim Campbell, caught up with Master Rigger, Allen
Silver, to get caught up on parachute regs, technology and
associated issues. Allen is a "Rigger's Rigger" and one of the most
knowledgable guys in the craft.
ANN has reported on the ongoing issues between the
National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) and a growing
segment of its membership since last fall. The issue arose last
October when the NAFI Board and a group of its members (organized
under the name of "TBO-NAFI") found themselves in conflict over a
number of issues.
Airline Balks At Footing FAs Legal Bills Because Of 'White
Lie'
Three former America West (now US Airways) flight attendants are
facing a costly court battle on their own, stemming from a 2003
flight from Calgary to Phoenix that has sparked controversy and a
defamation suit filed by the First Officer against the FAs.
Attempts To Set Record Straight On Columbian Gov't Aircraft
Sale
In an article entitled "Cobrança Suspeita" ("Suspicious
Payment"), Brazil's Veja magazine recently reported on an alleged
improper request by Maria Juliana Buendía de La Vega, for a
commission on the sale of Embraer Super Tucano aircraft to the
Colombian Government.
Authorities have not yet released the identities of two men
involved in a parachuting incident Saturday afternoon... a skydive
that turned out to be the first for one of the men, and the last
for the other.
Congressmen And Senators Appeal For Restoration Of Funding
A recent proposal by the US Navy to cut back production on the
Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye surveillance plane could
impact nearly 400 jobs by springtime.
Aviation is on the minds of more Americans than ever before,
thanks to the heroic landing of a commercial jetliner in the Hudson
River last month. What people may not know is that 25% of all
aviation employees are eligible to retire this year... and there
may not be enough young graduates to fill these positions.
There are a lot of great aircraft-specific communities on the
web, but this is the first aviation community dedicated to
backcountry flying and the exploration of remote airstrips. This is
a culture of pilots who loves light, single-engine aircraft with
the sole purpose of exploring the seldom seen corners of the world
by air.
The Adaptive Compliant Wing is a wing design developed by
FlexSys, Inc. which is flexible so that its shape can be changed in
flight. The wing design features a variable-camber trailing edge
which can be deflected up to +/- 10°, so that it acts like a
flap-equipped wing, but without the individual segments and gaps
typical in a flap system.
"Ultimately, NAFI's attempts to subvert and exercise
control over the [Master Instructor] program and associated
[intellectual property] will fail. Even in the highly unlikely
event that NAFI succeeds against the Hills, the IP of other
contributors has not been secured by NAFI. This will invariably
prevent NAFI from continuing its current campaign, or at least it
could become the subject of an intractable legal dispute-causing
further (if not fatal) hemorrhaging of NAFI resources and good
will."
Source: TBO-NAFI organizer Rich Stowell, in an
editorial regarding recent developments at the National Association
of Flight Instructors. The group claims that EAA and others within
the aviation industry -- including NAFI -- are on a
'self-destructive
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