Airline Sets Sights On New Mexico -- But Still Can't Fly

When Valley Air Express left Victorville, CA, it also appeared the airline had left the stage completely -- but it now looks like the airline merely set its sights on another airport, this one about 580 miles east.

Funding -- Not Lack Of Interest -- Is The Problem

As if learning how to fly, manage airlines and even run airports wasn't enough, students in Georgia State University's aviation program have another daunting task on their syllabi: keeping the 30-year-old program alive.

Challenger Seven Remembered By A Grateful Nation

Where were you twenty years ago Saturday, at 11:39 AM Eastern Standard Time? I was in an Army barracks in Augsburg, Germany, with two or three friends. We were watching the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Two Experienced Pilots Perish In Pontiac Pattern

Something went tragically awry on approach to Runway 9 Left at Michigan's Oakland County International Airport (KPTK) Friday morning, leaving an airplane destroyed and pilots Gene Hammond and Thomas C. Bailey dead.

Accidentally Started Engine By Grabbing Prop

Police in The Villages, FL made a gruesome discovery Thursday night when they answered a call to Leesburg Regional Airport (LEE). They found the body of 73-year-old Rudi Lavazoli on the ground, near the nose of his 1969 Siai-Marchetti airplane, with severe lacerations to the right side of his head and upper body.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Southern Region Airports Division announced it awarded the Columbia, SC, Metropolitan Airport (CAE) the 2005 Air Carrier Airport Safety Award. The airport competed for the award with other air carrier airports throughout the Southeast.

AirShares Elite Passes Four Million-Mile Mark

AirShares Elite announced Friday their group of pilot-owners has flown over four million miles. To put that number into perspective, consider that four million miles is equal to 8.5 roundtrips to the moon, or 160 trips around the earth at the equator.

Each year the command at Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Thirty One (VX-31) at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) China Lake selects members of its military and civilian team as Test Pilot of the Year, Test Naval Flight Officer of the Year and Flight Test Engineer of the Year.

Hill AFB Welcomes Col. Ken Merchant

Aero-News has learned Colonel Ken Merchant, formerly commander of the 551st Electronic Systems Wing at Massachusetts Hanscom Air Force Base, assumed his duties as vice commander of the Ogden Air Logistics Center last Monday.

Aero-Tips!

“Back in the day” before GPS, LORAN or widespread use of transponders in training airplanes, instructors put great store in teaching a procedure to “get found” if students became inexorably lost.  It was (and still is) called “VHF Direction Finding.”  Colloquially it’s known as a “DF Steer.”

Aero-Linx!

There are all sorts of sites dedicated to one type plane or another. Here’s one for the Stinson owners or fans.

Alert Area A specific area wherein a high volume of pilot training or an unusual type of aeronautical activity is conducted.  Be alert in an alert area before you become an accident.

"It is also not good public policy for Alamogordo officials to just choose Valley Air without checking their prior history." Source: Dr. Steven Frates, senior fellow with the Rose Institute at Claremont (CA) McKenna College, on the news Alamogordo, NM city officials selected Valley Air Express to begin flights between the southern New Mexico city and Albuquerque. The city paid Valley Air $526,000 in DOT funds to begin the service last October... but the airline still hasn't flown one flight. Valley Air previously flew a twice-a-week flight from Victorville, CA to Las Vegas, also while receiving DOT money... but pulled the service due to lack of interest at about the same time the airline courted Alamogordo.