Aviation News

The FAA and [http://education.nasa.gov/home/index.html|NASA] are teaming up to promote careers in space and aviation to young people. The intiative seeks to strengthen student's abilities in math and sciences. The program indicates the strong need for an aviation and space workforce in coming years.

One particularly interesting outreach activity is [http://www.atcsim.nasa.gov|Smart Skies], an online air traffic control simulator for 5th to 9th graders.

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The oops list has a hilarious photography archive of aviation related accidents.

Here's one of my favorites:
Cessna Takes a Swim

The AOPA has a great Pilot's Guide to Taxes on their website.

As the tax filing deadline looms near, don't forget to consider possible income, sales, and personal property tax issues!

Aircraft owners might check out Aircraft Ownership : A Legal and Tax Guide from Amazon.

In an ironic turn of events, Indian aviation schools have begun setting up pilot training facilities abroad. A rapidly expanding aviation industry in India has created a huge demand for commercial airline pilots. One facility has been set up in Dubai and others are planned in Australia or the UAE. It struck me as ironic given the United States's ongoing concern over the oursourcing of jobs to India.

Major airlines are pushing for a new funding system for the FAA that would shift a huge financial burden onto small aviation outfits. The new system could make it more expensive for average citizens to fly while providing tax breaks to the airline industry. Its a move reminiscent of big box stores pushing out local businesses and will ultimately stunt local economies that benefit from aviation.

Some further reading in this letter to the editor at the Washington Post as well as coverage of the funding debate by the AOPA.

The three-day annual Women in Aviation International (WAI) conference closed this past saturday. More than 3,200 attendees packed the exhibit hall at Disney's Coronado Springs Convention Center in Orlando, Florida . On Saturday night, more than $375,000 in scholarships was awarded at the closing banquet. WAI also inducted three new members into its Pioneer Hall of Fame. Keynote speakers included Bonnie Dunbar, Ed Bolen, Jane Middleton, Will Whitehorn and Major Nicole M.E. Malachowski.

Women In Aviation, International began in 1990 and was formally established in 1994 to encourage women to seek opportunities in aviation.

In an unprecidented move, airline pilots would be allowed to fly until they turned 65 instead of the current mandatory retirement age of 60 under a proposal announced Tuesday by the Federal Aviation Administration.read more | digg story

TreeHugger.com recently challenged Helium Report (an online resource for wealthy consumers) to create a "How to Live Large on a Small Footprint" environmental guide for the wealthy. In response, Helium Report recently wrote a great article on carbon-neutral flying for private jet owners.

It got me thinking about how pilots and aviation enthusiasts of all economic levels could "fly green".

LightHawk, a volunteer-based environmental aviation organization, recently announced that they had worked with Carbonfund.org to offset their carbon footprint by investing in renewable energy projects. Carbonfund.org is a non-profit that helps individuals, businesses and organizations to reduce their climate impact. LightHawk also uses GAMIjectors in their Cessna 206 for greater fuel efficiency.

General aviation (GA) is banned from the skies within 40 nautical miles of Washington, D.C., Tuesday night.read more | digg story

Article on what flying might look like in a few years, especially for economy passengers like me, and how Airbus and Boeing intend to improve the current situation.read more | digg story