Get tools to protect your airport in free Webinar You can be your airport’s first line of defense against encroachment, conflict with neighbors, and closure. Join AOPA’s airports team on Thursday, June 10, for a Webinar at 3 or 9 p.m. Eastern time to find out about common threats to airports and how you can…

California passes requirements for flight schools
Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 48 into law last fall, which mandates FAA-approved flight schools satisfy certain requirements. Called the California Private Postsecondary Act of 2009, the law will require flight schools to pay a yearly fee (i.e., more taxes ….Ed) and open their books to regulators. A hearing about how to implement the law is set for June 7.

Call to Action! AB48 (update at the end of this article)

June 5, 2010

Please take the time to read this – I know it is long, but it is important.

If you haven’t already heard, Sacramento is at it again.

Last year AB-48 was quietly passed without much attention from the general aviation community – mostly because we were not aware we needed to be concerned. AB-48 is a reinstatement of another consumer protection law which had rightfully expired.

Just when you thought a new Passenger terminal was the only big thing going on at the Airport
A Grand Opening took place at the Santa Barbara Airport last month to celebrate the new self-serve fueling installation on the airport. Garry Abbott, and Mitch Laskowski Founders of MAG Aviation Fuel, headquartered in Hesperia California announced this crowning moment after a more than two year effort to achieve a truly competitive fuel outlet for general aviation pilots at the Santa Barbara Airport.

The influx of traffic for the upcoming U.S. Open golf tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif., will make Monterey Peninsula Airport unavailable for practice approaches from June 13 through 21, the FAA is notifying pilots.

Keeping the peace May 27, 2010 John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County, California, is not your typical airport. At least it’s not the typical airport I come in contact with. Bracketed on both ends of two parallel runway by highways, and surrounded by densely packed commercial and residential neighbors, noise is the enemy of…

Rick Tutt flies with land fill seen out the window

Planes, birds could suffer consequences of bigger landfill

‘This is the man cave,” said pilot Rick Tutt as we ducked inside a dim hangar. Tutt smacked a button, and the 50-foot hangar door rolled up. The sun poured in on a Piper Malibu airplane. Unlike the posh destinations to which Tutt flies his clients, we were going to fly over the dump.

May 15, 2010, is national Learn to Fly Day, which means that participating flight schools, airports, flight instructors and aviation enthusiasts across the country will host Learn to Fly seminars completely free of charge. Hundreds of venues across the country are expected to host Learn To Fly events, Saturday, in what may be the largest push for pilots in recent memory.

We’re asking every pilot and aviation enthusiast to introduce someone new to aviation on Learn To Fly Day,” EAA’s Ron Wagner told AVweb at Sun ‘n Fun this week. “It’s coming up soon … May 15 … and pilots around the country are making plans to participate.” Participation can be as simple as inviting a friend or neighbor to visit the airport or go for a flight, or as robust as planning a weekend-long community festival, as one group in Louisiana is doing, Wagner said. “This is not just an EAA initiative,” he added. “It’s aviation-wide.” There are so many barriers to discovering the world of flight today, from fences to finances to fear of the unknown, Wagner said. “If each of us just got one person interested, the aviation community would double.”

When Arnold Failano was ready to realize his childhood dream of learning to fly an airplane last fall, he had to leave Salinas to do it. Salinas was without a flight school since Air Trails/Verticare closed after the death of owner Jim Cheatham early in 2009 and Light Sport Airplanes closed later in the year. Failano started his training in Watsonville. But when San Jose-based AeroDynamic Aviation opened at Salinas Municipal Airport in April, he switched.