Max Trescott Aviation Trends Aloft

The ADS-B NextGen Mandate: Time is Running Out for Your Comments

There's always a marriage of sorts between pilots and Air Traffic Control, and final vows are about to be exchanged for the FAA’s NextGen Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). The proposal mandates ADS-B equipment in all aircraft by 2020, but the deadline for comments is just two weeks away, so now is the time for you to carefully read this prenuptial agreement.

In the past, the FAA has embarked on other multi-billion dollar modernization programs that ballooned in size and failed to deliver as promised. This program could be more successful than those, but it may need changes to optimize it to deliver the right benefits at the lowest cost. Whether you own or rent, your money is at stake and...

VLJ Training--What Will be Required

If there's a VLJ jet in your future, then you probably have some interest in what it will take to be properly trained in one so that you can fly it safely. I'll show you the preliminary results of one survey, but first I have to mention that while I was attending an FAA meeting in Oklahoma City last week, I overheard two people talking about whether there should be any special training mandated for VLJ's. Both were people whose names you'd recognize and both know a lot about about jets. They quickly agreed that VLJ's were just jets, and that no special training--other than what you'd normally get for a jet--was required or should be mandated.

A group called the International VLJ Training Stakeholder's Discussion Group has posted an online survey that...