WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pilots may have to study more weather and show proficiency in flying by reference only to instruments during a biennial flight review if recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are adopted by the FAA.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Even though the members of Congress have been in their summer recess, this has not been a quiet period for the people here representing general aviation. They have been busy, and signs indicate they will be even busier.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Don’t blame the FAA.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Homeland Security Department has issued an Interim Flight Rule that will again permit general aviation aircraft to operate into and out of Reagan National Airport. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, GA aircraft have not been permitted at DCA, which is located just across the Potomac River from downtown Washington. The interim rule becomes effective Aug. 18, but the docket is open for comments until Sept. 19.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — This time of year, as Congress looks to the next fiscal year and hurries to get off to its summer “”district work”" period (aka vacation), a variety of events occur. Some move swiftly along the path to enactment, others might get changed along the way, some never make it.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is trying to match the wants of general aviation, politicians and businesses with its responsibility to maintain a high level of security for the nation’s capital, but is getting heat from all sides.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — If you live the average life span, from the moment you are born until your death your heart will beat a little more than 2 billion times. Many years ago when I worked for a newspaper, I drew a caricature of one of the columnists. He liked it and used it to illustrate his column six days a week. With the newspaper’s circulation of 150,000 a day, it would have required more than 24 years for that little drawing to be printed 1 billion times, had he continued writing that long.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — From January to mid-April of this year, Blackhawk helicopters patrolling the sky in the ADIZ around the Washington/Baltimore area have responded to more than 280 incursions. That averaged three a day. But one last month — when two persons in a Cessna 150 came close to the White House — generated worldwide hysteria. What made this one so different?

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — How to fund the FAA was the subject of still another hearing in the House of Representatives and the notion of user charges raised its ugly head higher, lifted by testimony from James May, president and CEO of the airlines’ Air Transport Association (ATA) and comments from several government witnesses.

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WASHINGTON, D.C.— A push to privatize the air traffic control system and/or put it on a fee basis is heating up, but two recent hearings in the House of Representatives indicate that members of the aviation subcommittee will have nothing to do with it.

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