AOPA is reporting that the FAA has resolved the issue of John and Martha King- King Schools owners- arrest over the weekend.

According to an article by Alton K. Marsh,
“FAA officials have resolved the lingering issue of listing a Cessna 172S leased to John and Martha King, owners of King Schools, as stolen. The listing caused Santa Barbara police to remove the couple from the aircraft at gunpoint Aug. 28.”

This article was originally posted by Sean Manget on the Alaska Chamber of Commerce website.

For Alaska aviation, 2010 has been a tragic year — 17 people have died since early June, including former Sen. Ted Stevens— and the media headlines certainly aren’t helping.

In Anchorage, a Cessna 206 clipped a building June 1 and then slammed into an unoccupied car dealership, injuring four and killing a 4-year-old child.

A commercial floatplane crashed north of Ward Cove July 23, killing pilot Josh Murdock.

Just days before the annual Arctic Thunder air show at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, a C-17 cargo plane crashed during a training exercise July 28, killing the four service members on board.

Then, Sen. Stevens, Alaska’s greatest congressional champion, died along with four others as a GCI-owned de Havilland Otter carrying Stevens and eight other people went down in the mountains outside Dillingham.

Since the death of Sen. Stevens, there have been even more crashes. In the latest of such headlines, a floatplane carrying three National Park Service employees in Southwest Alaska vanished. As of this writing, the plane, along with its passengers and pilot, was still missing.

But despite all of this sobering news, experts and industry officials say Alaska aviation is getting safer, despite a barrage of national and local headlines that would have readers thinking otherwise.

The statistics reinforce this.

(more…)

We’ve added another collection of photos to our Facebook page:

You’ll find more photos from Duxford, England in our album!

FreeFlight Systems President and CEO Tim Taylor has released another album on iTunes.

In case you didn’t know, Tim not only is an engineer by trade, he’s also a musician! Here’s another post about his music.

His new album is titled “Back Home.” It falls in the Alternative/Instrumental category on iTunes.

You can check out his music- as well as get two free tracks from his album “No More Yukes.”

Just visit his website at

http://www.homeworksstudios.com

We do things a little differently here at FreeFlight Systems.

We wanted to pass along some info about the free weather offered through a 978 MHz receiver for ADS-B valid clients.

This info comes from WSI, the official weather provider of 978MHz ADS-B datalink weather.

Whether it’s a heatwave, snow and ice, or rain, ADS-B datalink weather offers a significant amount of information.



We’ve got a completely new photo album on Facebook!

Here’s just a small sample:

Find the rest of them HERE.

A couple of weeks ago we posted about testing we were doing on our survivable memory system. You can see the “before” pictures from the tests done at our Waco facility HERE.

Here’s the follow-up post about the test designed and conducted by engineering technicians Neal Aston and Russell Randant.

This is during the crash survivable memory system “survive 1100 degrees for 1 hour test.”

At the end of the test we found that there had been some inside burning from a materials change we made – so we have to fix it and test again.

That is why we do these tests – to make sure that what we sell will work the way it is supposed to.

The test is 1100 degrees C for 1 hour ….  we are pushing the limits of the laws of physics here and we do not expect it to be easy.

To see more pictures from the test, go to our Facebook page. Here’s the address:

http://www.facebook.com/freeflightsystems

Marc posted this on his SITE. We wanted to share it with you!

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt spoke at the unveiling of the operational ADS-B system in the Gulf of Mexico in January 2010. Check out this video posted by AsTheCroftFlies

According to AOPA Online, Cessna Aircraft managers announced the planned layoffs of 75 workers on the Mustang entry-level jet at Independence, Kan.

The layoffs are in response to softness in Mustang orders, as well as the cancellation of a large order by an air taxi company in Europe.

You can read the entire article by Alton K. Marsh, HERE.

Employees were notified of the layoffs Aug. 18.

FreeFlight Systems President and CEO Tim Taylor, responds:

“We’re quite sorry to see the slowdown  on the Mustang. The class of lightweight, comparatively affordable, high speed business jets are enablers for a whole new chapter in business aviation.

“As the economy continues to recover, we will see more of this type of aircraft in operation. And- who knows- we may even see the Eclipse back in the picture soon.

“Hang in there guys,” he says.