Today’s Top Pick is a 1979 Mooney M20K 305 Rocket.

While the long-running Mooney M20 series of four-seat retractables is known for efficient aerodynamics that allow them to post impressive performance numbers with relatively little horsepower, there are always certain pilots who want more.

Rocket Engineering is among a number of companies that perform conversions on Mooney’s that include larger, more powerful engines, and other systems aimed at boosting climb performance, cruising speed, and service ceiling.

The aircraft for sale here was converted in 1999, swapping its 210 hp Continental TSIO-360 engine for a 305 hp TSIO-520. The additional power made a big impression. Mooney M20Ks were fine performers, but the Rocket-modified versions did most things faster and better.

Additional modifications make this airplane well-suited for fast, high-altitude travel. It is also an ideal vintage platform for competing with modern speedsters like the Cirrus SR22T.

This 1979 305 Rocket has 2,650 hours on the airframe, 940 hours on its Continental TSIO-520-NB engine, and 705 hours on its McCauley three-blade, full-feathering propeller. The aircraft is certified to FL 240 and is equipped with a TKS anti-ice system, speed brakes, and Monroy long-range tanks giving a total usable fuel capacity of 101 gallons. The Mooney received new paint earlier this year and a new interior in 2001.

The panel features dual Garmin GNS 430W GPS/Nav/Comm radios, MX20 MFD, Garmin GMA 340 audio panel, GTX 345 transponder with ADS-B In and Out, KFC200 autopilot, flight director, and engine monitor. 

Pilots who are attracted to Mooney aircraft because of their efficient design but would like a bit more power inside the cowling should consider this 1979 Mooney M20K 305 Rocket, which is available for $189,000 on AircraftForSale.

If you’re interested in financing, you can do so with FLYING Finance. Use their airplane loan calculator to calculate your estimated monthly payments. Or, to speak with an aviation finance specialist, visit flyingfinance.com.

• FLYING Magazine: BendixKing to Offer Autopilot for Mooney M20-series Airplanes
• FLYING Magazine: STC Approved for Hartzell Propeller Three-Blade Mooney Bravo Prop
• FLYING Magazine: Air Compare: Grumman AA-5 vs. Mooney M20 Series
• The Aviation Consumer: Used Aircraft Guide: Mooney 231/252
• The Aviation Consumer: Mooney Missile
• AVweb: Mooney Under New Management

The post This 1979 Mooney M20K 305 Rocket Is a Souped-Up ‘AircraftForSale’ Top Pick appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The Baron is being used as a test bed to compare the performance of General Aviation Modifications Inc.’s (GAMI’s) G100UL unleaded avgas with 100LL. The stains are on the wing with the tank holding G100UL, but it has not been determined that they came from the fuel.

• READ MORE: GAMI Responds to Cirrus G100UL Service Advisory

“We have scheduled a mechanic to determine the cause of the leak coming from the left wing of the Baron, which should happen in the next few days,” AOPA senior vice president for media Kollin Stagnito told AVweb. “We are not yet sure what the substance is, nor where it is coming from.”

Word of the stains has been a hot topic on various forums, and speculation is rampant as to their cause.

• READ MORE: Unleaded Fuel Debate Heats Up in Oshkosh

GAMI chief engineer George Braly told AVweb the cause is most likely a faulty or improperly installed fuel cell bladder or patch inside the bladder. Braly said the bladders in the Baron may be more than 40 years old. He said G100UL has been tested for compatibility with the bladder material and there were no problems. He also added that fuel bladder leaks are a relatively common issue with Barons.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

The post Stains Reported on Wing of AOPA Aircraft Fueled by GAMI G100UL appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The mission, Cygnus NG-21, is the space agency’s 21st commercial ISS resupply mission using the uncrewed Cygnus capsule built by contractor Northrop Grumman, which took over the spacecraft’s development after acquiring manufacturer Orbital ATK in 2018.

Cygnus spacecraft have completed nine missions under the company’s Commercial Resupply Services Phase 2 (CRS-2) contract with NASA and are scheduled for missions through 2026 after the agreement was extended in 2022. The total value of the CRS-2 contracts, which were also awarded to SpaceX and Sierra Space, is capped at $14 billion.

Cygnus’ 21st flight is targeted to launch at 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft is called the S.S. Richard “Dick” Scobee in honor of the astronaut who died while commanding the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Cygnus will arrive at the orbital laboratory on Monday, where NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick will use the ISS’ robotic arm to capture it with NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps serving as backup.

Carrying more than 8,200 pounds of supplies, the uncrewed spacecraft will launch atop SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket for the second time after Northrop Grumman’s supply of Antares rockets, which rely on parts from Russia and Ukraine, was exhausted.

After docking to the ISS for six months, the expendable capsule in January will depart the space station and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA will host a prelaunch media session on Friday followed by launch coverage on Saturday and arrival coverage on Monday, all of which will be on the agency’s website, app, and YouTube channel.

The Cygnus capsule will carry research materials that will directly support experiments under NASA’s ISS Expeditions 71 and 72.

One test, for example, will use a penny, hex nut, and balloons to demonstrate centripetal force in microgravity. Researchers will also use special machines to produce human tissue and stem cells, test the effects of spaceflight on DNA, and study the movement of gas and liquid through a filter in zero gravity.

In total, the spacecraft will carry nearly 2,800 pounds worth of materials for scientific investigations, as well as 95 pounds worth of spacewalk equipment and two CubeSat satellites to be deployed from the ISS.

Cygnus spacecraft so far have delivered more than 138,000 pounds of equipment, science experiments, and supplies to the space station, according to Northrop Grumman.

Like this story? We think you’ll also like the Future of FLYING newsletter sent every Thursday afternoon. Sign up now.

The post NASA Gears Up for 21st ISS Resupply Mission appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

According to the company, United will take delivery of up to 1 million gallons of Neste MY SAFE in 2024 with the first load arriving in August.

• READ MORE: Signature Aviation Pumping Blended SAF at LAX Terminal

SAF is an alternative to conventional jet fuel designed to be more environmentally friendly than fossil fuel. Created from renewable resources, such as reclaimed cooking oil and feed stocks, it can reduce carbon emissions by up to 85 percent on a lifecycle basis, according to Neste. SAF can be used in unmodified aircraft engines and fuel delivery systems

United is a chief advocate for legislation to grow the SAF market. The airline has been instrumental in helping secure SAF tax credits in Illinois, as well as Washington, Colorado, and California that encourage airports to purchase SAF.

• READ MORE: Boeing Ready to Buy 7.5 Million Gallons of SAF

United is one of the founders of the SAF Coalition, which is described as a consortium of more than 40 airlines, aircraft operators, agricultural enterprises, aircraft and aircraft equipment manufacturers, airports, technology developers, labor unions, and biofuel producers. Its mission is to expand the use of SAF and reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.

In addition to Chicago, the airline has now purchased SAF for airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, and Amsterdam.

“I’m pleased to see United Airlines making this significant move forward by using sustainable aviation fuel daily in flights from O’Hare,” U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said in a statement. “One of the most important things we can do to make American aviation more sustainable is increase the supply of SAF. At the federal level, I’ve been pushing for the increased use of SAF, and I’m going to keep pushing to increase the supply of American-grown, American-made SAF, a true win-win solution that supports domestic farmers and blenders while reducing our nation’s carbon footprint.”

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker echoed the enthusiasm, noting that KORD is one of the busiest hub airports in the United States.

“Illinois’ position as a hub of innovation with some of the most connected airports in the country perfectly aligns with the work of companies like United to build a more sustainable future for travel and reach our shared goal of zero emissions,” Pritzker said.

United Airlines president Brett Hart said tax incentives in Illinois made SAF availability at the airport possible.

“While the market for SAF is still in its infancy, there is a huge opportunity today for airlines and policymakers to work together to support its continued growth,” Hart said.

SAF purchased for United’s fleet is paid for in part through the company’s Eco-Skies Alliance, which allows participating companies to share the “green premium,” or the cost associated with purchasing lower-emission fuels. Since 2021, the alliance has collectively contributed toward the purchase of more than 10.5 million gallons of SAF, according to the company.

The post United Turns to SAF at Chicago O’Hare appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

According to Boeing, Ortberg will begin in the position on August 8. He replaces Dave Calhoun, who earlier this year announced he was retiring. Calhoun had served as president and CEO since January 2020 and been on the Boeing board of directors since 2009.

Ortberg, 64, comes to the position with more than 35 years of experience in the aerospace industry. He recently served as president and CEO of Rockwell Collins, a position he held since 2013.

Ortberg was instrumental in the company’s integration with United Technologies and RTX. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Iowa, has held numerous leadership positions in the aerospace industry, and is the former chair of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) board of governors.

• READ MORE: FAA Head Vows Increase in Boeing Oversight

“The board conducted a thorough and extensive search process over the last several months to select the next CEO of Boeing, and Kelly has the right skills and experience to lead Boeing in its next chapter,” said Steven Mollenkopf, chair of the board. “Kelly is an experienced leader who is deeply respected in the aerospace industry, with a well-earned reputation for building strong teams and running complex engineering and manufacturing companies. We look forward to working with him as he leads Boeing through this consequential period in its long history.”

The board also thanked Calhoun for his services, noting the past few years have been challenging for Boeing, beginning with the two 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019, respectively, resulting in the deaths of 346 people. The FAA ordered the grounding of the aircraft while the accidents were investigated. Boeing’s manufacturing and certification processes were called into question.

• READ MORE: Boeing Presents Quality Control Improvement Plan to FAA

The aerospace company announced it had worked through the issues and made changes to its manufacturing procedures to mitigate them. Then in January a 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines lost a door plug shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, resulting in rapid decompression and minor injuries.

Next week the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is scheduled to conduct an investigative hearing on the door plug loss.

In the meantime, the families of those killed in the crashes are campaigning for Boeing to face criminal prosecution and the U.S. Department of Justice to fine the company $24 billion, alleging criminal negligence and violating the 2021 agreement that allowed the company to previously avoid criminal charges.

The post Boeing Names New CEO to Lead Through ‘Consequential Period’ appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Answer: You’re in luck. The paper student pilot certificate was issued by the aviation medical examiner (AME) and not done through IACRA as we know it, so it is doubtful the learner already has an IACRA account.

• READ MORE: Is There an Official Weather Briefing

All you have to do is sit down with the learner and create a new application. Simply follow the prompts and fill out the application. In a few weeks he will get a plastic student pilot certificate in the mail.

Also, don’t forget to also verify the learner’s citizenship and give him a TSA endorsement, which have become requirements since 2002.

Do you have a question about aviation that’s been bugging you? Ask us anything you’ve ever wanted to know about aviation. Our experts in general aviation, flight training, aircraft, avionics, and more may attempt to answer your question in a future article.

The post How Do You Obtain a Student Pilot Certificate After a Break in Training? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Imagine being past the hard part and turning your nearly finished airplane over to McCormick and his well-trained staff to put the cherry red on your sundae. Finally, it’s time to fly—and turn some heads.

What started as a desire to offer more elaborate schemes has since become Evoke Aviation and Evoke Aircraft Design, the graphic design portion of the business. Evoke’s portfolio includes more than 50 EAA AirVenture award-winning homebuilts, such as Steve Thorne’s (“Flight Chops” on YouTube) Van’s RV-14.

“I would say our customers are people who want to be able to show off a little bit of their personality,” McCormick said.

• READ MORE: Why Are So Many Airplanes Painted White?

When meeting the Evoke team at AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, I was greeted by youthful faces and tattooed limbs. These folks looked like me, and I was excited to learn about additional career opportunities in aviation. There are more obvious routes, such as becoming a mechanic or delving into engineering or marketing, but graphic design was something I’d never really thought about, let alone aircraft painting.

“It’s very cool to be able to not only design the airplane, but work in a facility on-site where that design is then put on the airplane, and you can have input as it’s all being created and basically coming to life,” McCormick said. “I think it’s a very cool niche for the designers to get into.”

The Prep

McCormick was able to establish the foundation for what would become his own design company and paint shop—located at Northeast Alabama Regional Airport (KGAD)—by aiming to fill a need and taking every necessary step to do so. He’s always been entrepreneurial. He started a DJ business in high school that he worked all throughout college, where he studied auto collision repair. He knew that focus would be a gateway to custom painting.

After graduating with a technical certificate, he landed a job at International Jets, an aircraft paint facility in Gadsden. He fell in love with airplanes and worked to fine-tune his skill during a time when paint schemes weren’t all that exciting.

“I always knew that I could do better,” he said. “I was always so frustrated by what I was painting, and I just knew I could create better designs. And so that’s where the idea started.”

Around 2011, work sent McCormick to Nigeria for a year to manage a project. During his downtime he created a business plan for his own design company, Plane Schemer, which was rebranded to Evoke Aircraft Design in 2021 to better align with his paint shop, Evoke Aviation. Upon his return, he launched a website and put together enough money for a booth at the Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo in Lakeland, Florida. He didn’t have a lot of designs to show, but was able to persuade a few people to work with him. Shortly after, he was able to quit his day job of painting airplanes and focus on building his own brand.

• READ MORE: Giving Your Airplane a Face-Lift and Tummy Tuck

A few years later, International Jets went out of business, and McCormick acquired its hangar, allowing him to offer not only schemes but paint jobs as well. Now with complete control over the quality of the finished product, he could focus on taking Evoke paint jobs to the next level by using the highest quality materials and procedures.

“The majority of our labor hours goes into the body work and the prep and getting it ready for paint, and actually the paint is one of the easiest parts,” he said. “So 65 percent of the budget goes into the actual prepping of the airplane, and then the rest of it goes into the paint and the finish work and the reassembly.”

The Primer

McCormick manages 20 employees across both businesses—five designers and the rest paint-and-body-work technicians. He said he hires people who take pride in their work and want to do better for themselves. That positive company culture has attracted capable employees who produce quality work, and McCormick feels this is what has allowed his business to grow so quickly.

As with every aviation business, hiring and retention has proven difficult at times, so Evoke does a lot of recruiting to combat those challenges. This is the main reason its employee average age is low. Additionally, McCormick believes it’s easier to hire and train from scratch, rather than try to retrain experienced designers and technicians.

“We can teach exactly the way we want everything done from the very beginning, and there’s no bad habits to get rid of,” he said.

Sammy Davis, one of McCormick’s first employees, now serves as Evoke’s senior designer. Davis set out to study graphic design in college but switched her major from art to business after her first year.

She was originally hired to help from a business standpoint as she not only majored in it but had interned at a software and systems engineering company, where she absorbed a lot of valuable information that would help make Evoke scalable for the future. Davis went to Sun ’n Fun with McCormick for his big debut and got to ride in an Aero L-39 Albatros.

“That was my first-ever plane ride, and I was like, ‘OK, I would like to be a part of this, please,’” said Davis, noting the Lakeland trip served as her introduction to aviation and she is now the only pilot on the Evoke staff.

Due to an increase in sales and McCormick being pulled in different directions, Davis decided to learn scheme design. She said she watched McCormick and asked a lot of questions.

“You have to be patient and a little bit hardheaded,” she said.

Davis pointed out that repetition was key, and eventually she got the green light to start working with clients. She’s been at it for seven years, but said a lot has changed in that time.

“Schemes back then were not as elaborate as they are now for the most part because the trend hadn’t quite kicked off yet,” she said. “So back then it was just like, OK, well here’s a really simple prompt, maybe a two-tone. Someone wants a white base and like a red bottom with a stripe in the middle. OK, well that’s easy enough. You do that and then you send it off to them, you do your edits, and then you try a top view. OK, well now you try the wings, and you would think something shaped as a rectangle wouldn’t be as challenging as it is, but there’s a lot of curves and 3D forms to think about.”

Customers initiate the design process by filling out a survey that covers preferred styles, colors, and paint finishes. They are also asked to send in reference photos of what they like. In addition, it’s helpful if designers know at what stage their customer is at in their build and what their mission is—do they want to win an award, or are they looking for something more practical? The designers work with their clients, whether it be over the phone, through Zoom calls, or in person, to finalize the scheme. This can take weeks, months, or years, and sometimes upward of 50 renderings to complete.

At any given time, designers can host a Zoom meeting with their client to talk through design changes. Both Davis and McCormick called this a fun activity because clients are impressed by how quickly Evoke’s designers can make changes—since they know all the shortcuts—and it’s exciting for the customer to see them carve out their airplane’s final form. Customers can also invite friends and family to join. Screen sharing also saves Evoke a lot of phone calls.

“You can cut down so much time,” Davis said. “You can cut down weeks of back-and-forth by doing a Zoom session, honestly. Because they can see their ideas in real time, and they can visualize it, and they can also ask technical questions that they might not think of when they’re dialing a response back.”

Evoke also reduced the number of checkup phone calls it receives by developing an online portal for customers to track lead times.

“Once you initiate a design with us, you get on the paint schedule, you get a Signature Series number assigned to you, and then as the airplanes are completed, we have an online portal that you sign into,” McCormick said. “It has your number, where you’re at in line, what your current wait time and estimated drop-off date is, and then you can also see the planes that are in progress, and you see the planes as they’re being finished. So it’s like this interactive system that you have access to once you get on the schedule.”

The Paint

Dakota Jennings, another one of McCormick’s first hires, works as a paint technician, having gotten his start studying auto collision repair, just like McCormick. Jennings was able to perfect his craft under McCormick’s tutelage, working through unfamiliar tasks diligently until he got it right.

“He showed me how he does it, and then he let me do it,” Jennings said. “He never wanted to do it for me. And once I get it, I’ve always got it,”

Jennings enjoys everything about his job, from hand-striping lines to creating his own colors for fades. Like many of the other team members, he fell in love with aviation and was excited to tell his college peers he works on airplanes.

“It was like my calling to be in the aviation industry,” he said. “I really could be doing something else, but I really enjoy being here and being…I guess you could call it an artist.”

When asked what makes a good aircraft painter, McCormick said it’s all about a strong skill set rather than just having the right tools.

“I believe that to paint to the quality that we’re doing is a 100 percent skill,” he said. “At Oshkosh I do a seminar and I tell exactly how we do every single step of our paint process. There’s no secrets. There’s nothing proprietary about the way we do things. We just do everything to a degree and with the skill set that is almost impossible to replicate without having the team of people we’ve been able to build and put together here.”

The Finished Product

Your airplane is painted. Now how do you maintain it?

Evoke has created a line of cleaning products, called the Signature Shine Series, that allows customers to take a little bit of luxury with them when they leave the facility. McCormick worked with one of his clients who owns a company that specializes in product development, manufacturing, and packaging to create the line of supplies for Evoke.

“It’s not meant to be a really big sector of our business, but it is very cool when we’re finished with an airplane to be able to continue our involvement in their paint job,” he said.

At AirVenture, Evoke brings a team to detail airplanes all week, so if your homebuilt was painted by Evoke and you fly it to Oshkosh, you’ll get the royal treatment.

Now that McCormick has built his empire, he works seven days a week to maintain it.

“Not to micromanage, but just to manage to a degree where we’re never compromising our quality,” he said. “That quality, attention to detail, and pride in what we do is the biggest reason our product has grown to become so popular.”

He’s proud to be quite involved in every aspect of the company. So how does he continue to improve?

“I think I’m intuitive, but I also try to learn from people who have done it before,” McCormick said. “It never hurts to pick up a book about business management and [study] how to communicate more effectively as a leader. It’s worth going through books, even if there’s one sentence or phrase in that entire book that becomes valuable, and it’s something you can implement in your day to day, and just stacking those skills and learning to communicate better and to be a more effective leader.”

For more information on Evoke Aviation, call 256-490-1541 or visit www.evokeaviation.com and www.evokeaircraftdesign.com.

This feature first appeared in the Summer 2024 Ultimate Issue print edition.

The post Ultimate Issue: Specializing in Works of Art appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

These are the kinds of things one learns when one must beg friends for a ride home from a distant rural airport immediately following EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Fortunately, this discovery did not stem from mechanical woes or becoming stranded due to weather. It was simply a function of playing musical vehicles as I dropped off my plane for its annual inspection on my way back home after a week of festivities at Oshkosh. Not wanting to leave my mechanic with 207 pounds of cargo with which to contend during the inspection, I carefully loaded all of my gear into the Crosstrek with little room to spare.

• READ MORE: When Unforeseen Circumstances Threaten to Derail Amazing Experiences

This year, the entire AirVenture experience was a study in cargo and packing. While I’d done it before, this year was perhaps the first in which my gear selection was completely dialed, with a proven selection of items to ensure my week in Oshkosh would be the best ever.

From tents to cots to power supplies to food, every piece was carefully considered and calibrated, making for a fantastic week. Besides creating a top-notch AirVenture experience, this also reinforced my philosophy that it’s best to purchase an airplane you’ll grow into rather than out of.

I didn’t always feel this way.

Early on in my journey toward aircraft ownership, I had nearly settled on the trusty yet tiny Cessna 140 or its simpler, flapless cousin, the 120. I loved the way they flew, and they were among the least expensive options available. They seemed to check all the boxes.

Eventually, however, I decided that for me the ability to take that epic, once-a-year trip was worth the higher purchase price and increased fuel burn throughout the rest of the year. Two years of pinching pennies and working massive amounts of overtime eventually enabled the purchase of my larger, four-place 170.

And even though I never carry more than one passenger, and even though I only fully utilize the cabin volume once a year, the effort was entirely worth it. Had I settled for the smaller 120/140, every one of my Oshkosh experiences would be completely different.

For one, the additional space allows for luxuries that can completely transform any camping trip.

Years ago, in my motorcycle days, I learned firsthand that while it’s possible to pack extraordinarily small and light, this comes with significant compromises. The lightest tents and sleeping pads on the market, for example, function fine but prioritize minimalism and utility over comfort.

Now, with my roomy 170 made all the more voluminous via the removal of the rear seat, I could afford to upgrade my Oshkosh trip accordingly.

Going through my mental list of past annoyances, I addressed each individually. Thin sleeping pad that leaves me aching in the morning? Guess I’ll just go ahead and order the plush cot. A few extra changes of clothes that allow me to present myself at evening get-togethers as a civilized person rather than a shipwreck survivor? Don’t mind if I do.

The extra space and payload also enabled me to bring two laptops and a second monitor, so I could work remotely in the days leading up to the big event. Suddenly, I was able to live and work from the airplane. All it took was some careful weight-and-balance calculations and a bit of strategic positioning of the heavier items.

• READ MORE: EAA AirVenture 2024 in Photos

The extra space transforms the Oshkosh experience for friends, as well.

Two years ago, one friend found herself sleeping in a pool of rainwater when her cheap tent succumbed to passing storms. This year, an airline pilot friend came straight to Oshkosh from a work trip without a tent or sleeping pad. In each case, the 170’s cabin allowed me to toss in an extra tent and sleeping pad from my aforementioned motorcycle camping days. For the cost of an additional 2.5 pounds of gear, each friend enjoyed their trip immensely.

It often makes sense to expedite one’s entry into ownership by selecting a small, inexpensive type to begin with. If, for example, one is certain one’s mission will always be limited to short local flights.

But sometimes, buying an airplane capable of something more—even if that something occurs only once a year—can make it all worthwhile.

The post EAA AirVenture: A Study in Cargo and Packing appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Thrive Aviation Mission Statement

“Our company works to provide proactive services and personalized sophistication to every moment of our guests’ flight experience. The excellence of our work ensures that each customer receives more of what’s needed before they need it. More accessibility. Less interference. A reduction of risk and expansion of comfort. We ensure all elements of excellence.”

Thrive Aviation in the News

Thrive Aviation Expands Fleet With Munday Aviation’s Factory-Delivered Praetor 500
Thrive Aviation proudly announces the addition of the Praetor 500 to its managed charter fleet under aircraft owner Munday Aviation. 

Thrive Aviation Joins Southwest’s Pilot Pathways Program
The private aviation firm will give potential pilots a direct pathway to the right seat at Southwest Airlines.

Thrive Aviation Openings on FindaPilot.com

• First Officer in Henderson, NV
• Captain of Challenger 604 in Henderson, NV
• Captain of Cessna 680 (Sovereign+) in Henderson, NV
• Captain – Dassault 2000 (EXEASy) – Las Vegas, NV

More Thrive Aviation Resources:

• Career site 
• LinkedIn 
• Facebook 
• Instagram

More Help from FindaPilot.com

• Latest pilot job openings 
• Pilot directory 
• Sign-up page

The post Employer Profile: Thrive Aviation appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The regulator on Tuesday authorized commercial drone flights without visual observers (VOs) in Dallas-area airspace for two companies: Zipline and Wing, the drone delivery subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet. The firms will manage the airspace themselves with FAA oversight.

“The industry is providing us with a lot of detailed documentation, and we’re providing a lot of oversight,” said Jarrett Larrow, regulatory and policy lead at the FAA’s Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Office. “These public-private partnerships are key to safely integrating drones into our National Airspace System.”

Both Zipline and Wing have robust drone delivery services in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in partnership with Walmart. But limiting the firms is a pesky regulation called the beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) rule, which limits drone operations to within the drone operator’s field of view of the operator.

The FAA is working to release the Normalizing UAS BVLOS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which would authorize drone operators to fly aircraft where they cannot physically see them. It expects to finalize the measure this year.

But in lieu of a firm rule, the regulator awards BVLOS permissions on a case-by-case basis through waivers. Typically, these exemptions require the companies to maintain VOs along delivery routes to monitor their drones. However, a handful of companies have been able to replace VOs with proprietary or third-party detect and avoid systems or UAS traffic management (UTM) software.

Without these permissions, drone delivery companies are greatly limited in the scope of their operations, which, in order to keep eyes on the aircraft at all times, are often constricted to small areas.

The new FAA authorization seeks to change that, at least in the Dallas area.

Beginning in August, Zipline and Wing will be allowed to deliver packages using UTM technology to keep their drones from colliding. In short, airspace would be managed by private companies with FAA oversight.

“This is the first time the FAA has recognized a third-party to safely manage drone-to-drone interactions,” said Praveen Raju, a program manager in the FAA’s NextGen Office. “As always, safety comes first, and we required exhaustive research and testing before giving the green light.”

Zipline and Wing will use UTM to share flight data and routes with other airspace users, with all flights occurring below 400 feet agl and far away from crewed aircraft. Consensus standards developed by the drone industry and accepted by the FAA describe how the technology can accommodate multiple layers of drone operations, according to the regulator.

The agency also said that Zipline and Wing since 2023 have safely conducted thousands of live drone test flights in shared Dallas-area airspace. Now, commercial flights are expected to provide the FAA with valuable information that could allow it to expand BVLOS operations without special exemptions nationwide.

The regulator on Tuesday said companies and organizations worldwide have shown interest in the project and how they can install their own UTM systems in the U.S.

“UTM is a critical piece for safe, routine, scalable BVLOS operations and to ensure everyone has equitable access to the airspace,” Larrow said. “If service providers and operators are successful in cooperatively sharing the airspace using UTM, it will be a repeatable process nationwide.”

Zipline and Wing were among the first drone delivery firms to obtain Part 135 operator permissions from the FAA and have worked closely with the regulator for years. Should the agency continue to look to the companies to pilot BVLOS operations, it may add permissions to their service areas in other states such as Arkansas, Utah, and Virginia.

Like this story? We think you’ll also like the Future of FLYING newsletter sent every Thursday afternoon. Sign up now.

The post FAA Lifts Drone Delivery Restrictions in Dallas appeared first on FLYING Magazine.