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Jeppesen has switched strongly to delivery of charts via electronic means, and its new iPad app, Mobile FliteDeck, does the heavy lifting. In this video, the final of three, AVweb's Paul Bertorelli takes a video tour of the plate management part of the application.

The U.S. Air Force will scale back single-ship demo flights for next year's airshow season, the Air Combat Command announced last week. "We face significant fiscal constraints," the ACC said in a statement (PDF). Those constraints require "tough decisions," and the ACC said it will scale back from sponsoring six single-ship demo teams to just one. The F-22 demo team will perform at up to 20 events. The A-10, F-16, and F-15 demos will not fly. The Air Force will continue to support a full season for the Thunderbirds airshow team.

Cessna has launched an initiative to educate owners about new required inspections for the 145,000 single-engine aircraft in the 100- and 200-series that were built between 1946 and 1986. The supplemental procedures will be added into the service manuals this month for aircraft in the 100 series and in April for the 200 series. The added inspections mainly require checks of areas where corrosion and fatigue damage can occur. "The new inspection requirements we've developed are very simple, and are based on visual inspection that can be done quickly by a trained inspector during an annual inspection," said Beth Gamble, Cessna's principal engineer for airframe structures.

The FAA's Commercial Aviation Safety Team said last week it will expand its proactive accident-reduction efforts with the goal of cutting the already-low fatality rate in U.S. commercial aviation 50 percent by 2025. The team also will start to include general aviation, helicopter operators, and the military in its programs. In addition to analyzing past accidents and their causes, CAST works to collect data on current aviation operations and incidents to identify emerging and changing risks and prevent accidents.

The NTSB will hold a hearing next month to gather information about the safety of air races and airshows, the board said on Friday. During a one-day meeting on Jan. 10, the board will hear from regulators, aviation organizations, industry groups, and airport authorities to learn about safety practices, procedures and protocols. The board also will gather information about the safety regulations and oversight in the planning and execution of these events. In September, a pilot and 10 spectators were killed in an accident at the Reno Air Races, and several performers died in U.S. airshow accidents over the last season.

The FAA announced Friday that it will no longer require operators to provide a valid security concern -- or any other requirement -- to participate in a specific program that prevents IFR flight information from being displayed online. Those who want to enroll aircraft in the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program for the sake of privacy, or any other reason, may now do so simply by properly asking. The National Business Aviation Association, Experimental Aircraft Association and Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association all fought for that outcome and welcomed the change.

Pilot unions concerned that international safety standards are lacking when it comes to regulation of lithium batteries have (at least temporarily) lost out to industry and foreign government interests. A deal struck as part of the talks on long-term funding for the FAA blocks new battery shipment rules proposed by the Obama administration and reverts to what the pilot unions believe are inadequate international standards. Industries that ship products containing lithium batteries supported the provision that blocks the new rules. Top figures at both the Independent Pilots Association (IPA) and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) have voiced clear concern.

Another deadline passed Wednesday without the FAA acting to finalize new rules aimed at pilot fatigue, and that brought ire from family members of the victims of Continental Flight 3407. The concerned parties have organized into the Families of Continental Flight 3407, an action group formed in remembrance of relatives lost to that 2009 crash, and to see through what they believe are necessary preventive changes in regulation. The FAA's original deadline for the pilot fatigue rules was Aug. 1. It was later moved to Nov. 30. The agency says it is "working aggressively" to complete the new final version of the fatigue rules "as well as separate rules that address pilot qualifications and training." The agency has met organized opposition in the past. Comments from one of the family members suggest he believes there may be more corrupt motives in the mix.

The FAA will award $7.7 million to eight companies developing alternative fuels (biofuel), the agency announced Thursday, seeking a test product by next year. The companies will receive guidance from the FAA to develop an approved drop-in jet fuel alternative derived from sustainable sources for use in current systems and current infrastructure. Source matter will include alcohols, biomass, sugars and organic oils. The contracts themselves direct the companies to research quality control and long-term mechanical effects of burning biofuels in jet engines. Biofuel has already helped drive airliners and passengers across the United States as part of traditional/biofuel blends. Feasibility is one thing. Affordability and profitability wield their influence in the far more important arena of practical application, where real challenges remain.

This week's winning photo comes from Robert Lesmeister of St. Louis, MO. Click here for the rest of this week's submissions.

Cessna announced a hefty price increase for the 162 Skycatcher to $149,000 last week, and this week Pipistrel said it can do one for a little more than half that at around $84,000. What's the sweet spot when it comes to LSA pricing?Plus: Last week, we asked AVweb readers what they thought of D.B. Cooper's infamous skyjacking: Was it a smashing success, or did it end in tragedy? Click through to see the breakdown of answers.

Following a string of Russian aviation accidents, a Russian lawyer says he will ask Russia's Supreme Court to curb the authority of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), The Associated Press reported Wednesday. Formed in 1992, the IAC is a post Soviet Union era creation. According to lawyer Igor Trunov, it embodies a conflict of interest that prevents it from operating objectively in the interest of safety. Trunov would like to see the roles of regulatory oversight and investigation currently held by the IAC separated. He also argues that the IAC failed to determine a true cause in its investigation of the September crash that killed an entire Russian ice hockey team.

The European Commission decided in November to ban airport body scanning X-ray backscatter machines after studies found a small number of cancer cases linked to use of the devices. The decision affects all airports in Europe, with an exception for U.K. airports that will be allowed to test them, but not deploy them permanently. According to the European Commission, "only security scanners which do not use X-ray technology are added to the list of authorized methods for passenger screening at EU airports." The commission does approve of full non-X-ray body scanners (radio wave scanners are among those used in the U.S.) when operated under specific guidelines and restrictions. In the U.S., the TSA uses more than 250 backscatter machines at the nation's 100 busiest airports and is unmoved by Europe's position. The degree of cancer risk varies somewhat depending on the source ... as does the degree of usefulness of the machines themselves.

More than 2,400 airplanes and helicopters operated by the federal government, known as "public aircraft," are not subject to FAA rules, and this week the NTSB is holding a two-day forum to examine the safety record of these operations. Public aircraft are used for high-risk endeavors such as firefighting, law enforcement, and search and rescue. "We have had accidents in the last few years where we go on scene and we still find confusion and a lack of clarity over who is responsible for oversight," NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman told Bloomberg News. "We are holding this forum to try to create a downward trend when it comes to fatalities and injuries in public aviation."

Pilot Stanmore Cooper wants to sue the government for the emotional distress caused when the FAA obtained his medical records from the Social Security Administration, and on Wednesday the case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. A lower court already has ruled that Cooper's privacy rights were violated, but the Supreme Court will decide whether compensation must be limited to financial losses. Cooper, of San Francisco, was a private pilot until the 1980s, when he was diagnosed with HIV and let his medical lapse. In 1994, he reapplied for a medical certificate, but didn't reveal his diagnosis for fear he would be denied. The certificate was revoked after the FAA checked the medical records. Cooper pleaded guilty to a charge of making a false statement and was fined $1,000.

While Cessna recently announced a price hike to $149,000 for its Skycatcher LSA, Pipistrel says it plans to introduce a new LSA trainer early next year and sell it for about $83,000. The Alpha trainer aims to be "affordable to acquire [and] economical to maintain," the company said. "We believe no other LSA training aircraft is as cheap to run." The trainer will feature a beefed-up tricycle-gear undercarriage to handle student landings, 400 nm of range, cruise speed of 108 knots, and a fuel burn of 2.5 gallons per hour, Pipistrel said. The panel features conventional flight gauges supplemented by a Garmin GPS unit. The company plans to start U.S. deliveries as soon as April.

A new product scheduled to come on the market early next year promises to provide a durable coating on metal surfaces that can make them repel water, providing resistance to icing and corrosion. The coating, called NeverWet, is a "super-hydrophobic" material that causes water and heavy oils to bead up and glide away. "Any object coated with our NeverWet coating literally cannot be touched by liquid," says the Ross Nanotechnology website. "Any liquid placed on this coating is repelled and simply rolls off without touching the underlying surface. Not only is this amazing to see, but it solves a myriad of problems." Although the company hasn't suggested the product has aviation applications, the GA community has already taken note -- EAA said the possibilities seem "endless," from keeping wings clean and ice-free to reducing friction for seaplanes.

American Airlines on Tuesday filed for bankruptcy protection, the last of the legacy airlines to do so. Flight schedules will not be affected, said AMR Corp. (PDF), the parent company of both American and American Eagle. American was the only major carrier that wasn't profitable last year, according to The Wall Street Journal. American said its labor contracts cost $600 million more each year than other legacy airlines pay. Those airlines, such as United and Delta, were allowed to void their labor contracts after filing Chapter 11, according to The Associated Press. Contract talks between American and its 8,000 pilots recently stalled.

An FAA order to remove supplemental oxygen from airline lavatories puts passengers and crew at risk, the Association of Flight Attendants told USA Today last week. The order, made earlier this year in conjunction with the FBI and TSA, was a "precautionary measure," the FAA said, because the chemical oxygen generators were easily accessible and could be "manipulated to create a flight hazard." The backup plan, if an aircraft decompresses at altitude and passengers or crew members are in the lavatory, is for flight attendants to assist them -- but the AFA says by the time it's safe for them to do so, it might already be too late.

While working local Control (tower) as a newly minted Air Force controller in the '60s, I often got requests from local pilots for practice DF steers, [our location] having one of the last DFs in the area. The DF console was located on the opposite side of the tower from Local, and I had a number of T-33s trying to land when the following exchange occurred:T-33:"Laughlin Tower, AF123. Request practice DF steer."Me:"AF123, unable on account of traffic."[long pause]T-33:"Then how about a real one?"Of course, I issued the steer.Ray Laughinghousevia e-mail