FlightCentral

(SMART SUMMARY) All five people on board a Socata TBM-700 were killed Tuesday morning after the single-engine turboprop apparently lost a wing in flight, then spiraled to a crash in the median of busy Interstate 287 in New Jersey, and burned.

(SMART SUMMARY) Colton Harris-Moore, the teenager whose two-year crime spree included the theft of several airplanes -- which he taught himself to fly from manuals and videos -- was sentenced on Friday to serve seven years and three months in jail after pleading guilty to 33 counts of burglary and theft.

(SMART SUMMARY) All five people on board a Socata TBM-700 were killed on Tuesday morning shortly after taking off from Teterboro, when the airplane reportedly lost a wing in flight, spiraled to a crash in the median of busy Interstate 287, and burned.

(SMART SUMMARY) Garmin announced on Tuesday it has released a new iPad 2 trainer app for its GTN 750 hybrid navigator, downloadable from the iTunes app store for $24.99.

(SMART SUMMARY) As part of its strategy to upgrade the National Airspace System, the FAA last week proposed to reduce the number of VOR facilities to a "minimal operational network" by 2020.

(SMART SUMMARY) "While this correction is important to all sport pilot examiners, it was critical to the few examiners conducting practical examinations in weight-shift control, powered parachutes, and gyroplanes," said David Oord, EAA government and advocacy specialist.

(SMART SUMMARY) >>> AVWEB FUEL FINDERCURRENT PRICE FOR 100LL: $5.69 (down 3¢ from last week)CURRENT PRICE FOR JET A: $5.42 (down 4¢ from last week)Fuel prices provided weekly by AirNav, based on prices from the past 2 weeks.

(SMART SUMMARY) It appears 100-percent bonus depreciation will make a comeback for at least one more year when the full version of the contentious budget bill comes back before Congress in two months.

(SMART SUMMARY) After a local excursion to exercise my C-172 engine, I returned to my local airport.

(SMART SUMMARY) Hightower said that about a third of the 15,000 newly-licensed pilots in 2010 were older than 34 and Eagle Flight aims to tap into the latent desires of many potential new pilots.

(SMART SUMMARY) AOPA is reportingthat the FAA is being pressured to close contract control towers at more than 100 GA-only airports.

(SMART SUMMARY) Both of general aviation’s principle advocacy groups say they’re taking a wait-and-see attitude toward last week’s proposal by the FAA to radically raise the cost of digital charting data to the industry.

(SMART SUMMARY) Iran says that knowledge it gained through reverse engineering less sophisticated drones allowed it to trick an RQ-170 Sentinel drone into landing itself there, nearly undamaged, in early December.

(SMART SUMMARY) NASA may be dependent on Russia until at least 2017 to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station but the agency hopes to develop commercial alternatives soon.

(SMART SUMMARY) Wildlife conservation groups are in an uproar after an old photograph was circulated online showing a U.S. Wildlife Services SuperCub painted with 58 paw-print decals -- one for each wolf shot from the aircraft.