The GA world got another black eye this week as a Mooney M20C, piloted by Richard Langone, 47, of Atlantic Beach, Long Island, was caught circling the Statue of Liberty and violating a number of restricted areas in the New York City area. General media outlets glommed the story up, made us all look like fools, and the pilots's statement of having been "confused," sure didn't help the matter. Langone's errant adventure left Republic Airport sometime around noon on the 28th with three friends aboard the single engine Mooney. The flight proceeded North to Sky Acres Airport in Poughkeepsie before "following the Hudson River" down the west side of Manhattan and running afoul as he got confused, and transgressed by flying over the Whitestone Bridge and down the east river toward Laguard

You have to admit that tumbling end over end is a helluva test of an aircraft... especially when all those within the airframe, at impact, get to escape the accident with their lives and surprisingly minimal injuries. Registered, currently to Alex Mesa of Winston Salem, North Carolina, this aircraft used to belong to none ohter than Cirrus Design CEO Alan Klapmeier and is featured in a number of Cirrus promo photos. It's obviously ONE TOUGH BIRD.   Regis#: 742CD Make/Model: SR22 Description: SR-22  Date: 12/27/2003 Time: 2050  Event Type: Accident Highest Injury: Minor Mid Air: N Missing: N DESCRIPTION  AIRCRAFT CLIPPED A POWER POLE AND GUY WIRE AND FLIPPED END OVER END AND  INTO HAY BALES, THREE PERSONS ON BOARD R

Seeing the previews and reading the news releases is one thing. But being the first ANN staffer to tour the new National Air and Space Museum facility at Dulles International Airport (VA) is something else. Exactly 48 hours after I was cold and soaked to the bone on the sands of Kitty Hawk, I pulled into the huge parking lot for the Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Museum, which opened less than two weeks ago.

The US Marine Corps has filed paperwork for two proposed military operations areas (MOAs) that, if established, would compress civilian general aviation pilots flying near North Carolina's Outer Banks into an area that the military considers unsafe for its own pilots. "If the FAA permits these two MOAs, they will have an unavoidable adverse effect on civil aviation in the Outer Banks area," said AOPA Manager of Air Traffic Heidi Williams. "Besides some obvious safety issues, MOAs that are in constant use, as the Marines envision these, become de facto airspace restrictions for many GA pilots."

Fred M. Coon of Victoria, Texas, and Dr. Mark Stolzberg, of Stony Brook, New York, tell ANN that they broke a United States Transcontinental air speed record October 16, 2003. The pair broke the record in Coon's Grumman AA-5A Cheetah aircraft flying from John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California, to First Flight Airport in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 14 hours, 53 minutes and 32 seconds. They averaged a speed of 159.78 miles per hour during the trip. The flight by Coon and Stolzberg represents the fastest recorded speed across the country by a piston-engine aircraft weighing between 1,102 and 2,205 pounds, a significant portion of the general aviation fleet. To qualify as a 'Transcontinental' record, the start and finish points must be within 60 kilometers (37.3 miles) f

The FAA is holding a training session on field approvals and the supplemental type certificate (STC) application process in Wasilla, Alaska, on January 7, 2004. AOPA had requested that additional sessions be held to provide the opportunity for dialog on the impact of policy changes, which went into effect in Alaska on October 1. The Wasilla training session follows similar training held in Fairbanks and Anchorage. "Field approvals are important in the lower 48 states but absolutely crucial in Alaska's harsh flying environment," said AOPA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Melissa Bailey. "After all the confusion created when the FAA amended the field approval process in 2002, these training sessions are important to make sure that inspectors are all working from the same r