Check out https://affordableflying.net/attend/ Right Away and Get YOUR Tickets To the Affordable Flying Expo!

OK.... with a little over a month to go, it’s time to get serious! Thanks to the folks at Sun n Fun, we have a highly professional online ticketing apparatus at our disposal for next month’s Affordable Flying Expo. And we have other good news... use the code “AFE2025” and you can get $5 OFF the adult ticket price of $15 or even more for a three day pass. After an insane amount of work on the part of the ANN crew and more than a little hand holding by the event experts at Sun n Fun, the Expo is shaping up. We have an amazing series of seminars and forums in the works as well as a LIVE Friday Night Town Hall in which we will be dissecting MOSAIC in as great a detail as we can muster. 

Preliminary Probe Finds No Aircraft Faults in the Deadliest Crash of the Decade

For the first time since the accident occurred, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has spoken out about a June crash that resulted in the deaths of 260 people. Initial investigations, he says, revealed no malfunctions with the aircraft, fueling the popular theory that human error is largely to blame.

Taraia Object Expedition Awaits Clearance from Kiribati Officials

Purdue University’s Research Foundation and the Archaeological Legacy Institute have confirmed that they will be putting their quest to find Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra aircraft on hold until next year. The announcement blamed seasonal weather that would jeopardize the expedition if it continued to wait for Kiribati’s green light.

Restriction Forces Many Light Jets Off Its Most Affordable Plan

SpaceX is clipping the wings on its Starlink Mini users. The company announced that starting November 7, 2025, the maximum supported operating speed for its Roam, Local Priority, and Global Priority plans will drop from 550 mph (471 knots) to 450 mph (391 knots). The change comes as part of what SpaceX calls “ongoing efforts to optimize network performance.”

Influencer and Voice of the Pilot Mental Health Campaign Receives her Medical

Months after the Federal Aviation Administration pulled her medical on bogus mental health-related claims, Xyla Foxlin has returned to the skies. While this is an exciting development, the Mental Health in Aviation Act remains in Congressional limbo… meaning the work is far from over.

Palm Beach Residents Complain of Needless Noise, Medevac Delays

Palm Beach residents aren’t too happy with the Federal Aviation Administration’s unexpected imposition of a 24/7 no-fly zone around President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, recently filing a formal complaint and setting up an emergency meeting. They claim that protecting the airspace even when Trump is not there betrays FAA values by creating needless noise and delays.

Also: Orlando Air Show Cancelled, ATC Staffing Shortages, CH-47F Block II Chinooks, Sustainable $$

More than a decade of hard work, legal setbacks, and community advocacy has finally come to fruition, with MOSAIC officially becoming a final rule on October 22, 2025. Around three-quarters of the entire GA fleet now falls under the sport aviation category. The October 22 date is the initial effective date, with additional reforms scheduled for July 2026. Diamond Aircraft is responding to a wave of popular demand from flight schools, clubs, and owners by restarting the production line for its Katana 2-seat single-engine piston airplane. The Katana is well-known for its performance, reliability, and value in the training environment. The company will be building the Katana at its facility in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, and the DA20i will be powered by the Rotax 912 iSc3. One of the more intriguing features of the 2025 Affordable Flying Expo, sched

MOSAIC-Centric Event Set For November 6-8, 2025... DON'T Miss It!

After a master strategy meeting this last week on the grounds of the Sun n Fun Aerospace Expo campus, details have been completed for the first MOSAIC-dedicated, MOSAIC-centric Affordable Flying Expo (AFE25). With the rule officially announced, AFE25 stands to be the best opportunity for MOSAIC-interested folks to get their questions answered and for the industry to show the aviation community that they are ready to serve this expanding niche. 

Also: MOSAIC Town Hall, Lockheed Martin Venus, Electric Aircraft Cooling, Korea Taps Archer

The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office is at the front end of a year-long AI policing experiment, putting a completely autonomous, $200,000 squad car equipped with thermal imaging drones to the test. The so-called Police Unmanned Ground (PUG) Patrol Partner was developed and donated by Policing Lab and Perrone Robotics. The SUV comes on a Ford Explorer platform, fitted with 360-degree cameras, thermal sensors, license plate readers, and a rooftop drone dock. U.S. National Parks have prohibited the use of drones for any reason – absent a special permit – since 2014, yet increasing numbers of drone pilots have ignored the ban, and there are some reports that it’s gotten noticeably worse since the government shutdown, although that is not entirely clear. Conducting illegal drone flights can lead to penalties of up to $5,000 and six month

Also: AIR Loses eVTOL Demonstrator, USCG Getting New Helos, Freighter Fleet To Grow, US Army Falls Behind

Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, in partnership with NASA, successfully completed the first flight of the X-59, an innovative, quiet supersonic aircraft designed to return the capability of supersonic flight to commercial air travel. The X-59 launched from the Skunk Works facility at the U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, and landed near the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. King Schools is stepping up to help fill the gap left by the sudden closure of AceCFI, offering impacted CFIs a major discount to its Flight Instructor Refresher Course (FIRC). AceCFI, an online FIRC service, ceased operations after its FAA authorization expired on September 30, 2025. While the FAA had officially removed AceCFI from its list of approved providers on August 29, few customers received any advance notice. Nearly a m