Airplane News: Crash, Piper M700 Fury, Retirement Age, Analog NAVAIDs, and 25 Hr CVR

Welcome to your weekly General Aviation news update, and this week we have 5 stories for you; small airplane crash, New Piper M700 Fury, FAA tells congress not to increase pilot retirement age, FAA advises to use analog NAVAIDs, and comments close for the 25 hour CVR rule.

First up this week is a crash of a Grumman GA-7 Cougar. While we don’t normally talk about small aircraft accidents, this one was recently rebuild by a popular YouTube channel called Rebuild Rescue. The aircraft departed Coatesville-Chester County Carlson Airport in Pennsylvania and crashed shortly after takeoff. Based on a map provided from Aviation Safety Network, the crash appears to have occurred less than 2 miles from the airport. The pilot and only occupant of the Cougar was killed in the crash. As usual, we’re not going to speculate on the cause of the accident. We’ll wait until the NTSB report is released, which may take a few years. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/351359 https://www.fox29.com/news/coatesville-plane-crash-chester-county-school-board-president-killed-in-small-plane-crash Second up this week is the new Piper M700 Fury! Piper has unveiled their new M700 Fury, a single engine turboprop with a 301kts max cruise speed, 3400 foot per minute rate of climb, and take off and landing distances under 2000’. The M700 Fury comes with a Pratt and Whitney PT6A-52 Engine, Garmin G3000 Avionics Suite with HALO Safety System, Garmin PlaneSync, and Garmin Auto land. The Fury has a useful load of 2,220lbs, a maximum rage of 1852NM, and a maximum approved altitude of 30,000’. At 4.1 million, I’m not sure your flight school is going to be picking one up but for those who can afford it, the M700 is a cool new turboprop airplane! https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/290413/ https://www.piper.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024_M700_SpecSheet.pdf Next up this week is the FAA and Congress discussing the potential of raising pilot retirement age to 67. The new FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker has asked congress to leave the current mandatory retirement age in place until the agency has had more time to study the increase. The pilot retirement age is now part of negotiations towards a 5 year FAA reauthorization act. Without another extension or a reauthorization act, the FAA’s reauthorization will expire on March 8th, 2024 . We’ll keep you up to date if we see any reauthorization updates or changes to pilot retirement ages. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/age-67-pilot-retirement-back-in-legislative-spotlight/ Third up this week is guidance for anyone experiencing GPS spoofing or other anomalies. The FAA is advising that pilot use analog NAVAIDs such as VOR or NDB if pilot notice issues such as: Report Link: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/nas/gps_reports SAFO: https://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviation_industry/airline_operators/airline_safety/safo/all_safos/SAFO24002.pdf Last up this week is that comments have closed of the 25 Cockpit Voice Recorder rule. If you’re unfamiliar, the NPRM aims to increase Cockpit Voice Recorders from 2 hours of recording to 25 hours. This would allow the FAA and NTSB to better investigate incidents. Reactions to the NPRM have been mixed, with a number of comments expressing concern that the 25 hours of CVR will be used to listen in on pilot conversations or used to punish pilots with certain viewpoints. ALPA addressed this in their comments, suggesting that there should be restrictions on the use of recording or transcripts for administrative or disciplinary proceedings including by both Federal Agencies and by a pilot’s employer. We’ll keep you updated when we see the final rule. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/mixed-reaction-to-25-hour-cvr-rule/ https://www.regulations.gov/document/FAA-2023-2270-0001/comment Alright, that’s it! Have a great week and we’ll see you next week.