Britain's Paul Bonhomme won the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship by taking second place behind Austria's Hannes Arch in the final race of the season at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz in Germany on August 8. Australia’s Matt Hall took third place in the 50th race in the sport’s history while Germany’s Matthias Dolderer finished seventh in front of his home crowd.
“It’s very special,” said Bonhomme. “It feels good. The key thing is that we won back-to-back championships, that’s what I’m going to be taking away. I’ve been saying all year I’ve been relaxed and had stayed that way right up to this race. But I knew this race could make or break the whole championship. The day didn’t go exactly as I planned but I’m very pleased about the whole year.” Bonhomme is the first pilot to win back-to-back titles and joins American Mike Mangold as the only two-time champion in the eight-year race history.

Cessna has made its 162 Skycatcher POH (Pilot's Operating Handbook) available online. there is no charge to access the document which covers all the information you need to fly the aircraft. If you would like to view the hand book, please click the link below.

The Civil Aviation Authority’s General Aviation Safety Award for 2010 has been presented to Charles Strasser for his campaign to persuade aerodromes to drop landing fees for GA pilots making emergency landings. The CAA also honoured outgoing General Aviation Safety Council Chief Executive, John Thorpe, with a lifetime achievement award.

The winners were presented with their awards at the recent AeroExpo event at Wycombe Air Park, UK. The CAA’s GA Safety Awards are presented annually to an individual or group for displaying particular skills in safety critical incidents or for commitment to improving general aviation safety through a project or campaign. Winners are selected from nominations put forward by the GA community.

Chris Finningan, Head of GA Flight Operations at the CAA, and one of the judging panel, said: “Charles Strasser decided that he should take on the task of persuading aerodrome owners and operators to adopt a ‘no fee for emergency landing’ policy. He has been hugely successful with 201 aerodromes (166 civil and 35 military) now signed up. Charles' immense determination and sheer persistence had to be brought to bear over a number of years to achieve this level of support and a significant number of pilots have benefited from it."

Austria's Hannes Arch won his third straight race in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship with a stirring performance in Windsor on June 6, bouncing back with an emphatic victory in Canada just two days after suffering one of the worst pylon hits of his career. Britain's Paul Bonhomme took a close second in the difficult track that straddles the Canada-U.S. border over the Detroit River, his 11th straight podium, while American Kirby Chambliss made the top 3 for the first time this year with third place. Canada’s Pete McLeod was a disappointing ninth in front of his home crowd.

A new style of digital NOTAM delivery system has been launched by the FAA which it says are easier to read and more accurate than those presently used. The new system has gone live at Atlantic City International Airport and has been designed to replace the difficult to read coded version which was designed to be delivered by teletype machines.
“Digital information management is key to meeting the air traffic system’s safety and efficiency goals,” said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. “This is yet another step the FAA is taking to modernize the national airspace system.”
Digital NOTAMs have safety and efficiency benefits over traditional NOTAMs. They can be transmitted to all air traffic management systems simultaneously – so everyone gets the same information at the same time. The information is integrated into cockpits and air traffic control systems.
“It provides one stop shopping for airspace system changes. It’s a great benefit to commercial airline dispatchers who need to quickly assess what’s affecting their operations,” said Babbitt.
With the new digital system, airspace users get easier to read information that goes directly into computer systems that map the information and assist pilots with identifying NOTAMs that affect their particular flight. Traditional NOTAMs use all uppercase lettering, contain contractions and use non-standard phrasing based on legacy teletype systems. Also it is difficult to integrate traditional NOTAMs into maps and other graphical aids that would assist with pilot and controller situational awareness.
Other airports that will follow the lead of Atlantic City International include: Washington Dulles, Reagan National, Baltimore-Washington International, Richmond, Norfolk, Denver, Chicago O’Hare and Midway, Memphis, Fairbanks, Alaska and Ft. Wayne, Indiana.