Ben Taber has been racking up flying hours—more than 12,000 in Beechcraft King Air 200s and 20,000 total—as a charter pilot for Dreamline Aviation, a charter operator headquartered at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. Taber is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and flies mostly from San Carlos Airport, and over the years, he has developed a reputation as a mentor to up-and-coming pilots. Part of that mentoring includes helping new (and old) pilots understand not only how to fly safely, but also what makes a good pilot a professional.

If anyone could be called “old school,” it’s Taber, who still flies with paper charts. Countless pilots that he has mentored might recall him stressing the need to know how to navigate without GPS, what exactly is going on during controller handoffs, or the nuances of a particular regulation. And as they move on to careers in business aviation and with airlines, hopefully, they’ll remember the lessons Taber taught them and pass them on to the new pilots they encounter.

With its March 2024 FAA certification, the Gulfstream G700 now joins the upper-echelon of the ultra-long-range business jet category alongside the Bombardier Global 7500, which has been in service since 2018. Still, there is a healthy backlog for the G700—a prospective owner placing an order today would have to wait until 2026 to take delivery.

The $81 million G700 is now Gulfstream’s flagship—its longest-range model with the largest cabin—and offers strong competition to the Global 7500 and the upcoming Global 8000, the latter of which pushes the envelope on speed (Mach 0.94 versus the G700's Mach 0.935 and Global 7500's Mach 0.925) and range to 8,000 nm. For the time being, the G700 narrowly holds the range crown at 7,750 nm.

In 2011, then President Barack Obama took on the business aviation crowd by proposing a $100 per-flight user fee on corporate jet flights and a change in the depreciation schedules of those aircraft to match those of airliners. The industry needs to pay its "fair share," the administration said.

While those efforts were unsuccessful, the Biden Administration has now taken those proposals off the shelf, dusted them off, and put its own spin on them.

White House signature of the sweeping 2018 Federal Aviation Administration funding bill provided one of the longest reauthorization periods for the agency since the 1980s and addressed a range of issues from consumer protections and regulation reform to the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems. The enactment of the legislation into law comes as the agency’s authorization approached expiration under a one-week extension Congress approved.

Passage of the Aviation, Transportation Safety, and Disaster Recovery Reforms and Reauthorization (H.R.302) ended a four-plus-year process that involved six short-term extensions, several versions of the bill, hundreds of meetings on Capitol Hill, dozens of hearings, and one of the most contentious debates surrounding the future of the air traffic control organization.

Quinn Ewers, the star quarterback of the Texas Longhorns football team, has entered into a name, image, and likeness (NIL) agreement with Nicholas Air, marking the second private jet NIL deal for a collegiate athlete and the private jet travel company. Nicholas Air's deal with Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart was the first such agreement.

Nicholas Air, headquartered in Oxford, Mississippi, owns and operates a fleet of Embraer Phenom 100s and 300Es; Cessna Citation CJ3+s and Latitudes; Bombardier Challenger 350s; and Gulfstream G600s.

Abu Dhabi’s government is backing both Archer and Joby in advancing plans to launch eVTOL air taxi services in the emirate under a pair of framework agreements signed on Thursday during the DRIFTx mobility event held at the Yas Marina Circuit.

The agreement with Archer calls for the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) to commit several hundred million dollars to lay the groundwork for operations the company said could start in 2025, as well as support the manufacturing of its four-passenger Midnight eVTOL vehicle in the UAE. Joby signed a memorandum of understanding with Abu Dhabi's Department of Municipalities and Transport to launch air taxi operations in the emirate and other, as yet unspecified, locations.

For the fourth consecutive year, Pentastar Aviation, a full service-provider at Detroit-area Oakland County International Airport (KPTK), has received the highest score in AIN’s annual FBO survey. AIN readers who evaluated hundreds of aircraft handling facilities on a 1 to 5 scale in five categories—line service, passenger amenities, pilot amenities, facilities, and CSRs—awarded the location an overall score of 4.81, an improvement of 0.03 points from last year.

Second place, with a 4.79 overall score, went to American Aero FTW at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (KFTW) in Texas, followed by Sheltair Tampa (KTPA) in Florida with a score of 4.76. Tied for fourth was newcomer to the AIN survey Galaxy FBO with its facility at Dallas-area Addison Airport (KADS) and Henriksen Jet Center, the lone FBO at privately-owned Houston Executive Airport (KTME)—both of which earned a 4.74 overall score.

Gulfstream Delivers First Two G700s to U.S.-based Customers

Bombardier Continues Evolution as Business Jet OEM with New Brand Identity

Beta's Alia 250 eVTOL Aircraft Achieves Piloted Transition Flights

AINsight: The Pilot Pipeline Predicament

Second Pilot Charged for Fuel Pricing Fraud against Travolta Company

EPA: U.S. Business Jet and Turboprop CO2 Emissions Down 62% since 2005