ADS-B Fee Pushback 📋, AI Aircraft Valuation 🤖, PilotWorkshops Mastery 🎮
FAA Administrator Pushes Back on Using ADS-B for Fee Collection (3 minute read)
At a Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee hearing on the FAA's response to NTSB recommendations from the January 2025 DCA midair, Administrator Bryan Bedford told lawmakers that ADS-B "was intended to be a safety and situational awareness tool" and that the agency "frown[s] on" using it for revenue collection at airports. Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), a GA pilot and original cosponsor of the Pilot and Aircraft Privacy Act, warned that ADS-B billing could push owners to stop broadcasting their position; the prohibition also appears in Section 105 of the House-passed ALERT Act. AOPA, which says at least a dozen states are now weighing similar bills after Florida's enacted ban and a Louisiana House measure, applauded Bedford's stance.
New Tool Generates Aircraft Valuation Reports in 20 Seconds (2 minute read)
Windsock has launched Autopilot, which generates a 20-plus-page aircraft valuation report in about 20 secondspg_is_in_recovery() from a single uploaded document — logbooks, maintenance records, PDFs, or photos — replacing the 20–30 minutes of manual research the task usually takes. The report flags logbook hotspots and risk signals, engine and compression history, airworthiness-directive impact, and a market-trend forecast, drawing on a model spanning more than 25,000 year-make-model combinations and a price index dating to 1960. The platform already counts 5,500+ users and $5.3 billion in value run through its model, and AOPA named Windsock its exclusive valuation partner in January 2026, giving members up to 12 complimentary reports a year at Windsock.ai.
PilotWorkshops' Mastery Series Now Available in the Sporty's Pilot Training App (3 minute read)
Sporty's has folded PilotWorkshops' VFR Mastery and IFR Mastery series into its Pilot Training app, putting recurrent, scenario-based proficiency content and the original courses behind a single iOS login. Each monthly scenario walks pilots through evaluating weather, aircraft performance, charts, regulations, and operational risk before choosing a course of action and comparing it against detailed instructor analysis and CFI roundtables. The update adds offline download and cross-device sync (start a scenario on an iPad, finish on an iPhone or desktop), background audio with Apple CarPlay playback, and a searchable archive of years of scenarios with saved favorites.
FAA Launches a Public Tracker for Its $12.5B ATC Modernization (3 minute read)
The FAA has launched a public web page that lets taxpayers track its $12.5 billion air traffic control modernization by entering a city, ZIP code, or airport to see local progress and work planned in the next 30 days across more than 10,000 projects. Administrator Bryan Bedford framed it as transparency after the earlier NextGen effort delivered just 16% of its promised benefits while costing $36 billion; the site details swapping aging copper for fiber, satellite, and wireless links to prevent blackouts like the one at Newark. Current tallies include 69 of 220 surface-awareness systems, 62 of 450 digital voice switches, 4 of 612 radar systems, and electronic flight strips at 17 of 89 airports, with monthly updates promised.
NTSB Pupg_is_in_recovery() lls Its Docket System After AI Is Used to Fake Cockpit Voice Audio (2 minute read)
The NTSB temporarily took its entire public docket system offline after discovering that someone had used AI to reconstruct approximations of cockpit voice recorder audio from the sound-spectrum imagery the agency publishes — including in the ongoing probe of the November 4 crash of UPS Flight 2976, an MD-11 that killed its three-person crew and 12 people on the ground. Federal law bars the NTSB from ever releasing actual CVR recordings, and the agency said it is evaluating solutions before restoring access. The shutdown came during a two-day hearing centered on the spherical bearing and lugs holding the engine mounts, which testimony showed Boeing and UPS knew were prone to cracking as early as 2008 and 2011.
TruVideo Brings AI Video Diagnostics to Aircraft Maintenance (2 minute read)
TruVideo, an AI video-and-messaging company from the automotive world, has launched TruVideo AOG to bring its video-intelligence engine into aviation maintenance. Mechanics and pilots capture and submit videos through the platform so off-site specialists can diagnose problems remotely and estimate repair costs — letting planners order and stage parts, allocate personnel, and reserve bay space before an aircraft-on-ground even lands, cutting downtime and the need for fly-along inspections or specialist travel. It's offered three ways: embedded inside existing systems, as a guided-capture mobile app, or via "instant capture" links that let anyone create a verified visual record from a smartphone in seconds.
Miami-Dade Airports to Trial an Air Taxi Management System (3 minute read)
The Miami-Dade Aviation Department will install a new air traffic management system across ramp facilities at Miami Executive (KTMB), creating a "live testing ground" for drones and eVTOL air taxis under a program called SafeLand. It's run by Bell-Dancy Industries (BDI), whose ALTA (Autonomous Landing and Take-off Assistant) platform carves out "protected airspaces" for advanced air mobility at airports and vertiports; the partners will begin with uncrewed drones to stress-test the system before scaling to full air-taxi operations under FAA oversight. The effort aligns with the FAA's vision of third-party UTM providers — BDI, Thales, ANRA — managing widespread drone operations under the proposed Part 146 within its Part 108 rule.
Beta and Republic Airways Fly High-Cadence Electric Aircraft Demos in Florida (3 minute read)
Beta Technologies teamed with Republic Airways and Signature Aviation for three days of "high-cadence" demonstration flights of its Alia CX300 electric aircraft across South Florida, culminating Sunday at Orlando International (KMCO). The flights preview the FAA's eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), under which Beta and others will begin airport operations in Florida and 25 other states over at least three years. The CX300 — powered by Beta's H500A electric motor (still seeking type certification) and a Hartzell FAA-certified electric propeller — has a 336 nm demonstrated range, 135-knot projected top speed, and room for a pilot plus five passengers or about 1,250 pounds of cargo, with one aircraft flying 27 out-and-back legs at Kissimmee Gateway (KISM) at roughly $16.80 in energy per leg.
Eve Closes Out eVTOL Hover Testing, Demos Autoland and Backup Fly-by-Wire (2 minute read)
Eve Air Mobility (NYSE: EVEX) closed out the hover and low-speed block of its full-scale engineering prototype's flight test campaign, clearing the way toward transition flight testing. Across 59 flights the team validated control laws, downwash, thermal behavior, and the propulsion model — first below 15 knots, then expanding to about 20 knots ground speed with simultaneous four-axis maneuvers — logging more than 100 flight test points. Notable firsts included demonstrations of autoland and a simplified fly-by-wire backup mode that activates when the normal mode is unavailable, with the aircraft reaching 215 feet AGL and a longest flight of 3 minutes 48 seconds as CEO Johann Bordais pointed to the data as foundation for "the certification path ahead with the conforming prototypes."
