Pilot Crashes, Kicks Plane In Anger; King Air Spins, Nearly Hits Jumpers; And Feds To Implement Flight Crew Vax Mandate.

Two major cellular phone service providers, AT&T and Verizon, will delay the launch of their 5G networks in response to pressure from legislators and lobbyists representing aviation interests, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal. The 5G spectrum is located adjacent to an aviation frequency band that is used by radar altimeters, critical to approach capabilities for airliners and business aircraft down through many piston twins. The networks will only delay the rollout by a month, while they are, the WSJ story said, "disputing claims."

The NTSB announced that the flight recorders and the vast majority of the wreckage of the Boeing  737-200 freighter conversion twinjet that crashed into the ocean off the coast of Oahu earlier this year has been recovered, along with the cargo it was carrying. The plane crashed after taking off from Honolulu and experiencing engine trouble. The crew ditched the plane in the Pacific and were able to escape the wreckage. They were rescued by Coast Guard crews after nearly an hour in the drink.

The FAA will shortly publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking requiring commercial balloon pilots to possess a valid FAA Second Class Medical Certificate. The proposed rule (which we estimate has a 100 percent chance of adoption) will eliminate an exemption that lets commercial balloon pilots get by with less than FAA standard medical oversight.

OSHA rolled out the Biden Administration's vaccine mandate for businesses employing 100 or more people. It will require, starting on December 5^th, that every employee be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing, among other requirements. The mandate will affect every airline, few of which have universal vaccination mandates for their employees, including flight crew.

A Swedish company is rolling out its Jetson ONE, an ultralight electric multicopter with a whole-aircraft recovery parachute system. The little single-seat speedster, up to 60 mph, features auto-hover and triple-redundant flight control computers. The company says the craft, which will cost $92,000, will be able to fly with the loss of one motor. A flight time of just 20 minutes at launch will limit the scope of the adventures.

A European group has flown a hybrid-engine-equipped Pipistrel Panthera, to demonstrate what it calls zero-emissions flight in "transportation sectors." Though its hybrid propulsion system depends on an internal combustion engine to keep the batteries juiced, the plane can take off and land under electric power.

AOPA will conduct a virtual STEM symposium next month (November 16), getting secondary school teachers and administrators together to talk about how they might use aviation to help their students learn more about all the STEM subjects.

A group of aviation member organizations is asking Congress to allocate $10 million dollars, more than double the current funding level, to fuel the effort to field a workable 100LL replacement for high-performance piston-powered aircraft. The groups called this "a critical juncture" for the fuel development.

A pilot who made a forced landing in DeKalb, Georgia, after engine trouble in his early model Cessna 172, crash landed on a nursing home property---no one on the ground was injured. The pilot was unhurt and was able to extricate himself from the plane, which came to rest upside down. He immediately walked to the back of the plane and kicked its tail in anger. Understandable.