November 29, 2013, 3:05 am
China Eases Rules on the Coveted Pilot’s License
By ADAM CENTURY

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has said it will relax requirements for obtaining a private pilot’s license, a move that is likely to unleash pent-up demand in the country’s civil aviation sector. The new regulations make it considerably easier for individuals to acquire a license, a coveted status symbol within China’s burgeoning class of business moguls and millionaires.

The announcement on Tuesday came just weeks after the Air Traffic Control Commission of China unveiled plans to open more low-altitude airspace for commercial and private airplanes in the coming years. Most of China’s airspace is currently reserved for military use, and the push to liberalize the country’s airspace has been a front-line issue between China’s vast security apparatus and its increasingly powerful commercial interests.

In 2011, a senior official in the Civil Aviation Administration estimated that 20 percent of China’s airspace was available for civil aviation, including both commercial and private flights. By contrast, the official said, about 85 percent of the United States’ airspace was open for civil aviation.

According to Xia Xinghua, deputy administrator of the C.A.A.C., China has 399 airports or vertipads and 1,610 jets registered for civil aviation, with a rapidly expanding consumer market for private jets. Given that the private aircraft market in the West is still rebounding from the financial crisis, some analysts say that China could overtake the United States as the largest market for private planes within the coming decade.

Monday, February 10, 2014
Mooney Production Restarted
[Aviation Today February 10, 2014]

Mooney International Corp. CEO Jerry Chen said the company has begun the first production of new aircraft since the start of its five-year hiatus in 2009.

Chen announced the company's return to the industry in November 2013. The first aircraft to come off the assembly line will be a single-engine M20TN Acclaim Type S with upgraded cockpit technology powered by Garmin's G1000 integrated avionics suite.

Mooney’s relaunch is funded by Soaring America Corp., a California-based investment group. The corporation ceased production in 2008 at the start of the recession when sales of single-engine aircraft dropped by 30 percent.