Bill was Editor-in-Chief of Business & Commercial Aviation from 2000 to 2020. During his stewardship, the monthly magazine received scores of awards for editorial excellence.
He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the National Business Aviation Association; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Aerospace Media Awards; the Aviation Journalism Award from the National Air Transportation Association; and an Aerospace Journalist of the Year Award for Business Aviation.
Previously, Bill served as Managing Editor of Aviation Week Television. He was the top editor for both Flying and Professional Pilot magazines, as well as a member of the senior editorial staff at Reader's Digest. He also managed communications for FlightSafety International.
Bill has authored or co-authored three aviation books, was an essayist for National Public Radio, wrote aviation documentaries for The Discovery Channel and has written for numerous publications including The New York Times, Smithsonian Air & Space, Popular Mechanics and The Associated Press, among others.
An active aviator, Bill holds a Commercial Pilot license, along with multiengine, instrument, seaplane and glider ratings.
Surf Air, a fly-all-you-want membership airline, has begun operation in California serving three destinations with Pilatus PC-12s. Founded by brothers Wade and David Eyerly, the anti-airline sells memberships for $500 and then charges each cardholder $1,650 a month. For that investment members can ride Sur Air's three Pilatus singles as often as they like on the operations 16 daily flights linking Burbank, San Carlos near Palo Alto, and Santa Barbara. It plans to expand service to Monterey, Palm Springs, San Diego, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, and the Sonoma/Napa area as well.
The FAA is facing considerable uncertainty, with the U.S. government headed toward a possible partial shutdown Oct. 1 and sequestration levels of funding likely to remain in place even if a shutdown is avoided. The situation is unsettling to those in the agency and the business aviation industry alike. “I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Kate Lang, FAA’s deputy associate administrator-airports, said last week. “Frankly, nobody knows.”
It is so ubiquitous, so unextraordinary, it's easily overlooked. But a recent move by an unexpected entity suddenly made me take notice as if for the first time. ViraZH, a Russian training outfit, is buying nearly four score of Cessna 172s to join the 11 it purchased in 2011. That's heartening news for the Cessna's lightplane makers in Independence, Kan.
