Lay Offs at Eclipse
About 10 percent of Eclipse Aircraft’s 1,500-person workforce, mostly temporary employees, were laid off recently, according to Eclipse Spokesperson Andrew Bloom, who attributed the action to production delays. “We hired at a rate to meet production expectations,” he said. “We’ll get to two aircraft per day next year and, by the end of the year or the beginning of January ’09, will be at three aircraft a day.” He also said the spool up in production was related to a longer-than-expected learning curve as well as supplier issues. “Just the teething pains of a new manufacturer,” he said. “We are not in financial trouble. In fact, we are in good shape. We are just not where we want to be in production right now.”

Eclipse Takes First Angel Flight
Using a newly delivered Eclipse 500, owner Ron Level flew a patient from El Monte, Calif. to her home near Chico where she is now recovering. The mission, arranged by Angel Flight West, took an hour and 20 minutes, a fraction of the seven-hour drive that the patient would have had to endure had the Angel Flight West pilots not been able to help. The flight also included Ben Marcus, co-founder of jetAVIVA, which now manages Level’s jet.
"To fly an Angel Flight mission is a great way to help people while having fun and maintaining our proficiency,” said Level. “Ben encouraged me to join Angel Flight West where he has been a member and volunteer for 13 years. I look forward to flying many more in the future.”
Angel Flight West is a non-profit organization that arranges free air transportation in response to health care and other compelling human needs.

Taking off with HangarHunter.com
Combine two entrepreneurs with vision, ingenuity and a passion for aviation and you get HangarHunter.com, a new, free website created to connect buyers and sellers of airplane hangars.
Creators of the website, Scott Frederiksen and Todd Kimmes, are recreational pilots and avid sportsmen who became increasingly frustrated at their inability to hangar their aircraft. They discovered that of the hundreds of websites devoted to aviation, none provided a hangar service.
Frederiksen, a commercial real estate broker, and Kimmes, owner of a technology firm, used the knowledge gained in their respective industries and built features into the site, allowing visitors to customize their experience - whether searching for a hangar or listing one for sale or lease. There is no charge to post listings or to search the database
Visitors can identify specific parameters that will instantly generate an e-mail alert when something matching their criteria becomes available.
The site also allows the visitor to:
• Search for hangars nationwide by airport, city or state
• View a directory of hangar manufacturers and accessory distributors
• Post a hangar for sale or lease
• Search the FAA database for airport information and charts
• View featured hangars and photos of hangars submitted by site members
• Access weather conditions at specific airports
In addition to all of the functions relating to hangars, the site also offers numerous aviation links as well as latest in aviation news.