FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt told about 200 pilots at AirVenture that he’d heard their concerns about a government security directive that would mean background checks and paperwork for general aviation pilots who use busy airports. Babbitt said he would talk with the TSA’s chief once that person has been confirmed and installed in the post, AOPA reported. Safety and NextGen were also big topics in Babbitt’s address. Serious runway incursions have dropped by about 70 percent in the last year and fatal accidents are down 12 percent in that same amount of time, he said. But he emphasized the need for continued training on runway safety issues and said the FAA was looking for low-cost runway status lights that could be installed at small airports. On NextGen, Babbitt sounded an optimistic tone that cockpit devices would decrease in price in the coming years. By 2020, planes that use airspace where transponders are required will have to be equipped with ADS-B gear, he said.

The next iteration of an aircraft that could someday help loft paying passengers on brief forays into space will appear at AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisc., this summer. WhiteKnightTwo had its first flight in December and is in the midst of flight tests. It will be flown to AirVenture and put on display for the week, the Experimental Aircraft Association reported. WhiteKnightTwo is set to start tests carrying an unmanned rocket – SpaceShipTwo – later this year. The Virgin Mothership, as it is also known, is a four-engine composite airplane with two hulls designed to carry a larger rocket ship in between the two. The plane can fly as high as 60,000 feet in parabolic arcs that simulate weightlessness.

Acrobatic pilot Patty Wagstaff pleaded no contest Monday to charges she was drunk while driving down a runway at Oshkosh, Wisc., following an air show performance in July. Wagstaff performed at AirVenture on July 31 and later in the day, officials saw her swerving down the runway in a sport utility vehicle, the Oshkosh Northwestern reported. Police say Wagstaff hurled insults at officers as they arrested her and took her to a jail. She refused to take blood or breath tests for alcohol, but was still charged with driving under the influence. In pleading no contest Monday to charges of drunken driving and resisting arrest, Wagstaff agreed to pay a $500 fine and have her driver’s license suspended for eight months. She did not speak with reporters after leaving court. In a statement on her blog Monday, Wagstaff wrote that she regretted the incident and is taking responsibility for her actions. “The past five months have been very frustrating because I have not been able to tell my side of things,” she wrote. It is not clear what, if any, disciplinary action she will face from the FAA, though the Experimental Aircraft Association has already invited Wagstaff back to perform at this summer’s AirVenture.