The NTSB has issued its annual Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improve-ments list, and it is virtually identical to the 1999 list. The agency called for reducing runway incursions, revising airframe icing rules, improvements in onboard data recording devices, action to reduce the possibility of explosions due to fuel-air mixtures on transport category aircraft, and studying the problem of fatigue in transportation. Changes in each of the categories require action by the FAA.
Recognizing that another aircraft is on a collision course with us is only the first step in collision avoidance. Next, we must properly maneuver our aircraft to avoid the collision. Several basic principles can help ensure we make the right moves. The first rule is to turn opposite the direction of the other aircraft's movement. This increases the rate of separation between the two aircraft. If we turn in the direction of the other aircraft's movement, we actually reduce the separation rate and increase the chances of a collision.
If you are operating a company plane, it almost goes without saying that it should be kept spotless inside and out, in showroom condition, because first impressions are most important. For example, years ago I was presenting a Douglas B-26 Executive to Hess Oil at Teterboro. The plane came in from Ohio a few hours before the showing, and it looked like it had been stored outside for a month (it had). My competition was a Phillips Petroleum B-26 that was shiny bright inside and out. My plane had much lower total time, lower engine times and better bells and whistles.
L.J. Aviation has opened an FBO facility at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE) in Latrobe, Pa. The new facility has a private passenger lounge, crew lounge, conference room, weather center, compu-ter connections, snooze room and showers.
The European Union's threatened ban on hush-kitted Stage 2 aircraft went into effect in May, inciting the wrath of U.S. industry and trade officials who have bitterly opposed the measure. Though some have categorized the ongoing conflict as a ``tempest in a teapot'' with limited significance, the debate stands to have a far-reaching influence on the creation of new worldwide standards for aircraft noise regulation.
Bombardier is offering Heads Up Technologies' PBS600 Pre-Recorded Announcement Machine as an option on the Canadair Regional Jet 200 and CRJ700 series aircraft. The PBS600 plays announcements and boarding music.
Honeywell is forming a new business unit to help airlines combat delays and inefficiency in their operations. The new unit, called Avient, will be based in Phoenix, and will report to Mike Smith, president and CEO of Honeywell Aerospace Electronic Systems. Barry Siadat will be the president of Avient.
The Pentagon has stopped intentionally degrading GPS signals, citing technological improvements that will allow it to decrease system accuracy on a regional level if needed. Since midnight on May 1, GPS users have been able to pinpoint their positions down to tens of feet; nearly a tenfold improvement in the accuracy available while the government's ``selective availability'' (SA) function was turned on. ``In plain English, we are unscrambling the GPS signal,'' said Dr. Neal Lane, President Clinton's science advisor.
Saying the new service will reduce the high cost of ferrying aircraft, Averitt Aviation has created a Mobile Maintenance Team that will perform helicopter maintenance and repair services at customers' own facilities.
The Kollsman infrared enhanced vision system (EVS) for the Gulfstream V is now expected to receive FAA certification in the third quarter of this year, according to Gulfstream President Bill Boisture. With an estimated $500,000 price tag, the EVS option only can be installed on aircraft equipped with the Honeywell Head-up Guidance System (HGS) offered on the G-V and the G-IV. The HGS is fitted on about 80 percent of G-Vs and about one-third of new G-IVSPs. The EVS will be certified on the G-IV once the G-V program is fielded.
If Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney (a relative of cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney) were alive today, they would be amazed at what has become of the machine tool company they founded in Hartford, Conn., in 1860. The two 19th century craftsmen, who helped perfect the commercial methods of precision measurement that facilitated mass production of industrial products, earned a reputation for quality workmanship.
Alamo Jet, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based (FXE) air charter operator, has added a second nine-passenger Challenger 601. The firm also operates three Learjet 55s.
The U.S. DOT plans to lift slot restrictions at three of the four slot-controlled U.S. airports, as stipulated by the AIR-21 FAA reauthorization bill recently signed into law. Plans are to eliminate all slot restrictions at Chicago O'Hare by July 1, 2002, and at New York's Kennedy and La Guardia airports by January 1, 2007. Slots will remain in force at Washington Reagan National, but the DOT created 24 new ones including 12 for ``regional'' flights within 1,250 nm of the airport.
BP Amoco is expanding its aviation business with the acquisitions of Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) and Exxon's Turbine Oil division. The ARCO purchase will give Air BP Americas a strong presence throughout the West Coast, and includes ARCO's California and Washington-based refineries. Acquisition of the turbine oil business is a new venture for BP Amoco, which the company says is a step toward the company's ``creating a world-class lubricants business.'' U.S. and European regulators required Exxon to divest the Turbine Oil unit as a condition of its merger with Mobil.
Avstar has broken ground on a $20 million, 101,000-square-foot hangar, warehouse and office facility in Orlando. The new completion center is designed to accommodate up to five Boeing 737-type aircraft or one 747 and two narrow-body aircraft. According to Avstar and the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, the facility should bring an additional 200 to 400 skilled jobs to central Florida.
The Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA) is teaming up with Aviation Learning, Inc. to provide education programs online. Aviation Learning, which bills itself as ``the Aviation Industry's Online Learning Community,'' launched in April and intends to provide online courses, group discussions and other services to aviation maintenance professionals. PAMA President Brian Finnegan says the alliance will help further the organization's goal of ``enhancing the professionalism and recognition'' of AMTs.
Bell Helicopter Textron and Air Methods Corp. have entered into a ``strategic alliance'' to develop new products. The first project planned for the two companies is development of an EMS interior and single-pilot IFR package for the Bell 427 light-twin helicopter. Air Methods, which operates aeromedical transportation services and develops technology for other companies in the EMS field, will be the preferred provider of the EMS-equipped 427. Bell claims more than 80 orders for the 427.
Midcoast Aviation says it now has two Hawker 700 and two Hawker 800 landing gear available for customer use while their own gear is undergoing overhaul and inspection.
The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has developed a draft of a proposed fatigue countermeasures program that would better assessment of fitness for duty for FAR Part 135 pilots in an attempt to get around the issue of ``reserve time'' stipulations for scheduled air carrier crews. The challenge for the Part 135 community is to find a means of assessing a pilot's fitness for work when they have less than 10 hours notice for a trip.
