Jeppesen and Air BP have teamed to offer flight departments one-source international trip-planning and discount fueling. Corporate flight departments that use the services will receive fuel from Air BP at worldwide locations ``without the expense of the middleman, along with priority handling,'' said Jack Hezlep, Jeppesen's manager of corporate flight services. ``Fuel-cost savings will amount to five cents a gallon and more.'' Air BP Sterling Card customers can charge Jeppesen's international flight services on the card as well.
National Air Transportation Association (Alexandria, Va.)--Charlie Priester, president and CEO of Priester Aviation in Wheeling, Ill., steps up to chairman of the board for this FBO trade group.
Raytheon Aircraft Services recently opened a satellite facility at McCarran International Airport. Located within the Eagle Executive FBO, the center provides routine line maintenance for all Raytheon aircraft as well as other select models. The facility is open 0800 to 1630 Monday through Friday with staff available during off hours. Phone: (702) 597-9963.
Both the NBAA and the AOPA had record attendance at their respective annual meetings. The NBAA reports a total of 32,665 registrants at its convention held October 19-21 in Las Vegas, beating out l997's tally of 26,043 at the association's 50th anniversary convention in Dallas. The 968 NBAA exhibitors represents an 18.7-percent increase over last year's 815. The AOPA's Expo, held in Palm Springs, Calif., on October 23-25, also broke records at 9,720 registrants, surpassing 1997 attendance by 20 percent, and attracting 433 exhibitors.
Tangible progress has been made toward developing an effective industry-wide accident/incident information sharing system, although participation from the general aviation community in GAIN remains insignificant. In early November, representatives of commercial aviation met in Long Beach, Calif., to participate in the third GAIN (Global Aviation Information Network) World Conference. Launched in 1996 by the FAA, GAIN originally was conceived as an international computerized clearinghouse of air safety information.
In preparation for a January 28, 1999 deadline when official four-digit ICAO designators must be used, the FAA is requesting operators to start using them when filling in the ``Aircraft Type'' space on the flight plan. For most turbine and other GA aircraft, the approved identifiers either do not change, or the new code is a logical symbol. Others, however, will take getting used to. For example, a King Air F90 is BE9T; a Falcon 2000 is F2TH; and a Piper PA31T is PAY1.
Bell Helicopter (Fort Worth)--The company has announced two promotions: John R. Murphey, formerly executive vice president, to president and P.D. Shabay, previously executive vice president of operations, to executive vice president and COO.
NBAA says that all providers of aircraft flight-tracking displays have agreed to work with the association to block aircraft identification data at an operator's request. The NBAA is developing a procedure so that non-members can obtain the association's help to block data; but that is three to four months away, according to an NBAA official. Until then, non-members must work with display providers directly (October, page 42).
Rifton Aviation Services plans to open one of the largest and most unusual-looking business aviation facilities in the Northeast. The complex is to be built on a 22-acre plot at the so-called Golden Triangle (the intersection of the two main runways) at Newburgh, N.Y.'s Stewart International Airport. Final approval is pending the outcome of negotiations between Rifton and state officials. Possibly delaying that outcome is the fact that the state-owned airport currently is going through a privatization management process.
Representatives from the FAA and the National Air Transportation Association have started a dialogue that could lead to relaxing FAR Part 135 weather reporting and runway requirements for air taxi operators. Specifically, the NATA wants the FAA to change the rule that currently requires a weather reporting facility at the destination airport in order for an IFR flight to land. Also, the trade group says the 60-percent runway rule is obsolete.
By year-end, the FlexJet fractional ownership program for Bombardier's Dallas-based Business Jet Solutions is scheduled to have three FlexJet aircraft based in Europe--a Learjet 31A, Learjet 50 and a Challenger 604. In North America, FlexJet operates the second-largest Learjet 60 fleet and the third-largest Learjet 31A fleet. In 1999, it will add two Global Express aircraft. Business Jet Solutions is considering a long-term lease or possibly an FAR Part 135-like air charter structure to get around European tax deductibility issues.
The Universal 60, a single-output charger that can service up to two aircraft batteries in series, is the first member of Christie Electric Corp.'s new ProEase family of aircraft battery chargers. The Universal 60 can perform four battery-servicing functions--constant potential charge, constant current charge, dual charge and constant current discharge--and allows self-calibration of current and volts. Price: $5,895. Christie Electric Corp., 18120 S. Broadway, Gardena, Calif. 90428. (310) 715-1402; fax: (310) 618-8368.
Certification and initial deliveries of the Advanced Aerodynamics&Structures Inc. Jetcruzer 500 single-engine turboprop probably won't occur until the second half of 1999, six months later than the company has been publicizing. Up through October, AASI continued to insist that certification and initial deliveries of the six-passenger pusher would occur by year-end (September, page 20). But delays (due to weather) in the construction of a production facility and new corporate headquarters made the original timetable questionable.
Executive Wings and McCauley Propeller have teamed to introduce the five-blade Blackmac propeller upgrade for the King Air B100. McCauley clams the conversion benefits are a cabin-noise reduction of seven to nine dB, increased rates of climb and a state-of-the-art deice system. Available exclusively from Executive Wings. Price: $54,995 exchange. Executive Wings, 2480 Airfield Dr. W., Lakeland, Fla. 33811. (941) 648-1648; fax: (941) 644-0757.
Executive Jet Management, the charter arm of EJA, received FAA authority to operate to Europe, Hawaii and to the island nations in the Central East Pacific Composite Airspace System .
The Brazilian government asked the World Trade Organization in early November to seek Canadian withdrawal of some six export-subsidy schemes it says violate the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
Russian certification has been awarded to the following Cessna aircraft: CitationJet, Bravo, Ultra, Citation VII, and Caravans 208 and 208B. Certification of the Citation X is expected before year-end .
Louise B. Timken, 88, one of the first women to pilot her own Learjet, died on October 3 in Canton, Ohio. Her husband founded the Timken Co., a roller-bearing maker, and she started to fly with him in general aviation aircraft in the 1930s. Louise Timken served in the Civil Air Patrol during World War II. Then, she flew a Model 23 Learjet, N88B, for nearly three decades, which included two trips to Europe. She didn't give up the left seat until she reached age 83.
Edited By Gordon A. GilbertEdited By Gordon A. Gilbert
Through the first nine months of this year, deliveries of new GA airplanes were up 55.7 percent over the same period in 1997, according to GAMA. The 1,051 shipments of U.S.-built piston airplanes alone was an 85.4 percent increase over the 567 units delivered in 1997. Foreign and domestic business jet manufacturers delivered 361 business jets in the first three quarters, a 20-percent increase over the 301 units shipped a year earlier.
Embraer's announced plan to produce 12 37- and 50-seat regional jets per month is ``enough to satisfy, on its own, the demand for regional-jet aircraft in this market for the foreseeable future,'' the Canadian government said in its ``first submission'' to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in November. Canada and Brazil have squared off before the WTO in a battle over export subsidies.
In March 1999, Garrett Aviation Services hopes to receive an STC for an all-glass cockpit upgrade for the Dassault Falcon 20B based on its previously certificated Collins Pro Line 4 update. The modernization replaces dozens of electromechanical instruments and controls with three Universal Avionics flat panel integrated displays stacked in the center panel. The new avionics includes dual Universal UNS-1D FMSes and the company's Unilink air-to-ground datalink. Cost for an all-up modification, including Pro Line 4 displays and TCAS, is about $1.9 million.
Inventory Locator Service opened an online service that enables subscribers to sell and buy parts through an auction process. The Memphis-based firm offers both a reserve auction and an absolute auction. In a reserve auction, the seller is not required to sell the part if bids fall below a set minimum. Absolute auctions have no minimum acceptable bid, and the part must be sold to the highest bidder. An ILS official told B/CA that the company is starting the program initially with an auction every two weeks.
