Langa Air, Inc., a satellite facility of the Langa Air FBO at St. Louis Regional Airport, is the most likely winner of the FBO proposals race at the new MidAmerica Airport near St. Louis. Langa has been providing general aviation services since April 1 when the new 10,000-foot runway became active. (The ATC tower became operational in May.) According to Scott Langa, the facility's manager, Langa Air can provide catering as well as maintenance on site, and can draw upon its main facility at St. Louis Regional for parts and additional mechanics as needed.
Orenda Recip Inc. expects the first of several types of aircraft to arrive at its Nova Scotia facility to begin OE-600 engine retrofit STC work in earnest, now that the 600-hp, aluminum-block V-8 has received FAA certification. Stevens Aviation of Greenville, S.C. has ordered 140 Orenda engines for King Air C90B conversions. Dakota Aero Manufacturing in Bismarck, N.D. is working on an STC for Twin Commanders. Orenda is studying the feasibility of retrofitting Piper Navajos and Cessna 421s with its engine.
City of Philadelphia says it is looking for bidders interested in a package deal-the development of "first-class FBO facilities" at both Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) and Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE). John Butterworth, manager of two of the FBOs on the airports-Delaware Aviation at PNE and Atlantic Aviation at PHL, said those facilities will be submitting bids. He anticipates other competing bids, but noted that some companies may be put off by the dual job.
The following corrections should be made in B/CA's May 1998 Purchase Planning Handbook: -- B&D Instruments (page 208) should read Penny&Giles. -- The telephone area code for S-Tec Corp. (page 200) should be (940). -- The caption for the picture on page 225 should read Computing Technologies for Aviation.
To celebrate the work of its favorite charity, charter operator International Jet Aviation of Englewood, Colo. dedicated a Learjet 25D for one month to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that makes wishes come true for children with terminal or life-threatening illnesses.
The ceiling of San Diego's Class B Airspace would be lowered from 12,500 feet msl to 10,000 feet msl, and the western and eastern boundaries of the airspace would be expanded, under FAA proposed rulemaking. The proposal also would move the southern boundary north to align with Poggi VORTAC. Separately, operators have until July 10 to comment on the FAA's proposal to upgrade from Class C to Class B the airspace within a 25-nm radius of Cincinnati/ Northern Kentucky International Airport (April, page 26). For more information, phone: (202) 267-8783.
Shell Aviation's more than 800 branded dealers worldwide are scheduled to start this month to accept IATA Global Charge Programme credit cards for fuel, lubricants and other fluids
Fairchild Dornier has chosen "Envoy 3" as the name for the corporate version of its 328JET. Envoy 3 was selected because it alludes to "specially trained executives" on urgent missions, said Craig Fahning, vice president of corporate aircraft sales. The Envoy 3 has been slightly modified from the airline version. For instance, it has a flat floor instead of the drop aisle on the airliner, and the baggage compartment was reconfigured to yield more room for the aft lavatory.
Computing Technologies for Aviation has released FOS/NT, the company's 32-bit Windows NT-based scheduling/dispatching, crew scheduling, charter quote and flight log management system for business aviation. Phone: (804) 971-7624; e-mail: [email protected].
Flight Dynamics' HGS-2850 Head-Up Guidance system has been FAA certificated on Falcon 2000s, giving the aircraft the potential to land in visibility as low as 700 feet RVR with a 50-foot DH. The JAA issued a similar approval in February. Before U.S. operators can take advantage of Cat III(a) capability using the HGS, they will have plenty of work to do. Operators must devise training, operational and maintenance procedures that can pass FAA standards, and local FSDOs will have to learn how to process the paperwork.
Confused about how best to provision your aircraft to take advantage of the coming Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) enhancements to GPS? You're in good company. So is the rest of the aviation community. That's because GPS, even with WAAS and LAAS enhancements, isn't going to become a sole-means air navigation system soon. And without the ability to pull the plug on ground-based air navigation systems, they're going to be around for several years to come.
Revised copies of three popular source booklets are now available from the NBAA. The Business Aviation Fact Book 1998 contains statistics on business aircraft operations worldwide. The 41-page publication also includes a complete directory of the members of Congress. The 1998-1999 State Aviation Tax Report is a 52-page document that gives a state-by-state listing of aviation tax rates and whether the moneys collected are dedicated to funding aviation projects. The guide also gives data on exemptions and refunds.
Trimble is now a distributor for the AI-CD, Avionics Innovations' panel-mount, inflight entertainment system. The STCed AI-CD is a full-featured CD/FM/AM system designed to match Trimble's TrimLine radio stack. The system operates on 12-33 VDC. Price: $1,695. Trimble Navigation Ltd., P.O. Box 3642, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94088. (408) 827-8000; fax: (408) 481-7781
ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection is recommending that member states adopt stricter noise and emissions standards. Specifically, the committee says that nitrogen oxide emissions from aircraft engines should be reduced by an average of 16 percent. No specific figures for new noise standards were proposed, but previous attempts by ICAO to get its member nations to lower noise standards have been unsuccessful.
The latest edition of Jeppesen's Federal Aviation Regulations Explained; Parts 1, 61, 91, 141 and NTSB 830, by Kent S. Jackson and Joseph T. Brennan, unscrambles the sometimes convoluted language of the FARs. This "unofficial" reference gives the reader an explanation of the regulations (unless the reg is self-explanatory), cross references to the regs and referral to related advisory circulars. The inclusion of NTSB case excerpts associated with regs, along with FAA chief counsel opinion excerpts, also helps to unlock complexities.
The Regional Airline Association will post a record of 1,475 to 1,500 attendees at its spring convention in Minneapolis in May, when the tallies are finalized, plus 186 exhibitors occupying 200 booths. That was a 17-percent increase in exhibitors over 1997's spring meeting at Reno.
The perpetual subplot of business aviation's 70-year story, it seems to me, has been the search for credibility. In the beginning, the skeptics abounded. Doubts centered on safety, endurance and reliability. Ultimately, technology and human imagination prevailed and our claims in these matters became believable.
This manufacturer of aircraft components made two appointments: Gregory J. DeSantis as vice president of operations for aircraft products and Sebastiaan Demarteau as vice president of worldwide customer support.
Currently available for retrofit to Securaplane's DAI-01 alarm indicator on its System 450 and Ultra Lite on-board security system is the DAI-08 Digital Alarm Indicator. Unlike the larger DAI-01 that requires a key, this unit features a 10-digit scrolling alphanumeric display that will indicate forced entry into an aircraft. The unit is armed and disarmed by push button, and is installed behind a small door outside the aircraft. A DAI-08 will be ready for use with the System 500 in August. Price: $3,340 for the indicator; $35,000 to $55,000 for the entire security system.
The Internet has spawned hundreds of Web sites dedicated to the year 2000 problem. The FAA has opened an entire site devoted to Y2K at www.faay2k.com. Here, you can find detailed information on the FAA's effort to address the Y2K issue, as well as links to other involved international aviation organizations.
FAA has approved Commander 114Bs and 114TCs for flight into known icing. The approval applies to aircraft equipped with the TKS deicing system and related components available from Commander Aircraft in Bethany, Okla. A company official told B/CA that the 50-pound deicing package for new aircraft costs $42,000 installed and $46,000 for retrofit.
In the FAA's continuing effort to establish common requirements between the FARs and Europe's JARs, the agency adopted a new design standard for transport aircraft. The rule requires that the airframe and landing gear be purposely designed to withstand structural stress caused by the initial pitching motions during the sudden application of maximum braking force. The rule goes into effect on aircraft for which initial type certification applications are submitted on or after June 26.
