-- Fairchild Dornier (San Antonio)-The company has restructured into two strategic core areas: (1) aircraft components and services headed by Michael L. Meshay, who also serves as president of Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH and (2) a new regional and business aircraft unit led by Earl Robinson, formerly the senior vice president of product development. Both report to James A. Robinson, president of Fairchild Aerospace Corp.
IDC Aerospace, LLC is the name of the Milwaukee-based repair station resulting from a joint venture between Intertechnique, a Paris-based manufacturer of aircraft system components, and DRS, Inc., a repair facility also in Milwaukee.
Airframe Suppliers Directory SUPPLIERADDRESS Advanced Aerodynamics &Structures, Inc. (AASI) 3501 Lakewood Blvd., Long Beach Calif. 90808 Aero International (Regional) 1 allee Pierre Nadot, F-31712, Blagnac Cedex, France Aerospatiale 37, blvd. de Montmorency, F-75781, Paris Cedex 16, France U.S. Subsidiary for Socata/TBM North Perry Airport, Pembroke Pines, Fla. 33023
The irrepressible Jonathan Ornstein returns to the high desert of Farmington, N.M. on May 1 as CEO of Mesa Air Group. Ornstein left the airline in 1994 to become president of Continental Express and attempted to acquire Mesa on two occasions since. He replaces founder Larry Risley, who he said was his biggest booster for the top executive post.
Upon returning from a trip on which he accompanied President Clinton to Africa, DOT Secretary Rodney E. Slater announced a program to assist African countries to enhance aviation safety. The program (for which the DOT will provide advice, not funding) has three goals: increase the number of airports that meet ICAO standards; improve security at eight to 12 airports within three years; and improve regional air navigation services. As reported, ICAO also has plans to improve aviation safety in Africa (January, page 18).
No operator wants to be the one that everyone is looking to for answers after an aircraft accident. But those girded with an action plan will be better prepared for the unthinkable. The Flight Safety Foundation and The VanAllen Group are partnering to present a Disaster Response Planning Workshop for Business Aviation in Atlanta on June 18-19.
FAA has been quizzing FAR Part 135 firms about operational control issues related to managed aircraft, a trend some regard as an ominous indication of the direction the agency is taking with its review of fractional ownership. FSDOs reportedly have been questioning the coexistence of Parts 135 and 91 with respect to managed aircraft, apparently suggesting that managed aircraft should be flown under Part 135 even when the aircraft owner is aboard. The question of operational control also is at the heart of the now year-old FAA review of fractional ownership.
Accurate record-keeping seems to go hand-in-hand with aviation. In business aviation, keeping track of time and costs is almost a given-especially when the flight department is under the scrutiny of company officers who are less-than-enthusiastic supporters of operating a large, airborne capital investment.
Linda L. Martin BERLIN AIR SHOW: EAST-WEST GATEWAY
This year's International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA '98), slated for May 18-24, will be held at the future Berlin Brandenburg International Airport, now known as the southern section of the Berlin-Schonefeld Airport.
Revised standards for determining the runway length required for takeoff and landings have been adopted. The FAA's V1 standards were amended to improve the method of accounting for pilot reaction time in the event of a rejected takeoff and to consider the effect of wet runways on takeoff performance, among other changes.
With the recent purchase of Hughes Aircraft, Raytheon Systems Co. also inherited the troubled Wide Area Augmentation System contract. Development of WAAS, vital for ensuring sole-means GPS navigation, is behind its original schedule and over budget. Meanwhile, Raytheon's FAA contract for the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) has hit some choppy air (November 1996, page 17).
The Clinton administration proposed significant increases in spending for the FAA in fiscal 1999, but the administration also wants to phase out aviation excise taxes, which currently fund more than 70 percent of the agency's annual budget, in favor of unspecified, new user fees. However, the user-fee plan has come under fire by general and business aviation trade groups as well as Congress (see Washington column on page 112).
Airframe OEM-sponsored maintenance and operations meetings are scheduled in San Antonio for the Bombardier Challenger from April 30-May 1 and for the Learjet from April 27 to May 1. Cessna's Citation M&O meeting is April 27-29 in Wichita. Other upcoming M&O gatherings are: Dassault Falcon Jet, May 18-20 in Nice, France; Gulfstream Aerospace, June 2-4 in Savannah; Raytheon Hawker, August 31-September 2 in Hilton Head, S.C.; and Sabreliner, May 13-15 in St. Louis.
Operators have a high level of confidence in their ability to detect icing conditions, but are less sure about those abilities at night, and with respect to tail-plane icing, according to a survey conducted by BFGoodrich.
Some late 60s- and early 70s-vintage panel- and remote-mount radios are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Their reliability is poor, parts are difficult to find and few shops have the expertise to keep the radios in good shape. The resale value of aircraft equipped with some brands of old radios suffers as a result. These aircraft are prime candidates for a radio retrofit. AlliedSignal's Silver Crown CNI radios are the most popular replacements for old panel-mounts, avionics shops told B/CA. A full stack can be installed for $50,000 to $60,000.
Airwork Corp. of Millville, N.J. says that by summer it will be expanding its Allison 250 capabilities to provide complete module and engine overhaul, repair and exchange support for the A250-C40 and -C47 series
Crossair President Moritz Suter has seen his airline double in size since 1995. Now he faces a new dilemma: How to compete in a liberalized Europe and continue to maintain his renowned high level of passenger service. The difficulty is that Switzerland is not a member of the European Union and is not likely to become one in the near future. So, when final deregulation of the air transport system took effect in April, Crossair's costs to serve EU airports rocketed.
Not only did the non-precision GPS approach to Runway 36 at Meigs Field become operational in February, but the city of Chicago selected Signature Flight Support to remain as the airport's permanent FBO. Of course, the term "permanent" probably will be transitory in status since the city plans to close the airport in February 2002. Signature had been serving the airport on an interim basis (December 1997, page 22).
Maintenance operations will be added to the list of facilities required to report release of certain toxic chemicals if the Environmental Protection Agency decides to adopt a petition from several environmental and wildlife protection groups. Currently, maintenance and other airport operations are exempt from this reporting requirement.
Justice Department and the FAA plan to file a motion asking for clarification from the U.S. district court judge who in March ordered the cancellation of the contract tower program. Agreeing with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the judge ruled the FAA erred in implementing the program without first conducting a cost-comparison study that was required to determine if the operation of Level 1 ATC towers is an inherently government function. Until the issue is settled, the FAA is suspending its plan to contract out an additional 22 towers.
Bombardier is nearing certification of an optional, active noise- and vibration-canceling system for Challenger 604 cabins. The system, developed by Ultra Electronics of Cambridge, England, reduces cabin noise from the engine fan by as much as 15 dBs and up to six dBs from the engine core, according to Bombardier. The installed price of the system is $165,000. It also is available for retrofit on model 601s as well as early 604s.
