A partnership agreement that Valley Oil of Salem, Ore. has forged with Griffith Oil of Huntingdon, Pa. enables Valley to supply fuel to FBOs in the northeastern United States. In exchange, Griffith gets to offer Valley's dealer-support programs to those facilities. These programs include tank upgrade assistance, credit-card programs and line-service training. As a result of Valley expanding its marketing territory, pilots probably will see "a growing number of branded dealers," said Michael Delk, president of Valley Oil.
Irkutsk Aviation Industrial Enterprises in Irkutsk, Russia is looking for a U.S. partner to jointly manufacture a utility amphibious jet. In an item in the U.S. Commerce Department's Business Information Service newsletter, the Russian company describes its BE-200 as a ``multipurpose aircraft'' powered by two D-436T turbofans rated at 16,500 pounds of thrust each.
-- "Plane Talk in Montreal," is the theme for the Canadian Business Aircraft Association's annual convention slated for Montreal, Quebec on June 8-10. The aircraft static display will be set up at the Skyservice FBO at Dorval International Airport. Skyservice also will showcase the exhibits from manufacturers of aircraft, engines and avionics, along with service businesses. Technical and operations forums are planned at Skyservice and Innotech Aviation, also located on Dorval. The locus for social events will be the Bonaventure Hilton in downtown Montreal.
Fairchild Dornier was very close to a launch of the 44-passenger 428JET at B/CA press time. Fairchild Aerospace President Jim Robinson suggested it could come within a few weeks. "There is one-percent wiggle room, but I cannot see any way today that we would not do it. It is a no-brainer. It is something our customers want and it is an airplane we want. There is no reason to wait," he said.
In a new publication, the Helicopter Association International answers the 25 most-frequently asked questions by operators on how to begin planning for a heliport. The document is excerpted from the HAI's soon to be released Heliport/Vertiport Development Guide. Copies of the publication are available at $3 each for HAI members and $5 for nonmembers. Contact Bill Sanderson at the HAI at (703) 683-4646.
Two new civilian frequencies will be added to future global positioning system satellites, giving civil users system accuracy and capability similar to that which military users now enjoy. Dual signals allow receivers to automatically correct for ionospheric error, which can degrade accuracy by tens of meters. But the new capability won't be available until at least 2005, when new GPS satellites begin to be launched. One signal will be located in the current L2 frequency (now reserved for military use only), but the other will be a new, undetermined frequency.
-- 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.
