An FAA/industry task force analyzing the FAA's National Air Space modernization efforts concluded that the agency's current course is unachievable because of technical risk, disagreement among users, bureaucratic infighting and insufficient funding. The task force recommended slowing development of the wide-area augmentation system, datalink, and ADS-B air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities critical to free flight.
On October 1, 1999, all aviation medical examiners are scheduled to start using a new, mandated Windows-based software package from the FAA. The new technology is intended to streamline the pilot medical examination process and improve the accuracy of data.
If you're flying in the area of Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, Del. on May 9 or 10, you may share the airspace with a high altitude rocket-even if only for an instant. The weather rocket is scheduled to blast off from the park on the afternoon of May 9 (or May 10 as the backup launch day) and climb to a height of 45 miles. Watch for a temporary restricted area to be established that will also include Warning Area W-108, and segments of V-139, J-121 and J-124. For schedule updates, contact the FAA at (718) 553-4521.
Deliveries of the Learjet 45, which received certification in September 1997, are delayed until mid-month at the earliest because of recurring bleed-air tube coupling leaks in the anti-ice system. The high-pressure engine bleed air used for anti-icing is hotter and of higher pressure than on most previous Learjets, resulting in more stress on the couplings. New design couplings currently are being evaluated. Function and reliability tests must be completed before upgraded parts can be retrofitted, thus allowing initial deliveries to begin.
Where have we heard this before? High-performance airplanes for the owner-pilot. General aviation aircraft deliveries exceeding 20,000 a year. Low-cost small turbine engines. Personal jets.
In its legislative agenda for this year, the National Air Transportation Association intends to make it clear to Congress that its members do not want to be lumped in with the airlines when it comes to taxation and regulation. And it will continue to fight "an as-yet-undefined user fee scheme that proposes to switch excise tax funding to user fee funding by the year 2000," said NATA President James Coyne. "It's an issue we hoped would have gone away."
Dassault Aviation is wind-tunnel testing several wing planforms for the supersonic business jet the firm is studying (December 1997, page 33). A final decision is years away, but it's expected that Dassault would select a delta wing and an active canard. Limited volume of the wing would require all fuel to be carried in the SST's fuselage. A full fuel load would account for half of the Falcon SST's 80,000-pound-plus MTOW. Each of three non-afterburning engines would generate more than 10,500 pounds of thrust.
All of EJA's aircraft in the NetJets shared ownership program now include Phoenix-based Medaire's MedLink Worldwide emergency medical program at no cost. Medlink includes specialized medical training for NetJets crews, a 24-hour emergency medical hot line to physicians and enhanced inflight medical emergency first aid kits.
Bell Helicopter expects to announce by the end of the year whether it will proceed with development of a new entry-level helicopter and with a successor to the Model 412 medium twin. At the low end, Bell is looking for a more powerful helicopter with a new main rotor and possibly with either a shrouded tail rotor or the NOTAR system it is acquiring with the purchase of the former McDonnell Douglas helicopter line from Boeing.
Kansas City, Mo.'s Aviation Department set aside its grant request to the FAA for funds to resurface 7,001-foot Runway 1/19 at Downtown Airport because it didn't like the chopping clause. Provisions of the FAA grant award would have required the runway to be shortened to 5,000 feet to allow for overruns. Executive Beechcraft, an FBO on the airport, and the NBAA opposed the decrease, arguing that the shorter runway would not allow safe takeoff and landing distances for business jets. Now the grant project is on hold pending the drafting of a master plan for the airport.
No tuition hikes or schedule changes are planned for FACTS training, now that the Olympia, Wash. emergency-procedures training company has been purchased by AirCare International. Beau Altman, Ph.D., FACTS founder (in 1981) and president, will be retained as a program consultant. FACTS/AirCare International, the new company, is headed by Douglas Mykol, a FACTS trainer, who in fall 1997 spun off an inflight telemedical assistance program, called AirCare, for business aircraft operators.
Inadequate financing has forced Burkhart Grob of Mindelheim, Germany to scuttle plans to develop the GF200 all-composite executive aircraft. The firm had previously anticipated certification this summer for the four-place, 270-hp piston single. Grob is now turning its attention to building the GF350, a six- to eight-place 350-hp version, which would cruise at 350 knots and fly up to 1,400 nm (July 1997, page 12).
John Ferrie is the new executive vice president of business operations. Terry Graham, former chief operating officer, left the company to pursue other opportunities. S. Michael Hudson, president and chief executive officer, will also assume COO duties.
At press time, FAA approval was pending on expanding the major periodic inspection interval on AlliedSignal TFE731-5B turbofans to 2,500 hours. The change will require compliance with service bulletins on new carbon seals and controlled fit combustors. Following approval of the MPI interval extension, AlliedSignal will pursue FAA approval of a boost in the time between compressor zone inspections to 5,000 hours.
A line of flat-panel displays to be marketed by Universal Avionics Systems for corporate and regional aircraft will be unveiled at the Aircraft Electronics Association annual meeting this month. The displays, to be available in four-by-five-inch, 5-ATI, five-by-six-inch and eight-by-10-inch sizes, will be manufactured by Avionic Displays Corp., a leading supplier of such equipment for military aircraft.
Perry Bradley FAA IS CONDUCTING FREE-FLIGHT TRIALS
Since late 1997, the FAA has been testing a GPS-based route network in the Caribbean that the agency says is the first 100-percent use of GPS as a primary means of navigation using domestic route separation standards. The system is demonstrating the utility of moving toward "Free Flight" and is resulting in shorter flight times and fuel savings for the 11 airlines participating in the program.
As expected, the FAA released a series of ADs that limit pilots of airplanes with unpowered ailerons and pneumatic boots in deploying flaps and using autopilots during icing conditions (August 1997, page 10). The rules also require ice inspection lights to be operational prior to flight into icing conditions at night.
Flying VFR in the greater Cincinnati area may get more challenging. The FAA has proposed to upgrade from Class C to Class B the airspace within a 25-nm radius of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG). The airspace would have seven sub-areas, surround seven other airfields and extend from the surface to 8,000 feet msl.
Requests for proposals for a provider of FBO services have been issued by three New York airports. Johnstown's Fulton County Airport is expected to sign a new lease with Seyon Aviation, the current FBO that recently bought out Response Aviation. At Niagara Falls Airport, management hopes for an FBO to replace municipal-run facilities by May. And at Long Island's Republic Airport, a new, or the existing FBO (Million Air), is expected to take occupancy by October 13.
In ``CBT Takes Off'' (February, page 76) we incorrectly described the operating system capabilities of Computer Training Systems' system simulators. The company has been providing Microsoft Windows-compatible software since 1995.
PATS, inc. completed the testing required to obtain an STC for relocating Sundstrand APUs in Falcon 20s. The installation relocates the APU from the maintenance bay to the tail area. Meanwhile, the Columbia, Md. firm entered endurance testing as part of the final development of what it calls a lightweight, low-cost rotary-engine APU. PATS says the APU will weigh about 100 pounds, cost about $150,000 and be available late this year. Separately, K-C Aviation in Dallas ordered 10 PATS APU kits for G-IIs.
The chairmen of a new RTCA/Industry avionics task force urged operators to participate by attending the scheduled public meetings or by expressing their views on the AWG Forum on CompuServe ("Go AWG"). The purpose of the task force, formed at the request of FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, is "to find ways to reduce the time and cost of certification of advanced avionics systems," according to co-chairmen Tony Broderick, former FAA associate administrator for certification and regulation, and Ed Stimpson, GAMA vice chairman.
A U.S. Court of Appeals decision is allowing the City of New York to revise curfews at the East 34th St. Heliport in Manhattan. The weekday window has shrunk to 0800 to 2000 instead of 0700 to 2300. Operations on weekends are limited to 1000 to 1800 hours. The court ruling permits the city to further reduce operations and phase out weekend flights totally. The city will decide on those options once its transportation master plan is complete. As expected, the city did close the 60th St. Heliport (June 1997, page 26).
Ayres Corp. of Albany, Ga. estimates the first flight of its multipurpose turboprop aircraft-the Loadmaster LM200-for December or early January 1999. The LM200 is being offered in a 34- to 40-passenger commuter version and a 19-passenger/combi freight version, in addition to its more familiar outfitting as a large-capacity cargo carrier. Powerplants are two AlliedSignal/Allison LHTEC CTP800-4Ts driving a single nose-mounted propeller through a Soloy gearbox.
