Mesa Air Group this month begins operating its growing fleet of Canadair Regional Jets throughout the Northeast in the livery of US Airways Express. The move followed closely the ratification of a contract by US Airways pilots permitting the use of 50-passenger jets by Express carriers. Mesa lost no time in doubling its CRJ commitment to 32 aircraft. The carrier currently has 11 and will take nine this year and 12 in 1999.
England's Hunting Aviation continues to sell businesses that are not seen as core. The latest to leave the parent firm is the In-Flight Systems subsidiary to IEC International, Ltd., a components manufacture and materials machining company on the south coast of England. In-Flight Systems supplies entertainment and cabin control equipment for business jets. Three other units-Hunting Corporate Completions, Hunting Airport Systems and Hunting Avionics-were sold in 1997 (November 1997, page 32).
Peter Schiff Enterprises is now marketing Struts Up, a kit that uses compressed nitrogen gas to pump-up leaked-down airplane struts or tires. Each kit contains a bottle of two cubic feet of nitrogen gas at 1,800 psi, fil-ling hose, six-inch wrench, return shipping label (for returning the bottle) and lightweight carrying case. The kit weight is four pounds. Price: $149. The company refills the nitrogen bottle and ships it back for $35 in the continental U.S. Peter Schiff Enterprises, 4900 Forrest Hill Rd., Cookeville, Tenn. 38501. Phone/fax: (615) 537-6505.
Organizers of General Aviation Team 2000 said that student pilot starts were up 7.9 percent from January 1997 through September 1997, compared to the same period in 1996. The increase contrasts with declines of 7.4 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively, in 1996 and 1995. GA Team 2000 is an industrywide program aimed at increasing student starts to 100,000 in the year 2000 (May 1997, page 47 and August 1997, page 24).
In early December 1997, ICAO endorsed 128 recommendations intended to solve "deficiencies" in Africa's ATC system. Among the recommendations: mandatory use of airborne collision avoidance systems, early introduction of GPS, a standardized means for reporting ATC incidents and deficiencies, and pooling of search and rescue resources. To achieve these objectives, ICAO says user charges should be used to support civil aviation activities only and that "well-structured and financially independent" civil aviation authorities must remedy the lack of financial resources.
In the beginning-circa 1954-I was flying Lockheed products for a glass container company in upstate New York. I met, and immediately liked, Lois Henry, a pint-size dynamo who was publishing Skyways, the official magazine of the NBAA.
National Air Transportation Association (Alexandria, Va.)-Ric Peri came aboard as manager of technical services for this advocacy group for air taxi and FBOs.
As the United States continues to move toward a GPS-based navigation infrastructure, concerns about vulnerability of the space-based signals are mounting. The U.S. Air Force Research Lab at Eglin AFB, Fla. plans to buy eight jammers from a Russian company that exhibited units at the Moscow Air Show in 1997 to assess how the jammers work and to arrive at countermeasures. The FAA also says it is aware of vulnerability issues, and the agency has offered to brief Congress on the issues behind closed doors.
Eurocontrol will postpone B-RNAV avionics requirements until at least April 23, a three-month delay from the original deadline. B-RNAV, which yields more-precise lateral navigation accuracy, will be mandatory to operate in European airspace (May 1997, page 17). The system is not yet fully operational, and more time is needed to equip aircraft.
It's "business as usual" for now at International Aviation Services, Ltd., the Fort Worth Meacham Field-based corporate aircraft refurbishing and outfitting firm that in 1996 took over the hangars from former Page Avjet (April 1996, page 24). IASL has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings since October 1997. According to Brian Ward, IASL's vice president of sales, the company's 182 full-time employees are accepting new work as well as continuing current projects. A bankruptcy court currently is considering bids from prospective buyers-at least three U.S.
Professional Flight Tracking Services (www.thetrip.com/ pro)- Two products are offered: real-time tracking of IFR traffic within the United States and a compilation of current and previous landing activity by aircraft type, air- port, arrival time and tail number.
To be sure, airline and business aviation accident rates have plateaued at comfortably low levels, but the world's aviation safety experts, in and out of government, are worried. In fact, they say, improvements must be made to these already low rates as we move into the next century. The problem is that the numbers of airline and business aviation operations are increasing greatly, and it follows that the absolute numbers of aircraft accidents will increase to intolerable levels in lock step with increases in the number of operations.
Heli 1997/98 lists a total of 27,308 civil rotary-wing aircraft in 159 countries by registration number. Information on each helicopter includes make/model, year of manufacture, owner/operator, operating base, previous registration and constrution number. The fleet section includes all operators with eight or more helicopters Price: $31.95. BUCHair USA Inc., P.O. Box 75055, New York, N.Y. 11375. (718) 263-8748; fax: (718) 275-6190.
Flight testing is now under way on the Bell 427 light-twin turbine helicopter, and work continues toward certificating the Bell 430 medium-twin for single-pilot IFR by February. The 427, being developed jointly with South Korea's Samsung Aerospace, will have a gross weight of 6,000 pounds, be powered by two P&WC PW206Ds and have a four-blade composite rotor. FAA certification is planned for early 1999 (April 1996, page 30).
Following up on its December 1996 proposal to create an aviation regulatory agency that will require compliance by all JAA member-nations, the European Commission will seek a mandate by June to prepare a revised JAA Convention agenda that would create the European Aviation Safety Authority (January 1997, page 13). Individual nations then would be asked to delegate all their existing agencies to the new organization.
Top officials of the Flight Safety Foundation and the FAA offered a look at priorities among safety initiatives at the FSF's 50th annual international air safety seminar this winter in Washington, D.C.
Until practical airborne detectors for clear air turbulence are developed (are potential developers listening?), the FAA urges operators to use these "Rules of Thumb" included in a new advisory circular on CAT. If jet stream turbulence is encountered with direct tailwinds or headwinds, consider changing altitude or course since these turbulent areas are elongated with the wind and are shallow and narrow.
Banyan Air Services in Fort Lauderdale received FAA certification to perform hot-section inspections, gearbox overhauls and other maintenance on AlliedSignal TPE331 turbine engines.
Oxaero (Oxford Airport, United Kingdom)-Alex Durand is the new managing director of this air charter and air broker specialist, succeeding Jeremy Cookewho continues as a director of the company.
First Heli-Network (www.first-heli-etwork.co.uk)-This site features information on this U.K. company's shared helicopter ownership program that's been in the formative stages for more than a year. At press time, FHN had placed "conditional" orders for two Bell JetRangers but had not completed signing up customers for the two-aircraft deal.
Canadian Marconi's CMA-2200 Aero-I satcom antenna system is available for operators using Inmarsat's Aero-I satcom service for business jets and regional airlines. Approved by Inmarsat, this new top-mounted antenna is based on the same proprietary technology and architecture as the widely used Aero-H CMA-2102. Price: Approximately $25,000. Canadian Marconi, 415 Legget Dr., Kanata, Ontario K2K 2B2 Canada. (613) 592-7403; fax: (613) 592-7417.
