Note this offer from Los Angeles-based Cloud Nine Aviation: a 90-day guarantee to either sell your aircraft or it will purchase it. And in 90 days it will locate an aircraft for a client to purchase or the client owes the company nothing for trying
Elliott Aviation in Moline, Ill. will start marketing an ice detection and cockpit advisory system for King Airs. The system, manufactured by BFGoodrich's Rosemount Aerospace, weighs five pounds and can be installed in 16 man-hours. It comes with a two-year warranty and is available at an uninstalled suggested retail price of $9,700.
Art Wegner, chairman, president and CEO of Raytheon Aircraft Co., assumed the duties of chairman of the board of this general aviation trade association.
Executive Jet's NetJets program continues its explosive expansion with an announcement in late October that the company will form a joint venture company with Boeing Business Jets to offer one-eighth shares in BBJs, giving owners access to 100 hours of transportation annually. GE and Boeing formed a joint venture called Boeing Business Jets to market the 6,300-nm corporate version of the new 737, and GE also is one of NetJets' largest customers.
Dassault Falcon Jet says it is close to announcing a deal that will see its Falcon 2000 enter the fractional ownership game, and expects to make a formal announcement by the end of this year. Although details haven't been announced, it appears likely the aircraft will be sold to Executive Jet and marketed through the company's NetJets program, which is in its tenth year of offering shares and is by far the largest program and the only major one not operated by an aircraft manufacturer.
NASA studies show frequent ``power naps'' result in less sleep deficit overall on longer trips. But are you sometimes a sleep chaser, staring at the ceiling when it's your turn for a planned nap?
Pilots at US Airways, in reaching a tentative contract with the carrier in early October, placed such heavy restrictions on regional-jet operations by affiliate carriers as to essentially make them impractical. That agreement also is subject to rank-and-file ratification. It would prohibit the use of regional jets by US Airways Express carriers--wholly owned and independent--when any mainline pilots are on furlough. Even then it would restrict the total regional-jet fleet of all Express carriers to 15 aircraft of no more than 69 passenger seats.
A revolutionary way to take a pilot from zero-time through an instrument rating is just one of the projects being fine-tuned by the AGATE (Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments) group. The coalition spearheaded by NASA, the FAA, the general aviation industry and various universities reports several initiatives toward the goal of ``a small aircraft transporta-tion system that brings safe, affordable and convenient personal air transportation to a wide range of America's population.''
CAE Electronics of Montreal has been selected to build American Eagle's new Embraer EMB-145 full-flight simulator. The unit is scheduled to be delivered in December 1998. Eagle begins receiving the first of its 42 145s in February. The simulator contract was the fourth received from American Airlines recently and has the added significance of being the first time CAE has built a simulator for an Embraer product.
Do you have a short time to de-stress in the cockpit or crew rest area and want to make it count when you have the chance? Or, do you feel yourself flagging and want to increase your alertness? Give yourself permission to try a restorative disconnection from outer events, and try using visualization. Psychologist Margaret Rappaport, M.D., Ph.D. of Orleans, Mass., an FAA aviation safety consultant who also lectures widely on aviation psychology and human factors, suggests an exercise using your kinesthetic body (the inner sense you have of your body).
Available now from ASA is the third edition of its Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, containing 7,400 terms and about 480 illustrations. The phonetic alphabet and Morse code are included in the appendices, along with a list of aviation acronyms. Price: $19.95. Aviation Supplies&Academics, 7005 132nd Pl., SE, Newcastle, Wash. 98059. (206) 235-1500; fax: (206) 235-0128.
It is only tentative--subject to rank-and-file approval--but the United pilots' ALPA unit has approved the use of regional jets by the airline's affiliated Express carriers. That means that United Express Atlantic Coast Airlines may begin scheduled service with its new fleet of Canadair Re-gional Jets on December 8 in United Express livery. The Dulles, Va.-based carrier will have four CRJs this fall out of a total order of 12 plus 36 options.
An unprecedented five airlines will serve the Aspen ski market this year, straining the airport's capacity and capability for handling commercial traffic. Those carriers will be fighting to attract passengers who also are being lured by major airline jet flights into nearby Eagle County Airport, some 60 miles away. It was just a few years ago that only two airlines served the Rocky Mountain hamlet of Aspen. Aspen Airways operated a fleet of Convair 580s and BAe 146-200s ``up and down the hill'' from Denver.
Business Express in late September officially landed its third code-sharing agreement--this time with American Airlines. Along with its Delta Connection and Northwest Airlink agreements, BizEx is now an American Connection. The Dover, N.H.-based carrier will provide American feed at Boston from Burlington, Vt.; Bangor and Portland, Maine; Lebanon, N.H.; and Quebec City, Quebec. American Connection service will be expanded to Albany, Islip, Rochester, Syracuse and White Plains, N.Y., as well as Ottawa, Ontario and Halifax, Nova Scotia, later this fall.
New Piper Aircraft already has collected more than 74 orders for its six-place, turboprop Malibu Meridian. First flight of the Meridian is slated for August 1998, with certification expected by mid 2000 and deliveries beginning immediately thereafter, according to Chuck Suma, the company's president and CEO. One item that sets this aircraft apart from its most direct competitor (Socata's TBM 700) is its price: $1.3 million, compared with $2.5 million for the TBM 700.
James O. Rice, VisionAire's chairman and chief executive officer, dreamed in 1988 of building a completely new and more affordable jet aircraft with a cabin big enough to function as a small airborne office. Having never been in the aircraft business before, his wife questioned the wisdom of his decision, especially considering Rice's admitted mechanical ineptitude. Undaunted, over the next seven years Rice assembled a team of respected industry veterans to help him design, build and market his dream machine.
Global 24-hour operations are a challenge to pilots' strength, stamina and the basic human need for sleep. Even more than credit-card debt or any other kind of financial pressure, sleep debt (getting less than the six to eight hours of sleep that most people need) can't be ignored because safety is at stake.
FAA is deferring until March 1, 1998 imposing fees for operations that transit U.S. airspace during flights between points in Canada. On that date, Nav Canada is scheduled to implement its own en-route user fee system. In the absence of a Canadian en-route fee, the FAA was concerned that a ``significant number'' of affected flights would divert to use only Canadian-controlled airspace because it would be the least expensive route. The diversions would temporarily increase Canadian ATC workload and disrupt U.S.-Canada bilateral ATC agreements, the FAA said.
Three expansion programs are under way at Dallas Airmotive: A component cleaning and non-destructive inspection facility is being built in Dallas; an Allison 250 component repair shop will be opened in Lafayette, La.; and Allison 250 modular repair capabilities will be added to the company's St. Louis Regional Turbine Shop. The facility will perform manufacturer-approved repairs.
RTS Services in Euless, Texas says its new P&WC and TPE turboprop turbine gear and shaft restoration process has reached a ``solid 65-percent recovery rate. What's more, the recently established firm asserted, ``We can turn gear and shaft restorations in 24 hours when necessary''
Illustration: Illustration: Graph: Executive Turbofan Deliveries Source: AlliedSignal Aerospace AlliedSignal's annual 11-year business aviation market outlook projects deliveries of new business jets to approach 5,300 units valued at nearly $60 billion for the 1998-2008 period. Specifically, after cresting in 1999, deliveries will remain at near-record levels before achieving another record peak in 2007-2008.
Operation of King Air 350s on dirt runways has been FAA approved. The approval is in the form of a flight manual supplement. However, some early King Air 350s will have to incorporate a Collins AP with a rudder boost servo ($38,000). Regarding the aircraft's engines, P&WC has increased the TBO from 3,000 to 3,500 hours and boosted hot section inspection intervals from 1,500 to 1,750 hours.
Flight training and charter continue to make up the two largest segments of GA flying hours in Australia, representing 24.4 percent and 26.5 percent, respectively, of all GA flying, according to the country's General Aviation Association. Personal and business flying together represent 24.9 percent of GA hours. According to the GAA, business flying is at its lowest level of activity since the mid 1970s.
