The Corporate Aircraft Security Seminar will be offered in Chicago on June 23 and 24 by Richard W. Kobetz&Associates of Berryville, Va. This program arms participants with specific security tips and tactics they can use in their flight departments. Agenda items include threats to corporate aviation during airport servicing, arrivals and departures; crisis management; coping with a skyjacking or bomb threat; and protecting your aviation services from sabotage. The cost is $395 on-site, and $345 if pre-paid. For more details, phone (540) 955-1128.
Regional-airline executives may never have heard of Tom DeNardin. They will. DeNardin brought you the Western Pacific LogoJets before he was unceremoniously let go with that start-up's sudden management change that saw founder Ed Beauvais move up to the ceremonial job as board chairman.
FAA is expected to adopt an AD to require all 220 U.S.-registered Embraer EMB-120 twin-turboprop commuter aircraft to have ice detection systems. The AD also will mandate revised flightcrew procedures for operating in icing conditions and for activating ice-shedding equipment. The FAA says its order is based on a review of ``service experience data.'' The AD follows an NTSB status report that appears to rule out propeller failure as a factor in the January 9 fatal crash of an EMB-120 near Ida, Mich. (February, page 13).
Champion Aviation Products (Liberty, S.C.)--David C. Posavec is the new aviation marketing manager for this manufacturer of ignition components for turbine and reciprocating aircraft engines.
The FAA has granted Horizon Air approval for Category II low-visibility instrument approaches to Category I airports with de Havilland Dash 8s equipped with the Flight Dynamics Inc. Head-Up Guidance System (HGS). It is the first such approval granted by the agency.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is taking action to reduce helicopter traffic in New York City. The East 60th Street Heliport will close in a matter of weeks, and National Helicopter, the operator of the city's 34th Street Heliport for 24 years, has been evicted. A spokesperson for the city says the 60th Street facility is being shut down due to complaints about noise and safety, and is not the direct result of a recent fatal accident (see item below).
Publication of the 25th edition of an international listing of aircraft type designators (ICAO Document 8643) has been postponed to November. The document, which U.S. officials say contains ``extensive revision,'' was originally scheduled to be published in March. Until the revised publication is available, operators should continue to use the 24th edition when filling out international flight plans and other official flight records.
Delta Connection/Northwest Airlink Business Express emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid April with American Airlines as a third code-share. But the emergence will not likely clear all of its legal hurdles.
Photograph: Readers who will be at the Paris Air Show only in their dreams can find out what's happening there quickly and easily by visiting the Paris Show News pages at the Aviation Week Group's Internet site--www.awgnet.com--once the show is under way. Forty-two is the magic number as this year's 42nd running of the Paris Air Show prepares to host over 1,700 exhibitors from 42 countries on June 15-22 at Le Bourget Airfield.
United Express Atlantic Coast Airlines is building an 85,000-square-foot aircraft maintenance facility at Washington's Dulles International Airport--the first such facility on the airport. The $10-million structure is expected to be occupied in December and will centralize all of the company's maintenance at its hub.
Air Services of Cleveland (www.aerosearch.com/companies/airservices)--Contains detailed information and many photos of this full-service FBO at Hopkins International Airport. Garmin International (www. garmin.com)--Specific information is included here on this company's product line of GPS receivers.
FAA Associate Administrator Guy Gardner told JAA officials that his agency and the JAA could achieve regulatory harmonization if a 180-minute ETOPS rule were established. The JAA has proposed a 120-minute threshold that has drawn strong criticism from the business aviation industry (February, page 11). ``This action would allow the industry to continue flight operations with business jets on extended-range operations in the same manner for which they have demonstrated a valid safety record,'' Gardner said.
Table: Constant Mach Cruise Speed, Variable Altitude Versus Wind Factor (This table is not available online. Please see June 1997 issue). It's been almost half a century since the first turbine air transports went into service, bringing with them an entirely new approach to cruise control. Pilots of piston-engine aircraft learned that their choice of cruise altitude made little difference in specific range performance. In addition, piston engines achieved about the same specific fuel consumption (sfc) at any power setting up to maximum cruise power.
The FAA and Boeing will build and operate an airport pavement research facility in Atlantic City. Data should start becoming available in November 1989 . . .
Photograph: THIRD GALAXY GETS ITS MATE. In May, the wing and fuselage of IAI's third Galaxy aircraft were mated. It's the first of two flight test aircraft. First flight is slated for the end of this year. Certification is scheduled for December 1998, following an aggressive 12-month development program. Twenty-two aircraft will be built in 1999. Galaxy Aerospace Corp. will complete and deliver aircraft to retail customers from its U.S. home base.
Table: FOKKER F28RE Characteristics (This table is not available online. Please see the June 1997 issue). A 65- to 75-passenger jet for a mere $9 million? That is what the new F28RE Partnership is saying, and it is currently completing a market survey to verify the demand. The partnership consists of Fokker Services of the Netherlands, a Fokker bankruptcy survivor and holder of the F28 type certificate, and The Perry Group, a Salt Lake City aviation consultancy.
Continental Express, with just seven EMB-145 regional jets delivered, has already jumped ahead of Comair and SkyWest--the only other U.S. 50-seat regional jet operators--in average stage length. From its Cleveland hub, COEx has announced, and is now serving, Minneapolis/St. Paul; St. Louis; Hartford, Conn.; Springfield, Mass.; White Plains, N.Y.; and Greensboro, N.C. with its trademarked ExpressJet service. From Newark it is serving Milwaukee and Savannah, the latter starting June 12.
By the end of August, Unison Industries' acquisition of the BFGoodrich Aerospace Engine Electrical Systems Division is expected to be final. The division, headquartered in Norwich, N.Y., manufactures electrical equipment and wiring harnesses for aircraft. Unison, of Jacksonville, Fla., makes ignition systems and other electrical accessories for aviation and industrial engines.
New from BUCHair is the Biz-Jet&Turboprops 1997 reference book. This new, 30th-edition lists over 10,000 business jets and 9,300 turboprops from 140 countries. For the first time, the publication lists the year of manufacture for each aircraft, along with registration, make and model, construction number, owner/operator, operating base and any previous registration. Price: $24.17. BUCHair (USA), Inc., P.O. Box 75015, Forest Hills, N.Y. 11375. (718) 263-8748; fax: (718) 275-6190.
Pratt&Whitney's aftermarket support offerings will expand significantly when its purchase of three engine repair and maintenance facilities from Howmet Corp. is completed later this summer. The three facilities--in Wichita Falls, Texas; Claremore, Okla.; and North Haven, Conn.-service components for General Electric and Rolls-Royce as well as P&WC engines. The P&W deal continues a consolidation trend in the engine service business which was markedly accelerated earlier this year by GE's plans to acquire two major engine overhaulers (April, page 25).
Pilots seeking additional aircraft ratings and/or proficiency training of any kind should be aware of a new training option in the FARs called ``Training Centers.'' FlightSafety International, based in Flushing, N.Y., and SimuFlite Training International, of Dallas, used to be regulated by Part 61 and Part 135 under an exemption. Then in April--under the FAA's new regulation which was effective August 1996--the agency issued Part 142 training center certificates to both companies after they completed a certification process.
AlliedSignal and Rockwell Collins are designing lower-cost satellite communications systems for business and regional aircraft. AlliedSignal, which pulled out of an earlier plan to offer the Aero-I system currently under development by Inmarsat (August 1996, page 30), will offer a system using Iridium LLC's low-earth orbiting series of satellites. The planned Collins system, however, will use the Aero-I service (January 1996, page 20). A full report on satcom is scheduled for July's B/CA.
Pilatus Aircraft Limited, of Stans, Switzerland, is the new owner of TSA Transairco, a business aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility located at Geneva's International Airport. TSA Transairco had been a subsidiary of Aeroleasing, also of Geneva, a provider of worldwide air taxi and air ambulance services.
