A coalition of air-tour companies has filed suit to block the FAA from enacting new rules that further restrict commercial sightseeing flights at Grand Canyon National Park. The new regulations, scheduled to go into effect May 1, virtually double the size of the Canyon's no-fly zones to cover over 87 percent of the park. Meanwhile, the United States Air Tour Association is suing the FAA over its new regulation that bans air-tour flights over Rocky Mountain National Park. No such operations currently exist there.
What are the real reasons to wear sunglasses? -- Glare or bright light is more than a nuisance, especially at altitude where the air is clear. Even though the sun's rays may not shine directly into the eyes, the light can reflect off clouds, the airframe, snow, sand and other sources of reflected light. Flying west, literally following the sun in front, can be fatiguing without protection. Low-level light, however, is not a reason for using sunglasses, since reduced illumination will impair visual acuity.
Jeppesen has expanded its JeppView software package to include geographic chart database coverages for the entire United States as well as 15 different regional coverages. JeppView is a program for desktop or notebook PCs and is contained on a single CD-ROM. It requires Microsoft Windows 3.1 or 95. Subscribers can access, display and print current charts, NOTAMs and more. Updates are every two weeks. Price: $329 for the software; $508 for the U.S. chart database. Jeppesen, 55 Inverness Dr. E, Englewood, Colo. 80112. (303) 784-4274.
Cessna's Citation Bravo and Dassault's Falcon 50EX business jets have received FAA certification. The Bravo certification, originally scheduled for April 1996, is a provisional approval, but deliveries of fully certificated aircraft are expected to begin this spring (B/CA, October 1994, page 21), said Cessna. The Falcon 50EX has full certification, and the first delivery of the tri-engine aircraft was expected to have been made at the end of January to an operator in Europe. The first U.S.
FAA has contracted with Los Angeles-based Teledyne Controls to produce and install improved low-level wind-shear alert systems at 43 U.S. airports and FAA facilities by 2000. Except for the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J., all of the installations will be at airports in the West, Midwest or South. Some airports will receive their first LLWAS, while others will obtain replacements for older systems. Between 1976 and 1992, LLWASes were installed at 110 U.S. airports.
Professional aviators have become inured to a seemingly endless stream of disparaging comments and concerns about aviation safety. They expertly parry and thrust, fending off and slaying the ill-founded fears of passengers, neighbors and family members. Answers to common safety questions spring to mind as quickly as engine-out checklist memory items. And the fears are easily dispatched with truth: Airplanes, especially corporate airplanes, are a mighty safe way to fly.
Deliveries of new U.S.-built GA airplanes in 1996 will top out at 1,104, about 2.5 percent or 27 units more than in 1995, according to preliminary figures from the Aerospace Industries Association. The last year in which shipments exceeded 1,100 units was 1990. U.S. helicopter builders did not fare as well as airplane manufacturers. The AIA's preliminary count is 273 civil rotorcraft in 1996 compared to 292 units in 1995.
February 28 is the deadline for nominations for the 1997 Helicopter Heroism Award. Russell Lee of the Smithsonian's U.S. National Air&Space Museum will head the team of judges. The award will be presented at a special ceremony on June 4 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. This is the second year that the award is being sponsored by Rotor&Wing magazine. To obtain nomination forms, phone Janis Davis at (301) 340-7788, ext. 2073.
FAA said the 1997 annual random drug-testing rate will remain at 25 percent of covered employees, even though preliminary data indicate 1996 will be the sixth straight year that the random drug-testing-positive rate continued to be below 1.0 percent. The industry repeatedly has called on the FAA to lower the drug-testing rate to 10 percent. The agency lowered the rate from 50 percent to 25 percent in January 1995 (B/CA, December 1994, page 17).
Jet Aviation Group's Jet Maintenance Pte. Ltd. at Singapore's Seletar Airport recently was named an authorized Learjet service center. Under the agreement, Jet Maintenance will provide ``full technical support'' for all Learjet models. Jet Maintenance, a year old this month, is already qualified as an authorized Gulfstream service and warranty repair center. The company says it also provides ``complete support'' for Falcon, Challenger, Citation and Hawker aircraft (B/CA, March 1996, page 26).
Sabreliner's SabreTech unit is selling its Miami maintenance base, the facility alleged to have erroneously mislabeled filled oxygen canisters as empty before they were loaded as cargo on the ill-fated ValuJet DC-9. According to accident investigators, the canisters may have caused or contributed to a fire aboard the aircraft that crashed in the Everglades on May 11, 1996. The sale comes several months after St.
The International Air Transportation Association and ICAO have produced a Future Air Navigation System Starter Kit. The kit provides an ``in-depth understanding of the issues'' behind the implementation of FANS. Now in the test phase, FANS is a satellite-based communications, navigation and surveillance system for flights over oceanic and other remote areas (B/CA, August 1995, page 16). Copies of the kit are available for $145 each. Contact IATA in Montreal. Phone: (514) 844-6311; fax: (514) 844-9089.
Corporate aircraft operations, as well as commercial flights, are included in a new FAA rule that permanently bans the transportation of oxygen generators as cargo on passenger airplanes. The rule results from the May 1996 crash of a ValuJet DC-9 in Florida in which oxygen generators being carried as cargo might have contributed to the cause of the accident (B/CA, July 1996, page 18). The accident prompted at least one company to develop a central oxygen system for corporate airliners. (See item below.)
Investigators looking into the cause of the January 9 crash of a Comair Embraer EMB-120 near Ida, Mich. said the wreckage indicated the crew tried to shut down the right engine and activate an engine fire-extinguishing system. However, NTSB officials on site said there was no indication of fire. The aircraft went into a left bank that increased to 40 degrees, at which point ``the aircraft departed controlled flight,'' according to officials. The accident killed all 26 passengers and the crew of three.
The year 1996 was comparatively strong for overall new turbine-powered helicop-ters, yet sales of these aircraft for corporate use, delivered in the United States in that period, accounted for only about 12 percent. According to the highly respected Helicopter Market Letter published by Aastad Company of Chadds Ford, Pa., that total of new turbine helicopters was 151 units. Used turbine helicopters delivered in 1996 accounted for 635, including 278 military surplus units. (Aastad tallies sales and deliveries only after an aircraft registration has been filed.)
Aero Services International, an Exxon Avitat FBO at Midway Airport, recently completed a $250,000 facilities upgrade to include a 24-hour security camera surveillance system of the hangars, offices and lobby. The FBO also completed remodeling projects in the lobby, vending area, conference room, crew lounge, snooze rooms and showers. A flight-planning room contains an on-line WSI weather-briefing system. Computer and modem hookups are provided, and a massage therapist ``offers 15-minute stress-free massages twice weekly.'' Phone: (312) 582-5720; fax: (312) 582-1047.
New training aids from the Flight Safety Foundation cover the avoidance of controlled-flight-into-terrain accidents and ground deicing procedures. The CFIT program, developed by Boeing, includes a CFIT checklist that the FSF originally released two years ago. The ground deicing program, called ICEMAN, is CD-ROM based and includes modules for flightcrews and dispatchers as well as for ground deicing crews. For information and to order either program, contact the Alexandria, Va.-based FSF at (703) 739-6700.
Escalating construction costs will cause a significant delay in the opening of Bangkok's new Nong Ngu Hao Airport, according to Airports, a weekly newsletter published by The McGraw-Hill Companies' Aviation Week Group. Airports says the scheduled completion date of 2000 has been postponed for at least three years. The project was originally budgeted at about $3.79 billion (U.S.), but is expected to cost more than $6.63 billion.
AIR, Inc., an Atlanta-based aviation career information company, purchased the assets of its former competitor, the Future Aviation Professionals of America. FAPA abruptly went out of business in September 1996 (B/CA, October 1996, page 14). Because AIR purchased only the FAPA assets, there is no requirement for the company to handle any outstanding obligations for the 8,500 former FAPA members. However, AIR says it will offer former members ``similar services at a lower cost than those offered by FAPA.'' AIR, Inc.
The third annual convention of the European Business Aviation Association is slated for March 18-20 in Brussels, Belgium. Issues to be discussed at the meeting include aircraft aging, RVSM, ETOPS, JARs, flight-time limitations and preventing CFIT accidents. For more details, contact the EBAA in Brussels. Phone: +32 2 721-4272; fax: +32 2 721-2158.
To mobilize fast assistance to a disaster site, the NBAA, in cooperation with GAMA, has developed an emergency-response program to provide transportation for an American Red Cross Quick Response Team of disaster experts and their necessary supplies.
It was a brief episode in the life of a young Navy pilot--one that would become a legend in the Atlantic fleet. It was not to be an honorable legend, mind you, but a legend nevertheless. Oh, and don't ask who it was. I am thankful it was not me, but compassion keeps me from identifying this otherwise nice person.
-- The International Aviation Maintenance Conference, backed by nine industry trade organizations and the FAA, will be held February 9-12 in Washington, D.C. The conference will address topics of concern to both general and commercial aviation. Workshops and tutorials will focus on human factors, global maintenance practices, repair station issues, parts and standardization of policies and practices. Sessions on record-keeping, aging aircraft and JAR OPS maintenance issues will be part of the program.
