Timberline Aviation opened its FBO this month at Colorado's Grand Junction Airport. The new operation offers airframe and avionics maintenance, as well as line services. Crew and passenger amenities include sleeping rooms, WSI weather and flight planning, catering, crew cars, rental cars, hangar storage, deicing, engine preheating, ground power and a self-service food canteen. In addition to its regular hours of 0600 to 2200 daily, line and emergency services are available on call at any time. Phone: (970) 243-1800.
By NBAA convention time at the end of the month, most of the Martin Aviation operations--including a newly built executive terminal--at John Wayne Airport are expected to be acquired by AMR Combs. The 73-year-old Martin Aviation is currently owned by Air/Lyon, Incorporated. The acquisition will bring to 13 the number of AMR Combs FBO locations. (714) 263-5800.
HBAcorp, the Olympia, Washington-based FACTS cabin and cockpit emergency-training company, has built a new truck-mounted mobile training device to replace the one that was destroyed in an April 7 head-on collision with another vehicle (B/CA, May, page 22). The new unit, called FACTS-III, includes ``lots more bells and whistles'' than the previous trainer. The company also is building FACTS-IV, a mid-size mobile simulator for pilot-only operators of Citations, Learjets and other aircraft.
A U.S. appeals court denial of Honeywell's petition for a rehearing is the latest in the drawn-out patent suit waged by Litton Industries against the Phoenix firm. The dispute concerns alleged wrongdoing in the design and marketing of ring laser gyro inertial navigation systems (INSes). The denial reaffirms the court's July decision that Honeywell intentionally infringed Litton's patents (B/CA, August, page 24). Honeywell plans to appeal the damage award in this matter and in another aspect of the case.
The FAA has appointed Guy Gardner, a former astronaut and director of the agency's William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, as associate administrator for regulation and certification. If that title sounds familiar, it's because it belonged to Tony Broderick for many years. Broderick resigned the post under pressure in the midst of the FAA's handling of events following the ValuJet accident in Florida.
At times, air traffic density over the North Atlantic seems like the rush hour crunch on an urban freeway. Transoceanic crossings are becoming routine for many business aircraft operators. Every day, for example, about 20 to 25 business aircraft transit the North Atlantic, according to Brian Bowers, manager of Area Control Center Operations at Gander Air Traffic Control.
This month, at the NBAA convention in Orlando, Honeywell is going to roll out its most significant advancement in avionics design since the introduction of the spinning iron gyroscope in the early 1930s. It's called Primus Epic, and it could radically change the way you will fly your next new aircraft. In early October, we had an opportunity to preview Primus Epic and try out some of its features in a cockpit mockup that will make its public debut at the convention.
How fees relating to fractional ownership should be taxed is the subject of considerable confusion and debate. The trouble arises from a disconnect in FAA and IRS regulation. While the FAA has tacitly endorsed fractional ownership as non-commercial transportation carried out under FAR Part 91, Subpart F, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has ruled that fractional-ownership plans are commercial for tax purposes because owners have surrendered possession, command and control of the aircraft.
Primus Epic, Honeywell's next generation of integrated avionics, will be introduced at the NBAA convention later this month. The digital avionics system is being designed to reduce head-down time, improve crew situational awareness and incorporate features now in use or under development for PCs. Key elements of the Primus Epic are four flat-panel LCDs (providing one-fourth more viewing area than five of Honeywell's current CRTs), voice command and recognition, and point-and-click cursor control.
Congress ordered the DOT to submit a plan by April 1997 for continued funding and operation of Loran-C service beyond 2000. The order rebukes the DOT for ignoring thousands of Loran-C users' protests by scheduling an early phaseout of this navigation aid (B/CA, May, 1995, page 16). The original Loran-C termination date was 2015, but the U.S. Coast Guard--a unit of the DOT--cited a lean budget and the availability of GPS as reasons for an early phaseout. About 80,000 Loran receivers are in aviation use.
If decathlon champion Dan O'Brien and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan partnered to design a business aircraft, they might call themselves the Lean Team. They likely would place top priority on speed and range, while squeezing the most out of the operating budget.
Mobility Canada of Ottawa recently launched its satellite aeronautical service by installing a CalQuest satellite phone system in a Challenger 601. In July, this provider of wireless telecommunications joined with Cal Corporation, also based in Ottawa, to offer inflight voice, fax and data services to corporate and utility aircraft via Mobility Canada's satellite network. Mobility Canada says its service is virtually seamless throughout ``every square inch of North America,'' including up to 160 nm offshore.
The first thing you notice about the new HMEC 25KA active noise canceling headset from Germany's Sennheiser is that it is far smaller, lighter and less cumbersome than competing ANC headsets. Its performance also differs; but its list price of $949 is comparable to other top-priced ANC headsets.
FAA has updated one of its principal publications that provides information on the hazards of airframe icing and the use of deice/anti-ice systems. Advisory Circular 91-51, in effect since 1977, is superseded by AC 91-51A. The new document contains updates on the effects of icing on aircraft control, and includes a section on recognizing, and correcting for, ice-induced roll upsets and tailplane stalls. Copies of AC 91-51A are available from the DOT, General Services, M-45.3, Washington, DC 20590.
To help build the database of information available through Dassault Falcon Jet's CATS (Computer Assisted Troubleshooting System), the company is awarding a $100 credit for every unusual troubleshooting idea it receives from Falcon Jet operators and authorized Falcon service centers. Dassault will award the credit for each idea not previously published and judged by the company to be ``unique.'' The credit can be applied against the purchase price of CATS software (B/CA, September, page 20).
While U.S. charter operators are required to hold an international air carrier bond when operating to and from Canada and Mexico, U.S. Customs' lack of continuity and standardization in determining the bond amount has caused a ``great deal of confusion'' among air charter operators, according to the National Air Transportation Association.
Rocky Stone, a line pilot for United Airlines and chairman of RTCA SC-186, which is charged with developing Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) performance standards, doesn't like queuing up in a holding pattern waiting for the next available approach slot when he arrives at a destination airport in IFR conditions. Predictably, he thinks it's a waste of time, fuel and money. Unlike other pilots, though, he's come up with a solution: the ``Paired Approach.''
Ron Bower and John Williams are nothing if not aggressive. The helicopter pilots, who in August embarked on a record-setting, around-the-world flight in a new Bell 430, set up a schedule that didn't just beat the old record-it shattered it. Bower and Williams completed the flight in just over 17 days-seven days less than Bower's previous record, set during a solo flight in a Bell JetRanger in 1994. To make it tougher, they decided to go westbound, into the prevailing wind.
The drive toward efficiency and economy in aircraft system design could play a big role in the performance and design of the next generation of thrust reversers. Airframers, engine manufacturers and avionics suppliers all have radically changed the way they do business to answer the call for better value in aircraft. As a result of that shift, propulsion systems are now often sold as packages.
Dallas Airmotive will expand its P&WC PT6A and JT15D customer service in Europe if its agreement to purchase the engine services division of Anglo American Airmotive goes through. The division, located in Bournemouth, England, includes an engine test cell for the PT6A series. The new facility will become the seventh Dallas Airmotive regional turbine shop capable of providing inspection and repair of PT6A hot-section and power-section components, as well as JT15D hot-section and fan repairs.
The recent order from Continental Express for 25 Embraer EMB-145 regional jets and the airline's option to buy 175 more, marks the first purchase of the 50-passenger aircraft by a U.S. customer. Embraer now has 63 firm orders for the Allison-powered jetliner. The Continental bid pushes the total purchase options for the new aircraft to 217. Currently, the airline operates about 100 turboprop aircraft. At press time, Continental Express hadn't decided if it will eventually replace its entire turboprop fleet with jets.
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems selected UND Aerospace, the University of North Dakota's aviation training segment, as the factory-authorized pilot and maintenance training source for all of the firm's civil helicopters. The first classes are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 1997 at a new UND Aerospace facility in Mesa, Arizona, near MD's helicopter factory.
