Rod Foster, corporate pilot for Dassault Falcon Jet in Teterboro, died in the July 17th crash of TWA Flight 800. He was 61 years old. Foster, who was on his way to France to pick up a Falcon 900EX, had been with Dassault since 1981. He was a captain with Dun&Bradstreet's flight department from 1976 to 1978.
Alan Darrow, formerly director of finance and administration, was promoted to vice president of this air taxi and FBO trade organization. Douglas Carr came aboard as a specialist in government and industry affairs.
Now available from Commuter Air Technology are oversized Wilderness tires for King Air 100/200-series aircraft (shown second from the left). The Wilderness tire--larger than standard, but smaller than high float tires--fits the same wheel as the standard tires, and requires no change-over for various brake systems. The company claims that the tires deliver a smoother ride at taxi speeds, better ground handling characteristics on unpaved surfaces, softer landings and up to 30 percent longer tire life.
Delta is targeting the low-fare, low-cost airlines of the world with its recently announced Delta Express low-fare alternative. In the process, however, Delta Connection Comair also is in its senior partner's sights. Delta Express will launch opera-tions October 1 with 62 flights from Orlando to 10 cities in the Midwest and Northeast and four in Florida, building to 128 flights by January 1997. It is the intrastate service that will hit Comair most heavily as well
At the north end of Sanford Airport, Jett Aire has opened new facilities designed for turbine aircraft customers. The new facility includes two 30,000-square-foot hangars, a 12,000-square-foot terminal and a 164,000-square-foot ramp. The terminal includes a conference room, two crew lounges, a pilot day room and office space. The company also refurbished its piston aircraft FBO on the west end of the airport. (800) 749-2473.
Table: JET-A PER GALLON Prices (Fillup Flyer Fuel Finder - July 1996) (This table is not available electronically. Please see the September, 1996 issue.) WICHITA BEATS BUSHES FOR WORKERS They may be competitors when it comes to selling airplanes, but Wichita's major aircraft manufacturers are standing together in an effort to fill some 4,000 aviation jobs in the city this year.
Editor's Note: In this column, we usually explore the lessons to be culled from an accident investigation. The accident now known simply as ``Rose- lawn'' has taken a strange turn as the investigation draws to a close. The national air accident investigation authorities are in major disagreement as to the cause and causal factors.
Kal Aero in Battle Creek, Michigan, has been appointed an authorized Falcon Jet service center . . . AvPac, Duncan Aviation's parts network, is now available on the Internet at http://www.avpac.com . . . In the fall, Honeywell is scheduled to open an avionics service facility in Shanghai . . . Learjet recently broke ground for a 98,000-square-foot expansion to the Bombardier Flight Test Center in Wichita. It is slated for completion before year's end . . . Western Aircraft, an FBO in Boise, Idaho, was selected as a dealer for the Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprop . .
Stork N.V. of the Netherlands is set to take over the shares of Fokker Aviation. The company, which is not related to the bankrupt Fokker Aircraft, is involved in two main areas: providing product support for the approximately 1,200 Fokker aircraft in operation and, as a subcontractor, providing components and services to other airframe manufacturers, including the building of empennages for the new Gulfstream V (B/CA, April, page 20).
Twelve revisions are being proposed to amend design standards and test requirements for large aircraft hydraulic systems covered by FAR Part 25.1435, in the latest effort to harmonize FARs with Europe's JARs. Comments on the proposals are due October 1. For details, contact the FAA in Renton, Washington. Phone: (206) 227-2142. The process to harmonize FARs with Joint Aviation Requirements has been under way since 1988.
English may be thought of as the international language of aviation, but the American way of using the aircraft altimeter is not followed by many other countries. Therefore, U.S.-based pilots flying outside North America must remember that another system almost certainly will be in use. Not fully comprehending the ``new'' system could spell trouble.
Effective September 16, revised FAR Part 61 and Part 67 pilot medical standards are being implemented. Among the new rules: Heart replacement, pacemaker implants and cardiac valve replacement will be disqualifying conditions for all classes of pilot medical certification. For second-class medicals, no blood cholesterol testing or EKGs are required. In addition, the blood pressure standard has been eliminated. Pilots with high blood pressure will be judged by the aviation medical examiner (AME) and the FAA on their overall status, including the use of medication.
The NTSB had never cited fatigue as a contributing factor in aviation accidents prior to an accident on August 18, 1993 involving a DC-8 attempting to land at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A senior NTSB official recently acknowledged that prior to that date, investigators had a ``mindset'' that resisted attributing aviation accidents to pilot and or aircrew fatigue. ``We tended to look at the action or inaction of the crew in cases where no mechanical or weather condition was the probable cause,'' said the official. ``Fatigue was not seriously considered.
Interstate Electronics Corporation in Anaheim, California recently received FAA certification for its GPS-based IEC 9002 FMS. The unit is certificated to TSO C-129 A1 standards and is approved for en route, terminal and non-precision approaches. Also, the unit is upgradable to accept data from the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS), and that will provide precision-approach capability.
Photograph: This 206L-4 LongRanger is one of 18 helicopters that Bell had at DeKalb-Peachtree airport. BELL HELICOPTER AT THE OLYMPICS The Olympics proved to be a marathon exercise in logistics for Bell Helicopter, which provided no fewer than 18 aircraft for the three weeks of the games. ``I don't think we have ever participated on this scale before for this long a period,'' said O.K. Moore, head of Bell's Olympic team.
Fifteen years ago, the promise of glass cockpits, automated flight-management software, and microprocessor-controlled avionics and aircraft systems was one of inclusion. Pilots would be in the loop; they would know all they needed to know to conduct a flight safely, efficiently and effectively. And, should flightcrew vigilance fail, automated systems would rise to save the situation. At that time, about 80 percent of all aircraft accidents were caused by crew performance or lack thereof.
The news is good. More corporate aircraft are now transiting oceans and ranging across borders than ever before. That is the conclusion of international aircraft service providers, or ``handlers,'' such as Air Routing, AMR International Aviation Services, BaseOps, Jeppesen Dataplan (and its affiliate Jeppesen UK), Universal Weather&Aviation and others, who are in a prime position to gauge the extent of international flying activity.
The former Artais Weather Check has become a division of Vaisala, headquartered in Finland. Artais, of Plain City, Ohio, manufactures automated weather observing systems (AWOS). Vaisala, with U.S. offices in Woburn, Massachusetts, also produces weather instruments. More than 300 Artais AWOS units are in operation worldwide, but the controversial and more expensive automated surface observing systems (ASOS) are the ``official'' choice of the FAA and National Weather Service (B/CA, November 1992, page 32 and July 1995, page 20).
Soft-pedal the cockpit noise with Sennheiser Electronic's new six-ounce, HMEC 25KA headset with split headband. It offers over 30 dB of noise reduction, and the active noise cancellation (ANC) feature is powered by two AA batteries inside an in-line battery pack. The ``low-profile'' pack operates the ANC for roughly 30 hours, and features a two-color LED display to register power-on and low battery. Price: $949. Sennheiser Electronic Corp., 6 Vista Dr., Old Lyme, CT 06371. (860) 434-9190.
In the 10 years that I have written Reflections, I have been privileged to talk with a number of first-generation rotorcraft pioneers, including Charles Kaman, Bart Kelley, Joe Mashman, John Miller, Les Morris and Peter WrightBut it has been nearly seven decades since Philadelphian Harold Pitcairn brought the first rotating-wing aircraft to the United States, and many of the memories of the early days of vertical flight are fading fast. That is why it is important to preserve helicopter heritage before it is lost forever.
A reminder for international operators using the routes and altitudes in North Atlantic Minimum Navigation Performance Specification airspace: The deadline date for the mandatory renewal of Letters of Authority (LOA) to operate in MNPS is October 1. In addition, the FAA says that references to training programs in the LOA can now include the notation ``none.'' Also, the LOA equipment list now calls for the part number rather than the serial number of navigation and communications equipment.
