This custom completions specialist announced three new appointments: Glen Webb to manager of planning, Bob Bannister to director of engineering and Walter Nubell III to director of material.
Houston Intercontinental Airport is the first airport to offer Automatic Terminal Information Service via datalink. The FAA commissioned the system August 1, but it has been in operation since July 19. The digital system enables pilots to receive ATIS through their Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS). ARINC developed the ATIS feature as part of its tower datalink services, which also include pre-departure clearances. Digital ATIS will be available at 56 more airports by year-end, according to ARINC.
Cessna's long-awaited announcement of pricing for its line of revamped single-engine piston aircraft came with few surprises. The standard, VFR version of the Skyhawk will sell for $124,500. An IFR Skyhawk with an AlliedSignal avionics package that includes dual navcoms, ADF, a single-axis autopilot and a GPS will sell for $139,500. The standard Skylane is priced at $190,600, including a basic IFR package. Upgrading to an IFR-certificated GPS, ADF and dual-axis autopilot will add another $8,900 to the price. Cessna plans to build 600 Skyhawks and 300 Skylanes in 1997.
Don Roney was promoted to manager of FSI's San Antonio Learning Center, and Tim Fallon has joined the Tucson Learning Center as regional marketing manager for maintenance training.
Now available from the Aviation Group is the Powervamp portable GPU for turbine aircraft. The 49-pound unit delivers up to 1,500 peak amps and 26 peak volts, and can be carried on board because it has no free acid or gel. Measuring 13.38 inches by 4.33 inches by 17.71 inches, the 24-volt GPU is housed in a non-magnetic stainless steel case. The Powervamp is shipped charged and ready to use, and is engineered for multiple starts before requiring recharge. Price: $2,499. The Aviation Group, 1908 Clemma Ct., Erie, CO 80516. (303) 665-0352.
The 900EX has the most advanced avionics suite ever installed in a Dassault business aircraft. It's also one of the best designs with respect to hand-eye coordination. Knobs, switches and buttons are located close to their associated displays, indicators and dials. Honeywell's Primus 2000 integrated avionics suite incorporates a hub-and-spoke architecture. Dual integrated avionics computers (IACs), at the core of the system, are linked to other components by Honeywell's ASCB digital communications bus and by the more generic ARINC 429 bus.
At Avjobs in Atlanta, aviation job hunters will get the chance on September 20-21 for one-stop job prospecting. Avjobs is an exposition of global aerospace companies that are recruiting people at all levels and all job functions. Sponsored by the Future Aviation Professionals of America (FAPA), the event will attract human resource professionals, pilots, consultants, air traffic controllers, engineers, government officials, placement counselors, flight attendants and more-all trying to make the best match for their businesses.
FAA has adopted a rule that will open the ranks of FAR Part 135 simulator instructors to experienced pilots who no longer are able to maintain medical qualifications. The rule permits those who do not hold a current medical certificate to perform flight checks in simulators and instruct students in simulators and flight-training devices. Previously, flight instructors and check airmen conducting Part 135 training had to have a medical certificate.
When Congress reinstated the excise tax (see Intelligence 1), it broadened the exemption for air-medical operators to include both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft exclusively dedicated to acute-care emergency medical services. The action also lifted a restriction limiting the exemption only to those flights not using federally funded airports or aviation facilities and services.
The National Air Transportation Association, an air-taxi trade group, said the FAA's 10-hour delay in transporting FAA investigators to the TWA Flight 800 crash scene was unacceptable and a sign of things to come. The FAA said agency pilots were out of duty time and had to wait 10 hours before making the flight to Long Island, New York. NATA has opposed FAA initiatives to further limit pilots' duty times, saying the proposals will impair flexibility of air-taxi operators.
Photograph: CPR Prompt, a hand-held unit that ``talks'' a person through the steps of CPR. CPR PROMPTER During any flight, if you've had the training, you may be called upon to administer CPR to someone who has stopped breathing. At a moment like that, the last thing you want is a mental block on that critical lifesaving procedure. This is where CPR Prompt comes in.
Construction of a new Jet South hangar on Southwest Florida International Airport was scheduled to be completed this summer. Half of the 24,000-square-foot structure will be used for maintenance; the other half will be rental space for corporate aircraft tenants of the FBO. (941) 768-3454.
Harold W. Buker, Jr., who was the director of the New Hampshire Division of Aeronautics for 10 years, died July 9 of cancer at the age of 77. During his aviation career, he amassed over 25,000 flight hours in more than 75 types of aircraft. During World War II, he flew several missions as a B-24 captain, until he was forced to ditch into the North Sea and was taken as a prisoner of war. After the war, Buker bought several charter aircraft, including DC-3s and a Learjet, and became one of Robert Kennedy's pilots.
With no new aircraft in the pipeline, rebuilding existing models may well be the next best thing. At least that's what Twin Commander hopes, as it markets it's Grand Renaissance Commander, essentially a completely rebuilt 690-or as one service center de-scribed it, a new airplane with old sheet metal.
Hood River, Oregon-based Advanced Navigation and Positioning Corporation received FAA approval for its transponder-based landing system (TLS), which offers Category I precision-approach capability. The system is operating in Madras, Oregon and Watertown, Wisconsin, and installations are pending in Batesville, Indiana and Sun Valley, Idaho. TLS uses transponder returns received at several ground-based sensors to compute aircraft position relative to the approach. Corrections are transmitted to the aircraft and displayed on the glideslope indicator.
A turboprop commuter aircraft was departing Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The captain and first officer, both experienced ATPs, were rushed to complete the checklists during the abbreviated taxi from the ramp to the departure end of the runway. ``Cleared for immediate takeoff, traffic on final.'' The first officer didn't perform his normal check of the engine instruments during the takeoff roll, as he was still running the takeoff checklist when the tower issued the immediate takeoff clearance.
First quarter 1995 was a rough one for U.S. regional carriers, what with the two accidents in late 1994, and a blistering general press that literally scared passengers away from the so-called ``commuters'' in general and turboprop airplanes in particular.
In recent months, we've taken on the media over the general lack of understanding about aviation that is exhibited in the wake of airplane crashes. Sometimes, the rush to find the ``cause'' of a crash, or to judge who is responsible can be both infuriating and embarrassing. Witness the ValuJet accident and the more recent crash of TWA Flight 800.
On October 10, the FAA will institute the largest-ever airspace modification. The changes affect all airspace and procedures within 150 nm of DFW. Among the changes: Four vortacs will be decommissioned, and six new ones will go on line. Twenty-four low-altitude en route airways will be realigned, two high-altitude jet routes--J66 and J181--will be modified, and a third one will be added. More than 140 intersections will be dropped, and 275 new ones will take their place. Eleven new STARs and nine new SIDs will be added, and 158 new approach procedures will be implemented.
Orlando-based Signature Flight Support and its 36 U.S. FBOs soon will be completely owned by BBA Group. The Britain-based company, which currently holds 68 percent of Signature, completed an agreement in August to purchase the remaining 32 percent from New York-based Acadia Partners. Separately, Signature expects to close a deal soon in which it will acquire all four of International Aviation's FBO locations--Santa Fe, New Mexico; Teterboro; West Palm Beach, Florida; and White Plains, New York (B/CA, June, page 24).
Full-service maintenance capability has come to Sacramento's Mather Airport as the result of Rancho Murieta Aviation moving its operations from Rancho Murieta Airport. Rancho Murieta provides service for Astras, Cessnas, Falcons, Hawkers, King Airs and Learjets. (916) 364-4711
British-born Sir Frank Whittle, the man credited with inventing the jet engine, died in August at age 89. He had been living in the United States since 1976. His invention was patented in 1930 and, therefore, the British could have been the first to fly a jet aircraft. But the government rejected the idea--until Germany made the first jet flight in 1939. And it was 1947 before Britain's first jet became operational (B/CA, June 1987, page 34).
Al Smith, former governor of New York State and loser, in 1932, in the presidential race against Herbert Hoover, once said, ``What this world needs is a good five-cent cigar.''
Brazilian regional airline TAM, prevented by government regulators from expanding internationally, is doing so anyway, through the acquisition of Paraguayan flag carrier Lineas Aereas Paraguayas (Lapsa). The So Paulo-based carrier reportedly is paying $23 million for 80 percent of the carrier from Ecuadorian flag carrier Saeta. The Paraguayan government will retain its 20 percent in the carrier.
