Officials of ATR and French aviation agencies are furious over the NTSB's final report on the 1994 inflight accident involving icing and loss of control of an ATR-72. The NTSB blamed the crash on ATR's failure to give pilots information about how freezing precipitation affects control of the aircraft. The NTSB also took the French aviation directorate to task for ``inadequate oversight'' of ATR and the failure to provide the FAA with data about previous ATR incidents.
Photograph: Alliance Engines President Jim Spinder (center) with Al Hilde (left) and Jeff Brown in the company's new TFE731 test cell. Hilde and Brown, co-owners of a Jackson, Wyoming FBO, joined in the recent management buyout of Alliance Engines. ALLIANCE ENGINES--UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP After some turbulence early on, Alliance Engines appears to be on stable ground, and its new owners claim the powerplant repair and overhaul company should be in the black by the end of the summer.
The Solargizer battery maintenance system gets rid of crystallized sulfates (sulfation) on lead-acid battery plates. The result is longer battery life and performance for aircraft and ground-support equipment. A solar panel absorbs sunlight and converts it to electricity to power the system. Wires attach to the positive and negative battery terminals, and a constant electronic pulse de-sulfates the battery's lead plates and sends the sulfates back to the battery acid. Solargizer comes in 12-, 24- and 36-volt models with solar panels. Kit price: $99.95 to $239.95.
Once you have written an operations manual, how do you ensure that it will continue to reflect current company or industry operating practices as well as applicable regulations? Furthermore, how do you guarantee that all flight-department personnel and company-aircraft passengers are informed of new or amended procedures? The first step in keeping your manual current is to make sure that the original version includes only essential, changeable information.
In March 1997, the Zimex Business Aviation Center is scheduled to open at Zurich International Airport. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the FBO's operations building and hangar were held on May 30. In addition to housing the business aircraft maintenance operations of Limess Aviation, the new facility also will contain the offices of Zurich-based Zimex Aviation Group, which offers charter, management and other business aircraft services. A customs clearance office also will be located there.
Atlantic City International Airport will acquire another major maintenance operation in early 1997 when Raytheon Aircraft Services is slated to open a facility there. Meanwhile, Midlantic Jet Aviation is set to complete the construction of its repair station at ACY in the fall (B/CA, May, page 18). When Midlantic-a current provider of transient aircraft fueling and tiedown services at the airport-finishes construction, the company will close its Millville, New Jersey maintenance facility.
More than a dentist was needed to figure out that the terms ``upper'' and ``lower'' in reference to the surface of a wing were inadvertently switched in a series of ADs published earlier this year. The ADs require pilots of turboprop airliners to perform certain visual inspections to detect ice in flight. Corrections to these ADs were recently published to advise operators that in the case of some aircraft, the wording should have referred to ``upper'' surface of the wing and, in the case of other aircraft, the wording should have been ``lower'' surface.
Over the next 18 months, AlliedSignal will consolidate its Commercial Avionics Systems manufacturing operations into new and existing facilities in the Kansas City area. Having acquired other avionics companies over the last 13 years, the division has production plants in Redmond, California; in Olathe and Lawrence, Kansas; in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; in Prescott, Arizona; and in Singapore. Formerly, these locales were home for Bendix Corporation, King Radio and Sundstrand Data Control products.
An advertising and public relations agency is expected to be selected soon to develop a national campaign for GA Team 2000, a general aviation industry effort to attract at least 100,000 new student pilots annually, about twice the current number. A Request for Proposals from agencies was issued in late May, and the campaign is scheduled to get under way in January 1997 (B/CA, May, page 11). At press time, some 45 companies, associations and other organizations had signed up as founding members of GA Team 2000 by making an initial financial contribution to the program.
The RAA officially launched its new image-enhancing public relations campaign at its recent Annual Spring meeting in Orlando. Tagged ``Plane Sense,'' the campaign was developed by the Washington, D.C. PR firm of Ogilvy, Adams&Rinehart. It is targeted at travel agencies, airline employees and the traveling public.
Fairchild Aircraft is teasing the marketplace with a full stand-up cabin mock-up of its 19-passenger Metro--a project the company abandoned a number of years ago. Company Chairman Carl Albert, who long pooh-poohed the stand-up cabin, now has changed his mind.
FlightSafety International recently added a full-size corporate aircraft cabin mockup to its Atlanta-based flight attendant training program established in 1995. The mockup, which replicates a large-cabin business aircraft, provides a setting for demonstrating the correct procedures in situations ranging from a dark and smoke-filled cabin to emergency-exit operation and (simulated) cabin depressurization. Four removable emergency exits correspond to those in the Canadair Challenger, Falcon 50, Hawker Jet and Gulfstream.
The big Globalstream long-range business jet was three hours out of LAX on its way to Singapore when the satcom began ringing off the hook. The CEO took the call, keying holovid mode, and the holographic projector instantly rendered the marketing director's visage in crisp 3-D. ``I've got the updates on those LunarTech sales projections, chief,'' the talking head said as it floated eerily in the ether. ``The ones based on their new mining claims in the Sea of Tranquillity? I think you'll find them very interesting reading. . . .''
Maverick Airways, with aspirations of becomimg the new Rocky Mountain Airways with a fleet of de Havilland Dash 7s, has re-applied to the DOT for an operating certificate. The company, which consists of a number of former Rocky Mountain employees, initially applied last September, but the DOT dismissed that application at the request of the airline due to a restructuring of its financing plan.
The Joint Aviation Authorities has postponed a decision to require European-registered commercial business jets to meet ETOPS (extended overwater operations). Under the proposal, commercially operated business jets with more than 19 seats would be limited to a 60-minute, one-engine-inoperative range of an airport without ETOPS approval, while aircraft with 19 or fewer seats would have a 120-minute OEI limit. There is no ETOPS requirement for FAR Parts 91 and 135, nor is the FAA considering one.
The proud name of Garrett-first as an engine manufacturer, then later as a factory-level engine maintenance facility-and its Phoenix headquarters will be retained under its new owner, UNC Incorporated. After the acquisition process was finalized in May, UNC established the Aircraft and Engine Services Division to embody both Garrett Aviation Services and Airwork in Millville, New Jersey. Dave Clemons, formerly president and CEO of Garrett, heads up the new division.
Advanced Electronic Applications' new IsoPole aircraft antenna is designed to enhance the range and clarity of base station operations. The IsoPole, a gain-type, omnidirectional, vertical antenna using cones, provides 120 to 137 MHz coverage. It includes a 50-ohm SO-239 connector recessed within the base sleeve for full weather protection. There is no loss of power output from one end of the band to the other, AEA says. The antenna attaches to standard 1.25-inch diameter, eight-foot or greater length mast sections. Price: $100. Advanced Electronic Applications, P.O.
Aviall completed the sale of its aircraft engine maintenance and component repair operations to Greenwich Air Services of Miami (B/CA, March, page 26). The sale, which makes Greenwich Air Services one of the largest independent aircraft engine repair facilities, is the final step in a move by Aviall to sell off nearly all of its aviation businesses. The Dallas-based company now will focus solely on its worldwide parts distribution services and its Inventory Locator Service, an online marketplace for buyers and sellers to find aircraft parts.
AlliedSignal Engines received TSO approval for an improved fuel pump and auxiliary motive flow pump for the TFE731-20 turbofans that power the Learjet 45 and the TFE731-40 engines on the Astra SPX. The change was made after three iterations of the original Sundstrand pump designs failed to cure premature wear problems. The upgraded, two-pump configuration increases installation weight by eight pounds per engine. The Astra SPX entered service earlier this year, and the Learjet 45 is scheduled to receive certification and enter service in the first quarter of 1997.
At Indianapolis-based Chautauqua Airlines, the employee is a top priority, because the employee keeps the passenger happy and the passenger writes the employee's pay check. A good trade-off, if it works. And it does, according to the former private business consultant who runs the USAir Express carrier.
India's Hindustan Aeronautics selected Global Helicopter Technology to lead a study on the firm's Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), now in prototype flight test. The Arlington, Texas company, which designed and built the twin Allison turboshaft integration kit for the ALH, will conduct a market survey, make recommendations regarding production sourcing and develop cost-of-operation models. The ALH helicopter uses advanced composites extensively in the airframe and rotor blades.
Most of us in the aviation community watched in quiet admiration (and sometimes awe) as the ValuJet accident investigation team led by NTSB Vice Chairman Bob Francis and Investigator-in-Charge Greg Feith went about their business in the Everglades. Overcoming the worst environmental conditions imaginable, these experts quickly found evidence that an uncontrollable fire had broken out aboard VJ 592, and it almost certainly incapacitated the crew.
A six-year-old proposal to revise multiengine helicopter takeoff performance criteria (B/CA, March 1990, page 28) was amended June 10 to include a height at which a helicopter should not descend during a continued takeoff or balked landing after an engine failure. Based on responses to the original notice of proposed rulemaking and comments by the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), the FAA has determined that this height be 15 feet above the landing surface (B/CA, August 1994, page 20).
