FAA officials say they are keeping January 1, 1997 as the date for implementing Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (RVSM) for flights over the North Atlantic. The decision was made despite the fact that many corporate aircraft operators regularly transiting the North Atlantic may not be able to obtain, install or get FAA approval of avionics to meet the RVSM standards. The NBAA and others want RVSM implementation delayed for at least a year (B/CA, December 1995, page 86).
When American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashed into mountains on approach to Cali, Colombia on December 20, 1995, the aviation industry was at once saddened and astonished.
FAA said the 1996 annual random drug-testing rate will remain at 25 percent of covered employees, even though 1995 is the fifth straight year that the random drug-testing-positive rate continued to be below 1.0 percent. Since alcohol testing only started in January 1995, the FAA says there are ``insufficient data'' to modify the current testing rate of 25 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).
Ronald L. Patrick, vice president of distribution strategy and development at Aviall in Dallas, was elected president of the association for this year.
From LandSea Systems, the TT-3024A Aeronautical Inmarsat-C System allows two-way text messaging and automatic position reporting from aircraft to home base via the Inmarsat-C satellite network. Flight tracking software permits position reporting from anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. A single jet-blade antenna performs as a GPS and Inmarsat-C antenna connection. Using the system, passengers and crew can send and retrieve e-mail from their home offices to PCs on their aircraft. Price: $30,000 with printer. LandSea Systems, Inc., 849 Seahawk Cir., Ste.
Is Honda developing a turbofan engine to go with the business jet that the company flew two years ago? Not likely. The Japanese auto manufacturer always has claimed that the aircraft is strictly a research-and-development vehicle for testing advanced aerospace materials for cars (B/CA, March 1993, page 18). But, late in 1995 at California's Mojave Airport, Honda started flight-testing an 1,800-pounds-thrust turbofan mounted on a Boeing 727 testbed. Honda says it is uncertain whether it will attempt to market the engine.
An enhancement to Northstar Technologies' GPS-60 is a 12-channel GPS receiver that is now a standard feature. A panel-mounted VFR system, the Northstar GPS-60 arrives loaded with software to organize and display all available frequencies. The unit functions worldwide and comes with updatable U.S. airport data from Jeppesen, plus data on several private airfields. Helicopter and international data are optional. An LED display optimizes visibility. Price: $3,495. Northstar Tech-nologies, 30 Sudbury Rd., Acton, MA 01720. (508) 897-6600.
Stand with a group of pilots for more than five minutes, and someone will mention American 965, the Boeing 757 that crashed in the mountains on approach to Cali, Colombia in December 1995. While it will be months before we learn from investigators what caused the accident, it seems certain that human performance-on the ground, in the air, or both-will be cited in the list of causal factors. Indeed, if the initial reports from Cali (see Cause&Circumstance, page 79) are correct, situational awareness ultimately may dominate discussions of this accident.
National Air Transportation Association supports a bill introduced by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) that would relieve employers of legal liability if they release a pilot's employment and training records to prospective employers. But the FBO and air-taxi trade group expressed concern about the financial and administrative aspects of complying with this bill.
Gulfstream and Rolls-Royce extended the warranty for the Tay 611-8 engines on the G-IVSP to five years or 2,500 hours, whichever comes sooner-up from four years or 2,000 hours. The new warranty, which includes six months of labor, brings the G-IVSP engine coverage up to that of the G-V. The Bombardier Global Express, the G-V's primary competitor, has similar coverage and also is powered by Tay 611 series engines.
Fokker Aircraft will transfer leasing programs to a new company, debis AirFinance, for which the main shareholder is the aircraft maker's parent company Daimler-Benz. The new company, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, will start lease operations with an initial batch of 35 Fokker-owned Model F100s, F50s and F28s. The remaining aircraft in Fokker's lease portfolio will transfer to debis AirFinance this year.
No, this aircraft did not make an emergency landing at the doorstep of the Tavern on the Green in New York's Central Park. Instead, Astra Jet Corporation may have started a new marketing trend when it trucked the mockup of the new IAI Galaxy business jet to the famous restaurant late in 1995. The goal-apparently reached-was to put the aircraft in a location where business executives in the city would find it easy to tour it. Among some 50 corporate executives visiting the mockup was Christopher Forbes, chairman of Forbes magazine.
To get an idea of where helicopters stand in today's corporate flight department, we polled nearly 100 U.S. operators with mixed fleets that included rotorcraft and fixed-wing aircraft. Of those, more than one-third, or 34 operators, returned our 26-question fax survey that delved into operations, piloting and the future of corporate-helicopter utilization.
To help assess the severity of turbulence in regions where Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (1,000 feet between FL 290 and FL 410) are going to apply, crews should include magnitude and deviation in feet from the assigned flight level in all reports of moderate to severe turbulence.
To its line of replacement windows, LP Aero Plastics has added cockpit side and cabin side windows for the following aircraft: Pressurized Navajos, Mojaves and Cheyennes. The windows are made of stretched acrylic to Piper's specifications. Price range: $1,350 for a cabin window to $1,475 for the left front cockpit window (shown). LP Aero Plastics Inc., RD #1 Box 201B, Jeannette, PA 15644. (412) 744-4448.
Three would-be production aircraft builders have reached milestones. Kestrel Aircraft of Norman, Oklahoma is in flight-test with its Cessna look-alike KL series and expects certification in the spring (B/CA, February 1995, page 16). A second prototype of the Cirrus SR20 has joined Cirrus Design's flight-test program. The Minnesota company is targeting early 1997 for FAA approval. Having suffered the crash of its first prototype in 1992, El Gavilan of Bogota, Colombia expects to fly a new, improved prototype of the Gavilan 358 in March (B/CA, May 1995, page 113).
Embraer's flight-test program for the 50-seat EMB-145 regional jet is expected to lead to certification late this year. In-air testing will involve four aircraft, including SN 001, the second prototype shown here on its first flight in mid-November 1995. The third aircraft was expected to fly in January, and the fourth test aircraft is set to take to the air this month. At press time, Embraer had 18 firm orders, 16 options and 127 ``letters of intent'' for the Allison-powered aircraft.
Jeppesen has introduced multicolor en route and area charts for Australia, and may decide to expand colorization to other geographical areas. Black depicts information related to en route VHF navigation; blue is used to highlight IFR facilities and procedures; green illustrates LF navaids, VFR airports, lat/long, isogonic lines and uncontrolled airspace; magenta shows MEAs, ATS routes and special use airspace; and brown highlights contours.
In today's instrument panels that are dominated by large-format displays, mechanical spinning gyro standby attitude indicators are among the last carryovers from the era of clocks and dials. Properly cared for, these instruments can go 7,000 to 10,000 hours between failures, but only if they are overhauled at regular intervals by skilled technicians. Many operators, though, report having failures at much more frequent intervals.
The new year is ``shaping up to be a very slow growth year, perhaps well under three percent,'' predicts Michael Boyd, president of Aviation Systems Research Corporation (ASRC) of Golden, Colorado.
FAA is advising operators to write or fax the agency to obtain its Human Factors Guide for Aviation Maintenance, a book intended to reduce human error in the maintenance field. The guidelines are available in hard copy and on CD-ROM. A phone number previously set up to take orders for the publication repeatedly has been busy or temporarily out of order (B/CA, October 1995, page 26). So for further information, fax the FAA at (202) 366-7105. Or write the FAA Office of Aviation Medicine, AAM 240, 400 7th St. SW, Room 2102-B, Washington, DC 20591.
Widere's Flyveselskap has a vision, according to the company's 1994 annual report: ``Serving the rural areas of Norway, our aim is to provide the best means of transport in bringing people together.'' That was the goal of Viggo Widere's single-engine, float-plane operation when the regional airline was formalized in February 1934. In the interim, Viggo's airline has enjoyed a monopoly in serving the small communities along the country's east-coast fjords extending to the top of Scandinavia and the Russian border.
The most frequent utterance when a veteran member of Congress decides to retire is ``good riddance.'' But that wasn't the reaction when Senator Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS) announced she would not seek a fourth term in this fall's election. In fact, the thought that the gentle lady from Kansas will no longer be adding her touch of class to the Washington scene provoked widespread lamentations.
