The year was 1964. Remember that one? The young Beatles, Tonkin Gulf, ``Gilligan's Island,'' the New York World's Fair and the first Ford Mustang. . . . The place was Denver, Mile High City, Stapleton Airport, home to United Airlines' flight training center, a.k.a. ``DENTK,'' its company mail address. The occasion was a training flight for landing practice in a Douglas DC-7.
Ecuadorian officials now have the assistance of the U.S. NTSB in their investigation of a May 4 Gulfstream G-II accident near Quito, Ecuador. The Safety Board sent an investigator to Ecuador and offered additional assistance, as needed. All seven persons aboard, including top executives from oil firms in Argentina and Chile, were killed when the aircraft hit mountains at 13,000 feet msl shortly after midnight. Authorities have ruled out poor weather as a cause. The G-II (S/N 83) was leased to American Jet S.A. of Buenos Aires.
Guidelines for safe operation of portable electronic devices (PEDs) are expected to be issued in August, and will discuss results of tests done under the auspices of a Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics committee. Six airliners and a Gulfstream IV were used to determine what effect PEDs might have on avionics. John Sheehan, committee chairman and vice president of Phaneuf Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, said research conducted to date has produced ``no smoking guns'' indicating serious problems.
This is what the VisionAire Vantage will look like if all goes as planned. The St. Louis-based company recently contracted with Burt Rutan's Scale Composites to build a full-size, proof-of-concept prototype of the six-place, single-engine business jet. First flight is scheduled for March 1996.
Duncan Aviation is now providing all avionics repair and installation services at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport from a renovated facility at Jet Aviation's FBO. From the new shop at Jet Aviation, Duncan will handle all of Jet Aviation's avionics customers at Teterboro, plus its own customer base. The separate Duncan Avionics facility at Teterboro has closed. The new facility features more work space and an increased number of avionics technicians.
The FAA already is taking the first tentative steps toward free flight. In March, the agency expanded the National Route Program, which previously allowed pilots flying 1,500-mile stage lengths between 104 designated city pairs to fly direct in the en route segment if they stayed above FL 370. That program has now been expanded, and only the altitude restriction remains.
The Bombardier Business Aircraft Division has expanded its international sales force with the addition of two sales directors: (left) David Guest as director of sales for the sub-Sahara region of Africa and Luis Sastre as director of sales for Latin America.
Photograph: Bradford Lindley, a pilot for General Electric Company, listens for breathing during a test measuring his CPR skills. Maybe your flightcrews are prepared to administer first aid in flight, but could crewmembers cope with a sudden cardiac emergency? Could they save a life? To be a truly safe operation, learning to resuscitate someone whose breathing or heart has stopped is essential. One company to consider for training flightcrews in basic CPR and use of the automatic defibrillator is J. Hare Safety&Survival Systems of Jamaica, New York.
When all is said and done, the ``aviation business'' is really a part of the ``communication business.'' B/CA's readers use airplanes safely and efficiently to bring people together so they can effectively exploit all the advantages of face-to-face contact.
As part of its dowry, Allison Engines was able to present merger suitor Rolls-Royce with a new type certificate for the turbofan engine that will plug a hole in the low end of the British manufacturer's product line. Earlier this year, Allison was awarded FAA type approval for the AE 3007C engine that powers Cessna's 0.9 Mach mid-size Citation X business jet. (And, of course, Allison now is a member of Rolls-Royce's family.)
FAA has eased some of the flight restrictions it imposed earlier this year on the Robinson R22 and R44 light helicopters. Now, pilots with at least 200 hours in helicopters and 50 hours in the R22 or R44 are exempt from prohibitions on flight under these conditions: when surface winds exceed 25 knots, when gusts exceed 15 knots, or when moderate, severe or extreme turbulence is reported. The restrictions continue to apply to lower-time pilots (B/CA, April, page 24).
June 27 is the deadline for comments to the FAA on its far-reaching proposal to upgrade FAR Part 135 regional airline rules (B/CA, May, page 11). Under the provisions of the proposal, scheduled carriers using aircraft with 10 to 30 passenger seats would have to meet Part 121, the standards that now apply to scheduled operations in aircraft with more than 30 passenger seats. For further information, contact the FAA's Alberta Brown at (202) 267-8248.
FAA issued a rule to remedy a discrepancy between a 1974 AD on ``No Smoking'' placards and also recently amended FAR Part 25 regarding that signage. The agency revised the AD to clarify that operators need only comply with either the AD or Part 25, not both. Initially, the AD required worded placards to be mounted on lavatory doors on all transport-category airplanes, while Part 25 requires placards in words or symbology to be mounted on or near the door.
North Dakota recently enacted a bill limiting a ``resident'' general aviation manufacturer's product liability to just 10 years, eight years shy of a similar measure Congress passed in 1994 (B/CA, August 1994, page 7.) State officials hope GA manufacturers will be attracted by the law. It applies only to aircraft under 12,500 pounds, and buyer and seller must agree to adhere to North Dakota law. Also, purchasers must buy product-liability insurance.
FAR Part 135 operators with 11 to 50 employees to whom alcohol-testing rules are applicable must begin implementing the rules on July 1. Key elements of the rules are as follows: The random-testing rate is 25 percent of the total number of eligible employees. An alcohol level of 0.04 or higher on the job means a violation. And, a recent change to the rules allows the use of less-expensive non-evidential breath- and saliva-testing devices for alcohol-screening tests. Evidential breath testing is still required to confirm positive results.
Without a doubt, the Falcon 50EX's substantial performance improvements are a direct result of its three new AlliedSignal TFE731-40 turbofan engines. The -40 has a 4,700-pound sea-level, standard-day thermodynamic thrust rating, enabling it to maintain its 3,700-pound takeoff thrust to 32C. In contrast, the -3 engine has a 4,050-pound thermodynamic thrust rating that only provides enough temperature margin to maintain 3,700 pounds to 22C.
Beginning with the June delivery of Serial Number 307, Cessna Citation Ultra business jets will be available with a single-point refueling/defueling system. Cessna says the system, which adds only about 27 pounds to the aircraft's empty weight, is not retrofittable to the more than 40 Ultras now in service. Other changes being incorporated into new Ultras include an ``environmentally friendly'' cooling fluid and an optional wide-door installation.
A quarter century ago, the last model of the Ercoupe, one of the most innovative general aviation aircraft ever built, rolled off the production line. An outgrowth of the pioneering general aviation research performed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the 1930s, the all-metal, low-wing two-seater was designed to be an airplane that anybody could fly safely.
The following is a quiz, reprinted from the FAA Aviation Safety Journal, designed to test your knowledge of the new airport signs. (The answer key follows.) (1) Holding-position signs have a: (A) White inscription on a red background (B) Black inscription on a yellow background (C) Yellow inscription on a black background (2) Taxiway-location signs have a: (A) White inscription on a red background (B) Black inscription on a yellow background
Besides sleep debt and physical exertion, the following is a list of the other numerous causes of fatigue, many occurring simultaneously. Note that many are controllable, and every effort should be made to minimize the effects of these factors that can debilitate us: Noise and vibration. Self-medication, especially antihistamines. Hangover, even 12 hours after the last drink. Illness, such as a simple flu or cold. Hypoglycemia. Hypoxia, present above 5,000 feet on long trips.
The flight-test program for the Gulfstream G-V will involve four aircraft, with the first to fly in November. Flight-test aircraft No. 2 is scheduled to fly in mid-December; No. 3 at the end of January 1996; and No. 4 in April 1996. Certification should follow six months later. All four G-V test aircraft will eventually be used as demonstrators and will be available for purchase.
After more than a decade of gloom and declining sales, the general aviation manufacturing industry is finally showing some signs of resurgence. The most tangible evidence is construction of Cessna Aircraft Company's new single-engine production facility in Independence, Kansas, but other examples abound.
After a five-month study, a nine-member team of FAA engineers and airworthiness inspectors and experts from other government agencies discovered no design flaws in the flight-control system of Boeing 737s. The study of the aircraft was undertaken since, to date, the NTSB has been unable to determine the cause of the 1991 crash of a United Airlines 737 at Colorado Springs, Colorado and a USAir 737 near Pittsburgh in September 1994. The two crashes killed 157 people.
Bombardier and AMR Combs will offer shared ownership of Learjet 31As, 60s and Canadair Challengers via a new, Dallas-based firm: Business JetSolutions. By October, 16 aircraft are set to be in the program. Ownership is being sold in 100-hour blocks (one-eighth shares). Rob Gillespie is president of Business JetSolutions, while AMR Combs' Dale Niederhauser is president of JetSolutions LLC, the operations arm of the program. Dennis Keith, previously director of flight ops for Frito-Lay, was tapped to head the sales and marketing effort.
The range of the proposed G-IVB is now about 4,450 nm--some 150 nm less than Gulfstream originally had hoped. Late in 1994, the company said it might introduce a longer-range replacement for the 4,200 nm-range G-IVSP (B/CA, October 1994, page 21). Gulfstream said additional range would accrue from increasing the wing span of the G-IVSP and incorporating the winglet design of the G-V. A decision on whether to develop the G-IVB is expected this summer.
