Imagine, for a few minutes, that you're contemplating an approach to an airport where the ceiling is indefinite and the visibility is RVR 700. The destination airport has a Category I precision approach landing system, requiring minimums of at least RVR 2,400 or one-half-mile visibility. It's as dark as a pitch pot and the approach lights are NOTAMed out of service. If you were flying a current generation civil aircraft, you would have no option but to divert to an alternate having better weather and, hopefully, high-intensity approach lighting.
Total deliveries of new U.S.-built general aviation airplanes in the first quarter were up 14.4 percent compared to the first quarter of 1994, but deliveries of new business jets were off 9.6 percent, says the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. In the first three months, total deliveries compared to those of a year earlier (in parentheses) were: jets--47 (52); turboprops--52 (37); and recips--108 (92). Meanwhile, GAMA's new Piston-Engine Revitalization Action Plan to help revive sales of light aircraft is due out in August.
A rule setting minimum experience levels for two pilots flying together in FAR Part 121 operations becomes effective August 25. The rule increases the amount of flight time pilots need to meet ``initial operating experience'' requirements. Also, pilots will no longer receive experience credit for observing another pilot; pilot trainees actually must perform the duties. Lastly, the PIC must carry out all takeoffs and landings during certain weather conditions and at particular airports if the copilot has less than 100 hours in type.
Photograph: Gray clouds and occasional rain do not slow the pace of the Paris Air Show. The Paris-Le Bourget International Air&Space Show bills itself as the world's largest and most important aerospace exhibition, a claim that is hard to dispute. The biennial event throws open its doors again this month, with the promise of more than 200 aircraft on display and dense crowds packing the 210,000 square feet of exhibit space in the enormous halls.
Photograph: Orenda believes that over the next 10 years, more than 5,000 aircraft will be candidates for its V-8 engine retrofit. The Orenda Division of Hawker Siddeley Canada hopes the claimed combination of strong, high-altitude performance of its engines and low maintenance and acquisition costs, will help them turn a marketing corner. Specifically, the division is looking for the company's line of aviation-oriented V-8 engines to capture a segment of the market that heretofore has been dominated by small turboprop engines.
A new noise ordinance at California's Long Beach Airport permits limited operations by most business jet models. The new noise policy follows several years of legal wrangling and out-of-court negotiations between the aviation industry and the airport authority (B/CA, March 1990, page 24). Provisions of the policy set noise limits for day, evening and night, and establish a ``noise budget'' for aircraft operations. Also, the policy sets up a GA noise committee to work with airport officials to ensure compliance with the ordinance.
The Transportation Department rescinded the requirement that calls for pre-employment alcohol testing in transportation industries already mandated to comply with DOT alcohol-testing rules. Earlier in the year, the DOT had asked the U.S. Congress to repeal the legislative mandate that places pre-employment testing in the overall alcohol-testing requirements (B/CA, May, page 11). Meanwhile, industry advocates are still arguing for the DOT to lower the random drug-testing rate from 25 percent to 10 percent (B/CA, January, page 11).
Socata, the subsidiary of Aerospatiale that produces single-engine aircraft, recently acquired Mooney's 30-percent interest in the TBM-700 single-engine turboprop. The company dissolved TBM S.A., the joint-venture holding company, and TBM N.A. in North America. Aerospatiale General Aviation in Grand Prairie, Texas will now provide TBM-700 support and marketing. Mooney helped launch the TBM-700 in 1987 by providing technological and marketing support.
Piper Aircraft appointed AMR Combs as its new distributor for Mexico. The Combs facility is located at the Servicios Aereos del Centro SA (SACSA) FBO on Mexico City's Toluca Airport. The Honeywell/Pelorus local area DGPS has been selected for installation at the Armidale Regional Airport in New South Wales, Australia. Certification is expected in the second quarter of 1996.
International business aircraft operators are reminded that January 1, 1998 is the deadline for upgrading VHF communication and navigation receivers to meet improved FM immunity performance standards. The standards, recommended by ICAO in its Annex 10 ``Aeronautical Telecommunications,'' took effect January 1 for newly manufactured VHF radios. But operators will want to determine if currently installed radios need to be modified to meet the 1998 deadline.
Photograph: Loretta Cook, president of Women Employed in Corporate Aviation Network (WECAN), and pilot for the Gannett newspaper chain. WOMEN'S BUSINESS AVIATION GROUP LIFTS OFF This year's International Women in Aviation Conference staged recently in St. Louis held special significance for women employed in various facets of business aviation. A new group called Women Employed in Corporate Aviation Network (WECAN) was formed to serve as a support group for its members, ranging from pilots to those employed by corporate aircraft manufacturers.
A mixture of kudos and denouncements greeted Signature Flight Support's announcement that as of April, it would start imposing (actually re-imposing) handling charges on transient aircraft operators who stop at Signature FBOs and do not meet an annual minimum fuel purchase. The charges range from $85 for the largest aircraft at a major location to $9 for the smallest aircraft at a non-major airport.
Dassault Aviation just became an even tougher competitor in the upper-end business aircraft class. Its Falcon 50 trijet, certified in 1977, currently is unmatched for its blend of cabin volume, maximum range and airport performance. That wasn't good enough for Dassault, especially with the emergence of the speedy Citation X. The firm has decided to replace the Falcon 50, currently the status-quo Caesar of the mid-size class, with a higher performance derivative-the Falcon 50EX-that will be fitted with more powerful engines and upgraded avionics.
Legislation pending in the House to repeal the 4.3-cents-per-gallon tax increase on jet fuel used in commercial operations should be amended to include aviation gasoline, said the National Air Transportation Association. At a meeting with the bill's sponsor, Representative Mac Collins (R-GA), NATA officials said ``If allowed to take effect [and it's on track for an October 1 effective date], the increase will unfairly penalize operators of piston-engine aircraft.''
Le Bourget's location is one of its beauties. The airport, which was established on the distant outskirts of Paris as a military airfield in 1917 during World War I, has no scheduled commercial traffic and is almost exclusively used for business flights. An occasional military aircraft drops in, heading for the small military enclave on the west side of the airport, and a commercial charter flight stops by now and then.
Raytheon's blockbuster pronouncement that it plans to buy E-Systems for ``about $2.3 billion in cash'' was the big, big aviation news in April. Raytheon's ownership of Beech and Hawker, though, makes it B/CA news. Concurrent with the news of the impending purchase of E-Systems was the overshadowed release that Raytheon/Beech plans to construct a new business jet, starting with ``a clean sheet of paper.''
The number of VHF communications channels could be increased from the present 760 to more than 2,000 by reducing the ``width'' from the current 25 kHz to 8.33 kHz. Use of these so-called ``triple-split'' VHF transceivers as a short-term solution to help overcome radio frequency congestion problems was one of the recommendations issued from ICAO's Special Communications/Operations Divisional Meeting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada this spring. A longer-term solution will require introduction of datalinks for routine air/ground communications.
Cessna is scheduled to begin construction of a Citation service center in July at San Antonio International Airport. When the facility opens in summer 1996, it will be the ninth Cessna-owned Citation service operation and the largest--outside of the company's Wichita headquarters. Separately, Gulfstream has started building a 200,000-square-foot service complex at the company's Savannah headquarters. The complex is scheduled to be in use by early 1996.
Loral Corporation and the FAA have agreed on a contract that will allow the New York-based company to provide future workstations for air traffic controllers. The work-station project came to a virtual standstill last year when it was part of the long-troubled, and now largely-defunct, Advanced Automation System being developed by IBM's Federal Systems Company (B/CA, February 1994, page 28). The new workstations will be called the Display System Replacement (DSR).
FAA launched a plan to speed up the application of technology and procedures to reduce runway incursions. The airport-safety plan was issued following a fatal runway incursion accident at St. Louis' Lambert International Airport (B/CA, January, page 12) and the NTSB's harsh criticism of the FAA's delay in commissioning technologies and adopting policies to prevent such incidents (B/CA, April, page 16). The number of runway incursions in 1994 increased to 204 from 186 in 1993, reversing a downward trend that began in 1991.
DOT Secretary Federico Pena and other proponents of establishing a government corporation to run the U.S. ATC system have frequently cited New Zealand as an example of a country where such a corporate ATC structure has been implemented successfully.
Free flight is safe and efficient flight-operating capability under IFR, in which operators have the freedom to select their path and speed in real time. Air traffic restrictions are only imposed to ensure aircraft separation, to preclude exceeding airport capacity, to prevent unauthorized flight through special-use airspace and to ensure safety of flight. Restrictions are limited in extent and duration to correct any identified problem. Any activity that removes restrictions represents a move toward free flight.-RTCA Select Committee on Free Flight
Executive Jet Aviation (EJA) has set the pricing for the Gulfstream G-IVSPs it will be selling in its NetJets shared-ownership program. One-eighth increments cost $3.5 million and entitle owners to 100 occupied flight hours annually. A one-quarter interest costs $6.65 million and provides 200 occupied hours annually. The monthly management fee is $14,500 per one-eighth share; the occupied hourly rate is $2,480. EJA is slated to take delivery of 10 G-IVSPs this year and in 1996 as part of an order for up to 22 G-IVSPs and G-Vs.
When the new runway (9/27) opens in 1996 at Paris' Le Bourget Airport (LFPB), its impact will be two-fold: It will provide a practical answer to the sometimes tangled traffic patterns in the Aeroports de Paris area as well as recognition of Le Bourget's increasing importance as a business aviation center. The new east-west runway at Le Bourget will offer most LFPB traffic a comparatively clear approach/departure path, since it will be both 10-nm distant and parallel to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport's runways.
The McDonnell Douglas Helicopter MD 600N, scheduled to enter service in late 1996, will be powered by a single derated 790-shp Allison 250-C47 equipped with a full-authority digital engine control (FADEC). The aircraft was originally planned to be powered by an Allison 650-shp -C30. The -C47 will power the certification aircraft (the No. 2 flight-test vehicle) scheduled to fly later this year. Meanwhile, to provide more aft cabin space in the MD 600N, a fuel cell was moved from its original under-seat location to below floor level.
