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.
Many of the over 350 business aircraft pilots and managers attending the 22nd NBAA Annual International Operators Conference (IOC) in Dallas in April had a surprise in store for them. They learned that the implementation program to reduce vertical separation from 2,000 to 1,000 feet in the North Atlantic was already under way.
Revised TSOs have been proposed for flight data recorders (FDRs), cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) and airborne weather radars with forward-looking wind-shear detection capability. The new TSOs specify the revised minimum performance standards that each of the systems must meet in order to be identified as TSOed. For more information on the proposed TSOs, contact Bobbie J. Smith at the FAA's Airworthiness Branch in Washington, D.C. Phone: (202) 267-9546.
Alliance Engines, the newly formed venture between Duncan Aviation of Lincoln, Nebraska and KC Aviation of Appleton, Wisconsin, plans to start offering repairs and overhauls on AlliedSignal APUs this month in recently acquired facilities in Maryville, Tennessee. The company expects to extend repair and overhaul services to AlliedSignal TPE331 turboprops in July and to TFE731 turbofans in October. Alliance has promised to cut costs and turnaround times for overhauls and repairs on AlliedSignal engines (B/CA, December 1994, page 66).
The Principality of Monaco will host a helicopter business market event designed to pull together customers, airframers and suppliers. The event will be held from June 23 to June 26 near Monaco's international heliport (pictured). The show will feature exhibits from the major western helicopter manufacturers. Other events include the 7th French Helicopter Championships and a meeting of the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) and the European Civil Aviation Commission (ECAC). For additional information contact Media Plus at +33-93 25 48 26 or fax +33-93 25 54 13.
Fees were increased for certain certification services the FAA performs outside the United States. The agency says the new schedule is the first update of fees since 1982, although the FAA's costs for performing these services has escalated significantly in the last 12 years. Fee increases apply to the administering of written tests, proficiency checks, and similar services to pilots and mechanics. For more information, contact the FAA at (202) 267-3301.
Carl W. Hirschmann, founder of Jet Aviation, and its chairman and president until 1990, died on April 28. He was 74. Since Jet Aviation was founded in Switzerland in 1967, it has become one of the largest business aviation full-service companies, employing more than 1,700 people in 25 facilities worldwide and operating a fleet of more than 130 corporate aircraft. Jet Aviation has functioned under the leadership of Hirshmann's son Thomas since 1990.
Orion Consolidated Capital International of Reno, Nevada is now in the shared ownership business, and plans to launch its ``Aircraft Operational Assistance Program'' this month. The company, backed by private investment from Taiwan, will acquire a core fleet of eight Astra SPs and SPXs, and claims to have commitments from eight quarter-share buyers. Quarter shares in the SPs sell for $2.2 million. The fixed monthly fee is $10,500, and hourly rates run $1,289. Quarter shares entitle owners to 300 occupied flight hours of use per year.
