``Political grandstanding'' is how many Washington, D.C. and aviation industry observers described the spur-of-the-moment safety summit called in early January by Transportation Secretary Federico Pea.
Passengers had just settled into their seats on the Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 when smoke began to seep out of an overhead storage compartment. At the time, the airplane was being pushed back from the gate at Dorval International Airport in Montreal, Canada to begin a scheduled leg to Detroit. Crewmembers grabbed two halon extinguishers, opened the overhead compartment, doused the fire and started an emergency evacuation of the 60 passengers. Two of those passengers were injured during the egress operation.
Never mind its historic charms--New England can be a tough place to run an airline. And when your operation depends largely on a Boston presence, it can be tougher still.
FAR Part 135 operators of turbine aircraft with 10 to 30 passenger seats have only until December 31 to install TCAS I, meaning a delay of more than 10 months from the original February 9 date. But it considerably accelerates the deadline from the initially proposed March 31, 1997 date (B/CA, May 1994, page 11). The FAA didn't say why it sharply cut the compliance period, but the move is surprising since the agency admitted the likelihood of many operators being unable to meet the deadline.
This year's Flight Safety Foundation European aviation seminar will take a hard look at preventing controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents and the safety impacts of the new super-long-range business jets, said Stuart Matthews, chairman, president and CEO of the FSF. The FSF's seventh annual European Aviation Safety Seminar will be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands on February 28 through March 2 at the Amsterdam Marriott Hotel.
Once again, FlightSafety International is offering a free two-day series of Mitsubishi MU-2 flight-proficiency seminars. The classroom program is scheduled for February 11-12 in Newark, New Jersey; February 28-March 1 in Tulsa and March 11-12 in Augusta, Georgia. Program topics include cockpit resource management, flying in icing, and autopilot operation. (A well-attended series of MU-2 seminars was held in March and April 1994.) For more information, contact June Spencer at FSI's Learning Center in Houston at (800) 927-1521.
NTSB cited pilot error as the cause of the crash of a Piper Navajo on April 27, 1994, but blamed Connecticut's Sikorsky Memorial Airport for the deaths of eight persons aboard. The Safety Board said the fatalities were caused when the aircraft struck a blast deflection fence at the end of Runway 6. Furthermore, the NTSB said two previous accidents in the past 10 years might have been avoided if approach lighting for Runway 6 had been installed. The aircraft crashed following a ``higher than normal'' approach in a tailwind and ground fog.
Initial steps to harmonize FAA helicopter airworthiness certification standards with European Joint Airworthiness Authorities (JAA) helicopter standards are under way. A notice of proposed rulemaking offers revisions that will make FARs and JARs covering standards for both normal- and transport-category rotorcraft virtually uniform. The NPRM also introduces safety improvements, clarifies existing regulations and proposes other changes. Comments are due March 28. Contact Carroll Wright at the FAA in Fort Worth. Phone: (817) 222-5120.
Mesa Airlines is now the Mesa Air Group. The Farmington, New Mexico-based company has announced two name changes ``to help clarify the airline's different operations more accurately.'' Mesa Air Group replaces the old corporate moniker of Mesa Airlines. And the former Mesa Airlines division, which includes the United Express operations at Denver, America West operations at Phoenix and Columbus, and the generic Mesa Airlines operation in New Mexico, is now called Mountain West Airlines.
Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) was recently commissioned at Memphis International Airport. The Raytheon-provided TDWR is designed to enable ATC controllers to warn pilots of wind-shear, microburst and gust-front activity. Warnings will include the type and strength of the wind shear and the location along the runway where the shear will be first encountered by an aircraft. The first TDWR was commissioned at Houston Intercontinental Airport in July 1994.
Despite depressed sales of new single-engine aircraft, a Norman, Oklahoma firm hopes to go into production this year with a four-place, fixed-gear trainer with a base price of $89,500. Kestrel Aircraft Company planned to fly a prototype of the high-wing, Cessna look-alike in late January, about a year later than originally scheduled (B/CA, February 1993, page 16). The airframe will be of composite construction, according to Donald L. Stroud, Kestrel president and CEO. Stroud claimed deposits for 73 aircraft at press time.
The shine is off the apple for eight regional airline stocks that lost nearly 53 percent of their value during 1994. Average price per share for the eight issues fell from $18.13 at the end of 1993 to $8.60 at the close of trading on December 30.
Shortly after the introduction of large turbojet-powered commercial aircraft, community feedback attested that the noise generated during takeoff and landing made living in the vicinity of a busy airport almost impossible. Similarly, noise produced by business jets, such as the Learjet 23, G-II, JetStar and HS-125, could be extremely uncomfortable to airport neighbors.
Effective April 23, the Independent Safety Board Act Amendments enacted in fall 1994 will change the definition of ``public aircraft.'' The upshot is that many operations involving government-owned/leased aircraft used for carrying passengers will have to meet FAA safety regulations for certification, maintenance, training, etc.--unless they qualify for narrowly described exemptions. Previously, public aircraft were excluded from many types of FARs. For details, phone the FAA's Dave Catey in Washington, D.C. at (202) 267-8094.
The NBAA has prepared a noise-abatement package that is available free to members and for a small charge to non-members. Two of the most useful items in the package are: (1) a booklet containing a list of airports (and their telephone numbers) complete with their noise abatement rules, policies or advisories and (2) a brochure detailing the procedures recommended in the NBAA Noise Abatement Program.
December 1994 was the 50th anniversary of the initial running of the Lycoming T53, the first turbine engine designed specifically for helicopters. Over the past five decades, the pioneering powerplant, the brainchild of Anselm Franz, Ph.D., earned a reputation for reliability and maintainability in a number of notable single-engine, rotary-wing aircraft--from the Bell Huey and Cobra military helicopters to the new Kaman KMAX utility rotorcraft.
The NBAA, the Air Line Pilots Association and five other aviation groups wrote FAA Administrator David Hinson supporting the contract tower program, of which the National Air Traffic Controllers Association is critical. Eventually, the program will delegate operation of most Level I (VFR) control towers to the private sector. The groups denied that privatization creates safety problems.
Two Western-based aviation fuel distributors have merged to create a 200-dealer network of branded products. Valley Oil Company of Salem, Oregon and D.Z. Incorporated of Red Bluff, California will operate under the Valley Oil name. Valley Oil, one of the largest avgas and jet fuel marketers to airports in the western United States, carries the Phillips 66 and Texaco brands. As part of the merger agreement, Valley Oil now also offers Chevron aviation fuels.
In the early 1960s, the U.S. Navy realized it faced a grave challenge from an expanding Soviet submarine fleet, including the new, fast nuclear boats. After all, in 1940, Germany had paralyzed shipping on the North Atlantic with 38 submarines, and now Russia was building its fleet toward 400.
For the second time in recent months, aviation experts disputed what they deemed an asinine suggestion from the International Airline Passengers Association, a group that sells travel insurance. Late in 1994, the aviation industry lambasted the IAPA for telling its members to stay off aircraft with less than 31 passenger seats. Now, the IAPA advocates closing Washington National Airport to remove a threat to national security.
The environs of Opryland will be the site of the 29th annual Tennessee Mid-South Aviation Maintenance Seminar on March 15 and 16. The Tennessee Department of Transportation's Office of Aeronautics and the FAA are hosting the event, which will be held at the Ramada Inn in Nashville. At the two-day seminar, manufacturers' representatives, specialists in the field of aviation maintenance and various FAA staff members will make technical presentations.
On March 1, flight attendants of FAR Parts 121 and 135 on-demand and scheduled operations must start complying with new regulations that for the first time set maximum length of duty times and minimum rest requirements. Under the rules, flight attendants must be given no less than nine-hour scheduled rest periods and no more than 14-hour duty periods. Also, the new rules require that flight attendants have a 24-hour rest period every seven calendar days.
St. Louis-based Sabreliner Corporation signed a letter of intent in December 1994 to purchase National Airmotive Corporation from The Triton Group of New Jersey. National Airmotive, which has been on the block since early 1992, is an Oakland turbine-engine overhauler specializing in Allison powerplants (B/CA, August 1992, page 26). Separately, regarding Sabreliner's recent acquisition of Midcoast Aviation, John T. Tucker was named vice chairman of Midcoast. Tucker was incorrectly identified in a previous item (B/CA, December 1994, page 18).
Pilots' opinions on alcohol problems in aviation are diverse, according to the results of the fourth in a series of studies conducted by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University of Daytona Beach, Florida. The title of the current research is ``Professional Pilots' Views of Alcohol Use in Aviation and the Effectiveness of Employee Assistance Programs.''
Conventional wisdom has maintained that there really isn't much of a ``corporate helicopter'' market. However, Bell Helicopter's analysis holds that corporate helicopters are selling at about the same rate as rotary-wing aircraft employed by civil government, a well-established niche.
