Eighty years ago a rider attached to a U.S. Navy appropriation bill changed the course of aviation development forever. A little-noticed provision of the service's annual funding legislation, which was approved by Congress on March 3, 1915, authorized the creation of a committee of 12 non-salaried presidential appointees that would help coordinate aeronautical research in the United States.
Putting the wrong type of fuel into an aircraft is at least as big a concern as contaminated fuel. Most susceptible to the problem are high-performance piston singles and cabin-class piston twins that fuelers could mistake for turboprop aircraft. Turboprops equipped for overwing fueling also are potential candidates for contamination with avgas.
Christopher A. Hart, formerly a member of the NTSB, is the FAA's appointee as assistant administrator for system safety. Hart, an attorney, pilot and aeronautical engineer, reports directly to FAA Administrator David Hinson. Establishment of a high-level safety office was emphasized when the agency announced a new structure late in 1994 (B/CA, February, page 24). The head of the office is to be a ``safety ombudsman'' and ``not a policeman,'' Hart said.
Friends and acquaintances of the men shown here were quick to point out to us that in our January issue (page 34), the pictures were switched over the names of the two international marketing officials for Learjet.
Airline Educational Services of Anchorage, Alaska has produced a crew resource management video program designed for corporate aviation and for Parts 121 and 135 certificate holders.
Standard Aero, an engine overhauler based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, has acquired Turbine Overhaul Power Plant Support (TOPPS) from its former owners KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corporation. The acquisition of TOPPS, located in Tilburg, Netherlands, expands Standard Aero's capabilities in the repair and overhaul of P&WC PW100 turboprop engines that currently power the following aircraft: the ATR-42, -72, EMB120, Jetstream ATP, Fokker 50 and Dash 8.
Corporate headquarters sits in the corner of a remote Brunswick, Georgia, warehouse--an unfinished cubicle with a desk, a phone, a fax machine, two chairs, a computer that doesn't work and a filing cabinet. It has been burglarized on four documented occasions, documents stolen and hard drive crashed.
Researchers are baffled by brief but frequent spectacular flashes of red and blue light seen emanating from the tops of thunderstorms--some as high as 60 miles into the atmosphere. Scientists from the University of Alaska recorded the flashes using two business jets leased from Aero Air of Hillsboro, Oregon in summer 1994. Early speculations attribute the flashes to gamma rays, since the lights don't seem to be derived from an aurora or lightning. The flashes have been reported by pilots for years, but only now are being studied.
Picture a bum sitting outside a bank cadging quarters off the passersby. He's out there for years, bugging people for handouts, and he does pretty well--considering he never does anything constructive. But one day he gets greedy, walks inside with a threatening note and tries to hold the place up. Well, of course, the teller recognizes the bum and figures he's harmless. So the teller pushes the alarm button, and the security guys and cops come running and haul the bum off to the hoosegow.
Delta Airlines scored a coup early this year when it hired John Lauber, Ph.D. to be vice president of corporate safety and compliance. Lauber, who had just completed nine years as a member of the NTSB, is generally acknowledged as one of the leading aviation safety specialists in the nation, if not the world.
Aviation Material and Technical Support (AVMATS) received JAR Part 145 certification. The approval permits the St. Louis-based company to provide engine and avionics maintenance and modifications to European-registered aircraft and their components.
Las Vegas--Signature Flight Support is constructing a new terminal building at its FBO on McCarran International Airport. The building is scheduled to be completed shortly before aircraft start arriving in Las Vegas in conjunction with the NBAA's annual convention there September 26-28. Signature also is adding tenant hangars, expanding aircraft and auto parking areas, installing new security fencing and remodeling the maintenance shops. (702) 739-1100.
The approximately 3,500 NBAA member companies contribute a total of more than $1.1 billion per year to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund as a result of airline ticket purchases, an association survey says. Combined with $100 million in taxes on aviation fuel purchased for company aircraft, NBAA members collectively contribute an estimated $1.2 billion annually in aviation taxes to the Fund. ``This total . . . illustrates . . .
JET-A AND AVGAS PER GALLON PRICES (Filup Flyer Fuel FInder - February 1995 This table shows the results of a February 1995 independent survey of U.S. FBOs. The survey, by Fillup Flyer Fuel Finder in Cincinnati, reflects fuel prices reported by nearly 3,000 U.S. FBOs. All prices are full retail--before discounts, if any apply--and include taxes and other fees. Contact Fillup Flyer for individualized customer fuel surveys at (800) 333-7900.
AirTran/Mesaba Chairman Rob Swenson will leave the company under a preliminary agreement with Northwest Airlines to end an ``extremely confrontational relationship'' between the two code-sharing partners. The agreement calls for AirTran to spin-off its new low-fare jet operation--AirTran Airways--launched from Orlando in mid-1994.
DOT Secretary Federico Pena had a captive audience recently for reiterating his aviation reform agenda. While addressing the FAA's annual aviation forecast conference in March, he repeated his intention to move ahead vigorously to create a corporatized ATC system separate from other FAA functions, despite Congress' lukewarm response thus far. Regarding the industry/government safety conference held in January, Pena said his agency still promises the 100 ``specific initiatives'' to improve safety will be achieved by October 1.
Operators can obtain a copy of the new Pilot Guide to Small Aircraft Ground Deicing (FAA AC 135-17) from B/CA. The 46-page booklet contains information on deicing fluids and on application procedures for corporate jets and smaller-size aircraft. The booklet is similar to a previously published guide on ground deicing operations for larger aircraft. Copies of both guides are available, while they last, for $1 each (to cover postage and handling) from Business&Commercial Aviation, 4 International Dr., Ste. 260, Rye Brook, NY 10573.
Zurich Airport Authority petitioned the Switzerland Federal Office for Civil Aviation for permission to ban FAR Part 36, Stage 2 aircraft takeoffs between 1900 and 0900 hours daily. According to Sam Wenger, manager of the Swiss Federal Civil Aviation Environmental Section, permission to implement the ban probably will not be approved before year-end. But, Wenger also said he expected similar requests from airport authorities at Geneva, Bern and Basel.
Based on the results of flight tests and an aircraft engineering design review, the FAA says that the Model 690 Twin Commander is not susceptible to ``aileron snatch'' (an abnormal control surface overbalance), but operators must be aware of the importance of proper control rigging and avoid high airspeeds in turbulence. The NTSB said it believed that the phenomenon was a factor in 14 accidents involving the Twin Commander (B/CA, February 1994, page 22).
UNC Airwork's Miami engine test cell has been certified to test Pratt &Whitney Canada PT6A, PT6T Twin Pac and Allison 250 series helicopter powerplants.
The FAA has established a mailbox on the Internet to facilitate submitting comments on proposed rules. On February 15, Anthony Broderick, the agency's associate administrator for regulation and certification and a frequent contributor to CompuServe's AVSIG aviation forum, announced the mailbox's ``posting.''
FAA approved PAN AM Systems' lightning detection data to be used in reports by any certified Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) site. The technology locates lightning flashes within 30 nm of any participating AWOS and adds this information to the site's voice and data weather messages. The lightning report includes general direction and distance information. Approval followed the evaluation of the technology at AWOS sites in Minnesota in summer 1994.
So-called nonalcoholic beer contains only 0.3 percent alcohol (compared to 4.5 percent for regular beer), but does that make it legal per the eight-hour, bottle-to-throttle rule? The operative word appears to be ``beer,'' according to Richard O. Reinhart, M.D., B/CA contributor. In a recent issue of the NBAA Digest, Reinhart writes that the prudent thing to do as a pilot is to consider nonalcoholic beer ``as just another kind of beer, and treat it as an alcoholic beverage.''
