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.''
European Business Air Show first timers Canadair, Dornier and Gulfstream will be among the ranks of exhibitors from 10 countries at this year's EBAS, scheduled for May 9-11 in the Bavarian capital of Munich, Germany. Also debuting at the show will be the Moscow-based aviation services company Avcom, whose presence will provide further evidence of the emergence of business aviation throughout Eastern Europe. (Avcom operates five Hawker jets from its new FBO in Moscow.)
The first Jetstream 41 full-flight simulator was commissioned in February at the Reflectone Training Center in Sterling, Virginia, near Washington Dulles International Airport. The FAA Level-C device was developed by Reflectone. It incorporates six-degree freedom of motion, digital sound and visual systems, and Reflectone's touch-window instructor station. A Harris NightHawk computer is used, along with an enhanced IVEX wide-field-of-view daylight visual system.
An airport surface detection system using secondary surveillance radar (SSR) has been designed by British Technology Group (BTG) which is seeking companies to develop and market it. London-based BTG recently demonstrated the system at Maastricht Airport in the Netherlands before the FAA, EU and other authorities. BTG says the system, called LIVE (Locating and Identifying Vehicle Equipment), requires no new airborne equipment, operates in all weather conditions, covers all movement areas and enables inter-operability with TCAS up to 300 feet agl.
NTSB experts are continuing their investigation into the fatal November 1994 runway collision involving a TWA MD-80 and a business-owned Cessna 441 at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. But their initial findings have led them to urge controllers and pilots to improve voice communications immediately. Failure to do so, they argue, can only lead to more airport surface tragedies.
As the ink dries on this deathless prose, Denver's nabobs will be chanting ``Let heaven and earth rejoice!''--or will they? The infamous chutes that smash luggage electronically at the vast wasteland newly serving Denver's airlines have been declared fully operational. Hence, the long-delayed opening was, at this juncture, scheduled for February 28, but I hope you didn't bet on it.
In a joint effort at the 1996 Summer Olympics to be held July 20 to August 4, 1996 in Atlanta, the FAA and the Helicopter Association International will sponsor a low-altitude flight project. The project aims to evaluate new technology to enhance safety, improve ATC surveillance and reduce noise disturbances during low-altitude flight. The project also will examine the use of GPS navigation and communications for the control of helicopters flying below 2,200 feet msl.
