By William Garvey, Jessica A. Salerno, Molly McMillin
Sheltair has acquired Tampa Jet International Center at Tampa International Airport, Florida, and plans to expand its infrastructure. The operation and location is expected to fit into Shelter's growth model and complements its network of fixed-base operations.
In February 2002, a Gulfstream V underwent maintenance at a repair station at West Palm Beach Airport in Florida. The airplane was placed on jacks for a tire change. During the process, a maintenance tech disabled the weight-on-wheels, aka "squat" switches with wooden "Popsicle sticks" to simulate that the GV was in "ground mode" so he could access the Maintenance Data Acquisition Unit in the cockpit to troubleshoot a false overspeed warning problem.
Former Royal Air Force aviator O.W. "Wally" Epton, with nearly 17,000 hr. of stick time specializes in conducting functional check flights and training other pilots how to do the same in a responsible and knowledgeable way.
BCA contributor James Albright, who authors the "http://code7700.com" website, advises using qualified pilots and mechanics on functional check flights.
Aviation lore veritably brims with tales of the fearless test pilot flying into harm's way to probe the limits of an experimental airplane's performance, the quintessential scenario being the flutter dive. You know the scene: Pull up, Buck, pull up!
Two young men, both aspiring for aviation careers, were killed on March 24, 2014, at about 1738 when the Piper Seminole PA-44-180 they were piloting broke up in flight and crashed into a salt marsh near Brunswick, Georgia. The NTSB determined that the accident probably resulted from the pilots losing control of their aircraft while flying in stratiform instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) at 8,000 ft. MSL.
The pilot and two passengers were killed on the afternoon of May 3, 2016, when their Beech 35B Bonanza broke up and crashed in Syosset on Long Island, New York. The IFR flight originated in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and was en route to Robertson Field (4B8) in Plainville, Connecticut.
The NTSB calls your attention to Advisory Circular AC 91-75, a Safer Skies initiative recommendation authored by the FAA and the industry that highlighted vacuum system failures as a significant cause or contributor to fatal accidents in IMC.
The inspiration for "mercy missions" traces back to Nov. 19, 1946, when an off-course American C-53—the paratroop version of the DC-3/C-47—with four crewmen and eight military VIPs aboard crashed into the Swiss Alps. All survived, but they were stranded in deep snow on a high glacier with no means of self-extraction.
In June 1966, BCA documented the sites for the 16 antennas on the Grumman Gulfstream II, considered fiberglass aircraft structures and components and covered "pod-like vehicles, attachable to trucks or to the belly of a Skycrane-type helicopter."
There is a growing awareness and concern that those who have asked that ATC tracking data be blocked from dissemination on the Internet are now subject to exposure through growing networks that capture their Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) transmissions. Today, there are thousands of tracking capture sites receiving data from unwitting operators.
As of January 2016, the Swiss Air Force had 31 Boeing F/A-18 Hornets, 22 F-5E and 4 F-5F double-seater Tiger II fighters in its inventory. If you tour the country or look at overhead photographs of the mountain valley airfields where the aircraft are based, you won't spot any of their hangars.
Lithium ion main batteries are becoming more and more common but not without teething troubles. A number of high-profile safety incidents have given the technology a black eye. The danger of thermal runaway is a serious issue and if you have the technology installed in your aircraft you need to keep up to speed.
The invention of the nickel-cadmium (NiCad) battery, which had less gas output and more reliable power than its lead-acid predecessor, was a major catalyst toward allowing aircraft to fly higher and faster.
Weight-and-balance considerations of a helicopter are similar to those of an airplane, except they are far more critical, and the CG range is much more limited.
Refusing to load excessive baggage is an awkward matter, especially when the lead passenger insists other pilots accepted the same. But a professional pilot’s primary responsibility is to ensure safe passage, not accommodate overindulgence.
The hustle and bustle of busy business aviation ramps can easily result in an uploading of an inappropriate amount of fuel or fueling to the wrong tanks, or both. Accordingly, some business aircraft operators abide by SOPs that stipulate their pilots monitor the refueling process.
On May 20, 2002, a Cessna Citation 550 accelerated down 7,200-ft.-long Runway 17L at Will Rogers World Airport at Oklahoma City, destined for Greeley-Weld County Airport in Greeley, Colorado. According to the pilot, he didn't notice any anomalies with the airplane during the preflight examination or while taxiing for takeoff and that the flight controls were free and correct.
Michimasa Fujino, founding president and CEO of Honda Aircraft Co. Inc, is understandably proud of the new HondaJet. He has personally guided its progress from initial conception to a fully developed model and certified aircraft, fighting through at least five years of delays in the process.
Three HondaJet HA-420 graphs are designed to illustrate the aircraft's performance under a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions.
The now-classic Falcon 10's sky-high operating costs can be painful, but when you are blasting past lesser light jets at Mach 0.85 to 0.86 you might feel it is well worth the money.
