Pitch-black darkness, gusting winds and a deep mountain canyon with vertical granite walls climbing up to 12,000 ft. do not make for a helicopter friendly environment. To make matters worse, the winter's worst blizzard was inbound just miles away. Earlier on that January afternoon a backcountry skier had been trapped and injured by an avalanche in very steep terrain. Rescuers had spent hours getting to the downed skier and then maneuvering in steep, snow-covered terrain to get him to a Forest Service parking lot 3 mi. distant and 4,000 ft. down.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue continues to voice his opposition to the FAA's effort to limit the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program, which enables operators to ask the FAA to withhold their registration information from flight tracking agreements. “It poses a security threat to users of business aviation,” Donohue told the Chamber of Commerce's 10th annual Aviation Summit.
When Don Campion launched an aircraft service shop with partner John Price back in 1979, he named it after a tree that was common in Nigeria, where he grew up. Banyan Air Service started out servicing small charter operators like the one Campion had been flying for, but in the 30-plus years it has been growing and spreading its wings at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida, it has become a landmark full-service FBO.
The General Aviation Avgas Coalition is urging the Environmental Protection Agency to hold off on a draft plan that could lead to further restrictions on 100-octane low lead aviation gasoline because it doesn't account for recent changes to the standards. The EPA released the Draft Integrated Review Plan for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Lead in April, outlining plans for the review of the air quality criteria and national ambient air quality standards for lead.
The NBAA's 2011 Business Aircraft Transactions Conference is scheduled to take place Thursday, June 9 and Friday, June 10 at the Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan. The two-day event — which will be co-chaired by Eileen M. Gleimer, a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP, and David Labrozzi, president of GE Capital Corporate Aircraft Finance — is to feature a variety of expert presenters on financing, insurance and other topics related to aircraft ownership, as well as an opportunity to network with these industry principals.
Embraer announced May 5 that Ernest Edwards has been promoted to head the company's executive jet business, replacing Luis Carlos Affonso, who now assumes responsibility for new business companywide. Affonso led the development of Embraer Executive Jets from a single product offering, the ERJ 145-derived Legacy 600, through the development of two clean-sheet-of-paper business jets, the Phenom 100 and 300 announced in 2005, with two more on the way, the longer-range Legacy 650 and the large-cabin Lineage 1000 executive jet derived from the Embraer 190 airliner.
The NBAA Maintenance Manage–ment Conference (MMC) is business aviation's dedicated learning event for those responsible for managing the maintenance function of flight departments. This three-day conference provides valuable information for individuals interested in enhancing their knowledge of aircraft maintenance and management, along with ideas and suggestions for those interested in professional development or meeting career goals.
Looking for ways to help new A&P's? Volunteer to talk about the NBAA TRACS Scholarship at your local schools and airports. You can also mentor applicants by helping them complete their scholarship application forms. Applications for the 2012 Maintenance TRACS awards will be available by October 2011. For more information on this program visit the NBAA TRACS website at: www.nbaa.org/public/education/scholarships/mxtracs/
The FAA is soliciting comments on an air tour management plan (ATMP) under development for Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida. The Florida ATMP is one of a number of plans the agency has initiated to develop regulations governing air tours over national parkland. The FAA was directed to develop ATMPs under the National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000.
Field Aviation has completed the first major modernization of a Bombardier Dash 8 flight deck at its facility at Toronto's L. B. Pearson International Airport. Transport Canada issued a supplemental type certificate for the Universal Avionics EFI-890R cockpit upgrade in April, and the improved aircraft has been delivered back to its owner, the Icelandic Coast Guard. The process of obtaining the equivalent FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency certification for the modification is under way.
India wants to introduce 100 seaplanes into service in the next 10 years to support tourism and essential services to its coastal and island territories. The federal government will allow 100% foreign direct investment in the seaplane sector and urges overseas operators to take advantage of the offer.
The Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA) board of directors has selected Dale Forton as president of the association, which represents aviation maintenance personnel. Forton has 32 years of aviation maintenance experience and has been involved in PAMA for more than 26 years. He has served as an airframe and powerplant technician and director of maintenance. He also has been an active PAMA board member, launching a chapter, serving as Great Lakes regional director and vice chairman of the board.
Solairus Aviation has added an Austin, Texas-based Bombardier Challenger 604 to its charter fleet, and an Oakland, Calif.-based Challenger is undergoing the company's conformity procedures before being cleared for charter operations. The company has already added a Gulfstream GV, a Gulfstream GIV and a Hawker 800SP to its charter fleet so far this year.
Maintenance standard orders proposed by the FAA would gradually replace maintenance guidance material now provided by CAMs and CARs. MSOs are intended to prescribe maintenance minimums and generally would not go into detail, but would provide for alternate methods acceptable to the FAA. The Bureau of Flight Standards invites industry to comment and has proposed a typical new MSO A-1 relating to tire retread.
Embraer posted first-quarter 2011 earnings higher than the same quarter last year, reporting a net income of $105.1 million, up from $24.1 million in the first quarter of 2010. The rise largely is attributable to tax credits from the appreciation of Brazil's real. The appreciation of the real is a “real challenge,” the company says, and Embraer's response has been to increase productivity at its manufacturing facilities. Embraer delivered two large business jets and six light jets in the first quarter, which the company said was in line with expectations.
According to China's “People's Daily Online,” China will further open its airspace in the next few years, aiming to completely open all of its low-altitude airspace by 2015, said Li Jiaxiang, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Nine U.S. aviation industry groups are urging congressional lawmakers to continue to support the FAA contract tower program as the legislators work on the fiscal 2012 budget. In a letter to House and Senate appropriators, the nine groups ask that the program be fully funded in the DOT's fiscal 2012 budget. Full funding, as requested by the Obama administration, would be $121.8 million for the FAA contract tower program and $10 million for the contract tower cost-sharing program. The program has been in operation since 1982.
Max-Viz, Inc. shipped its 1,000th Enhanced Vision System to the AgustaWestland factory in Italy. It was expected to be installed on an AW139 helicopter.
I strapped on my first airplane, a 90-hp Aeronca Champ 7EC, in the summer of 1960 and since then my interest in aviation has never wavered. Two years later I was aboard a United Airlines Boeing 720 on the way from my home in New Jersey to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the start of an aviation career.
Executive Helicopters won a power line inspection contract in Ireland and has added an AS355N equipped with a five-axis gyro-stabilized Sony HD camera with an onboard camera control unit and a Canon HJ 17X zoom lens with a 2X extender to its fleet.
Remember all the “slow-tation” jokes that taunted Cessna decades ago? Company Chairman Russ Meyer II put an end to those when he announced the Citation X program at the 1990 NBAA convention. The CE750 would be able to cruise as fast as Mach 0.90, making it possible to fly six passengers from New York to Los Angeles in just over four and one-half hours.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt has appointed three veteran managers to key positions as part of the agency's ongoing review of how the United States oversees its air traffic control system. “I am confident our top-to-bottom review is making our air traffic system even safer,” said Babbitt. That review includes an independent panel to evaluate the agency's air traffic control training curriculum, qualifications and placement process.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has developed a new computer-generated forecast model that is designed to provide pilots with information on the likelihood of encountering dangerous inflight icing conditions. Developed with funding from an FAA grant, the Forecast Icing Product with Severity, or FIP-Severity, provides 12-hr. icing forecasts that are updated hourly for pilots, air traffic controllers and other users of aviation weather information.
