June 19 — At 0227 MST, a Beech A36 (N155FT) collided with terrain approximately eight miles north-northeast of Seligman, Ariz. The commercial pilot, who was also the registered owner of the airplane, was killed and the airplane was substantially damaged. It was VFR at the time and no flight plan was filed. An Alert Notice (ALNOT) was issued on June 19. The wreckage was located at 1030 MST on June 23. According to a family member of the pilot, he had departed from Los Alamos, N.M., about 1930, and flew to Santa Fe, where he bought fuel.
First, I agree 100 percent with your well written article (Cause & Circumstance, July, page 62). A good example of overload is departing KSMO with the standard instructions. Which are, runway heading until the 310-degree radial of LAX VOR with an immediate right turn to 265 degrees for radar vectors. Of course, you also are in the middle of a very close noise abatement procedure — power back, monitor a safe airspeed, hit the 310 and turn to 265. Maybe you may get to monitor for VFR traffic, but not much. This should not be forced upon us.
The man on the television screen, his voice dripping with sarcasm, was belaboring a pun. I stopped to listen, happy for the excuse, however feeble, to cease my exercising — yes, I’m finally trying to make amends for years of sloth, cheeseburgers and bar tabs. But the commitment to a healthy lifestyle is admittedly halfhearted since I’d had a large pepperoni just the night before. (And the sinning was not at all satisfying since the thing arrived barely cooked, its center a soupy mix of cheese, sauce and wet dough. Once again, Pizza Planet rushed things needlessly.)
U.K.-based aviation services company PremiAir has taken over the management of a fleet of Learjet business jets and has acquired a new private jet operating and maintenance base at London’s Biggin Hill Airport from Gold Group International. PremiAir sister company von Essen Aviation will take ownership of the Learjet 45 fleet, while PremiAir takes over the former Gold operation.
BCA’s second Ops & Safety website, this one covering NextGen, is up and running at AviationWeek.com. It also covers NextGen’s European cousin, SESAR. Like the thunderstorm site, there’s an “Ask the Expert” area. Our NextGen expert is Fred George, well known for his award-winning pilot reports and technical features, including in-depth avionics systems reports for BCA. Now he’s linked to the site to answer your NextGen and SESAR questions. There is a direct link to the online NextGen site at the upper left of the Bizav channel page on www.AviationWeek.com.
Archie Trammell provided great answers to my questions (through the “Ask the Experts” feature in the BCA Ops & Safety Special online). His legendary reputation for being able to teach radar stands up well. It would be good to have Archie along on one of those flights when things are going bump in the night or during the day. This is a great feature for BCA to have. I hope it works and the pilots pick up on its being so good.
Gulfstream Aerospace has installed a Kollsman General Aviation Vision System (GAViS) on a Gulfstream GIV. The infrared camera system is available for GV, GIV and GIII aircraft. Mounted within the upper nose radome, GAViS improves situational awareness at night and in low-visibility conditions, supplying enhanced imagery of airports, air traffic, terrain, taxiways, wildlife and runway conditions.The images can be displayed on a CD-820 flight management system control and display unit or another approved aircraft device, such as an electronic flight bag.
Dassault Falcon won FAA and EASA and certification for its 4,750 nm Falcon 900LX, a derivative of the Falcon 900EX. The new Falcon 900LX offers the same generous cabin interior and three Honeywell TFE731-60 engines rated at 5,000 pounds of thrust each (ISA+17°C) as the 900EX, but with an expanded list of city pairs due to advanced light-weight structures and an efficient wing with API blended winglets that combine to yield performance enhancements including reduced fuel burn, which the company claims to be 35 to 40 percent less than others in its large-cabin class.
A Gulfstream G450 set a city-pair speed record between Tokyo and Hong Kong. The G450 took off from Tokyo’s Narita International Airport at 10:50 a.m. local time on June 7. It flew 1,694 nm at an average cruise speed of Mach 0.85, landing 3 hours and 58 minutes later at 1:48 p.m. local time at Hong Kong International Airport. According to the crew, Sean Sheldon, senior international captain, and Jaime Bahamon, international captain, the first 300 miles of the flight were flown at reduced speed because of turbulence caused by headwinds of more than 100 knots.
Bombardier will conduct a Safety Standdown modeled on the widely acclaimed event held annually in Wichita since 1996, and in Geneva since 2007, on Aug. 11, the eve of LABACE 2010 in São Paulo, Brazil, at the Hilton Morumbi Hotel. The first Latin American Safety Standdown will feature a lineup of international presenters: Capt. Gene Cernan, U.S. Navy (ret.), commander, Apollo 17; Dr. Tony Kern, president and CEO, Convergent Performance, LLC, on professional airmanship; Dr.
Jeppesen Flight Tracking now allows viewing of aircraft position reports with JetPlan.com and JetPlanner applications. As aircraft position data are gathered from several “global sources,” the new capability provides worldwide IFR flight tracking for business as well as airline and military aviation.
The FAA opened a NextGen Integration and Evaluation Capability (NIEC) display facility at its William J. Hughes Technical Center at Atlantic City International Airport, June 7. The NIEC is a research platform where scientists will use simulation to explore, integrate and evaluate NextGen concepts, including area navigation (RNAV), trajectory-based operations, flying unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the national airspace system, and more.
I am disappointed with Patrick Veillette’s “Double Standard” (June 2010, page 53), a misleading article about public safety operations, which is more remarkable by what it does not say than what it does. It is noteworthy that most of the data the author cites are 10 to more than 20 years old, and create a false picture of the current state of public safety aviation. From January 1999 through December 2008, law enforcement helicopter accidents went down by 80 percent.
Hawker Beechcraft appointed Metrojet Hong Kong as an authorized service center in late May to support Hawker 900/800/700 business jets in China and the Pacific Rim. Founded in 1995, Metrojet provides engine and airframe service, avionics line maintenance, routine inspections, interior and exterior cleaning and detailing, and scheduled base inspections. Metrojet operates a 24/7 AOG hotline and has a staff of more than 90 maintenance professionals. Metrojet is a certified repair station with approvals from the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department and the FAA.
ExxonMobil Aviation has expanded its Avitat network as Chevron Texaco contracts its branded avfuel business. Five new Jet Aviation Avitats are located in Dubai, UAE; Dusseldorf, Germany; Geneva; London Biggin Hill; and Zurich. Jet Aviation currently operates four FBOs under the ExxonMobil Aviation Avitat brand in North America at Bedford, Mass.; Dallas; Palm Beach, Fla.; and Teterboro, N.J. The addition of the Jet Aviation FBOs increases the Avitat network to nearly 50 locations worldwide.
After graduating from the University of Tennessee, Cannon volunteered (as appropriate for a “Vol”) for the U.S. Navy, and spent several cruises flying E2-C Hawkeyes off carriers supporting operations over Vietnam. His post-military career is all business aviation, including flying for several operators and managing flight operations for Home Depot, among others. An MBA from the University of Connecticut, he also was CEO of Jet Professionals for several years.
The Iridium 9555 satellite handset has a new firmware release that allows users to plug in to a computer running Windows XP, Vista and 7 or Mac OS 10.4 or later. The handset connects to the computer through a standard Mini-USB cable. The phone also has “enhanced” short-message-service (SMS, or “texting”) performance, providing up to 1,000 characters in length instead of 160. As with all Iridium satellite service coverage is 100 percent of the globe.
False Replies Unsynchronized with Interrogator Transmission (FRUIT), a by-product of 1090 MHz frequency congestion, now is a small problem, but in the next decade ADS-B will increase potential FRUIT by several orders of magnitude because of its heavy reliance on 1090ES Mode S data links. One of the prime causes is the growing number of aircraft equipped with TCAS, a system that shares the same frequency as transponders and SSRs. Some TSO-C74c Mode A/C transponders also contribute to the problem because of detuned sensitivity.
Hawker Beechcraft Services’ (HBS) Indianapolis service center has recently completed a state-of-the-art paint facility that can accommodate aircraft ranging from Beechcraft Bonanzas to Hawker 4000s. The facility offers paint services including factory or custom paint designs. HBS also has paint facilities in San Antonio, Little Rock, Wichita and Chester, England.
“Double Standard” was right on the money. The oversight and management is even worse at a fiscal level. A friend who works for the U.S. Forest Service tells me that the aviation manager and flight standards pilot have a King Air at their disposal, which they disguise under training and standardization. I encouraged disclosure to the OIG about what is going on, but of course there’s fear of retaliation from the av manager. It is quite obvious after reading your article that there isn’t much of that going on. Our tax dollars hard at work.
Managers from the former Spirit Aviation have joined with Michael Binder of Altitude Aviation to launch Dreamline Aviation, which won its FAR Part 135 charter certification June 10. The company, headquartered in Hermosa Beach, Calif., will operate aircraft from bases in Van Nuys, Santa Ana and the Bay Area. Mark Schmaltz, the company’s president and CEO, is the founder and former president of Spirit Aviation.
This December, if the planets align properly and the members of the ASTM International concur, it will become legal to operate a business jet on a blend of conventional Jet-A and low-emissions biofuels refined from weeds, soybeans, tallow or algae.
I want to compliment you on a super Viewpoint (“Studebaker Time,” June 2010, page 11). Having already collected a few years of Social Security and having traveled at Mach 2.5, I can only imagine that your comments may have ruffled a few of the feathers in the “spin doctor” community. If BP can spend $50 million on PR, maybe the Gulfstream engineers should be trying to design a stealth business aircraft so no one could tell who made the big boom. Keep those cogent editorials coming.
Cirrus wants to raise $64 million to accelerate development of its SF50 Vision single-jet. Cirrus CEO Brent Wouters provided an update on the program’s status in June, saying the company is on a strong enough foundation to pursue the financing. If financing is secured, Cirrus would build a conforming prototype in 2011. The company in the interim has moved forward with testing and formally applying for type certification. Cirrus has been conducting flight into known icing tests.
