I have been an avid reader of BCA for more than three decades. In fact, I still treasure copies from most of those years. Every issue keeps me updated on technology and flight technique and has been a source of guidance, knowledge and inspiration during my flying career.
Regular readers of this column know that tolerances all too often line up unidirectionally and result in human casualties and destroyed aircraft. Apparently this is what happened on Sept. 27, 2008, when a Maryland Sate Police (MSP) medevac helicopter crashed into trees and terrain at Walker Mill Regional Park, Camp Springs, Md., while on approach to Andrews Air Force Base (ADW). Four people were killed — the pilot, a flight medic, a civilian EMT and one of the two patients being transported. The second patient suffered serious injuries.
The NTSB’s probe of the Sept. 19, 2008, Learjet 60 runway excursion at Columbia, S.C. has yielded safety recommendations aimed at improving aircraft tire safety and maintenance. At its final hearing in April, the safety board determined that inadequate tire maintenance (under-inflation) and the captain’s decision to abort takeoff after the aircraft reached V1 speed as the probable cause of the accident involving the Global Exec Aviation-operated aircraft.
Over 60 percent of those participating in a March UBS survey expect business conditions to improve in the next 12 months. The financial firm polled a group of U.S. and international aircraft broker/dealers, manufacturers, fractional providers, financiers and others. It received 150 responses. Four percent expect conditions to deteriorate, while 35 percent expect business conditions to stay the same over the next 12 months.
“Total Eclipse,” a new refurbishment and completion program for the EA500 unveiled earlier this spring by Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aerospace Inc. (EAI), looks to put more models of the very light jet on the market. Under the program, customers can fly away in a 100-percent complete EA500, including avionics and approval for flight in known icing (FIKI), for $2.15 million.
Space prohibits recognition of all the business aviation operators that donated their aircraft and cockpit crews to the Haitian earthquake relief effort; industry companies supporting it with donations of money, food and supplies; and volunteers who gave generously of their time and sweat. Thumbnail sketches of many others can be found on the NBAA Web site at www.nbaa.org/news/2010/haiti/business-aviation-in-action/missions.
General Aviation associations gathered in Germany during April’s AERO Friedrichshafen called for programs to raise the profile of general aviation across the European Union, to forestall potentially onerous emission and environmental regulation. “It is much more effective to speak with one common voice on the issues that are affecting our industry, including airspace and airport access, aircraft manufacturing costs, the environment and security,” said Craig Fuller, president of the AOPA and the International AOPA. He referred to the U.S.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt says the agency will continue to consult closely with outside stakeholders as it works to adopt recommendations to accelerate the NextGen ATM modernization effort. Babbitt praised the work done by an RTCA taskforce last year to draft NextGen recommendations. RTCA is “the vehicle for consensus” on the NextGen plan, he said. Even with the work of the taskforce completed, the FAA will still conduct “strong outreach to the aviation stakeholders” regarding NextGen.
A new group of upgrades for the Sikorsky S-92, which has already received more than 60 enhancements since entering service in 2004, has been announced. The new enhancements include: A search-and-rescue automatic flight control system that enables the twin-engine aircraft to fly a pre-programmed coupled approach and reduces pilot workload in the search and rescue environment.
Airliner of the ’80s? Using present rocket techniques, 30-passenger hypersonic transport separates from supersonic booster at 120,000 feet, accelerates to 15,000 mph and then, with the power off, glides to an airport 6,000 miles away in one hour. That’s what commercial air travel may look like in 20 years, according to Leston Faneui, Bell Aircraft board chairman — if the government backs development.
The first H80 turboprop engine is in certification testing since March in a test cell at the GE Aviation Czech facility in Prague. The first H80 test engine met or exceeded all power ratings targets in multiple runs, said Paul Theofan, president and managing executive of GE Aviation Czech s.r.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of GE Aviation. “Certification testing will continue this spring with endurance testing [scheduled to start in April] and EASA type certification anticipated this summer,” he said. Five development engines will take part in certification testing.
Strap into the left seat of a Global Express XRS equipped with Bombardier’s new Global Vision cockpit and you’ll see four, 15.1-inch flat-panel displays, the largest screens installed in any new business jet. You’ll also see sharper imagery from a new generation of video systems, including a synthetic vision system that uses the highest resolution terrain database that is commercially available and an IR EVS camera with four times the sensor resolution found on current generation Bombardier aircraft.
A new BCA Ops & Safety Special Web site went live April 1, and the first series focuses on thunderstorms. The site is packed with BCA features, accident investigations, product specs, videos, photos and more. With thunderstorm season here (in the Northern Hemisphere) it’s worth a visit: www.aviationweek.com/bcathunderstorms.
The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) and the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilots Associations (IAOPA) called for an improvement to data collection in non-commercial aviation internationally. The recommendation came during ICAO’s High-Level Safety Conference in Montreal.
FAA SAFO 10004 warns aircraft operators of possibly contaminated halon gas in fire extinguishers and provides testing information. With pure halon supplies dwindling, civil aviation will increasingly rely on recycled gas. But contaminated halon has been discovered in some aircraft fire extinguishers, which may harm personnel and be less effective against fires than pure halon.
This is the Caravan’s 25th anniversary, and Cessna will deliver the 2,000th CE208, a Grand Caravan, later this year through Africair, Inc., in Miami, Fla. The Caravan is certified in 100 countries and has amassed more than 12.5 million fleet hours
General Electric Aviation has begun line maintenance training courses at its headquarters in Evendale, Ohio, for M601E and H80 turboprop engines produced by GE Aviation Czech. Since acquiring Walter Engines two years ago, GE Aviation has used the heritage M601 as a basis for the H80, an 800-shp candidate for business and general aviation.
Californian Drohan can’t remember a time when he didn’t love airplanes — much to the horror of his parents and three older siblings who did not. After his father died when he was 12, a family friend introduced him to a small outfit selling biplane rides at Schellville Airport in Sonoma. Hooked instantly, he got an after-school job there and took pay in flying lessons. Then, diploma in hand, he earned his comm/multi/instrument tickets and in 1992 began Sunset Aviation, Inc., giving air tours over San Francisco Bay.
Over the years, business aviation has seen many advances and technological leaps forward. For those of us who have been around for a while, we have seen some remarkable changes. We fly some of the most advanced aircraft in the world, and many of them are more complex than front line fighters. For maintenance technicians and maintenance managers, the laptop computer is as important as the wrench for keeping aircraft flying safely. Just about anything you need — from schematics to Airworthiness Directives — can be retrieved with a few mouse clicks.
Blue Sky Network announced that Brazilian-based TAM Executive Aviation (TAM EA) selected Blue Sky’s D410A automated flight following and communication equipment to provide two-way text communication and location reporting to for its fleet of airplanes. The D410A is a compact, low-cost device that weighs less than a pound, can be moved between aircraft and mounted near the glareshield to exchange GPS and sensor data and text messages using the Iridium satellite network. TAM EA offers aircraft charter, maintenance and management services.
Level A is the most rigorous. Simply put, this software cannot fail without creating a catastrophic condition. Level A is the most rigorous. Simply put it cannot fail without creating a catastrophic condition. An autoland function, similar to a digital flight control system or a FADEC, requires Level A software. Level B software will be used in the NGFMS. Level B cannot fail without resulting in a hazardous or severe condition. Level C software could cause a major failure condition if it malfunctions.
The FAA says it will consider special issuance medical certificates to pilots who are taking medication for mild to moderate depression, conditions that now bar them from all flying duties. On a case-by-case basis, pilots who take one of four antidepressant medications — fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), citalopram (Celexa) or escitalopram (Lexapro) — will be allowed to fly if they have been satisfactorily treated on the medication for at least 12 months.
In 2009, the U.S. business jet and turboprop fleet combined experienced 44 accidents including eight fatal accidents which resulted in 32 passenger and crew fatalities during routine business operational flights, according to Robert E. Breiling Associates, Inc. of Boca Raton, FL. Overall, this is 31 percent fewer accidents involving both jets and turboprops combined (44 accidents in 2009 vs. 64 in 2008) which occurred in 2009 vs. 2008. The number of fatal accidents is down with eight fatal accidents occurring in 2009 vs. 23 in 2008.
The sixth-generation head-up display from Rockwell Collins’ Portland, Ore.-based HGS division (nee Flight Dynamics) is an active-matrix LCD-based system using LED illumination. As a result, it offers far higher resolution than earlier CRT projection systems, the brightest imagery and the widest field of view of any commercial available HUD, according to Rockwell Collins. HGS-6000 systems are considerably more compact than CRT-based systems, affording 50 percent more headroom below the projector assembly.
The FAA issued an emergency order suspending Darby Aviation’s air carrier certificate for a second time. The Muscle Shoals, Ala. company’s operating certificate was temporarily suspended in 2005 after a Challenger 600 departing from Teterboro Airport failed to lift off, ran off the end of the runway, crossed a highway and rammed into a building. In the investigation that followed, the FAA determined that the aircraft’s operator, Platinum Jet Management of Fort Lauderdale, did not hold an FAR Part 135 certificate and wrongly “piggybacked” on Darby’s ticket.
