At press time, Nextant Aerospace was expecting to receive an STC of its Beechjet 400A/XP Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 retrofit any day, and installations of the cockpit upgrade were slated to begin immediately after the Richmond Heights, Ohio, company receives its STC. Base price for the Beechjet 400A/XP Pro Line 21 upgrade, which consists of three displays, is $390,000. Additional options are available for four displays, an Integrated Flight Information System and XM Satellite NEXRAD radar.
In October, lawmakers reached a compromise on the Homeland Security appropriations bill for fiscal 2010, agreeing on total funding midway between House and Senate recommendations. The final bill also allows for the termination of the Loran-C system on Jan. 4, 2010, if the U.S. Coast Guard certifies that the signal is not needed for navigation and if the Department of Homeland Security certifies that it is not needed to back up GPS. The DHS will receive $42.8 billion, up 6.6 percent from the previous year’s enacted total but below the administration request of $43 billion.
American Eurocopter was selected to provide three new helicopters to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. The EC135s will be delivered later this fall and customized specifically for the MedCenter Air program at Carolinas Medical Center.
Difficulties with flight control systems were the leading discrepancy noted in the sample of accidents, incidents and ASRS reports researched for this article.
Formation of a new General Aviation Caucus in the U.S. Senate was welcomed last week by a general aviation industry battered by negative perceptions on Capitol Hill, within the Obama administration and among the general public. Sens. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) issued a “Dear Colleague” letter urging senators to join the new caucus, which they said will work with industry stakeholders and government agencies to ensure that a “safe and vibrant environment” remains for GA.
Sentient Jet, the Weymouth, Mass.-based private membership and charter provider, has opened new corporate offices in New York City. Sentient’s operations and command center will remain in Weymouth. The Weymouth and New York City offices will be supported by Sentient’s network of regional bases in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Pittsburgh and Providence, along with three in California (San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County). Sentient said the addition comes as its membership and charter programs continue to grow.
As you wrote in your July Viewpoint (“A Matter of Perception,” page 9), public perception of business jets may be different from the reality, and that is especially so in Europe where we see a lot of aircraft whose owners hide under exotic registrations or companies.
Honeywell’s Primus Epic avionics system has become one of the firm’s most successful technology development programs, having found a home aboard more than a dozen different aircraft models ranging from helicopters to regional airliners. The latest and most advanced versions were revealed at the 2009 NBAA Convention in October aboard Dassault Falcon Jet and Gulfstream aircraft. The two Primus Epic configurations offer several features requested by operators, such as synthetic vision, WAAS LPV and RNP approach capabilities and FANS 1/A certification.
The worldwide inventory of used business jets for sale decreased from 18 percent to 17.2 percent of the fleet in September, according to a market update report released by AMSTAT, a provider of corporate aviation fleet and operator information.
StandardAero has completed its first aftermarket installation of Aviation Partners Inc.’s high-Mach blended winglets on a Falcon 2000 business jet at its Springfield, Ill., facility. The new winglets increase range by up to 260 nm, reduce emissions and are expected to enhance resale value, according to company officials, who note the winglets are production standard on the new Falcon 2000LX.
Cutter Aviation has expanded its on-demand charter operations to the Dallas/Fort Worth market through its new base at Collin County Regional Airport in McKinney, Texas. The company offers on-demand charter on a Hawker Beechcraft 400XP from the McKinney location. Cutter also offers charter from locations in Phoenix and Albuquerque.
Mr. Obama, the people of Wichita are still awaiting your response. After three auto executives failed to defend their use of company aircraft before Congress on a disastrous day in November 2008, the business jet became the favorite whipping boy on Capitol Hill where suddenly self-righteous solons inveighed against the sinful thing. And then things got worse.
Mighty Mite, P&WA’s PT-6 turbine engine, will deliver 500 eshp and weighs 225 pounds. By contrast, the larger P&WA R1340 Wasp (shown) delivers 600 hp and weighs more than three times as much. Bell Iroquois utility helicopter features twin-turbine safety. Now in Army version, the aircraft has high civil potential and is undergoing first flight test.
More than 30 industry groups and unions — including most general aviation groups — recently joined in signing a letter to senators stressing “the importance of passing a comprehensive, multiyear [FAA] reauthorization.” While associations have individually lobbied for passage of the reauthorization bill, the September letter marks the most significant joint appeal. The House has passed its version of the reauthorization bill, but the Senate has yet to follow.
Brian Delauter, named in September as the TSA’s permanent general manager for general aviation, said his top-three priorities are to improve communications with stakeholders, come to a resolution on the Large Aircraft Security Proposal and to remove waiver requirements for international arrivals. Strengthening outreach, communication and stakeholder involvement with the general aviation community are also among Delauter”s goals to improve relations with the GA community, said TSA spokesman Jon Allen.
Hawker Beechcraft Services (HBS) has begun taking “pre-orders” for installation of the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 Integrated Display System (IDS) in the Beechcraft 1900D. The upgrade is expected to be available in third quarter 2010. Christi Tannahill, vice president of Hawker Beechcraft Global Customer Service and Support, said, “Driven by operator input, the system was designed with an emphasis on improving reliability and lowering operating costs.”
On Sept. 18, the FAA granted TSO authorization for Aspen Avionics’ EFD500 MFD, its EFD1000 MFD and the EWR50 Evolution Weather Receiver. With certification and production authority in hand, Aspen immediately began shipping the products to its dealers.
On a cold, rainy IMC night in November 1993, a 13-year-old Bell 206L was en route from the rural coastal community of Ellsworth, Maine, with a 70-year-old burn victim, two medical specialists and a pilot aboard. The helicopter ran out of fuel and crashed into Casco Bay, a few miles from Portland General Hospital, its destination. The pilot survived, but the three others aboard died. Search efforts located two of the passengers four days later in the submerged, inverted helicopter.
A move by China to loosen airspace restrictions on business jets could help fuel a demand recovery in that market, a Wall Street analyst says. Morgan Stanley’s Heidi Wood says the government’s decision last month to reduce the requirement to file civil flight plans to hours — instead of days or weeks — could be the spark that finally opens China’s lucrative but long-elusive bizjet market. The change was “made so quietly its true consequences have yet to be realized,” she wrote in a research note issued Oct.
Senior FAA officials emphatically say they are committed to take account of the recent RTCA report on ATC modernization efforts and will use its findings to reshape NextGen priorities and make better use of existing technologies. The findings of an RTCA industry/government task force give the FAA “an excellent head start on the acceleration” of the modernization program, said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt at the annual Air Traffic Control Association conference.
The FAA’s Customer Service Initiative is dead. Long live the Consistency and Standardization Initiative. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt announced a new focus on improving the agency’s response to public safety complaints and internal whistle-blowers, as well as remedying its notoriously inconsistent interpretation of agency regulations and policies. The FAA’s new Consistency and Standardization Initiative (CSI) began life as the Customer Service Initiative in 2004.
By definition, low-level wind shear is a localized meteorological event occurring below 2,000 feet of altitude when an aircraft encounters rapidly changing wind speed or direction over a particular distance or time. When the encounter occurs at very low altitude — say, at takeoff or landing — there’s a very real possibility of the pilot losing control.
The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy conduct “functional check flights” to determine whether an aircraft, engine, accessories or equipment works according to established standards. Some of the situations requiring a check flight include: After completion of aircraft rework; After the installation or reinstallation of an engine, propeller, propeller governor, major fuel system component, helicopter drive train, transmission or gearbox; When a fixed flight surface has been installed or reinstalled;
