The new FAA Holdover Time Tables for Winter 2009-2010 are out and available for downloading. The deicing rules apply to FAR Part 135 and 125 operators and are recommended for Part 91 operators. All operators are urged to read and heed the latest advisory on use of the FAA Snow Intensity Table, which has been a source of mild contention in the community. Operators criticized the feds’ decision to require use of the tables for all four types of fluids used in ground deicing operations.
Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals issued a stay order in late August against the eviction of Opa-Locka Flightline, the embattled FBO that lays claim to be the only business of its kind in the nation owned and managed by African-Americans. The FBO has been engaged in a lengthy struggle to block its eviction by AA Acquisitions, a Miami real estate company that holds a development lease on Opa-Locka Executive Airport. After the court issued its stay, AA filed a petition that effectively requested a review of the stay order.
Due to an editing error the length of the runway mentioned in “Saving Howard” (September, page 80) was misstated; according to the author, it should have been 5,000 feet.
To Brad Perrett, Aviation Week & Space Technology’s Asia-Pacific bureau chief based in Beijing, “It all comes down to opening up the airspace.” He pointed out that, “The whole country is a military zone with airways carved out within it. The airspace belongs to the military, but that is changing. It used to take days to get a clearance to operate. Now it takes only 12 hours to get one, if there is space on the airways.”
The doors reopened at the Eclipse Aviation headquarters and assembly site in Albuquerque Sept. 1, some six months after they were closed — many thought permanently. Eclipse Aerospace, Inc., a new entity founded by Eclipse 500 owners Mason Holland and Mike Press, purchased the bankrupt Eclipse Aviation’s assets at auction in August in a deal involving $20 million in cash and an equal amount in new notes to old Eclipse Aviation noteholders. The original company spent more than $1 billion to design, certify, and deliver the EA 500 very light jet before failing.
While I had some reservations about the unfamiliar routing to Teterboro, all the numbers looked good even with the extended leg down 17. That would be Route 17, since I was driving. It turned out that the auto GPS’s plan was a good one; I skirted most of the traffic heading into New York, and was in the Signature lot with plenty of time to spare.
Piaggio Aero, West Pam Beach, Fla., announced that Tom Mahoney is the new sales director for the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada; Ernie Santiago has been appointed sales director for the U.S. West Coast and Western Canada. They join sales directors Shane Ellis and Michael Hissam, who will pursue more focused and defined sales management roles within Piaggio.
Three primary documents will need to be arranged before heading to the PRC: a permit for the trip, visas for passengers and crew, and if headed to any of the aforementioned remote locations, permits to access restricted airports or military bases.
The TSA’s new general aviation manager, Brian Delauter, met with the NBAA’s Security Council in August to discuss important security issues affecting general aviation. In addition to briefing the council on the TSA Playbook and Security Directive 8F/G, Delauter also provided the group with a high-level overview of the agency’s review of the Large Aircraft Security Program. He indicated that the TSA is working hard to address comments received to the docket and from the pre- and post-comment period meetings held with the public and industry representatives.
There is little question that airframe icing in its various forms has led to countless accidents over the hundred or so years pilots have dealt with it, yet we probably know less about predicting and dealing with icing than with any other weather phenomenon. Therefore it demands serious operational attention.
Flight Safety Foundation has released a Runway Excursion Risk Reduction (RERR) tool kit, which provides in-depth analysis of runway excursion accident data, a compilation of risk factors and recommendations for addressing the issue. A joint effort between FSF and the International Air Transport Association, the tool kit is designed for operators, pilots, airports, air traffic management, air traffic controllers and regulators. The kit is part of a multifaceted Runway Safety Initiative that FSF has undertaken at the request of several international organizations.
Peter Smales, a former executive director of group sales and managing director (Europe) for ExecuJet, has returned to the United Kingdom to head a new business sales and services company, Indigo Lyon, which is headquartered in Windsor, Berkshire, England. The privately owned, limited liability company will specialize in international sales of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and also be involved in spare parts brokerage, consultancy, program planning and execution management.
ExecuJet Aviation Group, Zurich, Switzerland, appointed Mark Abbott as ExecuJet Group FBO director based at the Cape Town facility. Graham Stephenson, the company’s head of FBOs, has retired after an aviation career spanning almost 50 years — 21 years in commercial aviation and 23 years in business aviation.
Jet Aviation, Zurich, Switzerland, named Frank Kusserow as the new director and head of FBO services for EMEA and Asia. He will continue in his role as director of the Jet Aviation FBO in Dusseldorf, Germany.
There has been some confusion among international operators lately concerning slot restrictions at Beijing Capital International Airport (ZBAA). Matt Pahl, assistant manager of operations for Air Routing International at Houston, cleared it up. “Earlier this year, [the CAAC] told the business aviation community that they could not support continuous operations through the day. Consequently, they have no general aviation slots available between 1100 and 1700 local, and you can obtain only one slot between 0800 and 1100, and 1700 and 2200.
The Phenom 300’s flight deck continues Embraer’s philosophy of reducing workload by automating systems and slashing the size of checklists. Much the same as does the Phenom 100, the Phenom 300 reflects Embraer’s experience in designing airliners for a broad range of pilot experience levels. Less is more in this cockpit. Dedicated controls are installed for frequently operated systems, such as engines and airframe systems. Occasionally operated systems, such as weather radar and TCAS, have software-driven interfaces accessible through the MFD.
College Park (Md.) Airport, the country’s oldest continually running airport, turns 100 on Oct. 8. The airport was created in 1909 when the Wright brothers, who had been contracted to provide training for U.S. Army officers to fly their military flyer, selected as their training field a site near College Park, home of the Maryland Agricultural College, now the University of Maryland, in College Park.
But there are notable differences between the Chinese and Western systems and some weak points operators need to know before heading to the PRC. “First,” Kuehnl pointed out, “they operate in metric. In terms of altimetry, usually everything is QNH at the big places, but they will default to QFE at the more remote locations. It should be standardized, as it would make life easier, since you would know what to expect. In terms of flight planning, they like you to follow airways; there are very few direct routings.
Comtran International, Inc., the Texas-based aviation company known best for its Boeing MD-80 hush kits and head-of-state aircraft completions, has received European Aviation Safety Agency certification of its Revolution Series 328, a 12-passenger VIP conversion of the Dornier 328JET. This approval will enable Comtran to sell the aircraft to operators in Europe and other regions where EASA certification is required.
Aerospace Filtration Systems, Inc. and Metro Aviation have partnered on the development of a Eurocopter EC135 Inlet Barrier Filter system. The IBF system features multiple long-life filter assemblies that are internally mounted to the existing EC135 cowlings, resulting in no drag penalties and no potential for environmental harm associated with mounted designs. The STCed product is scheduled for certification in time for Heli-Expo 2010.
Pilots, by nature, tend to skew toward the paranoid parameter of the bell curve when tested by psychologists, and that’s actually a good trait. It means they double-check things like the weather and fuel load with their own eyes. Pilots keep an ace up their sleeve, a Plan B, because experience has taught them that instruments fail, engines quit, wings stall and weather goes down the tubes. An overly doe-eyed trusting disposition could easily slide toward the edge of liability — if not oblivion — when the daily job demands overcoming gravity.
The FAA has published its NPRM amending Part 23 jet certification standards. In a nutshell, since Part 23 was written around light piston-powered aircraft, every jet certified under current Part 23 standards has required time-consuming exemptions, special certification conditions and “equivalent level of safety” findings. The FAA has put up with the situation for decades, due to the low rate of new jet certifications. But the recent high volume of jet certifications associated with with the advent of VLJs, entry level jets, light jets, etc.
