Report #64 It was a relaxing afternoon in late June until the phone rang, and I heard: “Get over to the airport now. Mr. Hughes wants to see you. There’s a problem.” I jumped into my 20-year-old DeSoto sedan and headed for the Culver City strip. By then I’d been there many times, a fact that still came as a surprise. When I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1942, I simultaneously received my ROTC commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. My orders were to report to Fort Belvoir, and who knew what after that. There was a war on.
The “five-engine” Boeing 707 has a spare engine in Boeing’s optional Pod-Pak under the left wing. Qantas, whose airplane is shown, is one of nine airlines that will use Pod-Paks to do away with large stocks of spare engines at any but major airports.
Ocean Sky Jet Centre has opened a new FBO at London’s Luton Airport, open 24-hours for arrivals and departures. The company says it is in advanced negotiations to have its own on-site customs and immigration officer — a first for Luton. In recent years Luton has been underutilized by transatlantic flyers due to limited capacity and, to a certain extent, congested road links to central London.
Because Gulfstream services 70 percent of the active aircraft it has delivered, the company believes it can detect trends in operations earlier and more accurately than other forecasters. “We can see upticks in flight hours ahead of others,” Robert N. Baugniet, Gulfstream senior manager for corporate communications, said in August.
The FAA is reassessing its plans for a proposed rulemaking addressing the operation of very light jets in FAR Part 135 operations that was based in part on the recommendations of the Part 125/135 Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). The proposal would have covered crew, equipment, training and dispatch requirements for the use of VLJs in on-demand or air taxi service.
Gore Design Completions, Ltd., San Antonio, announced that Ron Soret was named the company’s chief operating officer. Soret was vice president of operations.
ASTM International’s full governance committee unanimously approved modifying the specifications for commercial aviation jet fuel to include up to a 50/50 blend of synthetic Fischer-Tropsch jet fuel. The FAA relies on ASTM’s specifications to certify fuel for aviation applications. The Air Transport Association of America applauded the ASTM International Committee on Petroleum Products and Lubricants for passing the new specification that will enable the use of synthetic fuels in aviation.
Don Bernier (Flight Department Manager/Chief PilotWinner Aviation Corp.Vienna, OH)
Thanks so much for the July issue loaded with pro-flight department articles. Your magazine is always priority one in my mailbox and I always pass it on; many more readers could benefit from the resources of Business & Commercial Aviation.
Naverus, Inc. has introduced a custom RNP Availability Forecast Service (NRAFS) solution for aircraft operators who wish to take advantage of Required Navigation Performance (RNP). The new service provides worldwide RNP availability forecasting specifically tailored to the equipment on board the operator’s aircraft. NRAFS integrates and correlates the dynamic configuration of the GPS satellite constellation at any given time with terrain features, known satellite outages, specifications of equipment on the aircraft and RNP requirements.
Avitat Abu Dhabi, operated by Royal Jet and located at Abu Dhabi International Airport, is positioned just minutes from the Yas Island Circuit, which is holding the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. According to the, visitors will be able to choose limousine or helicopter transfer to Yas Island. For those flying into Dubai (DXB), Royal Jet/Avitat Abu Dhabi is an alternative for guests to easily transfer by helicopter. Avitat Abu Dhabi www.royaljetgroup.com
Officials at O&N Aircraft Modifications in Factoryville, Pa., reported recently that they still expect to win FAA certification of their turbine conversion of the Cessna 340 by the end of this year. The Silver Eagle 340, which will be powered by two Rolls-Royce 250-B17F/2 engines, first flew in June 2008. Conformity testing of the $1.35 million aircraft, which is slated to also feature a Garmin 600 cockpit, is continuing.
On Sept. 1, 2006, a 30,000-hour airline transport pilot flew his Mitsubishi MU-2B-35 into a thunderstorm while descending for a visual approach to Panama City Bay County International Airport (PFN) in Florida. The pilot lost control and the airplane structure failed as it spiraled out of the clouds into a swamp and the pilot was killed.
King Aerospace, Addison, Texas, has reorganized its commercial aircraft operations and appointed Jim Thompson as general manager and Buddy Tobin as senior project manager.
New Piper Aircraft CEO Kevin Gould mapped out a long-term, two-pronged growth strategy for the company during an interview with BCA Senior Editor Fred George at Oshkosh. He plans to develop the PiperJet to provide piston-engine and single-engine turboprop owners with a move-up airplane while continuing to upgrade Piper’s existing product line. He also wants to expand Piper’s global presence.
Jet Aviation recently expanded is service offering to include base and line maintenance for Hawker 750/800/800XP/900XP, Gulfstream G350/G450 and Embraer 135/145 aircraft under the company’s EASA Part 145.0317 approval. In addition, the company’s newly established Boeing BBJ team is now fully operational. The center can also provide base maintenance to all drop-ins and AOGs. The Dubai facility was opened in May 2005. Jet Aviation Brazil will also provide line maintenance services to Gulfstream operators at its Sorocaba facility.
The NTSB continues its campaign against pilot fatigue with an extensively detailed and footnoted Recommendation Letter to the FAA calling for, among other things: modifying the Application for Airman Medical Certificate to elicit specific information about any previous diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea and about the presence of specific risk factors for that disorder (A-09-61); and implementing a program to identify pilots at high risk for obstructive sleep apnea and require that those pilots provide evidence through the medical certification process of having been appr
The NTSB has listed “Reduce Accidents and Incidents Caused by Human Fatigue” on its “Most Wanted” list for nearly 20 years now and wants the FAA to “set working hour limits for flight crews, aviation mechanics and air traffic controllers based on fatigue research, circadian rhythms, and sleep and rest requirements and to develop a fatigue awareness and countermeasures program for air traffic controllers.” Recent accidents have once again brought attention to the matter of human fatigue as a factor, along with a call for action.
Patrick Veillette completely missed my “tongue-in-cheek” comment about the Citation’s safety (Letters, August, page 11). My point was that you quoted one set of statistics that completely contradicted the assumption made in the next paragraph. In your reply to my letter, you say that the statement “five of 59 fatal LOC accidents involved single-pilot operations” is a flawed inference. It was in fact your statement.
The U.S. Air Force has signed a letter contract to lease three Bombardier BD-700 Global Express business jets from Northrop Grumman for use as platforms for the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN). This includes one demonstrator aircraft already deployed operationally since December 2008. Northrop was awarded an 18-month, $276 million contract in June to install the communications payload on two additional jets as a short-term solution while it equips two RQ-4B Block 20 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft to be fielded in fiscal 2011.Graham Warwick
StandardAero received STC Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) at its Springfield, Ill., location from the FAA’s Chicago Aircraft Certification Office — the first such designation by that office. ODA designation enables StandardAero to approve design data, tests and analysis as well as make findings of regulatory compliance allowing it to sign an STC for aircraft alterations on behalf of the FAA.
For the first time ever, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is conducting a ‘’Quadrennial Homeland Security Review’’ (QHSR) to provide recommendations that will guide the agency’s goals, objectives, programs and policies for the next four years. The DHS has conducted interactive, online sessions designed to take input from people across the aviation spectrum, to inform the work of those producing the study. The first National Dialogue Session was held Aug. 3 to 9; the remaining two are set for Aug. 31 to Sept. 6, and Sept. 28 to Oct. 4.
A misplaced decimal was the cause of a number of errors on page 65 of the 2009 Operations Planning Guide On the 300-nm mission costs for the Piaggio Avanti II the 0+53 Flight Time was mistakenly converted to 8.833 hours, not the correct 0.8833 hours. This error caused a tenfold error in the Direct Cost and the Per-Mile Cost. The Direct Cost should have been $630.49 and the Per-Mile Cost should have been $2.10
Blackhawk Modifications revealed its engine retrofit for the Grand Caravan at this year’s Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture. The upgrade includes an 850-shp, 3,600-hour TBO Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-42A engine and new 100-inch four-blade Hartzell propeller. Blackhawk says the $550,000 XP42A upgrade kit will increase climb rate by 73 percent and enable the aircraft to cruise at 198 KTAS with a cargo pod installed. The kit also includes twin Frakes exhaust stacks, a new carbon composite cowling and Shading DigiLog engine gauges.
Sierra Industries (Uvalde, Texas) — Cecil Sloan, a 30-year industry veteran, has joined the sales and marketing staff of this company, which specializes in Citation performance-enhancing modifications. Sloan is a maintenance technician with marketing and customer service expertise developed while at Duncan Aviation, West Star Aviation and Garrett Aviation Services.
Carl Dietrich CEO and CTO, Terrafugia, Inc., Woburn, Mass. A private pilot at 17, Dietrich pursued his aviation passion in a rigorous intellectual way by winning entry to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. There he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and then went on to gain a Ph.D. He was awarded the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for Innovation, and worked at the university, spending a total of a dozen years there before cofounding Terrafugia with four other MIT grads who are also pilots.
