L-3 Avionics Systems, Grand Rapids, Mich., announced that Jan LaFoy has been appointed president of the company, which is part of L-3 Communications’ Aviation Products business area. He reports to Kris Ganase, president of L-3 Aviation Products.
AOPA and EAA chiefs have formed a pact to explore areas where they can collaborate to promote and protect general aviation. The AOPA’s new President and CEO Craig Fuller met with Experimental Aircraft Association Chairman Tom Poberezny June 3 at the EAA’s Aviation Center in Oshkosh, Wis., to discuss collaborative efforts. The two organizations have been friendly rivals, each with strong-willed leadership, for decades.
Germany’s Air Alliance, one of the leading Cessna Service Centers in Europe, has been named an authorized Blackhawk Modifications distributor and installation center and has agreed to purchase three new Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-42A engines to re-engine Cessna Grand Caravans.
The New York state legislature is mulling a measure that would make the current five-year general aviation tax exemption permanent, even as the state struggles to fill a $17.9 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2010. Since the sales tax exemption for the maintenance, repair, overhaul or rebuilding of aircraft was enacted, New York has attracted significant investment in aviation services, said a spokeswoman for Assemblyman Robin Schimminger (D) who sponsored the 2004 legislation.
Among the many worthy skills that have eluded me is that of selling unbidden things to strangers. Whenever I’ve tried, I invariably sympathize with the intended buyer’s objections, which nearly always seem quite sensible and insurmountable save to simply giving him the thing free of charge. It’s always been thus, which made my choice of a summer job one college year all the more ludicrous. I signed up to sell encyclopedias door-to-door.
Bombardier Aerospace’s Annual forecast included a 20-year Commercial Aircraft Market outlook, 2009 to 2028, that predicts 12,400 deliveries in the 20- to 149-seat market, worth approximately $589 billion.
July 16: Demonstrating & Quantifying the Value of Business Aviation, McGraw-Hill Corporate Headquarters, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. (800) 240-7645. www.aviationweek.com/conferences July 27-Aug. 2: Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) 57th AirVenture Oshkosh 2009, Wittman Regional Airport, Oshkosh, Wis. (920) 426-4800. www.airventure.org Aug. 7-9: Abbotsford International Airshow, Abbotsford International Airport, BC, Canada. (604) 852-8511. www.abbotsfordairshow.com
DeCrane Aerospace, Wichita, appointed Brian DeCamp as general manager for the Precision Pattern Interiors division and Patty Raisor as the new general manager of the Carl F. Booth Veneers division in New Albany, Ind.
NextGen implementation is not moving fast enough and must be accelerated said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt in his first major speech since his June 5 confirmation. Speaking at the RTCA Symposium in Chantilly, Va., June 10, Babbitt emphasized the secret to launching NextGen is advice. “The only way we’re going to get rotation on this is by making sure the parties are at the table, making sure that their voices are heard. That’s the way I intend to keep it,” he said. “Decisions made in a vacuum will bring the system to its knees.
The first-ever Wichita Aero Club Ball raised $31,000 for the United Way of the Plains to benefit laid-off aerospace workers in the region. More than 10,000 industry workers have lost their jobs in Wichita. The event attracted 200 attendees, said club executive director Dave Franson. “The original plan was to hold a black tie ball and present the club’s trophy to a worthy individual,” he said. “But with the current economic conditions and job losses, we felt it wasn’t a good year to do that,” he said.
Associated Air Center has won FAA approval for modifications designed to meet a new SFAR-88 mandatory Airworthiness Directive on its ninth Boeing Business Jet equipped with the DeCrane-PATS auxiliary fuel system.
The NTSB rarely undertakes a full “blue book” investigation into a light-twin accident, but the loss of NASCAR’s Cessna 310R on July 10, 2007, is an exception. The Safety Board was attracted by the facts that the piston twin was part of a large turbine fleet; that questions existed about the use of the airplane under NASCAR’s standard operating procedures; and that a critical maintenance issue may have slipped through the management cracks.
The House passed an amendment to limit the TSA’s use of security directives (SD) to bypass the regulatory approval process. The House agreed to the measure 219-211 as part of its consideration of the comprehensive TSA reauthorization legislation, H.R.2200. The TSA reauthorization bill subsequently cleared the House. Offered by Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), general aviation groups endorsed the amendment as a “common-sense approach” to the use of security directives. GA lobbied for the amendment after the TSA’s airport badging SD generated an outpouring of opposition.
Air traffic controllers and weather forecasters are criticizing as “reckless” a plan to eliminate FAA-funded National Weather Service forecasting facilities located at FAA Centers, and replace them with two centralized facilities, one Maryland and one in Kansas. The National Weather Service forwarded its consolidation plan to the FAA on June 4, after that agency asked to reduce the cost of providing aviation weather forecasts to controllers.
Bombardier outlined how it will respond as a corporation to its own business jet forecast. “As the world begins to emerge from this economic crisis, demand should gradually return and future prospects remain solid,” for both commercial airliners and business jets, said Mairead Lavery, vice-president, Strategy and Business Development, Bombardier Aerospace. The company said, the fundamentals of the business jet industry are solid and are expected to remain so.
With the latest proposal to limit the operational freedom of aircraft weighing over 12,500 pounds, I am surprised by how limited and guarded the responses have been from the aviation community. It seems that with every passing quarter, the TSA has issued some new restriction on our civil liberties. I don’t think I am alone in believing that the TSA is continuing to expand its sphere of influence, control and restrictions at a rate faster than it can effectively manage, or measure, its own effectiveness.
Textron announced, and Cessna confirmed, April 30, that the airframe manufacturer was suspending its Columbus super-midsize jet program and focusing on its light- and medium-jet product line, albeit with further production cuts. Spokesman Doug Oliver would neither promise the Columbus would be restarted nor confirm its demise, saying, “Tomorrow is another day.” Cessna also announced a further 2,300 layoffs as order cancellations continue to mount.
Stevens Aviation has received Parts Manufacturing Approval (PMA) for its avionics upgrade to the Learjet 60. Stevens owns an STC that covers installation of the Universal Avionics EFI-890R multifunction display with the application server unit and the optional Vision-1 Synthetic Vision System in the Learjet 60. Stevens Aviation is negotiating with several partners for distribution and installation of the Learjet 60 kit worldwide.
AAR Corp., Wood Dale, Ill., announced that Danny Martinez, former vice president of line maintenance for American Airlines, has joined the company as vice president and general manager of AAR Aircraft Services — Indianapolis. Averitt Air, Nashville, announced that Kevin Whitmore has joined the company as service manager and will provide in-house technical support for all Bombardier Learjet aircraft. AWAS, Dublin, Ireland, appointed Alan Stewart to the position of chief financial officer.
The U.S. Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposal uses the current financing system, waiting until 2011 before making any changes to the mechanism. Approximately 75 percent ($11.7 billion) of the FAA’s funding will continue to come from fuel and ticket taxes during 2010, with the remaining 25 percent ($4.3 billion) coming from the general tax fund. But beginning in 2011, the administration anticipates replacing $9.6 billion in tax revenues to fund the FAA with the same amount from user fees.
Cessna announced the 200th Citation Mustang delivery when Maritime Air Charters picked up its new aircraft at Cessna’s Independence, Kan., facility. Although based in Honolulu, Maritime Air Charters will operate the new Mustang in charter service from its facility in Newnan, Ga., outside Atlanta. Maritime intends to offer its services including aircraft management, flight crew service and charter management to other Mustang owners.
The upside of the current depressed market for business jets is that aircraft values have dropped so precipitously that many older, once-proud, long-range aircraft can be acquired and upgraded at a fraction of the cost of brand-new airframes. Capital Aviation, located at Wiley Post Airport in Bethany, Okla., is helping operators take advantage of such opportunities through its “Reflections” program, under which older large-cabin business aircraft are getting tip-to-tail makeovers.
ARINC Direct is offering a new Web-based package of flight support services for VLJs, plus other general aviation aircraft weighing less than 12,500 pounds at takeoff. The subscription price of only $1,500 per year, includes flight planning, complete weather information, aircraft tracking, runway analysis and weight and balance calculations. It also includes participation in ARINC’s discount fuel service. Dispatchers and crews can access the service from anywhere using any Internet device or smartphone.
The NTSB determined the probable cause of a midair collision between two EMS helicopters last year was both pilots’ failure to see and avoid the other helicopter on approach to the helipad. Contributing to the accident were the failure of one of the pilots to follow arrival and noise abatement guidelines and the failure of the other pilot to follow communications guidelines. On June 29, 2008, about 3:47 p.m. MST, two Bell 407 EMS helicopters, operated by Air Methods Corp.
