Swedish charter operator QuickNet Air says it has begun to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from its fixed-wing aircraft through the JetOffsets program. Based in Santa Barbara, Calif., JetOffsets (www.jetoffsets.com) helps calculate carbon footprint and provides verified offsets and market awareness campaign services. QuickNet Air flies both airplanes and helicopters throughout Europe.
If a flight department acquires a helicopter, it will try to find as many ways as it can to make the aircraft pay for itself. If the company is sited so that an access helipad is practical and the helipad is acceptable to the surrounding community, an instrument approach to the pad means the pad — and the helicopter — will be more useful. Fortunately, the FAA has provided guidance on how to apply for approval of such an approach. For the average operator, though, the resources and experience base required to secure approval may prove daunting.
The current state of decline of the business aviation community specifically and the economy in general does not merit a complex degree of analysis. It is mostly the result of a national political party determined to squash all that is good about capitalism, prosperity, free market concepts, opportunity, et al.
Africa AVEX Air Training (Pty.) Ltd. Private Bag X10404 Edleen 1625 South Africa Tel: (27) 11-974-4855 Fax: (27) 11-974-6736 www.avexair.com Flight Training Services Main Terminal Building New Rd. Midrand 1685 South Africa Tel: (27) 11-805-9015/6 Fax: (27) 11-805-9018 www.fts.co.za Europe Aeros Flight Training Building SE4, Gloucestershire
Helicopter Emergency Medical Services continue under scrutiny on Capitol Hill. The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee scheduled an April 22 hearing on the subject. The Association of Air-Medical Services had previously held multiple meetings on Capitol Hill to urge passage of air-medical safety legislation. The association also is trying to encourage the formation of a congressional air-medical caucus.
On the night of July 17, 1996, a TWA 747, Flight 800, departed New York’s JFK International Airport heading for Paris and Rome with 230 passengers and crew aboard. Shortly after takeoff and during initial climb out, the jumbo jet exploded, killing all aboard and initiating one of the most extensive aircraft investigations in history. The initial fear was that a terrorist bomb or missile had destroyed the aircraft and an enormous recovery effort was launched along with parallel investigations by the FBI and the NTSB, and supported by the FAA, U.S.
A young student naval aviator, in the summer of 1971 I received orders to NAS Beeville, Texas, for advanced training in the Grumman TF-9J Cougar, an underpowered Korean War era swept-wing fighter.
At the end of February, Embraer had four Phenom 300s in flight testing at the company’s Flight Test Center at the Gavião Peixoto plant, in Brazil. The aircraft have flown to 45,000 feet, while maintaining a 6,600-foot cabin and demonstrated a maximum cruising speed of 450 KTAS (Mach 0.78). Ongoing tests include aerodynamics and natural ice, as well as data collection for the full-flight simulator development. Lightning strike, High Intensity Radiated Field (HIRF), external noise, crosswinds and cold soak tests are scheduled.
Pakistan’s Air Force took delivery of the first of four government personnel transport Phenom 100s at Embraer’s headquarters in São José dos Campos, Brazil, on March 24. Embraer says not only is this is the first Embraer aircraft delivered to a Pakistani customer, it is also the first Phenom 100 to be operated by any government.
I had to look up the word “admonishment” (Viewpoint, February) in several locations before I found it used as a synonym for “admonition,” which has been for a long, long time the preferred term. I will admit that I was not misled in recognizing the meaning of how the word was used; but I was brought up short. I guess I am too old and too much a stickler for my version of what I consider correct grammar and usage because I find myself stuck about 20 years back. Of course our language continues to evolve nonstop.
In “RNP Approach and Departure Procedures” (February, page 58) you indicated that the FAA will be publishing this IAP in July. But the procedure you show for Aspen-Pitkin County/Sardy Field is a special issued to NetJets for its high-performance Gulfstream fleet only. The procedure has six FAA waivers to public RNP SAAAR approach and missed approach criteria. The equivalent level of safety justified by the FAA is the high performance of the Gulfstream aircraft that NetJets will use, and extensive, specialized ground school and simulator training.
An NTSB determination that a pilot’s “failure to maintain airspeed” caused an airplane to crash is too pithy a pronouncement to explain and prevent future stall accidents. Rather, a failure to cross-check and monitor is a key element in the error chain. Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB’s vice chairman and former airline captain and corporate flight department manager, has stated, “A flight crew member must carefully monitor the aircraft’s flight path and systems, as well as actively cross-check the other pilot’s actions, or safety can be compromised.”
Eurocopter acquired 80 percent of the shares of Euroheli, the Eurocopter distributor in Japan, from co-owner Itochu Corp. Euroheli has been renamed Eurocopter Japan (ECJ). Eurocopter’s share of the Japanese distribution business will increase from 10 percent to 90 percent with Itochu retaining 10 percent of the company’s shares and continuing as a Eurocopter partner. As of April 1, Euroheli’s staff and activities were merged with ECJ which will continue to be headed by CEO Stephane Ginoux.
These graphs are designed to illustrate the performance of the King Air 350ER under a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions. Do not use these data for flight planning purposes because they are gross approximations of actual aircraft performance.
Time was when flying training schools in Florida, California, Arizona and other sunny climes in the southern United States were magnets for pilots seeking a professional career on the flight deck. And the World Aerospace Database (WAD) still lists far more training providers in North America than in any other region of the world. But excellent training can also be found far from these shores, as the accompanying list reveals.
Bruce Holmes (Williamsburg, VA), Holmes Consulting LLC (Williamsburg, VA)
I want say how well “Per-Seat, On-Demand Persists” (January, page 48) did in capturing the big picture for the “per-seat” story in the emerging world of on-demand. I am putting together a seminar broadly covering innovation in air transportation systems for an audience at the College of William and Mary and have directed the class to your article for background.
Five of the 59 fatal Loss of Control (LOC) business jet accidents between 1991 and 2007 involved single-pilot operations. Two of those accidents have “undetermined causes,” one was attributed to pilot incapacitation, another involved a low-altitude stall on final approach and the last involved diverted attention, which subsequently led to an LOC.
As spring began, buyers of previously owned airplanes showed some signs of awakening from their winter slumber. Ever since the bottom dropped out of the used market in September 2008, everyone had wondered when the sales drought and freefall in aircraft valuations would end. At the end of March many brokers and dealers reported that aircraft sales remained slow and valuations remained substantially depressed from a year earlier. Skip Flint, Dassault Falcon Jet’s director of pre-owned aircraft sales, said, “I have never seen the pre-owned market plunge so quickly.
John Dow has bought back FirstFlight, the charter and management business that he founded in 1987. He said he hopes the Elmira/Corning, N.Y.-based company will return to its roots and emerge as a leaner operation that will “focus on the accounts we feel that we can add value to the most.” FirstFlight had ambitious growth plans under its previous management, but Dow said the rapid disintegration of the economy derailed those and the company will take a close look at all of its operations and take a more conservative approach going forward.
The business aircraft industry is in for tough times in 2009, probably rougher going than in any downturn in the last several decades. Historically, sales of business aircraft have risen and fallen on the fortunes of Wall Street and the world economy. Considering the state of the economy, the industry’s present slump is not unexpected.
The Italian Ministry of Justice has agreed to collaborate with the Italian flight safety board, Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza del Volo (ANSV) in investigating accidents. ANSV said it was pleased that the ministry agreed not to tamper with or alter evidence involving an aircraft accident before ANSV investigators can participate. The ministry also pledged to coordinate wreckage recovery with ANSV personnel. The agreement came as a result of an ANSV safety recommendation, and worldwide industry outrage in the wake of the Feb.
House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) March 13 reiterated opposition to an apparent Obama administration plan to replace “some aviation taxes with direct user charges” beginning in 2011. “These concepts are stale leftovers from the Bush administration that are not supported in Congress,” said Costello. “We should not be wasting time rehashing bad ideas. Let me be clear, user fees on general aviation are a nonstarter.”
— At 0950 CDT, a Cessna E162 Skycatcher experimental airplane (N162CE) was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain near El Dorado, Kan., following a loss of control during a test flight. The pilot was not injured. The flight originated at Cessna Aircraft Field Airport (CEA) in Wichita where the weather was VFR. The pilot departed CEA about 0900 to conduct spin tests. During a planned test condition the airplane entered a rapid and disorienting spin.
