*Northern Jet Management, Grand Rapids, Mich., announced that Kevin Tessmer is the new safety manager for the Flight Operations department; Scott Baragar and Rick Hansen are now team leaders for the department; and David Catterick is now a captain on the Citation Bravo. Steve Cok is the new assistant chief pilot/Bravo. James Douglas joined the company as a first officer, and Carmen Mohn is a new member of the accounting department.
THE FAA HAS EMBRACED the Safety Management System (SMS), which is essentially a quality management approach to controlling risk. Corporate lawyers tend to obsess about potential liabilities associated with aircraft, so they should love SMS.
Eurocontrol provides air traffic management for 36 European nations and issues invoices to users. Asked to provide readers with an update on European operational procedures, ATM modernization issues and the much-anticipated implementation of Single European Sky, Bo Redeborn, director of ATM strategies at Eurocontrol headquarters in Brussels, responded. What follows is a condensation of his report:
Grob Aerospace, which has been engaged in a major expansion program as it prepared to bring its new G180 SPn business jet to market, unexpectedly filed for insolvency Aug. 18. "This unfortunate situation has arisen fairly rapidly off the back of recent delays in the SPn program, resulting in commensurately increased cash requirement to see the aircraft through to certification," explained Niall Olver, Grob's CEO.
Simon Wade, training and safety manager at Universal Weather & Aviation's London Stansted facility, is set to go running again. Wade completed the 2006 Jungle Marathon in Brazil (see "Off Duty," Business & Commercial Aviation, March 2007) and says he'll be running for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in March 2009. Interested sponsors can visit his fund-raising Web page at www.justgiving.com/run-4-diabetes and help cure juvenile diabetes.
In 1977, some helicopter pilots operating in the New York metro area founded the Northeast Helicopter Operator Council, the first local organization in the eastern United States to represent rotorcraft, in order to further the cause of helicopter IFR operations. The organization incorporated in 1979 under the present name of Eastern Region Helicopter Council, Inc. and today has about 90 member operators.
Strong business jet sales helped offset a second-quarter dip in Bombardier's regional aircraft division and pushed the Canadian manufacturer's net financial performance from the red to the black. This improvement turned a $71 million 2007 second-quarter net loss into a $246 million net profit. Regional aircraft net orders stood at just 11 units -- almost all turboprops -- for the three months to July 31, compared with 84 aircraft in the same period last year. But business jet orders in the same quarter stood at 163 units, a growth of 59 aircraft year-on-year.
The NBAA (then the National Business Aircraft Association) began its second decade in 1958 and celebrated by hosting what was clearly the most memorable and, arguably, significant convention in the annual gathering's history. Things that helped set this convention apart included a joint meeting with the National Association of State Aviation Officials - held on the last day of the NBAA's gathering and the first of NASAO's - and flybys by the business aircraft that had alighted at Philadelphia International for the events.
Takeoff and landing under IFR. (a) Instrument approaches to civil airports. Unless otherwise authorized by the FAA, when it is necessary to use an instrument approach to a civil airport, each person operating an aircraft must use a standard instrument approach procedure prescribed in Part 97 of this chapter for that airport. This paragraph does not apply to United States military aircraft.
At 1028 MST, a Piper Cherokee PA-28-180 (N5316L) sustained substantial damage subsequent to a collision with terrain shortly after takeoff approximately one mile north of Springerville Municipal Airport in Springerville, Ariz. It was VFR at the time of the accident and no flight plan was filed for the flight to Quemado Airport, Quemado, N.M. Witnesses reported the airplane became airborne about midfield during takeoff from Runway 03.
The FAA released a report Sept. 12 that concluded the Eclipse EA500 had been properly certificated, but that the procedures need to be improved for future VLJs. The process left several FAA personnel feeling that the certification had been artificially rushed and that their own findings had been ignored or overridden by senior FAA management. The Special Certification Review (SCR) team, comprised of current and retired FAA personnel not involved in the Eclipse certification, was spurred by complaints of those employees to congressional staffers.
Meggitt Fluid Controls (MFC) and Meggitt Aircraft Braking Systems (MABS) have won multi-million-dollar contracts for Embraer's new Legacy 450 and 500 executive jet programs. MFC will develop and produce the pneumatic bleed air system, which will manage the bleed air from the engines' high- and low-pressure outputs for temperature and pressure control and maintain anti-ice systems and the aircraft's cargo, cabin and cockpit environments. The controller will manage the system's mechanical fluid control devices, ensuring system safety and integrity.
*Satcom Direct Communications, Inc., Satellite Beach. Fla., has chosen Tony Queenan as its new vice president of sales. He will be responsible for government and military sales into the aviation and land-mobile markets.
*Pentastar Aviation, Waterford, Mich., named Gregory J. Schmidt as senior vice president and chief financial officer responsible for Pentastar's financial affairs as well as the legal, risk management, information systems and purchasing functions.
Solazyme has introduced a microbial-derived jet fuel that has been favorably tested in small batches in diesel-powered automobiles. According to the South San Francisco startup company, the algal-derived fuel was analyzed by the Southwest Research Institute and met all 11 specifications for ASTM D1655 standards for aero turbine fuel. These standards include measurements for density, thermal oxidative stability, flashpoint, freezing point, distillation and viscosity. Currently the aviation industry only has kerosene available as a D1655-standard fuel.
Virgin Atlantic teamed with footwear and accessories company Worn Again to recycle the airline's seat covers to create fashion accessories. Travel Daily News reported that the collaboration has led to a Worn Again Virgin line of high fashion wash, messenger and handbags.
When Henry F. S. Morgan built his first motorcar in 1909, he designed it with three wheels instead of the conventional four. The single rear wheel delivers the power to the road, while the front two steer the car exactly as a four-wheel automobile's do. In the decades following (until 1952, when production ceased) he improved the little two-seater and kept the price cheap.
Canada's CHC Helicopter went private Sept.16, sold to First Reserve Corp., a large private equity investor in the energy industry. First Reserve agreed in February to pay C$3.7 billion to buy Vancouver-based CHC -- a nearly 50-percent premium to the company's stock price. Upon closing the sale, CHC shares were delisted and will no longer be traded publicly. CHC is expected to have C$1.3 billion in revenue this year, up from C$1 billion in 2006.
Hearty congratulations on the 50th anniversary of Business & Commercial Aviation! Best wishes for continuing success for the magazine under the great editorship of Bill Garvey.
In response to high demand, jetAVIVA is expanding its Jet Familiarization Training program to include pre-type rating training in the Cessna Citation Mustang. The JFT program is built to allow pilots to achieve four primary goals: become a safe jet pilot; gain experience in a very light jet; excel during type rating training and (if applicable) help determine which VLF is right for each customer. The training is offernd in three packages: basic, intermediate and advanced, providing 10.5, 25 and 45 hours of flight time, respectively.
ONE OF THE THINGS I like best about flying, I guess, is that when I'm up here I'm Beaver Two Eight Sierra or helicopter Three Five Lima. Just another pilot and another airplane. Not a movie actor. Up here I don't think about much except flying. What my duties and responsibilities are; everything else just sort of falls away. That's very restful for me.
*Vulcon Electric Co., Porter, Maine, announced the addition of Michael (Mike) Hanlon to its Thermal Division sales staff as sales development manager of sensor products.
A May 2008 agreement with the United States made Aruba the first country to secure customs and immigration pre-clearance. Aircraft will land at Queen Beatrix Airport in Oranjestad and enter a wing of the general aviation terminal operated by a subsidiary of Universal Weather and Aviation. Once cleared, the aircraft may then proceed to any destination within the United States. Just two and a half hours from the U.S. border, Aruba is ideally situated to save operators time in transit.
