AVIATION PROPONENTS have long noted that people are much more likely to be involved in an accident when traveling in an automobile than while flying on an airplane. But if you're having a real bad day -- and the emergency responders who show up to extricate you from a smashed automobile think your injuries necessitate priority transport in an emergency medical services (EMS) helicopter -- your chances of being in a second accident are considerably higher than they should be.
The standard Honeywell Primus Apex avionics package features three, eight-by-10-inch Barco AMLCD displays, with an optional fourth screen installed as the copilot's PFD. The system uses hub-and-spoke architecture, with a 12-slot Primus Epic modular avionics unit installed below the center aisle floor panel near the entry door being the hub. The standard package includes dual digital multi-mode radio systems and a single digital air data computer/attitude heading reference system (ADAHRS), along with a three-axis autopilot.
A Beech A200 (N11) had a landing gear malfunction resulting in a gear-up landing at Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC). The airplane was operating under 14 CFR Part 91. The two airline transport pilots were uninjured, however the airplane sustained substantial damage to the lower fuselage. The local instructional flight departed SLC about 1415. It was VFR and no flight plan had been filed. The pilot-in-command reported that after takeoff from SLC, and obtaining a positive rate of climb, he selected the gear-up handle.
While "Are You Ready to Go Paperless?" was intended to educate readers about the convenience and importance of electronic record-keeping, and was not an evaluation of any one company or product, I do understand your irritation at its failure to mention Logbook Organizer. We planned to publish a box with the article, also composed by Mike Gamauf, that contained a list of available electronic maintenance management systems, and of course LBO was among them.
Pratt & Whitney's PurePower family of next-generation engines for airliners and business jets are expected to offer double-digit improvements in fuel burn, emissions, engine noise and operating costs. Cessna has selected the PurePower PW810C to power the Citation Columbus business jet, scheduled to enter service in 2014. The PurePower PW1000G (formerly known as the Geared Turbofan engine), was selected for the Mitsubishi and the Bombardier CSeries regional jets. Both aircraft are scheduled to enter service in 2013.
As of this summer, NetJets-Europe was carrying 1,100 pilots and 100 flight attendants drawn from 26 nationalities on its crew roster. Currently, the ratio of pilots to the 140-plus aircraft in the fleet is five to one.
?228-137?Flight Safety Foundation, Alexandria, Va., at a dinner co-hosted with Honeywell and held at the Churchill Cabinet War Rooms in London on July 12, awarded the Honeywell Bendix Trophy for Aviation Safety to the Mode S Radar Tools Project for the invention and implementation of two important new tools for maintaining aircraft separation in high-traffic terminal areas. The Aviation Week & Space Technology Distinguished Service Award was given to Capt. Dave Carbaugh of the Boeing Co.
Thrane & Thrane has an upgrade for its Aero-HSD+ cabin communications system that enables the use of Wi-Fi-enabled PDA devices and cell phones for inflight e-mail, Web browsing and SMS text messaging The company says the low-cost data solution introduces a universal interface, allowing use of all major 80211.b Wi-Fi-enabled cell phones and PDAs in any phase of flight or ground operation. The company says data costs are kept low because the system uses MPDS (Mobile Packet Data Service) instead of the ISDN channels, which are typically used for Web surfing.
Executive Jet Management, Cincinnati, announced the addition of Steve Taylor to its aircraft management sales team. He will be responsible for the Western United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.
By John Wiley Competition for U.S. flying jobs is only going to get tougher with airlines announcing furloughs or filing for bankruptcy. Louis Smith, a retired Northwest Airlines captain, founder of the Future Airline Pilots Association and now president of FLTops.com, an aviation career information organization, says more than 2,200 airline pilots have recently lost their jobs, and more will likely follow.
DRF (Deutsche Rettungsflugwacht e.V./German Air Rescue, Filderstadt, Germany, has named Jorg Baudach to the post of director of Aircraft Operations, replacing Winfried Beikler.
?228-137?Sept. 10: NBAA Business Aviation Regional Forum, Hanscom Field, Bedford, Mass. www.nbaa.org ?228-137?Sept. 10-11: Chevron Product Integrity Training, Pittsburgh. Contact: Chevron Customer Service at (866) 557-3456 or e-mail to [email protected] ?228-137?Sept. 15-18: Flight Simulator Engineering and Maintenance Conference, Hilton Salt Lake Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. (410) 266-2008. www.aviation-ia.com ?228-137?Sept. 23: Green Aviation, the Novotel Hotel, Madrid, Spain. www.aviationweek.com/conferences
Journalists at this year's Farnborough International Airshow reported that the red-hot business aviation market seemed to have cooled some, at least in North America. And as charter activity waned a bit, more red flags went up.
Following its acquisition of Czechoslovakia's Walter Engines, GE Aviation is launching the M601H-80, a new turboprop derivative engine with a new-technology hot section, and targeted for the utility, agriculture and retrofit aircraft segments. GE Aviation was taking orders for the engine in July at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture.
USUALLY, WE SAVE THE "lessons learned" comments for the end of this column, but this month's lessons are so important they need to come at the front. This case involved a well-experienced pilot dealing with an old light-twin. But with the median age of the light-twin fleet growing older and younger pilots moving into the aging fleet, a review of the basics seems in order. ?228-137?A light twin is simply a big single with its power divided and moved from the nose to each wing.
San Diego Air & Space Museum will be honoring the Class of 2008 on Oct. 25 at the Pavilion of Flight in the museum. The honorees are: Cdr. Scott Carpenter, U.S. Navy (Ret.) Cdr. M. Scott Carpenter is one the "original seven" Mercury astronauts and was the second American to orbit the earth in May 1962. Carpenter's goal during the three-orbit mission was to demonstrate that astronauts could work in space, a major prerequisite for America's Apollo moon missions later in the decade. Tuskegee Airmen
Santa Monica Airport (SMO) has become one of the first general aviation airports to jump into the carbon trading fray, formally establishing itself as an offset facilitator. In July, the Los Angeles-area airport added a feature on its Web site that allows aircraft operators to calculate their carbon footprint and purchase carbon offsets. The calculator will estimate carbon produced by specific flight distances and number of passengers. Santa Monica said the purchases will be channeled to nonprofit organizations involved in reforestation and alternative energy projects.
less record-keeping ("Are You Ready to Go Paperless?" July, page 106) I was dumbfounded. The first company to come out with a complete paperless record-keeping system was LBO. We were the first to come out with electronic logbooks with electronic signatures, we were green before anyone thought of the word "green." Not only do we do logbooks but all record-keeping for any aircraft in a paperless format. But we were not even mentioned in the article.
L-3 Avionics Systems has added Synthetic Vision to its SmartDeck Integrated Flight Controls and Display System. It will be available as an option on new SmartDeck systems or as an add-on for existing models after certification, which is expected later this year. L-3's Synthetic Vision uses GPS location and altitude data in conjunction with SmartDeck's terrain database to depict 3-D images of land, mountains, obstacles, water and runways on the PFD. This image moves in real-time with the aircraft.
The use of celebrity endorsements is an old, familiar convention in advertising, going back way before a B-film actor named Ronald Reagan hawked Chesterfields in postwar magazine ads or a post-Beatles Ringo Starr promoted Oldsmobiles on TV. From time to time such celeb-centered ads even show up in aviation publications, but in 1958 Business & Commercial Aviation published a series of them that were unique in style, length and authorship.
In the August edition of its market research report, analysts at the Global Equity Research unit of JPMorgan declared, "July 2008 was another leg down for the business jet market, with a substantial increase in inventory and a decline in average asking price."
Dallas Airmotive, Grapevine, Texas, hired Jay Randall as regional engine manager for the Northeast United States. He will provide sales and technical assistance on P&WC PT6A, JT15D and PW500 engines.
