MY SON AND I WERE transfixed by the television's images. The scene was chaotic, a city awash in floodwaters. New Orleans was drowning, and its residents had scrambled to their roofs in desperate retreat from the rising brown menace Katrina had sent to their front doors.
The foundation of everything that a consultancy like ARG/US does is a comprehensive database assembled from diverse sources of aviation information. Among these sources are DOT, FAA, NTSB and Aviation Safety Reporting System statistical databases and information provided by cooperating operators as well as safety audits conducted by ARG/US.
The U.S. Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), the multi-agency group overseeing the evolution of the next-generation air traffic management (ATM) system, is creating a new industry/government committee to consider how a single weather forecasting model can be integrated into all levels of the aviation system. The committee is expected to begin work on an integration roadmap by early April, and will have its first plan published within a year, according to JPDO officials.
*Embraer EMB-135BJ airplanes - Inspect cabin furnishings to determine the presence of cotton adhesive tape that does not meet applicable flammability requirements. Replace any such tape found with new tape that meets flammability requirements.
Harvey Conover, the millionaire president of Conover-Mast Publications, was lost at sea when his yawl, Revonoc, disappeared during unexpected, violent weather while sailing from Key West to Miami in early January, within days of the company's launch of Business & Commercial Aviation. The others aboard - Conover's wife, Dorothy, his son and daughter-in-law, Lawrence and Lori Conover, and their friend, William Fluegelman -- also perished. Despite searches by the U.S.
While most of the professional airmen (and they were all men) who flew for the airlines and for businesses earned their wings and much of their experience similarly - which is to say, through the Civilian Pilot Training Program, flying for the Army or Navy, or through the GI Bill once discharged - the proficiency disciplines within their respective career paths as civilians were rather dissimilar.
Turbine engine overhauler Red River Turbines (RRT) has announced that it will construct a large test cell that will conform to T-9 military depot level specifications. To be built at its facility at North Texas Regional Airport, Sherman, Texas, the 66,000-cubic-foot, $1.6 million test cell tower will be able to test engines with a maximum of 10,000 pounds of thrust, but will have provisions to expand the facility to accept engines up to 40,000 pounds of thrust.
DB Aviation, Waukegan, Ill., announced that James Barnes is the company's new chief operating officer. Joe Knoebl has been named chief financial officer; Carl Robst is director of operations; Jeff Read is the new chief pilot; and Robert Kelly has been promoted to assistant chief pilot.
Several key indicators of the health of the market for previously owned business jets - average asking prices and inventories - remain solid, despite signs that the U.S. economy may be slowing, says the January edition of JPMorgan's Business Jet Monthly. The financial firm's monthly report noted that business jet prices increased 0.1 percent sequentially and 4.4 percent year over year, and that the number of used jets on the market remained steady at 6.2 percent of the fleet.
Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has named Alan Caslavka vice president and general manager of Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I) Solutions.
Fifty years, what an achievement for BCA! It is amazing to note that from the 1958 aircraft cited, only the MS-760 Paris is still alive as a Very Light Jet and offered for shared ownership by Jetset in your 2008 issue.
The Citation Columbus' 8,830-pound-thrust PW810 engine is the first of a new family of 10,000- to 15,000-pound-thrust turbofans that will "raise the bar for thrust-to-weight ratio, low emissions and operating economics," according to Daniel Breitman, Pratt & Whitney Canada's vice president of PW800 programs.
The Citation 850's Pro Line Fusion avionics package will rival the capabilities of the systems in the most-advanced large-cabin business jets yet announced. The four, 15-inch high-resolution LCDs in the instrument panel are arranged in a three-over-one configuration, similar to the layout of the Dassault Falcon Jet EASy cockpit. Unlike EASy's 13.1-inch display whole-screen or one-third/two-thirds display partitioning, the Citation 850's displays will provide whole-screen, one-half or one-quarter views because of their larger size.
CAE has agreed to become the managing partner of the Indian government's flight training academy, the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA). CAE also has formalized a joint venture agreement with the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to develop the Rajiv Gandhi National Flying Training Institute (RGNFTI). Both IGRUA and RGNFTI will become members of the CAE Global Academy, which is a worldwide network of flight training organizations that offers standardized training for pilot candidates.
In this business, places that many years ago were visited maybe once a year, or even once a career, are now routine destinations. "We've got one to Kuwait, if you want to go back for old time's sake."
I just got my February BCA at work. I stopped what I was doing and read "Another Day, Another Chapter" (Flight Log by John Wiley, February, page 96.) It was great! I hope to see more of his writing in Business & Commercial Aviation in the future. Keep up the good work. I love the magazine.
The Grob Aerospace SPn test aircraft No. 3 (D-CSPJ) is wrapping up several weeks of flight testing in Granada, Spain. A team of approximately 20 specialists is supporting the aircraft. The test center at Granada, managed by the INTA Department of Spain's Ministry of Defense, was selected for the trials because of its combination of good flying weather, cooperative agencies and the convenience of remaining within the EU.
