ON SEPT. 10, 2007, the FAA published a Legal Interpretation in response to a simple question from a contract pilot. The FAA answered more questions than the poor pilot asked, and raised new questions for the industry as a whole.
IN LATE NOVEMBER, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) decided she was going to switch subcommittee assignments within the Senate Commerce Committee, giving up the ranking Republican slot on the space, aeronautics and related sciences panel to become the senior minority member on the aviation subcommittee. Such moves are usually not a big deal other than to the senator involved, some of her staff members and a few of her colleagues.
ICAOstrongly endorses the concept of normal operations monitoring and supports LOSA as the only tool at present for accomplishing this important task. IATA is part of the LOSA Advisory Board and also endorses LOSA as a tool for normal operations monitoring and toward understanding and reducing operational errors. It holds that a LOSA should incorporate 10 essential operating characteristics, all of which are explicitly described in FAA Advisory Circular 120-90. These are:
Congestion pricing in some form would be the most productive solution to the rampant overscheduling and delays that characterize congested airports today, according to a new study from The Reason Foundation.
Hawker Beechcraft Corp., Wichita, announced the appointment of Fred Zimbelman as general manager of the Hawker Beechcraft Service (HBS) Wichita facility.
Aspen Avionics, Albuquerque, has hired Stephen J. Senyszyn as a systems engineering manager. Rhonda Hinsen joined the company as supply chain manager; Dorothy Gilbert joined the company as a marketing manager; Sean Rieb was promoted to software engineering manager and David Berlin was promoted to senior staff engineer.
Intelligence | 13 * King Air B200GT Certified * FAA gives Adam Aircraft TIA for A700 * ARC to Consider Landing Distance Planning Rules * Airspace Control Next Big UAV Issue * Protests at EPS Target Aircraft Emissions Edited by James E. Swickard Commentary 7 | Viewpoint By William Garvey An Extraordinary Diary 24 | Business & Commercial Aviation 1958, a Year in Review 70 | Cause & Circumstance By Richard N. Aarons
The annual spring meeting of the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA) will be held at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla., from the morning of Thursday, May 8 through the middle of the day on Saturday, May 10. Those interested in attending the meeting are encouraged to make hotel reservations at the discounted rate of $259 by calling (239) 593-2000 no later than April 4. NARA also has announced that it plans to hold its 2009 spring meeting at the Westin La Cantera Resort in San Antonio from April 30 to May 2.
Three of jet charter's traditional limitations -- a fragmented industry, lack of consistency and reliance on managed aircraft -- are being addressed in bold new business plans that have emerged in the United States over the past 18 months.
Oct. 30, 2007, was the anniversary of a milestone in my life, and I'd like to share with you my thoughts. Fifty years ago on this date, I completed my first solo flight in a J-3 Cub. That was when I was a college student studying engineering at Purdue University.
Airspace is the next big issue for UAVs, whether it's access to domestic skies or control over a combat arena, and needs to be codified urgently, according to a panel of U.S. military leaders. The four chiefs of service aviation and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance branches told the Army Aviation Association of America's unmanned aircraft symposium in late November 2007 that the military should crystallize combat air control regarding UAVs, while domestic authorities must work out access and use of UAVs in domestic airspace.
Charter operator ExcelAire has expanded its facility at Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. The 110,000-square-foot addition creates the largest facility of its kind on Long Island, the company says. Included is an FBO offering a full range of services, including fuel, maintenance and aircraft management, and ExcelAire says the additional space allows the firm to expand the scope of its activities. The former Garrett Aviation quarters adds to ExcelAire's existing two hangars and office space.
In recent months, former FAA Administrator Jane Garvey has quietly accepted seats on the boards of directors of Bombardier, Inc. and Sentient Jet, Inc., the air charter firm that is acquiring the management and charter businesses of TAG Aviation USA and AMI-Jet Charter. Garvey also serves on the board of trustees of Mitre Corp., and the boards of directors of SpectraSensors, Inc., Advanced Navigation & Positioning Corp., Reveal Imaging Technologies Inc. and Skanska AB.
Take a close look at our May 2007 Purchase Planning Handbook. Virtually every new production turbine aircraft is equipped with EFIS and most have large-format, flat-panel LCDs. Steam gauges are out. Wall-to-wall glass is in. For older business aircraft fitted with electromechanical flight instruments or small-format CRT EFIS, a flat-panel upgrade can provide a wealth of new graphics features and functions, such as data link weather, electronic charts, high-resolution TAWS imagery, video cam/IR sensor display and the relative position of other air traffic.
The NTSB wants the FAA to require that all offshore helicopter operators in the Gulf of Mexico provide their flight crews with personal flotation devices equipped with a waterproof, GPS-enabled 406 MHz personal locator beacon, plus one other signaling device, such as a signaling mirror or a strobe light. The Safety Board also wants the FAA to require that all turbine-powered helicopters certificated with five or more seats operating in the Gulf of Mexico be equipped with externally mounted life rafts large enough to accommodate all occupants.
West Star Aviation (nee Premier Air Center) in East Alton, Ill., and Ken Goldsmith's Yankee Pacific teamed together to develop and certify a Honeywell TFE731-4 engine conversion for 1980 through 1996 model Falcon 50s that boosts hot-and-high airport performance, increases range by 6 percent and ups typical cruise speeds from 0.75 Mach to 0.80 Mach.
In a remarkable development, Sentient Flight Group has agreed to buy TAG Aviation Holdings as well as Hawker Beechcraft's charter business. The initial announcement came from TAG in late October and within days Hawker Beechcraft said it was selling its aircraft management and charter business. The TAG USA buy is the latest development in an extraordinary, fast-moving affair that saw the FAA on Oct. 4 issue - after seven months of investigation - an "emergency suspension" of the charter certificate held by AMI Jet Charter.
Intelligence | 19 * Aerion SSBJ Gets Its First Order * European Air Traffic to Grow 4.6 Percent by summer 2008 * NBAA Seeks Relief From IRS Stance * Port Authority of NY/NJ Takes Over SWF * Sensis Gains Early Foothold in China's ADS-B Initiative Edited by James E. Swickard Commentary 9 | Viewpoint By William Garvey We're Here to Hurt 95 | Cause & Circumstance By Richard N. Aarons Will Air Data System Heat Modifications Be Mandatory?
Business Jet Center, Love Field, Dallas, has named Bill Moltenbrey as director of Business Jet Center, Ltd. He will oversee the Dallas and Oakland, Calif., FBO operations. Jason Pons has been promoted to manager of FBO Operations and DJ Korzyniewski has been named manager of the newly created Concierge Services Department, responsible for all cus- tomer service and marketing functions for Business Jet Center Dallas.
End plates are frequently used today on go-fast machines, but not airplanes. Rather they are fitted to race cars whose small aft wings create negative lift. Since these aft wings are necessarily short, their aspect ratio is quite high. With the end plates, the induced drag can be reduced without incurring weight penalties. The wing and endplate do a number of things, including create down force, reduce airflow separation behind the race car's cockpit and create negative lift under the car to pin it to the race surface.
Technological advancements -- as well as FAR mandates -- are also applying to the arcane field of cabin seating. According to Michael Ganter, modifications and completions manager at Landmark Aviation's Springfield, Ill., facility (formerly AiResearch Aviation), one result of FAA safety concerns can be seen in the increased number of 16-g-certified seats now coming into the refurbishment market. "These are designed to absorb energy in the seat itself, instead of imparting that energy to the occupant," he explained.
