Put yourself in the place of an emergency medical service (EMS) pilot when the "red phone" in the crew room rings, with word of a serious accident requiring immediate response. It is well known that a trauma patient's chances of survival increase significantly if the person is delivered to a critical care unit within an hour of receiving the injuries.
Camarillo Airport (CMA) sits just off the 101 in California's Ventura County, midway between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The former military installation, now wholly converted to a civil airport with 6,000-plus feet of runway, has a new full-service FBO operated by Avantair Elite Services, a unit of Avantair, Inc., providing all fuel, support and maintenance services for executive aircraft. Avantair markets fractional shares in the Piaggio P.180 Avanti twin turboprop.
Although the woes of the real estate and mortgage industries began to take their toll on the economy and financial markets during the summer, the negative ripple effects have not yet been reflected in sales of previously owned aircraft.
Fractional operator PlaneSense has placed an order for 25 Grob SPn light jets. The first of the $7.5 million German-made jet aircraft is due to arrive in late 2008, and all will feature a Porsche Design six-seat executive cabin. The aircraft will be managed by parent company Alpha Flying Inc. PlaneSense President and CEO George Antoniadis told B&CA that he hopes to double this order once the SPn has been FAA certificated and gained FAR Part 91 Subpart K. "We are looking forward to being the world's largest SPn operator," he said.
Busy aviation professionals of all stripes can now get an M.B.A. while they continue to pursue their day jobs by taking advantage of Daniel Webster College's online course, which is tailored to aviation careers. The three-semester program includes such coursework as "Economics of Air Transportation" and "Global Aviation Management." The full course is comprised of 13 classes of six to eight weeks in length and uses Blackboard; total tuition is $21,879 payable, in part, at the start of each semester and is subject to change. Payment plans are available.
ITT will be the systems integrator of the FAA's ADS-B system, but the team members that ITT selected had a lot to do with the company winning the contract on Aug. 30. Particularly noteworthy is ITT's partner AT&T, the U.S.-based telecommunications giant. The role of AT&T was key to ITT's win of the $1.8 billion contract to provide ADS-B on a fee-for-service basis. AT&T already owns a network of telecommunications sites and facilities across the United States that will be used to host the ADS-B equipment at a minimal cost. Then there is the French connection.
Jet Aviation, Teterboro, N.J., named Dorothy White as regional sales director for charter support service and aircraft management at the new aircraft management and charter support service sales office at its FBO at St. Louis Downtown Airport, Cahokia, Ill.
Hawker Beechcraft has opened a new sales office in Singapore to cover the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, India and Africa. The company is co-locating with its service center operator, Hawker Pacific, at the business aviation hub of Seletar airfield. Dan Keady is named as regional vice president for sales with responsibilities for this and its four outlying sales offices in Beijing, Dubai, Johannesburg and Australia.
A second pre-production Bell Helicopter Model 429 has joined the company's flight test program in Mirabel, Quebec. Bill Stromberg, executive director of the program, says the second twin-engine aircraft will help Bell increase the test pace, and that expansion of the 429's flight envelope was about one month ahead of schedule. The two helicopters were to travel to Colorado and Arizona for high-altitude/hot-temperature testing. Plans call for achieving concurrent Canadian and FAA certification in 2008. Bell reports having more than 200 orders for the 429.
In late August, Honeywell and Sensis demonstrated to the FAA and the aviation press the fruits of a joint effort to exploit the capabilities of their products to take runway safety to a new level. Operating a Gulfstream and a King Air fitted with Honeywell TCAS and Mode S avionics at Hancock Field in Syracuse, N.Y., a facility equipped with Sensis' advanced ASDE-X ground surveillance system, the companies showed their systems' ability to detect conflicts and transmit warnings directly to the aircraft pilots - as well as controllers.
At last month's Asian Aerospace event in Hong Kong, Hawker Beechcraft announced orders for 16 new aircraft for the Asia-Pacific region. Macau-based Jet Asia Ltd. ordered four Hawker 900XPs and four Hawker 750s to be used in support of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, a casino company. Avion Pacific Ltd., a Hawker Beechcraft authorized sales representative (which includes special missions aircraft) with bases in China, Hong Kong and Macau, has ordered two Hawker 4000s, two Hawker 900XPs and two Hawker 750s for its customers for delivery in 2009.
(Winston-Salem, N.C.) - Tom Mekis has been named vice president of aircraft sales, service and charter for this diversified aviation services company. Before being elevated to his current post, Mekis held a number of senior positions within the company. He began his aviation career with Beech Aircraft.
The National Air Transportation Association, the charter industry's principal advocacy group, has adopted some aids that operators can use to determine whether they are in compliance with the Part 135 OpSpec as well as prepare for the FAA's Special Emphasis Inspections.
Handling waste material is unpleasant enough, but mishandling it can be even worse. You can receive heavy fines from OSHA and the EPA, as well as from state and local agencies, for improper discharge and mishaps involving exposure of your technicians. A mess on every level imaginable. To learn more about waste handling safety, visit www.epa.gov and www.osha.gov.
Scaled Composites is now wholly owned by Northrop Grumman Corp. The transaction, which occurred Aug. 24, raised Northrop Grumman's ownership stake in Scaled Composites from approximately 40 percent to 100 percent. Located in Mojave, Calif., Scaled Composites is an aerospace and specialty composites development company with broad experience and a whiff of genius in vehicle design, tooling and manufacturing; specialty composite structure design, analysis and fabrication; and developmental flight test.
AirCell, a leading wireless data and voice communications provider in business and commercial aviation, announced in September that it is partnering with Virgin America, a new carrier, to offer broadband Internet services for passengers traveling in the continental United States beginning in 2008.The new broadband service will also be available to business aircraft operators and offer a similar set of features.
TRACTORS MOVE AT A PACE that promotes reflection. I learned that soon after my parents decided I was old enough and strong enough to work summers on my grandparents' farm in northwest Ohio. The long, hot days on those 200 acres of wheat, hay, pigs and sweat taught me a lot about hard work and self-reliance. I joke that I was slave labor, since I had little say in the matter. And while my grandparents gave me plenty of love, shelter, food and soft drinks, the pay was meager . . . cents per hour. This became a matter of some importance the summer I turned 13.
Hawker Beechcraft Corp., Wichita, appointed Raymond (Ray) Bennett as regional sales director for the Upper Midwest. He will be responsible for new Beechcraft King Air B200GT, 350 and Premier IA sales. Nigel Whiteman has been appointed to the newly created field service position in Delhi, India. Jeffrey Blose has joined HBC as the director of material and supplier management within the Supply Chain Management organization.
YEARS OF PLANNING, debate, testing and uncertainty finally resulted in a definitive step toward the air traffic control system of the future in late August as the FAA awarded a nearly $2 billion contract for development and installation of a nationwide Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system to a team headed by ITT Corp. of White Plains, N.Y. ADS-B will provide the basic infrastructure on the ground that will permit the FAA to transition from a radar-based ATC system to one that uses GPS technology to track the movement of aircraft.
* Dassault Falcon 10, 20, 50, 200, 900, 900EX, 2000 and 2000EX airplanes - Conduct repetitive tests and inspections to detect (and, if necessary, correct) problems with the overwing emergency exit. * EADS Socata TBM 700 airplanes - Check for proper operation of the locking handle for the upper access door and modify the adjacent window trim panel.
It's been one of those busy days flying multiple legs in the northeast corridor. Your last leg of the day, a flight from Teterboro, N.J., to Bedford, Mass., is departing behind schedule because you were an hour late arriving at TEB. After the hectic quick-turn on the ground you are finally cleared for takeoff on the infamous Teterboro-Five departure procedure.
