IFR Avionics of Van Nuys, Calif. has earned an STC for its retrofit installation of a Universal Avionics EFI-890R display in a Gulfstream GIII. The aircraft used to gain the approval also was equipped with Universal's Vision-1TM, an application server unit that provides Jeppesen charts for a paperless cockpit. The new display was interfaced with dual UNS-1 flight management systems and a Class A terrain awareness and warning system. The GIII STC also covers installation of the EFI-890R in the GII and GII-B.
Among the communication errors that resulted in altitude deviations were misunderstandings of the ATC amended clearance. Let's start with the simpler clearances and work to the more complex or confusing. When the air traffic controller states, "Bizjet 123, descend and maintain six thousand," according to FAA Order 7110.65, Air Traffic Control, the pilot is expected to commence descent upon receipt of the clearance and to descend at the suggested rates specified in Aeronautical Information Manual Paragraph 4-4-9, until reaching the assigned altitude of 6,000 feet.
Misset altitude alerters were involved in 58 percent of the altitude deviations. This closely mimics the data collected at several major airlines prior to implementing their own altitude deviation programs. The Aviation Safety Reporting System hear-back study noted that after the altitude alerter was set, it tended to become "the sole authority for what the aircraft's altitude should be."
Jan. 24, 2006, was a spectacularly clear winter day in Southern California. John "Jack" Francis and Andy Garratt were crewing a Citation V that departed Hailey Airport in Sun Valley, Idaho, bound for McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, Calif. Aboard were Frank Jellinek Jr., recently retired chairman of Fisher Scientific and father of two children, along with Janet Shafran, mother of four. It was going to be just a brief stay in the San Diego area. Jellinek's father, Frank Sr., lived in the vicinity. Everyone planned to return to Sun Valley that afternoon.
I am writing to bring your attention to an error in "Career Development Tips for Maintenance Managers" in the May B&CA (page 93) The page contains a small insert mentioning "National AMT Day." The H. Res. number for our National AMT Day Resolution is H. Res. 444, not 4582 as you published. The Aircraft Maintenance Technicians Association (AMTA) requested that Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) introduce this resolution. On May 24, he did introduce it and it is now before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
China Sonangol International Holding Ltd., an oil business enterprise, has ordered two Embraer Legacy 600s, which will make them the first of the aircraft type to be registered in mainland China. The aircraft will operate primarily as "corporate traveler transporters," according to Sonangol. A Macao-based Legacy has been operating in the region for some time.
Jeppesen has introduced interactive, multimedia E-learning programs for Garmin panel-mount integrated avionics systems as well as Garmin and Lowrance portable GPS units. The scenario-based, guided simulation training system allows pilot to train on the ground and will minimize the "heads down" time incurred when pilots are unfamiliar with the avionics systems, according to Jeppesen. Courses are available for the Garmin SNG 530W/430W and are offered at three levels: Basic VFR and IFR ($159.95), Advanced IFR ($139.95) and Advanced WASS Procedures ($139.95).
ARG/US wants aircraft charter customers to know that the only reliable method of verifying the ARG/US rating of a charter operator is by utilizing ARG/US's Charter Evaluation and Qualification System (CHEQ) at www.aviationresearch.com/cheqonline or by visiting the charter operator's Web site and clicking on the ARG/US rating verification banner. ARG/US learned that postings of its charter operator ratings on a charter aggregator's Web site contained inaccurate and false ARG/US ratings.
Operations at New Orleans Lakefront Airport (NEW) have picked up since the control tower reopened on July 30. The Louisiana airfield, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005, handled 240 operations during a single day recently, according to Louis Capo, director of the Orleans Levee District's Division of Non-Flood Assets, which oversees NEW. Although Lakefront reopened on Oct. 15, 2005, it was only able to handle about 160 movements daily without the tower. Now the tower is operating from 8 a.m.
Lee County Port Authority, Fort Myers, Fla, announced that Ellen L. Lindblad has joined the Authority as senior manager of planning and environmental compliance.
Aviation excise taxes should remain in place, since the current funding system will cover the needs of the next generation air traffic control system. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee, made that appeal during a hearing on aviation taxes just prior to the August congressional break. "I believe that the current system is tried and true, that it has accommodated the enormous growth American aviation has experienced over the past 30 years and that it will continue to do so," he said.
A long, long time ago, the instructors at my A&P school would tell students of the important responsibilities of the Inspection Authorization (IA) certificated mechanic: "They act on behalf of the FAA and they need to be able to understand the regulations and make critical decisions about safety," they would say. The IA has top status among the corps of mechanics, we were told, and was a rating to which we should all aspire.
Precise Flight Inc. is offering the OxyArm Cannula, a headset-mounted boom cannula for use with the company's A5 Flow Meter. The OxyArm is adaptable to all over-ear headsets, including Bose models, and uses ball stud mounting, which adhesively mounts to the headset and allows the cannula to be revoked completely or swung out of the way when not in use. It is light weight, efficient and contains a replaceable anti-microbial tip. Price: $99 and up per unit Precise Flight Inc. 63354 Powell Butte Rd. Bend, OR 97701
The Avanti II's front office is equipped with a full complement of Rockwell Collins avionics, featuring three, eight-by-10-inch, portrait configuration adaptive flight displays, a glareshield flight guidance control panel, a console-mounted FMS 3000 CDU with radio tuning function and a panel-mounted radio tuning unit. The MFD has an engine instrument display feature, but no crew alerting function or systems schematics. The Avanti II retains the original aircraft's 28 annunciator light panel.
David Esler's "Should You Put Your Jet Up for Charter?" (June, page 44) read like an FAR Part 135 charter brochure. The experts refer to raising the safety bar under Part 135 when in truth the accident rate for a Part 135 operation per NBAA is nearly nine times worse than for a Part 91 operation. Turnover in the cockpit rises, taking with it your highly experienced and qualified crew to be replaced by a less experienced crew who now lives on 24-hour call.
The Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis process for creating liquid hydrocarbons from coal, natural gas or biomass was developed at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany in the 1920s by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch.
IN THE MID-1980S, NASA thought it would be profitable to strap a working journalist into the space shuttle and blast him or her into the great void to report the experience to a public weary of the less-than-compelling fare typically served up by real astronauts. This spaceman-scribe would speak with authority, but in man-on-the-street vernacular.
The Gulfstream G150 has been awarded EASA certification, making it eligible for registration in European Union member states. The G150 is also the first Gulfstream aircraft to attain FAA Stage 4 noise requirements set by ICAO.
Quest Aircraft Co. received FAA type certification of its Kodiak aircraft on July 18, 32 months after the first flight of the prototype and two and a half months after first flight of the first fully conforming aircraft. TC A00007SE for the clean-sheet design includes single-pilot day and night VFR and IFR operations. The Kodiak prototype has logged over 1,000 hours of flight time and s.n. 001, the first fully conforming production aircraft, has flown several hundred hours since entering flight test.
For a manufacturer near terminal condition not all that long ago, Embraer has made a stunning comeback. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the company was confronting a triple-pronged crisis: market failure of its CBA-123 twin-pusher turboprop; world oil supply constraints; and the inability of the Brazilian government, its owner, to pay its debts. After the government privatized it in 1994, the company kept issuing pink slips by the gross so that its total employment fell to 3,200 in 1997.
John D. Wolf has been installed as the new chairman and CEO of Adam Aircraft after Rick Adam announced his decision to step down as head of the company he founded in 1998. Adam, who invested $26 million of his own money to establish the firm, will retain four seats on the board of directors. Adam did not specify his future plans, but has said in the past that he sees himself as an entrepreneur who likes to seek out new opportunities.
Oberstar acknowledged that, "it's equitable for general aviation users to pay somewhat more than they are currently paying." The T&I Committee recommended that the jet fuel tax increase from 21.8 cents per gallon to 30.7 cents and the avgas tax increase from 19.3 cents per gallon to 24.1 cents. "While I believe general aviation should pay somewhat more, I do not believe that the airlines should pay less than what they are now paying," Oberstar said.
Eighty members of Pentastar Aviation's maintenance and avionics team have been awarded the FAA's Aviation Maintenance Technician Award in addition to two corporate awards.
