Congratulatons on your April Reflections ("People Who Became Airports," page 46). I would like to mention Garner Field in Uvalde, Texas, was named for former U.S. Vice President John N. Garner. This field is very dear to hundreds of Brazilian Cadets who started their aviation training there, primary training in Stearmans. And thousands of American cadets were training there. I was class 45-F, U.S. Army Air Force, and I am very proud to be a former Garner student. Keep writing about the past so the next generations will learn about history.
Rotorcraft Leasing Co. of Lafayette, La., has acquired Go Helitrans, a provider of transportation services to offshore oil and gas production platforms and drilling rigs in the western Gulf of Mexico. "This acquisition further strengthens Rotorcraft's position as the largest privately held helicopter transportation company in the Gulf of Mexico," said Lloyd Marks, president of Rotorcraft. The combined entity will have a fleet of approximately 100 helicopters whose missions will be coordinated from Rotorcraft's flight operations center in Broussard, La.
Uvex, a brand of the Bacou-Dalloz Group, has launched Uvex Ignite, a comfortable, sleek addition to its line of premium safety eyewear. The lightweight, frameless design of the Uvex Ignite glasses offers 180 degrees of unobstructed, distortion-free vision, and provides wearers with all-day safety and comfort. Features include an adjustable saddle pad nose piece and soft, cushioned temple tips. Its nine-base, wrap-around unilens provides wearers with close-to-the-face coverage and compete eye protection.
This armored rider is clad in fiberglass, not steel, and his steed is a Kawasaki instead of a Percheron. Gary Bosemer is the picture of the modern, well-equipped desert rider when he's not working as Landmark Aviation's director of avionics marketing and development. "Riding in the desert is safer than riding on the street," he says, adding that a lot of his friends still laugh when they learn he does not hold a motorcycle street license. But he does hold an American Motorcyclist Association expert desert-racing license.
Using input and testing from its students and instructors, Sporty's has designed a flight bag specifically for VFR flight. If you're a student pilot or a weekend flier, the VFR Flight Bag is right for you, according to the company. This compact bag features specially designed pockets for storing important items necessary for a VFR flight. The exterior features padded pockets to protect a headset while additional pockets allow quick access to charts and a logbook. An organizing section has an ID holder, pen and pencil holders, a key clip and a pocket for a cellphone.
With showbiz flare that included a choreographed performance by a suspended acrobat suspended from the simulator bay ceiling and ghostly vignettes of employees at work, CAE officially opened its new business aviation training center June 7 near Morristown Airport in New Jersey. The CAE SimuFlight Northeast Training Center will be the base of entitlement training for the Dassault Falcon 7X, as well as training on the Falcon 900EX EASy, Falcon 2000EX EASy, Gulfstream IV and Sikorsky S-76.
IN 1947, ITAMATARE WAS AN isolated village in the Brazilian interior, 90 minutes by air from Belem. The site of a gold mining camp, it was a bumpy two-hour Jeep drive from the River Gurupi, which served as its airport. That's where I was headed. Anaconda Mining Co., my employer, bought a war surplus Grumman Goose for $10,000. After zero timing the Wasp Juniors and installing a 60-gallon cabin tank for hauling auto gas, I got to ferry the amphib from Long Beach, Calif., to Brazil. I was 25, single and eager for the adventure.
The NTSB, lawmakers and regulators are seeking faster ways to implement the board's "Most Wanted" safety recommendations and adopt new accident prevention methods. The often-contentious groups found common ground in the desire to enhance safety at a June 6 House Aviation Subcommittee hearing on the status of the NTSB's Most Wanted List of aviation safety improvements. The board color-codes the status of recommendations on the list that it has issued yearly since 1990.
Hawker Beechcraft named TAG Farnborough an authorized service facility for the Hawker 800 series aircraft. TAG Farnborough, a subsidiary of TAG Aviation Holding, is the second authorized facility for the Hawker in the United Kingdom and joins a worldwide network of more than 100 authorized facilities.
Members of the Teterboro Airport Industry Working Group are reviewing progress on a series of initiatives they developed to improve safety and community relations at the busy New Jersey general aviation airport. The initiatives, rolled out late in 2006 at a press conference with frequent airport critic Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.), include a voluntary nighttime curfew and a voluntary agreement to fly only Stage 3 or quieter aircraft.
There can be two different readings of your May Viewpoint ("Going to Excess," May, page 9). Either it is proven that known fuel reserves plus expected ones can match the expected consumption -- in that case, you are right. Or if the above is not proven, we will have to reconsider everything in our way of life, not only aviation, and the sooner the better.
"The market today is doing pretty well," said Rene Cardona, who has been brokering previously owned business aircraft for Duncan Aviation for the last 18 years. However, he quickly added that newer aircraft (those less than 15 years old) are faring much better than their older counterparts.
Some dangerous but fresh thinking reported by Aviation Daily: JetBlue would be willing to pay $25 or $50 in user fees if it could shave 10 minutes off of a flight. That's what JetBlue Chairman David Neeleman told the annual American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) gathering in Washington, D.C., June 12. "Why not have a $50 fee that we can bond to raise billions to modernize the air traffic control system?" Neeleman asked.
A Cessna Citation II N550BP crashed into Lake Michigan, June 4, shortly after its departure from Milwaukee General Mitchell Airport. The air ambulance, owned by Toy Air and leased by the University of Michigan Health System, was en route to Willow Run Airport near Detroit to deliver organs for transplant. About 5 minutes after departure, the pilot declared an emergency, mentioning a runaway trim condition, and requesting a return to the airport.
"If the FAA proposal is adopted, it would devastate the economy of south-central Kansas. I believe that it will have a devastating effect on the national economy as well." -- Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), at the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Subcommittee on Aviation, March 21, 2007
The latest iteration of the now well proven 3,400 lbf PW535, flat-rated to ISA+12°C, has been fitted with a FADEC that greatly reduces pilot workload. There are three detents in the throttle quadrant -- full forward for takeoff thrust, one notch back for maximum continuous/climb and a second notch farther aft for maximum cruise thrust. The result is simple, set-and-forget thrust setting for the most critical phases of flight. This results in very consistence runway performance and more time looking out of the cockpit during climb and cruise.
The Aircraft Bluebook-Price Digest has launched a new Web site and online database. The new www.aircraftbluebook.com provides online information and tools for determining the value of business and general aviation aircraft. Previously, this information was only available in the print and CD-ROM editions of the Aircraft Bluebook-Price Digest.
* Million Air's brand-spanking-new Charleston, S.C., terminal facility was due to open around the end of June. * IAM celebrated the official opening of its IAM Jet Centre -- Montego Bay at Sangster International Airport; the facility has been in operation since last December.
Schedulers and dispatchers worldwide have been relaying information relating to the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann from the hotel room where she was staying with her parents in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. "As aircrew and airline staff we have the ability to pass the word to all corners of the world as Madeleine could now be anywhere. Please -- wherever you are traveling, near or far, spread the details and description about this missing little girl," read one plea circulating on the internet.
ARINC Direct has integrated a global destination intelligence service into its portfolio of flight services for business jet operators. The new service is provided through iJET Intelligent Risk Systems and will allow customers real-time access to the iJET global intelligence database where they can retrieve pertinent information on current risks and situations in their destination city or country.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who cast the deciding vote in May to keep a $25 per segment fee in the Senate version of the FAA reauthorization bill, now wants to exempt Alaskan pilots from paying any such fee. Stevens said he was surprised by reaction in his state against the fee. During a recent press conference, he said there was a lot of misunderstanding about the fee, which would only apply to turbine aircraft that fly between controlled airports -- for Alaskan pilots, that means for flights between Fairbanks and Anchorage.
The first customer Falcon 7X (s.n. 05) was delivered to Gilbert Chagoury, founder and chairman of The Chagoury Group June 13, after a non-stop flight from Dassault Falcon's Little Rock (Ark.) Completion Center to Le Bourget Airport in Paris, arriving at 0450 local time. The second customer delivery (s.n. 04) was also to Le Bourget where it reigned over the Dassault Aviation static display throughout the Paris Air Show before being turned over to proud owner Serge Dassault. This still leaves Dassault with a fat backlog of 165 orders for the flagship trijet.
