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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
Count on Corvette guys for good car stories; and unlike classic Jaguar owners, theirs have happy endings. When Guy Miller yanked the engine on one of his Corvettes to overhaul it, he changed out the heater core (a small radiator-like assembly that transfers heat from the engine coolant to the interior airflow) because it was easier to do it with the engine out. Except that on the way to a car gathering in Savannah, Ga., that brand-new core ruptured and sprayed coolant like a lawn sprinkler.
"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
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.
Operators of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-66A-powered P.180 Avanti will be able to upgrade the engines on their twin-turboprop aircraft, thanks to a new service bulletin that has been issued following European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification of installation of the upgraded PT6-66B powerplant in the Avanti II.
* 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.
According to the NBAA, the Air Transport Association (ATA) tried to blame general aviation for the FAA computer malfunctions, which triggered the East Coast delays. The business aviation group said that when news outlets asked him to comment, the ATA's chief Washington lobbyist "inferred" that general aviation "is a significant cause" for the trouble. Conversely, the NBAA told reporters that "the airlines have tried to avoid responsibility and pin the blame for their delays on others" and then detailed general aviation's demonstrated preference for non-hub airports.
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.
*May 24 -- A single-engine Cessna U206G float-equipped airplane, was substantially damaged during a collision with a 17-foot powerboat during a water takeoff from the Bayou Fourchon Seaplane Base, near Leeville, La. The pilot and two passengers in the airplane were not injured, however the occupant of the motorboat was killed.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey is using the prospect of anger by voters over air traffic delays as impetus for Congress to "get it done" and pass the Bush administration's proposal for reauthorization of the FAA, one that includes a large spike in fuel taxes and a provision for user fees. Blakey delivered the threat scenario during a Congressional hearing on the Next Generation Air Transportation System --NextGen -- June 13. She warned the members and staffers in attendance that if Congress failed to pass the reauthorization bill by Sept.
The instrument panel of Encore+ is far different from any previous Model 560. Encore+ marks the first time Rockwell Collins avionics have been installed in a legacy narrow-body Citation, following the move from Honeywell to Rockwell Collins equipment started by the CJ-series.
Few business aircraft have been in production as long as the King Air B200, which essentially has been unchanged since 1981. It is the best selling, most enduring turbine powered business airplane ever made. More than 1,800 units have been delivered and today there are some 1,000 on the FAA registry.
TIMCO Aviation Services, Greensboro, N.C., announced that Leonard Kazmerski has joined the company as vice president of Marketing and Business Development.
