AirShares Elite has expanded to the West Coast with the opening of new bases in the Los Angeles area. AirShares Elite will initially operate from John Wayne-Orange County, Santa Monica and Van Nuys airports to build the foundation for the West Coast expansion of its shared ownership program. AirShares Elite sells shares in new Cirrus SR22 GTS airplanes and will add the SR22 G3 airplane to the fleet when Cirrus begins delivery later this year.
Pilatus Business Aircraft, Ltd., Broomfield, Colo., named Patrick Wiesner as vice president of production and Mike Haenggi to the post of vice president of marketing.
AirCell, Louisville, Colo., announced that Sergio Aguirre has been appointed OEM sales manager responsible for the company's key business aviation OEM relationships.
Robert Searles' article on the naming of airports was interesting. He noted that Orange County Airport at Santa Ana, Calif., is named John Wayne. The shame of it is that it isn't named for Eddie Martin, the Orange County pioneer aviator who established the airport in 1923. He called it Eddie Martin Airport until the county took it over. It was a political ploy to name it for John Wayne. John Wayne lived in Newport Beach and signed a petition against the airport. Once again, politics triumphs over facts.
Brazilian Federal Police officials have decided to recommend prosecution of two ExcelAire pilots whose brand-new Embraer Legacy 600 business jet was involved in a midair collision with a GOL Airlines Boeing 737 in September 2006 over Brazil. The decision was not unexpected since that agency had filed the original charges against pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino. The pilots were flying the Legacy on its delivery flight from the Embraer factory in Brazil. The 737 crashed in the jungle, killing all 154 people aboard.
*Dassault Falcon 10 airplanes -- Replace the flexible hoses installed in the slat anti-icing system with new hoses. *Dassault Falcon 50 airplanes -- Disable the coffeemaker by pulling and locking out the circuit breaker. Then inspect for damaged wire sleeves, check their proper clearance, and if a discrepancy is found, take corrective actions prior to the next flight.
The FJ44 Stallion and Eagle II modifications of Uvalde, Texas-based Sierra Industries have been certificated by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which now gives owners of early model Citations registered within the European Union the ability to retrofit their aircraft with Williams International FJ44 engines.
NTSB, Washington, D.C., named Thomas E. Haueter as director of the agency's Office of Aviation Safety. He has served as acting director since November 2006.
Your Flight Log "Mr. Gulfstream" (April, page 100) was a very, very interesting report. However I never, ever, saw a two-engine Viscount, although I flew plenty with four. A wonderful airplane and back in those days BEA (British European Airways) operated them to 150-foot minimums -- better than today for Cat 1 operations.
The Challenger 605's Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite is considerably more capable, more reliable, weighs less and draws less power than the Pro Line 4 package installed in the Challenger 604. The four 10- by-12-inch LCD screens offer 55 percent more display area than the six 7.25-inch square CRT displays in the Challenger 604. The new LCDs offer improved pixel resolution, color contrast and considerably greater reliability. The entire layout is a close relative of the Pro Line 21 cockpit in the Challenger 300.
The NORDAM Group has won the CJ4 cabinetry contract from Cessna, its first from the Wichita aircraft manufacturer. All the CJ4 work will be done in NORDAM's brand-new 120,000-square-foot facility in Wichita. The new facility opened in April and NORDAM will deliver the first CJ4 cabinet shipset in July.
I enjoyed Robert Searles' article on naming airports after historical figures. I am kind of a student of aviation history and never in my 40-plus years have I seen an article cataloguing so comprehensively how and why so many U.S. airports are named after individuals. Congratulations on a job well done and keep up that fine reporting so that the next generation aviators appreciate what those before them accomplished.
Hawker Beechcraft, Wichita, named George Sellew as vice president, treasurer. Dan Weatherford has been named chief pilot, Hawker sales demonstration and Peter Kennedy is chief pilot, Beechcraft sales demonstration.
There's been a half century trend toward reducing the number of flight crew members required to fly airplanes. Radio operators, navigators and flight engineers have gone the way of whistle-tuned transceivers, sextants for shooting stars and ignition system oscilloscopes. For the past three-plus decades, copilots also have been disappearing, as well, from FAR Part 23 turboprop and turbofan aircraft, leaving only a single pilot in the cockpit to handle all tasks.
Alakai Technologies, OpenAero and CAPACG have agreed to develop a flight-data management system using plug-and-play technology for piston-engine aircraft. The package is based on the Flight Operational Quality Assurance program for transport-category aircraft -- with one exception, there are no FAA requirements to be met. General aviation pilots will be able to monitor, as well as voluntarily and anonymously share, engine trend and flight ops data. They will also have the option of using the FDM system as a purely informational tool.
The AOPA Air Safety Foundation has a new online program called Pinch Hitter that is intended to familiarize non-pilots with basic cockpit layouts so they can become more comfortable when flying as a passenger. The course lets users get some virtual flying practice by controlling the ailerons and rudder, and landing the airplane. It includes tips on what to do in the event of pilot incapacitation. Intended only for the non-pilot, it is not to be used as a "learn to fly" course for student pilots. The running time is 45 to 60 minutes. Price: Free
Statements from witnesses who knew the pilot of a Beech Baron that broke up over Georgia on April 22 suggest that the crash that killed the pilot and all four passengers probably resulted from the pilot's obsession with performing aerobatics in the aircraft. A friend of the accident pilot told investigators the deceased was planning to purchase the 1989 aircraft. N5647C took off from Jack Edwards Airport (JKA) in Gulf Shores, Ala., and broke up in flight about two hours later near Hamilton, Ga.
One aviation firm with some good news on the environmental front is Aviation Partners, Inc. (API) of Seattle, which designs blended winglets for a variety of business jets and airliners, including the Hawker 800 series, the Gulfstream II and the Boeing 737. API says installation of its winglets reduces an aircraft's fuel usage by approximately 7 percent.
Flexjet has made its first GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) profit since start-up in 1995, and is to add 24 aircraft per year for the next three years, says Michael McQuay, president of Flexjet and Skyjet USA. Flexjet now has 660 fractional owners and 110 card members. Its current fleet numbers 93 aircraft. McQuay says that "the Challenger 300 is the hottest product we offer and will eclipse other Flexjet fleet groupings this year.
FlightSafety International, La Guardia Airport, New York, announced that Patrick Coulter has been promoted to manager of the Toronto Learning Center. Rick Armstrong has joined the company as vice president, FlightSafety Simulation.
You may have heard this from someone else by now, and I would not normally bother with what is essentially a trivial error, but I think you (and perhaps the readers) will find this interesting. Robert Searles Reflections article in the April issue says that Renton, Wash.'s airport is named after Will Rogers and Wiley Post. In fact, as a glance at the Seattle VFR terminal area chart will show, it is the seaplane base (W36) on Lake Washington at the north end of that airport that is named for Rogers and Post.
When US Airways' FOQA program revealed that aircraft arriving in Charlotte/Douglas International Airport (KCLT) via the Runway 23 back-course localizer had a higher incident of unstable approaches, it was able to demonstrate to the FAA that the procedure was a primary factor in the unstable approaches. The FAA agreed with the data and as a solution installed a new ILS. In another study, the carrier found certain airports had a high incidence of steep descents on arrival.
