University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D., has named Jeremy Roesler chief flight instructor of fixed-wing aircraft at UND's John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.
Bombardier Flexjet is expanding its "secondary service area" to include all of Mexico. The fractional business jet ownership provider in 2005 established the secondary service area, waiving ferry fees for trips to and from the Caribbean region and Bermuda. The latest expansion is in response to a jump in travel to and from Mexico by Flexjet customers, Bombardier said, noting that the number of Flexjet's Mexico trips has increased by double digits each year since 2003. Nearly 20 percent of Flexjet owners travel to or from Mexico.
Aviation lost a prolific and masterful contributor when Dr. Leonard M. Greene, founder of the Safe Flight Instrument Corp, died November 30, 2006, at the age of 88. Although stricken with cancer during the last decade of his life, this prolific inventor with an insatiable curiosity and seemingly boundless energy continued to participate in his company's activities as its Chairman.
Embraer is forecasting a market for 11,115 business jets and 3,050 30- to 120-seat commercial aircraft over the next 10 years. The Brazilian manufacturer, releasing its long-term market outlook during "Embraer Day" on Nov. 16-17, 2006, predicted business jets sales could reach $169 billion in the next 10 years. The company also forecast that the air taxi market could add demand for 2,500 to 3,000 more VLJs.
On Aug. 15, 1985, a Japan Airlines B747 departed Tokyo with 509 passengers and 15 crew on a domestic flight to Osaka. About twelve minutes after departure, upon reaching cruising altitude, the aft pressure bulkhead failed with an explosive decompression that severed the vertical stabilizer and all hydraulic lines to the tail. The pilots immediately declared an emergency and fought to maintain control of the aircraft.
A Hawker 700A registered to Juventude Ltd. and operated by Blue Star Airlines landed gear-up at Fort Lauderdale/ Hollywood International Airport, Fla. The pilot-in-command who was flying the airplane reported the flight proceeded to the destination airport for a visual approach to Runway 9L. The checklist was read aloud by the copilot with no challenge response.
(San Francisco) - Brendon Docherty and Gordon Wishart have joined the diversified aviation services company as regional vice presidents of aircraft acquisition and sales.
MONTHS AGO when the NTSB released factual information on the November 2004 crash of a Gulfstream III at Houston we synopsized that material here in Cause & Circumstance (B&CA, May 2005, page 96). The facts suggested that the crew somehow lost the picture of their aircraft's actual point in the airspace since they seemed confused by what the avionics system was telling them and even if it was set up properly as they descended into the terrain three miles southwest of Hobby Airport.
ICAO's new Multi-Crew Pilot License program, designed to prepare pilots to operate as first officers in as little as 13 months, is prompting the industry to reevaluate aviation maintenance training programs. "Current basic training does not prepare mechanics to work on modern airplanes," says Steve Pennington, director for maintenance training and standards at Boeing subsidiary Alteon Training, which is exploring MPL-type training for mechanics.
In general, the concentration of GA traffic does substantially increase the probability of an inflight collision. With only two aircraft in the same piece of airspace there is only one possible collision pair. However, with five aircraft there are 10 possible pairs and with 10 aircraft there are 45. What is the practical meaning of this?
During the first quarter, Executive Beechcraft, the Midwestern aircraft service company, expects to begin installations of the Garmin G1000 integrated avionics suite in Beech King Air C90s. The Raytheon authorized service center, which plans to perform the retrofits at its Kansas City Downtown (MKC) and Spirit of St. Louis (SUS) airport locations, is anticipating receipt of an STC for the modification shortly.
WHILE THE REST OF US were enjoying the long Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino were stranded some 4,500 miles from their families and homes on Long Island. Instead of eating turkey and watching football on TV, the two ExcelAire pilots were anxiously awaiting another court hearing, hoping for an end to their two-month ordeal in Brazil.
Baseops/World Fuel Service, Houston, named Lisa Peacock as the newest member of the sales team at World Fuel Service. She will be based in the Calgary, Alberta, office.
A Beech F33 was substantially damaged during a forced landing following a loss of engine power during cruise when it was a short distance from William P. Hobby Airport, Texas. With the airplane still slipped up on it's nose due to the landing the FAA inspector who responded to the accident observed that the left fuel tank was empty and the right tank had "about an inch" of fuel in its tank. However, the pilot reported to the inspector that he visually checked the fuel before departing Houston and that both tanks were at the three-quarter level.
In the highly competitive business jet charter market, operators are using a variety of methods to attract customers, from block charter plans and membership cards to direct marketing campaigns conducted on a local basis.
Intelligence | 11 - ICAO's New Multi-Crew Pilot License Program - Isle of Man Aircraft Register Closer to Reality - High Attendance Expected at New Middle East Business Aviation Show - Gulfstream Forecast Revised Upward - Second BA609 Prototype Makes First Flight Edited by James E. Swickard Commentary 7 | Viewpoint By William Garvey Aftermath 68 | Cause & Circumstance By Richard N. Aarons The GIII Crash at Houston -- a Final Look
JetBird, Dublin, Ireland, announced that Patrick Raftery was appointed to operations director. He will be involved in developing the firm's European operating model in preparation for launch in early 2009.
Boeing and PrivatAir announced the latter is getting a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to be configured as a business aircraft. PrivatAir, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, becomes the first business aviation operator to purchase the 787. The order is valued at $153 million in 2006 dollars, and Boeing's Orders and Deliveries Web site lists it as a 787 BBJ. The 787 complements PrivatAir's existing Boeing fleet, which includes a newly acquired 767, a 757, three Boeing Business Jets (BBJs) and one BBJ2.
In December, the NTSB called directly on airlines to follow the runway landing distance calculations the FAA recommended in a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) in August 2006. The FAA originally released a policy statement that would have required commercial and fractional aircraft operators to incorporate a 15-percent safety margin in landing distance calculations based on runway conditions at time of arrival.
Millennia released an alerting feature that works through your dispatch software's e-mailer, Outlook or Lotus Notes calendar anytime a triggering event occurs, which is basically whenever a new trip is scheduled or a change is made to an existing trip. Dispatchers and schedulers have control over how the triggering events are managed and who receives the alerts. And if ops professionals want their print output to look good, Millennia's new Report Design Studio will turn you into a graphic designer who can crank out the boss's itinerary with flair.
Upon receiving an FAA production certificate for its Citation Mustang assembly line in Independence, Kan., Cessna technically delivered its first Mustang to a customer, Mustang Management Group (MMG) of Fresno, Calif., then immediately leased the aircraft back for 10 months for use as a demonstrator. MMG plans to use the Mustang in its Scott Aviation subsidiary for flight training when it actually takes delivery. The certificate authorizes Cessna to build, flight test and grant airworthiness certificates for its newest and smallest Citation.
The second Bell/Agusta BA609 tiltrotor prototype recently made its first flight as the first prototype passed the 100-flight-test-hour milestone at Bell's flight test center in Arlington, Texas. The second, s.n. 60002, flew at Agusta/Westland's facility at the Italian Air Force airfield at Cameri, Italy. Pietro Venanzi was the pilot and Herb Moran copilot for the 52-minute flight. The third prototype is already at the Cameri facility and s.n. 60004 is on the assembly line in Fort Worth.
A new Eurocontrol survey shows that air traffic safety has continued to improve in Europe since the tragic accidents at Italy's Linate-Milan Airport when an SAS airliner and Citation collided, killing 118 people, in 2001 and over Uberlingen, Germany, where a TU-154 and DHL 757 collided in 2002; ATC lapses were factors in both accidents.
