An XM Satellite Weather Upgrade package for Flight Display Systems' Moving Map is now available. According to Flight Display Systems, this is the only Moving Map passenger information system that can provide real-time NEXRAD weather conditions, updated every five minutes. Live weather information is overlaid on top of rich topographical maps with city names and state borders. Weather is color-coded to indicate storm level severity. Maps are dynamically drawn 50-, 500- and 5,000-miles wide relative to the aircraft's present position.
Nelson Carrick is director of operations for PremierJet, the splashy new FBO at Carlsbad Airport in California, so you'll find him around airplanes a lot. But you'll find him around trucks -- and Chance, his border collie -- even more. "I always had a mechanical interest, and in high school I had a number of muscle cars," he recalls. In 1978 Ford came out with the first of the big Broncos -- "Blazer size," as he calls it -- and a year later he got his first truck: a 1979 Ford Bronco 4 x 4.
Dallas Airmotive, Dallas, has promoted Jim Blasingame to senior director of sales, responsible for all North American sales for Honeywell TFE731and APU, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney engines. Daniel McLandsborough has been named Pratt & Whitney Canada regional engine manager for the North Central United States. Matt Hussey was named manager of the Lafayette, La., component repair facility.
Jet Aviation, Zurich, appointed Thomas Rimmi as its new senior vice president and general manager of the Zurich maintenance operation. He succeeds Werner Aerne, who will retire but continue to serve the Jet Aviation group in various functions. Andre Wall has been appointed the company's new chief operating officer for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America. He will join the company in February 2007.
Five years ago, Raytheon hailed its new Premier I as the fastest, largest single-pilot business jet on the market. While that was and remains true today, the company's lightest jet was still very much a work in progress. The braking action was inconsistent at best. The baseline Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics package had plenty of unrealized capabilities. The biomorphic-inspired interior design was tres outré by business aircraft industry standards and it squandered available cabin space.
Ideally, all aircraft would be fitted with manually operated primary flight controls because the feel is completely natural. There is proportionate feedback with increasing aerodynamic loads so that control forces are light at low speeds and heavier at high speeds. Ideally, control response is crisp when low and slow, assuring plenty of maneuvering capability in gusting wind conditions. At maximum speeds control feel loads are manageable and there is enough control authority to recover from any likely upset.
A free, online course from NASA, "A Pilot's Guide to Ground Icing," has been updated for all pilots. The presentation allows users to access information relevant to their particular operations. The course was created by a public-private partnership including U.S. and foreign government aviation agencies, companies and educational institutions. Also available is "A Pilot's Guide to In-Flight Icing," which is intended primarily for general aviation pilots. Both courses are available at http://aircrafticing.grc.nasa.gov/courses.html
PolyMax Hangar Floor Coating System is designed to withstand heavy wheeled traffic, abrasion, impact and spillage of aviation fluids. The three-coat system offers a clear epoxy primer with adhesion to concrete, a high-build pigmented intermediate coat to aid in impact resistance and a chemical resistant urethane finish for excellent abrasion and stain resistance, light reflectivity and resistance to ultra-violet degradation from direct sunlight. Price: Contact manufacturer PolyMax/Milamar Coatings 12005 N. Virginia Ave.
Cessna received a total of 115 jet orders worth more than $1 billion at the NBAA convention and expects that these agreements will be finalized and enter backlog. Combined with pre-show agreements, the company has already booked over 160 orders for the fourth quarter, according to an announcement by its corporate parent, Textron. "Results from this year's NBAA show are nothing short of impressive," said Textron Chairman, President and CEO Lewis B. Campbell.
Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters' Innovation Award was given to Montreal-based Mechtronix Systems, a provider of flight training equipment, for new product design and commercialization.
METARs may contain information about snow/water runway coverage and friction coefficient, but you need a decipher code to find it. The runway report consists of eight digits in five groups (AABCDDEE) with the following interpretation:
Here's an example of a comprehensive SOP from the Jet Solutions manual addressing ground operations: Taxiing policies The company maintains a safe practice standpoint when the aircraft is under its own power. The comfort to the passengers is also an issue when taxiing an aircraft. Exercise caution on what is not only ahead, but also behind the aircraft. Follow the policies below:
A group of 10 relatives of victims killed when a GOL jetliner crashed after allegedly colliding with a Legacy executive jet on Sept. 29 in Brazil has sued two companies at the U.S. Federal District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y. The lawsuit names as defendants ExcelAire Service, of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., as operator of the Legacy, and Honeywell International as maker of the aircraft's transponders. A spokeswoman for ExcelAire said the company is preparing a reply. U.S. attorneys for the group of plaintiffs said more victims' relatives would probably join this class-action suit.
More than 21 Citation Mustangs were in production in November at Cessna's facility in Independence, Kan., where teams of engineers and aircraft technicians have been working for months developing advanced production and tooling systems to ensure an efficient ramp-up to full production. The first three production aircraft assembled in Independence have all completed initial flight tests and are in final preparation for delivery. Component production at Cessna facilities in Columbus, Ga., and Wichita is also gearing up to meet production demands.
AS A PILOT, DIVER AND FATHER of three teenagers, there's adventure enough in my life. What I'm getting at here is food, which to me is more about fuel and company than it is about flavor or, I shiver, experimentation and discovery. I tend toward the familiar and simple. There's comfort in a BLT with cheese (burn the bacon, please), egg salad on rye with lettuce, tomato soup, and a New York strip, medium, with home fries and a green salad. Yum.
This month we're going to forego tales of tin kicking and, rather, take a look at some of the important lessons learned from the air safety investigators' efforts during recent years. Aircraft operators in the northern temperate latitudes are slipping deep into the icing season and the NTSB wants pilots and dispatchers to review procedures for flight planning and execution when low temperatures and moisture conspire to trap the unwary crew.
SheltAir Aviation Services, a Fort Lauderdale-based FBO chain, plans to increase its presence in the Northeast by acquiring Long Island Jet Center's Farmingdale (FRG) FBO. Two years ago, SheltAir, which operates seven FBOs in Florida, took over the La Guardia Airport (LGA) facility formerly operated by Signature Flight Support -- its first Northeast property.
Eight Bombardier U.S. factory-owned service facilities have received the 2005 award: Addison, Clarksburg, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Hartford, Teterboro, Tucson and Wichita.
CIT Group, Inc., New York, N.Y., appointed David A. Davis to the position of senior vice president and general manager of CIT Aerospace, Business Aircraft division.
The FAA proposes mandatory training and experience requirements for MU-2B pilots as part of a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR). The SFAR is one of several actions that have resulted from last year's comprehensive safety review of the airplane. There's a detailed article on this subject on the AviationNow.com Web site's Business Aviation Channel.
The National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA) introduced the 2007 members of its Executive Committee and Associate Member Advisory Council during the organization's fall membership meeting, which was held on Sunday, October 15 in Kissimmee, FL, just prior to the NBAA annual meeting and convention.
Bombardier Aerospace showcased its upgraded Challenger 605 and the ultra-long-range Global Express XRS at the recent NBAA convention, where it announced that the former model's Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite had received approval from Transport Canada as had the aircraft's cabin windows, which are enlarged and raised. The Global Express XRS includes an Ethernet-based cabin electronic system and state-of-the-art entertainment equipment.
