On July 13, 1994, a chartered Learjet 35 prepared for departure from Atlantic City International Airport, Atlantic City, N.J., destined for Newark, N.J. with two crew and eight passengers aboard. Cleared for takeoff, the crew taxied into position and began the takeoff roll. Prior to achieving V1, the aircraft pulled hard to the left and the crew had difficulty keeping the aircraft rolling straight.
Conditions for international operations may never have been as good as they are now, with a convergence of technology reducing pilot workload and an understanding among air navigation service providers of business aviation operators' needs, but competence among some flight crews operating in oceanic airspace leaves room for improvement.
Schedulers and dispatchers will now be able to reach for the eFlyBook, a light (13.7 ounces) and compact tablet display, to check reference books, charts, directories and their current FAR/AIM instead of pulling a heavy book, binder or cumbersome folding chart from the reference shelf. ARINC, partnered with MyAirplane.com, announced the device as a cockpit tool for general aviation pilots, but it's even more likely to find its way to the operations desk.
The assignment for the day in the woods outside Metaline Falls, Idaho, called for the pilot to haul in logs on long line and deposit them at a central site. The Kaman HH-43F Huskie was in the process of dropping logs on a pile from an altitude of 150 to 200 feet, when a worker on the ground heard a "loud boom." The helicopter, which features intermeshing blades, then rolled slightly before nosing down and crashing into the pile. The ground crew said that immediately after hearing the loud noise, the helicopter's blades began to separate from the aircraft.
Norris Electro Optical Systems Corp. recently conducted a successful demonstration of an Autonomous Runway Incursion Prevention System (ARIPS) at the T. F. Green Airport, Providence, R.I. Six demonstration scenarios were designed based on real-life incursions at Boston Logan, Chicago O'Hare and Los Angeles International airports to show how ARIPS would directly alert pilots with ample time for them to react to a potential life-threatening situation. The FAA is evaluating the system. ARIPS uses ultraviolet light, unaffected by fog, rain or other weather con- ditions.
Flaps fully extended and landing gear down and locked, the King Air B100 descended to Runway 33 at North Central State airport in Pawtucket, R.I. The right main landing gear touched down approximately two feet prior to the runway, and collapsed when the wheel struck the elevated runway edge. The airplane subsequently came to rest upright off the right side of the runway. The pilot did not report any pre-impact mechanical malfunctions with the airplane.
Meggitt has acquired Keith Products, a supplier of compact air-conditioning systems for business jets and general aviation aircraft. Meggitt will pay $30 million on closing, with a further $2 million payable after two years subject to achieving agreed sales targets in 2006 and 2007. The transaction includes a net asset adjustment mechanism and is being funded from Meggitt's existing resources. Located in Addison, Texas, Keith Products is a leader in vapor-cycle air-conditioning systems for cooling, heating and ventilating fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
On Feb. 16, 2005, at approximately 0913, a Cessna Citation 560 operated by Circuit City crashed while on an ILS approach in IMC to Runway 26R at Pueblo Memorial Airport (PUB), Pueblo, Colo. The two pilots and six passengers were killed, and the aircraft was destroyed. The National Weather Service (NWS) reported low clouds, fog, freezing drizzle, visibility of about six miles and a temperature of 27°F at the airport at the time of the crash.
All six people aboard a NetJets Hawker 800XP and the pilot of a glider escaped serious injury when the aircraft collided at 16,000 feet about 42 miles southeast of Reno, Nev., on Aug. 28. The NetJets Hawker (N879QS) was en route from San Diego to Reno at the time of the collision, while the 58-year-old glider pilot, Hirao Akihiro, was climbing in thermals in his Schleicher after departing from the popular glider base at Minden, Nev. Akihiro told authorities he spotted the Hawker immediately before the crash, but could not avoid the jet.
I'm sure many flight departments operating long-range aircraft are working with requests from executives to "shrink the world," but they are a challenge. Here's a sampling of some my department has fielded in the last few months: (1) Mr. B has to go to a small city in southern Chile and be there before noon. He will be spending two days and then coming home. (2) Mr. A wants to go straight through to Tokyo. He will leave New York about 8 p.m. He wants to leave the second day after at 3 p.m. and come straight home.
Welcome to the wide-open spaces of private flying." The greeter was Richard Gaona, vice president of executive and private aviation at Airbus; his smiling welcome a reflection of a significant shift in his favor. You see Airbus Corporate Jet family sales are on a roll.
Bombardier has a backlog of two to three years for its large business aircraft models, but officials are dissatisfied with their inability to get large aircraft completions done on time for the right cost. Noting the two-year backlog on Global Express and Global 5000 aircraft, Beaudoin said, "It's not a problem of sales price, it's about delivering [aircraft] on time and on cost."
George J. Priester, 98, a business aviation pioneer in the Chicago area who turned Palwaukee Airport into one of the most vibrant business aviation airports in the United States, died on Aug. 17. He received his first airplane ride in 1928 in return for helping fix a friend's airplane engine. Priester began his career working for the railroad, but he found time to earn his private pilot's license and bought a Hess Warrior Argo. In 1953, Priester bought Palwaukee Airport and operated it for the next 33 years.
TAXES IN MY TOWN can give pause. I grumble, but not too much because I have three kids in the public school system, which is a good one, with a low student-to-teacher ratio. It's that feature that really costs. The same is true in any service, be it a luxury cruise, a five-star dinner, or an amphibious assault on a small island; the more service providers per recipient, the more expensive the service.
A speaker will be rated at Operational Level 4 if the following criteria are met: Pronunciation: (Assumes a dialect and/or accent intelligible to the aeronautical community.) Pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonation are influenced by the first language or regional variation but only sometimes interfere with ease of understanding. Structure: (Relevant grammatical structures and sentence patterns are determined by language functions appropriate to the task.)
Rockwell Collins has received a new STC for installation of its Pro Line 21 Integrated Display System (IDS) in King Air 200s and 300s. Superior Aircraft Maintenance of Medford, Ore., performed the installation, which is available to Rockwell Collins dealers.
After decades of fighting for a place at the table, business aviation is finally coming into its own as an accepted component of the European air transportation system. While not exactly sharing equal standing with airlines and military aviation, it is now perceived as a viable alternative to the scheduled air carriers and an efficient tool for furthering business interests.
We are at takeoff," radioed the KLM copilot on the evening of March 27, 1977, at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The ambiguity in those words, along with other instances of poor communication between the air traffic control tower and two airliners, resulted in a Boeing 747 operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines executing a takeoff on a runway occupied by a Pan American 747 taxiing in the opposite direction.
FirstFlight, based at New York's Elmira/Corning Airport, has expanded its charter fleet and extended its presence to the West Coast with the addition of a Falcon 50 based in Napa Valley, Calif. The FirstFlight fleet now totals 17 executive jets available for charter, according to FirstFlight President John Dow.
Despite the booming business-jet market, Bombardier reported big drops in net income for the second quarter and first half of its fiscal year, weighed down by a sluggish market for its RJs and continuing inefficiencies in delivery of completed business jets. Net income for the quarter ended July 31 totaled $58 million (U.S.), or three cents per share, compared with $117 million, or six cents per share, during the same period in 2005.
Pilot safety committees at several of the large operators of Beechjets have been flooded with questions from their pilots about aircraft flameouts. One pilot undergoing recurrent training at a major simulator training center stated, "We had our instructor walk us through a dual engine flameout to land. . . . I have to say that it was kind of creepy. . . . If you have seen a space shuttle approach and landing then you know what kind of pitch and vertical speed rates you are looking at. . . . I swore it wouldn't work, but it did!
Aircraft price indexes published by Vref, the Shawnee Mission, Kan., publisher, show that the composite values for popular corporate turboprops continued their gradual climb into the third quarter of this year. Meanwhile, Vref's price index for light business jets remained flat, and the indexes for heavy-iron and medium business jets dropped by the end of June (see accompanying chart).
Seattle-based Raisbeck Engineering has received FAA certification of a new, larger nacelle wing locker for Beech King Airs. The so-called Crown Locker is available for the King Air C90, E90, C90GT, 200, B200, 300 and 350.
