A Messerschmitt Me 262 A/B-1c made its first appearance since the end of World War II in German skies at May's Berlin Air Show. The replica, which is owned by the Messerschmitt Foundation, cost approximately $2 million and is one of only five being reverse engineered and built in the United States by Stormbirds of Paine Field in Everett, Wash. Two aircraft have flown and a third is on its own legs.
When your spinning gyro wears out, Sandel wants you to replace it with one of its new, TSOed solid-state directional gyros. Three versions will be available to suit different applications: SG102 DG: A compact unit that serves as a drop-in replacement for the Bendix/ King KG 102A. SG101 DG: Compact, self-contained DG features XYZ, ARINC 429 and RS-232 heading outputs. SG103 DG: Compact, self-contained DG features XYZ, ARINC 429 and RS-232 heading outputs, plus KG-102 output.
Crane Aerospace & Electronics, Lynnwood, Wash., appointed Don Roulett as engine market segment business manager. He will be responsible for managing the Aerospace Group with engine customers. Chris Larsen has been appointed business development director for Landing Systems Solutions.
Since Moscow is Russia's economic and political center, it's no surprise that it is the country's business aviation hub as well, considerably outpacing all other airports, including that of its second largest city, St. Petersburg. For the time being, Russian business aviation is Moscow business aviation.
When Bill Silkworth wants to know whether his salsa's up to snuff, he turns to son Sam, a 10-year-old with a discriminating palate. "Take a big mouthful, I tell him. He's my tester." Silkworth, a client aviation manager and Challenger 604 pilot with TAG since 2003, got his salsa start while an Embry-Riddle student with a part-time job cooking at Taco City, a small Mexican restaurant in Daytona Beach Shores.
Present day turbofan engines are so reliable that the average inflight shutdown rate is less than once in 10,000 flight hours. I like those odds. However, after reviewing several accidents involving misdiagnosis of engine malfunctions, some in the FAA and elsewhere are questioning whether current training adequately prepares flight crews for these relatively infrequent but potentially confusing and catastrophic events.
What used midsize jet delivers the most bang-for-the-buck? Arguably, it's the Learjet 55. For less than $3 million, you get a 2,000-nm max range jet capable of carrying six to seven passengers. And with fuel prices nudging $5-plus per gallon at some FBOs, the Learjet 55's fuel miserliness -- it was conceived during the Arab oil embargo of the mid-1970s -- is a welcome bonus.
ARINC won a contract from Atlantic Southeast Airlines to provide air/ground communications services. ARINC will provide digital data link service through the ARINC GLOBALink/VHF network using the VDLM2 protocol. ARINC will manage ASA's air/ground and ground/ground operational messages through a Web-based OpCenter. The contract also calls for ARINC to integrate several paperless data applications, including ground maintenance data collection and weight-and-balance applications.
Beaumont, Kan. An attorney by training, hotel man by career and airplane addict by choosing, Craig in 2001 suspended the rules of business that have moved him to accumulate and shed large properties over the years and purchased a tiny, shuttered century-and-a-half-old establishment adjacent to a 2,600-foot grass strip in the barely-there-burg of Beaumont. 1 A dilapidated, 11-room hotel in the middle of nowhere. Why did you do it?
Lycoming Engines, Williamsport, Pa., announced that Oscar Rodriguez is the new regional sales manager for Latin America and Ernesto Rodriguez will be the regional sales manager for Europe. He replaces Pierre Cornaz, who retired after 35 years.
Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI) and Adam Aircraft announced Tip-to-Tail hourly maintenance cost guarantee programs developed exclusively for the new Adam A500 twin-engine piston and A700 AdamJet aircraft. This program launch marks the entry into the very-light-jet market for JSSI and the first hourly maintenance program to include complete airframe and engine coverage for a twin-engine piston aircraft. Adam Aircraft A500 and A700 buyers can now include Tip-to-Tail coverage at preferred rates for three- or five-year terms when they purchase the aircraft.
Raytheon Aircraft Co., Wichita. Don Dwyer is returning to take the new position of vice president, Global Commercial Sales. Dwyer will lead the company's efforts to grow Beechcraft and Hawker sales domestically and internationally.
Current "ab initio" flight training programs are designed to enable a foreign student to come in with little or no aviation training and work through a spectrum of training and on-the-job experience over a period of two years. The AOPA urged the U.S. State Department to exempt flight training programs from the proposal.
Daniel Webster College, Nashua, N.H., has elected Joseph J. Dini of Bedford, Mass., a senior vice president at Sovereign Bank, to its board of trustees.
Wendi Gavigan: I got my first exposure to the career at an FBO, working behind the scenes. When I moved to BaseOps [flight support services provider in Texas], everything was on a grander scale, and I worked in international operations, setting up handling, customs, fuel, catering, hotels -- all the facets of an overseas mission. I knew I wanted to be a licensed dispatcher, mainly to further my education. Also, only 3 percent of the aviation population has a dispatcher rating.
Bringing four-color storm cell tracking to compatible Garmin GMX 200, MX20, or G1000 MFDs, the GWX 68 digital radar combines excellent range and adjustable scanning profiles with high-definition target display.
Sporty's offers an easy-to-use calculator that is perfect for determining crosswind and headwind components just before takeoff or landing. The simple whiz wheel design allows the user to quickly calculate both headwind and crosswind in three simple steps by knowing the runway in use, wind direction and wind speed. The back of the calculator also lists the flight plan sequence, VFR cruising altitudes and has space to copy down appropriate V-speeds. Measuring just 4.75 inches in diameter, the Crosswind Calculator is perfect for the cockpit.
Bombardier Aerospace said revenues remained flat in the three months ended April 30, 2006, at $1.9 billion, as it was for the same period the previous year. Earnings before financing income, expenses and special items grew from $52 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2006 to $55 million in the most recent quarter. A 23-percent increase in business aircraft deliveries helped offset a drop in the regional sector. Business jet orders, however, softened in the first quarter.
-Dassault Falcon 900EX airplanes -- Inspect the No. 2 engine left- and right-hand forward mounts for missing rivets and install rivets if necessary. -Eurocopter SA-365N1, AS-365N2 and N3, SA-366G1 and EC-155B and B1 helicopters -- Conduct a one-time inspection for end play in the pitch-control rod assembly double bearing using the tail-rotor hub control plate. Before further flight, replace the bearing if end play is present.
"That's the $64,000 question," says Cameron Burr, president of Pogo Jet, in reply to a query about the status of a reported future fleet of Adam 700 VLJ aircraft. "Today we still have no certified VLJ -- nobody does. So we're aircraft agnostic at this point. It's very difficult for a business like ours to ramp up all the functions that we'll need to operate when we don't know when we'll have aircraft. It's not like a [Boeing] 737, where you have a delivery date." For now, Pogo is in a holding pattern, Burr announced.
With your Gulfstream vectored to the localizer and cleared for the approach at FL 330, you drop the main gear, call for positive flaps, deploy the Spey's thrust reversers, and push the nose over to a 22-degree negative angle of attack. Egads! With the flaps extended above the wing-like spoilers, airspeed pegs at 250 knots, and you set up a 10,000-fpm rate of descent. As the altimeter unwinds dizzyingly, you allow approach speed to build to 300 knots, then with the runway threshold looming in the windshield, call for down-flaps to begin breaking the descent.
The National Air Transportation Association objected when the FAA released a notice calling for all jet aircraft crews to recalculate landing distance in flight, using current data, to ensure at least a 15-percent margin between the calculated landing distance and the actual available runway -- but bypassed the required rulemaking notice and comment procedures. The FAA said it was just a clarification of policy and that the agency would issue a new Operations Specification/Management Specification mandating the new requirements, possibly as soon as Sept. 1.
The bedside clock says you've had an adequate night's rest for an early morning flight, but once again you wake up exhausted and have a headache. Sitting on the edge of the bed you wonder why you feel so lousy every morning. What could be wrong? You could have a medical condition known as sleep apnea, a potentially serious sleep disorder characterized by intermittent but complete or partial airway collapse, resulting in frequent episodes during which you stop breathing or experience shallow breathing during the night.
Embraer has consolidated its offices in Europe into a new building in Villepinte, France, close to the Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, north of Paris. The new facilities will serve Embraer operators located in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Embraer's new European headquarters occupies 67,866 square feet, including a state-of-the-art 37,458-square-foot warehouse.
