Jet Aviation, Spring Branch, Texas, appointed James Thomas as general manager of Jet Aviation Engineering Services. Jet Aviation Singapore has appointed Michael Sattler as the new vice present and general manager of the company's maintenance and FBO operation.
NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen exhorted members to voice opposition to user fees to Congress. Too often this issue is considered a Washington issue that doesn't affect the rest of the country, Bolen stated. But, he added, "This is clearly getting outside Washington, D.C. There's a real fire. Our community is very much under attack." He cited recent articles in Business Week and the Wall Street Journal.
-Eurocopter AS-365N2, AS-365N3, EC155B, EC155B1, SA-365N and N1, and SA-366G1 helicopters -- Inspect the main gearbox base plate for cracks and replace the plate if a crack is found. -Eurocopter BO 105LS A-3 helicopters -- Replace certain fixed bolts and nuts, re-identify certain main-rotor nuts and revise the "Airworthiness Limitations -- Time Change Items" list to reflect the new life limits and new part numbers.
(Chesterfield, Mo.) -- David W. Potter has been hired as vice president of aircraft sales. Potter, a veteran aircraft sales professional with more than 35 years of experience, began his career as the Midwest regional sales manager for Dassault Falcon Jet. In 1983, he joined Sabreliner Corp. as a member of its newly formed pre-owned business jet sales department and was subsequently promoted to director of aircraft sales.
For his 60th birthday present, Dave Hurley's family gave him a John Deere 4400 tractor with a front-end bucket loader and a 4500 backhoe mounted on the rear. In addition to making him the envy of every other toy-loving male in the state of Connecticut, the machine helps one of Hurley's favorite charities, Habitat for Humanity, the Housatonic Chapter of which he has been involved with as a donor--and now heavy-equipment operator--for seven years.
Higher-than-new prices for selected late-model business jets underscore the strength of certain sectors of the previously owned, turbine-powered corporate aircraft market, says Fletcher Aldredge, publisher of the Vref Aircraft Value Reference.
Raytheon Aircraft Co. (RAC) announced that the Hawker 4000 super-midsize jet completed its function and reliability test program on May 26. RAC and the FAA are currently working to finalize the required documentation that will allow the FAA to issue the Type Certificate. "The Hawker 4000 is the flagship of the Hawker line, truly setting the standard for quality, performance and value in the super-midsize class of aircraft," said Jim Schuster, chairman and CEO of Raytheon Aircraft Co. "It will be a great addition to the Beechcraft and Hawker family."
Regional charter business growth has prompted West Jet Aviation based at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Airport (KSDL) to add a Learjet 55 to its Lear and King Air Charter fleet. The company also announced the promotion of Allen Frazee to director of operations, and that L. Michael Gerber joined the company as chief pilot.
The U.S. House International Relations Committee could soon report on legislation that would impose sanctions on U.S. foreign and military assistance to foreign governments that won't secure or eliminate man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and other weapons that pose a threat. Backed by 38 House members, the legislation calls on the State Department to carry out an accelerated global program to secure or remove MANPADS and other weapons and says it should be U.S.
Cessna marked a decade of producing single-engine piston aircraft at the company's facility in Independence, Kan., May 31. The same day, the first Citation Mustang rolled off its assembly line in Independence -- making it the first Cessna jet manufactured outside Wichita. More than 6,000 Cessna 172 Skyhawks, 182 Skylanes and 206 Stationairs have been built, painted, flight tested and delivered to customers since the Independence facility opened in 1996.
Embraer convened an advisory board of professional and owner pilots at its headquarters in Brazil to evaluate the man-machine interface of the Phenom 300 Prodigy flight deck. "With the positive feedback [received] from the Man-Machine Interface Advisory Board, Embraer is confident that the cutting edge technology in the Phenom's Prodigy flight deck will deliver superior situational awareness and intuitive single-pilot operation," said Henrique Langenegger, Phenom programs director.
NxAero LLC, a Beverly, Mass.-based management and charter company, has acquired Groton, Conn.-based air taxi Columbia Air LLC. The acquisition follows a partnership in which the two companies operated TBM-700s for on-demand charter services. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Boeing delivered the final two 717s to Midwest Airlines and AirTran Airways in a May 23 ceremony before thousands of employees, retirees and dignitaries at the former Douglas Aircraft plant in Long Beach, Calif. The deliveries conclude commercial airplane production in Southern California, at least for the time being. Douglas Aircraft Co., which began building airplanes there in the 1920s, was taken over by Boeing in 1997.
An invitation-only "Jet Preview" at Waterbury-Oxford (Conn.) Airport drew 700 attendees to view the latest in business and general aviation aircraft on June 6. Manufacturers and their representatives at the event, hosted by Key Air FBO and cosponsored by Airport Journals and Saab, included Embraer, which brought its new Legacy 600 and a Phenom 100 mockup. Eclipse exhibited one of its soon to be certified 500s, which drew a large crowd. Other manufacturers included Cessna, Cirrus, Columbia, EADS Socata, Piaggio and Pilatus.
Beechjet 400As as well as many models of the Cessna 500 series Citations are not equipped with fuel heaters and thus require an anti-icing fuel additive, with Prist, made by Prist Aerospace Products, among the best known. However, I've seen some recent incident reports of "fuel filter" lights illuminating in Citation Ultras that caused a number of precautionary landings. The fuel samples were subsequently discovered to contain an insufficient ratio of the additive to the fuel.
ARINC is launching its GLOBALink VHF data link air-ground communications service at four airports in India. Teaming with its regional communications partner Bird Consultancy Services, ARINC has deployed VHF data link air-ground stations at New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai airports.
Innovative Solutions & Support (IS&S), the Exton, Pa., company best known in recent years for producing RVSM equipment, has begun shipping flat-panel displays for the Pilatus PC-12. Two aviation service centers have started installing the equipment into the single-engine turboprops. Boise, Idaho-based Western Aircraft delivered its first PC-12 flat-panel upgrade in May, and Atlanta-based Epps Aviation was slated to deliver its first modified PC-12 in June.
NEW AIRPLANE WARRANTIES are one of the primary justifications for buying a new aircraft rather than a used one. A recent case involving Raytheon's "industry leading, five-year limited warranty" raised concerns about this presumption, because a court ruled, under Kansas law, that Raytheon's warranty in fact is only enforceable within one year of the date of delivery. If Kansas law reduces aircraft warranties to one year, regardless of a "five-year warranty" label, then Bombardier, Cessna and Raytheon buyers must all take note.
For most of the new FADEC-equipped engines, data collection is a simple matter of downloading data to a laptop. But if you have an older engine without electronic data capture, Altair Avionics has a wide range of devices that can do the job on just about any turbine engine. The Norwood, Mass.-based outfit has devices that can capture trend data, cycles and starts and also provides data monitoring services. For additional information, visit www.altairavionics.com
I am an enthusiastic reader of B&CA. In your March issue on page 80 you had a sidebar: "Basic Spanish Terms." I'm not sure who did that one for you, but perhaps you should make at least one correction on translations. Directions: "Right" should be "a la derecha," meaning "to the right." The problem in your well-intentioned mini-dictionary is that the word that you used for "right" -- "derecho" -- actually means "straight ahead,"which could present a problem for an English speaker using page 80 of that issue.
Diamond Aircraft's D-JET flew 11 hours in 10 days after its first flight on April 18. Diamond has dubbed its single-engine, five-seater as a Personal Light Jet, or PLJ. The aircraft, C-GVLJ, s.n. 001, was due to resume flight testing on June 10 after "refinements" were incorporated. Flight testing is being carried out at Diamond's Canadian base at London International Airport, Ontario, and the program will be launched on July 15 at the facility, says Diamond.
