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.
Aviareto, Dublin, Ireland. Niall Greene has been appointed a managing director. Rob Cowan was named head of operations responsible for systems and security.
A DAYLONG SEMINAR entitled "America's Aviation Crisis: Delayed, Not Canceled" was held recently at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Washington, D.C. The theme and its implications clearly resonated with people within government, the aviation industry and beyond. The turnout was impressive.
Airborne communications specialist AirCell was the high bidder in the FCC's recent spectrum auction for air-to-ground broadband frequencies. AirCell will obtain an exclusive license to provide wireless broadband services to business aircraft and airlines in the United States. The company says it is restructuring with a cash infusion from an investment firm in preparation for its new phase of business. Slated for deployment in 2007, the new services will enable passengers to use their own Wi-Fi devices such as laptops and PDAs to access the Internet.
Diamond Aircraft of Austria has developed the DA42-MPP and DA42 OPALE, two more surveillance versions of its DA42 twin. The spectacularly ugly MPP (Multi-Purpose Platform) version was flown only a few weeks before the recent Berlin Air Show and has already been at work with local government in Lower Austria. The aircraft carries a Riegel laser measurement system and a Vexcel UltraCam mapping camera. The OPALE is a cooperative program with Rheinmetall Defence Electronics and its sensor data can be downlinked in real-time via broadband over a range of 200 km (124 miles).
The Jobs Act overturned an earlier Appeals Court ruling that companies may deduct the full expenses involved in operating an aircraft for entertainment even though employees might only report the trip as compensation based on the SIFL rate. But the Jobs Act was limited only to corporate officers, directors and other senior management, and a Senate measure would have expanded the Jobs Act provision to all employees. Both were dropped during a House/Senate conference on the Tax Relief Act.
Associated Air Center at Dallas Love Field, a Landmark Aviation company, announced that it has received FAA DAS (Designated Alteration Station) certification, authorizing the aircraft completion center to act on behalf of the FAA to issue STCs and Experimental Airworthiness Certificates, and to amend standard Airworthiness Certificates. Landmark Aviation's Springfield, Ill., aircraft repair and completion center, which provides modifications for business jets, also holds DAS certification.
"You may know where you are, and God may know where you are, but if Dispatch doesn't know where you are, you'd better be on good terms with God." -- Sign in KaiserAir dispatch department, OAK Following its epiphany 18 months ago at Teterboro Airport that some charter operators may be illegally franchising their operating authority, the FAA has launched a full-frontal campaign to clarify the issue of operational control and its relationship to crewing and operator business practices.
-Eurocopter AS350B, C and D helicopters -- For aircraft that have a Geneva Aviation P132 console, install right- and left-side Geneva cyclic control sticks and modify the cyclic grips and the copilot cyclic stand. -General Electric CT7-5, -7 and -9 engines -- Perform a one-time eddy current inspection of bolt holes in certain stage 2 turbine aft cooling plates.
Macquarie Infrastructure Co. (MIC) will be the second largest FBO owner in the U.S. -- behind only Signature Flight Support -- when it completes the planned acquisition of 23 FBOs from Trajen Holdings later this year. MIC's Atlantic Aviation currently owns and operates 19 FBO locations. MIC, a unit of the Australia-based Macquarie banking and investment empire, said recently it will pay Trajen $338.1 million to acquire 21 facilities Trajen currently owns and two more it is in the process of buying.
Without entering the debate about whether the United States should levy direct charges for use of the ATC system, I have to take issue with the two operators who complained about ATC charges in Canada, Finland, England, etc ("The Battle Over User Fees," May, page 58).
Feb. 9, 2004, Sturgis, Mich. Aircraft: Cessna 402B Injuries: One Serious, One Minor When flying over a friend's house, the pilot-in-command executed a steep left turn for 360 degrees and leveled the airplane just in time to spot a large pine tree about 30 feet ahead. The pilot began to pull up, but not in time. The twin Cessna smacked the tree, causing serious injuries to the pilot, but the pilot-rated passenger took control and landed the airplane without further incident.
During a House Aviation Subcommittee hearing on lost airline passenger baggage, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) complained about the security plan in place at DCA and said more needs to be done to facilitate general aviation access. The chairman, John Mica (R-Fla.) echoed those concerns and said he wanted to have a closed-door meeting with the TSA on the matter.
GAMA, Washington, D.C., has hired John Provenzano as the director of government affairs. He comes to GAMA from the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
As business aviation grows, so does the need for more hangar space. With busy air carrier airports straining at the seams, formerly quiet general aviation airports have become an attractive alternative. My local airport -- Waterbury-Oxford (OXC), in Oxford, Conn. -- has seen its business jet hangar space triple in the last 10 years. Meanwhile, some older hangars at many airports are getting upgraded to accommodate business turbines.
Dassault confirmed Falcon 7X performance improvements in an made at EBACE in May. Range increases to 5,950 nm along with an increase in payload with full fuel. The new range will enable the 7X to fly nonstop between cities such as New York and Riyadh, Paris and Singapore, and Los Angeles and Rome. Performance improvements were accomplished through the addition of winglets, additional fuel tanks in the forward section and a redesign of the secondary rudder and lower fin. The 7X's Pratt and Whitney Canada 307A engine thrust was increased to 6,400 pounds.
The FAA has committed to adopting ADS-B, which stands for Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast. ADS-B provides: (1) automatic broadcast of an aircraft's position, altitude, velocity and other data; (2) enhanced "visibility" of aircraft and vehicle traffic for pilots and air traffic controllers; and (3) use of GPS, allowing less reliance on ground-based radars.
The sharpest questioning at the hearing (see above item) came from the panel's Ranking Democrat, Patty Murray (Wash.), on the safety-inspector workforce at the FAA. Early this year, Murray said, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said the agency would hire 238 safety inspectors during the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, but the number has dropped to 171, down 28 percent from Mineta's estimate and fewer than last year's new hires.
When B&CA presented complaints from the charter industry about certain provisions of the revised A008 Ops Spec to FAA Flight Standards chief Jim Ballough for comment, we were referred to the aviation authority's legal department in Washington for a response.
The U.S. Air Force has solved the safety problem posed by unmanned aerial vehicles' (UAV) inability to "see and avoid" other traffic. Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, 10 small UAVs were dispatched to New Orleans to assess damage and locate survivors. However, the FAA did not let the unmanned craft fly in the helicopter-congested area. So, USAF operators sawed the wings off the UAVs and taped six of them to the landing skids of manned helicopters.
