Wise engineers know you never begin a new radar design on a clean sheet of paper. You start with a proven radar, tweak it with state-of-the-art circuits and components, add some up-to-date features -- and hope you didn't mess anything up.
Banyan Air Service, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has hired John Di Mattei as avionics engineer responsible for design and engineering for avionics installations and upgrades on turbine aircraft. If you would like to submit news of hires, promotions, appointments or awards for possible publication in On Duty, send e-mail to [email protected] or call (914) 933-7614.
Hillsboro Aviation was awarded a contract by the Chicago Police Department to retrofit a Bell 206L-4 Helicopter. The LongRanger, acquired from the Chicago Fire Department, began law enforcement operations in January of this year. As operations evolve it is anticipated that the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County Sheriff's Department will operate the aircraft as part of a joint helicopter task force.
Robert J. "Bob" Pond (aka "the Pond Racer") has ordered a new Piaggio Avanti II to replace his original, the first production Piaggio P.180 Avanti. Pond said that the early Piaggio will be added to his public collection of more than 25 aircraft at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Pond, a World War II Navy veteran and military aircraft collector, opened the museum in 1996 after retiring as CEO of Advance Machine Co., a manufacturer of industrial floor cleaning machines.
Embraer, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, has completed the implementation of its Europe, Middle East and Africa sales team as follows: Simon Burrows, Northern Europe; Robert Posselt, Phenom 100 and 300 for Central Europe; Neil Patton for Central and Eastern Europe; Lynton Van Aswegen for Africa; Tony Fitzpatrick for the Middle East; and Nikolay Goloviznin for Russia. If you would like to submit news of hires, promotions, appointments or awards for possible publication in On Duty, send e-mail to [email protected] or call (914) 933-7614.
Safe Flight Instrument Corp. reports the first two installations of its AutoPower Automatic Throttle System for the new wide-cabin Challenger 850 aircraft are proceeding on schedule. Bombardier offers AutoPower as a production option on the Challenger 850 business jet and the CRJ 200 airliner, a retrofit option on the Challenger 604 and as standard equipment on the new Challenger 605 widebody jet, launched in November 2005.
Three industry veterans -- Michael Sowa, Kenneth Murray and Robert Liddell -- have joined together to form Atlanta-based Waypoint Partners, LLC, a new firm devoted to facilitating and managing the completion, modification and refurbishment of high-end business aircraft. In addition, the company, which also has offices in Houston and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will provide aircraft pre-purchase monitoring assistance, aircraft-acquisition consulting, operational startup assistance and vendor mediation.
Vern Raburn, CEO of Eclipse Aviation, and Roel Pieper, founder of Luxembourg-based ETIRC Aviation, announced at EBACE that they've signed an agreement for ETIRC Aviation's distribution of Eclipse 500 aircraft in the Russian Federation, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Ukraine and Turkey. Pieper said he can generate sales of 50 aircraft per year in Russia, 25 aircraft annually in Ukraine, another 25 to 50 in Turkey, and possibly 25 aircraft per year in Kazakhstan.
M7 Aerospace, San Antonio, appointed Harold J.M. (Mac) Williams vice chairman with continued service as a member of the board. He will focus on strategic development for the company with special emphasis on government programs. Ronald W. Frederick has been named president and CEO.
From its headquarters in Tempe, Ariz., MedAire provides remote assistance to business fliers worldwide 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company says it averages roughly 75 incidents every day, which would make it the world's busiest virtual ER. Even a trained flight crew can't cope with every medical emergency, and it helps to call in expert advice anytime you deploy an AED for cardiac distress.
One of the most common complains heard from the field is over the length of time it takes operators to obtain FAR Part 135 air carrier certification in order to "hold out," or fly charters. Air Charter Guide publisher Fred Gevalt claims it can take up to two years to get a charter ticket, and aviation attorney Alan Armstrong, cited in the main text of this report, says one of his clients has been waiting since October 2004. Often, getting aircraft approved for inclusion on one's Air Carrier Certificate can take as long, if operators are to believed.
I guarantee you that I like the term "throttle" to control engine output because there's little ambiguity as to its function. The problem is that "throttle," "thrust lever" and "power control lever" are used by different airplane manufacturers to denote the control that modulates engine thrust output.
Executive Jet Management has placed a new aircraft on its FAR Part 135 Certificate as it was delivered directly from the factory for a charter management client, Sho-Deen Aircraft of Geneva, Ill. -- for the second time in five years. Just because an aircraft is new, it does not automatically conforms to the specific requirements of a Part 135 certificate. Paperwork especially must conform to format as well as content. There are tons of minutiae that typically involve substantial downtime for the process.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey claims that the breakdown in contract talks with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association was "all about pay." She told reporters in mid-April that there was "simply too much money that separated us," adding later that the two sides were "billions of dollars" apart over the five-year term of the proposed contract. But that's not the whole picture. Poisoning every aspect of negotiations is the genuine angst among the rank-and-file controllers based on an poor relationship between low-level supervisors and the worker bees.
CJ Systems Aviation Group, Pittsburgh, has named Paul Lhote as program chief pilot assigned to STAT MedEvac. If you would like to submit news of hires, promotions, appointments or awards for possible publication in On Duty, send e-mail to [email protected] or call (914) 933-7614.
The U.S. DOT's inspector general is auditing the FAA's Flight Service Station privatization program, and assessing runway incursion initiatives at three airline airports. The IG is examining "the controls implemented by the FAA over its conversion of flight service stations to contract operations." The FSS audit will address the progress of the transition, whether savings targets will be achieved, and that the "operational needs of users continue to be met." The change has received favorable reviews from the AOPA.
After graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1964, Ritchie finished first in his pilot class and was assigned to fighters, first flying F-104s as a test pilot, then F-4s in Vietnam. It was during his second combat tour that he downed five MiG-21s in a four-month period in 1972, becoming one of two aces in that conflict. After an unsuccessful run for Congress in his native North Carolina, Ritchie moved to Colorado to work for Joe Coors. He later served in the Reagan Administration and formed his own speaking/consulting business.
Universal Avionics has completed its first WAAS flight test of its new "W" series FMS. Incorporated into Universal's UNS-1Ew, 1Fw and 1Lw FMS's, the new SCN 1000 software uses WAAS to enhance en route, terminal and instrument approach navigation. The flight was 3.5 hours, during which six WAAS instrument approaches were conducted. Five of the approaches were at the Farmington, N.M., airport, which has two WAAS instrument approaches, one each for Runways 05 and 07. The sixth approach was conducted at the Tucson International Airport (TUS) using the approach for Runway 29R.
Adam Aircraft, Englewood, Colo., announced the appointment of Rob Penrod as vice president of manufacturing. Penrod has more than 27 years of aerospace experience in manufacturing, quality assurance, program management, marketing, inventory management and lean methodologies. If you would like to submit news of hires, promotions, appointments or awards for possible publication in On Duty, send e-mail to [email protected] or call (914) 933-7614.
Two forms of halon are in use today: 1211 and 1301. The four-digit identifiers actually describe the makeup of the chemical itself, with the leading "1" indicating that there's one carbon atom--the carbon at the center of what had been a methane gas molecule before it was halogenated. The next three digits represent the number of fluorine, chlorine, and bromine atoms that have taken up posts where the hydrogen atoms used to reside on the methane gas molecule. Some extinguishers use a blend of 1211/1301.
The Grob SPn Utility Jet has bettered its maximum weight landing distance forecast by around 10 percent, says the German manufacturer. Instead of the 3,000 foot BFL forecast, the prototype aircraft has demonstrated that it can come to rest in 2,670 feet, and this without anti-skid brakes fitted.
Honeywell continues to demonstrate the flexibility of its APEX integrated avionics suite, designed for turbine-class aircraft that can be flown single or dual pilot. By enhancing the APEX system, which has been the Grob SPn avionics suite since program launch, Honeywell aims to further reduce inflight workload, improve situational awareness and provide a more open platform for future avionics upgrades and options.
