If you think clip-on sunglasses aren't for you, check out these Clip and Flip Sunglasses from Sporty's. Tested by Sporty's pilots, these sunglasses are perfect for the cockpit because they don't interfere with headsets. They attach to the bill of a hat and never touch the face. They also work with prescription glasses.
NATCA officials have warned that imposition of the FAA's contract proposal could trigger a rash of retirements by controllers, but Administrator Blakey said FAA controllers "are too smart for that." The retirement age for air traffic controllers is 56, although controllers who reach that age can apply for a waiver if they want to keep working. Blakey acknowledged that 25 percent of the FAA's 14,575 controllers would be eligible to retire in the first year, but she said most members of the workforce are in their 40s and early 50s.
Flight Display Systems has been granted Parts Manufacturing Approval from the FAA for several new inflight entertainment products. "We continue to improve our product line and enhance the flight experience," said David Gray, Flight Display Systems' founder. "Offering cabin entertainment products with PMA approval from the FAA helps to make the installation easier for our partner dealers and end customers."
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.
Forty-eight hours before EBACE 2006 officially opened its doors to visitors, we made our final full-stop landing in Embraer's ERJ 190 flight-test aircraft at Geneva-Cointrin International Airport after a two-plus-hour demo flight. We taxied to a nondescript parking spot on the ramp, well away from the static display line adjacent to Palexpo, but well within eyesight of arriving conventioneers. Heads turned and people nattered about the unexpected presence of the big company-owned flight-test regional jet in Geneva.
GAMA, Washington, D.C., has hired John Provenzano as the director of government affairs. He comes to GAMA from the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
Sharp Details now offers a leather repair and re-dye service through its facilities in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. The company has partnered with a specialty service firm to provide rip, tear and scuff-mark repair, re-dye worn areas, and re-color leather that is still serviceable. The company also can offer complete soft-goods refurbishment capabilities including carpet replacement and installation, leather, foam and cloth-seat and divan replacement and recovering, and side-wall and headliner recovering.
When you walk into a hangar, usually the first thing you notice is the hangar floor. Is it clean and well maintained, or stained and peeling? Even though it may be cliché, your floor is a reflection of your operation and keeping up a professional appearance is an important part of being a maintenance manager. Luckily there are a number of highly durable and long-lasting floor treatment products available that are both easy to clean and can be equipped with anti-slip walkway treatment. Here are just a few manufacturers that specialize in hangar floor coatings:
It was around 1960 when Dave Sheehan, then a young U.S. Air Force lieutenant flying a hot F-100 on a low-level practice mission out of what was then Clovis AFB in New Mexico, first spotted it. "I flew down the Pecos River and saw this little valley, and it was so green and so beautiful that I pulled up and circled." He completely forgot about the mission. Later, when he mentioned the place to Mida Page, an Air Force nurse he knew at Clovis, she said her father had a farm there.
Pro Star Aviation of Manchester, N.H., has received an STC (STC) for the installation of a three-tube Honeywell CDS/R Epic EFIS in a Cessna Citation III.
Bondhus Corp. introduced a power screwdriver bit holder from Felo that holds standard one-quarter-inch shank bits and the screw securely in place -- no more dropped screws! This tool uses two rare earth magnets. One holds the bit in place, the other holds the fastener securely. Named "Allstar," the bit holder is available individually or packaged with an assortment of popular bits. All bits are machined from the finest European chrome-moly-vanadium steel and heat treated to the highest possible hardness levels to give tool users a lifetime of precision service.
Raytheon Aircraft Services successfully completed the first retrofit of a Rockwell Collins Integrated Flight Information System (IFIS) into a Hawker 800XP aircraft at the Raytheon Aircraft Services facility in Little Rock, Ark. The system's electronic charting functionality provides operators with approaches, procedures, airport diagrams and NOTAMS. Operators of IFIS-equipped aircraft have ready access to the appropriate charts for the entered flight plan, and aircraft position may be viewed on geo-referenced charts, improving situational awareness.
Not so long ago, Cessna insisted it wasn't targeting the air taxi market with the six-seat Mustang -- that it was aimed at the step-up, owner-flown category and the light end of the corporate market. The Mustang is priced at just under $3 million, twice the price of the Eclipse 500 that was then racking up orders from potential air taxi operators. Now the $2.75 million Embraer Phenom 100 and the bigger nine-seat Phenom 300 have emerged, proclaiming their ruggedness for air taxi work, and Cessna has changed its tune.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of America (MHIA) has moved to strengthen support of its MU-2 by acquiring a Tulsa-based company that has been responsible for supporting approximately half of those twin turboprops in service. MHIA has purchased Intercontinental Jet Corp. and renamed the company International Jet Services, although the firm's programs and operations are to remain unchanged. The Intercontinental Jet acquisition is one of several recent steps taken by MHIA to improve safety, training and maintenance procedures for the MU-2.
Austrian-based charter operator JetAlliance has placed a firm order for an Airbus Corporate Jetliner (ACJ), becoming the first Austrian customer. The ACJ will be powered by CFM International CFM56-5 engines. A completions outfitter has yet to be announced. This is the seventh ACJ order announced this year. JetAlliance Flugbetriebs AG has a fleet of 37 aircraft with an average age of 3.5 years -- one of the youngest in Europe. It operates under JAR OPS 1 in Europe, but is also FAA Part 129 certificated, allowing it to fly commercially in the United States and Canada.
OUR DEAR FRIEND, the late, great Greenhouser, Torch Lewis, took considerable pride in the fact that he'd attended all but the first four NBAA conventions -- up until 2002, when his doctors forbade it. (Of course, that's the one in which he was celebrated with the association's Platinum Wing award for lifetime achievement. And then he was gone.) Frankly, I never understood why he placed so much import on that record.
AeroMech Inc., the Everett, Wash.-based company that specializes in RVSM certification and support services, expects to receive this month an STC for installation of an RVSM package into Hawker 600s equipped with Rockwell Collins AP-105 autopilots. Earlier, AeroMech received group approval for its Hawker 400/600 RVSM package for models of the business jet fitted with the Rockwell Collins AP-104, AP-105 and APS-80 autopilots.
Embraer began the Joint Definition Phase (JDP) of its Phenom 300 light jet program. "The Phenom 300 is the first clean-sheet design of its category in over two decades," said Luís Carlos Affonso, senior vice president, Executive Aviation Market. The Phenom 300 JDP will involve suppliers and Embraer engineers working together. According to Affonso, the company has assigned 300 engineers to the joint effort -- in addition to those already involved in the Phenom 100 program.
Owners and operators with non-Swiss residency, whose aircraft are managed by a Swiss aircraft management company, will no longer be subject to Swiss Value Added Tax (VAT) as of July 1. The current VAT regulations, in effect since 2001, burden non-Swiss resident aircraft owners with additional VAT charges, leading many to sign with management companies outside Switzerland solely due to VAT issues, according to Jet Aviation officials. Zurich-based Jet Aviation played a leading role in negotiations for relief with Swiss tax authorities.
Believing that point-to-point business jet services will be in greater demand in Europe, Geneva-based start-up JetBird announced at EBACE that it has placed a firm order with Embraer for 50 Phenom 100 jets with an option for an additional 50 aircraft. The contract allows JetBird to convert its positions into either the Phenom 100 or the Phenom 300. Embraer said the value of the contract is in the order of $140 million at list price in January 2005 U.S. dollars, with a potential value of approximately $280 million if all options are converted into Phenom 100s.
Altour, a travel company, teamed with private jet services company Whirlwind Jet to form a new charter brokerage, Altour Air. The new company will arrange domestic or international charter flights for individuals, businesses and large groups. Altour Air also will facilitate ground transportation through Altour affiliate Altour Limousine. Altour 1270 Ave. of the Americas, 15th Fl. New York, NY 10020 Phone: (212) 897-5000 or (800) 847-7466 Fax: (212) 897-5134 www.altour.com
FARMERS ARE NOTORIOUSLY tight with a dollar. But even the most parsimonious of farmers knows that no matter how good or bad this year's harvest, he has to set aside enough money to buy seed for next season's planting -- or he won't have a crop.
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.
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.
