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.
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.
Seemingly contradicting the conclusions of the Eurocontrol air traffic report (see above), Bo Redeborn, director of ATM Strategies at Eurocontrol, said, "Growth on these levels presents a number of challenges for air traffic management. Business aviation generates peaks of demand at airports, and while it uses different flight levels from the major carriers, getting the different types of traffic to their preferred levels creates additional traffic complexity for controllers, particularly given the concentration of business aviation in an already busy airspace.
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.
Frasca International has delivered the first of six TruFlite H helicopter simulators to Silver State Helicopters of North Las Vegas, Nev. The units are installed in mobile trailers and will be assigned to training facilities in the United States. Silver State has ordered 22 simulators, which are reconfigurable as the piston-powered Robinson R22 and R44 and the Schweizer 300.
ExxonMobil Aviation International, Ltd., Fairfax, Va., appointed Kenny Warren as director, Global Aviation Fuels. 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.
U.S. standard classifications for fire extinguishers are based on the type of fuel for which they are intended. Each type is marked by a distinctive symbol:
Reading George Larson's article regarding NetJets and the Teamsters ("The Teamsters' Fractionalized Air Corp," April, page 78), it is obvious that AFL-CIO unions such as the Teamsters haven't learned a thing from the airline industry. NetJets operates in a deregulated, free-market environment just as the airlines have been doing post deregulation, and are therefore subject to the same competitive pressures.
Pilots visiting this year's Berlin Air Show on May 16-21 can fly into the ILA site at Schonefeld or the neighboring airfield of Schonhagen, where they would be shuttled to the show. The organizers say that despite increased air traffic, VFR and IFR slots are still available for operations into Schonefeld, but to avoid unnecessary delays VFR traffic is advised to use Schonhagen. A total of 1,475 light aircraft and business jets flew to the event in 2004 and a few even touched down at historic Tempelhof Airport.
Phil Michel, the veteran Cessna Aircraft marketing executive who announced plans in 2005 to retire in April of this year, will remain with the Wichita aircraft manufacturer for an indeterminate period. Steve Fushelberger, who was named in September to succeed Michel as vice president of marketing, left Cessna in mid-March for personal reasons. Michel told The Weekly of Business Aviation he plans to remain on board until a permanent successor is identified, hired and a transition is completed.
Following the collapse of nine months of negotiations between the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association the parties declared a stalemate and the FAA sent its pay proposal to Congress for review. Unless Congress intercedes within 60 days, the FAA will be able to impose its contract terms on the union.
Now it's easy to add full GPS navigation and hands-free calling capabilities to your mobile smartphone with Garmin's Mobile 20 -- a Bluetooth-enabled wireless GPS navigation system. Mobile 20 supports Nokia, Windows Mobile and Treo smartphones, and its integrated phone mount, the GPS 20SM, with a built-in GPS receiver and Bluetooth-enabled speaker and microphone, accommodates nearly any size. The Mobile 20's smart features include:
B&CA is excellent as usual. In "Preventing Overruns on Landing" (December 2005, page 61) I must take exception with the first bulleted paragraph under the heading "How to Prevent Runway Overruns," specifically that a steep approach results in a longer rollout. I find most pilots have the misconception that for a short rollout a flat approach is preferred. Quite the opposite is true. For example the POH of my Baron 58, in addition to a specific airspeed based on landing weight, requires an 800 fpm descent rate to achieve book performance.
Shortly after rotating at Frankfurt, Germany, on March 21, 2001, the Paris-bound Airbus A320 began banking slightly to the left. The captain corrected the bank by nudging his sidestick controller to the right, but was startled when the aircraft banked even farther to the left, exceeding a 20-degree angle of bank. At that point, the captain immediately transferred control of the aircraft to the first officer who corrected the bank angle with his right-hand controller. Once the crew had stabilized their aircraft at 12,000 feet they tried to analyze the problem.
I just read William Garvey's April Viewpoint ("Revenge Effects," page 7). His comments are right on concerning a reaction to something that is not only not available yet, but probably won't materialize to the degree that the "political know-it-alls" think that it will.
Signature Flight Support has purchased Le Terminal, formerly a private aviation facility at Le Bourget Airport in Paris. The acquisition includes a six-story office building, two adjoining hangars and about three acres of aircraft parking ramp. In late 2005, Signature bought the PrivatAir FBO at Le Bourget. The latest acquisitions, combined with the facility it bought in 1998, consolidate "Signature's position as the leading handler at Europe's most active corporate and general aviation airport," said David Best, Signature's European managing director.
Goodrich Corp. has shipped the aerospace industry's first electrically actuated production brakes for installation on Northrop Grumman's new RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aircraft. According to Larry Isenbarger, program manager for Goodrich's Aircraft Wheels and Brakes, "This is a significant milestone for braking technology." The Global Hawk aircraft equipped with the Goodrich electric braking system will begin flight tests later this year.
