In little more than seven weeks, as much as half of the U.S. business aircraft fleet won't be able to fly above FL 280 in North, Central and South American airspace, according to FAA projections. That's because those aircraft won't be equipped for operations in the Domestic Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums airspace between FL 290 and FL 410, where bi-directional altitude separation is being compressed from 2,000 feet to 1,000 feet like it is in the rest of the world.
Warning of an impending FAA budget crunch linked to sagging Aviation Trust Fund income, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and Russell Chew, the chief operating officer of the agency's Air Traffic Organization, provided a blunt assessment of magnitude of the money challenges facing the agency in a November briefing to reporters. Before 9/11, income to the Trust Fund was forecast to be $14 billion during the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2005.
It was about 4:20 a.m. on July 13, 2004, when the 911 call-center of Newberry County, in northwestern South Carolina, received a report about an injured woman who may have been hit by a truck near a rest stop on Interstate 26. Local emergency medical service (EMS) and state Highway Patrol units were dispatched and a medevac helicopter was put on standby. When paramedics found the woman a few minutes later, they asked that the helicopter be sent immediately.
AIG Aviation, Inc., a member company of American International Group, Inc. (AIG), has agreed to underwrite hull and liability insurance for the Eclipse 500 jet on behalf of the member insurance companies of AIG. Additionally, insurance broker Willis Global Aviation has provided preliminary rate projections for the Eclipse 500 owner-pilot market. ``AIG Aviation is confident in the Eclipse 500 and the pilot training program developed by Eclipse Aviation's management team,'' said William Lovett, vice president of AIG Aviation, Inc.
FOR SEVERAL YEARS, the number of players selling the air charter services of others has grown steadily . . . as have their claims of service and size (see ``Inside the Card Membership Programs,'' B/CA, September 2004, page 68). The DOT had been watching the developments with keen interest, and on Oct. 8 took action by issuing policy guidance on ``the role of air charter brokers in arranging air transportation.''
Honeywell is working on a new low-cost cabin pressure control system for next-generation business jets that features all-electric instead of electro-pneumatic operation. ``It integrates really well with avionics and will enable us to offer an air management system at a lower price threshold than has been possible before,'' said Russ Turner, president of Honeywell Engines, Systems and Services. ``We have done all the electronics and software, and demonstrated the control laws last year.
Oct. 8 -- The crew of a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11F, on an FAA-approved ferry flight with an inoperative center engine, planned to go from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Alaska to Atlanta, where the repair was to take place. The crew elected to retract the center gear -- the freighter has three main gears -- to enhance performance and reduce drag.
Cessna sold 41 new Citations and six new Caravans at the NBAA Convention. And that doesn't include the 22 pre-sold aircraft it announced at the show. Here's an understatement from Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Roger Whyte: ``We had anticipated a positive response to our two new models and three newly certified Citations, but the number of new orders certainly exceeded our expectations.''
Blakey and Chew recounted FY 2005 budget steps already taken. Chew said officials are reviewing major capital programs, suggesting that key elements of the National Airspace Modernization Plan could be delayed or eliminated.
LightSPEED Aviation has entered the ultra-lightweight headset market with its new LightFlight L-1. The unit weighs only 0.5 ounces, attenuates 35-45dB of noise and has the same standard features as the company's premium headsets, including a cell/satellite phone jack, music input, electret mic, hi-fi stereo speakers and dual volume controls.
Embraer entered into an exclusive five-year distribution and logistics agreement with Sydney-based Hawker Pacific covering the supply of EMB 110 and EMB 120 spare parts in Australia and the Pacific Rim. Under the agreement, Hawker Pacific will acquire Embraer's entire inventory of spares currently housed at its facility in Melbourne, Australia, and take responsibility for the supply, order processing and distribution of all EMB 110 and EMB 120 spare parts to support the fleet in the region.
FAR Part 43 covers aircraft maintenance. Section 43.3(g) states: ``The holder of a pilot certificate issued under Part 61 may perform preventive maintenance on any aircraft owned or operated by that pilot [that] is not used under Part 121, 129 or 135.'' Below, Appendix A to Part 43 lists the 32 preventive maintenance items that pilots can legally perform, four of which involve balloons. The last two items were added in 1996 to include the new electronic technologies: (1) Removal, installation and repair of landing gear tires.
Even as exacting digital technology pervades aviation, investing it with unprecedented volumes of data and precision, confusion abounds regarding the likelihood of getting one's wonderjet halted before the pavement runs out. The problem is that most unprecise bit of wintertime analog data: braking action reports. Many pilots say that trusting someone else's estimate on a runway's ability to provide traction is too subjective a thing to be trusted.
When Domestic Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (DRVSM) operations begin over North America on Jan. 20, 2005, the market value of hundreds of older business aircraft that have not been retrofitted with the precise navigation equipment needed to operate in that airspace are expected to decline.
FlightSafety International has developed a novel Runway Judgment Training program using motion/visual simulators to help crews and flight departments develop safe experience and implement policies and procedures to manage the risks of operations at marginal airports and less than desirable runways. In the program the simulator instructor creates marginal operating conditions at an ``anytown'' or at a specific airport, varying runway length, width and weather. Crews must decide if the proposed takeoff or landing conditions are safe.
American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into a Queens, N.Y., neighborhood because the airplane's vertical stabilizer separated in flight as a result of aerodynamic loads that were created by the first officer's excessive rudder pedal inputs after the aircraft encountered wake turbulence, according to a final report adopted by the NTSB Oct. 26. The Safety Board said that contributing to the Nov. 12, 2001, crash were characteristics of the airplane's rudder system design and aspects of the airline's pilot training program. In a Nov.
Jet Aviation's Zurich and Dusseldorf maintenance facilities have been named authorized service centers for Cessna's new Citation Sovereign. The new status allows both facilities to perform heavy, scheduled line and base maintenance, modifications and engine repair on the Sovereign.
Flight Options CEO John Nahill unexpectedly left the company in early November. He headed the Cleveland-based fractional aircraft provider for just under two years. He took over as CEO shortly after the Raytheon Travel Air fractional aircraft fleet was combined with that of Flight Options, giving the unit about 200 aircraft. Nahill spent the prior four years at Raytheon Co. where he was vice president of corporate strategy and development. Raytheon subsequently took a controlling interest in Flight Options.
An AOPA newsletter described one of the more inventive relief operations in the immediate aftermath of the recent Florida hurricanes. In Punta Gorda, Fla., communications were nonexistent, but many victims had battery-powered radios. Local government officials asked banner tow operator William Bruckner Jr., who owns Florida Aerial Advertising based nearby in St. Petersburg, to tow a banner that read, ``Emergency Information 92.5 FM. Tune in now.'' The AOPA said Bruckner spent two days on the job, towing five hours each day, and reduced his fees by $200 an hour.
You're 20 times more likely to be killed in a Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) accident than in a midair collision. That's a statistic Don Bateman has been battling since he pioneered the first ground proximity warning system in 1969 while working as a young engineer at United Con-trols Corp. At the time the major airlines were experiencing one CFIT accident per million flights, losing eight aircraft annually to such accidents. Bateman recalls that Pan Am, for example, was averaging one CFIT accident per year.
Flower Aviation will soon have a modern, 5,000-square-foot customer terminal and a $1.7 million hangar for overnight transient aircraft storage at Salina, Kan. (SLN), under a cooperative arrangement with the Salina Airport Authority. More than 4,000 business jets refuel yearly at Flower SLN, which annually pumps over 2.5 million gallons of jet fuel. The FBO specializes in quick turns, advertising a ``spin of 10 minutes or less.''
Boeing is making its Class-3 Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) available for retrofit on Boeing Business Jets. The EFB contains Jeppesen charts, manuals for fault reporting and operations, minimum equipment lists and logbooks in digital format. Boeing claims its EFB is the only fully integrated, FAA-certified one available today.
Air Routing International has added a host of features to its Flight Manager. More than scheduling software, Flight Manager permits pilots, dispatchers and schedulers to check the status of permits, fuel and ground service arrangements, flight plans, hotel and ground transportation, security, weather and more, via the Internet. It provides 24/7 communication between clients and the Air Routing team handling the trip.
In November, the TSA was on the lookout for a stolen Piper Pawnee ag plane. The crop-dusting aircraft was stolen from Ejido Queretaro, near Mexicali, Mexico, on Nov. 1. Although there was no immediate indication that the incident had any connection to terrorist activity, the theft was cause for concern. Past information indicated that members of al-Qaida may have planned -- or still may be planning -- to disperse biological or chemical agents from crop-dusting aircraft. The stolen PA25 aircraft bore the registration XBCYP.
The TSA said FAR Part 135 cargo carriers would continue to operate under the ``Twelve-Five'' security regime as part of a ``layered'' approach to improving cargo security through a series of airport and operator requirements tailored to various segments of cargo operations. The agency released an NPRM developed at the direction of Congress, which had called upon the TSA in several pieces of legislation to address various aspects of cargo security.
