Mayo Aviation, Inc., Englewood, Colo., an aircraft charter and management, maintenance, parts and emergency medical transport company, has hired Gregory Wilcox as director of operations.
Thunder Aviation has received a group STC for an RVSM retrofit for Falcon 20 jets equipped with the Collins AP-105 autopilot. The company says other STC amendments, covering similarly equipped Falcon 10s, should be forthcoming shortly -- as well as amendments for Falcon 10 and 20 aircraft equipped with the SPZ 500 autopilot. For more information go to www.thunderaviation.com.
Mercury Air Centers has moved its Los Angeles FBO to the south side of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Accessible from both the I-105 Freeway and Sepulveda Boulevard, the new site is more convenient for customers driving to the airport. Mercury is currently operating out of a refurbished building at the new location, but plans to build a new terminal over the next 18 months that will include a wide range of amenities and more than 10 acres of ramp space for parking and servicing aircraft. Fred Allega is executive general manager of Mercury's LAX facility.
Cirrus Design announced that as of September, year-to-date orders had exceeded the total number of aircraft delivered in 2003. Last year, Cirrus reported 469 aircraft deliveries to customers. By early September, the company sold its 475th aircraft for 2004. John M. Bingham, executive vice president of sales at Cirrus said that in one recent ``incredible'' week the company sold 43 aircraft. ``At this pace, we're on track to sell 630 airplanes in 2004, well in excess of the original sales projection of 542,'' he said.
During the definition phase of IS-BAO development, IBAC's task force identified 15 benefits that could be achieved from adoption of a standard industry code of practice. For Flight Departments: Self-education -- IS-BAO helps flight departments learn from experiences of their peers. Assistance to new operators -- New flight departments can adopt a code of best practice from the beginning of operations.
U.S. News & World Report's ``Best Colleges 2005'' ranked Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach campus first in its ``guide for a specialty school in aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering.'' The university was compared with other institutions that offer the same specialty. The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado ranked second, and the Embry-Riddle Prescott, Ariz., campus and the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland tied for third. California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo rounded out the top five.
Rockwell Collins has received FAA certification of a dual Integrated Flight Information System (IFIS) on a Dassault Falcon 50. The IFIS provides such advanced capabilities as electronic charting, graphical weather and enhanced map overlays, and installation of a dual system to bring level-three electronic flight bag capability to the flight deck, thus allowing operators to transition to ``paperless'' operations.
Beware of halogen bulbs in the cargo hold. They're hot! An Emirates Airlines Boeing 777-300 was in cruise flight when the crew received a fire warning in the aft bulk cargo compartment. The crew discharged extinguishing agent into the compartment, but the warning illuminated two more times. After diverting to Chennai, India, and evacuating the 380 passengers, a small piece of luggage was found smoldering in the cargo compartment, where it had been in direct contact with a ceiling light fixture containing a halogen light bulb.
AvFab, the Clinton, Mo.-based maker of custom aircraft seating, has received an STC for its divans for the Citation 650. The divans, which can add seating or sleeping capacity to existing aircraft, come in either one-, two-, three- or four-place variations, and the STCed kits include detailed installation directions and applicable weight-and-balance data.
UltraJet LLC is offering an UltraJet Card that provides 25 hours of flight time in the UltraJet business jet fleet with a one-time pre-payment. UltraJet cards begin at $87,500 for use of a seven-seat light jet.
Honeywell's Bendix/King KGP 560 EGPWS is now a factory-installed option for Cirrus SR series aircraft. ``The KGP 560 is the first Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS) offered by Cirrus. It offers protection from Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), one of the leading causes of general aviation fatalities,'' said Dan Barks, Honeywell's director of marketing for business, regional and general aviation. ``The KGP 560 offers a unique combination of look-ahead algorithms, comprehensive terrain and obstacle databases, and multi-level alerting capabilities.
Gulfstream Aerospace has received an STC from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) enabling the aircraft manufacturer's Luton service center in the United Kingdom to install the Honeywell AirSat1 satellite telephone on GIV and GIV-SP business jets. Using the Iridium network, AirSat1 allows aircraft passengers to talk by phone and connect directly to the Internet while flying almost anywhere in the world. This is the first STC to be issued by EASA to the Luton service center, which is located just north of London at the London-Luton Airport.
Bombardier is putting a complete support system in place for Challenger 300 operators in Europe. Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services GmbH (LBAS), located at Berlin-Schonefeld Airport, has received full Part 145 approval from the European Aviation Safety Association (EASA) and the FAA. LBAS has also received Honeywell service center authorization to support the HTF7000 turbofan engines powering the Challenger 300.
The Azerbaijan government has ordered an A319CJ Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) for delivery in late 2005. The head-of-state aircraft will be fitted with 55 seats and have a range of 4,860 nm (9,000 km), which is sufficient to fly from Baku to all European capitals, and most major cities in Asia and Africa. State-owned AZAL (Azerbaijan Airlines) signed for the ACJ and three Airbus A319 airliners -- making it the first Airbus operator in the Caspian region. Airbus said that by the end of this year there will be over 30 ACJs in operation world-wide.
Pine cones contain the seeds of their parent evergreen, and to grow a new forest, you need a lot of them. Nature's way for replanting depends a lot on chance -- seed-bearing cones get carried by the wind or wild animals to fertile soil, where the seeds sink in and then water, sun and air work their magic and, eventually, a tree results. But if you want to better the odds, get a helicopter. With a special conical harvester slung below, the helicopter hovers over a well-coned tree, drops the device, and waits for it to slide down the tree.
ACCORDING TO The Atlantic Monthly, there's a new phrase in the lexicon of slurs: the Gulfstream Liberal. Great. This newest pejorative surfaced when a pattern was detected among certain well-heeled, left leaners who rush to Sierra Club fundraisers and anti-SUV rallies in -- brace yourselves -- business jets, the lay press's icon of gross self-indulgence and now, liberal hypocrisy.
If you think only the Big Corporate Guns of the flight training world provide quality courseware, you're overlooking a small yet notable organization that has provided solid instructional material to hundreds of thousands of aviators for almost 30 years.
Prior to the 9/11 attacks, the federal bureaucracy with which pilots had the most contact was the FAA. Today, it's the FAA and an aggressive transportation law-enforcement agency that didn't exist three years ago. The TSA was authorized by Congress in December 2001 and opened for business the following month.
J. Mesinger Corporate Jet Sales, Inc. has redesigned its Web site. Besides presenting the current inventory of aircraft for sale and a portfolio of information about aviation asset management, a password-protected area allows registered customers to track the status of their aircraft purchase or sale. The new site is up and running at www.jetsales.com.
Rockwell Collins has received the industry's first TSO approval for a multi-mode receiver (MMR) with Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) functionality. The Collins GLU-925 is the first to include LAAS and GPS landing system (GLS) in addition to ILS and GNSS. GLS holds promise for bringing flexible and economical precision approach capability to runways and airports not currently served by the traditional ILS. The system will be available for the Boeing 737-NG this fall, with other Boeing models to follow.
Athens Aviation Services (AAS), the main FBO at Athens International Airport, handled more than 400 private aircraft and some 70 charters during the Summer Olympics, which, it said, represented approximately 75 percent of all general aviation traffic during the games. Planning started 12 months in advance of the games, according to Jitte Boutens, AAS executive aviation account manager.
FOR THE CREW OF the Learjet 35A, the first leg of this mission was a chip shot -- a 70-nm repositioning hop from the charter outfit's homebase at Republic Airport (FRG) in Farmingdale, N.Y., to Groton-New London Airport (GON) on the Connecticut side of Long Island Sound. Once there they were to board two customers and fly them to a business meeting in Buffalo in the far northwestern corner of New York.
Ramp Check! During a recent ramp check at Pentastar Aviation at Oakland County International Airport, Mich., a Ford Tri-Motor aircraft received a flawless paperwork review from the local FSDO. Left to right: Pentastar Aviation Director of Flight Operations Bob Russell and FAA Inspector Nicholas Pipitone from the Detroit FSDO.
At the same time, Williams disclosed that it is within a few months of completing certification testing of another, previously undisclosed turbofan at the ``smaller end'' of its product line. The new engine is scheduled to be unveiled at this month's NBAA convention in Las Vegas.
