Even though business aviation has had a spectacular safety record in recent years, accidents still occur. And should one of your aircraft and those aboard come to grief, as a maintenance manager it will undoubtedly fall to you to help put things to right. You'll have a lot to do -- possibly much of it unfamiliar and upsetting -- and little time in which to do it. So, having in place a disaster plan that is simple, known, thorough and proven will help make the chaos of the moment less intense.
Mercury Air Group, Inc. opened a $30 million working capital line of credit with Bank of America to buffer it from fuel price swings. The credit line is in the form of a revolving secure loan with a three-year term. ``As fuel prices rise, this line of credit will provide Mercury with the financial flexibility necessary to meet the needs of our customers and suppliers,'' said Joseph A. Czyzyk, president and CEO of the company.
Raytheon Aircraft said its T-6A trainers were ``part of the protective air umbrella'' at the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece. The Hellenic Air Force uses the T-6A for training pilots, but 20 of its fleet of 45 T-6As are equipped with hardpoints that can accommodate rocket and/or gun pods. They took delivery of their first T-6A in July 2000.
Salina, Kan., Municipal Airport (SLN), which had shut down Runway 17/35 on May 3 for resurfacing, reopened the 12,300-foot runway on July 31. The project, which included runway resurfacing, new high-intensity runway lights, resurfaced taxiways and a new backup power generator for airfield lighting, cost $2.7 million, of which $2.4 million came from FAA Airport Improvement Program funds.
NetJets Inc. will purchase 50 AirCell ST 3100 satellite communications systems from Iridium Satellite LLC for its Raytheon Hawker 400XP light business jets, Iridium said in August. The systems will provide worldwide data and voice services to NetJets on the ground and at all altitudes through Iridium's 66 low-Earth orbiting satellites. The satellite phone systems will be installed into the 400XPs before their retail delivery at Raytheon Aircraft Services in San Antonio.
Bonanza and Baron orders soared after Raytheon announced the Garmin G1000 integrated avionics system would be standard equipment. A total of 44 G1000-equipped aircraft -- 34 Bonanzas and 10 Barons -- have been ordered with deposits. ``We expected a strong response but 44 orders in this short time is spectacular,'' said Randy Groom, president of Beechcraft.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong and test pilot Scott A. Crossfield will present the 2nd Annual Harry B. Combs Award during the opening general session of the NBAA's 57th Annual Meeting & Convention on Tuesday, Oct. 12 in Las Vegas. Through the Combs Award, the National Aviation Hall of Fame annually presents $20,000 to an individual or group completing a project that advances the promotion or preservation of America's air and space heritage, with special emphasis on the individual pioneers who defined America's aerospace horizons.
Part of any recurrent training program should be a review of the various visual and sensory illusions to which pilots may succumb and that lead to spatial disorientation. The following descriptions of the more common illusions are excerpted from the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM), Section 8-1-5, ``Illusions in Flight'':
WX2ME is a service that enables pilots to access real-time aviation weather reports using text messages on any text-messaging capable cell phone. Designed to enable pilots to have instant access to METAR and TAF reports, WX2ME functions with most cellular networks in North America. The service was developed by Toronto-based Wagjag Inc. and Mobile Elements. Price: $5 per month or $55 per year Wx2ME Wagjag Inc. 623 Euclid Ave. Toronto, Ontario M6G 2T6 Canada (416) 516-6888 www.wx2me
Synthetic vision is generating or creating an artificial ground or object reference from a database built from real-world data. Enhanced vision is modifying, clarifying or detecting the real world by any means and displaying it in a form the pilot can interpret as if he or she were seeing it.
Airbus, SITA and Tenzing have teamed to offer inflight phone and Internet services that allow passengers to use their own mobile phones, laptops and PDAs and to be billed through their normal mobile operator or Internet Service Provider (ISP). Typical international roaming rates will apply for mobile use, and laptop and PDA connectivity will be charged on a usage basis, the companies said.
For those whose mission requires flying with night-vision goggles, Honeywell has FAA certification for its new night-vision-enabled KI 825 Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator (EHSI). The KI 825 combines traditional heading and navigation functionality with a moving map display in a 3 ATI format (3.26 inches by 3.26 inches). The EHSI is visible in darkness or bright daylight. Ferris-wheel compass card headings are displayed in all operating modes.
Elliott Aviation has received FAA STC group approval for RVSM packages for the Beechjet 400 and Diamond MU-300 aircraft. Elliott's RVSM solution uses the Beechjet/Diamond's native Honeywell avionics suite. The non-compliant Honeywell air data/altimetry hardware is replaced with a Honeywell AZ-252 advanced air data computer, AM-250 barometric altimeter, BA-250 barometric altimeter display and AL-800 altitude preselector/alerter. Elliott says the architecture of the system requires very little rewiring to the aircraft, minimizing downtime for installation.
The tank's empty. There's no more 80-octane Avgas being produced. The AOPA confirmed that the last known refinery of 80-octane aviation gasoline, Kern Oil, has stopped producing the fuel. The association said its online airport directory will give pilots information on the 22 airports that still have supplies of 80 octane. The AOPA also lists holders of STCs that can convert aircraft engines to run on 100LL gas. The association, however, expressed concern about the long-term outlook of 100LL, which is a ``high-cost, low-volume product'' for refiners.
News of the settlement reached between the families of five Oklahoma State University basketball players and the estates of two pilots killed in the crash of a chartered Super King Air 200 in January 2001 recently came out. It's a sobering reminder of how things can go wrong -- dead wrong -- on a seemingly routine flight. Into the Graveyard
Tradeoffs are a reality of aircraft design, although engineers attempt to optimize the blend of capabilities, performance and passenger comfort. B/CA compares the subject aircraft, in this case the Citation CJ3, to the composite characteristics of others in its class, computing the percentage differences for various parameters in order to portray the aircraft's relative strengths and weaknesses. We also include the absolute value of each parameter, along with the relative ranking, for the subject aircraft within the composite group.
TAG Farnborough claims movements are expected to reach close to 19,000 this year, up 20 percent from 2003. There aren't any hard corporate aircraft movement statistics available for the southeast of England as all movements are lumped together by the U.K. authorities. But Len Rayment, TAG Farnborough's operations director, says that 50,000 to 60,000 business aircraft movements is a realistic estimation. ``We had 107 movements [at Farnborough] on one day in June with the average aircraft now Challenger sized,'' said Rayment.
According to the Aviation Mechanic's Bulletin, tire/wheel assemblies operated at significantly less than the specified pressure may experience any of the following problems: Tires may creep or slip on the wheels during landing or when brakes are applied, possibly leading to shearing of a valve and destruction of the entire assembly. Rapid or uneven wear may occur at or near the tread shoulder or the edge of the tire's tread (providing evidence of chronic under-inflation).
PrivatAir, citing a big jump in charter activity this year, added five charter sales representatives at its U.S. corporate headquarters in Stratford, Conn. Thomas Fitzsimmons, PrivatAir's chief operating officer for North America, said the company's ``midyear U.S. charter revenue is up 60 percent; so far, we are enjoying our strongest charter revenue performance year ever.''
Although both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate approved legislation earlier this summer that included a one-year extension of bonus-depreciation tax benefits for sales of general aviation aircraft, final passage of the legislation is not expected until this month at the earliest. The proposed continuation of this tax benefit, which also applies to major capital improvements to older aircraft, is considered by many industry officials to be crucial to maintaining positive momentum in aircraft sales.
The EC 225, the latest civil version of the Eurocopter Super Puma, gained JAR 29 IFR certification from EASA in July. The certification is initially for a maximum altitude of 20,000 feet and an operating temperature envelope between -15C and +40C. This will be extended to -30C and +50C by mid-2005 and for full icing certification by that same date, says Eurocopter. The EC 225 has a maximum takeoff weight of 24,250 pounds, 24,690 pounds with a sling load.
In all of the excitement and flurry surrounding the new very light jet (VLJ) market, the offshoot that has recently garnered its share of attention from the business world is the highly anticipated air limousine industry launch. While some VLJ manufacturers claim heavy demand and orders in the thousands, others struggle or fold, unable to maintain the vigorous financial stamina required to get a new jet from concept to market.
The FAA has awarded Innovative Solutions & Support (IS&S), a Pennsylvania-based provider of RVSM equipment, a TSO certification for the company's new large flat-panel display, which is called Cockpit I/P Flat Panel. IS&S plans to work with aircraft manufacturers to retrofit the new product in a wide range of aircraft, including business airplanes.
