Listen to the salespeople, and you might come away thinking business jets and turboprops never need maintenance. Tim Gronberg, Bombardier's field service representative based in Danbury, Conn., calls it the ``illusion that they never break.'' ``That,'' he says, in a sorry-to-burst-your-bubble tone of voice, ``is just not the case.'' Consider a single-aircraft air-taxi operator that's agreed to take a $20,000 charter. The crew shows up, the paying customer and guests arrive, and on the preflight the copilot notices the right tire has gone flat.
Signature Flight Support, Orlando, has named Jeffrey Magnus general manager of its Palm Springs International Airport (PSP), Calif., facility. In addition to operating as an independent aircraft sales and distribution director, Magnus was previously president of Magnus Aviation, a Wisconsin-based concern that owned and operated two full-service FBOs.
Avidyne's FlightMax EX500 free-play trainer allows the user to access virtually all pages and functions on a PC as they would on a real multifunction display (MFD). The fully customizable software simulates all onboard sensors which can be connected to the MFD, including weather radar, traffic (TAS/TCAS or TCAD), lightning (WX500 Stormscope) and terrain (EGPWS/TAWS). For users without all these sensors in their aircraft, the simulator's settings can be changed to match the user's actual aircraft configuration.
The Aircraft Maintenance Department at the John. D. Odegard School for Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D., was presented with the Diamond Certificate of Excellence Award by the FAA. Twenty-two maintenance technicians also received individual awards for their participation in initial and recurrent maintenance training. In addition, 13 technicians have earned AMT awards for five consecutive years and are eligible to receive the Gold Seal Award.
Honeywell is forecasting civil turbine helicopter sales will grow at a 2-percent compounded rate worldwide between 2004 and 2011. The manufacturer's sixth Turbine-Powered Civil Helicopter Purchase Outlook released March 14 projects deliveries of approximately 2,350 new civil-use helicopters during the 2004 to 2008 period, driven in part by increased demand for light single and intermediate twin-engine models offering newer technology. This would represent a 6.8-percent sales increase over the 1999 to 2003 period.
Atlantic Aviation has begun construction on a $5.5 million upgrade at its Chicago Midway operation. The project includes construction of a 20,000-square-foot hangar, a 10,000-square-foot combined office and shop building, and a 7,000-square-foot ground support building. There will also be a 3,500-square-foot addition to an existing workshop building. Sue Sommers, vice president of marketing for Atlantic Aviation, says the project will be completed by the end of June.
A BIT OF MIDDLE SCHOOL humor. A burglar who has been casing a home for weeks waits until the owner leaves for work, goes to a side window, jimmies it open and enters. He's walking stealthily through the living room, eyeing the artwork and antiques, when a voice shatters the quiet, announcing, ``Jesus is watching!'' The thief nearly jumps out of his skin. His heart begins to race and he turns his head this way and that, looking for the speaker. He sees nothing.
Bombardier Aerospace, Singapore, has named Ricky Chun-ming Leung director of business development with Bombardier's Flexjet Asia-Pacific charter network based in Hong Kong. Leung joined Bombardier Flexjet Asia-Pacific as manager of operations in February 2002 when the network was launched.
The AOPA had its own take on the Boeing ATM program. When Boeing let it be known that it is reducing emphasis on the program and assigning it to the Phantom Works organization, AOPA President Phil Boyer said to association members, ``For AOPA members, Boeing's decision removes the specter of an industry-driven push for privatized air traffic control, at least for now. Boeing has assured us that they have no interest in privatizing air traffic control -- only pushing the system forward.''
Nearly half of the 22,000 FAA employees participating in a recent survey said they will likely leave the FAA within the next five years. Of those planning to leave, 68 percent say they plan to retire, 12 percent say they will look for another job in government and 17 percent will look for a job outside the government. The FAA's Employee Attitude Survey is conducted every two or three years.
IT IS PERFECTLY NATURAL for pilots to invest an instructor with their trust. After all, it's the instructor who demonstrates the right way to fly and helps bring the pilot to a higher level of understanding and competency. However, that trust should never be given automatically or without limitation because instructors do err, sometimes disastrously. A businessman pilot took some instrument instruction in a single-engine airplane through an FBO at Marshfield, Wis., Municipal Airport (MFI).
The TSA completed a draft of its general aviation airport security recommendations and has solicited limited industry input. The guidelines are based upon the recommendations drafted by the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC), which approved in November 2003 ``a tiered but flexible security plan'' that codifies industry best practices. The TSA wants to move expeditiously to complete and release the guidelines.
The Mexican government has ordered five Schweizer Model 333s, according to Schweizer Aircraft Corp. The helicopters, all slated for delivery this year, will be delivered to the Mexican Procuradura General de la RepPound blica (PGR), Agencia Federal de Investigacin (AFI). The new 333s will perform airborne law enforcement and surveillance missions including border patrol, drug enforcement and interdiction. All five helicopters will be equipped with the 333's recently certified uprated takeoff horsepower. Takeoff horsepower was increased from 252 to 280 shp.
Embraer is planning to increase its military airframe work from 10 percent to 40 percent as an offset to downturns in the airline and corporate aviation sectors. The Brazilian manufacturer is busy building 76 (plus 23 on options) EMB 314M ALX Super Tucano ground-attack single-engine turboprop aircraft. The first was delivered to the Brazilian Air Force in November 2003 and will be the ``teeth'' of the SIVAM (Sistema de Vigilncia da Amazonia) program by midyear.
Gulfstream announced on March 9 that its top-of-the-line jet had received both a Type Certificate from the new European Aviation Safety Agency and a recommendation letter from the Joint Aviation Authorities. Together, those actions enable the G550 to be certified and registered within 37 European and neighboring countries. In 2003, Gulfstream Aerospace established a company-owned and -operated maintenance center at London-Luton Airport to service Gulfstreams in the region.
Late in 2003, a successful Southern California entrepreneur was flying his single-pilot light jet on a foggy, low-visibility, nighttime ILS approach into an airport located near the coast. Such coastal weather conditions, in spite of boasts to the contrary by the chamber of commerce, aren't all that uncommon early in SoCal winters, particularly during late evening hours when the air temperature and dew point are likely to converge. ATIS was reporting the weather as partially obscured with 3/4-mile visibility.
Jet Aviation has approval to support the Williams-Rolls FJ44 engine worldwide. Jet Aviation centers in Dallas, Dusseldorf, Singapore and Zurich will become service facilities to support FJ44 engines powering Cessna CitationJets. Jet Aviation's Bedford, Mass., Dusseldorf and Zurich facilities will support FJ44s powering the Beech Premier I.
A U.S. Marine Corps Citation Encore (UC-35D) crashed on approach to Miramar Marine Corps Air Station near San Diego on the night of March 10. All four people aboard died. The aircraft was on a training flight from Grand Junction, Colo., when it crashed about 8:45 local about 1.5 miles from the Marine base and burst into flames. The Marines have six UC-35 aircraft, a mix of C (Ultra) and D (Encore) models that are used for VIP transport and other missions. The first UC-35C was delivered to the service in 1999; the first UC-35D became operational in 2001.
Cirrus Design has introduced the second generation of its SR22 single-engine piston composite airplane. The SR22-G2 has an entirely new fuselage, built with new precision tooling that enabled Cirrus to eliminate four stations on its manufacturing line while meeting tighter tolerances to reduce overall empty weight, which yields increased useful load. Other G2 enhancements include an all-new interior, a standard six-point engine mount, Hartzell scimitar three-blade prop, and a new cowl for better airflow management.
As the NBAA's vice president of operations Bob Blouin points out, it is ``unrealistic'' to compare the U.S. government-run ATC system to the privatized Nav Canada, as Canadian air traffic density represents a fraction of that of the United States. Actually, Canadian traffic averages between one-fifth and one-tenth of U.S. movements, depending on how you cook the numbers.
Delta Connection has placed a firm order for 32 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in first quarter 2005. The contract value is estimated at $780 million (U.S.) and represents the conversion to firm orders of 32 of the 169 options on the Bombardier CRJ200 held by Delta Connection carriers.
In December 2003, the Manassas Regional Airport (HEF), a business aviation alternative to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, celebrated the holiday season by unveiling two shapely new appendages for its 5,700-foot runway -- high speed turnoffs leading directly to the jet services FBO from both landing directions. While arguably a vast improvement on the previous clunky taxiway layout, the quick egress paths continued to have an operational flaw three months after the grand opening -- no one had updated the official airport diagram database to include them.
Savannah Air Center, Savannah, Ga., has hired Mark D. Karls as manager of aircraft maintenance. Karls, who brings more than 20 years of aviation experience to his new position, comes to Savannah Air Center from Gulfstream Aerospace.
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 XLS, with 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.
