First of all, my congratulations to Richard Aarons for his continuous contribution to aviation safety; he is such an admirable person for his clarity and concepts. Sin-cerely, it's an honor for the aviation community to have him among us. Currently, I'm a B737 first officer and an airplane performance ground instructor for commercial pilots. A couple years ago I sent a request for permission to translate for my students his ``Avoiding Trouble in Part 23 Twins'' (Cause & Circumstance, November 1999, page 92).
YOUR AIRPLANE IS DOWN for unscheduled maintenance, and the boss needs to fly tomorrow. Your friends at the flight department across the ramp fly almost identical equipment, and their schedule is clear. Why not just have them fly the boss tomorrow, and you will owe them the favor? If no money changes hands, there shouldn't be any legal problems, right? With a little pre-planning, you should be fine legally swapping time with another flight department, but it would be difficult to get done everything that needs doing the day before a trip. First, the FAA issues.
Embraer announced that a gear-up landing on one of its EMB 170 test aircraft won't affect the aircraft's November certification date. The airplane, serial number 004, had damage on its engine nacelles and lower aft fuselage. Embraer started repairing the aircraft immediately.
A front-seat crash-test dummy lurches forward against a straining seat belt and blossoming air bag as the car surrounding it crumples like a soda can. It's a generic slow-motion scene now firmly imprinted in the visual memory of the American public, courtesy of the automobile safety establishment. What the pilot community may not be aware of, however, is that a similar scene, sans air bag, caps an intense development process for any new cockpit seat before it can be used in a business aircraft, courtesy of the FAA.
CHC Helicopters International has been awarded a five-year contract renewal with Total Exploration and Production Co. in Southeast Asia for the provision of one dedicated Sikorsky S-76A++ helicopter. The contract, awarded after a competitive bid, will generate anticipated revenue of approximately CDN$18.8 million over the five-year period. CHC has worked with Total in Southeast Asia for the past 10 years. Additionally, CHC has been awarded a short-term contract with Daewoo International Corp. and a 12-month contract expansion with Premier Petroleum.
The FAA has certified the Beriev Be-103, a six-place, Russian-built amphibious aircraft. The two aircraft now in the United States are for sale at a reduced price of $650,000 by the U.S. distributor, Kent Linn, at Sky Manor Airport (N40) in Pittstown, N.J. The aircraft has a claimed payload of 849 pounds, is powered by two 210-hp Continental engines and is equipped with Honeywell Bendix/King avionics. It has a maximum cruise speed of 135 knots and lands on its fuselage for water landings or landing gear for land operations. It was designed by Beriev Aircraft Co.
Featuring more than 200 full-color photographs and written by Von Hardesty, a curator at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Air Force One takes the reader inside each aircraft to show how the office of the president was altered by aeronautical advances of the last 60 years and how each president in turn influenced the airplane. The book contains a foreword by Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News and host of ``Face the Nation.'' Price: $29.95 NorthWord Press 18705 Lake Dr. E.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey plans to stay put. Addressing rumors that have swirled around Washington, D.C., during the summer that she is a likely candidate for the role of DOT secretary should Norman Mineta step down, she said, ``I have no ambitions whatsoever [to do that],'' in an interview with B/CA. Those rumors surfaced after Mineta had spent considerable time in the hospital recuperating from a series of health problems. Some began to question whether he would continue in his role.
NovAtel Inc. reports its selection by the Institute of Navigation and the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) to develop a GPS differential system for use by the association to validate straight course speed records for aircraft in flight. One of the NAA's functions is to encourage, coordinate, document and promote competition and record-making aviation and space events in accordance with the rules prescribed by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI), of which the NAA is the official U.S. representative.
In reading B/CA for over a quarter of a century now, I have yet to be disappointed . . . and the August issue was certainly no exception. The Operations Planning Guide was superb, especially the article about hourly cost maintenance programs. Your editorial staff has a talent for taking the most complicated subject and presenting it such a way that even I can understand it. Additionally, I know that those of us who have been around a while really appreciate the Greenhouse Patter reprints.
The Gasoline Analysis Test Separator (GATS) jar is a fuel tester that allows you to put preflight fuel samples back into your airplane. The pilot samples and checks the fuel as always, but as the sampled fuel is returned to the tank, a built-in screen separates solids and non-petroleum contaminants, so that only clean fuel is returned. A reversible sump actuator fits both pin and petcock actuators, while a wide-mouth collector helps protect hands and clothing.
The AOPA also objects to the FAA's January 2005 DRVSM implementation schedule, arguing that the FAA has not given itself or industry enough time to properly equip and certify aircraft to meet the new requirements. Instead, the association proposes a phased implementation that covers FL 350 to FL 390 by December 2004 and full implementation covering FL 290 to FL 410 coming at least two years later. Further, the AOPA says the cost of equipping aircraft in some cases exceeds their market value.
Women in Aviation International (WAI) scholarship listings are now posted online at www.wai.org. WAI has given out $3 million worth of training, equipment and money through scholarships since 1996. Awards in 2002 totaled $300,000, according to the association.
New Piper President and CEO Chuck Suma announced Sept. 9 at Piper's Worldwide Dealer Meeting in Orlando that the FAA has issued a Type Certificate for the Piper 6XT. The TC was issued just seven months after project launch. The Piper 6XT is a turbocharged fixed-gear version of the popular six-place Saratoga II aircraft. The Piper 6X, which was certified in July, is its normally aspirated equivalent.
Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts has joined the Corporate Angel Network (CAN) and will provide rooms for the program's patients and their families, who may have extended treatment stays in cities far from home. Kevin Kowalski, vice president of brand management for the hotel chain, said ``Crowne Plaza's association will make it easier for CAN patients to focus on what is truly important: getting well. ''The hotel firm also plans to hold a philanthropy event at its corporate office in Atlanta with all proceeds to be donated to CAN.
The NBAA concurred with the DOT inspector general's report on contract towers, ``Safety, Cost and Operational Metrics of the Federal Aviation Administration's Visual Flight Rule Towers'' released Sept. 4. ``We commend the department's Inspector General Ken Mead on his thorough, independent analysis of the contract tower program,'' stated NBAA President Shelley A. Longmuir.
Knowing how to cannibalize an airframe in such a way as to yield maximum value from its parts is a rare skill, but recovering and moving crashed, or otherwise disassembled aircraft, is an arcane specialty in its own right. ``My expertise is getting your aircraft to you without damaging it,'' Greg Wilson shouted into his cell phone from the cab of a crane truck somewhere in the Midwest.
Keystone Helicopter will refurbish all four of the Metro Life Flight S-76A helicopters that provide air medical transport for MetroHealth in the northeast Ohio area. The project will include repainting the exteriors, installing state-of-the-art avionics and refurbishing the medical interiors.
Hartzell Propeller has announced its new two-blade replacement propeller system for Beech Model 55 Barons with IO-470-L engines. The system is less expensive than the three-blade conversion, and the new blades eliminate the historical maintenance issues that were presented by the older propellers with threaded designs. Each propeller is 78 inches in diameter, weighs 71 pounds and has a 2,400-hour/six-year TBO. In addition, the blades come with a three-year, 1,000-hour warranty. Price: $17,250 or $18,500 (with alcohol anti-ice) Hartzell Propeller Inc. One Propeller Pl.
Cessna Citation Sovereign s.n. 0003 has rolled off the production line, a milestone since it is the first Sovereign to be assembled on the 17-station production assembly line in Wichita. Cessna says it has taken more than 100 orders for the aircraft and first delivery is on track for early 2004.
Editor's Note: Several years ago, airframe and turbine engine manufacturers, along with pilot groups and regulators from the United States and Great Britain, joined together to investigate the causes of pilots reacting inappropriately to engine malfunctions. The phenomenon is called Propulsion System Malfunction Plus Inappropriate Crew Response, or PSM+ICR.
Connexion, Boeing's mobile broadband information service, has signed a contract with satellite operator Eutelsat for satellite transponder capacity for coverage across Europe to central Asia. The agreement provides transponder capacity on Eutelsat's SESAT satellite for the full-scale introduction of high-speed connectivity for airlines and passengers seeking real-time access to e-mail, company intranets, the Web and entertainment content in flight.
Northeast Air in Portland, Maine (PWM), is now a Universal Avionics dealer. The company is a repair, maintenance and avionics modification facility specializing in Citations, Beechjets, Hawkers, King Airs and Turbo Commanders. Its Web site is www.northeastair.com.
You're shopping for a new airplane and you want to compare one aircraft's characteristics with another's. When it comes to specifications, performance and costs, you can turn to any number of tools, including B/CA's own annual Purchase Planning Handbook (May), our Operations Planning Guide (August) and CompAir from ARG/US. However, when it comes to data on aircraft maintenance reliability and dispatch readiness, the primary sources of information are the aircraft manufacturers themselves, and consequently some buyers question their veracity.
