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.
Bombardier's newest business jet is an MSG-3 aircraft, an all-new machine designed from the ground up with ease of maintenance in mind. Maintenance Steering Group 3 (MSG-3) is a reliability-centered maintenance program begun by the FAA (AC 121.22A) to help tackle maintenance issues during a new aircraft's development. The program enlists representatives of operators, the OEM and the government to evaluate each maintenance task and component in terms of critical function, inspection methodology, damage tolerance and economics.
Piaggio North America's new president and CEO, Tom Appleton, and new executive vice president and chief operating officer, Jim Holcombe, told B/CA that the company will increase its efforts in the North American market, where the 34 aircraft currently flying represent about 20 percent of the P180 Avanti fleet. At the same time, the parent, Piaggio Group, received a capital infusion from the Italian government-owned Sviluppo Italia.
Petroleum Helicopters, Inc. plans to buy two Sikorsky S-92 medium-lift helicopters in support of deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The aircraft are due for delivery in 2004. Earlier this summer, Norwegian operator Norsk Helikopter announced that it was adding an additional two S-92s to its earlier order for two; all are scheduled for 2004 delivery. The first two aircraft are to replace a pair of AS 332l Super Pumas stationed at Bergen; the latter pair will also be based in Norway on Norwegian Shelf operations.
Raytheon Aircraft Services recently awarded Innovative Solutions and Support, Inc. (IS&S) a $3 million order for air data display and analog interface units for installation on the Beechjet 400 (and MU300) and Hawker 700 series of aircraft. IS&S already provides RVSM and other air data instrumentation for Raytheon's Beech King Air 200 and 350 and the Beech 1900.
Vertex Aerospace, formerly Raytheon Aerospace, which performed maintenance on the Beech 1900D that crashed after takeoff from Charlotte, N.C., in January, claims the aircraft flew outside of center of gravity (c.g.) limits, rendering it unstable and uncontrollable. ``Simply put, an airplane that is unstable may not fly even when full elevator control authority is available,'' the company said.
Aviation Safety Training (AST), the Houston outfit that helped launch the upset training concept in T-34s (an aircraft, it's quick to note, whose roll performance mimics most business aircraft and whose full instrumentation allows for ``panel recovery,'' which is the way most pilots would recover from an upset), now shakes up simulator sessions as well. AST instructors have been invited, upon customer request, to use FlightSafety International and SimuFlite, Bombardier, to provide daylong sessions in high- and low-altitude upset recovery.
I read with interest your article, ``The Power Curve's Back Side'' (Cause & Circumstance, September, page 94), since it brought back memories of an incident that happened to my best friend and fellow student in Air Force pilot training about 1960. At that time I was learning in T-33 trainers that resemble the Learjet 20 series in many ways, except they were single-engine and suffered a great lack of power -- a feature that probably saved my friend's life on that spring day at Greenville AFB, Miss.
Robert P. Warren has been named the NBAA's executive vice president and chief operating officer, a new position. The appointment makes Warren, a former prosecutor and recently top attorney for the Air Transport Association (ATA), second in command to President Shelley Longmuir, who is also an attorney with an airline background. During his eight years as senior vice president and chief counsel at the ATA, Warren oversaw matters involving ICAO, the FAA, Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc. has released its 2004 FAR/AIM series of books. ASA consolidates the FARs and the Aeronautical Information Manual into easy-to-use reference books, which show all of the changes since the last release, marked clearly for quick reference. Books are indexed to provide a clear listing of subject matter and paragraph number or regulation. The FAR/AIM contains lists of FAA, NTSB, NOS and FSDO contact information. Updates will be available as a free download from the ASA Web site for instant access to regulation and procedural changes.
The National Air Transportation Association gained the support of House Small Business Administration Chairman Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) in its opposition to the FAA's domestic RVSM (DRVSM) implementation date of January 2005. Manzullo told the Office of Management and Budget that the FAA had erroneously concluded that full implementation by that date would have little impact on operators. He said the agency had limited its analysis to the impact on air carriers.
Missing from most training center curricula is the broad category of surface operations at airports. While many might think an hour on ramp etiquette during recurrent training would be productive, the consensus seems to be otherwise: Getting an airplane to and from the runway is just too basic a concept to be treated in the same category as advanced airmanship. Pilots train hard on the normal and abnormal procedures that begin and end on a runway. The consequences of poor performance while airborne can be grave.
