American Blimp Co.'s fleet has accumulated 150,000 flight hours as of August, with one of its A-60+ airships logging more than 15,000 hours and two others racking up more than 10,000 hours, according to marketing Vice President Jud Brandreth. American manufactures its blimps in Hillsboro, Ore., and assembles and flight tests wherever they will first operate. You can find out more at www.americanblimp.com.
Stevens Aviation Denver at Colorado's Jeffco Airport (BJC) is now an authorized service center for Raytheon Premier I aircraft and can perform heavy and scheduled maintenance, airframe maintenance and engine repair. Stevens also has facilities in Nashville, (BNA); Dayton, Ohio (DAY); Lexington, Ky. (LEX); and two in Greenville, S.C. (GYH and GSP).
I follow your accident reviews quite closely, since I teach a Reliability & 1309 course at the University of Kansas: www.kuce. org/aero/rdas.html. Richard Aarons' August Cause & Circumstance (``Think Like an Aviation Safety Investigator,'' page 108) makes the statement ``pilot error rates in accidents involving career pilots have dropped from about 86 percent to 50 percent.'' Exactly where is his source for the 50-percent value? David L. Stanislaw Wichita, KS My statement is based on stats generated over the years by Robert A. Breiling Associates.
Brussels-based Eurocontrol says that the skies over its 36 states were the busiest ever for the July and August period. The average number of aircraft handled per day was 25,138 in July and 25,127 in August. Despite their record business, Eurocontrol says that air traffic management-related delays were down to an average of 1.9 minutes per aircraft in July and 1.6 minutes in August. Back in 2001 the average delay was 4.6 minutes in July and 3.4 minutes in August. Eurocontrol Director General Victor M.
Safe Flight Instrument Corp.'s auto-throttle system now has been STCed for installation on Bombardier CRJ 100/200 aircraft. The system received Canadian certification in May. Bombardier stated that the CRJ is the first regional jet in its class to offer an auto-throttle power management system.
-- Aug. 5 -- A Bell 206B lost control and rolled over while landing in daylight on a concrete pad at a construction site near Merced, Calif. Hostetler Investments LLC operated the helicopter, which sustained substantial damage. The commercial pilot and two passengers aboard were not injured. The pilot reported that while lowering the collective as he was landing, the helicopter rocked back and the tail rotor skid touched the ground. The pilot quickly pulled the helicopter back into a hover, and it moved forward and started rolling to the right.
``The day we had all feared has arrived,'' said AOPA President Phil Boyer as the final obliteration of Chicago Meigs Field got under way. ``Until now, many had held onto the slimmest of hopes that the airport could be saved. Now there's no denying that [Chicago Mayor Richard] Daley has gotten his way.''
YOU HAVE TO HAND IT TO the folks at GAMA. Back in February, when its members gathered in Washington, D.C., to assess the industry's performance in 2002 and contemplate the outlook for this year, things looked bleak. With the threat of war in Iraq, a huge inventory of used aircraft on the market and a boatload of sour economic news, 2003 promised to be a flat sales year -- at best.
As we went to press, federal officials continued to warn of possible terrorist attacks in the United States by Al Qaeda affiliates. The NBAA advised its members to remain vigilant for any unusual activity and follow the NBAA Best Practices for Business Aviation Security -- which are the basis for programs leading to obtaining a TSA Access Certificate (TSAAC). The NBAA's best security practices are available online at www.nbaa.org/ops/security/bestpractices.htm.
L-3 electronic standby instruments will now be standard on new Cessna Citations, the avionics manufacturer announced. The L-3 Electronic Standby System combines attitude, airspeed, altitude, slip-skid, nav data and vertical speed on a single 3-ATI LCD. The display is designed to provide clarity and excellent off-axis viewing in both sunlight and dark viewing conditions, the company says. The standby display can be customized for compatibility with the primary flight displays' symbology and can also interface with navigation and flight control systems and FMSes.
ATG is taking the Javelin engineering flight simulator to the AOPA and NBAA conventions this fall to demonstrate the aircraft's cockpit environment and flight characteristics to prospects ``with serious interest in purchasing'' the high-performance jet, ATG President George Bye said. Until now, the simulator, created by Merlin Simulation, has been used as an engineering tool for design and development of the Javelin.
Gulfstream Aerospace delivered its first G300 last month to charter operator Royal Jet based at the Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. The airplane is one of two specially configured G300s ordered by the U.A.E. operator that are designed for either VIP/executive charter flights or medical evacuation transport.
THERE'S NOTHING AIRPORT folks enjoy more than watching (and listening to) an old, straight-pipe 20-series Learjet take off. And that fact was good news for the NTSB investigators assigned to the Nov. 22, 2001, crash of a Learjet 25B during an attempted takeoff from Runway 28L at Pittsburgh International (PIT). The airplane (N5UJ), operated by Universal Jet Aviation, was deadheading to its home base at Boca Raton, Fla., when the accident occurred.
Ibis Aerospace has appointed East Coast Jet Center in Stuart, Fla., the distributor for its Ae270 Propjet in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, most of Georgia and the Caribbean. The company says the total number of firm orders for Ae270 aircraft stands at 76, with options for an additional six. Ibis' Web site is www.Ae270.com.
In a strongly worded letter to Martin County Deputy Administrator Dan Hudson, National Air Transportation Association (NATA) Vice President Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside urged the county administration to reject proposals to close or downsize Witham Field in Stuart, Fla. ``As the county considers all of the possible options for the future of Witham Field, we implore the community leaders to seriously bear in mind the impact, both tangible and intangible, that it brings to the local economy,'' said Burnside in the letter.
Multiflight Handling Service has taken delivery of the first Boeing BBJ2 available for charter service. Boeing confirmed that the aircraft, completed by Lufthansa Technik (LHT), is the first of its type available for luxury long-range charter. Executive Jet Charter of Farnborough will operate the aircraft. On its shakedown flights, the aircraft was flown nonstop to Oakland, Calif., and on to Tahiti, returning via Calgary to Leeds, logging a total of 38 flight hours. Multiflight hopes to gain 180-minute ETOPS certification.
Jet Aviation London Biggin Hill was recently named an authorized Dassault Service Center for Falcon 900 series business jets. The company has been providing line and base maintenance support for U.K.-based Falcon 900 aircraft in addition to unscheduled technical support. The new service center status will allow the facility to perform scheduled and unscheduled maintenance on Falcon 900 series aircraft, including airframe, engine and avionics work along with aircraft modifications.
Elite Flight Solutions has a contract to manage a Learjet 25, which will be based at Elite's base in Sarasota, Fla. Elite said it is in the process of acquiring a Citation III for its charter operation.
Aeronautical Accessories, Inc., a Bell Helicopter affiliate, has a new STC for Safe Flight Instrument Corp.'s Exceedence Warning System installed on Bell 206B JetRangers. Safe Flight announced that Aeronautical Accessories and its worldwide sales network will be the sole distributor of its Exceedence Warning System for commercial applications. Safe Flight is pursuing U.S. government applications for the system.
``You're in better shape here,'' aviation lawyer Phil Crowther of Wichita said, referring to county property taxes potentially assessed against aircraft. In 10 percent of states, mostly in New England, Crowther pointed out, neither property nor registration taxes (another form of annual tax) are assessed against aircraft. ``In the Southeastern states, they all seem to assess property taxes,'' Crowther said.
The narrative that follows is from pertinent portions of the NTSB preliminary accident report identified as CHI03FA099. The full report can be viewed on the NTSB Web site: www.ntsb.gov. On April 8, 2003, at 1850 central daylight time, a Dassault Fan Jet Falcon, N179GA, operated by Grand Aire Express, Inc., was destroyed when it was ditched into the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri. The airplane was approaching to land, on Runway 30R (9,003 feet by 150 feet), at the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (STL), when it lost power to both engines.
Embraer says its alcohol-powered EMB 202 Ipanema crop-duster is expected to gain Brazilian certification in December with a modified version of the 300-hp Textron Lycoming IO-540 engine. M.V.
The FAA has proposed a policy guiding airports' weight-based limitations on runway use to ensure the limits apply ``only to the purpose of protecting an airport operator's investment in pavement, and are not a substitute for noise restrictions.'' The agency notes in a July 1 Federal Register notice that ``some airport operators have implemented restrictions on use of the airport by aircraft above a certain weight, to protect pavement not designed for aircraft of that weight.
GAMA has formally opposed a Joint Aviation Authorities Advance Notice of Proposed Amendment (A-NPA) proposal to require all European corporate aviation operators to register with their National Aviation Authority. The association stated that given the fact that corporate operators have a long history of safety excellence and do not offer air transportation to the public, formal registration of flight departments is unnecessary and places an unjustified economic burden on operators.
NetJets is eagerly putting some marketing muscle against the void left by the cancellation of transatlantic Concorde service. ``We are going after that business,'' Charles McLean of NetJets Europe told CNN at the Paris Air Show. Word has it NetJets will tell forlorn Concorde aficionados, ``You flew Concorde. Now it's time for an upgrade.''
