A plan to compensate airline passengers in Europe for flight delays and cancellations is scheduled to go before the European Council of Ministers this month. The proposed measure has drawn a strong outcry from the Association of European Airlines (AEA), International Air Transport Association (IATA), International Air Carriers Association (IACA) and the European Regions Airline Association (ERA), whose director general, Mike Ambrose, labeled the plan, including recent amendments, ``unworkable, unenforceable and disproportionate in their impact.
Having read with some interest David Esler's ``Sticker Shock: The High Cost of Operating in Europe'' in the July issue of B/CA (page 56) and, as an employee of Eurocontrol in the Central Route Charges Office (CRCO), I would like to bring the following to your attention relative to the Eurocontrol Air Navigation Charges. Esler makes reference to Nancy Schnetz's (Jeppesen Flight Services) statement that Jeppesen and other flight service companies have reports they can produce that calculate route charges for a particular route of flight.
The Helicopter Museum (THM) at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, unveiled its newly restored Westland Widgeon helicopter, one of the last remaining of the15 that were built. Bristow Helicopters operated this aircraft, which was abandoned in Nigeria during the Biafran civil war in the late 1960s. It was shipped back to the United Kingdom in 1970 and acquired for the museum in 1986, where it was on outdoor display until space in the restoration hangar became available in the mid-1990s.
For almost three decades, the midsize jet has been one of the most hotly contested segments of the business aircraft market. No one has been more keenly aware of this than the folks at Cessna. They threw their hats into the ring in 1978 with the Citation III and followed up with the Citations VI, VII, X and Excel, each with its own balance of speed, comfort, runway performance, range and price.
Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI) has selected Rockwell Collins Aviation Services to provide Collins Avionics Services Program (CASP) support on its fleet of aircraft. Under the five-year agreement, Collins Aviation Services (CAS) will provide forward exchange support for all Rockwell Collins equipment on JSSI's customer-owned fleet of Collins-equipped aircraft.
Edward King Jr. will receive a special NBAA First Century of Flight Award for his significant contributions to the advancement of aviation since the advent of powered flight 100 years ago. He and five other First Century of Flight recipients -- Serge Dassault, David Ewald, Jerome F. Lederer, Ray H. Siegfried II and John Tucker -- will be honored on Oct. 9 at the NBAA Safety Awards Banquet during the NBAA 56th Annual Meeting & Convention in Orlando.
Ground-bound animals have been going airborne since 1783, when Frenchmen Joseph and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier launched a hot air balloon with a sheep, a duck and a rooster aboard. The cock died from a broken neck on landing, but the other animals survived, proving: (1) that it was indeed possible to breathe while traversing the skies, and (2) that the circumstances attendant to one's return to terra firma counts for a lot. Only after the animals alighted did King Louis XVI permit humans to go aloft.
The FAA issued on Aug. 14 an STC for Gulfstream's G550 with the PlaneView cockpit based on Honeywell's Primus Epic integrated avionics system. ``Certification of the G550's integrated cockpit is the culmination of one of the largest design efforts ever undertaken in the field of avionics, and it marks the beginning of a new period in which pilots will use electronic displays and cursor control devices in place of traditional dials, knobs and switches,'' said John Todd, director of Gulfstream Programs, Honeywell Business, Regional and General Aviation Avionics.
Many moons ago during my employment at Douglas Aircraft Co., later to become McDonnell Douglas Corp., I managed the Piaggio-Douglas PD-808 small corporate jet program, which was to be a production/marketing joint venture with Rinaldo Piaggio S.p.A. and Douglas Aircraft Co. Torch Lewis was with Bill Lear at this time and was aware of the PD-808's presence at Long Beach. He flew a Learjet to LGB to meet and chat with our DAC and Piaggio crew.
-- Howard Corey of Flightcraft, Inc., Portland, Ore., has received the FAA's Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award, which recognizes aviation maintenance personnel who have more than 50 years of experience in the industry and who are a certified mechanic or repairman. The award is named after Charles Taylor, the engine builder and mechanic for the Wright brothers' historic airplane.
Pet relocation expenses are tax-deductible. IRS Publication #521, ``Moving Expenses,'' states that pet moving is a tax-deductible relocation expense when the relocation and moving is for purposes of change of employment. Consult your tax preparer for further information.
Oxford Airport's owner, BBA Group, has a go-ahead to use an extra 10 percent of its 5,092-foot runway for public transport category business aircraft, extending the usable length in this category from 3,937 feet to 4,327 feet, according to BBA Managing Director for Oxford Steve Jones. He said the runway ``extension'' will open up the airport to at least 15 more business jet models when they are operated in the public transport category. Private operators have routinely been able to legally take advantage of the full physical length of the runway.
Having recently flown UPS Aviation Technologies' CNX80 GPS moving map navigator, we can report that this panel-mount unit is a technological wonder. With a screen size about that of Garmin's GNS 430, it beats hands down both Garmin 400 and 500 series legacy products in terms of functionality and features. The highly touted WAAS receiver, with its five-times-per-second update rate, provides navigation guidance that's precise enough to drive down the center of a taxiway, never more than a stride away from the paint stripe.
L-3 Avionics Systems announced that version 5.0 of its I-line multifunction display software will allow the equipment to display weather text and graphics data from WSI. L-3's Web site is www.L-3com.com.
The Irish government will replace its 23-year-old Beech King Air 200 with a Learjet 45 to be operated by the Irish Air Corps in a Ministerial Air Transport role. The Irish government has decided not to proceed in replacing its Gulfstream IV with a long-range 40-seat aircraft. The Learjet 45 fuselage is built at Bombardier's plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and with content from suppliers south of the border, some 50 percent of the total aircraft is of Irish origin, says Bombardier.
EADS broke ground Aug. 7 for a new American Eurocopter Corp. (AEC) production site at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Columbus, Miss. The $11 million facility will employ an initial work force of 100 for final assembly and flight-testing of A-Star series helicopters. American Eurocopter LLC is a subsidiary of Eurocopter, itself a subsidiary of EADS. American Eurocopter sells about 40 AS350 AStars per year in the United States. There are currently about 500 AStars in service in the United States. AEC's Web site is www.eurocopterusa.com.
The Sovereign, similar to several new business aircraft, is equipped with Honeywell's Primus Epic avionics suite that features large-format flat-panel displays, modular avionics units (MAUs) that host several functions, and modular Primus Epic radios that are smaller and lighter than the last generation of Primus II radios. All the units are tied together by the latest version of Honeywell's Avionics Standard Communications Bus local area network.
A number of factors determine how well a radar system performs, and just because a unit works well in one aircraft doesn't mean the same unit will work well in another. Where and how the unit is installed in the aircraft can have a significant bearing on its performance, and airframe manufacturers are not always cognizant of the subtle effects that even minor physical changes and hardware modifications may cause.
Savannah Air Center's expansion projects continue. This month's scheduled completion of a 12,500-square-foot cabinetry shop will be followed by construction of a new 12,500-square-foot upholstery shop. In spring 2004 Savannah plans to start work on a new 70,000-square-foot maintenance hangar, which will increase its capacity for large corporate aircraft modification and completion work. Additionally, Savannah Air Center has gained two STC approvals.
After a long takeoff run, the economy has taken flight, but its climb-out is modest at best. It will be a while before it reaches a comfortable cruise altitude. Last year's growth of 2.9 percent (Q4/Q4) slowed to 1.6 percent in fourth quarter 2002 and 1.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, as war clouds gathered. Acceleration is likely over the next few quarters, largely because of the new tax bill, to near 5 percent real growth. However, growth is likely to revert to near trend of 3 percent to 3.5 percent once the initial stimulus wears off.
Embraer recently obtained a US$200 million syndicated seven-year term loan, which was disbursed on July 1. The proceeds are designated for the purchase of components, parts and equipment for the production of the Embraer 170/190 family of aircraft. The syndicate was led by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), with ABN Amro Bank, Credit Lyonnais and Societe Generale joining as co-arrangers. Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI), the Japanese government's export credit agency, is the commercial and political risk insurer.
The FAA officially turned on the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) at 12:01 a.m. EDT on July 10. The GPS-based system enables horizontal and vertical navigation with unprecedented precision. As envisioned, WAAS will enable precision approaches to thousands of general aviation runways and airports.
Wherever on the compass rose American operators point the noses of their business jets today, security should be uppermost on the minds of flight crews and passengers alike. Since the war in Iraq, U.S. approval abroad has rarely been lower, according to international surveys publicized this spring. The post-9/11 environment has conferred on operators a new aviation security vocabulary, Air Security International Vice President Charlie LeBlanc claims: Risk assessment: Doing your homework before you go.
What's the real benefit of winglets on a Boeing 737? According to Aviation Partners Boeing, blended winglets can deliver fuel savings of up to 4.5 percent. For a B737-300 flying 2,900 hours per year with 1.5-hour stage lengths, APBoeing's Mike Marino says the savings would amount to more than 65,000 gallons of Jet-A annually.
