GAMA President Ed Bolen was named to chair the Steering Committee for the FAA's Part 135/125 review, scheduled to begin this month. Bolen, who gained Capitol Hill experience as a top aide to former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum (R-Kan.), has drawn praise for his leadership of GAMA, which he joined in mid-1995. Bolen also serves as chairman of the Management Advisory Council that advises FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and is a member of the Commission on the Future of U.S. Aerospace Industry.
The NBAA has awarded a total of $5,000 in scholarship funds to five students. The winners of the 2002 NBAA UAA Janice K. Barden Aviation Scholar-ship are Anthony Gregory, Liesl Kummer, Miguel Martinez, Gregory Radun and Scott Woodel.
TAG Aviation has built 120,000 square feet of new hangar and office space at Farnborough Airport outside London to support a growing base of customers. TAG's long-range plan is to turn the airport into a key European business aviation center. In addition to FSI's planned development there (see below), it is believed that at least one major equipment manufacturer is considering building an aircraft service center at Farnborough.
GAMA named Clay Jones, chairman, president and chief executive of Rockwell Collins, to the position of chairman, succeeding Bill Boisture, who resigned that post after he stepped down as president of Gulfstream Aerospace. Boisture joined the GAMA board in 1999 and chaired the International Affairs Committee in 2000 and 2001. GAMA said he also was instrumental in the creation of the GAMA Security Committee. Jones was named vice chairman of the association in November 2002.
Boeing is marketing a corporate shuttle version of its 717-200. The Boeing 717 Business Express is targeted at organizations with significant and regular employee movement between two or more key business facilities, said Thad Dworkin, sales director, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft can be configured to seat from 40 to 80 passengers in first- and/or business-class configurations. Additionally, the airplane can be equipped with airborne workstations, meeting spaces, videoconferencing capability and full broadband connectivity -- using Connexion by Boeing.
It was a March afternoon and all was quiet in the clear Midwestern skies. It was too early in the season for thunderstorms to be a problem, and traffic was light. The Gulfstream passing through the controller's sector was still more than 100 miles from its destination, but soon the pilot would begin his descent. ``Gulfstream eight-five-Sierra,'' came the controller's call.
Safire Aircraft is making major changes to its personal jet program. The S-26 design will not be produced. A new design, dubbed the Safire Jet, to accommodate the new choice of the Williams' FJ33-4 engine, will change the fuselage material from composite to aluminum and feature a larger cabin with an aft lavatory and have increased speed and range over the original design despite a heavier gross weight.
Tell your kids and friends ``Learning to Fly'' is back on TV. The Experimental Aircraft Association and National Association of Flight Instructors' 13-week series on flight training produced for the Discovery Wings Channel will air its final eight episodes beginning on July 5. The first five episodes premiered April 28-May 2. ``Learning to Fly'' is the first television series dedicated to showcasing the steps in earning a pilot's license.
The FAA is ready to commission the first Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) in Philadelphia, ending the evaluation phase and beginning the operational phase of the program. STARS eventually will be installed at all major terminal radar approach control facilities in the country. The next STARS to go into service is expected to be at Portland, Ore., followed by Miami TRACON.
The FAA has opened a formal complaint docket against Mayor Richard Daley and the city of Chicago to consider the AOPA's allegations that the latter violated federal regulations when it closed Meigs Field without proper notice. On April 4, the AOPA filed a formal complaint with the FAA against the mayor and the city contending that they had violated federal law (49 U.S.C. 44502 [c]) and various sections of FAR Part 157. The AOPA has also filed suit in federal court over the alleged violations.
GAMA, Washington, D.C., has hired Brian Riley as vice president of government affairs, a newly created position. Riley comes to GAMA from the DOT, where he was deputy assistant secretary for budget and programs.
Time Pieces LLC, Hanover, Ind., is offering one-tenth fractional shares in Piper J-3 Cubs. For $3,750, a shareholder receives 50 hours in a specific Cub over a 24-month period. The one-time fee includes insurance, hangar, maintenance and centralized scheduling. Time Pieces charges a monthly management fee, but applies it against the initial $3,750, the balance of which is returned to the shareholder after the 24 months are up. The first Cub is in place at Mount Comfort Airport in Indianapolis. Another Cub is looking for a home base from which to begin flying in mid-July.
Despite the current political and economic uncertainties around the globe, there seems to be surprising optimism within the European business aviation community. From Iceland to Greece, the burgeoning FBO fraternity is making multimillion-dollar investments (TAG Aviation has spent $100 million at Farnborough alone) to satisfy an increasingly sophisticated clientele. While it remains to be seen what impact Gulf War II might have on business aviation on the continent, the long-term prospects are good.
SimCom has recently installed and made available the first of two MU-2 simulators at its Orlando training center. The new Marquise/Solitaire simulator was built to FAA Level 5 standards and is equipped with a Quantum 3-D, full wrap-around visual-motion system with color day and night graphics and weather depiction. The cockpit features a complete factory avionics suite that includes a Honeywell SPZ 500 autopilot.
Among alternatives to fractional ownership are shared ownership and interchange agreements between owners, where ownership costs are defrayed by sharing or aircraft and crews are interchanged for greater operational flexibility. In the former, two or more entities purchase and operate an aircraft jointly, while in the latter, owners of aircraft agree to equipment exchanges to cover unavoidable downtime or augment operations.
Honeywell's AIS-2000 OneView multi-region satellite television has received FAA certification for four business jets -- the Gulfstream IV, Global Express, Boeing Business Jet and Challenger 604. The AIS-2000 system provides worldwide television viewing in a number of geographic regions, including the United States, Canada and Western Europe. Regional satellite coverage includes DirecTV for the United States, Bell ExpressVU for Canada, and a variety of service providers in Europe.
Bombardier Flexjet, Dallas, the fractional ownership program of Bombardier Aerospace, appointed Bob Knebel as vice president, sales. Knebel comes from Cessna Aircraft Co., and he has also held positions with Beech Aircraft, Gemini Distributors and Gates Learjet.
Peter Edwards President, Bombardier Business Aircraft, Montreal, Canada An Ohio native, Edwards has long had a global perspective, graduating with an international relations degree from the University of Southern California and then pursuing additional studies at universities in France, Tunisia and Egypt. A veteran with Volpar, Edwards went on to head AiResearch's specialized outfitting of large-cabin aircraft for corporate and head of state applications.
The NTSB wants the FAA to require the immediate inspection of all propeller parts and propeller assemblies overhauled or inspected by T&W Propellers, of Chino, Calif., to determine if they are airworthy. The Safety Board also recommended that the FAA require all Hartzell Z-shank propellers be overhauled every 2,000 hours or five years, whichever comes first, as recommended by the manufacturer.
Forty years ago, the first Falcon Jet, then the Mystere 20, first flew. Now, 1,600 Falcons later, the fleet has accumulated more than 10 million flight hours.
London's newest FBOs are London City Jet Centre, which sits directly in the capital's business district, and Jet Aviation at Biggin Hill Airport, some 20 km (12 miles) south of the city. Jet Aviation opened its first U.K. FAR/JAR 145-approved maintenance center just 16 months ago. ``We are already handling around 1,350 aircraft movements annually. We are on track with our business plan and looking for more business,'' said Deputy General and Quality Manager Chris Webb.
Aviation Material and Technical Support (AVMATS) donated the use of a Sabreliner so that Kevin Maguire, a U.S. Army combat engineer injured in Iraq, could fly home to Missouri's Spirit of St. Louis Airport. Maguire, the son of AVMATS employee Jim Maguire, sustained neck and spinal cord injuries while helping set up coalition defenses around Baghdad International Airport. He is expected to make a full recovery after six months of rehabilitation.
The G550 sports an avionics suite that's as revolutionary as was the SPZ-8000 when it debuted on the GIV in the mid-1980s. Four active matrix LCD screens, in portrait configuration, dominate almost all the instrument panel area, offering almost one-third more display area than the GV's six CRTs. The outboard screens are PFDs, capable of displaying a full-width attitude indicator that's larger than anything yet installed on a production aircraft.
As important as pilot and pilot-controller communication is to the safety of flight operations, it's difficult to find any definitive single source of guidance for the exact lexicon and phraseology to be used by pilots. Probably the best known source of guidance on pilot-controller communication is the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM). Chapter 4, Section 2, Radio Communications Phraseology and Techniques, maps out much of the basics, including contact procedures, call signs, and the use of figures, altitudes, directions and speeds.
GAMA reports that first quarter aircraft shipments fell 16.4 percent compared to the same period last year -- from 531 units in 2002 to 444 units this year. First quarter industry billings were $1.87 billion -- down 33.2 percent from first quarter 2002. ``Unfortunately, a decline in general aviation shipments and billings was not unanticipated,'' said GAMA President Ed Bolen. ``These are very tough times.
