Jeppesen will reorganize to align with its customer market segments effective Jan. 1. New business units will include: Commercial (airline) Aviation Services, led by Thomas Wede; Business and General Aviation Services, led by Kevin Collins; Military and Government Services, led by Dominic Custodio; Marine Services, Software Development and Infrastructure Services, led by Tim Sukle; and Advanced Business Development, led by Greg Bowlin. Jeppesen's German affiliate will continue to be led by Hermann Dudda.
The NBAA board of directors has begun a search for a new president to be appointed this year and to take office on Jan. 1, 2004. After more than 11 years leading the Association, President Jack Olcott will become the NBAA's president emeritus as of Jan. 1, 2004. Olcott was editor and publisher of B/CA prior to his nomination to the NBAA presidency. The Association's board of directors has accepted the recommendation of a search committee and selected ``a leading executive recruitment firm'' to find candidates for consideration as the next president of the organization.
Flightcraft, Inc., Portland, Ore., has hired Jeff Smith as the new director of line services. Smith will oversee the line departments at both the Portland facility and the Eugene, Ore., location.
KaiserAir opened a NiCad battery service shop at its location at Oakland North Airport in California. The shop can service as many as 12 batteries at one time and is equipped with an Aviall analyzer load bank and Aviall Data Acquisition System (ADAS) to provide customers with an analysis and guaranteed performance check.
The Transportation Security Administration has activated the toll-free hotline for Airport Watch. The hotline, (866) GA-SECURE (866-427-3287), is answered by the National Response Center, which also initiates coordinated response to about 20 different situations. Callers should expect an automated answering system to say you've reached the National Response Center. There is a short telephone menu, and then a live operator will pick up.
In late November 2002, Eclipse Aviation made the stunning announcement that it had terminated its agreement with Williams International to supply EJ22 turbofans for the Eclipse 500. Eclipse founder and CEO Vern Raburn said that EJ22 development was ``significantly behind schedule'' and that the 770 lbf thrust Williams powerplant was ``clearly a weak engine.'' Although Raburn says the Eclipse program will go forward with another, soon-to-be-named engine, the decision at the minimum will cause Eclipse to miss its original certification target of late this year.
In the simmering seven-year trade dispute between Embraer/Brazil and Bombardier/Canada, the amount and method of ``retaliation'' or compensation (by the World Trade Organization against the Canadian government) was finally to be decided on Dec. 18, 2002. The debacle started back in 1996 when Bombardier instigated proceedings through the Canadian government and the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Brazil's PROEX program of financing Embraer's exports.
Bombardier announced it had more orders for its Q400 turboprop than for regional jets during third quarter 2002. The manufacturer logged four turboprop orders, a single CRJ200 customer and two CRJ700 orders.
Thunder Air Charter, Inc., St. Louis, has appointed Kevin Colson director of operations. Colson has over 17 years of experience in the aviation industry.
Frost & Sullivan's new World Inflight Entertainment and Passenger Communications Markets reports that industry revenues totaled $2.18 billion in 2002 and are projected to reach $3.56 billion by 2008. However, it said inflight entertainment vendors may soon find their products becoming obsolete, giving way to remote distribution of content. DBS radio and television have successfully overcome bandwidth limitations and have become more affordable for inflight applications (see Intelligence, page 20, ``Avionics Innovations . . .'').
GPS Fault Detection and Exclusion (FDE) software is now standard on Garmin International's 400/500 series avionics systems. FDE is an algorithm that monitors the accuracy and reliability of GPS signals, detects erroneous GPS data, and excludes those data from the active navigation solution. Unlike Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM), which will terminate GPS navigation altogether if signal integrity is compromised, FDE enables the pilot to continue navigating with GPS, albeit in a degraded mode.
It all happens very quickly. Something goes bang! A red or yellow light illuminates. A warning bell goes off. With that, a routine flight becomes an emergency or ``non-normal.'' And then come those three words, ``I've got it!'' With that emphatic announcement, workload usually goes up and the pace quickens. The captain is now the Pilot Flying (PF) and the first officer is now Pilot Not Flying (PNF). But is this the best solution to handling a problem? Maybe not.
Honeywell's AS907 turbofan engine received European JAR certification on Dec. 3, 2002. The AS907 will power the Bombardier Challenger 300, scheduled to enter service this year. The 7,000-pound-thrust class engine, flat-rated to 6,500 pounds for life extension, has a 34.2-inch fan and a 4.2 bypass ratio.
Garrett Aviation Services, Tempe, Ariz., has named Tony Checa regional sales manager for Garrett's Eastern region, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
International SOS has launched China's first dedicated air-ambulance service with a specially configured Hawker 800XP on permanent standby in Beijing. Previously, SOS used its air ambulance based in Singapore to bring patients out of China. Jim Williams, International SOS chief operating officer, the Americas, stated that the flying range of the Hawker 800XP aircraft enables it to provide services anywhere in China and as far afield as Korea, Japan and Mongolia. Deer Jet, a subsidiary of Hainan Airlines, operates the Hawker. The Web site is www.internationalsos.com.
The Eclipse 500 program suffered a serious setback in late November when managers abandoned the Williams EJ22, claiming the engine was "weak" and its development too slow. Vern Raburn, Eclipse founder and CEO, said he soon hoped to select a replacement engine, which is likely to be in the 1,000 lbf thrust range. At press time both Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney were in the running, though development and certification of such an engine could involve a capital investment of $100-150 million.
Piaggio America will sell up to six Avanti P180s to Avia Aviation Ltd., a fractional operator based in Calgary, Alberta. The order calls for Piaggio to deliver three Avanti P180s this year, one in each of the first three quarters; with an option to purchase three additional aircraft in 2004. Avia President Joe Viveiros said he liked the cabin size of the Avanti and the 395-knot cruising speed. ``Plus,'' he noted, ``it has the Canadian-built PT6 engines.''
The Molasky Group is building a private jet hangar facility at McCarran International Airport (LAS) near Las Vegas. Jet Hangars, LLC, a development entity owned by the Molasky Group, a Las Vegas developer, has received a 40-year lease for an 11-acre parcel adjacent to the airport. The facility will include seven 14,000- to 18,000-foot condominium hangars, offices, garages and a small passenger facility with a pilot lounge and flight-planning stations.
Gulfstream Aerospace rolled out the 500th and final GIV in December 2002; that model is being succeeded by the G300 and G400. Speaking to some 3,000 employees and suppliers crowded into a production hangar at its headquarters in Savannah, Ga., on Dec. 3, Gulfstream President Bill Boisture said the model had generated more than $12.5 billion in revenues over its 15-year production history.
Raytheon Aircraft's Premier I is now certified in Denmark and Israel, bringing to eight the number of countries in which it is certified. The others are the United States, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico and Bermuda. Raytheon expected to receive certifications from Ireland, Brazil and Italy before the end of 2002. This year, Raytheon anticipates additional certifications from Turkey, Spain, Guatemala, France, Venezuela, Japan, Argentina, the United Kingdom and China.
A Rainbow Jet Co. Bombardier Challenger 604 successfully completed route-proving operations into and out of Lhasa, Tibet's Gongga Airport on Nov. 28, 2002. Szechuan, China-based Rainbow is a member of the Bombardier charter network; and Lhasa is a key destination for Chinese and foreign travelers, Rainbow officials said. Gongga Airport's field elevation is 11,621 feet and its main runway length is 13,123 feet. Rainbow Captain Liu Yi flew the aircraft with copilot He Feng.
FlightSafety International, La Guardia Airport, N.Y., has named Ken Baggett as manager of the company's Toledo Learning Center. Baggett has been the center's assistant manager for the past five years, following four years as director of training.
They say that when everything looks good, you should look again. I relearned that lesson firsthand the other day. Everything looked good on the takeoff roll, and even better on the initial climb. Although the pitch attitude was normal, the airspeed was climbing faster than I expected, prompting me to quickly retract the gear. It was a cool fall day, I was alone in the airplane, and with a light fuel load I didn't think too much more about the great performance. Once I leveled off in cruise, the indicated airspeed was exactly as expected for the power setting.
Air Routing International has opened a satellite office at Teterboro Airport. Located at the Jet Aviation facility, it will serve primarily as a field marketing and client service office. Bill Berturelli, Air Routing's marketing director, said that in addition to the large number of corporate flight operations in the region, ``Seventy-five percent of our client base utilizes this airport [TEB].'' Lisa Sasse, a national accounts executive with Air Routing since 1996, will head the new office. The phone number for the new TEB office is (201) 288-8612.
