Western Aircraft Inc., Boise, Idaho, has appointed Louie Gravel as chief inspector. Gravel, who is active in the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association, joins Western with 24 years of aviation maintenance experience. Western Aircraft is an FAA-certified repair station and full-service FBO.
Execair, an FBO at Britain's Birmingham International Airport, handled more than 100 corporate aircraft movements during the week the city played host to the Ryder Cup golf tournament in late September. The airport's crosswind runway and some taxiways were used for overflow aircraft parking after the corporate ramp filled up with aircraft ranging from Citation Xs and Falcon 900s up to a BBJ and 727.
The FAA is investigating whether Santa Monica (Calif.) Municipal Airport's (SMO) Aircraft Conformance Program violates FAR Part 16 by restricting operations based on aircraft landing speed. Airport officials deny the program is a backdoor attempt at noise regulations, but the effect of the program would be to ban 50 percent of SMO's jet traffic. It follows an earlier move by the city to significantly increase fines for violating noise abatement rules.
These three graphs are designed to be used together to provide a broad overview of the Eagle II's approximate performance. They were pieced together using several data sources, including Sierra Industries and B/CA's May Purchase Planning Handbook, so it's especially critical that they not be used for fine-tuned comparisons, let alone flight planning.
The Aviation Maintenance Career Commission (AMCC), in partnership with Wright State University, is establishing a national memorial for Charles Taylor, the Wright brothers' mechanic, who has been designated ``The Father of Aviation Maintenance.'' The memorial, to be constructed at Wright State in Dayton, Ohio, will also pay tribute to all of the FAA Master Mechanic Award recipients and to all those who help make the memorial possible. The AMCC is offering individual sponsors an engraved brick that will pave the way to the memorial.
ElectronicFlight Solutions is now offering its CompleteLearning Terrain Awareness training module for the Bendix/King KGP 560/KMH 880 EGPWS Class B TAWS. The CD-ROM training device uses interactive computer-generated exercises to educate pilots on the operation and capabilities of TAWS. In addition, the self-paced guide highlights the TAWS on the Avidyne FlightMax and Honeywell KMD550/880 display systems. Throughout the training, students are challenged with KnowledgeCheck exercises and quizzes. Price: $295.00 ElectronicFlight Solutions
The ultra-long-range capabilities of today's top-end aircraft can pose new physiological challenges to the pilot. Fatigue, disruption of sleep and circadian rhythms, and degraded human performance can affect operational safety and productivity. AvAlert, the Aviation Alertness Package, offers corporate flight operators an education program with tools and specific training that can be tailored to their unique operational requirements. The AvAlert Package consists of multimedia presentations with adaptable tools on CD-ROM and a comprehensive resource binder.
What you don't know about the airplane you are flying can kill you real fast. Such may have been the case in the June 10, 2001, crash of a Mitsubishi MU-2B-20 near Cerrillos, N.M., that took the lives of a private pilot and his wife, the sole passenger. At first the accident puzzled investigators. By all accounts, the airplane was operating perfectly normally in severe clear conditions well above stalling speed when it suddenly entered a spin.
After investing over $4.8 million in a terminal executive lounge, fire station and other improvements over the last few years, Britain's Gloucestershire Airport is looking for an FBO to operate there.
After a $2.5 million expansion project, Standard Aero's Tilburg facility in the Netherlands is now fully operational. The redesign and a 30,000-square-foot addition gives the operation more than 70,000 square feet of work and office space. ``This new expansion will easily accommodate the anticipated workload, said Standard Aero Tilburg Vice President Greg Young. He said the upgrade will help Tilburg accelerate ``engine MRO turn-times, with the objective of lower customer direct operating costs.''
After-market upgrade programs have been available for turboprops for several years. Prominent among these are reengining with Pratt&Whitney PT6As and Honeywell's TFE331s, Raisbeck Engineering's many refinements for King Airs, West Star's Dash 10 Conquest II, Renaissance Commander kits and T-G Aviation's Super Cheyenne conversion. There are jet upgrades as well, including Honeywell's engine programs for the Falcon 20 and 50.
For years, as the noise climate grew more hostile toward Stage 2 aircraft, operators twiddled their thumbs nervously at the yokes of their 1960s-era business jets (as they tried to slip down glideslopes at flight idle) and wondered when developers would come up with practical Stage 3 hush kits for their still-useful (and affordable) airplanes.
Sept. 9 -- The pilot, flight nurse, flight paramedic and patient on board a Bell 206L-1 air-ambulance were fatally injured and the aircraft was destroyed during a collision with terrain near Doland, S.D. The night flight was en route to Heart Hospital of South Dakota's Heliport in Sioux Falls, S.D. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.
Rich Sismour, manager of GE's Corporate Air Transport, welcoming guests during the Oct. 9 grand opening of CAT's new hangar and offices at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, N.Y. The 57-year-old, 80-person operation moved from Westchester County Airport after GE's efforts to build a new facility at HPN to accommodate its new BBJs were repeatedly blocked.
MedAire, Inc. is teamed with Arizona State University East to offer altitude chamber training for pilots and other flight crewmembers. MedAire will use ASU's altitude chamber to instruct participants about the effects of hypoxia and rapid decompression. The Altitude Physiology Training course will be offered individually or in conjunction with other business aviation training programs. The course lasts five to six hours and covers altitude physiology, hypoxia, oxygen systems, physiological effects of flight and decompression.
Aircraft charter and management specialist PrivatAir has learned that even a relatively simple outfitting job can become complicated and bogged down by red tape when it involves interpreting relevant FARs and dealing with and winning approval from different FAA offices. ``We've certainly been beat up by the issue,'' said Thomas Connelly, PrivatAir's vice president of technical services.
The other night I was camped beside the runway at an uncontrolled airport on Long Island, N.Y., when out of the black of night came the unmistakable thumping of an approaching helicopter. From beneath its belly shone a spotlight that seemed to be searching the terrain for something unknown. The runway lights were turned off, and the pilot was making an approach to the blackened runway, using only his instruments and prying eyes to gauge his descent.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla., has named Robert Myers as chancellor of its Extended Campus. Myers serves as the chief academic and administrative officer of the Extended Campus, which provides fully accredited Embry-Riddle courses and programs to more than 17,000 professionals working in civilian and military aviation and aerospace careers.
L. Peter Larson President&CEO, Mooney Aerospace Group A top financial executive with General Dynamics and later at Cessna, Larson joined Mooney as CFO in January and was promoted to CEO upon the resignation of long-time friend and colleague, Roy Norris, in August. Mooney Aerospace is an amalgam of AASI, developer of the ill-fated Jetcruzer, and the then-bankrupt Mooney Aircraft. 1 You've got Mooneys rolling out of Kerrville, Texas, again. How's that feel?
Garrett Aviation Services' Long Island, N.Y., facility received the FAA's 2002 Diamond Award (see below). Dennis Kaney, a Garrett A&P mechanic, also received his own Diamond Award. The FAA presents the awards based on hours of training undergone by individual mechanics and for the facility as a whole. Garrett Aviation provides FBO services and comprehensive maintenance for corporate aircraft.
Sonetics Corp., Portland, Ore., has named Christopher Hoffman as engineering and new product development manager. The newly created position entails leading the overall product vision of the company's noise cancellation headsets, rescue products and new industrial communication technologies for the general aviation and firefighting industries.
CAE plans to open a new training facility in Mesa, Ariz., as part of a 10-year, $50 million (Canadian) training contract with the Mesa Air Group. The company will train Mesa's Bombardier CRJ and Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet pilots. CAE will install CRJ200/700/900 and ERJ-145 full flight simulators at the new center and also will operate a CRJ200/700/900 integrated procedure trainer there. Mesa Air Group operates 126 aircraft to 147 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Whenever there's a homework stumper -- say, the reason why Georgia failed to send a representative to the First Continental Congress; xylem's function; or which states have unicameral legislatures -- my kids invariably turn to the Internet. Even though we've got encyclopedias, atlases and almanacs galore, their search for knowledge always begins by questioning Professors Google and Jeeves. Part of what makes the Internet so popular is its easy accessibility. Just click, and you're combing through the Louvre or Looney Tunes' library.
The FAA is finishing up the charter that outlines plans for the sweeping review of FAR Part 135 and other regulations governing business jet operations, Nicholas Sabatini, associate administrator for regulation and certification, told Aviation Week Group editors on September 26. While the review is expected to cover a range of operations, including fractional use of business jets, Sabatini said he did not expect it to result in major changes to the agency's new fractional aircraft operation rule that creates a new Subpart K to Part 91.
In the next few years, Cessna, Eclipse and Raytheon, among others, hope to fill the skies with single-pilot light jets. However, history suggests caution for those intrepid airmen who plan to course the jet routes alone. Robert E. Breiling, head of the Boca Raton, Fla.-based aircraft accident analysis firm that bears his name, says such solo operators are more than 50 percent more likely to be involved in an accident than those using two flight crewmembers.
