Saying he hoped to end confusion about the company's identity with ``the press, prospects and . . . even some NetJets owners,'' Executive Jet Chairman and CEO Richard Santulli recently announced the renaming of the company to NetJets, Inc. Admitting a sentimental attachment to the Executive Jet Aviation name since acquiring the charter company in the 1984, Santulli said he finally agreed to the name change many of his colleagues had been asking for since NetJets and the fractional ownership concept became so widely known.
Aetna has decided to shutter its flight department in favor of fractional ownership. According to Fred Laberge, assistant vice president of public relations for the insurance/health care firm, ``It was an economic decision to go with the fractional ownership.'' Based at Bradley International Airport (BDL) at Windsor Locks, Conn., the flight department operated a Dassault 2000, Cessna Citation II, and three Sikorsky S-76Cs.
The Russians have developed a prototype spacecraft specifically designed for the tourist trade. Called the Cosmopolis 21, or simply C-21, the craft could conceivably be ready for operation as early as 2004. The Russian designers say the vehicle will carry one pilot and two passengers to an altitude of 328,084 feet, and remain there for at least three minutes before flying back to Earth. The spacecraft is to be carried to an altitude of 88,000 feet on the back of a Russian M55-X aircraft, at which point it will detach, ignite its rockets and climb into space.
Garrett Aviation's electrically driven auxiliary hydraulic pump for Hawkers has STC approval. The new system can be installed on all Hawkers from the 1A through the 800 series. The electric auxiliary pump offers benefits to both pilots and mechanics said Ray Hartley, quality manager for Garrett's Los Angeles facility. He stated that pilots no longer have to use the hydraulic hand pump to close the gear doors or retract the flaps when the engines aren't running.
The company planning the mammoth airship CargoLifter could get further funding from the German state of Brandenburg, according to the state's economics minister, Wolfgang Furniss. The Berlin-based company is already getting support from the regional government, but speaking at the recent ILA show, Furniss confirmed that CargoLifter has asked for more money to fund it in the medium term. CargoLifter's recent deal with Boeing to study future lighter-than-air projects, though, might just be the light at the end of their financially troubled tunnel.
Skyjet, Bombardier's online charter booking service, has introduced a new block charter program with service guarantees similar to those available through fractional ownership. Participants in the Skyjet Premier Fleet can pre-purchase air charter in 25-, 50- and 100-hour blocks in their choice of small, midsize or large jets. There are no deadhead fees and aircraft availability is guaranteed with 12 hours notice. The program covers the continental United States and international points within 200 miles of the United States.
Spirent Systems is offering its AvVisor cabin display system as optional equipment on Cessna Citation business jets. First installation of the system is on a Cessna Model 550 Citation Bravo destined for an international customer. Cessna is certifying the system on the aircraft type certificate, and Spirent already has STC approval on the Model 525 Citation. AvVisor displays a range of real-time flight information including altitude, ground speed, estimated time of arrival and distance traveled.
Really Quiet LLC has hired FedEx Express to help it establish and support a national network of independent service centers that can install their Stage 3 hush kits for GIIs, GIIBs and GIII aircraft, all powered with Rolls-Royce Spey engines. FedEx Express will provide services to Really Quiet in the areas of supply chain management, vendor management, production management, warehouse inventory management and customer service.
Rockwell Collins said a new Collins avionics suite won FAA certification on a U.S. Army C-12 (King Air 200). The manufacturer said the installation certification permits the Army to modify 21 of the C-12s to meet Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) requirements. The new installation includes satellite-based navigation and flight display overlay capabilities and expanded data-link capabilities.
American Airlines has retired its last Boeing 727. At one time, American was the largest 727 operator, with a fleet totaling 182 727s at its peak. On April 30, the airline still operated eight 727-200s, all of which were retired that day. The last 727 flight for American was Flight 926 from Miami to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., which pushed back at 7:30 p.m. EDT. Replacing the 727s will be Boeing 737-800s, which carry the same number of passengers but consume about 60-percent less fuel per passenger than the tri-motors.
-- April 22 -- The airstair door of a Beech King Air 200 separated from the aircraft while cruising at FL 190. None of the nine people aboard the aircraft were injured, and it sustained only minor damage. The door was found 30 nm northwest of Eau Claire, Wis., and was observed to be in the locked position. The FAR Part 135 flight was en route from St. Paul Downtown Holman Field in Minnesota to Outagamie County Regional Airport in Appleton, Wis., at the time of the incident.
His all-guys skiing vacation in Vail, Colo., was nearing an end when a business acquaintance offered to give him a ride back to New York in his company Learjet, an offer he couldn't refuse. So come Sunday evening, happy, tired and unshaven, he climbed aboard, and the Learjet climbed out of the Rockies, hastening east. Soon -- too soon, he thought -- the aircraft began descending. The pilot explained that the airplane didn't have the range to make it nonstop, so they were going to fuel up in Columbus, Ohio.
In fractional ownership, managing your flight time -- your annual allotment of operating hours -- is everything in terms of getting the most out of your travel investment. This begins with understanding how fractional providers assess operating charges and how this can work against the shareholder, depending on individual travel patterns.
B/CA contributor David Esler assembled a ``virtual panel discussion'' on the pros and cons of using fractional shares for supplemental airlift in corporate flight departments by arranging extracts from his interviews with flight department managers. ``Participating'' are Don Baldwin, director of aviation for Coca-Cola Co., a position he held formerly at Texaco; Fred Towers, manager, scheduling and dispatch operations, for Vivendi Universal; and an anonymous aviation manager for a major aerospace corporation (he's the one sitting in shadow with his voice filtered).
Making an objective evaluation of our fitness for flight can be difficult, but the I'M SAFE checklist found in the Aeronautical Information Manual provides one means of making just such a personal assessment. The mnemonic is used to remind us of six critical areas of self-assessment: Illness -- Any form of illness can cause a reduction in alertness, reasoning or reaction, but some can also cause particularly debilitating effects at altitude.
While pressures to fly are generally considered a real-world aspect of commercial aviation, a number of steps, policies and mechanisms have been adopted by flight operations to help reduce those pressures and preserve good judgment and decision-making. Consider the following: Flight Departments -- Provide minimum weather criteria to eliminate gray areas in decision-making. -- Consider high minimums for high-risk maneuvers such as night circling approaches.
I typed ``CRM'' into a major Internet search engine and the following message came up: ``Results 1-10 of about 1,710,000. Search took 0.008 seconds.'' Eight one-thousandths of a second to find almost two million sites. It boggles the mind, especially the mind of someone who promised his editor that he would write an article on the current state of crew resource management (CRM).
Can an ILS system generate false information without flagging the cockpit instrumentation? Most pilots would answer ``no,'' but a group of air carrier safety experts discovered that the answer is sometimes ``yes.'' This unsettling situation first came to light at a Flight Safety Foundation CFIT/ALAR Action Group (CAAG) committee meeting in Amsterdam. SAS Capt. Erik Reed-mohn asked if anyone had information about an Air France B-777 incident in Rio de Janeiro in which the crew was misled by bad ILS ground signals.
The April B/CA special report ``Tech Training Gets a `C''' presented flight department maintenance managers' and technicians' views on the state of maintenance training today. They noted some positive elements -- for example, they said most technicians train regularly, and they gave high marks to programs conducted by Pratt&Whitney Canada, Honeywell, Bombardier and Rockwell Collins. But they faulted the training system overall and cited several deficiencies, including:
As we noted in the first edition of this calendar (March, page 80) B/CA ordinarily reports on the ``what'' and ``how'' of business aviation, but this feature enables us to take a look at the ``where'' and ``when.'' This month we continue by highlighting a trio of events where you're likely to meet others who value the benefits of business aviation. This time we've expanded our coverage a bit by including more information on the airports, FBOs and handlers some of you may encounter.
Robert E. Breiling President, Robert E. Breiling Associates Inc., Boca Raton, Fla. After piloting Banshees and S2Fs off carriers, Breiling flew for Pan Am until a furlough steered him into the insurance business, where he specialized in aviation analysis. He then helped fledgling SimuFlite take wing before founding his own aviation consultancy. His annual ``Business Turbine Aircraft Accident Review'' is a reference standard.
First the buzz: COMDEX Atlanta 2002 will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center in conjunction with Key3Media Group's NetWorld+ Interop event. COMDEX was last held in Atlanta in 1997. NetWorld+Interop has been held in Atlanta since 1994. The combination of COMDEX Atlanta 2002/ NetWorld+Interop Atlanta 2002 could make the Georgia capital the galactic center of the Internet, telecom and Info-Tech marketplace, at least briefly.
This could be big. About 60,000 attendees to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) hope to at last shape a concrete action plan that will pull the world's poor people out of impoverishment without inflicting lasting damage to the environment. Delegates, including some 100 heads of state, are expected to attend the gathering, whose deliberations could have far-reaching effects on trade, the environment and the global economy. It is for these reasons the summit is likely to attract a fair number of business and charter aircraft.
Nov. 21, 1978, in Bridgeport, Conn., was a raw, late-autumn day. The temperature was only in the upper 30s, a half-dozen degrees below normal, and the ground had been dusted with a half-inch of snow driven by a moderate northeast wind that foreshadowed the bitter winter storms to come.
