It's hardly an original idea (in fact the Founding Fathers made one a requirement for America's CEO) but GAMA's annual state of the industry address has become a must-attend evening event held at the massive Ronald Reagan Interna-tional Trade Center, just down the street from the Treasury Department in Wash-ington. It is there that you get the final score for the year, and, this year at least, it provided a nice setting for a kind of group hug.
Enron officials ``admit'' to using company jets for eight trips since filing for bankruptcy in 2001. Seven of those flights carried a total of 43 passengers to bankruptcy hearings in New York, spokesman Mark Palmer said in late January. The eighth flight transported family members of former Enron executive J. Clifford Baxter to his funeral in his hometown of Amityville, N.Y. Baxter was found dead in his car with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
This month in Washington, D.C., and next month in Wichita, the FAA will present its Commercial Aviation and General Aviation Forecasts, providing hundreds of analysts, manufacturers, airline executives and industry watchers with the latest projections about the industry's future and growth potential. Those who know what they're looking for will find some useful information at the commercial forecast conference. Because of regulatory and financial reporting requirements, the FAA has access to a
Mike Vines, in Birmingham, EnglandEdited by David Rimmer
BAE Systems decided in November 2001 to cancel the Avro RJX aircraft program, and now both RJX launch customers, British European of the United Kingdom and Druk Air of Bhutan, have agreed not to enforce their firm orders for 12 and two aircraft, respectively.
Soft sales and a drop in deliveries of its more lucrative turbine products drove Raytheon Aircraft Co. (RAC) to operating losses in excess of $750 million in 2001 -- and the company predicts that revenues will continue to slide this year.
How many business aircraft shows does the world need? Well, the United States is spoken for with the N in NBAA standing for National, leaving others, especially in Europe, to duke it out. EBACE? Well, that's European, and ILA -- that's German, according to SBAC, the organizers of the Farnborough Air Show. But I say, old chap, isn't that the British show? No, insists SBAC Chief Executive David Marshall -- Farnborough is a global shop window.
Pilatus has an STC to install the Honeywell integrated hazard avoidance system (IHAS) on the Pilatus PC-12. Honeywell's IHAS combines TCAS I and EGPWS functions in an integrated package that performs four major hazard awareness/avoidance functions: moving map position awareness, weather avoidance, traffic advisories and terrain avoidance. Information is displayed on a single KMD 80 multifunction display, and pilots can switch among map, weather, traffic and terrain displays.
If the Eclipse 500 jet is to be certified under FAR Part 23, the FAA proposes to impose special design conditions related to engine fire detection, protection and control since the rear-mounted engines are out of ready view by pilots or passengers. Additionally, the FAA will likely impose conditions regarding protection from high-intensity radiated fields. (A noteworthy consideration legitimate in the mind of one B/CA staffer who owned a car with windshield wipers that cycled whenever the CB radio was keyed).
Teterboro Airport, one of New Jersey politicians' favorite targets, is under fire again -- this time from State Legislator Loretta Weinberg. Weinberg has reintroduced two bills designed to curtail operations at the suburban New York airport. The first, AR30, calls for the airport's owner -- the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- to ban flights out of the airport between midnight and 6 a.m.
Every year, Indianapolis plays host to the two largest single-day sporting events in the world -- the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 -- as well as the National Drag Racing Finals. Since its inception as a year-round testing facility for the fast-growing automobile industry in 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been a world-class venue for auto racing. The original concept was simple: Manufacturers could show off their latest models at race meets, and the spectators, being sufficiently impressed, could quickly head downtown and buy one at the showroom.
Once more into the breach, dear friends. U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) called general aviation a ``ticking time bomb'' during a Senate Transportation Appropriation Subcommittee hearing February 8.
The upcoming European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE), May 28-30 in Geneva, Switzerland, will serve as a forum for exploring operating issues in the European Union, including customs and cabotage matters. In addition to European business aviation community members, representatives of various E.U. regulatory agencies will be on hand to participate in EBACE seminars and Q&A sessions, offering U.S. operators unprecedented access to the people who make the rules.
The AOPA reports that Mexico has issued new requirements for entry of aircraft that are not registered in the pilot's name (and all helicopters, regardless of registration). Aircraft (except helicopters) registered in the pilot's name do not need prior authorization. The authorization must be obtained in advance from the Mexican Department of Civil Aviation, Air Traffic Control and Transport Department prior to the date of the planned flight into Mexican airspace. An annual blanket authorization that runs through the calendar year (January-December) is also available.
With the end of its Global Express completion contract in sight, The Jet Center (Garrett Aviation Services in Van Nuys) is actively seeking new business such as major modifications, interior refurbishment, avionics updates and general maintenance work. They have completed and delivered four Global Express aircraft to Bombardier and have two more in the contract pipeline. Traditionally know as a ``big jet'' facility, the Jet Center is building its capabilities to include Learjets, Falcons, Hawkers and Citations.
Turbine helicopter engine manufacturer Turbomeca will open a new subsidiary at Montreal's Mirabel Airport in Canada in October. Known as Turbomeca Canada, the new division will help provide support for the company's in-service engines in Canada, including those in the Canadian Maritime Helicopters Program. The first phase of the new company will focus on Arriel service and engine repair and is expected to lead to the creation of 45 jobs.
``In Europe, in a relatively small airspace, we have some 40-odd jurisdictions. That's why we're advocating the Single Sky concept, which will offer a single air traffic administration system across Europe.'' Pierre Jeanniot, director general of IATA. Profit: Oracle's E-Business
From its introduction in 1965 until production ceased in the mid-1980s, Dassault's Falcon 20 was a great airplane awaiting suitable engines. That seems to be the consensus of operators of TFE731-powered Falcon 20 aircraft contacted by B/CA for this evaluation.
The scene: January 5, St. Peters-burg/Clearwater Airport. Robert Bishop, nee Bishara, age 15, was dropped off at National Aviation Flight School for his flying lesson in a single-engine Cessna. His instructor gave him the keys to the airplane to make the usual walkaround inspection. Instead, young Bishop cranked up the Cessna and took off without permission, without clearance and without functioning brain.
AOG. It's amazing how three little letters can generate such intense emotion in those who pilot, maintain, travel aboard and, most decidedly, pay for the ``A.'' Being stranded with a broken airplane far from home and without a means to remedy the situation is a nightmare scenario for any flight department. And justifiably so. For aside from the blown trip, an AOG can cost a lot of money, aggravation, worry and, depending upon the cause and resolution, it could cost jobs.
ANPC has announced a transportable version of its Transponder Landing System (TLS) that received FAA Type Approval in December 2001. It is contained in a single trailer that can be airlifted in a C-130. ANPC's Firefly transportable TLS provides precision approach guidance (lateral and vertical path) to any civil or military aircraft equipped with a standard ILS receiver. The system interrogates the aircraft's transponder and broadcasts signals that drive the ILS indicators to show deviation from a computed flight path.
On March 24, 2000, a 31-year-old commercial pilot blew his type rating ride. He was flying a Bankair Learjet 35A on the type-rating check with an FAA-designated examiner in the right seat. The type-rating candidate was a 1,700-hour commercial pilot with a flight instructor certificate and multiengine and instrument ratings. The pilot had been employed by the check-hauling company three months earlier. He had accumulated over 300 hours in the right seat of Learjets.
While many operators were devastated by operational restrictions in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the Helicopter Association International's annual Heli-Expo demonstrated that the world helicopter market is hopeful for an improvement this year and that technological innovations and new aircraft deliveries continue at a steady pace. Among the highlights of this year's mid-February gathering in Orlando:
In what resembled a scene from a movie, a student pilot landed a Cape Air Cessna 402 recently when the airplane's pilot became incapacitated. The twin-piston was en route from Martha's Vineyard to Hyannis, Mass. -- normally a 15 minute flight -- when the pilot began flying ``erratically'' according to a preliminary FAA report.
Russian aviation officials said a tariff increase for European Union (E.U.) aircraft flying in its airspace could occur if a compromise is not reached over the new E.U. noise pollution standards. Moscow claims that the E.U. Stage 3 requirements, scheduled to take effect in April, will restrict up to 80 percent of its planes from European airspace. In addition, the Russians said they were being economically hampered because the vast majority of the civilian fleet is Soviet-built and money for upgrades is unavailable.
