John, the director of maintenance, needed a technician who could troubleshoot and repair wiring problems in the company's Gulfstream III. He already had an engine specialist, a sheet-metal guru and an all-around mechanic.
TAG Aviation has added two more aircraft to its charter fleet: a Falcon 900 based in Carlsbad, Calif., and a Citation X in Denver. TAG has more than 150 aircraft at more than 50 bases available for charter.
Indigo Air, the Chicago-based operator that promised to ``combine the best aspects of private and commercial aviation'' is regrouping and planning a major expansion almost 18 months after commencing service.
Nav Canada plans to implement 1,000-foot Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM) in the country's Northern Domestic Airspace effective April 18, 2002. RVSM will be effective from FL 290 to FL 410 inclusive from 57N to the North Pole. The transition airspace will extend from 52N to 57N. ``With the forecast of increased traffic in northern Canadian airspace, including the Polar Routes, the aspects of airspace capacity and operator economies will only become more significant,'' Nav Canada said.
Photograph: John Rosanvallon The new French entry in the transatlantic ``super jet'' derby has been christened. Gone for good is FNX, the temporary moniker Dassault assigned to its new top-of-the-line business jet. Henceforth, business aviation's first fly-by-wire aircraft will be known as the Dassault Falcon Jet 7X.
The Vision Awards program was not yet a year old when business aviation was confronted by the most severe challenges in its history. The consequences the September 11 terrorist attacks had on our aviation segment were immediate and draconian: all flights were grounded by federal edict. Most flying was subsequently restored, but not to its former level of freedom and anonymity. Those may never be fully restored.
Quiet Flight has introduced a headrest-mounted speaker box for installation on Raytheon King Air aircraft that is designed for use with its electronic cabin anti-noise system. The manufacturer claims that after multiple in-aircraft test flights, the headrest unit has proven itself effective on two-, three- or four-blade turboprop aircraft. In addition, recent changes in the design have cut installation time to approximately a day and a half. The system is designed to neutralize the propeller/exhaust noise enveloping the pilot's body, not just the sounds at the ear.
An EFIS retrofit is available for the Malibu Mirage. Meggitt obtained the STC for a single-side installation with the support of New Piper Aircraft. The Mirage STC installs a MAGIC Primary Flight Display and a navigation display in the pilot's instrument panel replacing six electromechanical instruments. Integral to the MAGIC system is a solid-state ADAHRS (Air Data Attitude Heading Reference System) sensor package that replaces the vertical and directional gyros that normally drive the flight instruments.
Edited by David RimmerBy David Rimmer Great Plains' Strategy: Hub-Bypass and Krispy Kremes
With only two Fairchild Dornier 328JETs and service to such disparate cities as Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Nashville and Colorado Springs, Great Plains Airlines is trying to prove that an independent regional carrier is viable in the world of hubs and code-shares.
Eclipse Aviation completed its move to new headquarters in Albuquerque, marking the transition of aircraft development and certification activities from Williams International in Walled Lake, Mich. Engine-maker Williams partnered with Eclipse on the new Eclipse 500 twin-jet, but was phasing out its participation in aircraft development. Eclipse transferred the engineering team to the new base at Sunport International Airport to join the sales, supply management, information technology, marketing and administration staffs.
Graseby Dynamics, a Smiths Industries company, has developed a lightweight chemical detector (LCD-3) for aircraft that alerts the crew if any nerve, blister, blood or choking agents are present. The unit can also detect Toxic Industrial Chemicals/Materials (TICS/TIMS) with a high degree of sensitivity. The unit detects the agents by drawing air in through a remotely mounted siphon, where it is ionized by a weak radioactive source. The molecules of certain types of agent vapors are characterized by their ability to form low-mobility ionic clusters.
The Dubai Air Wing operates two C-130 Hercules with special roll-on palletized Igloo VVIP interiors for Royal Flights. The aircraft, pictured at the recent Dubai International Airshow, is a C-130H-30, the other operated by the Wing is a Lockheed L-100-30. The -30 variant has a longer fuselage than the standard Hercules. Each aircraft can carry up to five of the linked air-conditioned and noise-dampened modules. Kitchen facilities as well as VIP seating are all part of the interchangeable modules.
A new Internet-based system will enable state and FAA airport inspectors to more quickly update airport safety data on the National Flight Center Database (NFDC), allowing the data to be more readily accessible by the aviation community. The old procedure required inspectors to mail their hard-copy inspection reports of safety data in the NFDC database. The data include operational information such as runway length, loading capacity, lighting and NAVAIDs, number of operations and based aircraft.
As the FAA, DOT and federal law-enforcement agencies ponder how to plug holes in the aviation security system, two categories of operations sure to receive attention are air charter and the burgeoning fractional ownership industry.
Photograph: John J. Goglia Member, NTSB The first working A&P mechanic to serve on the NTSB, Goglia has more than four decades of aviation experience, from piloting his own J-3 Cub, to overseeing maintenance for USAir. He received the Aviation Mechanic of the Year Award in 1994 and the following year was named to the Safety Board. He is respected for his knowledge, professionalism and honest talk. 1 Do you think aviation technicians should receive recurrent training? Goglia: It should be mandatory. You need it to keep pace with what's going on.
Strange times bring strange ques-tions. Can we keep guns in the cockpit? Can we wear holsters? No one has asked about adding hard points to the wings, but those with the inclination to do so probably don't ask for legal opinions.
JETporter has introduced a heavy-duty version of its electric nosewheel lifting tugs. The Jp-2 has all of the features of the Jp-1 line, but can handle aircraft up to 100,000 pounds. JETporter said the Jp-2 was specifically designed for aircraft such as the Gulfstream III, IV and V, Bombardier Global Express and regional airliners. The new tug has an independent motor for each drive wheel allowing it to pivot around its front end. In addition, a dual set of batteries extends the operating time, with enough power left over for GPU engine starts.
The campaign to save Meigs Field has garnered support from more than 20 aviation and business organizations. They were signatories to an October 26 letter appealing jointly to Illinois Gov. George Ryan and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to keep Meigs open permanently. The coalition included air traffic controllers, general aviation groups, emergency care providers and business organizations.
The collected wisdom of airmanship, like that of seamanship, is passed on from generation to generation largely in aphorisms -- literally hundreds of them. I have come to believe that strict adherence to just four of them can keep crews out of harm's way in all but the most unusual circumstances. You are familiar with them, of course, but let me repeat them here for the record: (1) Always leave yourself an out. (2) Trust your instincts. (3) Expect tolerances to line up unidirectionally -- in the wrong direction.
A Basic Flight Operations Management (BFOM) course now offered by Jeppesen Academy is designed to provide new flight operations personnel with an understanding of how a flight department works. Specifically focusing on commercial dispatchers, AIS officers and navigation planners, the course covers aviation law, treaties, governing agencies, form of the earth, radio aids, navigation services, basic meteorology, weight and balance, basic aerodynamics and flight planning.
On December 7, 1941, a group of college students, your scribe included, were performing the Rites of Passage of a Sunday afternoon, motoring from Chapel Hill to Durham for the afternoon matinee, ``Sergeant York,'' featuring Gary Cooper. Emerging from the theater, we were greeted by young newsboys hawking an extra Durham paper whose green headlines shrieked, ``JAPS BOMB PEARL HARBOR.'' None among us knew where Pearl Harbor was; perhaps somewhere between Walla Walla and Pikes Peak?
A new amphibious operation is to start scheduled service this month linking Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The company, Emarat Link, will start the 11 daily flights with two Cessna 208 Caravan amphibians. The aircraft will fly from floating terminals at Dubai Creek, to a waterfront terminal at Abu Dhabi. The company hopes to add a third Cessna 208 amphibian if load factors come up to expectations, and in the longer term hopes to start land-based regional single-engine turboprop services in the region.
