It used to be part of the accepted wisdom of the used aircraft sales fraternity that prospective buyers were more concerned with hours and cycles than calendar years when evaluating potential buys. Now that many popular models are passing 20 years or more, age may become a greater factor, particularly in view of FAA focus on aging aircraft. Fractional ownership programs are rapidly changing utilization rates. Higher average hours and cycles per year, coupled with standardized fleet maintenance programs are beginning to change community opinions of what is high use.
A U.S. District Judge has given city officials in San Jose, Calif., until the end of this month to rule on the validity of the night noise curfew at San Jose International Airport. The case has wider implications. Easing the curfew or shelving it altogether could open one of the nation's most noise sensitive airports to 24-hour operations, but with the potential loss of up to $1.5 billion in federal airport improvement funding. ``The stakes are high in terms of the enforceability and integrity of our curfew,'' City Attorney Rick Doyle said.
Honeywell Commercial Aviation Systems, Rockwell Collins, Thales Avionics (the former Sextant Avionique/Thomson CSF Sextant) and Universal Avionics Systems Corp. are probably the best-known developers and manufacturers of satellite communication systems and antennas for aircraft.
Buying a used business jet can be similar to scuba diving in tropical waters, according to one of B/CA's readers who went shopping for a used light business jet in December 2000. If you get scuffed up by unknown rocks and reefs, you might become a bleeding bait fish for sharks, he discovered after a few rounds of negotiations with certain brokers. As soon as some brokers found his last name ended in ``M.D.,'' they started circling hungrily.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) is seeking to block airline efforts to overturn regulations that mandate a 16-hour duty day for all pilots in scheduled domestic service under FAR Parts 135 and 121. At issue is a lawsuit filed by the Air Transport Association (ATA), which seeks to keep the FAA from enforcing a rule that could force the airlines to pay more overtime or hire additional crews.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey signed off on a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would establish a new Subpart K of FAR Part 91, governing fractional aircraft ownership programs, and modify operating rules for Part 135 air taxi companies. The long-awaited proposal was sent to the DOT, which has 60 days to review it. After the DOT is finished, the NPRM will be sent to the Office of Management and Budget, which also will have up to 60 days. When those agencies are through, the FAA will publish the proposal in the Federal Register and solicit comments.
Australian air safety regulators plan to require audible ``loss of pressurization'' alarms on all turbine-powered aircraft by the end of November, reversing their earlier position that such devices would do little to enhance safety.
The IBM corporate flight department won FAA approval to conduct CAT III approaches in Falcon 2000 business jets equipped with the Flight Dynamics Head-up Guidance System (HGS). The approval, believed to be one of the first such authorizations for an FAR Part 91 operator, permits properly trained company pilots to make approaches to airports in conditions as low as 700 feet RVR and a 50-foot decision height. IBM has been operating a Falcon 2000 since 1995 and had it retrofitted with the HGS system in 1998.
National Air Transportation Association (NATA) is developing two checklists that the association hopes will assist its members when they obtain insurance. The checklists stem from growing concerns about the dramatic increases in insurance rates and the realization that those rates are not likely to drop anytime in the near future. In fall 2000, aviation businesses reported insurance rate increases of up to 300 percent, a trend that analysts believe was driven in part by the declining number of insurance providers.
Checklists have popped up in several recent Cause&Circumstance columns and safety articles -- checklists ignored, misread, misplaced and misunderstood. We all agree, I think, that checklists deserve better treatment from us in that they are the undisputed mom and apple pie of cockpit management philosophy.
Horizon Air has come under FAA scrutiny for allegedly failing to follow its own maintenance manual after repairing an aircraft. The agency has proposed a $90,000 fine against the Seattle-based regional, for returning a de Havilland Dash 8-100 to service for more than 2,000 flights with an inoperative attitude/heading reference system. The maintenance in question occurred in May 1999, the FAA says.
Primedia has joined the group of companies providing flight tracking software, releasing its AC-U-KWIK Flight Tracker Web-based product that will allow FBOs, charter companies and corporate flight departments to monitor inbound and outbound flights through any public airport in the continental United States or Canada. The program allows companies to access real-time flight information through the Internet using aircraft tail numbers.
The Encore inherits the Ultra's very capable Honeywell Primus 1000 avionics package, which embraces the familiar hub-and-spoke architecture. The three eight-by-seven-inch CRT displays -- left- and right-side PFDs and a central MFD -- are the most visible elements of the system. The MFD is flanked by twin Honeywell Primus II radio management units.
Schedulers and dispatchers met in Nashville at the NBAA's 12th annual conference seeking training and answers to their flight department issues. Over 1,300 S&Ds attended the three-day conference, with more than 50 classroom sessions on a variety of flight department issues. ``This is the first time that I have walked away from the conference having all of my questions and concerns addressed,'' said Paul Mainville, flight control officer at Knighthawk Air Express.
AgustaWestland's EH101 helicopters have logged 26 hours flying under a 10-day evaluation by the Nordic Helicopter Consortium, which requires 60 to 100 helicopters over the next 10 years. The flight demonstrations took place at Yeovil, England and Cascina Costa, Italy using two different military marks of the machine and two of the civil development aircraft PP8 and PP9. The Nordic group consists of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Jet Aviation Basel is completing a Boeing Business Jet for use by Boeing as a customer demonstrator and for travel by company officials. The aircraft, which will be Boeing's second BBJ demonstrator, will incorporate a design concept developed by Donald Thompson Industrial Design of New York in conjunction with a group of leading U.S. interior designers. The cabin will have Internet data ports at each seat and a satellite-based telecommunications system consisting of two phased-array antennas housed in a low-profile enclosure mounted on top of the fuselage.
The Vail Valley Jet Center, located at Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE) in Colorado, has partnered with the White River Executive Center to provide fully equipped executive office suites in Avon, Colo., at the base of Beaver Creek Ski Resort.
An ICAO committee has proposed the adoption of a new aircraft noise standard that is 10 decibels below the current Stage 3 standard by 2006. ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), meeting in Montreal in mid-January, issued a series of recommendations aimed at reducing aircraft noise. The group also established a framework to address lowering aircraft emissions.
Miami-Dade County is assembling a list of other possibilities for relieving the increasing strain on its current airport system in the wake of a January U.S. Air Force decision that barred aeronautical use of 700 acres of surplus land at the former Homestead Air Force Base. County officials for years had plans to develop the Homestead site as a commercial airport, but those plans were squashed after the Air Force, at the request of the Department of the Interior, reversed a 1994 Record of Decision to enable aeronautical use there.
Edited by Paul RichfieldDave Benoff, in Anaheim, Calif.
With a downturn in helicopter sales anticipated this year, exhibitors at the 2001 Helicopter Association International (HAI) convention in Anaheim, Calif., vied for the attention of 2,000 fewer attendees than at the 2000 Las Vegas show. As expected, only one manufacturer announced a new product, while others provided updates or revealed new development ideas. Eurocopter unveiled its new FAA/JAA-approved EC130B4 helicopter as expected, with the first delivery going to Blue Hawaiian Helicopters.
Operational errors by air traffic controllers are up 51 percent over the past five years, despite the FAA's ongoing efforts to address the issue. In a recent study, the DOT's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) cited four incidents to illustrate the gravity of the problem: -- A near miss between an airliner and a general aviation aircraft near Atlanta in July 1999 -- collision was avoided when the airliner took evasive action based on a TCAS alert.
Air Botnia of Finland has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire five Saab 2000 turboprops from the Swedish manufacturer's leasing arm. Delivery of the first aircraft is planned for this month; the 47-seat aircraft will replace 32-seat Saab 340s. Air Botnia President Sveneric Persson says the Saab 2000 is fast enough to fly the same timetable as the carrier's new Avro RJ85 jets, slated to enter the fleet in May.
Dassault Falcon Jet, Teterboro, has named Lloyd Hardwick as its field service representative for the Atlanta area. Hardwick is an FAA licensed A&P mechanic with over 20 years of experience maintaining corporate aircraft.
Spirited industry resistance has led the Bush administration to shelve a proposal to slice up to $568 million from the FAA's fiscal 2002 operations budget. The AOPA and other trade groups said the proposed cuts threatened the budgetary gains made with AIR-21, the FAA reauthorization bill signed into law in April 2000.
Gulfstream Aerospace parent General Dynamics announced formation of General Dynamics Aviation Services, a new aircraft service organization designed to meet the maintenance needs of a broad range of business jet operators. ``The extraordinary growth of business aviation over the past few years has created increased demand for maintenance and refurbishment services,'' said Bill Boisture, executive vice president of GD and head of the company's Aerospace Group.
