President Bush last week nominated Mary Peters to serve as the next Transportation Secretary, choosing a candidate with substantial Washington experience in ground transportation but limited exposure to the aviation industry. Peters headed the Federal Highway Administration from October 2001 to July 2005; before that, she was director of the Arizona Transportation Department.
PRESIDENT BUSH's selection of former Federal Highway Administrator Mary Peters as the nation's next Secretary of Transportation elicited strong support from user-fee advocate Robert Poole, of the Reason Foundation.
CESSNA Aircraft late Friday received full certification for the newest member of its Citation line, the Mustang entry-level jet. Certification approval included single-pilot operation, day/night operations, visual and instrument flight rules and operations in Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum airspace. Cessna expects to win approval for flight into known icing conditions within the next couple of weeks. Customer deliveries are slated to begin early next year.
COLUMBIA AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING CORP. received type certification from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia for Columbia 350 and 400 single-engine aircraft equipped with Garmin G1000 avionics. Columbia previously won Australian approval for Avidyne Entegra-equipped models. Columbia offers customers a choice between the two avionics suites. Columbia Down Under, based at Maroochydore Airport, sells the aircraft in Australia and New Zealand. The Columbia 350 is normally aspirated and cruises at 191 knots.
Denver-based Frontier Airlines, currently an all-jet operator, signed a contract to buy 10 Bombardier Q400 turboprops and took options on another 10 of the 74-passenger aircraft. The manufacturer said the value of the firm orders is $256.8 million (U.S.), a total that could rise to $520.3 million if all 10 options are exercised. Frontier operates 280 flights a day to 57 destinations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, some of which are flown by Horizon Air as Frontier JetExpress using Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets.
ABOUT 85 PERCENT of customers buying new Bombardier business aircraft are enrolling in the manufacturer's new Leading Edge safety training program, the company said. The Canadian plane-maker introduced the program six months ago based on the lessons learned from the Bombardier Safety Standdown. The program provides advanced skills and knowledge-based training for pilots and enables operators to either create a new safety management program or refine an existing one. The program includes three modules, two of which focus on strategies to reduce pilot error.
An American Airlines pilot, joined the Aircraft Sales Division of Axis Jet, the aircraft sales and management company based at the Sacramento, Calif. Executive Airport (SAC). Share, a Boeing 767/757 pilot with more than 14,000 hours of flight time, formerly managed a Fortune 100 company flight department in Minneapolis. Share will manage sales of Axis Jet's Shared Ownership Program, as well as the acquisition and brokerage of aircraft.
EMBRY-RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY has restructured its Extended Campus to accommodate growth. The university plans to build an $11 million, 50,000-square-foot facility to house the headquarters of the newly renamed Worldwide Campus. The facility will be the first building in a new research park the university is developing next to its Daytona Beach, Fla. campus. The building is slated for completion in January 2009. Embry-Riddle also plans to add 10 to 20 new graduate and undergraduate programs in aviation, aerospace and related disciplines.
The Federal Aviation Administration's proposal to mandate training for operators flying within 100 nautical miles of the Washington, D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) not only illustrates the inherent problems with the existing ADIZ, but would effectively establish "a brand new, ill-defined zone of confusion," the Helicopter Association International told the agency. The Federal Aviation Administration in early July proposed requiring special awareness training for any person flying under visual flight rules within 100 nm of the ADIZ (BA, July 10/15).
Joines Million Air as vice president of aircraft technical services. Primm will expand and improve the maintenance and avionics services at the Million Air Houston facility. He also will be responsible for establishing a maintenance support network throughout the Million Air chain. Primm has 33 years of aviation experience, most recently as president and chief executive of Air Services of Cleveland.
EUROCOPTER RECENTLY PASSED A MILESTONE in shipments of the EC 135 helicopter. On Aug. 30, the 500th EC 135 built at Eurocopter's German production facility in Donauwoerth was delivered to the Austrian Motorist and Touring Club (OEAMTC), which will use the twin-turboshaft rotorcraft in its air ambulance operations. This helicopter is the 25th EC135 for OEAMTC, one of the largest private operators of this type in the world.
The National Transportation Safety board is looking into wing separations in two recent crashes of MU-2B twin turboprop aircraft that killed three people. One MU-2B, N6569L, was destroyed when it crashed about midday Sept. 1 near Argyle, Fla. Registered to Intercontinental Jet Incorporated of Tulsa, Okla., the aircraft was on a Part 91 flight from Tulsa, Okla. to Panama City Bay County International Airport in Florida.
Model AB139 helicopters [Docket No. FAA-2006-25703; Directorate Identifier 2006-SW-20-AD; Amendment 39-14747; AD 2006-17-51] - Publishes an amendment adopting AD 2006-17-51, sent previously to all known U.S. owners and operators of Agusta AB139 helicopters by individual letters. This AD requires, before further flight and at specified intervals, certain visual inspections of each tailpipe assembly for a crack and for overheating (BA, Aug. 21/81).
AVIATION TECHNOLOGY GROUP selected Op Technologies to supply the avionics package for the Javelin jet. The package will include an Integrated Display System with three five-by-seven-inch display units in both the forward and aft cockpits. The individual displays include a primary flight display, a multifunction display and an engine instrument and crew alerting system. In addition, the Op Technologies suite will include a Multifunction Control and Display Unit to control the Flight Management System, autoflight and navigation-communication equipment.
Model CL-600-2B16 (CL-604) airplanes and Model CL-600-2B19 (Regional Jet Series 100 & 440) airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2006-25724; Directorate Identifier 2006-NM-197-AD; Amendment 39-14742; AD 2006-18-04] - Requires revising the Emergency Procedures section of the Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) to advise the flightcrew of additional procedures to follow in the event of stabilizer trim runaway.
Model DHC-8-400 series airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2006-25723; Directorate Identifier 2006-NM-007-AD] - Proposes to require repetitive cleaning/inspecting of the drain hole of each pitot static probe and repetitive cleaning of the pitot lines in the pitot static system. This proposed AD results from reports of incidents of airspeed mismatch between the pilot, co-pilot, and standby airspeed indications caused by contamination in the pitot static system.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION believes its proposal to mandate training for VFR pilots flying within 100 nautical miles of the Washington, D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone could save the government up to $11 million a year, the agency said in an economic evaluation released last week. The agency is basing that estimate on costs of evacuating buildings, aircraft intercepts and government coordination that could be mitigated if proper training reduces the number of inadvertent violations of the ADIZ.
GOODRICH WILL PROVIDE THE ROTORBLADE ICE PROTECTION SYSTEM (RIPS) for the twin-engine AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter. The system is designed to keep the helicopter's main- and tail-rotor blades ice-free during extreme operating conditions by using Goodrich's DuraTherm electro-thermal deicing mat technology to safely shed accreted ice.
Model ERJ 170 Airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2005-22125; Directorate Identifier 2005-NM-130-AD; Amendment 39-14745; AD 2006-18-07] - Requires replacing the Very High Frequency (VHF) antenna located in position 1 of the fuselage with a new, improved VHF antenna. This AD results from a report regarding the loss of all voice communications due to a lightning strike damaging all the VHF antennas.
The Federal Aviation Administration wants to find out how valuable the Airport Advisory Service is to pilots at certain airports in the U.S. Provided by Automated Flight Service Stations, the service is optional for pilots landing or departing aircraft at airports without air traffic control towers or those where towers are staffed only part time. The service provides information on weather, wind direction and speed, altimeter setting, runway usage, aeronautical data and traffic.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, along with the Bureau of Land Management, is developing an Environmental Impact Statement for a possible new commercial airport in southern Nevada. The Clark County Department of Aviation (CCDOA) is proposing a new supplemental commercial airport 30 miles south of Las Vegas in the Ivanpah Valley. Plans call for the airport to be operational by 2017 and supplement Las Vegas McCarran Airport, which is forecast to reach 706,684 annual operations by 2015. FAA and BLM have scheduled public meetings on the proposed project Oct.
Eclipse Aviation, which won provisional FAA type certification for its Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet in July, now hopes to receive full type certification approval from the agency this month.
