Transporation Secretary Norman Mineta briefly raised some hopes last week that the Bush Administration might be backing away from proposing user fees on general aviation, but those hopes were quickly dashed. Responding to a question from Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) during a hearing before a House Appropriations panel, Mineta expressed concern that charging fees on GA could lead pilots to decide against filing flight plans with Flight Service Stations, which could lead to reducing air safety.
Named vice president of FBO operations for Landmark Aviation. Hopkins will be based in Winston Salem, N.C. He began his career at Landmark predecessor company Piedmont Aviation in Roanoke, Va., as a flight instructor and charter pilot. He later was general manager of the Roanoke and Norfolk, Va. FBOs and vice president of charter. Most recently Hopkins was vice president, large fleets and government contracts.
SIGNATURE FLIGHT SUPPORT is consolidating its hold on the business aviation market at Le Bourget Airport in Paris. Signature purchased Le Terminal, formerly a private aviation facility at the airport. The acquisition includes a six-story office building, two adjoining hangars and about three acres of aircraft parking ramp. Late last year Signature bought the PrivatAir FBO at Le Bourget.
Bombardier Aerospace received an order from National Air Support of Adelaide, Australia for three Bombardier Q300 Maritime Patrol Aircraft for the Surveillance Australia Coastwatch program. Bombardier valued the order at $53 million (U.S.). Surveillance Australia has operated Bombardier turboprops since 1996 and currently operates five Dash 8/Q200s. The aircraft, which have amassed some 70,000 hours of surveillance time, are used to search for illegal fishing and immigration, quarantine and environmental hazards, drug smuggling and missing vessels.
Both pilots aboard an Aero Vodochody L39 were killed in California late last month when their airplane crashed while they were performing maneuvers to be used in a movie.
David Mandell, chief of staff to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, is leaving the agency at the end of this week to pursue a business opportunity. He will be replaced by Mike O'Malley, who has been deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy at the Transportation Department.
Gulfstream Aerospace officials unveiled a seven-year, $300 million expansion program for the company's headquarters and principal manufacturing facility in Savannah, Ga. last week (BA, March 6/101).
MD Helicopters selected its affiliate, Global Automotive Systems in Monterrey, Mexico, to build fuselages for 500E, 530F, 520N and 600N helicopters. MD Helicopters and Global Automotive Systems are platform portfolio companies of the investment firm Patriarch Partners, LLC.
AOPA President Phil Boyer was not persuaded by promises to carve out sport and recreational aviation from any user-fee proposal. While such a plan might make some AOPA members happy in the short term, Boyer told BA, "I look at this longer range." He said user fee proposals in other countries initially spared small aircraft operators but were expanded to include them once the fees were in place for larger aircraft. Boyer said AOPA wants to maintain a united front with other GA groups in opposition to user fees. See article below.
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to lower the minimums for use of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) from the current 250 feet above an airport surface to 200 feet for vertical instrument approaches, the agency announced last week. FAA said it would release the first procedures by 2007 allowing vertical instrument approaches using WAAS down to 200 feet. "This is a significant milestone, moving us closer to our ultimate goal of a satellite-based airspace system," said FAA Administrator Marion Blakey.
Concerns that security-sensitive operational information was publicly available prompted the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to ask FAA to block access to transcripts from the public hearings on a proposal to make permanent the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over Washington, D.C. (BA, Jan. 23/31). FAA, with participation by TSA and a number of other federal agencies, held two hearings in January that together drew more than 500 attendees - most of them opposed to the ADIZ proposal.
Aircraft salesmen looking to India as the next hot market for business jets and regional airliners got some good news recently when Indian officials announced an ambitious plan to upgrade the nation's secondary airports.
Promoted to vice president of large fleets and government contracts for Landmark Aviation. Larsen formerly was director of large fleet and government contracts and engine program sales manager for Landmark. He has 24 years of business aviation management experience and was one of the founders at Standard Aero Alliance Inc./Alliance Engines.
Appointed West Coast regional sales manager for S-Tec, the Mineral Wells, Texas producer of flight control systems. Doyle has 28 years of aviation experience and most recently was president of his own aviation consulting firm. He also was a founding member of the Global Aeronautical Foundation, a non-profit organization that preserves and showcases vintage aircraft
Model EMB-135 airplanes; and Model EMB-145, -145ER, -145MR, -145LR, -145XR, -145MP, and -145EP airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2005-23283; Directorate Identifier 2005-NM-185-AD; Amendment 39-14483; AD 2006-04-02] - requires repetitive inspections of the pitot static heating relay K0057 for damage to the pin-type contacts, relay enclosure, and finishing material and corrective actions if necessary. This AD also requires a terminating modification, which ends the repetitive inspections.
Schubach Aviation, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based on-demand charter company, added a Hawker 800 to its fleet. The addition of the Hawker brings the number of aircraft in the Schubach charter fleet to 13. The company also operates two Citation CJ1s, a Challenger 601, two King Air 200s, a Citation 1SP, two Learjet 35s, two Learjet 55s and two Hawkers.
Representatives of the nation's large scheduled airlines and the business aviation community espoused fundamentally different approaches last week about how a new space-based air traffic control system should be funded and who should be trusted with governance of the Air Traffic Organization in the future.
Honeywell and Soloy received a supplemental type certificate from FAA for installation of Honeywell's LTS101-700D-2 turboshaft engine on the AS350B2 AStar helicopter. The engine will boost takeoff power by 14 percent at sea level and 18 percent during hot-day conditions, compared with the LTS 101-600A-3A that had been offered for AStar conversion. "We developed this program to satisfy operator demand for the LTS101 engine," said Doug Kult, sales director of Honeywell Light Utility Helicopter programs.
Model AS350B, BA, B1, B2, B3, C, D, and D1 helicopters [Docket No. FAA-2006-23888; Directorate Identifier 2005-SW-03-AD] - proposes to require installing right and left side Geneva cyclic control sticks and modifying the cyclic grips and the co-pilot cyclic stand (receptacle). This proposal is prompted by reports that pilots had restricted cyclic stick travel when using Eurocopter factory-installed cyclic sticks in a helicopter that has been modified in accordance with a certain Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the installation of a Geneva P132 console.
IN RESPONSE to a report last week about an FAA airworthiness directive regarding problems with cockpit flight panel displays in Gulfstream IV and V aircraft (BA, March 6/104), Honeywell said it has "identified an issue in its Primus Epic avionics that could cause momentary blinking or blanking of the cockpit display units." The Honeywell statement said the problem "only affects the display units, not the overall Primus Epic system," adding that it "is aware of one confirmed occurrence" in which the primary displays "momentarily blanked before stabilizing." Honeywell sai
Sharp details this month will begin offering aircraft cleaning to customers at Signature Flight Support and Jet Aviation at Hanscom Field (BED) in Bedford, Mass. The company will provide wipe-downs, brightwork polishing, Teflon paint protection, Xzilon application, washes, interior detailing and carpet shampooing for based and transient aircraft. The addition of BED continues Sharp Details' expansion in the Northeast.
J.J. Ingalls, 72, who got his start in aviation atop a ladder washing airplane windshields and came to symbolize outstanding FBO customer service, died March 2 in Mesa, Ariz. after a two-year battle with cancer.
Appointed director of sales, West Coast region, for FirstFlight Management. De Sousa will be responsible for sales of charter, management and executive aircraft for Firstflight in the western U.S. He formerly was a charter broker with Blue Star Jets and was sales director of Bombardier/Skyjet's West Coast region. He also served with TWA.
