BOLEN WAS BULLISH about the prospects for the EBACE show. This year's event drew 7,667 registrants, compared with 6,500 a year ago, exhibit space sold rose 21 percent and the number of airplanes on display rose from 36 last year to 50 last week. "There's just a lot of enthusiasm here," Bolen said, comparing the EBACE forum in Geneva to larger aviation exhibitions at Paris and Farnborough where business aviation "get[s] lost in the noise." EBACE "gives us a chance to establish ourselves in the way we want to for the European market," he said.
CORPORATE ANGEL NETWORK will receive some $115,000 in proceeds from the 17th Annual Greater Washington Aviation Open (GWAO) golf and tennis tournament held May 9 at the Indian Spring Country Club in Silver Spring, Md. The GWAO, which attracts several hundred participants each year from the aviation industry, trade associations and congressional and executive branch offices, has raised nearly $1 million for the Corporate Angel Network since CAN became the designated beneficiary of the tournament.
BILLY HANKINSON was named regional sales director for Flight Options. Hankinson will oversee sales in the South Central region. He joined Flight Options in 2003 as an area sales manager for the South Central region.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association ran full-page advertisements in two publications last week in an effort to perform damage control in the wake of the widely publicized May 11 incident in which two Pennsylvania pilots in a Cessna 150 wandered into restricted airspace around Washington, D.C.
THERE IS "GENERAL ACCEPTANCE" now among European authorities that fractional aircraft ownership programs are not "commercial operations" but there are still issues to be resolved before U.S. fractional providers can routinely fly from the U.S. to European destinations, according to Ed Bolen, president of the National Business Aviation Association.
SAFE FLIGHT INSTRUMENT CORPORATION is working with Raytheon Aircraft Services to install Safe Flight's automatic throttle system, AutoPower, on the Hawker 800XP business jet.
GENERAL AVIATION is still taboo at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), but that is not preventing the aviation community in Washington from celebrating GA there. The Washington Airports Task Force has scheduled "Celebrate General Aviation!" June 23 at Signature Flight Support's Hangar at DCA. A fund-raiser for the task force's efforts to promote aviation services at Dulles International Airport and DCA, the event will include corporate aircraft displays and feature Small Air Transportation System and very-light-jet advancements. Sen.
DORNIER Model 328-300 series airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2005-21054; Directorate Identifier 2005-NM-054-AD] - proposes to require modifying the electrical wiring of the fuel pumps; installing insulation at the flow control and shutoff valves, and other components of the environmental control system; installing markings at fuel wiring harnesses; replacing the wiring harness of the auxiliary fuel system with a new wiring harness, and installing insulated couplings in the fuel system, as applicable.
RAYTHEON INTRODUCES UPGRADED VERSIONS OF HAWKER 800, PREMIER -- Raytheon Aircraft Company announced new versions of its Hawker 800XP and Beechcraft Premier I last week at the EBACE exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland.
REP. SOUDER PUSHES FOR CUSTOMS CONTROL OF CAPITAL AIRSPACE SECURITY - House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) last week agreed to take a closer look at Washington, D.C. airspace jurisdiction after Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) pushed to give the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection's Office of Air and Marine Operations (AMO) control over security in the airspace surrounding the National Capital Region.
KEVIN PARKER was named general manager of Raytheon Aircraft Company's aircraft servicing facility in Fulton County, Ga. Parker will be responsible for the aircraft maintenance, avionics, refurbishment and modifications activities as well as oversee the fixed-base operation at the facility. He most recently was general manager of repair and support for Delta Air Lines and held various technical operations positions with the airline.
LEE RICHARDS was named regional sales director for Flight Options. Richards will be responsible for sales in the Great Lakes region. He most recently held an aircraft sales position with Bell Aviation.
THE FATE of the pilot of that Cessna 150 was believed to be nearing resolution Friday afternoon. FAA initially indicated it planned to revoke the pilot's license of Hayden L. (Jim) Shaeffer, Jr., but sources say he retained legal counsel, possibly in an effort to work out a deal to surrender his certificate without having it revoked.
NTSB RENEWS CALL FOR BETTER GA DATA From FAA - The National Transportation Safety Board renewed its call for the Federal Aviation Administration to improve its data collection, releasing this month another round of recommendations urging better tracking methods for general aviation, on-demand and fractional ownership aircraft operators. NTSB and other agencies rely on the FAA General Aviation and Air Taxi Activity Survey (GAATA) to compile accident rates and other safety statistics, but the safety board expressed doubts about the GAATA data.
AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION'S board of trustees last week elected William Trimble, III, chairman. Trimble, an active pilot who is a senior executive at a money management firm, succeeds Paul Heintz, who has been chairman since 2002. Heintz has served on the board for nearly 30 years and will continue as a board member.
HONEYWELL has begun flight-testing its new TFE 731-50 turbofan engine on a Falcon 20 testbed aircraft. The latest variant of the venerable TFE731 line, the -50 is a derivative of the -60 production engine that uses a common core and a scaled wide chord damperless fan. The -50 incorporates N1 digital electronic engine control with hydromechanical backup. On schedule for certification in 2006, the engine has accumulated nearly 100 hours of run time and 26 flight hours.
ROCKWELL COLLINS' Tailwind 550 satellite television system was awarded a supplemental type certificate for installation on Boeing 767-200/-300/-400 aircraft. Jet Aviation in Basel, Switzerland installed the system, which enables aircraft to receive direct broadcast satellite television channels while flying in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. The fuselage-mounted Tailwind 550 system brings more than 450 television channels to the aircraft. Tailwind 550 includes a lightweight antenna that provides clear reception on the ground and during all phases of flight.
LORI EDWARDS joined the Shawnee, Kan. law firm of Jackson, Wade and Blanck, L.L.C. as an associate attorney. Edwards began working with the firm before law school and participated in the FAA 125/135 Aviation Rulemaking Committee Operations work group. She is an A&P mechanic and pilot and helped build the firm's Lancair Legacy.
Summary: This notice contains a summary of certain petitions seeking relief from specified requirements of 14 CFR, dispositions of certain petitions previously received, and corrections. The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, this aspect of FAA's regulatory activities.
ROCKWELL COLLINS TO TEST BROADBAND CONNECTION FOR BIZJETS - Rockwell Collins secured an experimental license from the Federal Communications Commission to deploy and test the company's eXchange broadband connection for business aircraft. The license will permit the transmission of information through the eXchange system using a specific set of radio frequencies in the U.S. Rockwell Collins is authorized to install and use the system on aircraft as well as conduct testing in various labs.
EUROCOPTER FRANCE Model EC120 helicopters [Docket No. FAA-2005-20289; Directorate Identifier 2003-SW-55-AD; Amendment 39-14073; AD 2005-09-05] - requires inspecting the tail rotor drive shaft damper half-clamps to determine if they are centered on the friction ring, and if not correctly positioned, centering the half-clamps on the friction ring. This amendment is prompted by the discovery of half-clamps that were incorrectly positioned.
Hillsborough County Aviation Authority is soliciting letters of interest from firms for a customs facility in the general aviation area at Tampa International Airport. The firm would be responsible for design, engineering and construction services. Send letters of interest to Dan Noettl, manager, planning and development, Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, Post Office Box 22287, Tampa, Fla. 33622. The letters of interest must be received by 5 p.m. June 1, and a mandatory pre-qualification conference will by held at 2 p.m. June 16.
BAE Jetstream Model 4101 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2005-21087; Directorate Identifier 2005-NM-019-AD] - proposes to supersede an existing AD that requires operators to determine the number of flight cycles accumulated on each component of the main landing gear (MLG) and the nose landing gear (NLG), and to replace each component that reaches its life limit with a serviceable component.
