LEGISLATORS APPEAL TO BUSH FOR GA ACCESS TO DCA - Pushing further with its initiative to get Part 135 operators back into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), the National Air Transportation Association last week organized a bipartisan group of legislators to send a letter to President Bush, urging him to examine the issue.
The National Business Aviation Association along with the General Aviation Manufacturers Association filed a petition in a federal appellate court in Washington to allow the associations to participate in the case involving the Naples Airport Authority. The airport authority filed an appeal in September contesting Federal Aviation Administration findings that the airport's Stage 2 ban was unreasonable. FAA is withholding Airport Improvement Program funds from Naples because of the violation.
Cessna Aircraft President Charles Johnson, who has been on medical leave since late this summer, retired as president of the Wichita airplane maker last week.
AVFUEL TO OFFER NEW FUEL PROGRAM WITH FLIGHT PLANNING - Avfuel Corporation will add a new division to its business aimed at lowering costs of fuel and flight planning for its customers. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company said that the division, named Avfuel International, will offer free flight planning, competitive fuel prices through Avfuel's commercial contract fuel program and bonus AVTRIP points.
Dallas Airmotive was awarded Honeywell's Service Targeted Authorization and Approval Ratings (S.T.A.A.R.) for its TFE731 major service centers in Minneapolis, Minn. and West Palm Beach, Fla., and its heavy maintenance center at Premier Turbines facility in Neosho, Mo. The S.T.A.A.R. rating program, initiated in September 2002, sets performance standards for Honeywell service center authorization and requires quarterly performance metrics to achieve and maintain a S.T.A.A.R. designation.
Struggling to gather the 60 votes necessary to ward off a filibuster from Senate Democrats, the Republican majority held off action on the FAA reauthorization bill last week. "The whip count revealed nothing new," said an industry lobbyist, who added that there are "a couple of Democrats" who might vote for the bill but the situation remains uncertain. The delay in a Senate vote keeps on the table the possibility of attaching funding for mandatory FAA programs to a larger omnibus spending bill.
National Business Aviation Association will hold the Priority Lottery drawing this Friday to determine exhibitor locations at the EBACE meeting in Geneva, Switzerland May 25-27. Companies that fail to submit application forms and deposits before this Friday will not be assigned space until all lottery participants have received their booth assignments. For more information about indoor exhibit space at EBACE, contact Linda Peters at (202) 783-9368.
FAA MAKES RJ LANDING GEAR INSPECTIONS MANDATORY - FAA finalized a rule last week requiring operators of Bombardier CRJ700s and CRJ900s to inspect lower panels of main landing gear doors for cracks or pulled or missing fasteners. The agency called for immediate inspection of the aircraft a few weeks ago through an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) after a -700 lost a lower panel door on the right main gear during landing, damaging the trailing edge flap and puncturing the rear fuselage. The aircraft landed safely.
Gulfstream Aerospace executives credit Aerospace Products International with helping to improve the manufacturer's aftermarket support for its business jet customers. "API's contribution to our recent success" in improving aftermarket support "validates our decision to partner with API" in July 2002, said Larry Flynn, president of Gulfstream Product Support.
MERCURY SELLING FBO CHAIN TO D.C.-BASED INVESTMENT FIRM - Mercury Air Group (MAG), which built up a chain of 18 fixed-base operations but encountered financial difficulties, has struck a deal to sell those FBOs to Allied Capital Corp. of Washington, D.C.
BOMBARDIER Model CL-600-2B19 (Regional Jet Series 100 & 440) airplanes (Docket No. 2001-NM-321-AD) - proposes to require repetitive inspections for cracking of the upper and lower web of the engine support beam at fuselage station 640, and repair if necessary. This proposal also would provide an optional terminating action for the repetitive inspections. This action is necessary to prevent failure of the engine support beam, a principal structural element, which could result in reduced structural integrity of the airplane.
Midcoast Aviation received an FAA supplemental type certificate for installation of dual Honeywell MCS-6000+SATCOM systems on Gulfstream V aircraft. The Honeywell system is used to provide worldwide cabin telecommunications capability via Inmarsat. "The dual MCS-6000+ systems are ideal for business executives who need to accomplish multiple tasks while in flight," said Wayne Hundsdorfer, Midcoast's director of maintenance and avionics sales.
GEORGE AFORDAKOS was appointed customer service manager for the southeastern region of North America at Dassault Falcon. His territory, which has about 125 Falcon operators, includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North and South Carolina and Tennessee. Most recently the manager of Dassault's authorized service centers in the Western Hemisphere, Afordakos has 12 years of experience as a corporate aircraft maintenance technician and flight engineer at MCI Flight Operations, which had a fleet of six Falcon aircraft.
National Business Aviation Association will hold a Business Aviation Regional Forum this Thursday (Nov. 13) at the Scottsdale, Ariz. AirCenter. The event will include aircraft on static display and exhibits, in addition to a number of informational sessions and briefings for the business aviation community. For more information, contact NBAA at (202) 783-9000.
PrivatAir added a 14-seat 1999 Falcon 900B business jet to its charter fleet. Owned by a Dutch investor, the aircraft is based in Amsterdam. The Falcon is the first conventional business jet in PrivatAir's European fleet; its other European-based aircraft are Boeing and Airbus models. The addition of the Falcon 900 "will significantly extend our European product offering," said Greg Thomas, chief executive of PrivatAir. The company also recently added a Gulfstream IV to its U.S.-based charter fleet.
Keith Products, Addison, Texas, won supplemental type certificate approval from FAA last month for a vapor cycle air conditioning system for the Cirrus SR22. The 12,500 BTU system, developed in conjunction with the aircraft manufacturer, has an installed weight of 68 pounds and features an integrated cabin ventilation system and multi-speed evaporator blower unit. A pneumatic control valve allows the pilot to adjust between ambient air and cold air-conditioned air. For more information, contact the Cirrus Factory Center at (218) 788-3900.
NTSB INVESTIGATING UNCOMMANDED ROLL IN MODEL 45 LEARJET - National Transportation Safety Board investigators are attempting to determine why a Model 45 Learjet went into an uncommanded roll after the pilot had extended the spoilers.
U.S. ARMY EXPLORING POTENTIAL C-23B REPLACEMENT - The U.S. Army has been having general discussions about a potential replacement for its aging C-23B Sherpa light-transport aircraft, according to a spokesman for the Army's Program Executive Office, Aviation (PEO Aviation). The spokesman, Bob Hunt, emphasized that the discussions are in the early stages and that the Army has developed no concrete plans for starting a competition for a C-23B successor.
MORE COMPANY EXECUTIVES SEE SECURITY AS TOOL FOR PRODUCTIVITY, SURVEY FINDS - Corporate executives have changed their attitudes over the past year about how security affects their bottom line, according to a new survey by the Council on Competitiveness in Washington, D.C. In a poll of 317 U.S. companies, 71 percent of executives rejected the idea that security spending was a drag on earnings, saying instead that they thought it increased their businesses' productivity. That's up from just 24 percent who felt that way in the council's 2002 survey.
PORT AUTHORITY CARRIES ON TETERBORO WEIGHT RESTRICTION DEBATE - The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey continued to contest a Federal Aviation Administration proposal that would allow aircraft weighing more than 100,000 pounds to land at Teterboro Airport (TEB).
