Hurricane Isabel prevented the National Air Tour from making its scheduled landing in Kill Devil Hills, N.C. The caravan of 25 vintage aircraft, which are retracing tours conducted from 1925-1931, was scheduled to land at Dare County Airport Sept. 20. The tour, however, instead conducted a fly-over and headed on to Richmond for a fuel stop before reaching the headquarters of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Sept. 21 in Frederick, Md.
The Air Cargo Recommendations will be the culmination of three separate working groups comprising a large cross-section of companies, industry organizations and some government agencies, such as the U.S. Postal Service. Those working groups, more large-airport and Part 121 oriented than the general aviation groups, produced much more contentious results than the GA groups'. In fact, the National Air Transportation Association wrote a four-page dissent on the recommendations stemming from the working group focusing on all-cargo operations.
BOMBARDIER SECURES $862 MILLION SKYWEST ORDER - Bombardier Aerospace won a contract from SkyWest Airlines of St. George, Utah for 30 70-seat Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets in an order that is valued at $862 million (U.S.). The order included options for up to 80 more of the CRJ700 airliners, which could boost the value of the deal to about $3.35 billion. Deliveries of the initial firm order are slated to begin early next year and continue through 2005.
Air Methods' pilots voted to join the Office and Professional Employees International Union. The National Mediation Board held an election in which 298 out of 540 eligible voters, or 55 percent, chose to join the union. "We will look to continue the environment of mutual respect that we have traditionally had with our pilots," said Aaron Todd, CEO of Air Methods.
Executive Jet Management earned ISO 9001:2000 certification, making it one of the few U.S. aircraft charter, management, shuttle and maintenance companies to achieve such recognition, the company said. The standard recognizes companies that have implemented a quality management system covering all activities, including hiring and training, customer interaction, vendor management and service delivery processes and procedures. The recognition came after EJM spent two years implementing a business operating system that focuses on quality and process improvement.
Business Jet Center, based at Dallas Love Field, joined the Aviation Points Exchange (APEX) dealer network. APEX is a nationwide loyalty and reward program for pilots and others in the aviation field. Business Jet Center will be the exclusive APEX dealer on Dallas Love Field. The facility, a Phillips 66 dealer, includes 178,000 square feet of hangar, terminal and office space. Business Jet Center provides fueling and line services as well as aircraft maintenance, charter and management.
MICHAEL BUELL was named director of domestic sales at JSSI. He will manage day-to-day operations of JSSI's domestic sales team and report to COO Ed Hawkins. An instrument rated private pilot, Buell has more than 20 years of sales and management experience and was most recently president of O/E Systems, a company he founded 10 years ago. JSSI provides financial services to manage costs of operating and maintaining aircraft and helicopters.
Cessna Aircraft Company developed a new promotional program, "Skyhawk SP Fly Fuel Free in 2003," to boost Skyhawk sales for the rest of the year. Cessna is offering a $3,500 fuel card to customers who take delivery of a Cessna 172S Skyhawk SP during the remainder of 2003. The promotion applies to Skyhawks currently in inventory as well as those on schedule for delivery. The fuel card will be valid at any fixed-base operation that accepts Multiservice Fuel cards. The card expires two years after the activation date, Cessna said.
FAA awarded a $26.9 million contract to the Phelps Construction Co. of Dallas, Texas to build a new 398-foot-tall air traffic control tower at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. The new tower will be built 500 feet northwest of the current tower. FAA expects the tower will be completed and operational in 2006.
NTSB WANTS TOUGHER INSPECTIONS, STANDARDS FOLLOWING HIGH G-LOAD EVENTS - The National Transportation Safety Board told FAA it should require transport aircraft manufacturers to review and revise maintenance manual inspection criteria for aircraft that encounter severe turbulence and extreme in-flight maneuvers.
GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIP EXPERIMENTS WITH SUPERSONIC FLIGHT - Northrop Grumman and its partners successfully demonstrated technology that reduced the impact of sonic booms, a development that could lead to supersonic flight over land, the company said.
General Aviation Manufacturers Association was selected to participate on the FAA team that is coordinating with the new European Aviation Safety Agency. EASA is slated to become operational Sept. 28, becoming the single organization overseeing aviation safety throughout Europe. GAMA this month participated in a daylong briefing held in Brussels by EASA to discuss the transitional issues, and will continue to monitor the new agency as it begins to develop regulations and guidelines.
Adam Aircraft is introducing a deposit program for its A700 AdamJet. For a limited time, a $100,000 deposit will secure an A700 at a price of $1.995 million. The six-seat aircraft, which has a 340-knot cruise speed, 41,000-foot ceiling and 1,400-nautical-mile range, flew for the first time on July 27. The A700 has since logged 36 hours of flight time during 20 flights. Certification and first delivery of the A700 are expected by the end of 2004.
Raytheon Aircraft Services appointed long-time Duncan Aviation veteran Harold (Skip) Madsen vice president/general manager of Raytheon Aircraft Services, responsible for the company's 12 fixed-base operations. A 23-year aviation industry veteran, Madsen previously was president and chief operating officer of Wichita-based Executive Aircraft Corp. He also held several positions over 20 years with Duncan Aviation in Lincoln, Neb., and Battle Creek, Mich. The company also named Chuck Curry general manager of its San Antonio base.
FAA SAYS LONG-TERM COSTS CRUCIAL TO STARS DECISION - FAA officials are skeptical that they can save money by changing terminal ATC modernization plans to combine Lockheed Martin and Raytheon technology, but promised to analyze this approach carefully in the wake of this month's endorsement of the plan by the DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead.
The issue of privatization has stalled the longer-term reauthorization legislation. While Rockefeller's bill has captured the support of key Democrats in both the House and Senate, key Republicans and general aviation groups are still hoping that the full reauthorization bill will be passed before FAA's current authorization expires at the end of the month.
Mooney Aerospace Group representatives completed an inspection of a Spanish facility that will manufacture the new Mooney Speedster sport aircraft (BA, Aug. 4/48). Mooney President J. Nelson Happy and Robert Collier, director of production, visited Construcciones Aeronauticas de Galicias in Ribadeo, Spain, accompanied by members of an international aerospace consortium that included David Broadbent of BAE Systems and Christian Nielsen of Foxton Investments.
The Pease Development Authority (PDA) approved Port City Air to provide ground handling services to aircraft at the Pease International Airport passenger terminal, located at Portsmouth, N.H. The services will include baggage handling, aircraft cleaning, receipt and dispatch of aircraft, fueling, security screening and ground security coordination. Port City Aircraft Repair has provided aircraft maintenance at the airport since 1996. In June, the company opened a fixed-base operation at the airport.
September 20-23 - 72nd National Association of State Aviation Officials Annual Convention and Trade Show, Charlotte, N.C., (301) 588-0587 October 7-9 - National Business Aviation Association 56th Annual Meeting and Convention, Orlando, Fla., (202) 783-9000 October 23-24 - Embry Riddle Aeronautical University's International Conference on Team Resource Management, Daytona Beach, Fla., 386-226-6956, www.db.erau.edu/campus/departments/airscience/beneigh/index.htm
GULFSTREAM Model G-V series airplanes (Docket No. 2003-NM-190-AD; Amendment 39-13302; AD 2003-18-11) - adopts a new AD that requires a one-time inspection of the balance weight installation of the left and right ailerons for correctly installed attachment components and corrective action, if necessary. This action is necessary to prevent separation of the balance weights of the aileron, which could result in jamming of the pilot's aileron control system, subsequent loss of aileron control, and consequent reduced controllability of the airplane. The AD is effective Sept.
