National Business Aviation Association said its Nov. 14 business aviation forum and static display at Meacham Field in Ft. Worth, Texas drew some 1,500 attendees for a day of seminars and the opportunity to view 27 business aircraft on static display. Officials said they received "a lot of positive feedback" from registrants and representatives of more than 50 exhibiting companies about the one-day event. NBAA staged a similar event earlier this year in the Chicago area.
Docket No.: FAA-2001-9687 Section of 14 CFR Affected: 14 CFR 135.152(a) Description of Relief Sought/Disposition: To permit Pacific Helicopter Tours to operate its two Bell 212 helicopters and four Sikorsky S-61N helicopters without those helicopters being equipped with an approved digital flight data recorder. Grant, May 31, 2002, Exemption No. 7257C
FAA is expected to release by month's end a notice formally inviting participation in an aviation rulemaking committee that will take a thorough look at Part 135 and Part 125 regulations to determine whether substantial changes are necessary. The notice is expected to invite 15 industry participants who would represent a broad cross-section of Part 135 and 125 operators. FAA wants to keep the ARC relatively small, but include participants who can speak for a large number of people.
General Aviation Manufacturers Association, as expected, added four non-U.S. manufacturers at the organization's board meeting this month in Palm Springs, Calif. The addition of Bombardier Aerospace of Canada, Dassault Falcon Jet of France, Embraer of Brazil and Piaggio of Italy follows a decision by GAMA's board of directors to overturn a long-standing restriction that limited GAMA membership to U.S. aircraft and component manufacturers (BA, Sept. 23/139).
February 9-11, 2003 - Helicopter Association International Heli-Expo 2003, Dallas, Texas, (703) 683-4646 April 23-27, 2003 - National Aircraft Resale Association Annual Meeting, Westin Regina Resort, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico May 13-15, 2003 - AS 3/GSE Aviation Services and Suppliers Supershow, National Air Transportation Association/Professional Aviation Maintenance Association, Las Vegas, Nev., (703) 845-9000 or (202) 730-0260.
Jeff Stahl was named regional sales manager, southeast region, covering Florida, Georgia and South Carolina for CAE SimuFlite. He was most recently senior account manager at Comark Technologies. Stahl, who holds an ATP license, will be based in Orlando, Fla.
National Transportation Safety Board is investigating fatal accidents that occurred the evening of Nov. 8 involving a Cessna 208 Caravan, N514DB, and an 1124 Westwind, N61RS. The Caravan had departed Las Vegas, Nev. with four persons on board enroute to Flagstaff, Ariz. It crashed near that Arizona city under unknown circumstances. The Westwind also departed Las Vegas and was enroute to Taos, N.M. with two persons on board. Both were killed when the business jet crashed near Taos.
FMC-4200, FMC-5000, and FMC-6000 flight management computers (Docket No. 2000-CE-13-AD; Amendment 39-12939; AD 2002-22-13) - requires removal of the affected FMC unit and replacement with a new FMC unit or an FMC unit that has been modified to correct a problem with the flight management system accepting new information when an existing procedure or flight plan is changed. This AD is the result of a report that an aircraft proceeded beyond the published altitude constraint on an arrival procedure.
Dyncorp named Lt. Gen. Charles J. Cunningham, Jr. USAF (ret.) as director of Air Force Strategic Programs. Cunningham spent 33 years in the Air Force. From 1987 to 1999 Cunningham held executive positions at the Mowell Financial Group and Reflectone, Inc.
Pilatus Business Aircraft promoted Piotr (Pete) Wolak to the newly created position of vice president of customer service and Mike Rector to manager of production. Wolak, formerly vice president of customer programs, will oversee customer support, logistics, and programs. Wolak helped develop and implement programs to support the PC-12 fleet, including the Planetrax, Planeworx, and Diagnostix PC-12 support systems announced during the National Business Aviation convention in September. Before joining Pilatus, Wolak spent 14 years with Continental Airlines.
Docket No.: FAA-2001-11131 Section of 14 CFR Affected: 14 CFR 61.113(d) and (e) Description of Relief Sought: To permit an individual holding a private pilot certificate with at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time and an instrument rating to conduct point-to-point airlifts of medical. The individual conducting the airlifts would provide transport to checkups and followup hospital visits and receive compensation for concurrent operating expenses.
Aircraft Electronics Association this month urged the Federal Aviation Administration to extend the comment period on draft guidance for complying with repair station rules. FAA drew fire when it released the draft guidance, proposed Advisory Circular 145-MAN, Guide for Developing and Evaluating Repair Station and Quality Control Manuals, on Nov. 7 and set a Nov. 22 deadline for comments (BA, Nov. 11/215).
Pilatus Business Aircraft promoted Piotr (Pete) Wolak to the newly created position of vice president of customer service and Mike Rector to manager of production. Wolak, formerly vice president of customer programs, will oversee customer support, logistics, and programs. Wolak helped develop and implement programs to support the PC-12 fleet, including the Planetrax, Planeworx, and Diagnostix PC-12 support systems announced during the National Business Aviation convention in September. Before joining Pilatus, Wolak spent 14 years with Continental Airlines.
Fastest-Growing aviation organization in the country is the new Regional Air Cargo Carriers Association, which held its first board meeting with a dozen members in mid-August, and now has more than 25 member airlines and more than a dozen vendors who have signed on as associate members (BA, Sept. 9/112).
BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON Model 204B, 205A, 205A-1, 205B, 212, 214B, and 214B-1 helicopters (Docket No. 2001-SW-42-AD; Amendment 39-12941; AD 2002-22-14) - supersedes an existing AD that requires reducing the retirement time for certain main rotor tension-torsion straps on those models and on the Model UH-1 series helicopters. This document contains the same requirements as the existing AD but removes the Model UH-1 series restricted category helicopters and adds the BHTI Model 205A and 205B helicopters to the applicability.
Linda Solomon was named marketing manager for Bii Bearing Inspection, Inc. She will be responsible for planning, market and sales analysis and customer relations. With more than 20 years of marketing and communications experience, Soloman was most recently marketing manager for Accuride International.
Dyncorp named Lt. Gen. Charles J. Cunningham, Jr. USAF (ret.) as director of Air Force Strategic Programs. Cunningham spent 33 years in the Air Force. From 1987 to 1999 Cunningham held executive positions at the Mowell Financial Group and Reflectone, Inc.
National Aircraft Finance Association's annual meeting is scheduled for April 8-11, 2003 at the Westin Resort in Savannah, Ga. For more information, contact the organization at (301) 349-2070 or [email protected].
Artouste III series turboshaft engines (Docket No. 99-NE-33-AD; Amendment 39-12937; AD 2002-22-11) - supersedes an existing AD that is applicable to Turbomeca Artouste III series turboshaft engines with injection wheels part numbers 218.25.700.0, 218.25.704.0, 243.25.709.0, 243.25.713.0, 0.218.27.705.0, 0.218.27.709.0, and 0.218.27.713.0 installed. That AD currently requires smoke emission checks after every ground engine shutdown. If smoke is detected, that AD requires inspecting for fuel flow.
Ron Scheer was appointed director of operations at Thunder Aviation. He will be responsible for operations of all aircraft maintenance services and purchasing. Scheer, a private pilot who has more than 25 years of experience in the aviation industry, holds an airframe powerplant license and joined Thunder Aviation in February as director of maintenance.
Model 204B, 205A, 205A-1, 205B, 212, 214B, and 214B-1 helicopters (Docket No. 2001-SW-42-AD; Amendment 39-12941; AD 2002-22-14) - supersedes an existing AD that requires reducing the retirement time for certain main rotor tension-torsion straps on those models and on the Model UH-1 series helicopters. This document contains the same requirements as the existing AD but removes the Model UH-1 series restricted category helicopters and adds the BHTI Model 205A and 205B helicopters to the applicability.
FAA is expected to release by month's end a notice formally inviting participation in an aviation rulemaking committee that will take a thorough look at Part 135 and Part 125 regulations to determine whether substantial changes are necessary. The notice is expected to invite 15 industry participants who would represent a broad cross-section of Part 135 and 125 operators. FAA wants to keep the ARC relatively small, but include participants who can speak for a large number of people.
EMBRAER PROFITS, SALES SLIDE IN THIRD QUARTER - A soft regional jet market led Brazilian plane-maker Embraer to report nearly a 22 percent drop in sales and a 27 percent decrease in net income for the third quarter ended Sept. 30. The company had net sales of $580.6 million (U.S.) in the third quarter, compared with $734.4 million in the third quarter of 2001.
