Pursuant to FAA's rulemaking provisions governing the application, processing, and disposition of petitions for exemption (14 CFR Part 11), this notice contains a summary of certain petitions seeking relief from specified requirements of the Federal Aviation Regulations (14 CFR Chapter I), 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.
Section of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 121.547(c) Description of Relief Sought/Disposition: To permit EA to allow Federal Express employees to sit in the jumpseat of its Fokker Mark 500 series F-27 aircraft, which are not equipped with seats in the passenger compartment. Denial, Aug. 24, 1999, Exemption No. 6954
SIMUFLITE TRAINING INTERNATIONAL is offering a new Personal FlitePlan service that custom tailors flight simulator time and training. SimuFlite created the service using GE's Six Sigma quality tools, and the company said the program was well received by a test group this summer. SimuFlite also used GE's Six Sigma quality tools to develop a CARE telephone line for customers to call with questions, requests and problems. The line runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information, contact SimuFlite at (800) 527-2463.
JOHN RENNOCKS was appointed an independent board director for Inmarsat. Rennocks is executive director-finance for Corus Group plc, a major steel company that was formed through the merger of British Steel plc and Koninklijke Hoogovens NV.
Following a series of incidents and accidents involving in-flight opening of the cowling access doors on BK 117 helicopters, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that FAA require the installation of different design latches on the doors.
Sections of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 121.139(a) Description of Relief Sought: To permit Lorair to operate its aircraft without carrying the appropriate parts of the maintenance manual on each aircraft when away from the principal base of operations.
Piedmont Hawthorne, already the nation's second-largest chain of fixed-base operations and intent on doubling company revenues over the next five years, has reached an agreement to acquire Sair Aviation, one of two independent FBOs at Syracuse-Hancock International Airport (SYR) in Syracuse, N.Y.
National Air Service, which has teamed with Executive Jet's NetJets to provide fractional ownership aircraft in the Middle East, continues to build its program with an order for 14 Raytheon Aircraft Hawker 800XPs. The order, valued at $170 million, calls for deliveries to begin in 2000 and continue through 2003. The order boosts the number of Hawker 800XPs involved in NetJets programs to 56 worldwide. NAS will base the fleet in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and operate the aircraft throughout the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Section of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 61.109(a)(2) Description of Relief Sought: To permit each student of ATCAI to obtain a private pilot certificate with an airplane category and single-engine class rating without accomplishing the night flight-training requirements of Sec. 61.109(a)(2). The students would be issued private pilot certificates with night flying limitations.
JACK ELLIOTT, veteran aviation correspondent and columnist of The Newark Star-Ledger, received the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Max Karant Journalism Award for Lifetime Achievement. Elliott has written a column on general aviation for the Sunday Star-Ledger for 36 years. "Jack fearlessly 'tells it like it is'" AOPA said, noting that he has been an outspoken critic of weak state aviation policies, mayors who sell out their community airport and new home buyers who attack long-established airports.
B/E Aerospace, which has garnered an increasing share of the new aircraft seating market, significantly downgraded its earnings forecasts for the next 15 months because of a series of production problems.
Section of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 135.251, 135.255, 135.353, and Appendices I&J of Part 121 Description of Relief Sought/Disposition: To allow the Society to conduct local sightseeing flights at Hazleton Municipal Airport, for an aviation festival on August 22, 1999, for compensation or hire, without complying with certain anti-drug and alcohol misuse prevention requirements of Part 135. Grant, Aug. 19, 1999, Exemption No. 6949.
Section of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 121.344(b)(3) Description of Relief Sought/Disposition: To permit Air Wisconsin to operate its BAe-146 airplanes subject to heavy maintenance checks before parts are available without installing the required DFDR until the next heavy maintenance check after April 30, 2000. Partial Grant, Aug. 18, 1999, Exemption No. 6939
BOMBARDIER signed a contract valued at $145 million with its distributor ExecuJet Aviation Group for 12 business jets. The deal includes five Learjet 45s, two Learjet 60s, four Continentals and one Special Edition (a corporate Regional Jet variant) with deliveries beginning in 2000. ExecuJet provides management, charter, leasing, sales and support of Bombardier aircraft in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. It has identified customers in southern Africa and Scandinavia for the aircraft.
series turbofan engines (Docket No. 99-NE-49-AD) - proposes to require revisions to the Time Limits Section (TLS) of the Engine Manual to include required enhanced inspection of selected critical life-limited parts at each piece-part exposure. This action would add additional critical life-limited parts at each piece-part exposure. This proposal also would require an air carrier's approved continuous airworthiness maintenance program to incorporate these inspection procedures.
Section of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 135.143(c)(2) Description of Relief Sought/Disposition: To permit Blatti to operate certain aircraft under Part 135 without a TSO-C112 (Mode S) transponder installed in each aircraft. Grant, Aug. 31, 1999, Exemption No. 6957
Model PC-12 and PC-12/45 airplanes (Docket No. 99-CE-36-AD) - proposes to require revising the Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) to include requirements for activation of the airframe pneumatic deicing boots. The proposed AD is the result of reports of in-flight incidents and an accident that occurred in icing conditions in which the airframe pneumatic deicing boots were not activated. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to assure that flightcrews activate the pneumatic wing and tail deicing boots at the first signs of ice accumulation.
Model Mitsubishi MU-300 airplanes (Docket No. 96-NM-210-AD; Amdt. 39-11376; AD 99-21-30) - requires revising the Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) to provide pilots with certain operating procedures during icing conditions, and to limit the maximum flaps position for flight in icing conditions or landing after an icing encounter. The amendment also requires installing an ice detector, and accomplishing a corresponding AFM revision to address its operation.
NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION was warning its members last week to check for special flight restrictions in the Seattle, Wash. area this week because of the special meeting of the World Trade Organization being held there. The restrictions will be in effect from Nov. 29-Dec. 3.
NOT ONLY was FAA's Airport Safety and Standards Office budget cut to $45 million, but, for the first time, Congress decided to pay for the program out of the agency's Airport Improvement Program rather than its operations budget (BA, Nov. 8/209). AIP is usually reserved for airport grants rather than the salaries and administrative expenses of FAA's airports office. This "accounting" shift has become significant since AIP is not authorized and FAA cannot take money out of the program.
Section of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 91.319(a)(2) Description of Relief Sought: To allow the owner of a special airworthiness category aircraft to be compensated for allowing his/her aircraft to be used for transition training and flight reviews under Part 61 by authorized flight instructors.
In efforts to cut costs and improve efficiency, prime contractors are finding that direct contact with suppliers is key, executives said at a conference this month. Optimizing the supply chain involves better supplier integration and better use of e-commerce, Al Mulvey, vice president-UTC Aerospace Supply Management, Pratt&Whitney Canada said in Long Beach, Calif. at Aviation Week's Aerospace Expo '99. If suppliers typically account for 70 percent of product costs, he said, "we're ignoring more than half our costs" if the link isn't improved."
Section of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 135.251, 135.255, 135.353, and Appendices I&J of Part 121 Description of Relief Sought/Disposition: To allow the Society to conduct local sightseeing flights at the Lunken Airport, for an airshow on Aug. 27, 28, and 29, 1999, for compensation or hire, without complying with certain anti-drug and alcohol misuse prevention requirements of Part 135. Grant, Aug. 26, 1999, Exemption No. 6955
