FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION issued special conditions to Rockwell Collins for a supplemental type certificate to modify Cessna Model 525 CitationJets with digital avionics including an electronic flight instrument system. The special conditions are aimed at providing standards for protecting the systems from the effects of high intensity (electromagnetic) radiated fields. For more information, contact Ervin Dvorak in FAA's Standards Office at (816) 426-6941.
delayed raising the upper limit at which reduced vertical separation minimum (RVSM) standards apply over the North Atlantic until Oct. 8.The North Atlantic Implementation Managers Group last month agreed to raise the RVSM ceiling from Flight Level 370 to FL390 beginning Oct. 8, a delay from April 28, the date some European officials had sought. The delay to Oct. 8 is good news for U.S.
EARLE BOYTER, veteran general aviation marketer, joined Socata Aircraft as vice president of U.S. marketing. Boyter will team with Nicolas Chabbert, vice president of sales and marketing, in representing the Socata line of single-engine piston aircraft in North America. Boyter spent the past four years with Diamond Aircraft, where he helped introduce the Diamond Katana. Before that, he served as vice president of international sales and vice president of marketing and sales for Piper Aircraft.
EDWARD VOELKER joined Piedmont Aviation Services as charter manager. Voelker has more than 14 years of operational and business management experience in the aviation industry. He most recently was vice president of operations for Signature's Dulles International Airport charter operation and also has served as manager for Southern Jet In Lexington, Ky., and Houston, Texas.
BOMBARDIER and Dassault Systems said the Canadian manufacturer will use CATIA Solutions for the structural, systems, test rig and assembly tooling design of the Canadair Regional Jet Series 700. Another 200 CATIA workstations were installed for use in development of the 70-passenger airliner. CATIA and CADAM were developed by Dassault Systems and are marketed and supported worldwide by IBM and its business partners.
The possibility that certain turbine torque rings and compressor drive shafts were manufactured from contaminated material has led the Federal Aviation Administration to call for the replacement of those parts on General Electric CF700 turbofan engines and CJ610 turbojet engines. FAA last month issued an airworthiness directive requiring the replacement after it received a report that a cooling plate removed from a GE CT58 engine was found to have an iron-rich inclusion that came from a defective heat lot.
DAVID OLIVE joined Powell Tate, the Washington, D.C.-based firm that provides consulting services, as senior vice president. Olive, former chief of staff to Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.), will manage the firm's aviation and information technology practices.
BOMBARDIER REGIONAL AIRCRAFT DIVISION, which had been scheduled to fly the new Series 400 version of the Dash 8 by yearend, has postponed the first flight until later this month. New target date for first flight is Jan. 21.
DORNIER Model 328-100 series airplanes (Docket No. 97-NM-62-AD) - proposes to require revising the airplane flight manual to prohibit the positioning of the power levels below the flight idle stop during flight and to include a statement of the consequences of such action. This proposal is prompted by incidents and accidents involving turboprop airplanes in which the ground propeller beta range was used improperly during flight.
PILOT'S GUIDE TO FLYING IN THE GUARD&RESERVE, a 343-page paperback guide to finding a duty slot in those organizations, is available from AIR, Inc. The publication, written by Robert Black, lists 272 units from the U.S. and Puerto Rico, 31 types of aircraft, plus information on where the jobs are and whom to contact at each unit.
Airlines will install enhanced ground proximity warning systems voluntarily on a majority of commercial aircraft in the U.S. in a program to reduce controlled flight into terrain, one of the biggest causes of fatal aviation accidents, airline and top government safety officials said last month. The program will start six months to a year "sooner than if the government had acted alone" in requiring the equipment, as recommended by the National Civil Aviation Review Commission (NCARC), Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater told a news conference in Washington.
National Civil Aviation Review Commission, which this month issued its final report Avoiding Aviation Gridlock&Reducing the Accident Rate (BA, Dec. 15/252), called the current accident rate unacceptable and outlined several strategies for reducing that rate. The safety section of the report, which had not been published until last month, echoes many of the themes FAA Administrator Jane Garvey has pursued in recent speeches including a need to prioritize a safety agenda and strengthen government/industry partnerships on safety (BA, Nov. 3/187).
STEAD AVIATION CORP., Manchester, N.H., installed a dual Universal Avionics UNS-1K FMS GPS in a Falcon 50 with a supplemental type certificate pending. Stead also received FAA field approvals for recently completed installations of a BFGoodrich Skywatch traffic advisory system and a Stormscope WX-1000 in a Hawker 125.
MIKE MURRELL, a veteran aviation public affairs and publishing executive, joined Lakewood Publications in Minneapolis, Minn., as vice president and publisher of Potentials in Marketing magazine. The 50,000 circulation trade magazine serves the $23 billion sales promotion and incentive marketing industry. Murrell, who most recently had been a partner and director of integrated marketing with Miller Meester Advertising in Minneapolis, previously served as publisher of FBO magazine and negotiated the purchase of Airport Services magazine from Lakewood in 1993.
CESSNA Models 208, 208A, 208B, 425 and 441 airplanes (Docket No. 97- CE-19-AD; Amdt. 39-10227; AD 97-25-04) - requires amending the limitations section of the airplane flight manual to prohibit the positioning of the power levers below the flight idle stop while the airplane is in flight.
SABRELINER appointed William Bracas group vice president-commercial aviation. Bracas, a 26-year aviation veteran, will have overall responsibility for Sabreliner subsidiaries Dimension Aviation and SabreTech. He has held senior positions with Dassault Falcon Jet in Little Rock, Ark., Gates Learjet and Martin Marietta Baltimore Aerospace. In a related move, Sabreliner appointed Thomas Derieg president of SabreTech, where he will be responsible for the commercial aviation maintenance and modification subsidiary at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Ariz.
AEROSPATIALE Model ATR 72 series airplanes (Docket No. 97-NM-280-AD) - proposes to require removal of certain landing gear attachment pins and replacement of the pins with serviceable pins. This proposal is prompted by issuance of mandatory continuing airworthiness information by a foreign civil airworthiness authority. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to prevent wear in the attachment pins, which could result in collapse of the main landing gear. Comments on the proposal must be sent in triplicate before Jan.
TRACY LYKINS was appointed managing editor of Avionics News, the Aircraft Electronics Association's monthly publication. Lykins will oversee daily activities of the magazine, including editing articles, corresponding with writers, profiling members in the magazine and planning the editorial calendar. She also will serve as Education Foundation coordinator for the association.
SMITHS INDUSTRIES AEROSPACE said crash-survivable solid-state recorder systems it is producing for the U.S. Army are being installed on a number of helicopter models, including the AH-64 Apache, the UH-60 Black Hawk, OH- 58 Kiowa Warrior and CH-47 Chinook.
AVIATION PARTNERS, INC. (API), Seattle, Wash., appointed Jet Aviation of West Palm Beach, Fla. to sell and install its Performance Enhancement System on Gulfstream II aircraft. Principal feature of the PES is winglets, which increases the range of G-IIs.
ANTHONY N. PALLADINO, an attorney and specialist in federal contract law, was named head of FAA's Office of Dispute Resolution, which was established last year as part of FAA's new acquisition management system. The agency said the office has "broad discretion to resolve protests and contract disputes." Palladino had been a partner in the law firm of Smith, Pachter, McWhorter and D'Ambrosio since 1988.
THE CITY OF SAN JOSE, CALIF. selected HNTB Aviation and Parsons Brinkerhoff Construction Services as the engineering design and program management team for its airfield expansion program at San Jose International Airport. The expansion program calls for extending Runway 30R from 4,400 feet to 11,000 feet. Design is scheduled to begin in early 1998.
SIMUFLITE TRAINING INTERNATIONAL named John L. Geitz manager of the company's Hawker training program, reporting to Eugene Haggerty, vice president of training services. Geitz joined SimuFlite as a Hawker instructor pilot in January 1997. He is a 30-year aviation industry veteran who has logged more than 6,500 flight hours and who served as an FAA principal operations inspector during the 1970s.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT INSTRUCTORS said Greg Brown, a pilot, flight instructor and aviation writer from Fountain Hills, Ariz., was designated as the first "Master CFI" under a new industry accreditation program created by NAFI. The Master CFI program, unveiled at the 1997 Experimental Aircraft Association convention in Oshkosh, Wis., is designed to permit top instructors to enhance their abilities as both pilots and educators by rewarding continuous professional development and involvement in the aviation community.
SIKORSKY reconfigured an S-76C+ helicopter to provide emergency air services for AirEvac of Tulsa, which serves eastern Oklahoma. Sikorsky said the helicopter is the first C+ variant to join the fleet of S-76s used for emergency medical services.
