AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION appointed Dennis Roberts vice president for government and technical affairs. Roberts, formerly director of the Colorado Department of Transportation's Division of Aeronautics, will oversee administration and management of AOPA's federal regulatory policy and regional affairs activities.
SHORT BROTHERS Model SD-3-60 series airplanes (Docket No. 97-NM-106- AD) - proposes to require repetitive inspections to detect corrosion and/or wear of the top and bottom shear decks of the left and right stub wings in the area of the forward pintle pin of the main landing gear and repair, if necessary. This proposal is prompted by issuance of mandatory continuing airworthiness information by a foreign civil airworthiness authority.
GALAXY AEROSPACE, which established its worldwide headquarters at the Fort Worth, Texas Alliance Airport in July, has a new mailing address: One Galaxy Way, Alliance Airport, Fort Worth, Texas 76177. The new telephone number is (817) 837-3700; fax, (817) 837-3723.
BOMBARDIER REGIONAL AIRCRAFT logged its first United Kingdom RJ customer when Maersk Air Ltd. of Birmingham, England agreed to buy three Canadair Regional Jet Series 200LR aircraft and took options on 12 more. Value of the three firm orders is approximately $64 million (U.S.). The aircraft on option are con-vertible between the 50-passenger Series 200 and the 70- passenger Series 700 models "in order to tailor the airline's fleet to Maersk's evolving market requirements," according to Bombardier Regional Aircraft Division.
Western Pacific's bankruptcy filing caused Mercury Air Group to report a net loss of more than $2 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, spoiling what the Los Angeles-based fuel supplier said would have been a record quarter.
Aviation industry leaders last week appealed to Los Angeles City Council members to defer a proposal to curtail Stage II aircraft activity at Van Nuys, Calif. Airport. The proposal, currently before the City Council's Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, would impose a non-addition rule on Stage II aircraft at the airport except under certain conditions, including a limited period for major repair or refurbishment. In addition, the proposal would extend the noise curfew on nighttime departures from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m.
DAVE FRANSON, the veteran aviation public affairs executive, joins Learjet in Wichita this week as director of public relations and communications for the Bombardier manufacturing unit where he will be responsible for both external and internal communications. Franson, who has been operating his own public relations and marketing consulting firm in Wichita for the past year, previously held senior posts with Cessna Aircraft, NBAA and AlliedSignal Aerospace (BA, Sept. 9, 1996/118).
TOM CHAPMAN, a 17-year veteran of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, plans to leave the association at the end of the year to become legislative counsel for Southwest Airlines. Chapman will open a Washington, D.C. office for Southwest and report to Ron Ricks, vice president-government affairs, who will continue to be based at Southwest's headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Joining Chapman in Washington will be Todd Rogers, Southwest's manager-government affairs, who will relocate from company headquarters in Dallas.
SEVERAL general aviation groups sent comments to the Federal Communications Commission last week protesting a proposed rule that would make it much more difficult to block construction of tall television broadcast towers that pose a threat to aircraft.
JET SUPPORT SERVICES, INC., Chicago, Ill., launched maintenance protection plans for Gulfstream IV-SP and Falcon 2000 business aircraft owners and operators. The Gulfstream ServiceCare and Falcon First plans cover costs associated with scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. The coverage includes every part, component, assembly and system, including engines, airframe, avionics and APU. It also provides for engine hot sections, overhauls, loaner engines, service bulletins and airworthiness directives.
JETCORP, St. Louis, Mo., won a contract from Tracor Systems Division to install avionics packages on ANG C-38A aircraft, the military derivative of the Astra SPX. The agreement covers two aircraft with options for an additional two. The avionics package includes a global positioning system, TACAN, Dual HF-9000, security system and medical evacuation system.
SIMUFLITE TRAINING INTERNATIONAL is offering advanced emergency skills training centered around crew and passenger human factors. The training is conducted by a team led by Beau Altman, a psychologist and president of HBAcorp/FACTS Training International, under an agreement with SimuFlite. Training takes place aboard two motion-based aircrew emergency simulators for cabin class and mid-size aircraft. Simulation capa-bilities include pitch and roll turbulence, cockpit and cabin fire and smoke, decompression, emergency landing and ditching scenarios.
RAYTHEON BAe 125-800A series airplanes and Hawker 800 series airplanes (Docket No. 95-NM-142-AD; Amdt. 39-10156; AD 97-21-03) - requires a detailed visual inspection of the fuel feed hose assemblies of the auxiliary power unit to detect overheating, degradation, proper routing and adequate clearance; and correction of any discrepancies found. This amendment also requires modification of the fuel feed hose of the APU. This amendment is prompted by reports of heat damage to the fuel feed hose assembly of the APU due to contact between the hose assembly and hot surfaces.
Kaman Aerospace Corp. last month rolled out the first of 10 SH-2G(E) Super Seasprite helicopters for Egypt in a program that company officials hope will double in size. Egypt is under contract through a foreign military sale through the U.S. Navy that is valued at more than $150 million by Kaman. Michael Bowes, Kaman Aerospace's vice president of engineering, said that Egypt will "probably need some more aircraft." He said "we're talking to them about a possible buy" of additional SH-2G(E)s. That purchase may total up to 10 more helicopters.
DAVID KLINCHUCH was appointed director of sales and marketing for Flight Visions. Klinchuch has 26 years of marketing experience, including 20 years marketing air traffic control development systems and air management systems with Eaton AIL.
Attorney Carl Vogt, who served as chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, was elected to chair the American Bar Association's Forum on Air and Space Law, beginning next summer. Vogt, a pilot who had won widespread support from the aviation industry for nomination as FAA Administrator before President Clinton chose Jane Garvey for that post (BA, April 7/151), will take over as chairman of the Forum on Air and Space Law in August.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week approved by voice vote H.R.2626, which provides relief to operators from certain provisions of the Pilot Records Improvement Act (PRIA) (BA, Oct. 13/160). The bill, which cleared the aviation subcommittee earlier last month (BA, Oct. 26/177), permits on-demand operators to hire, train and allow pilots to fly passengers for a 90-day period while collecting background information required under PRIA.
Agreeing with her predecessor that substantial improvements in air carrier safety will be necessary to avoid unacceptably high numbers of accidents as air traffic volume grows sharply in the next decade, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said last week that achieving new safety goals will require a new era of government/industry collaboration.
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT promoted Jackson Hulsey to vice president-engineering. Hulsey, who has served as acting leader of engineering since March 1997, will be responsible for all areas of engineering, including program engineering, development/research, product support services, preliminary design, test and support and technology and design services. He joined the company in 1983 as a senior engineer-frame design and was promoted into positions of increasing responsibility within the engineering organization.
Boeing Business Jets, which formally entered the business jet market in July 1996 with an extended-range corporate BBJ version of its 737-700 airliner (BA, July 8, 1996/13), has aligned itself with Executive Jet to become the latest manufacturer to enter the fractional ownership fray, Boeing Business Jets and Executive Jet officials announced last week in New York City. "The NetJets fractional ownership program is a key strategic element in the BBJ marketing plan," said Boeing Business Jets President Borge Boeskov.
SAMSUNG AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES received a letter of intent from China's Hainan International Aviation Tourist Estate Co. for three Samsung-Bell 427 helicopters. Samsung and Bell Helicopter Textron are jointly developing the eight-seat, light twin-engine helicopter. Samsung said the latest order brings the 427 backlog to 18 firm orders. The helicopter is slated to begin test flights in 1998 with delivery in 1999.
FAA, Department of Defense and industry officials are scheduled to meet Nov. 4 to discuss the U.S. position on increasing the area over the North Atlantic where reduced vertical separation minimum (RVSM) standards apply. Airline and business jet operators currently must meet RVSM standards to fly between FL330 and FL370 over the North Atlantic and those levels are expected to be eventually expanded to FL280 and FL410. U.S. officials will take its position to the international North Atlantic Implementation Managers Group meeting Dec.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION appointed Tom Kraft and Robert Eastin to its national resource specialist team, which provides experts to advise industry, government agencies and international aviation authorities. Kraft, who worked for Boeing, will be responsible for aeronautical communications and Eastin, who worked for McDonnell Douglas, will advise on fracture mechanics, fatigue and damage tolerance.
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL received certification for its new Citation V Ultra full-flight simulator installed at the Citation learning center in Wichita. The simulator, which is initially certified at Level C, is built to Level D standards with a VITAL ChromaView visual system providing bright daylight scenes. The Citation learning center contains a ranges of full flight simulators for Citations from the CitationJet to the Citation X.
