MICHAEL YOUNG was promoted to president of Sermatech Technical Services. Young, most recently senior vice president of Sermatech, joined parent company Teleflex Incorporated in 1983 as controller. He became vice president of Teleflex in 1988 and in 1989, he was named vice president and general manager of Sermatech and subsequently senior vice president. Sermatech, Limerick, Pa., supplies protective coatings for power generation, industrial and aerospace equipment.
SAAB Model 2000 series airplanes (Docket No. 96-NM-229-AD) - proposes to require replacement of the ignition exciter in the auxiliary power unit with a part that is designed to operate better in cold weather. This proposal is prompted by two occurrences of the auxiliary power unit failing to start after flight in cold soak conditions. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to prevent such APU failure, which could result in the inability of the APU to restart the engines in the event both engines quit operating during flight.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Air Safety Foundation said Friday that FAA has approved a new advisory circular (AC) permitting use of personal computer-based aviation training devices (PC-ATD) in instrument flight training.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION issued an advisory circular on damage- tolerance and fatigue evaluation of structure. AC 25.571-1B, which provides acceptable methods to comply with the damage-tolerance and fatigue evaluation requirements for transport category aircraft, was revised to provide guidance on the evaluation of scatter factor in determining life limits for "safe-life" category parts. A copy of the AC can be obtained by writing the U.S. Department of Transportation, Subsequent Distribution Office, Ardmore East Business Center, 3341 Q 75th Ave., Landover, Md.
K-C AVIATION expects to complete construction in October of a 35,000- square-foot hangar at its Appleton, Wis. maintenance and overhaul base that will incorporate a new paint facility (BA, Dec. 16/278). The $3.75 million project will permit K-C to double its painting capacity in Appleton from 17 aircraft per year to 35 annually.
JAMES HERON was appointed district manager for The CIT Group/Equipment Financing. Heron, who will be based in Minneapolis, Minn., previously was vice president at FBS Leasing.
THE AIR GROUP, which recently added a Hawker 700 to its New York-area charter fleet, also has added a Gulfstream II to its Teterboro, N.J. base to serve the New York area to complement a G-III based in the New York area.
PILATUS BRITTEN-NORMAN BN-2A, BN-2B and BN-2T series airplanes (Docket No. 96-CE-25-AD) - proposes to require repetitive inspection of the junction of the torque link lug and upper case of the main landing gear torque link assemblies for cracks and eventual replacement of the torque link assembly with a Modification A39 assembly. Replacement of the assembly would eliminate the need for the repetitive inspections.
AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGIES OF AUSTRALIA Nomad N22 and N24 series airplanes (Docket No. 96-CE-100-AD; Amdt. 39-10022; AD 97-10-10) - supersedes AD 85- 21-06, which requires replacement of the attachment fittings of the upper fin rear spar and the fin/horizontal stabilizer. This action requires removing the upper fin to stub fin forward attachment bolts and inspecting the attachment fittings for cracks.
NATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION REVIEW COMMISSION is concerned that the budget agreement Congress and the Clinton Administration have been crafting would render any recommendations the commission develops for FAA funding reform useless.The five-year budget agreement would set transportation budget levels and calls for re-instatement of the aviation excise taxes. The commission plans to ask congressional budget leaders to include language in the budget agreement that would allow future aviation legislation to be adopted without upsetting the balance of the budget agreement.
WHILE THE congressionally mandated National Civil Aviation Review Commission has been weighing options on financing the Federal Aviation Administration, the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation has devised its own proposal for FAA funding that would preserve the current excise tax system with modifications. An early draft of the proposal floated last week noted that a "user-based tax would exponentially increase the taxes paid by general aviation.
Citing substantial losses on its Jetstream 41 program, British Aerospace last week announced plans to halt production of the 30-passenger regional turboprop once it fulfills remaining commitments. The company, which reduced production on the J41 from 22 to 12 a year after garnering only 13 orders for the aircraft last year, has contracts for six more J41s and expects to cease production by yearend.
Several members of the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee, which will be considering an Administration proposal to allow FAA to assess up to $300 million in new aviation user fees in fiscal 1998, last month continued to express strong reservations about imposing any new fees.
THE NATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION REVIEW COMMISSION, which heard testimony last week from general aviation representatives in opposition to user fees, invited the GA groups to meet with commission members Wednesday to hash out how GA users should contribute to funding FAA. See related article above.
HERMETIC AIRCRAFT INTERNATIONAL CORP. was named an authorized warranty/overhaul and repair agency for the Pilatus PC-12 environmental control system. Hermetic, Holtsville, N.Y., is a North American distributor, warranty and overhaul/repair agency for aircraft systems and components.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has written to acting FAA Administrator Barry Valentine expressing concern about an FAA proposal that suggests the elimination of cost-benefit analyses for airworthiness directives.
JOHN GAUCH was named president of Sportsman's Market, Inc., the parent company of Sporty's Pilot Shop and several related catalog businesses. Announcement of Gauch's appointment was made by Hal Shevers, who will become chairman of the board of Sportsman's Market. Gauch began his career with the company in 1986 as assistant to the president. Since then he has held a variety of management posts and been responsible for pricing and production of Sporty's catalogs, trade shows, technical product development and several start-up ventures.
ATLANTIC AVIATION was named an authorized service center for Galaxy Aerospace. Atlantic marketed the line of Westwind and Astra business jets built by Israel Aircraft Industries for many years and continues to service those aircraft. Galaxy is partially owned by IAI, which now manufactures the Astra XP and Galaxy business jets. Galaxy Aerospace is expected to decide this month between Dallas, Texas and Jacksonville, Fla., as the site of its new headquarters, final assembly and service center (BA, May 5/199).
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT launched a 30-city tour with a mockup of its Premier I business jet last month that will include stops in Chicago, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Nashville, Birmingham and Atlanta during the next 10 days.
McDonnell Douglas issued a service bulletin warning all MD 900 Explorer helicopter operators to ground their aircraft while the manufacturer attempts to find a fix for a problem with the rotor system.
RAYTHEON Model BAe 125-800A and Hawker 800 and Hawker 800XP series airplanes (Docket No. 96-NM-228-AD) - proposes to require modification of the rudder. This proposal is prompted by a report indicating that, due to the existing design of the rudder, overbias or overbalance of the rudder occurs during single-engine handling. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to prevent rudder overbias or overbalance, which could reduce controllability of the airplane.
The general aviation community last week restated its adamant opposition to aviation user fees and urged the National Civil Aviation Review Commission to look at cost savings by the Federal Aviation Administration or modification of the current excise tax system before drafting a fee-based funding system.
THE TEXAS STATE LEGISLATURE late last month abandoned proposals to impose an aviation jet fuel tax and lift the commercial aviation exemption from state sales taxes on aircraft parts and labor (BA, May 5/199). The legislature was deadlocked over provisions of a comprehensive tax bill, which would raise up to $2 billion in new taxes over a two-year budget cycle, and ended negotiations. The last version of the bill considered would have imposed a two-cent-per-gallon fuel tax.
