Fokker Aircraft (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)-Eelco Wagner moved up to president of Fokker Aircraft U.S.A. in Alexandria, Virginia and was appointed vice president of marketing and sales for the company's North America sales effort.
Ever worry about what happens to the EKG that is transmitted to the FAA during your flight physical? Many do-unnecessarily. The process has been in use for years, and few bugs invade the system.
Airframe manufacturers' maintenance and operations meetings scheduled for this year include: Raytheon Beechjet, San Antonio, May 5-7; Canadair Challenger, Montreal, May 22-23; Cessna Citation, Wichita, April 29-May 1; Dassault Falcon Jet, Boca Raton, Florida, June 4-6,; Gulfstream, Savannah, May 21-23 and Learjet, Tucson, May 1-3. Raytheon will hold M&O meetings for Hawker Jet operators on a regional basis starting February 6 in Singapore, followed by March 11 in Atlanta, March 13 in Houston and March 25 in Los Angeles.
Just off the presses are AC-U-KWIK 1996 Airport/FBO softcover directories. The Corporate Pilot's 1996 Airport/FBO Directory ($27.95) lists U.S. and Canadian public airports, FBOs, U.S. customs locations, airport identifiers and AM radio station frequencies. Inside the International Manager's Edition ($59.95) are airport diagrams with FBO locations, lists of services (like hotels/ motels, catering and limousines) and worldwide airport and VOR identifiers. The pocket-size Jet FBO Directory ($11.95) references U.S.
Scheduled to take effect January 31 are security regulations requiring 10-year-employment-history background checks of individuals applying for positions that will authorize them to have unescorted access to secure areas at airports. The new rules also disqualify applicants who have been convicted of certain crimes within the past decade. An applicant's job history will have to be reviewed for ``unexplained gaps'' in employment. The current rule requires a five-year employment history check and less stringent employment-verification procedures.
Delta Connection Comair has reaffirmed its affection for the Canadair Regional Jet by exercising its options for 10 additional aircraft. The order will bring the Cincinnati-based carrier's CRJ fleet to 45. Comair currently operates 26 CRJs and holds options that could take the fleet to 70, making it by far the CRJ fleet leader. As of December 1, 1995, the carrier operated its CRJ fleet to 48 destinations in the United States and Canada with 188 daily flights.
Efforts to increase the maximum takeoff weight of the Citation X to about 800 pounds to permit a full-fuel payload of 1,400 pounds (seven passengers) is forcing another delay in the FAA certification schedule-this time to April. The new business jet originally was slated to receive certification in August 1995, but in June 1995, Cessna revised the date to November 1995 (B/CA, April 1995, page 18). Cessna has been trying to achieve a balance between reducing Citation X cabin noise and minimizing the extra weight of sound-dampening materials.
Flightcom Corporation says its new A7A.1 Brite Mic offers an ``enhanced means'' of eliminating distortion ``no matter how loudly the pilot speaks into the mike.'' The company effected the improvement by changing the range of sounds the mike is able to detect and heightening the intercom's ability to control transmitted background noise. The A7A.1 Brite Mic is compatible with Flightcom headsets and other manufacturers' headsets. Price: $49.95. Flightcom Corp., 7340 S.W. Durham Rd., Portland, OR (503) 684-8229.
The ATC system in the United Kingdom will be removed as an integral part of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, but it will not become a non-government agency, as is the fate for Canada's ATC system (B/CA, June 1995, page 34). Instead, the ATC system in England will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the CAA. Detailed proposals for establishing the subsidiary organization in April were under development at press time. Separately, the 24-hour aircraft accident/incident reporting phone number in the United Kingdom has been changed to +01 252-512299.
In a determined effort to make its La Guardia Airport facility more attractive and efficient, Signature Flight Support has renovated its two-story FBO located on the historic Marine Air Terminal site into a modern business-aircraft service environment. New or rebuilt amenities include a conference room, oversized telephone booths with laptop computer ports, a catering kitchen, a refitted crew lounge, a quiet room and a redesigned reception space with lounge chairs and meeting areas. New lavatories include spacious dressing rooms.
Early this month, the business-aircraft FBO at San Francisco International Airport will be switching from Signature Flight Support to AMR Combs. Preparations have begun for a February 15 move to temporary facilities adjacent to the site where Dallas-based AMR will build a permanent executive terminal, pegged for opening in the fourth quarter. In April 1994, AMR was selected over seven other contenders to be the full-service FBO at San Francisco.
In May 1993, when the Clinton administration began its push for corporatizing the ATC system, Transportation Secretary Federico Pena and Vice President Al Gore held a press conference at Washington National Airport to demonstrate just how dire was the need for change. Pena and Gore held up vacuum tubes and displayed archaic computer terminals to prove the point that the FAA desperately needed reform.
The Embraer EMB-145 was originally conceived in early 1989 as a 45-passenger, stretched Brasilia designed to meet the growth needs of the American Eagle carriers in the mid-1990s. 20 AMR Eagle took 50 options on the 50-passenger Saab 2000 high-speed turboprop, and that was ostensibly the end of that competition. Ironically, the 145 has rolled out and is in flight test as a 50-passenger regional jet, and AMR Eagle still has not exercised any options for the Saab 2000. Indeed, competition between the two aircraft may only be beginning.
New from Mid-Continent Instrument Company is its MD 41 GPS Annunciation Control Unit for AlliedSignal KLN 89B or KLN 90B GPS receivers. The unit transfers information sent to the pilot's navigation display between the VOR and an approach-certificated GPS system. One of the first TSO-approved avionics products of its type, the MD 41 is self-contained, replacing the multiple switch and relay wiring normally required for installation of approach-certificated GPS receivers.
Signature Flight Support (Orlando)-Douglas H. Crowther was named area general manager of this FBO's facilities at Washington Dulles and Washington National airports.
Teleflex and GE Aircraft Engines established a new company to repair fan blades and compressor airfoils. The new firm, Airfoil Technologies International, will operate from existing facilities in Mentor, Ohio and Ripley, England. Donald R. Johnson, formerly with GE Engine Services, is president of the new company. David Model, formerly with Teleflex subsidiary Sermatech, is vice president. Meanwhile, Montreal, Quebec, Canada-based Innotech Aviation was selected as an authorized service center for the Williams-Rolls FJ44 business-jet engine.
From the left seat of Cessna's largest business jet, you'll find controls, design conventions and ease- of-use features that will make any Citation pilot feel comfortable. The day we flew N752CX, the second production aircraft, from Wichita on a local area demonstration flight, the temperature was 26C-plus and as humid as the Everglades.
A former DuPont Company executive is the new chairman and chief executive officer of Wilmington, Delaware-based Atlantic Aviation. Ben E. Waide, who once ran DuPont's flight operations, assumed his new role on November 10. Stockton Smith, grandson of Atlantic Aviation founder Henry B. DuPont, resigned from his positions as Atlantic chairman, CEO and board member, saying it was time to pursue other aviation interests. Smith assumed the chairmanship in 1992.
Sky Ox has introduced a line of portable oxygen systems known as the Pilot in Control (PIC) Mini Commander Series. Choose from tanks weighing seven pounds, with a nine-cubic-foot capacity ($431.21), and weighing four and one-half pounds, with a six-cubic-foot capacity ($421.21). Both sizes of aluminum tanks have a new, two-outlet regulator. (A four-outlet regulator still is available.) Aircraft Industries, Inc., Sky Ox Ltd. Div., P.O. Drawer W, 27328 May St., Edwardsburg, MI 49112. (616) 663-8544.
Effective November 1, fees are being charged for certain flights that originate in the United States and fly over Canada. Fees are determined by the following formula: (square root of the MTOW in tons) x (distance in kilometers flown in Canadian airspace) x $0.026142. Fees apply to flights from a U.S. airport to two or more Canadian airports to Alaska and from a U.S. airport via Canadian airspace to Asia or Europe. No fees apply to a flight between U.S. airports that may include passing through Canadian airspace. For details, phone (613) 990-3797.
Germany's Munich Airport recently increased the landing fees for operators of aircraft that do not meet ICAO Chapter 2 (FAR Part 36, Stage 2) noise levels. Operators with Chapter 3 (Stage 3) aircraft pay a basic landing fee, while Chapter 2 operations had been charged 125 percent of this rate. On October 1, the fees on Chapter 2 operations increased to 150 percent of the basic rate. Chapter 2 flights between 2200 and 0600 hours now pay 175 percent of the basic fee.
New online services available from Jeppesen include a program that calculates international navigation charges, plus a joint venture with CompuServe to provide weather-data graphics. The navigation-charge service calculates the respective fees in about one minute after users input such information as their planned route and aircraft weight. Using the CompuServe Jeppesen Forum now allows pilots to retrieve graphics depicting up-to-date significant weather activity and forecasts.
Bellevue, Washington-based M. Shannon&Associates, which has owned an STC since June 1994 to permit single-pilot certification of Citation 500s and 550s, received a new STC that eases training requirements and will, according to Shannon, reduce annual single-pilot training costs by approximately 40 percent. Use of the STC is available from Shannon for under $10,000 per aircraft.
Air Services at Hopkins International Airport recently completed the addition of 45,000 square feet of ramp space. All of the FBO's ramp surface is capable of handling aircraft with the weight bearing of Boeing 727s. Also, customer auto parking now can handle over 100 vehicles. New security fencing surrounds the auto parking lot as well as the airport perimeter. (216) 267-3711.
