Contrary to industry jest, ``cabotage'' is not the garden vegetable that still holds its vitamin C content when boiled. (You know, one of the cruciferous greens we should eat more of.) Rather, cabotage refers to trade or transportation between two points within a foreign country.
Israviation's ST-50 will be the first aircraft to feature a new deicing technology from Innovative Dynamics. The Ithaca, New York company's system provides the pilot with an advisory of ice buildup, uses electromechanically induced impulses inside the leading edges of the airfoils to remove ice and does not require pneumatic boots. Flight-testing of the ST-50, a composite, single-engine turboprop, is taking place in Israel (B/CA, May, page 65). Innovative Dynamics also is developing rotorblade deicing technology.
By the end of the year, the Helicopter Association International expects to finalize its Tour Operators Program of Safety (TOPS), a guide providing air-tour operators with advice on such topics as safety management, pilot qualifications, recurrent training standards, maintenance practices, technician qualifications and training for ground crews. Most of the suggested standards are above those already required under FAR Part 135, claims the HAI. For more information on TOPS, contact the HAI's Glenn Orthmann at (703) 683-4646.
Stark Survival Training of Panama City, Florida has introduced water-ditching training specific to helicopter type, and water-survival training for corporate helicopter crews and passengers. If a swimming pool or other body of water is available, the program can include helicopter underwater egress training on Stark's mobile helicopter-ditching simulator. The program fee is $2,000 (plus expenses) for up to 20 students. Phone: (904) 871-4730.
Baseops now automatically files to reclaim eligible European Value Added Taxes (VAT) for its clients retroactively to January 1994. Most handlers assist in reclaiming VATs on request, but the Baseops system is instituted automatically and documentation for refunds is provided at no charge. Reclamation may take as long as 12 months (Baseops International).
Flight Safety Foundation recently expanded its customized technical and management support offerings. The new program, called Aviation Safety Services, will focus on operational safety audits, design and development of safety programs, regulatory compliance audits, review of ICAO safety oversight, contingency planning for accidents and incidents, and airworthiness assessments. Bart J. Crotty, former FAA safety specialist, is the new director of Aviation Safety Services. Phone FSF at (703) 522-8300 for more information.
Security measures aimed at safeguarding business-aviation operations have continued to proliferate, although the number of recorded threats and attacks against those operations have been mercifully small during the last decade. Today an active and resourceful aircraft-security industry provides corporate operators with a variety of onboard security alarm and alerting systems and offers security seminars, executive protection services, consultants and international handlers-all in the interest of protecting domestic and international flights.
In another of its tactics to keep Chicago's Meigs Field open, the NBAA recently sent faxes to nearly 400 members in a four-state area asking them to express to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley their opposition to plans to close the airport in September 1996 (B/CA, February, page 22). The association says Daley claims he is being pressured by a local group, ``Friends of the Park,'' to convert the facility into a park. To date, neither the FAA nor the Illinois DOT has taken a public stand in support of the airport, which handled 16,896 GA operations in 1994.
Aerospatiale's Socata unit signed an agreement with American General Aircraft Corporation of Greenville, Mississippi for the rights to manufacture the Cougar, a light-piston twin originally developed by Grumman and last built in 1979. Renamed the TB320 Tangar, the four-place aircraft is powered by two 160-hp Lycomings and is particularly suitable for multiengine flight training.
The FAA and ICAO are sponsoring a seminar on the planned implementation of the 1,000-foot vertical separation minima for operations between FL 290 and FL 410 in the North Atlantic Tracks (NAT) Region (B/CA, June, page 43). The seminar is scheduled in Reston, Virginia on August 27-29. Effective in January 1997, all aircraft operating in NAT Minimum Navigation Performance Specifications (MNPS) airspace must be able to meet new Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM) standards, according to ICAO.
The following sources provide information on the effects and hazards of high-altitude flight: -- Mohler, Stanley R., ``A Sudden High-Altitude Cabin Decompression Immediately Threatens Safety of Aircraft Crew and Passengers,'' Human Factors&Aviation Medicine, Vol. 41, No. 6, November-December 1994. Flight Safety Foundation, 2200 Wilson Blvd., Ste. 500, Arlington, VA 22201. (703) 522-8300. -- Reinhart, Richard O., Fit to Fly, 1993. Tab Books Inc., Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17294. (717) 794-2191.
Long Island Sound, the 100-mile-long Atlantic Ocean tongue that separates New York's Long Island from the State of Connecticut, is ringed by small community airports, including Sikorsky Memorial Airport (BDR) at Bridgeport, Connecticut. The presence of this large body of water provides Sikorsky Memorial's runways with several unobstructed approaches. But it also provides the moisture for fog banks that drift on and off the shore-side runways on many spring nights. April 27, 1994 was just such a night.
Jetstream Aircraft announced in late June that it had received certification of the 70-passenger Jetstream 61 by the British Civil Aviaton Authority-even though the airplane will never go into production.
DOT will not abolish or revise the high-density traffic rule that sets IFR landing and takeoff slot limitations at four airports: Chicago's O'Hare (with 10 slots for GA), New York's Kennedy (with two GA slots) and La Guardia (with six), and Washington National (with 12 GA slots). Based on a study started in early 1994 (B/CA, May 1994, page 11), the DOT said the projected costs of eliminating or modifying the rule ``currently outweigh the benefits.''
If there is one common denominator in many of the comments on the FAA's proposed Commuter Safety Rule-Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 95-5-it is the ``lack of justification.'' Even more, it is the total lack of correlation between cost and benefit. In brief, the NPRM could threaten the economic viability of the 19-passenger turboprop, and thus the Essential Air Service program and small com- munity air service. The comment period on the proposal ended in late June.
Are the new Jeppesen approach plates the fashion statement of the year? We'll find out soon enough because the plates are getting their first significant change in appearance in their 60-year life. The Colorado-based company circulated samples of the new charts to 30 U.S. and foreign airlines to get comments from their pilots. Jeppesen is scheduled to solicit comments from a select group of general aviation pilots late this year or early in 1996.
One of Jeppesen's newest publications is a guide to complying with the rules and procedures of the European Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU). The guide, packaged in a three-ring binder, outlines the flight-planning and traffic-flow management procedures enforced throughout European airspace. The contents of the guide costs $103.50 annually, including revisions. The binder is sold separately for $21.40.
FAA is evaluating proposed noise-abatement programs for Florida's Fort Meyers International Airport and Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. The programs were submitted to conform with FAR Part 150 requirements, and comments from the public are being requested. The FAA is scheduled to approve or disapprove the programs on or about November 28. For more information, contact the FAA Airport District Office in Orlando. Phone: (407) 648-6583.
The HeliTest portable leak-detection kit from Varian uses helium to ferret out leaks in fuel tanks, pneumatic circuits, oxygen systems, air-conditioning systems, turbines and cabins. To use HeliTest, the area or object to be tested is first filled with a helium-air mixture. Then, the hand-held, battery-operated Helitest probe is passed over the area where a leak is suspected. An electric signal indicating the helium pressure helps the operator locate leaks. No training is required to operate the detector. Price: $7,000 to $8,000, depending on the unit's configuration.
The Smithsonian Institution plans to form a search committee in September to find a new director for the National Air&Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Bob Hoffman has been serving as interim director ever since former director Martin Harwit resigned in May after controversy over the museum's Enola Gay B-29 exhibit (B/CA, July, page 20). Hoffman plans to retire soon and does not have his hat in the ring for the director's job. The Helicopter Association International is recommending former FAA administrator Donald Engen for the slot.
Northrop Grumman will use a full-scale airfoil section of a Gulfstream business jet to demonstrate a ``smart-wing'' concept. The company is undertaking the project under a research contract administered by the U.S. Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. Researchers aim to show that using new-technology materials and structures to change the wing's shape in flight will net greater payload, longer range and lower operating costs. Northrop Grumman will develop a system of ``smart'' actuators that can change the airfoil cross section.
Results of an independently conducted late spring survey of NBAA members provide a statistical showcase of the operating, maintenance and training activity of the U.S. business aviation industry. The survey, which obtained information in more than 50 primary subject areas, was conducted in June by Association Research Incorporated of Washington, D.C. Mailed to 1,017 flight departments operating 2,201 aircraft, the survey drew an impressive response rate of 42.4 percent: 637 respondents.
Embraer of Brazil is one of a number of international partners to join in a risk-sharing partnership on the new 22-passenger Sikorsky S-92 Helibus multi-role helicopter. First flight of the aircraft is scheduled for early 1998, with certification following two years later. Sikorsky believes there is a market for 5,000 S-92s through 2019-with 55 to 60 percent projected for military customers. Embraer will be responsible for a four-percent share of the projected $600-million program, including fuel system and sponsons.
The top two executives of Satellite Aero, an FBO at Wyoming's Jackson Hole Airport, signed an agreement in early June to purchase Western Aircraft, an FBO at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho that is one of several divisions that financially troubled Morrison Knudsen Corporation has put up for sale. Besides providing line and maintenance services, Western Aircraft is an installation center for Saunders spar straps and Aviadesign hydraulic landing gear for Beech King Airs.
Amendments have been adopted that correlate certain FAR Part 25 large-aircraft airworthiness certification standards with similar standards in Europe's Joint Airworthiness Requirements (JAR Part 25). To provide guidelines for complying with the changes, the agency also revised AC 25-7, ``Flight Test Guide for Certification of Transport Category Airplanes.'' A similar set of FAR/JAR changes for smaller airplanes is in the proposal stage (B/CA, September 1994, page 15).
