Lee County Airport Authority, Fort Myers, Fla. Kevin D. Ostrowsky, vice president of insurance services and business development officer for Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast, has been appointed to the Lee County Port Authority Airports Special Management Committee. The committee advises the Lee County Commission on policy matters pertaining to Southwest Florida International Airport and Page Field General Aviation Airport.
At about 1400 PDT, a Hawker 800XP, N800CC, was substantially damaged by a fire originating from the left main landing gear after a takeoff was aborted at the John Wayne-Orange County Airport in Santa Ana, Calif. The aircraft is owned and operated by CIT Leasing Corp. The pilot reported to the FAA inspector from Long Beach that the takeoff was aborted twice before the third attempt due to an engine warning light. All three takeoff attempts were made within about a 20-minute period.
I enjoyed the Flight Log contribution by my old friend and ex-Misty mate, Ross Detwiler (November, page 112). In his piece on the Vietnam War era 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron mascot - a rather famous black leopard named Eldridge - he mentions Ramrod, an equally famous python mascot of that era.
The number of fatal general aviation accidents was 5 percent below the FAA's goal in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, the agency said. GA aircraft were involved in 314 fatal accidents in fiscal 2007, or 17 fewer than the FAA target. The number of fatalities dropped from 676 in fiscal 2006 to 564 in fiscal 2007. The FAA includes both FAR Part 91 and non-scheduled Part 135 operations in its calculations. The agency attributed the better than expected results to GPS, glass panels, training and a "commitment to safety by everyone in general aviation."
Changes in the airline market led to a "steep reduction in the national noise exposure" in recent years, according to Carl Burleson, director of the FAA's Office of Environment and Energy. These changes included a 70-percent reduction of older hushkitted aircraft since 2000.
You produce probably the best general aviation magazine going. I wait breathlessly for each edition. And you never let me down . . . thank you. Your interview with Scott Duffy, however, left me wanting a little more substance (Fast Five, October, page 24). I found Duffy a little ingenuous. Web sites like TaxiJet.com and AirCharterGuide.com precede Virgin Charter's and they already do what Duffy envisions. Virgin Charter seem to have two inherent weaknesses built into its model.
ON THE EVENING OF Dec. 1, 1974, a Northwest Airlines Boeing 727 on a positioning flight crashed into wooded terrain near Thiells, N.Y., killing the three crewmembers aboard. The aircraft had been climbing out of New York Departure Control's airspace en route to Buffalo when it simply dropped off the radar. It was later determined that the airplane had stalled during its climb to cruising altitude and had broken up during unsuccessful recovery attempts.
Embraer, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, has announced that Satoshi Yokota will be the executive vice president, strategic planning and technology development for the newly created Environmental Strategies and Technologies Office and that Graciliano Campos has been named its director.
By the end of 2008, Saab hopes to win European Aviation Safety Agency approval of its Civil Aircraft Missile Protection System (CAMPS), which is designed to protect business aircraft from man-portable air defense systems, the shoulder-fired rockets that have been used by terrorists to shoot down a number of civil airliners in recent years.
TWO AIRPORT STORIES. A while ago I was arriving in the D.C. area VFR with traffic building fast. The frequency was alive with lots of voices. Keying Approach, I said I wanted to be cleared into the airspace, but if they couldn't handle me, I could hold, file or simply land elsewhere. "Commander 74 Mike," the controller responded, "This is DCA. The busier we are, the better we like it. You're going to be number two for a visual to Runway 22. Call the traffic."
Crane Aerospace & Electronics, Redmond, Wash., appointed H. Alan Howell as Electronics Group vice president of marketing and business development. Martin McCarthy has been named vice president of sales and marketing in Europe.
Our legal columnist, Kent Jackson, has addressed the subject of regulations affecting flight department companies several times, the most recent being in Point of Law in the May 2007 issue (page 100)
Take a close look at our May 2007 Purchase Planning Handbook. Virtually every new production turbine aircraft is equipped with EFIS and most have large-format, flat-panel LCDs. Steam gauges are out. Wall-to-wall glass is in. For older business aircraft fitted with electromechanical flight instruments or small-format CRT EFIS, a flat-panel upgrade can provide a wealth of new graphics features and functions, such as data link weather, electronic charts, high-resolution TAWS imagery, video cam/IR sensor display and the relative position of other air traffic.
The NTSB wants the FAA to require that all offshore helicopter operators in the Gulf of Mexico provide their flight crews with personal flotation devices equipped with a waterproof, GPS-enabled 406 MHz personal locator beacon, plus one other signaling device, such as a signaling mirror or a strobe light. The Safety Board also wants the FAA to require that all turbine-powered helicopters certificated with five or more seats operating in the Gulf of Mexico be equipped with externally mounted life rafts large enough to accommodate all occupants.
West Star Aviation (nee Premier Air Center) in East Alton, Ill., and Ken Goldsmith's Yankee Pacific teamed together to develop and certify a Honeywell TFE731-4 engine conversion for 1980 through 1996 model Falcon 50s that boosts hot-and-high airport performance, increases range by 6 percent and ups typical cruise speeds from 0.75 Mach to 0.80 Mach.
In a remarkable development, Sentient Flight Group has agreed to buy TAG Aviation Holdings as well as Hawker Beechcraft's charter business. The initial announcement came from TAG in late October and within days Hawker Beechcraft said it was selling its aircraft management and charter business. The TAG USA buy is the latest development in an extraordinary, fast-moving affair that saw the FAA on Oct. 4 issue - after seven months of investigation - an "emergency suspension" of the charter certificate held by AMI Jet Charter.
Intelligence | 19 * Aerion SSBJ Gets Its First Order * European Air Traffic to Grow 4.6 Percent by summer 2008 * NBAA Seeks Relief From IRS Stance * Port Authority of NY/NJ Takes Over SWF * Sensis Gains Early Foothold in China's ADS-B Initiative Edited by James E. Swickard Commentary 9 | Viewpoint By William Garvey We're Here to Hurt 95 | Cause & Circumstance By Richard N. Aarons Will Air Data System Heat Modifications Be Mandatory?
Business Jet Center, Love Field, Dallas, has named Bill Moltenbrey as director of Business Jet Center, Ltd. He will oversee the Dallas and Oakland, Calif., FBO operations. Jason Pons has been promoted to manager of FBO Operations and DJ Korzyniewski has been named manager of the newly created Concierge Services Department, responsible for all cus- tomer service and marketing functions for Business Jet Center Dallas.
End plates are frequently used today on go-fast machines, but not airplanes. Rather they are fitted to race cars whose small aft wings create negative lift. Since these aft wings are necessarily short, their aspect ratio is quite high. With the end plates, the induced drag can be reduced without incurring weight penalties. The wing and endplate do a number of things, including create down force, reduce airflow separation behind the race car's cockpit and create negative lift under the car to pin it to the race surface.
Technological advancements -- as well as FAR mandates -- are also applying to the arcane field of cabin seating. According to Michael Ganter, modifications and completions manager at Landmark Aviation's Springfield, Ill., facility (formerly AiResearch Aviation), one result of FAA safety concerns can be seen in the increased number of 16-g-certified seats now coming into the refurbishment market. "These are designed to absorb energy in the seat itself, instead of imparting that energy to the occupant," he explained.
Jet Aviation and Jetcraft have teamed up to offer aircraft sales and acquisition services under the name Jetcraft Trading. The new strategic alliance between the two companies enables Jet Aviation to round out its service portfolio by adding Jetcraft's aircraft sales and consulting expertise.
Aerion is accepting letters of intent for its planned supersonic business jet. Zurich, Switzerland-based ExecuJet Aviation Group, which is Aerion's exclusive sales representative for all areas outside the Americas, is offering 40 delivery positions for the aircraft; those positions must be secured by refundable deposits of $250,000. The company has taken its first order from Sheikh Rashid Bin Humaid Al Noaimi, head of Ajman Municipality and Planning Department. He signed a letter of intent at the recent Dubai Air Show. The aircraft is priced at $80 million.
