Airport representatives are asking the FAA to hold off on any effort to develop guidelines on competition for ground services, saying it is unnecessary and congressional requests for such measures are misguided. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and 10 other lawmakers earlier this month wrote acting FAA Administrator Michael Huerta, saying the agency needs to further define requirements so airport sponsors can fully understand the rules they must follow if they compete with privately owned businesses such as fixed-base operations (FBO).
FAA’s long-standing opposition to the use of cell phones in-flight continues with the devices excluded from a new study on portable electronic devices (PEDs). The six-month study is expected to investigate policies and procedures that aircraft operators currently follow and eventually present its recommendations to the FAA. The agency currently requires aircraft operators to determine that radio-frequency interference from PEDs does not pose inflight hazards, before authorizing their use.
RICK SCREEN was named Gulfstream program manager for Stevens Aviation. Screen will oversee the companies Gulfstream services, which were recently expanded to include GIII, GIV and GIVSP models. He previously held management positions with Gulfstream Aerospace and West Star Aviation.
The general aviation community is holding a roundtable discussion with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials to delve into a number of general aviation issues, such as notice of arrival procedures, processing and operational differences of CBP installations at different airports.
When a magnitude-5.9 earthquake shook the nation's capital a year ago, the digerati in New York knew about it before the tremblers reached Manhattan, thanks to Twitter and other social media. Now the State Department is trying to tap into that same energy for arms control worldwide. Last week, the government launched a competition in which U.S. citizens could win up to $10,000 by devising a system of using smartphones, cameras and GPS to find out when foreign governments fail to live up to their arms control agreements.
House appropriator Frank Wolf (R-Va.) writes NASA Administrator Charles Bolden “urging vigilance” in deciding how many NASA employees should go to Naples, Italy, for the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in early October. Wolf cites a blog report that asserted that NASA was considering sending 50 or more employees to IAC, arguably the biggest annual space conference.
If the big question here ahead of the last presidential election was who will be the defense secretary, now it is who will be secretary of state. Enter the elder statesmen. Democrats and the Obama campaign say Senate Foreign Relations Committe Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) will deliver a key national security speech on the last night of their convention in Charlotte, N.C. According to the Washington Post's well-connected foreign policy blogger, Josh Rogin, Kerry is a main contender with U.N.
Republican delegates to the party's convention in Tampa, Fla., last week made it clear they favor rebuilding the military in the likes of an earlier Republican president. “More than a century ago, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt predicted that America's future was in the Pacific,” states the party's platform. “That future is here today, but it can develop peacefully only under the shield of American naval and air power.” Not surprisingly, the platform also goes on the offensive against Democratic President Barack Obama.
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NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman concedes the agency was surprised by a Safety Board study that did not find a measurable improvement in the safety records of general aviation aircraft with glass cockpits. 'We didn't see that safety gain that we thought we would,” she says, adding one of the challenges is the familiarity with the technology. The findings underscored the need for pilots with glass cockpits to be fully trained on the technology. But she does not rule out future safety gains.
The pressurized de Havilland DH 125 was rolled out in a record 16 months after initial design. The company expects the six-passenger jet will clear a 35-ft. obstacle from a 3,000-ft. runway at 19,000 lb. max takeoff. Despite the executive jet design, DH 125 is being pushed hard as a military trainer, liaison and radar trainer, with the RAF weighing the purchase of 30 units. Standard version would be about $420,000.
Anti-Authority “No one tells me what to do!” Impulsiveness “I (we) need to do something about this now!” Invulnerability “It can't happen to me!” Macho “Watch this!” Resignation “We're doomed!” Pressing “I've got somewhere I need to be!” Ego/Vanity “I'd rather die than look bad!”
Constant Aviation LLC has opened a landing gear repair and overhaul facility at its Birmingham, Ala., location. The facility will begin servicing Beechjet 400A/XP landing gear and expand to include the Embraer Legacy 600 and Hawker 800A/XP aircraft in the coming months. With an initial investment of about $500,000 in tooling, equipment and inventory, the facility is fully functional and delevered its first set of overhauled landing gear in late June, according to Stephen Maiden, president of Constant Aviation. Constant Aviation
Are you determined to land your aircraft on this approach, regardless, or are you prepared to execute a go-around if any flight crewmember feels threatened? The mantra of stabilized approach has been preached for decades by the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), among others: Configured for landing, on speed, on course, on glidepath and on descent rate, plus power or thrust set at a stable level and primary flight controls in trim.
TrueNorth Avionics has introduced its multilingual Stylus handset. The Stylus features a sleek design, high-definition audio and unique personalization options with many choices of finishes, inlays and themes. The TrueNorth Stylus is complemented by the MyStylus iPhone app, which brings the convenience and functionality of the Stylus to the iPhone, according to the company. The unit has been available since June and serves as a plug-in replacement for TrueNorth's current handsets.
Pilatus Business Aircraft has named Landmark Aviation at Scottsdale (Ariz.) Municipal Airport an authorized service facility for the PC-12 business turboprop. Landmark's facility will serve as a satellite service center in the southwestern United States, under the Pilatus sales and service region managed by Colorado-based Tempus Aircraft Sales and Service.
The Internal Revenue Service has permanently put in place deduction rules involving the use of business aircraft for entertainment purposes, providing little relief to industry on the scope or implementation. In 2004, Congress mandated that the IRS close the gap between what an employee counts as compensation from entertainment-related flights and what a company deducts for its corporate aircraft operations. The NBAA had urged the IRS to reconsider its approach on both the scope and reporting requirements.
To encourage flight crews to think about actions they would take in the event of a contingency, international procedures expert Dave Stohr, president of Air Training International, provided a sample list of items that would need attention if it were necessary to depart an organized track or a random route. Other items could be added.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.'s super-midsized G280 aircraft is closing in on entry-into-service. As of July 31, the three aircraft used for the flight-test program have flown more than 2,000 hr. over more than 740 flights. The fatigue test article has completed more than 17,000 of 40,000 cycles. The G280 received provisional type certificates from the FAA on March 1, 2012, and the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel on Dec. 29, 2011. The aircraft is slated to enter service later this year after the final type certification requirements have been achieved.
Bell Helicopter, in partnership with Cessna Aircraft, opened a new regional service center in Singapore at Seletar Aerospace Park. Bell and Cessna are Textron companies. The new facility offers customers a one-stop shop for repair, completion, fulfillment, maintenance and customization solutions. The 160,500-sq.-ft. service facility is equipped with hangars for Bell Helicopter and Cessna products, a paint booth, warehouse, overhaul and maintenance shops, offices, and a 77,000-sq.-ft. ramp.
Mobiata's FlightTrack Free, a completely redesigned and free version of its best-selling travel app, is now available for iOS and Android devices. Features include a completely redesigned interface that integrates the flight details and flight map; real-time departure and arrival information, delays, gate numbers and baggage claim information; zoomable maps with satellite imagery; coverage of more than 16,000 airports worldwide; and full international coverage.
Give thanks to HICAT — that's the “High Altitude Clear Air Turbulence” program — for much of our knowledge about the jarring phenomenon. Between 1964 and 1968, a U.S. Air Force U-2 conducted 285 flights, covering more than 800,000 km over the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Panama, eastern Canada, England and France to gather information.
Insta Etch's etch2000 professional parts marking system is a custom stencil design smartphone app based on Android and BlackBerry operating systems. It wirelessly prints a pre-programmed or user-designed stencil to a handheld Bluetooth printer. Using simple electrochemical solutions and these precision stencils, metal parts and tools can be permanently marked with IDs and serial numbers (or logo images and data matrix barcodes) while on the manufacturing line or in the field.
In July, Eclipse Aerospace announced the Brazilian Type Certificate Validation of the Total Eclipse twin-Engine Jet. Over the last fifteen months EAI worked with the Brazilian Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC) to certify the EA500 and the Eclipse Avio integrated flight management system. Eclipse also offers the Eclipse 550, a new production version of the Total Eclipse. The Eclipse 550 is scheduled for first deliveries in mid-2013.
