Last week’s Asian Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (ABACE2013) in Shanghai eclipsed nearly all records, reflecting the continuing growth of the business aviation market in the Asia-Pacific region.
MARK FERGUSON was named environmental/health/safety manager for West Star Aviation’s facilities in East Alton, Ill., (ALN) and Chesterfield, Mo. (SUS). Ferguson has 19 years of business experience, most recently overseeing federal and state regulatory compliance for Wal-Mart. In his new role, he will oversee overall safety of both the facilities and employees and monitor for environmental and energy improvements for both locations.
A coalition of local officials and industry stakeholders in May are expected to release recommendations to reduce helicopter noise over the Los Angeles region, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta says. Huerta told the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee last week that the recommendations should cover voluntary routes and operating practices to help reduce noise. House and Senate lawmakers have introduced bills calling on FAA to implement mandatory noise reduction measures. Similar legislation covering New York’s Long Island was unsuccessful.
John Croft (Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Olathe, Kan.; Phoenix and Tucson)
A line from The Beatles' rock anthem “Back in the U.S.S.R.” nicely sums up a recent morning for Capt. Roger Moore as he piloted an “airliner” from New York to San Francisco: “On the way, the paper bag was on my knee. Man, I had a dreadful flight . . . .” Moore had just endured 5 hr. of constant turbulence, but along with getting paid, he did it for a good cause: making sure certain next-generation avionics are a good fit for the flight deck.
John Croft (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Phoenix and Tucson)
New technologies focusing on the sense of sight will boost the utility and efficiency of the cockpit within the next few years. From advanced synthetic-vision applications to unique head-up devices and enhanced-technology head-down displays, avionics makers are perfecting a palette of designs in the laboratory and on the flight-test fleet that aircraft makers will likely choose from for their new and upgraded products.
Jim Swickard, a 40-year aviation communications veteran and contributor to Aviation Week's Business & Commercial Aviation (BCA) magazine, died April 14 from a heart attack at home in Tucson, Ariz. He was 68. Swickard most recently edited the Intelligence column for BCA, and had edited Aviation Week's Business Aviation Bulletin (BCA eBulletin) email. He operated his own marketing and communications company for 17 years after being director of marketing services for FlightSafety International and manager of corporate advertising for Rockwell International.
FAA’s Aviation Safety branch is in a sequestration-driven staffing “free fall” and expects to continue shrinking into next year, FAA Deputy Associate Administrator for Aviation Safety John Hickey told MRO Americas attendees in Atlanta April 18. According to Hickey, the “significant” impact will be felt most in non-safety sensitive areas, like achieving new certifications.
FAA Administrator Michael Huerta maintains that closing contract air traffic control towers will not jeopardize safety, but warns that efficiency will be sacrificed as a result. “We’re not doing anything that isn’t safe,” he told the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee on April 18.
Managers of U.S. airports are worried about tax-code changes included in President Obama’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget that would make it costlier to use bonds to pay for infrastructure improvements, eroding a reliable source of relatively inexpensive funding that has contributed nearly $50 billion to such airport projects over the past decade.
Rockwell Collins is experimenting with a graphical, touchscreen mode control panel designed to simplify autonomous operations and to help air transport and business aviation pilots fly more efficient flight profiles. The mode control panel, located at the top of the control panel, typically contains buttons or knobs for selecting autopilot modes and for setting desire heading, airspeed and altitude inputs for those modes.
The U.S. Transportation Department’s (DOT’s) fiscal 2014 budget request earmarks $225 million in off-budget money for a new-generation air traffic control facility in New York that would consolidate the New York Center and New York terminal radar approach control facilities. The plan to build a New York Integrated Control Facility (ICF)—a new type of center that serves both en route and terminal airspace—is not new. But the budgetary commitment is arguably the most significant signal yet that the FAA is ready to proceed with the project.
NASA plans to launch a program in fiscal 2014 to accelerate dramatically the development and certification of new composite materials and structures for aircraft, but also will re-evaluate its rotary-wing research with the aim of phasing out lower-priority work. The agency’s aeronautics research budget is planned to stay essentially flat to fiscal 2018, slipping just 0.6% to $565.7 million in the fiscal 2014 request. Funding is planned to stay at that slightly lower level for the rest of the five-year budget plan.
The South Korean government is looking at backing development of a business jet as the foundation of a national industry capable of building its own complete civil transports. If the program goes ahead, possibly in a year or two, the manufacturer will be Korea Aerospace Industries.
C.M. HWANG was named managing director of commercial sales, Asia Pacific. Hwang will oversee all marketing and sales activities within the Asia Pacific region for Bell Helicopter. He has more than 20 years of aviation industry experience, 18 of which were with Bell. He formerly served as commercial business development manager for Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Singapore for the company. Before joining Bell Helicopter in 1995, Hwang served in the Republic of Singapore Air Force and subsequently joined DHP Aviation.
MITCHELL WIEDENMANN has joined Aero Charter as first officer of the Hawker 400A and Cessna Citation XLS aircraft. Wiedenmann recently obtained his master’s of science in aviation safety from the University of Central Missouri, and also worked as a flight instructor providing private, instrument, commercial, and multi-engine training. He also has served as a first officer with Express Jet Airlines.
General aviation groups are expressing frustration that the Obama administration’s fiscal 2014 budget resurrects controversial proposals such as user fees and business aircraft depreciation extensions, saying that combined with planned contract tower reductions, it gives the appearance of “a widespread attack on general aviation.”
India is about to relax rules that severely restrict the flexibility of business jets to visit or overfly that country. The application time for a landing permit will be reduced from seven working days to three, and for an overflight from three days to one, according to local reports.
Pilatus, working with Garmin, has secured FAA supplemental type certification to retrofit the Garmin G600 New Perspective avionics systems in PC-12 aircraft produced between 1994-2008 (pre- PC-12 NG models). The retrofit provides a flat-panel glass cockpit for the single turboprop aircraft. Pilatus says the new suite will reduce pilot workload, improve situational awareness, reduce maintenance costs, and boost aircraft value. The system combines the primary flight display and multifunction display in a single 10-in.
