Computing Technologies for Aviation has released FOS/NT, the company's 32-bit Windows NT-based scheduling/dispatching, crew scheduling, charter quote and flight log management system for business aviation. Phone: (804) 971-7624; e-mail: [email protected].
Flight Dynamics' HGS-2850 Head-Up Guidance system has been FAA certificated on Falcon 2000s, giving the aircraft the potential to land in visibility as low as 700 feet RVR with a 50-foot DH. The JAA issued a similar approval in February. Before U.S. operators can take advantage of Cat III(a) capability using the HGS, they will have plenty of work to do. Operators must devise training, operational and maintenance procedures that can pass FAA standards, and local FSDOs will have to learn how to process the paperwork.
Confused about how best to provision your aircraft to take advantage of the coming Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) enhancements to GPS? You're in good company. So is the rest of the aviation community. That's because GPS, even with WAAS and LAAS enhancements, isn't going to become a sole-means air navigation system soon. And without the ability to pull the plug on ground-based air navigation systems, they're going to be around for several years to come.
Revised copies of three popular source booklets are now available from the NBAA. The Business Aviation Fact Book 1998 contains statistics on business aircraft operations worldwide. The 41-page publication also includes a complete directory of the members of Congress. The 1998-1999 State Aviation Tax Report is a 52-page document that gives a state-by-state listing of aviation tax rates and whether the moneys collected are dedicated to funding aviation projects. The guide also gives data on exemptions and refunds.
Trimble is now a distributor for the AI-CD, Avionics Innovations' panel-mount, inflight entertainment system. The STCed AI-CD is a full-featured CD/FM/AM system designed to match Trimble's TrimLine radio stack. The system operates on 12-33 VDC. Price: $1,695. Trimble Navigation Ltd., P.O. Box 3642, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94088. (408) 827-8000; fax: (408) 481-7781
ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection is recommending that member states adopt stricter noise and emissions standards. Specifically, the committee says that nitrogen oxide emissions from aircraft engines should be reduced by an average of 16 percent. No specific figures for new noise standards were proposed, but previous attempts by ICAO to get its member nations to lower noise standards have been unsuccessful.
The latest edition of Jeppesen's Federal Aviation Regulations Explained; Parts 1, 61, 91, 141 and NTSB 830, by Kent S. Jackson and Joseph T. Brennan, unscrambles the sometimes convoluted language of the FARs. This "unofficial" reference gives the reader an explanation of the regulations (unless the reg is self-explanatory), cross references to the regs and referral to related advisory circulars. The inclusion of NTSB case excerpts associated with regs, along with FAA chief counsel opinion excerpts, also helps to unlock complexities.
The Regional Airline Association will post a record of 1,475 to 1,500 attendees at its spring convention in Minneapolis in May, when the tallies are finalized, plus 186 exhibitors occupying 200 booths. That was a 17-percent increase in exhibitors over 1997's spring meeting at Reno.
The perpetual subplot of business aviation's 70-year story, it seems to me, has been the search for credibility. In the beginning, the skeptics abounded. Doubts centered on safety, endurance and reliability. Ultimately, technology and human imagination prevailed and our claims in these matters became believable.
This manufacturer of aircraft components made two appointments: Gregory J. DeSantis as vice president of operations for aircraft products and Sebastiaan Demarteau as vice president of worldwide customer support.
Currently available for retrofit to Securaplane's DAI-01 alarm indicator on its System 450 and Ultra Lite on-board security system is the DAI-08 Digital Alarm Indicator. Unlike the larger DAI-01 that requires a key, this unit features a 10-digit scrolling alphanumeric display that will indicate forced entry into an aircraft. The unit is armed and disarmed by push button, and is installed behind a small door outside the aircraft. A DAI-08 will be ready for use with the System 500 in August. Price: $3,340 for the indicator; $35,000 to $55,000 for the entire security system.
The Internet has spawned hundreds of Web sites dedicated to the year 2000 problem. The FAA has opened an entire site devoted to Y2K at www.faay2k.com. Here, you can find detailed information on the FAA's effort to address the Y2K issue, as well as links to other involved international aviation organizations.
FAA has approved Commander 114Bs and 114TCs for flight into known icing. The approval applies to aircraft equipped with the TKS deicing system and related components available from Commander Aircraft in Bethany, Okla. A company official told B/CA that the 50-pound deicing package for new aircraft costs $42,000 installed and $46,000 for retrofit.
In the FAA's continuing effort to establish common requirements between the FARs and Europe's JARs, the agency adopted a new design standard for transport aircraft. The rule requires that the airframe and landing gear be purposely designed to withstand structural stress caused by the initial pitching motions during the sudden application of maximum braking force. The rule goes into effect on aircraft for which initial type certification applications are submitted on or after June 26.
A Transport Canada task force is proposing almost six dozen ways to make on-demand travel safer. Air charter got Transport Canada's special attention when 1990-95 accident data showed that the majority of commercial aircraft accidents involved air taxi operators.
The trade feud that already had made it to the World Trade Organization and was thought to have cooled. It erupted anew in May when a Toronto newspaper reported that Bombardier of Canada had rejected an overture from Brazil's Embraer to sell a stake in the company to settle the trade issue.
With new daylight-readable liquid-crystal displays (LCDs or "flat panels") finding their way into business aircraft cockpits, are the days of cathode-ray tube (CRT) electronic flight instrumentation systems (EFISes) numbered? Jim Lauer, president of IFR Avionics (and current AEA chairman), doesn't think so.
Concerns raised by the Federal Trade Commission have prompted the suspension of an agreement under which Bell would purchase the part of Boeing that was formerly McDonnell Douglas Helicopter. The FTC requested that Boeing look for a better deal and Boeing says it will "market its light helicopter lines to other potential buyers." Terms of Bell's agreement were never disclosed. Bell is trying to acquire the MD500 and MD600 single-turbine lines, and Boeing intends to exit the light-helicopter business year-end.
After a rocky start in the latter part of 1996, U.S. Customs says its General Aviation Telephone Entry (GATE) program is operating smoothly and will be expanded to more airports. GATE allows pre-approved pilots and passengers flying from Canada to the United States to give U.S. Customs advance arrival notice by calling a toll-free number and obtaining a "telephone entry number" (November 1996, page 34). With that number, the pilot may fly directly to an approved U.S. airport of entry. Air taxi operators with crew only are now eligible to participate in the program.
Infra-Red Technologies' Model 100 Ice Cat aircraft deicing system uses flame-less infrared heat emitters to melt frost, ice and snow. To produce heat without flames or noxious chemicals, a gaseous fuel (natural gas, propane or butane) is burned inside a platinum-impregnated ceramic panel. Infrared rays transmit the heat to the aircraft surface. Ice Cat fits into a truck bed or other mobile unit, or can be permanently mounted. The FAA's Kansas City FSDO has approved the Ice Cat. Base price: $175,000 for a custom-designed system. Infra-Red Technologies, 1201 Burlington, N.
John McNamara was appointed president and CEO of this provider of general aviation flight-training devices and flight simulators. He succeeds Chip Adkins, the company's founder.
