"Under Pressure” (June 2014, page 45) was a great article on tires, but your Learjet 60 accident synopsis gives the reader the impression that this was a typical accident for a post-V1 abort. It was not. You wrote that the thrust reversers were activated but omitted that the TRs subsequently stowed (damaged squat switches) and caused the airplane to accelerate as the engines spooled up above the N1 limit for reverse.
Gulfstream Aerospace donated a G100 business jet that was retired last year from the company’s fleet to Savannah Technical College. The donation continues a 15-year partnership between Gulfstream and the college. Through the partnership, more than 400 students have become Gulfstream employees. In addition to the G100, Gulfstream donated fly-by-wire components, including manifolds and actuators, from the G650 and a flap assembly and fuselage panel assembly from the G450. Savannah Tech, which has a nearly 30,000-sq.-ft.
The FAA in June gave its first approval for commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems (UASes) over land, clearing energy giant BP to operate the AeroVironment Puma AE, a UAS that is 4.5 ft. long with a 9-ft. wingspan, to conduct surveys over Alaska’s North Slope. The agency had previously approved certificates for use of UASes to conduct aerial surveillance over Arctic waters, but this latest certificate of waiver enables BP to use the Puma to survey pipelines, roads and equipment at Prudhoe Bay.
Aerion, the supersonic business jet concept long promoted by billionaire Robert Bass, has undergone a major redesign. The designers have brought forth the new Aerion AS2, which features a Gulfstream G450-sized cabin with a galley, forward and aft lavs, 5,000-nm range and three new production engines — yet to be identified — producing 15,000 lb. of thrust each. “You could say it’s our follow-on aircraft,” Bass observed during the EBACE unveiling.
It was sad to read we had lost Jim Christiansen (Intelligence, June 2014, page 14). I first met Jim 30-plus years ago at a management seminar for small flight departments that he facilitated with Dick Van Gemert of Xerox. He was generous with his time and shared his knowledge and expertise freely with those of us who were new to our positions.
L-3 Aviation Products has been selected to provide its GH-3900 electronic standby instrument system (ESIS) for new production Viking Twin Otter Series 400 aircraft. Canadian-based Viking holds the type certificates for seven legacy de Havilland aircraft — DHC-1 through DHC-7 — and manufactures the 400 Twin Otter. The GH-3900 ESIS is designed to Level A software and hardware standards and can be customized to fit a range of primary systems.
There is something strangely prehistoric about the way many of us continue to fly what we grew up calling a “non-precision” instrument approach. After flying across continents and oceans with navigational precision measured in decimals, we push the nose over a thousand feet per minute “or so” and wait for the minimum descent altitude (MDA). That altitude is measured with an altimeter accurate to plus or minus 75 ft., plus whatever temperature tolerances may exist, and based on an altimeter setting that may be an hour or more old.
It’s one thing to perform an autorotation correctly in the simulator or during a “canned” training session but quite another matter when the engine quits in flight. It’s during the latter that a pilot is prone to revert to first-learned habit patterns. They had better be the right ones, since action is required within 2 sec.
Air BP, Sunbury on Thames, U.K., announced the appointment of Norbert Kamp as Global Sales and Marketing director. He will report to Air BP CEO David Gilmour. The appointment follows the retirement of Peter O’Callahan earlier this year.
The onion and celery bits in the chocolate mousse were surely cautionary signs, but ones I chose to ignore, along with the dessert. Our ersatz flight-attendant-by-default had inadvertently presented our catered boxed meals upside down, which quite literally made a mess of lunch. But otherwise I was heady with anticipation.
Business aviation advocates are hopeful that the IRS is moving forward on new guidance on taxing aircraft management fees, but are still awaiting firm word on whether they will be treated as commercial or noncommercial activities. The IRS in 2012 released a memorandum that called management fees commercial activity and stated they should be treated for tax purposes accordingly. That memorandum spurred a large number of audits resulting in hefty tax assessments — some in the “high six figures” or more — on management companies and their customers.
