THE ISLAND WEATHER that morning in July 2004 was clear with scattered clouds, light winds out of the east and temperature in the mid-80s. Visibility across the Caribbean was great and expected to stay that way. A chamber-of-commerce kind of morning, and a great day to fly.
A high-speed rejected takeoff requires the absolute maximum in crew coordination and performance. Identifying who will make the decision to abort and what specific actions will be quickly performed should be clearly specified and practiced long beforehand so that when the event occurs -- unexpectedly and quite suddenly, always -- the crew's reaction is automatic and correct.
A FRIEND OF MINE in the car business will call periodically when he's got something new and interesting, and let me try it out. It's fun to cut loose in all-wheel drive, and to see the technologies evolve as keys give way to radio fobs, cruise control to radar tracking, speedometers to HUDs, and CDs to Howard unexpurgated Stern via satellite radio (a step backward for some) .
After studying in France, traveling through Europe and North Africa, and earning a bachelor's in French, Sheets put her language skills to work in Aerospatiale's Washington, D.C., office. Eleven years later, she became a regional administrator for Agence France Press. But in 1991, a group of men from the business aircraft resale market convinced her to head a new association created to promote standards and ethics within the industry. Since then she's helped grow NARA from 15 to more than 100 regular and associate members.
On a warm summer evening just after sunset, a Cessna 500 taxied out to the end of Runway 22 at Rawlins, Wyo., Municipal Airport (RWL). The density altitude at high elevation RWL (6,813 feet msl) was nearly 8,200 feet. Loaded with 800 pounds of electronic equipment as cargo and 325 gallons of Jet-A, the airplane had a gross weight of 11,703 pounds. The flight crew determined the required takeoff distance using a dry, level runway with no wind was 6,530 feet; the takeoff runway was 7,008 feet long.
THE ASSIGNMENT WAS CLEAR: The thingamajig at the bottom of the kitchen sink drain had corroded to the point that the brass catchall cross had disappeared altogether. Since the kids for some reason keep removing the catch baskets, the drainpipes were filling with spaghetti scrapings, broccoli bits, soggy fries and other decaying detritus. It was gross.
For anyone associated with Business & Commercial Aviation, 81 Boulevard Gouvion Saint-Cyr was a good place to be on the evening of Sunday, June 12. That's the address of Le Meridien Etoile hotel in Paris and it was there on that evening that the winners of the Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards were announced. The awards are based on the quality of research and investigation, originality and style of the entries.
PATTERNED BEHAVIOR IS a natural part of living; once a thing is learned, repeating the action saves time and helps assure a good outcome. However, when the pattern is flawed, the outcome can be unwelcome -- even deadly. The following accidents all share similarities. The pattern may not be obvious at first, but will become abundantly clear.
Grob Aerospace officially launched its twin-turbofan SPn Utility Jet at June's Paris Air Show. The SPn, short for exponential possibilities to the nth degree, is no VLJ. It will offer a super-light-jet-size cabin with double club seating. Known internally as project G180, the aircraft will feature Grob's signature all-composite construction; twin 2,800-pound-thrust, FADEC-equipped Williams International FJ44-3A turbofans; and four-display Honeywell avionics that look a lot like APEX.
In late April, B&CA was invited to be the first publication to fly the newly Transport Canada-certificated Bombardier Enhanced Vision System (BEVS). It was installed aboard a Global 5000, which along with a Global Express XRS, was one of the two test aircraft used for system development and certification.
Eight years ago, Vern Raburn, president and CEO of Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation, made the biggest gamble in light jet aviation since Bill Lear introduced the Learjet 23 in 1963. Raburn bet that folks would buy hundreds, if not thousands, of twin turbofan aircraft if they could be sold for less than $1 million. Best known outside aviation circles as a high-tech industry entrepreneur, Raburn is a strong believer in price elasticity, a concept he claims is often ignored in general aviation.
Nelson Miller Program Director FAA/NASA Aviation Safety and Security, FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center, Atlantic City, N.J. A Ph.D. in Safety Engineering from Drexel University, Miller's career includes stints at Boeing Vertol where he worked on early tilt-rotor technology and developing aircraft arrestment hardware for the U.S. Navy. He joined the FAA Tech Center (then called NAFEC) in 1970 and has moved steadily up the research ranks.
Adam Aircraft has finally earned FAA Type Certification for its A500, a pressurized, carbon-fiber push/pull piston twin. Awarded May 11, the TC comes after a nearly two-year delay during which the company faced numerous unforeseen development and certification hurdles. Even with the TC, much work must be done prior to scheduled customer deliveries in the third quarter 2005. In its present state, the aircraft cannot be pressurized, so flight above 12,500 feet msl is unapproved without supplemental oxygen.
AN UNEXPECTED RESIGNATION prompted us to place a classified ad in the local daily, hoping to attract a pleasant but persnickety desk editor. Meanwhile, a young librarian with literary yearnings happened upon our ad and felt a frisson. Two days later Stacie Raffaele was interviewing in our offices and three weeks after that, she was at work editing this message. That's happy, coincidental convergence. When task forces merge to pulverize an enemy, that's convergence, too -- but directed, confrontational and devastating.
A farm kid interested in aviation, college grad Tiahrt soon got a job at Boeing Wichita, and remained some 14 years. His programs included the Space Station's environmental controls, weapons interface on the Comanche and maintenance for Air Force One. A political conservative, he ran for a seat in the state house (and lost), state senate (and won) and in 1994 against veteran congressman Dan Glickman, whom he defeated. 1 What was Boeing's reaction to you running for Congress?
The pace of aircraft conception and development has been robust throughout the economic malaise that had beset the industry for too long. And now that most indicators suggest interest in business aircraft is rising steadily, there are a host of new and evolutionary designs ready to accommodate.
New economic optimism from western investors is being matched by an explosion in business aviation activity across Eastern Europe, through Moscow and beyond. The farther east you go the busier it gets. It's ``gold rush time'' say some, but it is the infrastructure problems in these countries that have caused many people and companies to use the classic tool of business aviation for the first time. ``It's the only way to cover the area in a short space of time,'' say many investors.
AS I WRITE THIS, I AM on interminable hold awaiting yet another pleasant but unhelpful person to help me with my problem. We recently purchased a home office printer after its predecessor went to Printer Paradise. One of the first steps in connecting the new device is to load a setup CD into the computer. Unfortunately, the CD tried to automatically load its contents onto my C: drive, assuming it was my hard drive. It is not. For reasons unknown, that's my F: drive.
MAKING MISTAKES IS A PART of everyday living. In fact, it's essential to life since that's how we come to identify wrong actions and their consequences and to develop strategies to avoid or overcome them in the future. A child puts his finger on a hot stove but once.
AH, AT LAST APRIL. The month of fresh starts, fresh flowers and baseball. But it's also a month for looking back and accounting for what went before. So, we tally our chits of income and outgo and grudgingly give the taxman his due. And we in business aviation consider Bob Breiling's latest issue of figures and wonder how we can do better.
You've advanced the power levers for takeoff and are rapidly accelerating down the runway. Just as the copilot calls, ``V1,'' both of you suddenly see a windscreen full of birds and you hear the ``Thump! . . . Thump! . . . Thump!'' of them smashing into your jet. Quick, what do you do?
THE MISTRESS OF the household had spent the day cleaning, child ferrying, working out, dog walking and trying to turn words into money on deadline, and now she was quite thoroughly spent. She offered two dinner options: spaghetti with a sauce straight from a jar, or takeout. We were on the phone to Wild Ginger before you could say ``Szechuan dumplings and shrimp fried rice.''
MY WIFE HAS SIX SIBLINGS, as do I, and most of them are married. We sibs and our spouses have pursued various career paths, becoming medical doctors, college professors, an attorney, a designer, a banker, a marketer, a writer, a dentist and homemakers. And one aviation editor.
The last day of 2004 was an auspicious one for CEO Vern Raburn and hundreds of Albuquerque-based Eclipse Aviation employees. After several 80-hour work weeks during which they hammered out software glitches, struggled with cutting-edge starter/generator technology, coped with engine start fuel scheduling woes and fought numerous avionics battles, their efforts paid off. Assigned EJT (Eclipse Jet Test) 101, test pilots Bill Bubb and Brian Mathy lifted off Albuquerque-Sunport's Runway 17 at 10:16 a.m. for a 1+29 hour test flight in s.n.
