The copilot of a Citation X (CS-DCT) corporate jet operated by Air Luxor is still under house arrest in Caracas, Venezuela, after 400 kilograms of cocaine was discovered aboard the aircraft on Oct. 24, 2004. However, Air Luxor's public relations manager Carlos Pacheco is convinced copilot Luis Santos, who is facing a charge of drug dealing, is innocent and being used as a scapegoat. He points out that the accumulated weight of the drugs and luggage would have been above the aircraft's MTOW and the c.g. far enough aft to have caused a tail strike.
Robert E. Breiling Associates released its 2004 Business Turbine Aircraft Accident Review. The analysis is an invaluable aid for identifying operational and maintenance-related problems with each aircraft, alerting your pilots where the accidents have occurred and their causal factors. It also identifies accident rates of each aircraft; compares accident rates of corporate aviation with that of business, air taxi and scheduled carrier; and proves to your management that corporate aviation continues to maintain the highest levels of safety.
The AOPA noted in a member bulletin that U.S. aerobatic team members have been told that military transportation will be unavailable and they will have to get themselves and their airplanes to Spain any way they can for a world competition beginning June 22. About 80 pilots will compete in an Olympics-style competition that, in the past, has been dominated by Russian and French pilots. Without the military airlift, the cost of transporting the team's aircraft is estimated at $20,000 to $30,000 each. For more information on the team, visit www.usaerobaticteam.com.
Britain's Bookajet.com is to manage sales for Sweden's European Flight Service's business jet fleet, taking responsibility for charter sales, marketing and pricing. Meanwhile, European Flight Service will supply the flight and cabin crews. Bookajet Managing Director Chris Rooney said that by year-end he could be managing between 10 and 12 aircraft ranging from Citation Excels to a Gulfstream 550.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget began a 90-day review of new rules that would adopt Stage 4 noise standards for aircraft. Released in late 2003, the FAA's proposed Stage 4 standards were generally well received by industry groups, but some communities and airport authorities urged the FAA to use the Stage 4 rulemaking to revisit its rules regarding the Stage 2 exemption for aircraft weighing less than 75,000 pounds.
Honeywell added some 5,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and 4,000 European land-based structures to its terrain databases for its helicopter EGPWS. The unit uses GPS transmissions to compare aircraft position with the built-in terrain database to generate a moving map display.
A crucial federal court decision has gone in the FAA's favor in a long-running legal dispute over the agency's contract tower program. In a partial summary judgment, an Ohio district court agreed with the FAA's position that control towers can be contracted out to private companies. The legality of the program was challenged by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). A ruling on another aspect of the challenge must be made before a final judgment is delivered.
Helicopter Association International Operator Safety Award Applications are now available to recognize HAI regular members' safe helicopter operation. To qualify, an operator's safety statistics for the just-concluded year must be less than half the total of the median accident rate of HAI operator members added to the median accident rate for U.S. civil helicopters.
The Global Express, launched in 1993, was Bombardier's bid to build a clean-sheet, heavy-iron business jet intended to set new standards for technology, systems redundancy, cruise speed and cabin comfort. A highly swept, highly loaded super-critical wing would ensure record cruising speeds. A full array of high-lift devices would enable the aircraft to use short runways. The latest airliner-inspired systems would save weight and offer more redundancy than those fitted to conventional business jets.
The VanAllen Group, Atlanta, a business aviation consulting firm, added two new members: Donald White and Mert Pellegrin Jr. White joins the company as vice president of technical services, and Pellegrin joins as a senior consultant. In addition, Phil Rickert, a senior member of the VanAllen Group, was named vice president of operational services.
CJ Systems Aviation Group, Pittsburgh: Industry veteran Herb Schutt, vice president of operations, retired from the company effective March 1. Schutt was with CJ Systems for 20 years and has been a pilot since 1968. J. Heffernan was promoted to the position of vice president of operations from his previous position of director of safety.
Gulfstream Aerospace, which in recent years has lost money disposing of used aircraft taken in trade from customers who have ordered new Gulfstreams, posted a $6 million operating profit on sales of previously owned aircraft in 2004. By the end of last year, Gulfstream only had eight used aircraft in its inventory, and four of those were scheduled to be sold during the first quarter of this year.
The AOPA labeled ``shortsighted'' an FAA proposal to decommission two VORTACs in southern New England. The Providence (PVD) VORTAC at T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island and Bradley (BDL) VORTAC at Bradley Airport in Windsor Locks, Conn., are both being shut down because of airport construction. The FAA is considering neither relocating nor reactivating the navaids, but the AOPA says they are heavily used and should be retained. The AOPA has asked the FAA to extend the comment period on the plan.
Yingling Aviation is offering Cessna 400-series twin operators affected by the emergency AD 2005-05-52 full visual and eddy-current inspections as well as modifications designed to correct existing conditions and prevent future propagation. Yingling, located on Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, has, ``more existing engineering, established maintenance procedures, tooling and expertise working on Cessna twin-engine aircraft than any other facility in the world,'' noted Lynn Nichols, president of Yingling.
John Bool, general manager of engineering, Harrods Aviation: ``While we have only had the aircraft for a short period and our experience on this type is growing daily, we have found the management systems to be reasonably easy to use and have had positive feedback from the staff.
Jet Aviation Singapore recently completed its largest structural repair, the removal of both wings on a Gulfstream IV so its technicians could replace both left and right wing attachment fittings. Before the repair could be performed, custom-built shoring equipment needed to be produced to ensure that no movement of the aircraft structure occurred as the wing attachments were removed. Total time for the attachment re-fitting was 500 man-hours. Jet Aviation is storing the custom equipment and can ship it to any of its other facilities, if needed.
Bizjet International received FAA approval as an authorized overhaul facility for the Rolls-Royce Tay MK 611-8 engine. Tulsa-based Bizjet is now authorized to perform overhauls on both the Rolls-Royce Spey MK 511-8 and Tay MK 611-8 powerplants.
ARINC introduced a new service for general aviation customers delivering westbound oceanic clearances via data link on the busy North Atlantic routes. The new service, which went live last month, complements ARINC Direct's existing eastbound service. ``The addition of this westbound service brings business aviation on the North Atlantic routes the same . . . electronic clearance delivery most commercial airlines enjoy,'' said Dave Poltorak, ARINC vice president of business aviation solutions.
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.
YOUR FLIGHT DEPARTMENT has a beautiful old GII, or a JetStar or a Sabreliner, sitting out in the hangar. The owner has invested the money to comply with new RVSM requirements and you've also installed TAWS to meet those new federal standards. The airplane is paid for, it's carefully maintained and in great shape, the crew is top-notch and the owner loves the old bird, even though it burns more fuel and doesn't have the range of some of the newer models from Wichita or Savannah.
SpaceShipOne, the Burt Rutan spaceship that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize, will be on display at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture convention July 25-31 in Oshkosh, Wis. SpaceShipOne and its carrier aircraft, White Knight, will be making their only scheduled joint appearance, the EAA said. Rutan and pilot Mike Melvill, who made the first of two flights required to claim the X Prize, will lead a delegation of employees from Rutan's company, Scaled Composites. Both men are longtime EAA members.
The FAA wants CVRs and FDRs designed to give accident investigators more information. A new NPRM, generated after years of prodding by the NTSB, would require that CVRs used by air carriers, other operators and aircraft manufacturers be able to retain the last two hours of cockpit audio. The proposed rule would require that if data-link communication equipment is installed, all data-link messages received on an aircraft be recorded. Current regulations for aircraft operating under FAR Part 91 require the CVR to record only the last 15 minutes of cockpit conversation.
PS Engineering, Inc. offers an audio selector panel that integrates Sirius satellite radio. The PMA8000-SR includes all of the current audio panel functions, plus functions such as split mode, a dedicated cellular telephone interface (DuTel), a six-place high-fidelity stereo IntelliVOX intercom with dual independent music inputs, a marker beacon receiver, and a built-in Sirius satellite receiver. Dual entertainment inputs for the panel allow the passengers in back to listen to Sirius programming, or play their own CD/DVD, while the crew communicates by radio.
Bell Helicopter delivered 189 rotorcraft in 2004, a nearly 80-percent increase over 2003. A key component in the company's success last year was previously owned models, which accounted for almost 19 percent of all the rotorcraft shipped by the Texas-based airframe manufacturer. Bell officials, who have seen their backlog swell, said that ``product improvements, continued superior customer support and service coupled with an improving economic picture and world events all combined to provide for a busy year for Bell commercial helicopter sales.''
The NBAA plans to post on its Web site a letter template that association members can use to communicate the value of business aviation to local, state and federal officials, NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen announced at the recent Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference in Reno.
