EBACE2004, the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition, registered a record 6,487 attendees during the May 25-27 gathering, an increase of 8.4 percent over 2003's total of 5,984. It also featured 247 exhibitors, or 18 percent more than last year's booth space total. The static display at Geneva International Airport featured 36 business aircraft.
The NTSB recommendations come in the wake of the crash of a Federal Express B727 that struck trees and crashed short of Runway 09 at Tallahassee International (TLH) on July 26, 2002, on an IFR flight plan in night VMC. The captain, first officer (the pilot flying) and flight engineer were seriously injured and the aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB determined that the probable cause was the failure to establish and maintain a stabilized glidepath.
The NBAA notes that the TSA has released a ``technical change'' in the applicability of the Twelve-Five Standard Security Program (TFSSP) that excludes aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or less from having to participate in the TFSSP.
Adam Aircraft announced an order for 75 A700 AdamJets valued at $150 million from PeopleExpress founder Donald Burr and former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall. Burr and Crandall plan to launch a new air taxi service, for now called iFly Air Taxi, with the aircraft. Englewood, Colo.-based Adam is hoping to be the first start-up company to bring a new jet design to market in decades. Founded in 1998 to build the A500 centerline-twin-piston composite aircraft, the company announced plans to build the Williams turbofan-powered A700 in October 2002.
DURING MY COLLEGE SUMMERS I was in the ``aerial advertising'' -- read, banner towing -- business on the south New Jersey shore. I spent three happy years in the cockpit of N6897B, a 1956 orange and white Piper Super Cub, flying out of Bade Field, a small airport on bay that's Atlantic City's back door. I learned much, was never bored and enjoyed my role in what is one of aviation's more esoteric activities.
Tradeoffs are a reality of aircraft design, although engineers attempt to optimize the blend of capabilities, performance and passenger comfort. B/CA compares the subject aircraft, in this case the Learjet 40, to the composite characteristics of others in its class, computing the percentage differences for various parameters in order to portray the aircraft's relative strengths and weaknesses. We also include the absolute value of each parameter, along with the relative ranking, for the subject aircraft within the composite group.
This article is directed at the guys and gals flying pipeline patrol, fish spotting, towing banners, instructing and flying freight at night to build enough time to be hired by a major corporate operator or airline. There are some statistics that will be important in your profession, but the most comforting of them do not apply at this point in your career, unfortunately. As you'll see, the old adage that ``Liars figure and figures lie'' is firmly rooted in the truth.
Raytheon Aircraft Services has earned supplemental type certification of a RVSM package for the Beechjet 400 and MU-300 Diamond, while Elliott Aviation expects to receive regulatory approval and begin installations of its RVSM solution for the two business jets this month.
Fastfind Plus is a hand-held 406 MHz Personal Location Beacon. Similar in size to a mobile phone, it is powerful enough to transmit a distress message from the most remote seas, almost anywhere in the world, to international search and rescue services in just three minutes, with a positional accuracy typically within 30 meters. It will also update your position every 20 minutes and give information to the rescue services about your personal details and aircraft or boat ID.
Effective June 1, the FAA Aircraft Registration Branch began an enforcement program that could result in suspension or revocation of an operator's aircraft registration and cancellation of his N-number if he fails to complete and return a registration report in a timely fashion.
West Star Aviation, an aviation support firm based in Grand Junction, Colo., has contracted with Kohlman Systems Research, a leading independent provider of aeronautical engineering services headquartered in Lawrence, Kan., for engineering services required to obtain a group RVSM approval for the Cessna Conquest II. In addition to the group approval, West Star engineers plan to obtain an STC for RVSM equipment installation and static system modifications in order to provide a turnkey solution to operators by the fourth quarter of this year.
Dassault Aviation says by developing the Falcon 7X in a virtual environment, it is halving the time required to assemble the new jet. In fact, Dassault Aviation will not produce a physical 7X prototype; rather, the first production jet, scheduled for delivery in March 2005, will be used for certification. The company says the digital mockup of the Falcon 7X is so accurate that fittings, supports and tubing developed almost fit perfectly.
You all know the drill from your regular simulator sessions. It's the hot-and-high, weight limited takeoff exercise. Just passing through V1, an engine fails as predictably as sunrise. So you rotate on cue from the copilot and fly out at V2. Aircraft performance, at least as portrayed by the simulator software, matches the FAR Part 25 AFM guarantees and you're able to fly out to flap retraction altitude with regulatory precision.
Intheairnet, LLC, announced an agreement to purchase IEC In-Flight Systems and to change that company's name to Intheairnet, Ltd. IEC In-Flight Systems, with headquarters near London's Heathrow Airport, is a cabin entertainment systems integrator of VIP and corporate aircraft. Products include LCD flat-panel switch controls, routers and displays, as well as Ethernet and wireless networks for passenger Internet communications and cabin entertainment.
PrivatAir is in negotiation with Swiss International Air Lines and other potential long-haul business-class-only scheduled operators. ``I can't go into any detail,'' said Dave Kinson, PrivatAir's chief operating officer, Europe and Middle East, ``but I can confirm that we are talking to Swiss to set up a similar scheduled transatlantic service that we already operate for Lufthansa.'' One of the problems facing Kinson is the unavailability of new equipment.
``It's the closest thing you'll experience in business aviation to working for the airlines,'' shuttle pilot and NBAA Shuttle Work Group co-chair Ron Craig told B/CA, commenting on the shuttle pilot lifestyle. ``It's a very predictable flight schedule. If you like to fly, this is an outstanding job, and because of the schedule, you can actually plan your life. You always know where you're going, so we can operate on canned flight plans, which reduces the workload a little, too.''
Airliners were grounded and passengers delayed yet again as the United Kingdom's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) Flight Data Processing System failed on June 3. The failure occurred around 0600 at West Drayton, London, during upgrade testing. All U.K. takeoffs were canceled initially and it took all day to get airline flights back into a semblance of order. Richard Everitt, NATS chief executive, said, ``To ensure safety levels were maintained we took traffic right down, handling the arrivals [manually] while we sorted the problem out.'' But U.K.
Clumsy paint removal scribe marks have caused serious damage on two Boeing 747s in Australia, and similar damage was also found on 32 737-100s/400s/500s and four 747s worldwide. The FAA and Australian safety regulators are working together to determine their next steps. An internal report from Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said most of the damage was in the lap and butt joints in the aircraft fuselages, with paint removal being the predominant cause. ``Unfortunately sharp metal implements have been used for this task,'' the authority said.
I was standing in the PrivatAir exhibit at EBACE, chatting with Dave Hurley, an old friend who's now the outfit's vice chairman. Upon mentioning that I hoped to visit friends in Germany, he volunteered, ``Well then, you've got to fly with us.'' I hesitated. After all, this would complicate ground travel and schedules, I'd wind up at the wrong airport, my hotel reservations were elsewhere. A quandary. Fully three seconds passed before I accepted.
Mooney Aerospace Group filed a petition for reorganization under Chapter XI of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on June 10. The company said it intends to file a plan of reorganization. In May, Mooney Aerospace was socked with a $23.9 million penalty associated with breaking a lease on a facility owned by Long Beach Airport (B/CA, June, page 26). At that time, Mooney Aerospace said its legal travails would have no effect on Mooney Airplane Co., its operating subsidiary.
Sure enough, the New York State Assembly is moving forward on a bill that includes mandatory compliance with the TSA General Aviation Airport Security Guidelines (see previous item on NATA's concern regarding just such action), as well as other requirements that the NBAA considers excessively burdensome, including verification of passengers and cargo, and development of emergency maps and contacts. The NBAA believes that general aviation airport security is a national priority and that the TSA should administer any mandates for security.
Sandel's 3-ATI ST3400 is an integrated TAWS computer and color display that meets TSO C151b in both its Class A and Class B versions. Designed to reduce the occurrence of Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), the single greatest cause of passenger fatalities, the ST3400 also functions as an RMI and displays terrain maps, topographic maps, navigational waypoint maps and TCAS data. Currently certified on Beech 1900s, the ST3400 is a drop-in cockpit instrument that requires no remote boxes and is compatible with almost all digital and analog aircraft.
Berlin's historic Tempelhof Airport is to close permanently at midnight on Oct. 31, a move that's prompting a legal challenge from some airlines. The local civil aviation authority ordered the closure at the request of Berliner Flughafen-Gesellschaft (BFG), the Berlin airports operating company. ``This decision relieves BFG from its single largest source of deficit,'' explained an airport company spokesman. Tempelhof generates double-digit losses of millions of euros annually, explained an airport source.
