The DOT strategic plan calls for the FAA to adjust its Operational Evolution Plan, already released in draft form. The department wants the FAA to address the uncertainty of airlines' ability to pay for new technologies and to balance its use of airport improvement program grants and passenger facility charges to ensure adequate capacity and security. The DOT set a number of milestones for the FAA in cost and performance management, including completing the introduction of the cost accounting system.
Sabreliner Corp. has promoted Gina Bey to manager, special projects, and has relocated her to the company's Perryville, Mo., operation. Bey's specific duties will include management representative/ team leader for ISO/AS implementation, government and commercial proposal development and engine-related support for the Sabreliner fleet.
AirTracks is TEAC's new inflight moving map software, featuring two- and three-dimensional topographical route maps, and unique simulated views of the aircraft during takeoff, landing and even from the cockpit. Detailed images of the planned route taken by satellite can be acquired with resolutions up to 1 meter per pixel. AirTracks allows operators to tailor how the information is displayed, and because it is software based, it can be ported onto existing inflight servers or used on TEAC's Map File Server.
THE NTSB IS MAKING another attempt to get the FAA to discard its Big Chief yellow tablet and orange crayon mentality and come up with a way to measure industry flight activity on a near-real-time basis so that accurate safety assessments can be made.
Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Wichita, selected Pete Reynolds to represent general aviation at its 47th Symposium in Los Angeles, which took place in September. Reynolds was chosen for his role as project test pilot for the Learjet 28,and his more than three decades of jet flight-test experience, starting with the Learjet in 1973. He recently retired from his leadership of the Bombardier Flight Test Center and formed PTR Aero, a flight-test consulting company.
Choosing an on-demand air transportation system for your company and making it work is the main theme in John Sheehan's new book, Business and Corporate Aviation Management. Getting started in this complex technical field can prove a bewildering experience for the uninitiated. Once begun, managing an on-demand air transportation operation requires skill and knowledge to continue it successfully.
The following is provided by the Flight Safety Foundation as part of its Approach and Landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) Risk Awareness Tools. More information is available at www.flightsafety.org. Recommended Elements of a Stabilized Approach All flights must be stabilized by 1,000 feet above airport elevation in IMC and by 500 feet above airport elevation in VMC.
Dynamic Aviation, Bridgewater, Va., has named Michael A. Stoltzfus president and chief operating officer. Stoltzfus, a pilot, has held numerous sales and operations management positions within the company.
Safe Flight Instrument Corp. has signed a letter of intent with Gulfstream Aerospace to supply its automatic throttle system, AutoPower, for the Gulfstream G200 business jet. Gulfstream will obtain FAA STC approval for the installation. The system is slated to be available on production aircraft in third quarter 2004. It also will be offered as a retrofit on existing G200s. AutoPower is designed to provide precise engine target settings for airspeed control, reducing the need for pilots to continuously adjust throttles during flight.
The FAA has published Subpart K of FAR Part 91 the final fractional ownership rules (see ``New Rules for Fractionals and 135,'' page 90). In the works since 1999, the new regulations have significant impact on fractional share owners, management companies, fractional program operators and FAR Part 135 on-demand charter operators.
Adam Aircraft is off and running with the introduction of a deposit program for the A700 AdamJet. For a limited time, the company will offer the AdamJet for $1,995,000. An initial $100,000 deposit will secure the preferential price and a delivery position. You can download an A700 deposit agreement at Adam Aircraft's Web site, www.adamaircraft.com.
To the delight of Jeff Geraci and other providers, electronic flight bags -- EFBs -- are past the fad stage and are now rapidly ridding cockpits of reams of paper, and helping ease graying pilots into the age of connectivity, digital documentation and business efficiency. How much an EFB can change habits and procedures depends in many ways on how much an operator is willing to invest in the technology.
Eurocopter has announced a flurry of orders, which takes its EC 135 light twin past the 300-delivery milestone. EC 135 s.n. 300 goes to British dealer McAlpine Helicopters for completion and customization, and then is destined for the North Midlands Police. In a contract worth 36 million, the Czech Ministry of the Interior has ordered eight EC 135s for its Police Aviation Department, due for delivery between 2003 and early 2008. The aircraft will be used in paramedic, surveillance and anti-terrorism roles and fitted with Turbomeca Arrius 282 engines.
Corporate Rotable & Supply announced that its STC/PMA-approved replacement generator, P/N A3579-000, applicable to Learjet 35/36/55 model aircraft, has received its first approval outside the United States from the aviation regulatory agencies in Austria and Germany. The A3579-000 has logged over 20,500 total fleet hours in the United States.
When the Starship entered service in 1990 after prolonged development, its price tag nearly topped $5 million, almost twice what its developers claimed it would sell for when the program was announced seven years earlier.
SkyTrac Systems Ltd. has signed a formal partnership agreement with Iridium Satellite to use Iridium for its automated flight following service, providing two-way voice and data messaging between aircraft and ground stations. Aircraft data, including GPS location, aircraft flight and operating parameters, and other mission critical information, are automatically transmitted from the aircraft via the Iridium satellite constellation to any Internet-accessible location in the world. In the same manner, messages are sent to and delivered from the aircraft.
AvTurf LLC of Chicago has received a U.S. patent for its synthetic grass surface designed to improve safety, reduce bird strikes and reduce delays associated with mowing operations for airport safety areas. According to its founder and president, Patrick Carr, the AvTurf system was tested at the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J. According to Carr, the AvTurf system was deemed acceptable by the FAA to install in the runway safety areas per 14 CFR Part 139 and applicable Advisory Circulars.
WHETHER YOU WERE WEANED hard by the stockyards of Chicago, the tire plants of Akron or the palm fronds of Beverly Hills, native soil is native soil. I have seen grown, intelligent and affluent men brim with nostalgia passing by the site of the infamous Chicago stockyards, whose summer effluvia would fell a dinosaur. One of my favorite citizens is a pilot fella from the Akron area who used to take me to his favorite bistro in downtown Akron, close enough to Firestone et al. to make your eyes water.
The NBAA's membership reached the 7,500 level for the first time. Five years ago in October 1998, the member level was at 5,700. Air Resources of DTI of Windsor, Calif., member number 7,500, operates a Beech King Air 200, which is flown by Chief Pilot Stanford Brown.
Tenzing, the Seattle-based provider of inflight e-mail and text-messaging services for commercial airliners, has announced a new e-mail system for business jets. Based on its airline installations, the business jet system operates through a laptop-size onboard device that incorporates Tenzing software and connects to existing aircraft communications systems. The system has been tested on many business aircraft communication systems and is scheduled to be available for business jet customers this year.
Jet Support Services Inc. (JSSI), Chicago, has named Michael Buell as its new director of domestic sales. Formerly president of O/E Systems, Buell brings 20 years of sales and management experience to JSSI.
A.O.G. Air Support Inc. of Kelowna, British Columbia, announced that it has a $1.1 million (Canadian) R&D contract to perform an engine and airfoil modification on a Cessna 208 Caravan. The airfoil mod will be based on A.O.G.'s STOL technology developed for de Havilland Beavers and Otters to increase takeoff and landing performance on both floats and wheels. It will also replace the Caravan's Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 with a Walter Turbine M601E-11 engine, which has 751 shp (an increase of 75 shp). A.O.G.
Thunder Aviation, Chesterfield, Mo., has appointed Scott LaVange to the position of regional sales manager. LaVange will be responsible for customer service and sales of Thunder Aviation's avionics repair, installations and modifications, and airframe maintenance service products in the Northeastern United States.
Triumph Group, Inc., Wayne, Pa., has named Michael Meshay as president of Triumph Components -- Arizona, which manufactures gas turbine engine components for the aerospace and power generation markets. Most recently, Meshay served as president of aircraft components and services for Fairchild Dornier Gmbh.
Bombardier Global Express XRS, Cessna Excel XLS and Gulfstream 450, three derivative aircraft, were announced at October's NBAA convention. The Weekly of Business Aviation reports pricing for the aircraft will be especially competitive compared with each of their respective predecessor models to maximize the perceived value of the new aircraft. Bombardier, Cessna and Gulfstream each stressed they were continuing to invest in research and development despite the rough economic conditions of the past two years.
