Nearly 2,900 people attended the first Latin American Business Aircraft Conference and Expo in So Paulo, Brazil, held March 13 to 15. The joint venture was sponsored by the NBAA and Associao Brasileira de Aviao Geral (ABAG). Eighty-eight exhibitors participated and 16 aircraft, ranging from a Cessna 172 and a Caravan to a Bombardier Global Express and a Gulfstream 500 were on display at Congonhas Airport.
One not-so-small step by the federal government could soon ignite one giant leap for airspace capacity. Without fanfare on Dec. 31, 2002, the FAA signed an industry-championed change, eight years in the making, adding Required Navigation Performance (RNP) instrument approach procedures to the rolls of the Terminal Instrument Procedures (TERPS) document and other tomes. The nondescript event will allow operators a year or so from now to begin flying baby-step versions of the futuristic RNP instrument approaches used by Alaska Airlines way up north.
Ranger Jet Center has expanded its ramp space at Kissimmee, Fla., Gateway Airport (ISM) to 312,000 square feet to accommodate increased traffic. The new space opened on March 1.
In pursuit of Group Approval of its RVSM package for Learjet 20-series aircraft, Avcon International completed a baseline flight-test program in its company Learjet 25D on Feb. 7. The next phase of the project will involve flight testing RVSM-compliant aircraft. Once the equipment installation is certified, Avcon will schedule a minimum of five customer aircraft for modification and flight testing to prove altitude consistency between installations and gain FAA Group RVSM approval.
Meggitt Avionics announced that it has received STC approval for its Magic 2100 digital flight control system and Magic EFIS on the Cessna 441 Conquest turboprop. The approved EFIS installation consists of a six-tube, flat-panel, color LCD -- two Primary Flight Displays, two Navigation Displays and two Electronic Instrument Display System tubes. The Magic 2100 DFCS is a three-axis, fully-digital, attitude-based flight control system.
Jet Aviation recently announced it will concentrate its German parts sales activities at its Saarbrucken parts distribution center. The center will serve third-party maintenance stations, aircraft manufacturers, aircraft operators, flight schools and flying clubs, in addition to Jet Aviation's own maintenance facilities. Wolfgang Dillbaum, the recently appointed director of material management and distribution, said the parts distribution center houses over 10,000 different consumable and rotable parts from most major aircraft manufacturers.
A post-EBACE flight operations manual workshop will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 10-11. Sponsored by the EBAA and the NBAA, the workshop will enable participants to develop a manual adhering to the International Business Aviation Council's (IBAC) International Standard for Business Aviation Operations (IS-BAO). Designed to ensure safe corporate flight operations, IS-BAO is based on ICAO standards that have been established as acceptable to world aviation regulatory authorities.
Pratt & Whitney Canada has appointed Tenix Aviation Pty Ltd., based at the Adelaide Airport in South Australia, as a Recognized Maintenance Facility (RMF) for its PT6A and JT15D engine models.
ICAO, Montreal, Canada, has appointed Dr. Taeb Cherif (Algeria) as its new Secretary General for a three-year term beginning Aug. 1. Dr. Cherif, whose aviation career spans three decades, has been Representative of Algeria on the ICAO Council since 1998.
The TSA has released its long-awaited guidance for FAR Part 135 operators to comply with fingerprint-based criminal history record checks required under the Twelve-Five security rule. The TSA previously extended the compliance deadline for the program until April 1, and ``Although the TSA has extended previous deadlines, it appears that the agency will finally have in place all the pieces required to fully implement its new security rules in the very near future,'' said National Air Transportation Association (NATA) Vice President Jeb Burnside.
Aviation Material and Technical Support (AVMATS), Chesterfield, Mo., has named Jerry Bryant as its Hawker technical sales manager. Bryant, who will be responsible for coordinating the Hawker outside sales program, will focus on technical aspects of work scope completion.
The Senate Commerce Committee approved several key aviation nominations, including: Ellen Engleman as chair of the NTSB; Richard Healing and Mark Rosenker as NTSB members; Robert Sturgell, deputy administrator of the FAA; Jeffrey Shane, under-secretary of transportation for policy for the DOT; and Emil Frankel, DOT assistant secretary for transportation policy.
Pratt & Whitney Canada has appointed Rocky Mountain Aircraft, located at Springbank Airport (CYBW) west of Calgary, Alberta, as a Recognized Maintenance Facility for its PT6 and JT15D engine models.
The Lancair Co. delivered its first Columbia 300 since resuming production at its Bend, Ore., factory earlier this year. Enrico Evers of Hanseatische Luftwerft GmbH (HLW), Lancair's dealer for Western Europe, was on hand to receive the aircraft on Feb. 28 on behalf of its new Dutch owner. ``We're nearly fully staffed again and have been ramping up our production line as rapidly as possible to deliver airplanes at an ever-increasing rate into the future,'' said Lancair President Bing Lantis. This is the second Lancair Columbia 300 delivery in Europe.
FlightSafety Boeing Training International (FSB), soon to be renamed Alteon, announced plans to construct a $60 million aviation training center near the Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. This latest FSB training center to be built in the southeastern United States will be a 52,000-square-foot facility housing six full-flight simulators and associated training activities. The center will employ some 50 people and train up to 7,000 pilots plus additional maintenance technicians and cabin crews annually.
The BA609 commercial tiltrotor made its first flight on March 7 at Bell's Flight Research Center in Arlington, Texas. The Bell/Agusta Aerospace aircraft lifted off in helicopter mode, hovered at 50 feet, performed left and right pedal turns, forward and aft flight maneuvers, four takeoffs and landings, nacelle position changes and stability testing for 36 minutes before setting down. The flight followed seven weeks of ground runs and taxi testing. ``The first flight was flawless.
Analogic Corp. has joined with Sanders Design International to develop, manufacture and deploy an aircraft infrared countermeasures (IRCM) system to protect commercial airliners against shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles.
Failing to understand maintenance rules and regulations could place a technician on the wrong side of the law. Imagine going to the mailbox and while sorting through the bills, catalogs and junk mail you come across an unexpected envelope with an FAA return address. Inside is a terse and unfriendly letter stating that you have violated an FAR and that your Airframe and Powerplant license (A&P) is going to be suspended. After the initial shock and anger quickly comes the worry -- your livelihood is in jeopardy, after all.
CHC Helicopter Corp. announced that its operating subsidiary, CHC Scotia Ltd., based in Aberdeen, Scotland, has finalized a multi-year agreement with ExxonMobil to provide sole-use services of two Eurocopter Super Pumas out of Aberdeen. The service will provide support to ExxonMobil's production and drilling operations in the Northern Sector of the North Sea.
Ask folks in the aviation insurance industry if FAR Part 142 simulator-based training is a must and you hear ``It depends.'' There's an abundance of fuzzy logic behind initial and recurrent training requirements to qualify for insurance or earn favorable rates. ``It's all but mandatory for turbofan aircraft operators,'' explained Jim McJoynt, president of Falcon Insurance Co. of California and a 30-plus year insurance industry veteran.
The Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance (AWAM), Edgewater, Fla., added Janese Thatcher-Buzzell to its board of directors in January. Thatcher-Buzzell is manager of aviation education for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Office of Aeronautics, in St. Paul.
Eleven Italian aviation officials will face criminal charges for manslaughter in the crash of SAS Flight SK686 which killed 118 people at Linate Airport in October 2001, Milan judge Silvana Petromer ruled. The collision between SAS' MD-87 aircraft and a Cessna Citation CJ2 business jet occurred while the airport's ground radar was temporarily out of use. The accused include the former head of Italy's ENAV air traffic control agency, Sandro Gualano, Airport Manager Vincenzo Fusco, and civil aviation and air traffic control officials.
GAMA, Washington, D.C., has hired Jens C. Hennig as manager of operations. Hennig assumes responsibility for various GAMA programs, including safety and statistical research and analysis.
The new Subpart K within FAR Part 91 governing fractional ownership providers appears to have gotten stuck at the DOT, notes the Weekly of Business Aviation. Former FAA acting Administrator Monte Belger signed the rules shortly before retiring in September 2002 and shipped them to the DOT for review. The new rules were a high priority for both Belger and former Administrator Jane Garvey. However, neither is around to continue shepherding the rule through the bureaucratic process.
FAA-sponsored physiological training programs are available to pilots at numerous locations across the United States. The program consists of approximately four to five hours of ground instruction covering a variety of topics including high-altitude physiology, situational awareness, vision and visual illusions, spatial disorientation, and other factors affecting human performance (noise and vibration, fatigue, thermal stress, acceleration).
