Xian Aircraft Co. of China has selected Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics for integration into its new MA-60 regional aircraft. Deliveries of the initial shipsets will begin later this year, with aircraft certification expected in 2004. The package includes the FMS 3000, a full complement of Pro Line 21 software-upgradeable CNS equipment, an AHS 3000 attitude heading reference system (AHRS) and a TWR 800 color weather radar.
Nashville Jet Charters, Inc., Nashville, has added Enrique Henry Marquez to its maintenance staff. Michele Montgomery has been hired as marketing and sales manager. Her responsibilities include scheduling and dispatching, sales and customer service. Haylee Waddey has been named general manager. Previously, she served as director of sales and marketing for the company. In addition, NJC has hired three full-time pilots: Eric Hatfield, Jack Patterson and Todd Ross.
The CQAR (card quick access recorder) fitted to Bristow Helicopters' Super Pumas enables flight data to be downloaded to a standard PCMCIA card. This is removed every flight and taken to a nearby office, where it is fed into a reader and downloaded once more into a PC. It's a routine operation and takes only five minutes or so. But time, now more than ever, is money. The Bristow CQAR is about the size of an automobile stereo, and requires CAA approval before it is installed. Now Avionica Inc.
The FAA published a much-anticipated notice announcing a regulatory review of FAR Parts 135 and 125, the first official step in a process that is expected to result in a significant impact on the charter industry. (See ``Rethinking Part 135,'' B/CA, December 2002, page 94.) The notice establishes an Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) to conduct the review and invites people to participate on the committee, which will consist of a steering committee and specialized work groups.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has issued a new guidebook to tell U.S. citizens how to prepare for terrorist attacks and other potential disasters. The 102-page handbook, Are You Ready? A Guide to Citizen Preparedness, is the most comprehensive to date, according to FEMA, and devotes 14 pages to terrorist-related disasters. The guidebook, available for free at www.fema.gov or by calling (800) 480-2520, also offers recommendations on how people and communities can improve their preparedness.
Heli-Dyne Systems, Inc., Hurst, Texas, has appointed Jerry M. Mullins president and chief operating officer. Mullins joined Heli-Dyne as general manager in 1993.
Dear B/CA Staff: As you know, Fran and I are in Kabul for several weeks helping with a King Air program that provides flight services to the many aid organizations currently working in Afghanistan. (See ``Letter From Kabul,'' February 2003, page 44.) Well, by now you know a little about how PACTEC (Partners in Aviation and Communications Technology) provides turnkey flight operations as a hands-on partner with humanitarian non-profit organizations and government agencies in reaching out to people in crisis. In Afghanistan, PACTEC, a U.S.
The Homeland Security threat level was raised to High on Feb. 7, based on intercepted communications ``chatter'' and ``specific intelligence received and analyzed by the full intelligence community,'' stated Attorney General John Ashcroft in a joint appearance with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III. He added that the intelligence has been ``fully validated.'' In terms of the previously announced security threat level color code, the threat level has been raised from yellow to orange, the second highest level.
The FAA and TSA are accepting comments on the security threat rules through March 25. Comments must be sent to the Docket Management System, U.S. Department of Transportation, Room Plaza 401, 400 Seventh St. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590. Comments must specify docket number FAA-2003-14293 for the FAA's rule covering the certificate revocation, docket number TSA-2002-13732 for the TSA's rule establishing procedures for threat notifications for U.S. citizens or TSA-2002-13733 for the TSA's rules establishing procedures for non-U.S. citizens.
SouthEast Piper is the newest New Piper Aircraft dealer. The company's sales territory covers Georgia, Tennessee and Florida. SouthEast Piper is the new trade name for the aircraft sales division of Florida-based Flightline Group, Inc., which already operates as the exclusive New Piper dealer in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and parts of Florida. SouthEast Piper will operate sales offices in Atlanta and in Tallahassee and Vero Beach, Fla. Service Centers will operate throughout the territory.
Southwest Jet Aviation of Scottsdale, Ariz., added two new charter aircraft, bringing its fleet total to 16. A 1999 Raytheon Hawker 800 XP will be based in Phoenix, and a 1996 Learjet 60 in Santa Fe. Southwest Jet has been adding about four aircraft every year since new management took over in 1999. The company said it expects to add more aircraft before the end of the first quarter.
David Hurley has been named vice chairman of charter operator PrivatAir. Hurley was CEO for the past three years and co-founder of Flight Services Group. Greg Thomas, 36, chief operating officer of PrivatAir since December 2000, was named CEO of the company to succeed Hurley. The company said Thomas has reorganized the company into two divisions. Hugh Regan, group chief financial officer, was named president of PrivatAir Inc. and COO of North American operations.
Despite a strong 2002, Cessna Aircraft is further reducing business jet production because it didn't sell enough aircraft for delivery in 2003. Textron Chairman Lewis Campbell said Cessna's delivery of 307 business jets last year was just six shy of its record mark of 313 delivered in 2001, and helped make 2002 the highest revenue year in Cessna's history.
The beleaguered Lancair Co. closed a $55 million funding agreement with Composite Technology Research Malaysia (CTRM), Lancair's original investor, for its certificated aircraft operations. ``Our every effort is now directed at the re-start of manufacturing and delivery of the Columbia aircraft in all its configurations and options,'' said Lancair President Bing Lantis.
Air Services Australia and the Australian national airline Qantas played a major role both in developing CNS/ATM technology and in seeing it deployed in the South Pacific. In the words of IBAC's Peter Ingleton, director of ICAO liaison, ``This was a watershed for the larger industry.'' One of the principals not only in that development but in the long and arduous international definition phase of the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) was Australian Brian O'Keefe, formerly special technical advisor to Air Services Australia.
Superior Air Parts announced a new manufacturing facility for production of its new SP-360 engine, which the company anticipates will receive FAA type certification in April. The SP-360, targeted to new aircraft manufacturers, STC replacements for the after-market and kit builders, will be the first production piston engine of its type to receive a type certificate in 46 years. The four-cylinder engine, incorporating what Superior calls ``the latest available improvements in materials and technology,'' will come in 180- and 200-hp configurations.
The Corporate Angel Network reported that despite the tough economic times, corporate aircraft operators carried a record number of young cancer patients and family members to and from treatment centers in 2002. The 1,588 cancer patients carried on corporate aircraft, an average of 132 patients per month, was a 47-percent increase over 2001's numbers. A total of 500 U.S. corporations are members of the White Plains, N.Y.-based charity network. For more information, call (914) 328-1313 or go to www.corpangelnetwork.org.
The VanAllen Group, Inc., McDonough, Ga., a business aviation management consulting firm, has hired Robert Knebel as a senior consultant and Jeff Agur as director of business operations.
One of the paradoxes implicit in contemporary aviation is the mixture of cutting-edge and antediluvian technology that combines to make routine high-speed transoceanic flight possible. While we careen along in our state-of-the-art jets at 80 percent the speed of sound in non-radar airspace, oceanic air traffic controllers, relying on position reports conveyed over scratchy HF radios, continue to track us on little slips of paper -- just as they did 60 years ago.
Goodrich is selling its avionics unit to L-3 Communications for $188 million to help repay the $1.5 billion bridge loan it used to purchase TRW's Aeronautical Systems business in 2002. Avionics Systems had approximately $100 million in sales in 2002 and produces avionics for general aviation, business jet and military aircraft. The acquisition raises a number of questions in the area of possibly conflicting TCAS and TAWS products and programs, and left the fate of Rosemont, previously acquired by Goodrich, unclear.
FIRST, LET ME EXPLAIN my perceptions of the difference between a corporate pilot and a business pilot. A business pilot may be a businessman pilot who flies a single-plane operation such as a King Air or a double-breasted Cessna. In either case, the pilot has all the workload because no one else will do it. Weather, maintenance, fuel supply for the trip, groceries, en route refreshments, flight plan, ground transport if necessary. He or she can spot problems and correct them or make arrangements to have them corrected without grounding the aircraft.
Safe Flight Instrument Corp., White Plains, N.Y., has appointed Thomas D. Grunbeck to the position of vice president, sales and marketing. Grunbeck has a professional background in business development and aerodynamic design.
GAMA and AOPA executives hoped to educate Washington, D.C., insiders about the real world of general aviation security during a recent roundtable discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The discussion was a follow-up to last fall's Silent Vector exercise to explore possible U.S. reactions to a terrorist threat involving general aviation and energy sources; participants ended up grounding all general aviation aircraft on the East Coast.
The Helicopter Association International awarded Richard C. Kirkland, author and pilot, its 2002 Excellence in Communications Award at the recent Dallas Heli Expo. The HAI stated that ``through a lifetime of flying, storytelling and communicating with the media, Richard Kirkland has greatly contributed to the promotion of the helicopter as a safe, efficient and world-changing tool in society.''
