The FAA has published the new Sport Pilot/Light Sport Aircraft NRPM in the Federal Register. The public comment period should run through May 6. The AOPA and Experimental Aircraft Association reviewed the document at a public preview; you can follow their detailed comments on their Web sites: www.aopa.org and www.eaa.org.
Duncan Aviation jumped up more than 30 places on Fortune magazine's annual list of ``The 100 Best Companies to Work for,'' moving from 62 in 2001 to 30 in the current listing, which appears in the February 4 issue. The ``100 Best'' were chosen from 279 companies that asked to be on the list, with two-thirds of the score based on extensive independent surveys of randomly selected employees.
Survival Systems Training, Groton, Conn., has developed an FAA-approved FAR Part 135 emergency training course. Instruction during the two-day course includes factors involved in and procedures to be used during emergency situations such as fires, first aid, hypoxia and rapid decompression. While the general course excludes sections that are aircraft-specific, Survival Systems can modify the training to reflect specific client needs.
Dassault Falcon Jet, Teterboro has achieved ISO 9000 certification to the latest year-2000 standards. According to Philippe Trepagne, Dassault Falcon Jet's vice president of quality management, the process took ``nine months of hard work.'' To maintain its certification, the Teterboro facility will be audited twice a year by an external register.
Even the most-cautious food handling practices can fail. Thus, it's important to be prepared to treat a food-borne illness when traveling. MedAire is the largest provider of the rapidly advancing air/ground telemedicine business. Its MedLink hotline is hospital-based and has expanded its global reach -- due in part to the rapid advances in high-speed air-to-ground Internet technology and by working with numerous medical clinics in the Pacific Rim -- to meet the needs of the worldwide corporate traveler.
It's hardly an original idea (in fact the Founding Fathers made one a requirement for America's CEO) but GAMA's annual state of the industry address has become a must-attend evening event held at the massive Ronald Reagan Interna-tional Trade Center, just down the street from the Treasury Department in Wash-ington. It is there that you get the final score for the year, and, this year at least, it provided a nice setting for a kind of group hug.
Enron officials ``admit'' to using company jets for eight trips since filing for bankruptcy in 2001. Seven of those flights carried a total of 43 passengers to bankruptcy hearings in New York, spokesman Mark Palmer said in late January. The eighth flight transported family members of former Enron executive J. Clifford Baxter to his funeral in his hometown of Amityville, N.Y. Baxter was found dead in his car with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
This month in Washington, D.C., and next month in Wichita, the FAA will present its Commercial Aviation and General Aviation Forecasts, providing hundreds of analysts, manufacturers, airline executives and industry watchers with the latest projections about the industry's future and growth potential. Those who know what they're looking for will find some useful information at the commercial forecast conference. Because of regulatory and financial reporting requirements, the FAA has access to a
Mike Vines, in Birmingham, EnglandEdited by David Rimmer
BAE Systems decided in November 2001 to cancel the Avro RJX aircraft program, and now both RJX launch customers, British European of the United Kingdom and Druk Air of Bhutan, have agreed not to enforce their firm orders for 12 and two aircraft, respectively.
Soft sales and a drop in deliveries of its more lucrative turbine products drove Raytheon Aircraft Co. (RAC) to operating losses in excess of $750 million in 2001 -- and the company predicts that revenues will continue to slide this year.
How many business aircraft shows does the world need? Well, the United States is spoken for with the N in NBAA standing for National, leaving others, especially in Europe, to duke it out. EBACE? Well, that's European, and ILA -- that's German, according to SBAC, the organizers of the Farnborough Air Show. But I say, old chap, isn't that the British show? No, insists SBAC Chief Executive David Marshall -- Farnborough is a global shop window.
Pilatus has an STC to install the Honeywell integrated hazard avoidance system (IHAS) on the Pilatus PC-12. Honeywell's IHAS combines TCAS I and EGPWS functions in an integrated package that performs four major hazard awareness/avoidance functions: moving map position awareness, weather avoidance, traffic advisories and terrain avoidance. Information is displayed on a single KMD 80 multifunction display, and pilots can switch among map, weather, traffic and terrain displays.
If the Eclipse 500 jet is to be certified under FAR Part 23, the FAA proposes to impose special design conditions related to engine fire detection, protection and control since the rear-mounted engines are out of ready view by pilots or passengers. Additionally, the FAA will likely impose conditions regarding protection from high-intensity radiated fields. (A noteworthy consideration legitimate in the mind of one B/CA staffer who owned a car with windshield wipers that cycled whenever the CB radio was keyed).
Teterboro Airport, one of New Jersey politicians' favorite targets, is under fire again -- this time from State Legislator Loretta Weinberg. Weinberg has reintroduced two bills designed to curtail operations at the suburban New York airport. The first, AR30, calls for the airport's owner -- the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- to ban flights out of the airport between midnight and 6 a.m.
Every year, Indianapolis plays host to the two largest single-day sporting events in the world -- the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 -- as well as the National Drag Racing Finals. Since its inception as a year-round testing facility for the fast-growing automobile industry in 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been a world-class venue for auto racing. The original concept was simple: Manufacturers could show off their latest models at race meets, and the spectators, being sufficiently impressed, could quickly head downtown and buy one at the showroom.
Once more into the breach, dear friends. U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) called general aviation a ``ticking time bomb'' during a Senate Transportation Appropriation Subcommittee hearing February 8.
The upcoming European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE), May 28-30 in Geneva, Switzerland, will serve as a forum for exploring operating issues in the European Union, including customs and cabotage matters. In addition to European business aviation community members, representatives of various E.U. regulatory agencies will be on hand to participate in EBACE seminars and Q&A sessions, offering U.S. operators unprecedented access to the people who make the rules.
The AOPA reports that Mexico has issued new requirements for entry of aircraft that are not registered in the pilot's name (and all helicopters, regardless of registration). Aircraft (except helicopters) registered in the pilot's name do not need prior authorization. The authorization must be obtained in advance from the Mexican Department of Civil Aviation, Air Traffic Control and Transport Department prior to the date of the planned flight into Mexican airspace. An annual blanket authorization that runs through the calendar year (January-December) is also available.
With the end of its Global Express completion contract in sight, The Jet Center (Garrett Aviation Services in Van Nuys) is actively seeking new business such as major modifications, interior refurbishment, avionics updates and general maintenance work. They have completed and delivered four Global Express aircraft to Bombardier and have two more in the contract pipeline. Traditionally know as a ``big jet'' facility, the Jet Center is building its capabilities to include Learjets, Falcons, Hawkers and Citations.
Turbine helicopter engine manufacturer Turbomeca will open a new subsidiary at Montreal's Mirabel Airport in Canada in October. Known as Turbomeca Canada, the new division will help provide support for the company's in-service engines in Canada, including those in the Canadian Maritime Helicopters Program. The first phase of the new company will focus on Arriel service and engine repair and is expected to lead to the creation of 45 jobs.
``In Europe, in a relatively small airspace, we have some 40-odd jurisdictions. That's why we're advocating the Single Sky concept, which will offer a single air traffic administration system across Europe.'' Pierre Jeanniot, director general of IATA. Profit: Oracle's E-Business
From its introduction in 1965 until production ceased in the mid-1980s, Dassault's Falcon 20 was a great airplane awaiting suitable engines. That seems to be the consensus of operators of TFE731-powered Falcon 20 aircraft contacted by B/CA for this evaluation.
The scene: January 5, St. Peters-burg/Clearwater Airport. Robert Bishop, nee Bishara, age 15, was dropped off at National Aviation Flight School for his flying lesson in a single-engine Cessna. His instructor gave him the keys to the airplane to make the usual walkaround inspection. Instead, young Bishop cranked up the Cessna and took off without permission, without clearance and without functioning brain.
AOG. It's amazing how three little letters can generate such intense emotion in those who pilot, maintain, travel aboard and, most decidedly, pay for the ``A.'' Being stranded with a broken airplane far from home and without a means to remedy the situation is a nightmare scenario for any flight department. And justifiably so. For aside from the blown trip, an AOG can cost a lot of money, aggravation, worry and, depending upon the cause and resolution, it could cost jobs.
