August 28: The ATP-rated pilot and commercial-rated copilot of a Dassault Falcon 20 were uninjured when the aircraft landed gear-up at Detroit City Airport (DET). The aircraft sustained substantial damage. According to preliminary reports, the Grand Aire Express flight was returning to the airport after reporting an open door. Air traffic controllers had advised the crew prior to touchdown that the landing gear appeared to be up. The aircraft slid down Runway 33 into a graveyard adjacent to the airport.
In a recent study conducted by the Institute of Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy, people who regularly took low doses of aspirin had fewer heart attacks. (For study info, go to http://www.MayoClinic.com/home?id=NE0020) Does this mean that taking an aspirin should be an every-other-day event for you? Not necessarily, according to the Mayo Clinic, a leader in the field of Health Care, and the source of the following information. Aspirin and Platelets
In early September, charter pilot Todd Agee was returning alone from a morning flight in Condor Express' three-month-old King Air C-90B. The Connecticut weather was CAVU and calm as the 3,000-hour ATP began his descent into Danbury Municipal, Condor's home port. He was on short final and just above the displaced threshold for Run-way 26 when something caught the corner of his eye.
Citing ``the recognition that . . . demand for air transportation is expected to decline sharply,'' in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on this country, Midway Airlines in mid-September discontinued service and released most of its remaining employees. The Raleigh, N.C., carrier had been operating under bankruptcy protection since August 14, when it laid off nearly 700 employees -- including 183 pilots and 99 flight attendants -- grounded four Fokker F100s and 13 CRJs and thinned its route structure and flight schedules.
Japan Air Commuter has ordered five Bombardier Q400s to replace its aging NAMC YS-11 fleet. Deliveries of the 70- to 78-seat turboprops are set to begin in fourth quarter 2002. The Japanese regional, a division of the Japan Air System, operates a mixed fleet of 36-seat Saab 340Bs and 64-passenger YS-11s. The carrier's Japanese-made turboprops were originally manufactured between 1967 and 1971. Value of the deal is approximately $105 million and includes an option for additional aircraft.
DeCrane Aircraft Seating Division has introduced LXS, its latest lightweight executive seat for Challenger, Gulfstream and Falcon aircraft. Comfort features available on the LXS include a recliner-style leg rest, a ``lift and shift'' seat pan, full berthing, lumbar support, slide-down arms, in-arm meal trays and display monitor provisions. The low-profile aluminum base can provide up to three inches of additional legroom over the original aircraft seats. The frame of the LXS weighs 38 pounds and has a maximum finished weight of 120 pounds.
Honeywell's Primus Epic integrated avionics system has made its first fixed-wing flight on a Hawker Horizon, the launch aircraft for the new system. Primus Epic integrates control and management of avionics and aircraft utility systems on common cockpit displays and features a cursor control system as opposed to discrete controls and displays for each subsystem. On the Horizon, Primus Epic also controls the nosewheel steering, landing gear, fuel system display and management, the electronic brake control module and the engine vibration monitor.
ERDA's Ben Bunting will retire on a high note. Bunting announced his retirement in a letter to customers and associates, noting that in the past year since its association with DeCrane Aircraft, ERDA had increased its engineering department by 30 percent, established a service engineering department, a training department, a Wichita program office and service center, and a Dallas field office. Over the same year he stated that ERDA's delivery record had improved 50 percent and its backlog had dropped to below six percent.
WeatherTAP now offers a modified version of its online weather service formatted for personal digital assistants (PDAs). The handheld version has 173 radar products, four satellite products, seven lightning products and 24 aviation graphics. The text and menu screens fit on the browser window and allow users to scroll to view the full graphic. Included in the aviation graphics are surface analysis, extended weather depiction and 12-/24-/ 36-/48-hour surface prognosis charts.
Before Raytheon set off to produce the Premier I, the company had to break down some of the old corporate philosophies. Overcoming the greatest obstacle -- the traditional design team composition itself -- was accomplished when management added a contingent of full-time maintenance technicians to the group.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) told a charter operator in July that it would continue to apply the air transportation segment tax on a per-passenger basis retroactively, but would back off from that approach if the secretary of the Treasury instructs the agency to do so. The IRS earlier this year issued a technical advice memorandum (TAM) that the segment tax should be applied per passenger, rather than on a per-aircraft basis, and said charter companies should pay the per-passenger tax retroactively to its beginning if they've been using a per-aircraft formula.
August 4: All three people aboard a Falcon 20 were killed when the aircraft crashed near Nararsuaq, Greenland. The German-registered aircraft was on final approach to Nararsuaq Airport when it flew into a 700-foot mountain approximately 4.5 miles from the field. The 1966 jet was registered to Ortwin Naske, operator of an air charter service based in Hanover, Germany.
John W. Gofman, M.D., Ph.D., says the risks presented by Alan McKenzie, BSc, Ph.D., and the ICRP are serious underestimates. His estimate is that the cancer risk from cosmic radiation is about four times higher than the estimates presented above and that there is an equal risk of radiation-induced coronary heart disease.
Marathon Flight Services has broken ground on a new 8,000-square-foot facility and 16,000 square-foot hangar at Kissim-mee Airport (ISM) in Florida. The FBO owner, Jeanne Birks, said that Marathon has been having a record year in air traffic and in order to properly service all customers it needed to expand. ``We also have a lease on additional property, so our plans for expansion go beyond what we're breaking ground on today,'' Birks said at the July 16 event.
Canada's CHC Helicopters International (CHI) reports extensions and expansions to existing helicopter contracts on four continents worth C$48.1 million. The company was awarded a two-year contract extension with Unocal in the Gulf of Thailand, involving two Sikorsky S-76As and one S-61N in support of offshore gas production. Anticipated revenues from this agreement are estimated at C$28 million over two years.
An aging work force and a shortage of young, skilled engineers may pose the greatest challenges to the U.S. aerospace industry, experts say. John Douglass, president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, testified on the issue before a House Transportation and Infrastructure panel that the number of aerospace engineers has dropped dramatically since the mid-1980s, from a peak of 144,800 in 1986 to less than 77,000 in 1998.
Sierra Industries is offering an alternative maintenance tracking program for Cessna Citation owners. Sierracom tracks pending and completed maintenance activities by aircraft times and cycles from flight and log entries. Each month an updated Sierracom will be mailed to you for your records. In addition, the company provides a separate form showing what inspections will be coming up within the next 50 hours and/or three months. Price: $900 annually Sierra Industries P.O. Box 5184 Uvalde, Texas 78801
The NBAA annual meeting and convention is many things to many people. More than 30,000 professional visitors will flock to business aviation's Mecca, in New Orleans September 18-20 to hear major announcements by major manufacturers--and to see Richard Hafner's carpet.
Cargolifter Ag of Germany has signed a cooperation agreement with BAE Systems Aircraft Controls. BAE will provide avionics and flight control systems for the CL-160, which will be the largest airship built since the golden age of the zeppelin. Also collaborating on the project is General Electric, which agreed to supply and maintain the CL-160's powerplants over the long term. Eight 2,000-shp GE CT7-8L turboshaft engines will form the main propulsion system for the semi-rigid airship.
It was about 6:30 one late January evening when pilot David Kobus departed northern Maine in a Grand Caravan on a freight run to Manchester, N.H. The temperature was above freezing, and a cool mist filled the cloud-covered skies. Pilot reports indicated cloud tops at 10,000 feet msl, so Kobus anticipated a quick climb through a layer of moderate icing. What he got instead was the ride of his life.
August 1: A Bankair Mitsubishi MU-2B-35 crashed in Hilton Head, S.C., during a positioning flight, killing the commercial-rated pilot. The aircraft was en route from Columbia, S.C., to pick-up additional cargo. The flight was operating under an IFR flight plan, although VFR conditions prevailed at the time of the crash
John Pope is slated to receive the NBAA's first Staff Lifetime Achievement Awards at the group's annual meeting and convention this month. Pope, who retired in 1984, was the third employee to join the NBAA -- then known as the National Business Aircraft Association -- in 1961. Pope is credited with helping to increase the NBAA membership roster from 325 to almost 3,000 companies, for running the annual convention and for his ``overall dedication to the safety and efficiency of business aviation.''
Flight simulator developer CAE and Agusta SpA have established a new company to develop simulators and training programs for Agusta Westland helicopters. Known as ROTORSIM, the new Cascina Costa, Italy-based firm will build on CAE's reputation as ``the world's premier provider of rotary-wing simulation and training for many years,'' said CAE Executive Vice President Donald W. Campbell.
The FAA granted Level `C' certification to the first Premier I simulator at the FlightSafety Raytheon Learning Center in Wichita. Certification is expected to be upgraded to Level `D' once further data becomes available from Raytheon's continued flight-testing of the new aircraft.
