Federal Aviation Administration should share more information of possible airport restrictions with the general aviation community, better brief its regional administrators about airport access issues and expand and improve the delegation authority system, general aviation leaders say. These are a few of the recommendations that the General Aviation Coalition presented last week to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey and other senior FAA officials, including Thomas McSweeny, associate administrator for regulation and certification.
Model ATR 42-500 series airplanes (Docket No. 2000-NM-26-AD) - proposes to require revising the Airworthiness Limitations Section of the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness to incorporate life limits for certain items and inspections to detect fatigue cracking in certain structures. This proposal is prompted by issuance of a new revision of the "Time Limits" section of the ATR 42-400/500 Maintenance Planning Document, which specifies new inspections and compliance times for inspection and replacement actions.
ROBERT SEIDEL joined Galaxy Aerospace as regional sales manager for Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin. Seidel formerly spent 12 years in sales management with Raychem Corporation. He also served as a Navy pilot for seven years.
DANE MCGUFFEE was appointed JT15D regional engine manager for the Southeast for Dallas Airmotive. McGuffee previously spent five years as JT15D/PT6A field service representative for the company and has more than 11 years of turbine engine and airframe maintenance experience.
KEY AIR, INC., added a second Gulfstream IV to its management/charter fleet. In addition to two G-IVs, Key Air operates two G-IIIs, three G-IIs, a Hawker HS800, three HS700s and one King Air 200. The aircraft are based at Oxford, Conn. Airport, where Key Air will move into a new 64,000-square-foot hangar by yearend.
JOHN HALL, one of the original members of Cessna Aircraft's CitationJet marketing team and a top CitationJet salesman, was named vice president of sales and marketing for CitationShares, the joint venture between Cessna and TAG Aviation (BA, July 17/23). Hall, who since 1995 has been director of Cessna's CitationJet/Bravo Sales Division, will report to CitationShares Chief Executive Office Steve O'Neill.
France Model EC120B helicopters (Docket No. 2000-SW-33-AD; Amendment 39-11881; AD 2000-17-07) - requires adjusting the clearance of the cabin sliding door if necessary. This amendment is prompted by an in-flight loss of a cabin sliding door, which had been locked in the fully opened position. The actions specified in this AD are intended to prevent in-flight loss of a cabin sliding door, impact with the horizontal stabilizer, main rotor, or fenestron tail rotor, and subsequent loss of control of the helicopter.
Fairchild Dornier, which has been headed by a chief executive with a background in finance since the company was acquired late last year, announced the appointment of a veteran McDonnell Douglas official as CEO.
Six aviation association heads last week urged the Senate leadership to quickly pass a bill to extend the visa waiver program, noting that the four-month lapse in the program is causing significant delays at key airports. The legislation, S.2367, would make permanent the visa waiver program, a pilot program that allows carriers to bring in citizens of 29 countries without a visa. The bill, which passed the House in April, has been pending full Senate consideration for the past four months.
L-3 COMMUNICATIONS won certification for its Modular Airborne Data Recording Acquisition System (MADRAS), an integrated flight data recorder and data acquisition system that combines signal conditioning modules and signal processing modules in a single box. BAE Systems is the MADRAS launch customer for the BAe 146 aircraft. L-3 estimates that potential sales on the BAe 146 could exceed $10 million.
Federal Aviation Administration's effort to improve the modernization process through an integrated team approach has stumbled over the agency's own hierarchy and communication problems, the Transportation Inspector General reported late last month. FAA, eyeing cost and time savings in bringing new air traffic control equipment online, four years ago adopted an integrated product development system (IPDS) using teams that cut across organizational lines and involve all necessary employees throughout the acquisition process.
A VINTAGE KING AIR 200 crashed in Australia last week, and initial indications are that the plane sustained a gradual loss of pressurization that incapacitated the pilot. The aircraft, VH-SKC, Serial No. BB-47, was manufactured in 1975. It departed Perth Sept. 4 for a one-hour flight to the gold-mining town of Lenora, both in western Australia, but the aircraft continued across the continent before apparently running out of fuel and crashing five hours later. The King Air was being flown by a veteran 50-year-old pilot and carried seven miners.
ROBERT HALDEMAN was appointed Rolls-Royce Model 250 regional engine manager for Dallas Airmotive. Haldeman, who has 15 years of helicopter turbine engine experience, will represent Dallas Airmotive in California, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii.
Drew Steketee, the veteran public affairs executive and senior spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, is leaving AOPA to become president and chief executive of BE A PILOT, the general aviation industry's learn-to-fly promotional program.
A TRUCKERS STRIKE in France has caused a shortage in the kerosene supply at regional airports in France, according to a spokesman in Lyon. Shortages affect Lyons Saint Exupery Airport, Nantes Airport and Nice, among others. Paris' airport system remains unharmed by the strike because jet fuel is supplied by pipeline. French truckers, as well as farmers, taxi drivers and ambulance companies, have been imposing a blockade on oil refineries and fuel depots to protest rocketing diesel prices and are demanding tax cuts on fuel.
RICHARD PRITTS was named PT6A regional engine manager for the Southeast for Dallas Airmotive. Pritts has more than 30 years of turbine engine maintenance experience and previously served as manager of Dallas Airmotive's regional turbine center in Charlotte, N.C.
(Jetstream) Model 4101 airplanes (Docket No. 2000-NM-152-AD) - proposes to require a functional check of the rudder pedals to ensure full and free movement at all rudder pedal positions, and modification of the forward rudder pedal boxes. This action is necessary to prevent restricted movement of the rudder pedals due to structural interference, which could reduce controllability of the airplane. This action is intended to address the identified unsafe condition. FAA estimates that 58 airplanes on the U.S.
ELDEC CORP. won contracts from Hamilton Standard to supply power equipment on Fairchild Dornier 728JET and 928JET and Embraer ERJ-170 and ERJ-190 regional jet programs.
THE GENERAL AVIATION COALITION, a group comprising a number of general aviation industry associations, last week urged senior FAA officials to focus on airport access issues as well as increased delegation authority in a meeting at FAA headquarters. Participants in that meeting found FAA Administrator Jane Garvey and Thomas McSweeny, associate administrator for regulation and certification, generally receptive to their suggestions.
CONGRESS late last week still had not scheduled action on the fiscal 2001 transportation appropriations bill - which includes some $12 billion for FAA's budget - and many observers believe transportation appropriations likely will be wrapped into an omnibus spending package covering many federal agencies.The House passed its version of the transportation appropriations bill in May, followed by the Senate in June, but the two chambers have yet to meet in a conference to iron out their differences.
GENERAL AVIATION MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION developed guidelines to address human factors issues for new cockpit/flight deck design. The association's Publication No. 10, Recommended Practices and Guidelines for Part 23 Cockpit/Flight Deck Design, is designed to incorporate best industry practices for the interface between humans and aviation systems.
Model UH-12, UH-12A, UH-12B, UH-12C, UH-12D, UH-12E, UH-12E-L, UH-12L, and UH-12L4 helicopters (Docket No. 2000-SW-27-AD) - proposes to require replacing all undrilled-shank bolts at pivoting joints in the control system linkage with drilled-shank bolts and installing castellated nuts and cotter pins. This proposal is prompted by an accident caused by separation of the control system linkage of a Model UH-12E helicopter.
FLIGHT SERVICES GROUP (FSG) teamed with Million Air Monterey to jointly offer a Citation II and Learjet 35A for charter under FSG's Part 135 certificate. The Citation III is based in Monterey, Calif., and the Learjet 35A is based in Scottsdale, Ariz. Million Air also will expand its marketing and service operations to support FSG's other charter and managed aircraft. FSG manages a fleet of 40 aircraft.
Federal Aviation Administration next year is expected to certify new Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS-B) technology in Alaska that will allow air traffic controllers to provide a host of ATC services to small aircraft that operate in remote regions where such services have not been available.
Business aviation interests late Tuesday filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Los Angeles to overturn a Stage 2 non-addition rule adopted for Van Nuys Airport (VNY) in April by the Los Angeles City Council (BA, April 24/189). Three Washington, D.C.-based associations - the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, National Air Transportation Association and National Business Aviation Association - joined five businesses at VNY - Clay Lacy Aviation, Elite Aviation, Jetwest International, Skytrails Aviation and The Air Group Inc. - in filing the lawsuit.
