DeCrane Aircraft Holdings, Inc. is adding another piece to its stable of aircraft component and service providers, announcing plans last week to acquire aircraft seating manufacturer ERDA.
FAA next month will face its first round of contract negotiations with almost 2,000 of its Washington, D.C. headquarters employees who over the past year have organized under the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Most of the units based at FAA headquarters - from the Administrator's office on down - have sought representation from AFSCME and other unions. See article below.
DAVE MILLER, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Innotech-Execaire Aviation Group in Montreal, Quebec, left the Canadian firm to accept a position as vice president and general manager of Garrett Aviation, The Jet Center in Santa Barbara, Calif. The California company is a major aircraft interior completion facility.
BOWMAN FIELD, the Louisville, Ky. general aviation airport, will receive $481,000 in state funds for upgrades. Airport officials plan to use about 70 percent of the funds to refurbish Runway 6/24 with the remainder slated for interior renovations to the airport administration building. The runway upgrade is contingent upon the receipt of federal matching dollars.
Cirrus Design Corp. is realigning production operations among its three plants as the company continues to ramp up production of its popular SR20 single-engine aircraft. The company, headquartered in Duluth, Minn., said it is pushing back part of the fuselage production process to its parts plant in Grand Forks, N.D. Since that plant opened in October 1997, employees in Grand Forks have been building various SR20 composite components, which were later shipped to Duluth for final assembly.
SCOTT RUSSELL was promoted to vice president-technical operations for Mesaba Holdings. Russell, who has more than 20 years of airline maintenance experience, previously was director of maintenance for Mesaba.
THE SENATE last month confirmed the nominations of John Goglia to a second term and Carol Carmody to a first term on the National Transportation Safety Board. Carmody fills the seat vacated when former member Robert Francis's term expired at the end of last year.
Jetstream Model 3201 airplanes (Docket No. 99-CE-72-AD; amdt. 39-11722; AD 2000-09-13) - requires the inspection of the wiring within the fuel tanks, and repair or replacement of damaged wiring. Damage is defined as corrosion (indicated by a dark stain), cuts, or nicks. This AD is the result of mandatory continuing airworthiness information issued by the airworthiness authority for the United Kingdom.
PASSENGERS aboard large and turbine-powered multi-engine helicopters should receive the same types of passenger briefings required under FAR Part 91.519 for passengers on large and turbine-powered multi-engine airplanes, the National Transportation Safety Board told FAA last week. The recommendation resulted from NTSB's investigation of the crash of a Colgate-Palmolive BK117 helicopter three years ago at New York's 60th St. Heliport. The board said there were no passenger briefing cards on the helicopter and that passenger briefings were not conducted on all flights.
PRECISION CASTPARTS CORP. signed a $34 million, five-year contract with Rolls-Royce to supply titanium castings for the AE 2100 and AE 3007 engines. PCC Schlosser in Redmond, Ore., will produce titanium structural components for the two engine programs, including the center stump and diffuser.
JET AVIATION added two Boeing Business Jets to its European aircraft management fleet. The management contract covers dedicated personal flight crews, domestic and international flight planning, insurance, discounted fuel arrangements, cost supervision, maintenance coordination and aircraft maintenance. In addition to the two BBJs, Jet Aviation added a sixth Gulfstream V to its management fleet. Jet Aviation Basel painted and outfitted the aircraft, which is based in Europe.
Docket No.: 29903 Petitioner: Bain Aviation, Inc. Section of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 135.143(c)(2) Description of Relief Sought/Disposition: To permit BAI to operate certain Cessna aircraft under Part 135 without a TSO-C112 (Mode S) transponder installed in the aircraft. Grant, March 15, 2000, Exemption No. 7146 Docket No.: 28787 Petitioner: Ameriflight, Inc. Section of the FAR Affected: 14 CFR 61.5(a) and (c) and 91.203(a) and (b)
SERMATECH TECHNICAL SERVICES (STS) named Srinivasan Shankar president. Shankar, most recently chief operating officer of STS, will oversee the company's component repair and protective coating businesses. Shankar also has served as vice president at Turbine Components Corp.
BAE SYSTEMS Regional Aircraft leased two ATP turboprops to SATA Air Acores, a carrier based in the Azores islands. SATA, which already owns two ATP aircraft, has operated the regional turboprops for more than 10 years. SATA ordered the additional aircraft, both of which will be delivered by the end of this month, to accommodate growth in traffic.
GALAXY AEROSPACE said Michael Wuebbling, vice president of service center operations, resigned. Wuebbling was a founding member of the Galaxy Aerospace management team three years ago and oversaw the upgrading of the company's network of 20 worldwide authorized service centers. Galaxy named Kay Ardalan director of service center operations. He had been director of customer service. Steve Brown, who was manager of technical publications, was named director of customer service.
LAWRENCE BRINKER was named vice president and general counsel for AeroTurbine, Inc., the Miami, Fla. provider of aircraft engine support and management services. He will be responsible for the company's financial, administrative and legal functions. Before joining AeroTurbine, Inc., he was vice president of administration and general counsel for AirTran Airways.
A certified flight instructor and a commercial pilot student were killed May 27 when their Cessna 172RG aircraft crashed during a training flight. The aircraft, N5207U, was operated by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University of Prescott, Ariz.
TAG AVIATION partnered with MedAire Inc. to provide standardized training to its pilots. The MedAire-designed program will cover training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillator use and crew resource management. TAG will provide the training for its pilots on a recurrent basis. TAG operates more than 145 corporate aircraft at 50 locations worldwide.
UNIVERSAL AVIONICS SYSTEMS CORPORATION won supplemental type certification and parts manufacturer approval for its UniVision Cabin Information System. The system includes a map mode, flight information mode and video interface with customization possibilities. The system, which has an internal modem, supports the uplink of news and mail from ground-based services. The map mode depicts topography, noting features such as cities, countries, rivers and mountains. It provides four zoom levels, from local area to continental views.
AFTER LANGUISHING for the past couple of months, FAA's request for fiscal 2000 budget relief appears to be making progress.The Senate Appropriations Committee included a provision in the fiscal 2001 Agriculture appropriations bill to provide up to $77 million in supplemental appropriations to FAA's operations budget for the current fiscal year.
Model SD3-60 Series Airplanes (Docket No. 2000-NM-12-AD) - proposes to require affixing a label containing revised engine limitations on the ditching hatch, and revising the airplane flight manual to reflect the revised engine limitations. This proposal is prompted by issuance of mandatory continuing airworthiness information by a foreign civil airworthiness authority. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to prevent the use of incorrect engine limitations, which could result in an overspeed of the propellers and potential for blade failure.
CARL HAHN, former chief executive of Volkswagen, joined the board of executives for Safire Aircraft Company. The West Palm Beach, Fla. company, developing the Safire S-26 jet, said it has assigned delivery position number 611 and sales are approaching $500 million for the twinjet that is priced at $800,000. "Moving closer to our goal while adhering to the schedule and budget makes Safire attractive to world-class executives such as Dr. Carl Hahn," said Safire CEO Michael Margaritoff.
Nearly 18 months after an animated discussion of the issue, the National Transportation Safety Board last week recommended that FAA issue a "maintenance alert" to inform mechanics and inspectors about the potential hazards of installing so-called "blind" rivets (BA, Dec. 21, 1998/279). The board also said FAA should change its regulations and guidance materials to make it clear that repairs involving the substitution of different fastener types should be considered "major" repairs.
