Delivering a sharp rebuke to the Clinton Administration's efforts to impose operating restrictions on Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) air tour operators, the chairman of the House National Parks and Public Lands subcommittee told Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt that such efforts should be halted until National Park Service (NPS) noise studies can be validated.
TRIMBLE NAVIGATION LTD., saying it expects to report a substantial loss for the third quarter, said it is discontinuing certain product lines at the company's Austin, Texas plant where Trimble builds its general aviation line.
A new pay system that went into effect Oct. 1 could add $1 billion over five years to FAA's payroll costs for air traffic controllers and supervisors, according to the DOT Inspector General. "FAA faces significant risks in meeting these work force cost increases while, at the same time and within the projected revenue base, funding other critical agency requirements such as modernization of the National Airspace System and the Airport Improvement Program," the OIG said.
REMEMBER TO CHECK THE NOTAMS when flying over Alaska. FAA issued a space launch site operator's license to the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp., permitting the firm to conduct commercial rocket launches from the southern tip of Kodiak Island. The first launch is scheduled for the end of October. FAA said the Alaska launch site will specialize in small to medium rockets used to launch low earth orbit (LEO) satellites.
BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE'S Ice Protection Systems Division was selected to supply its pneumatic de-icing system as standard equipment on Lockheed C130J aircraft. BFGoodrich is supplying an integrated ice protection system, including special neoprene de-icers, electronic controls and pneumatic system components.
SCOTT GUNNUFSON was appointed director, customer programs, for Rockwell Collins. Gunnufson spent more than six years with Northwest Airlines, serving in positions of increasing responsibility including avionics business unit manager and maintenance contracts manager.
EXECUTIVE JET, INC. named Paul Schweitzer vendor relations director at the company's Columbus, Ohio operations center. Schweitzer worked for Executive Jet for 12 years before accepting a series of posts with Corporate Wings, Hawthorne Aviation and Jett Air in Orlando, Fla.
Fairchild Aerospace named three new program managers across the 32- to 98-seat aircraft product line. Stephen Marinshaw will be vice president of the 328/328JET program; Stan Deal will be vice president of the 428JET program, and Jack Pelton will be senior vice president of the 728JET program. All three will be based in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. Marinshaw comes from DynCorp Aerospace Technology, where he served as director of engineering. Before that, he was a program manager with Northrop Grumman.
BAD ECONOMIC NEWS from the Far East and volatile stock markets in the U.S. are beginning to be manifested in aviation circles. An East Coast charter operator says business "is slowing down a little bit" because "everybody's nervous as hell about what's going to happen on Wall Street."
TURBOMECA said its RTM322 engines performed without problems during the maiden flight last month of the first production WAH-64 helicopter. The WAH-64 is a joint program of GKN/Westland, Boeing, Rolls-Royce and Turbomeca.
FAA OFFICIALS still have not decided how or whether to proceed with their controversial "ticket program," but this month held a high-level meeting - said to have included FAA Administrator Jane Garvey - to review the issues.The program, designed to reduce paperwork by allowing inspectors to issue administrative actions on-the-spot, has drawn nearly unanimous opposition from all segments of industry (BA, July 27/37). An FAA spokeswoman said last week that the issue remains in Garvey's hands.
Summary: Pursuant to FAA's rulemaking provisions governing the application, processing, and disposition of petitions for exemption (14 CFR Part 11), this notice contains a summary of certain petitions seeking relief from specified requirements of the Federal Aviation Regulations (14 CFR Chapter I), dispositions of certain petitions previously received, and corrections. The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, this aspect of FAA's regulatory activities.
HOUSE AND SENATE AVIATION LEADERS Friday hoped to wrap both transportation appropriations and FAA reauthorization legislation into an omnibus federal spending package that was to receive consideration over the weekend or early this week. Appropriations conferees, who first met Oct. 2 on the fiscal 1999 transportation appropriations bill (BA, Oct. 5/149), are contemplating up to a $9.9 billion budget for FAA.
HARTZELL HC-E4A-3 (A, I, J) series propellers (Docket No. 98-ANE-53-AD; Amdt. 39-10706; AD 98-17-04) - requires a one-time inspection of the propeller blade counterweight clamps for thread damage in the bolt holes and, if necessary, replacement with serviceable parts. This amendment is prompted by a report of a counterweight clamp bolt hole thread failure that resulted in the separation of the counterweight and the separation of a blade following impact with the counterweight.
AMERICAN AIRCARRIERS SUPPORT, Fort Mill, S.C., a supplier of commercial aircraft spare parts, signed a letter of intent to acquire the assets of three South Florida companies: American Jet Engine Services, Inc., Global Air Spares, Inc. and Atlantic Airmotive Corp. The three affiliated companies, which have been vendors of AAS for many years, are owned by Anton K. Khoury and Hanna K. Khoury. The letter of intent includes employment contracts for both Khourys for a period of at least three years.
SIGNATURE FLIGHT SUPPORT broke ground on new executive terminal and hangar facilities at Austin-Bergstrom, Texas International Airport. The facility, modeled after the company's newest facilities in Las Vegas, Nev. and Hartford, Conn., will include a 9,000-square-foot executive terminal and five storage hangars with office space, covering a total of 78,300 square feet. The facilities also will include an aircraft wash rack and fuel farm capable of holding 40,000 gallons of jet fuel and 12,000 gallons of aviation gasoline.
INMARSAT, the internationally owned cooperative, agreed last month to go forward with plans to become a public limited company on April 1, 1999. The new structure will comprise a public limited company that will make an initial public stock offering within about two years of its formation and an intergovernmental organization that will ensure Inmarsat fulfills its public obligations. The new company, to be located in London, will be governed by a 15-member board of directors, chief executive officer and 14 non-executive directors.
Used retail jet and turboprop deliveries inside and outside North America for September 1998 (see related graphs on Pages 167 and 168 of the hard copy of this issue.) Sept. '95 Sept. '96 Sept. '97 Sept. '98 L M H L M H L M H L M H Jet North 48 34 15 51 22 18 45 28 19 54 34 16 America Jet Outside 2 1 7 8 2 3 8 6 3 7 3 0 N. America
NEW EUROPEAN REGULATIONS covering commercial helicopter operations, JAR-OPS 3, are running into resistance from Joint Aviation Authorities member countries, who say the regulations are too encompassing.
AVIATION GENERAL INC. formed Strategic Jet Services Inc., which will provide consulting, sales, brokerage and refurbishment services for jet aircraft. Daniel Cretsinger, who has more than 20 years of aviation experience with FAA, ADI, the Kaman Corp. and Sabreliner Corp., was named president and chief executive officer of SJS. American General is a publicly traded company with two wholly owned subsidiaries - Commander Aircraft Co. and SJS.
BRITISH AEROSPACE Model Viscount 744, 745, 745D and 810 (Docket No. 98-NM-217-AD) - proposes to supersede an existing AD that requires repetitive inspections for cracks and corrosion in the inboard and outboard engine nacelle structures on the wings; replacement of any cracked fitting and mating struts and treatment or replacement of any corroded fittings or struts. This action would require repetitive inspections to detect cracking or corrosion of the eye end fittings and repair, if necessary. This action also would limit the applicability of the existing AD.
AIRCRAFT COMPONENT TRANSPORT was recently formed in Dallas, Texas by D. Casey Kidwell and Dwight Jones, who have more than 35 years of aviation industry experience, to provide point-to-point component delivery without interim docking in an 18-state area. For more information, contact the company at (817) 929-1695.
MARK HARRIS was named managing director, business operations for Rockwell Collins. Harris, who will oversee Collins Support Services' business development, contracts and customer programs, previously was director-aircraft program management for Northwest Airlines.
The General Accounting Office has begun to investigate a recent decision by the Federal Aviation Administration to release the operators of Richards-Gebaur Memorial Airport in Kansas City, Mo. from their airport grant assurances and allow the airport to close. FAA signed a memorandum of agreement releasing Kansas City from its obligations to operate the airport. GAO is expected to send a team to Kansas City this week to begin its inquiry. The investigation apparently is part of a larger report on FAA's grant assurance enforcement program.
NATIONAL AIR TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION continues to wrestle with finding a position on the issue of how FAA should regulate fractional aircraft programs (BA, Sept. 28/137). NATA's Air Charter Committee spent hours debating the issue last week before coming up with a recommendation that not all members of the committee are happy with. The final decision is up to NATA's board of directors, which is scheduled to meet Oct. 30.
