Flying through icing conditions is no time to learn about the warning signs and dangers of icing. NASA's new 37-minute video, ``Icing for Regional&Corporate Pilots,'' is designed to help pilots of high performance aircraft understand the warning signs and dangers of icing along with suggested responses to ice-related upsets. Sporty's founder, Hal Shevers, calls it a ``must for all serious pilots.'' Price: $5.00 Sporty's Pilot Shop Clermont County Airport Batavia, Ohio 45103 Phone: (800) LIFTOFF;
Chicago-based Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI) has created an aviation management and consulting firm known as Scivation Consulting. Consulting is a ``natural extension'' of JSSI's Tip-to-Tail hourly maintenance program, says CEO Rick Haskins. Scivation will advise clients on aircraft acquisitions, maintenance, completion and refurbishing. Scivation is headed by former JSSI Vice President Karl A. Florian and has three full-time consultants on staff.
Edited by Paul RichfieldBy David Rimmer, in Las Vegas
Despite predictions of a moribund civil helicopter market to come, the recent Heli-Expo 2000 show in Las Vegas was the site of much commercial activity. Eurocopter logged the first U.S. sale of an EC155 twin-turbine helicopter, an order for eight AS350B2 AStars from the Los Angeles Police Department and several other orders from law enforcement, EMS and sightseeing operators.
North American Jet is open for business at Chicago's Palwaukee Airport (PWK). Located 40 minutes from downtown Chicago, the new FBO offers a 10,000-square-foot terminal building, a 22,000-square-foot hangar, and 90,000 square feet of ramp space. The company operates a second FBO at Kenosha, Wis. (ENW), but will base its maintenance, charter, aircraft management and sales operation at PWK.
Denver Air is finishing a new FBO complex at Colorado's Jeffco Airport (BJC), which includes a large maintenance hangar, aircraft storage hangar, offices and a restaurant. BJC is the site of the new Interlocken Advanced Technology Business Center, which the airport says has attracted several new corporate flight departments.
The Regional Airline Association (RAA) has selected Deborah McElroy to succeed Walt Coleman as president of the organization. Since 1991 McElroy has served as the RAA's vice president. Coleman is retiring from the RAA at the end of this month. (See page 44.) McElroy has been with the trade association since 1987, working on RAA policy and regulatory matters as well as the group's educational seminars and annual report.
USAirways Express is expected to introduce Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) to about 100 aircraft by mid-summer. The regional network will be installing Orbital Sciences' CNS-12 digital communications system, which recently was approved after trials by ARINC. Orbital says the new system offers regional and corporate aircraft the same precise tracking of aircraft component usage, takeoff and landing times, and crew duty time that ACARS offered major airlines. CNS-12 lists for $25,000 to $40,000 per aircraft.
AOPA-Australia is coordinating a class-action suit against Mobil in the wake of that country's fuel contamination crisis in late 1999. The group is working with Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the oil giant to bring about a quick solution to the problem that resulted in an AD grounding nearly 5,000 piston aircraft. The suit stems from tainted fuel produced at Mobil's Victoria refinery.
Dan Stearns has been named Southeast Region account manager in the aftermarket sales group. Steve Wayman joins as accounts manager for the military and government sales group.
The Flight Safety Foundation's ALAR group recommends flight crews keep the radio altimeter set at 200 feet for all operations except CAT II and III approaches to provide extra CFIT protection. When this is done, ``minimums'' will be announced (or the DH light will illuminate) 15 seconds prior to impact on level terrain at normal approach descent rates (800 fpm). ``Minimums'' will be announced five seconds before impact with closure rates of 2,400 fpm due to high sink rates or rising terrain.
Honeywell conducted its first flight test of the AS900 turbofan engine, the powerplant chosen for Bombardier's Continental Business Jet and the Avro RJX. The engine flew more than two hours on Honeywell's Boeing 720 test-bed near Phoenix and is expected to accumulate 7,500 hours of testing by the time of FAA certification, which is planned for spring 2001. (For further information about the test, see page 32.)
Atlantic Aviation added a Teterboro-based Dassault Falcon 900B, a Wilmington, Del.-based Dassault Falcon 900EX and a Naples, Fla.-based Learjet 35 to its charter fleet.
The FAA has certified UPS Aviation Technologies' MX20 multi-function display. The MX20 is intended to increase pilots' situational awareness, with ground proximity warnings and graphical representation of terrain and navigational aids. UPS says the MX20 also can display navigation data for IFR operations, thunderstorm detection system data and uplinked weather information, and is certified for ADS-B reports. The FAA will use the new unit on 130 aircraft in the Alaska Capstone program to demonstrate ADS-B.
Transport Canada has certified the Orenda recip engine for the de Havilland DHC-3 Otter, giving an aging workhorse a new lease on life. FAA certification is expected within a year. Air Wilga of Laval, Quebec will perform the modifications in conjunction with Orenda Recip. Anticipated benefits of the mod include increased speed, fuel economy and range, as well as lower operational and maintenance costs. More than 460 Otters were built between 1951 and 1967, and several hundred still ply Canada's remote areas.
When Mark Rosekind was an undergraduate at Stanford, he lived every student's dream -- he got paid to sleep. Not only that, but Rosekind's participation in a university sleep research project in exchange for spending money wound up kindling a career-long fascination with the biological mechanism of sleep and the effect of sleep depravation on human performance.
Mercury Air Group subsidiary Maytag Aircraft Corp. has won a $7.5 million contract to provide aircraft fueling and related services at the North Island Naval Air Station and outlying naval airfields in the San Diego area. These sites include Imperial Beach, San Clemente Island and Coronado, Calif.
A detailed analysis of approach and landing accidents and serious incidents occurring during 1984-1997 determined that CFIT, landing overruns, loss of control, runway excursion and nonstabilized approaches accounted for 76 percent of all occurrences. Indeed, the nonstabilized approach was probability the initiating event in most runway incidents.
A snap-out ``Approach-and-Landing Risk Awareness Checklist,'' drilled for insertion into your approach plate binders, is bound into this issue. This article describes that checklist and the research upon which it is constructed. The Flight Safety Foundation's (FSF) Approach and Landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) Task Force determined that the highest percentage of crew errors on routine flights -- 49.4 percent -- occurred during the approach-and-landing phase. This checklist, we believe, can improve crew awareness and reduce that error rate.
Edited by Paul RichfieldBy Mike Vines, in Birmingham, England
British Aerospace (BAe) has begun flying its corporate shuttle BAe 146-100 in the livery of its newly created support arm, BAE Systems. Leased from British Aerospace Asset Management, the 66-seat jet is one of eight aircraft the company bases at Warton, Lancashire. The aircraft is configured with a double club-four seating arrangement forward, and 58 passenger seats in the rear.
Raytheon says FAA certification of its new Premier I business jet will be delayed until the ``late spring,'' so the aircraft's flight control system can be modified to the agency's satisfaction. The manufacturer has agreed to increase the lateral distance between the Premier I's rudder and elevator control cables and move the hydraulic fluid reservoir forward, to reduce the chance that an uncontained engine failure could disable all three systems.
Atlantic Coast Airlines has appointed Dr. Judy Shelton to its board of directors. An economist who specializes in finance, Dr. Shelton is a published author, and serves on the boards of Hilton Hotels and Empower America.
Atlantic Coast Airlines will use Teledyne TeleLink on its current fleet of Canadair Regional Jets and its proposed fleet of Fairchild 328JETs and Fairchild 428JETs.
Italian manufacturer Piaggio has delivered the first P.180 pusher turboprop to be equipped with an aluminum alloy vertical fin and canard to an unnamed, Palm Springs, Calif.-based buyer. All prior P.180s used carbon fiber for these portions of the airframe; Piaggio says the change not only allows reduced production costs, but an increase in maximum operating speed from 0.67 to 0.7 Mach.
Sikorsky's ongoing efforts to sell its new S-92 Helibus apparently have met with success, in the form of preliminary sales agreements with two Canadian operators. Cougar Helicopters of St. Johns, Newfoundland has signed a letter of intent to acquire up to five of the 19-passenger helicopters, while Vancouver-based Helijet has signed an agreement ``leading to the placement'' of an undisclosed number of S-92s into its airline operation.
NetJets is equipping all of its aircraft with Vision Safe's Emergency Vision Assurance System (EVAS), which enables pilots to see even in dense smoke. EJA will equip its aircraft with units for pilot and copilot by September. An additional 470 EVAS units were purchased for future NetJets aircraft. FlightSafety International will begin EVAS simulator training this year.
