Being a senior citizen as it were, I can speak -- okay, write -- with some authority on how it was then and how it is now. A substantial chunk of my flying career was spent in the ``then'' mode but, starting so early in my youth, 19, I am able to schlepp over into ``now'' with some experience.
US Airways canceled around 400 flights in June, due to leaks in its pilot training pipeline. According to the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), a third Airbus A320 simulator scheduled to be online in June will now be delayed until August, thanks to a shortage of FAA certification personnel. Other factors that have strained the airline's training resources include the upcoming retirement of mainline DC-9 and Shuttle 727 aircraft, the early-out retirements of 80-plus pilots, crews bidding out of Metrojet for higher mainline pay and new hire classes.
The Pierson M. Grieve Conference Center is open to serve business travelers using Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, including those flying in on business aircraft. This facility in the Lindbergh Terminal features eight executive-style conference rooms and four individual, private workstations. All rooms are equipped with data ports, telephones and other meeting necessities. The largest room has a 100-person capacity.
Things are tough all over -- when it comes to hiring, that is. Everyone knows the U.S. economy is going gangbusters, and anyone who has tried to fill an open position -- seemingly any open position -- knows that one of the collateral impacts of today's economic boom is a dearth of qualified job candidates. The U.S. Department of Labor re-cently released data that show the U.S. unemployment rate to be at a 29-year low -- hovering somewhere close to what economists call the ``static'' unemployment rate. Translation: Anyone who wants a job can get one.
Kohlman Systems Research (KSR) and AeroMech have teamed with Aerodata to help European business aircraft operators comply with RVSM (reduced vertical separation minimums) avionics requirements. Called Aeroflight Servicegesellschaft, the venture will focus on aircraft no longer supported by airframe manufacturers, and will be based at Aerodata's location in Braunschweig, Germany.
Scotland's Clydesdale Bank has invested $31.6 million in Inverness, Scotland-based PDG Helicopters, to fund expansion in the United Kingdom, Ireland and South America. Based at Inverness in northern Scotland, PDG is one of the United Kingdom's largest on-shore operators, with a fleet of 16 Eurocopter AS350B, AS355F, SA315B, SA365C and Bell 206B helicopters. The company carries passengers and supports filmmaking, but its core business is fish.
In December 1978, a DC-8-61 approached Portland, Ore., with a gear problem. Although the flight engineer (FE) visually determined the gear was down and locked, the captain continued trying to find out why the nose gear did not show a down and locked green light. Meanwhile, the first officer (FO) and the FE saw a more significant problem. They were running out of fuel.
Gulfstream Aerospace and Heart of Georgia Technical Institute formed a cooperative education agreement for aviation maintenance technology students to work at Gulfstream's Service Center in Savannah
Air BP Americas is moving its headquarters from Houston to Warrenville, Ill., a result of its December 1998 merger with Amoco. Air BP also has changed its U.S. management to reflect Amoco's wider geographical coverage. Air BP General Manager Ken Massey returned to the company's U.K. headquarters, and was replaced by Peter O'Callaghan and Graham Rose. Air BP marketing teams will remain in Houston, Miami and Toronto, but all other management functions will relocate to Warrenville -- a Chicago suburb -- by the end of this month.
The company made five new management appointments: Darin Alley, manager of completions; Michele Kerstein, manager of part sales and marketing; Kip Harkness, director of completions; Des Bassett, director of sales for Eastern Europe; and Jim Lewis, regional sales manager in the Pacific Northwest.
Canada's provider of air navigation services has proposed cutting its user fees up to 14.6 percent, saying industry growth has expanded its revenue base. The reduced fee structure, which is scheduled to go into effect on September 1 for a one-year trial, could be worth around C$90 million. ``This is our first fee reduction applicable to all users of our services,'' says John Crichton, Nav Canada's president and CEO. ``The major factors driving this decision are growth in the industry, and our ability to operate a more efficient system.''
John Lauber was appointed vice president of the company's new office of safety and technical affairs in Washington, D.C. Previously, Lauber served as vice president of the Airbus Training Center in Miami Springs, Fla., where Larry Rockliff succeeds him in that position. Meanwhile, Jon L. Bryan has been named sales director of the Airbus Corporate Jetliner program.
Hypoxic Hypoxia -- Respiration fundamentally involves the supply of oxygen to the air sacs of the lungs and the exhaust of carbon dioxide. Oxygen compromises 20.9 percent of the volume of the atmosphere up to 80,000 feet. Assuming a sea level pressure of 760 mm Hg, the partial pressure of oxygen is 159 mm Hg in ambient air. However, the lungs not only exhaust carbon dioxide, they also transpire water vapor at a relatively constant pressure of 47 mm Hg.
The aircraft manufacturer appointed regional sales managers for Business Aviation Services as follows: Kirk Schiebelhut, Wichita; Don Nolan, West Coast; and Tom House, Great Lakes region. Also, Jim Lundeen was named customer service manager of the Denver Business Aviation Service Center, while Heinz Tom came aboard as regional manager in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services of Berlin, Germany.
SimuFlite Training International is offering a new, two-hour Advanced Airmanship ``Thunderstorms, Airplanes and Radar'' course that is packaged as a multimedia presentation
The FAA's contract tower program saves $250,000 per airport and should be expanded to include all non-radar airports, according to the DOT's Inspector General (IG). The IG wants the FAA to outsource operations at 70 additional VFR-only control towers, but says the FAA has cut all but 14 of these from its list due to a different interpretation of congressional guidelines.
Rifton Aviation, based at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., won a gold award for customer service in Exxon Co. USA's Tiger Spirit program
BMW Rolls-Royce plans to increase production of its BR700-series turbofan from 220 to 300 engines per year to meet the demands of airframe manufacturers. The company plans to invest DM15 million ($8.1 million) on its plant in Dahlewitz, Germany, which does final assembly on the BR710 engines for the Gulfstream V and Bombardier Global Express business jets, and BR715 engines for the Boeing 717-200.
You see headlines like that in the newspaper and your first reaction is, ``Isn't that what they're supposed to be doing?'' That's exactly how I felt when I read that the FAA had unveiled a new project to ``encourage compatible land use around airports.'' Airports have been disappearing in front of developers' bulldozers for decades and are being plowed under at a rate of more than one per week, according to the AOPA.
``To reduce turnover, we have a development plan for every employee,'' said Steve Brechter, vice president and general manager for UTFlight, the executive transport division of United Technologies Corp., based in Hartford, Conn. He advises managers to think of crewmembers as a group of ``selves'' with individual skills and needs, not a unit. The department has 58 selves in its employ.
