Chicago's Department of Aviation has chosen Signature Flight Support to develop new FBO facilities at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. Because contract negotiations with the city are still under way, no projected opening date has been announced. A Signature spokesperson said the FBO will feature the ``traditional Signature amenities,'' including pilot lounge, crew showers, weather service room and data ports for laptops.
This FBO announced the following staff changes: John Penn to CEO; Allen Hoyt to president, aircraft sales division; Tim Hilde to president, aircraft operations division; and Dan Odlum to avionics shop foreman. Al Hilde, Jr. continues as chairman.
Photograph: Photograph: The optional Puritan Bennett video-cam system allows crew and passengers a better view of what is going on outside of the aircraft When Gulfstream Aerospace announced the performance goals for the G-V in 1992, the firm's competitors scoffed and industry critics chortled. It would never be able to fly eight passengers from New York to Tokyo, the naysayers concluded after detailed examination of the G-V's fuselage, wing and engines.
Executive Jet Inc. is testing a pilot gateway system that allows the company's Citation V Ultra and Hawker pilots to begin and end their tours of duty in either Orlando or Las Vegas, instead of having to work out of the firm's Columbus, Ohio base
The FAA has invited public comment on new noise abatement procedures at Toledo Express Airport in Toledo, Ohio, and Jackson Hole Airport in Jackson, Wyo. A draft environmental impact statement will be presented at the Toledo hearing, while the Jackson Hole discussions will center on the construction of a control tower and extending the runway.
Sikorsky Aircraft has signed a long-term agreement with FlightSafety International (FSI) for flight and maintenance training at a dedicated facility to be located at Palm Beach International Airport (PBI). The center will focus on the S-76, S-92 and S-70 international version of the UH-60 Black Hawk, and build its own Level D flight simulators. Sikorsky will provide maintenance trainers, courseware and technical support. The S-92 prototype began flying in December 1998, and a recent test flight was conducted at the maximum gross weight of 24,000 pounds.
Customer satisfaction with fractional ownership programs is high, according to a new ownership survey conducted by Cincinnati-based Aviation Research Group/U.S. Respondents, all of whom are share owners, rated Raytheon TravelAir's service as a 4.75 on a five-point scale, while EJA's NetJets ranked second at 4.71 and Bombardier's Flexjet ranked third at 4.37. With respect to flightcrews, Flexjet rated highest at 4.95, followed by TravelAir at 4.83 and NetJets at 4.68.
Signature Flight Support has established a new regional maintenance facility at McCarran International Airport (LAS). The complex features 74,000 square feet of space that will be used for avionics repair and installation, aircraft parts sales, and airframe and engine maintenance. The facility is an FAA-certificated repair station that specializes in Gulfstream, Citation and Hawker aircraft. Phone: (702) 739-1100.
Nav Canada now charges user fees on general aviation, on-demand charter, and virtually all operators who fly within Canadian airspace. The user-fee structure calls for propeller aircraft weighing more than 6,614 pounds to be charged daily user fees, and all jet aircraft are assessed a terminal service fee and en route fee. The fee for aircraft weighing between 1,323 and 6,614 pounds is based on whether the flight is business or recreational. In related news, The NATA Guide to Nav Canada's User Fees has just been published by the National Air Transportation Association.
BMW Rolls-Royce's engine dispatch reliability on the Gulfstream V is currently 99.64 percent, and most of the problems have stemmed from issues with the engines' AlliedSignal starter. BMW R-R officials were meeting with the vendor in mid-March for a critical design review of fixes aimed at addressing premature disengagement and a resonant frequency problem. In the meantime, Gulfstream operators are flying with spare starters on board. Some 36 G-Vs are now in operation and another 31 are in completion.
The DOT has established Standard Industry Fare Level rates for the first half of 1999. The figures, which are used to calculate the value of non-business air transportation, are: $0.1788 for trips of zero to 500 miles, $0.1364 for flights of 501-1,500 miles and $0.1311 for missions over 1,500 miles. The terminal charge is $32.69
BBA Group, the British parent company of FBO chain Signature Flight Support, completed its acquisition of the AMR Combs FBO chain in early March. As part of the integration, Signature plans to sell its existing FBO at Palm Springs, Calif. (PSP) and the AMR Combs FBO at Hartford's Bradley International Airport (BDL). Montreal-based business and regional airframe maker Bombardier has integrated the activities of its Services unit into Bombardier Aerospace ``to make better use of the synergies between the company's services and manufacturing operations.''
Airspeed and altitude come in many varieties, but generally all these measurements begin with raw static and pitot pressures, and indicated outside air temperature. When an airplane sits in the hangar at sea level on a standard day, sensed altitude, temperature and airspeed are corrected values -- true altitude, true temperature and true airspeed. (Of course, under these conditions altitude and airspeed would be zero and temperature would be 59F, but you would know with absolute certainty that the values were correct.)
Raytheon Aircraft has opened a service center at Atlantic City International Airport (ACY). The 50,000-square-foot facility will serve Hawker and Beech customers. Besides an avionics and maintenance area, the facility features an executive terminal that has a conference room, guest offices, pilots' lounge and flight-planning area. An adjacent 29,000-square-foot hangar can accommodate virtually all business aircraft. Doug Bell is operations manager, and Bill Lyman is the on-site aircraft service manager. Phone: (609) 646-8060.
The Flight Safety Foundation now is taking orders for a special issue of its Flight Safety Digest focusing on the prevention of CFIT and approach and landing accidents (ALAs). The Digest, the product of years of effort by the Flight Safety Foundation's Approach and Landing Accident Reduction Task Force and FSF staff, contains an in-depth accident analysis of 287 fatal ALAs, along with recommendations for preventing those types of accidents. The FSF Task Force worked in cooperation with the International Air Transport Association and ICAO.
The G-V's SPZ-8500 digital avionics system combines elements of Honeywell's Primus 2000 hub-and-spoke architecture and the SPZ-8000 local area network layout. The most visible components of the system are the six, eight-by-eight-inch DU880 CRTs in the instrument panel. Two integrated avionics computers (IACs), forming the hubs of the hub-and-spoke system, contain FMS cards, performance and auto-throttle computers, thereby eliminating the need for a half dozen stand-alone boxes.
Accidents involving U.S.-registered turbine-powered helicopters killed 53 people last year, an increase of nearly 50 percent from 1997, according to data provided by Boca Raton, Fla.-based Robert E. Breiling Associates. The U.S. twin-turbine fleet was involved in 10 accidents last year, including three fatal crashes that killed a total of 11 people. U.S. single-turbine helicopters were involved in 74 accidents last year, including 15 that resulted in 42 fatalities.
Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) plans to ``get on the horse again'' and resubmit an amendment to reform the FAA's use of emergency authority to revoke pilot certificates. The amendment, to be attached to the Air Transportation Improvement Act of 1999, is the next take on the Hoover Bill, and would give a pilot the option of requesting a hearing before the NTSB within 48 hours of receiving an emergency revocation order. NTSB would have five days to determine whether an emergency exists. During that period, the pilot's certificate would be suspended.
Satellite communications provider Inmarsat will privatize on April 15, and be governed by a 14-member board of directors based in London. Inmarsat now becomes a two-tier private company (Inmarsat Holdings and Inmarsat Ltd.), and an intergovernmental body called the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO), led by Jerzy Vonau of Poland. The private company will seek an initial public offering of stock within two years; the government body will oversee Inmarsat's public service commitments, including the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS).
