Over 100 companies already have purchased Travel$ense 3, a new and refined version of the NBAA's Travel$ense software program that helps to illustrate the advantages of business aircraft. The association started shipping the new version in February. Travel$ense 3 allows the user to analyze two, three or four different travel options simultaneously. Users themselves prompted the program refinements, the NBAA reports.
The FAA has added five VFR towers to its Contract Tower Program, boosting the number of facilities participating to 162. The add-ons are Salisbury-Wicomico (Md.), Gallatin Field/Bozeman (Mont.), Laughlin/Bullhead City (Ariz.), Alexandria International (La.) and Waukesha County (Wis.). Another 22 VFR towers are to be converted later this year.
Budget stories from Washington probably glaze the eyes of more citizens than interoffice memos, but thousands of folks in the aviation community won't be able to ignore this sad tale. As a result of some ill-conceived presumptions and miscalculations when the fiscal 1999 budget was being put together, the FAA found itself with a serious case of the shorts at the end of January. How short? -- $250 million to be precise.
The more responses we get, the better the 1999 B/CA Corporate Aviation Salary Survey will be. So, if you have not yet filled out the red-bordered Salary Survey Form that was inserted in the March issue, we've made it easy for you to reply. Just turn to page 32 of this issue, detach and complete the survey card and drop it in the mail.
Paul Richfield, 36, joins B/CA from Reed Air Transport Intelligence, where he was Washington, D.C., correspondent. As a senior editor, Paul will oversee B/CA's news section. An ATP and CFIIMEI-rated pilot with more than 5,000 hours of flight experience. Paul is a 1997 graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism and a former U.S. Army infantry officer.
Can isometric exercise lower blood pressure? Will it ever reduce the need for prescribed medications? Based on the results of 18 months of field trials with pilots, a Midwestern company reports that its hand grip exerciser has dropped resting blood pressures anywhere from eight mm to 28 mm after five weeks of use.
The FAA has adopted a new rule -- effective July 15 -- that will lower the upper limit of the San Diego Class B airspace area from 12,500 feet msl to 10,000 feet msl. Other provisions of the action will expand the western and eastern boundaries of the airspace area and move the southern boundary north to align with the Poggi VORTAC. The agency's goal is to improve the efficiency of the airspace, to enhance safety for VFR and IFR users, and to accommodate aircraft operations at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
The European Union (EU) has postponed plans to forbid the importation of hush-kitted aircraft. The EU's proposal would have allowed hush-kitted Stage 2 aircraft, but only if EU-registered by this month. The ban would have taken effect in April 2000 for similar aircraft operating from third countries, unless such aircraft were operating in the EU before April 1999. Critics say the ban stems from the fear that U.S. operators will dump hush-kitted aircraft in Europe when the U.S. Stage 2 phaseout ends on December 31.
Dassault Aviation has suspended development of a supersonic business jet, citing the lack of a suitable powerplant for the proposed SST. ``We could not launch a new program, particularly in this pioneering category, without the assurance of having engines available that meet our criteria for thrust, fuel specifics, durability and other issues,'' said Charles Edelstenne, executive vice president of Dassault Aviation. The company spent more than $5 million over the past 18 months to identify and solve a number of technical problems related to a corporate SST.
A European Transport Safety Council report has safety experts talking about more ways that the industry could safeguard passengers from injury during impact and how passengers can help themselves. Seat occupants ``generally do not assume a proper brace position, so a three-point lap-and-shoulder harness would be likely to improve occupant protection substantially,'' the ETSC said.
Computer-based training software developer S2 Software (www.s2w.com) of Troy, Ala., has added several models to its line of PC-based training programs. The newest models include the Hawker 700, 800 and 800XP, in addition to the Citation I and II. The company also is developing similar programs for the Gulfstream II.
Texaco's flight department has laid off 40 percent of its staff and is selling two of its four aircraft. The company, whose flight department is headquartered at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., plans to retain its Gulfstream IV and Challenger. In addition to closing its Denver and Houston bases, the Texaco flight department also will reduce its NetJets share from three-quarter aircraft to one-quarter aircraft.
The FAA has proposed establishment of 17 colored federal airways (now uncharted, non-regulated routes), 11 new jet routes and four VOR federal airways in Alaska.
In our February ``HAZMAT Do's and Don'ts'' feature (page 66), we erroneously reported that SabreTech allegedly placed a shipment of oxygen generators aboard a ValuJet aircraft. The shipment actually was placed on board the aircraft by ValuJet ground employees.
By the end of this month, the transport ministers from the 15 nations that compose the European Union are expected to adopt a regulation, effective April 1, that would prohibit the addition of hush kit-equipped transport aircraft to the registries of member countries. A variety of U.S. interests have opposed the proposed rule, but European authorities contend that although hush kit-equipped aircraft comply with Stage 3/Chapter 3 noise regulations, they burn more fuel and emit more pollution than new Stage 3 aircraft.
This month, air carriers will extend CRM human factors training beyond its traditional place in the cockpit to the passenger cabin, dispatch office and maintenance hangar. Under FAR Part 121 requirements, flight attendants and aircraft dispatchers will be taught to use all available resources -- human, hardware and information -- in dealing with routine as well as emergency situations. Rules for maintenance personnel are expected to follow.
A recent test conducted by Nav Canada indicates that the Canadian ATC system is ready for 2000. The agency moved the internal clock at Mirabel's ATC center forward and watched it advance to January 1, 2000 ``with no change in the system's functionality.'' The test was part of Nav Canada's plan to make its computer systems Y2K-compliant by April. ARINC has demonstrated that most of the operational systems it uses to provide critical aeronautical communications are ready for the millenium.
The NBAA Flight Attendant Subcommittee is now a full-fledged committee, following a vote by the association's board of directors. Liz Dembinski-Lloyd, manager of cabin safety and services at Lucent Technologies in Morristown, N.J., is the chairwoman, and Lynn Brocklehurst, senior flight attendant for Whirlpool Corp., of Benton Harbor, Mich., is the vice chair. The committee is planning its fourth annual conference to be held June 11 and 12 in Orlando.
The Clinton administration's proposed budget for fiscal year 2000 would increase FAA funding 3.8 percent to $10.1 billion, but operators would end up paying the bill as contributions from the general fund are eliminated. Once again, the executive branch wants to use aviation trust fund money to pay for all FAA operations and has proposed $1.5 billion in user fees to finance other parts of the agency's budget.
BFGoodrich hopes to complete its acquisition of Coltec Industries by late this month or early April, despite the fact that the Federal Trade Commission had made a second request for anti-trust-related information concerning the combination. In January, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit in which Crane Co. had sought to block the merger. Coltec Industries, a maker of aerospace and industrial products, is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C.
Litton's Weather Services International subsidiary has upgraded its PILOTbrief Vector system. The upgrade offers users access to single-site Doppler NEXRAD data, Canadian radar mosaics and four new Avcharts for preflight planning. The NEXRAD data consist of local radar base reflectivity images from sites across the United States, including more than 140 NEXRAD sites.
The Excel comes equipped with a standard, Honeywell Primus 1000 integrated digital avionics package. Two IC-600 integrated avionics computers in the nose equipment bay form the hub of the hub-and-spoke architecture system that features left- and right-side, eight-by-seven-inch CRT PFDs, plus a central eight-by-seven-inch MFD.
Aircraft Services Group of Ramsey, N.J., now is the sole North American distributor for EVAS (Emergency Vision Assurance System), which can be deployed in an inflight cockpit smoke emergency
