This month, Lynton Group is expected to complete the acquisition of Magec Aviation from GE Co. plc. Lynton is a charter, management and ground services company with operations in Denham, England and Morristown, N.J. Magec has FBOs at London's Luton and London City airports.
On September 8, 1994, USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737-300, crashed on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport, killing all 132 aboard. The NTSB's effort to determine the probable cause is just now being completed, making this accident the longest and, to date, one of the most baffling investigations in the Safety Board's 30-year history.
After being pummeled for seven years by the U.S. Air Force, the FAA and the Justice Department, fortunes have begun to turn for TPI International Airways. That is the small Brunswick, Ga. cargo carrier that was shut down by the FAA in August 1990 following a sequence of events that the carrier alleges began with repeated acts of sabotage to its Lockheed Electra aircraft based at Tinker AFB, Okla.The case has attracted the interest of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who is on the armed forces and rules committees.
Women in Aviation International (West Alexandria, Ohio)-Carolyn Williamson joined the staff as vice president and is serving, variously, as managing editor of the group's magazine and coordinator of the organization's chapter development, while assisting with the annual conference.
Cutter Aviation recently opened its fifth FBO-a renovated facility formerly operated by Thunderbird Aviation at Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix. Normal hours of operation are 0630 to 2100 local daily. The facility includes 24-hour fueling via a self-service overwing and center-point service island. Phone: (602) 581-1444; fax: (602) 581-1555.
The air traffic control tower at Charlie Brown Field in Fulton County, Ga. is now open 24 hours, rendering moot a bill introduced in the last congressional session to prohibit non-emergency takeoffs and landings at the airport when the tower was closed. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) introduced H.R. 2659 in response to airport neighbors' alleged concerns about the risk of runway incursions when the tower was not operating.
SAT Group (nee Southern Air Transport) will sell Dallas-based SimuFlite Training International to General Electric Capital Services Corp., and the connection could prove to be interesting. GE Capital's parent company General Electric is a partner in the Boeing Business Jet program, and Boeing has a joint venture with FlightSafety International to provide airline training. SimuFlite, which has 17 simulators, began operation in 1984.
The operational RVSM trial is proceeding smoothly, although a few cases of wake turbulence have been reported, according to the findings from a recently held FAA/Eurocontrol Separation Safety Conference. Aircraft flying 20 nm behind and 1,000 feet below another aircraft sometimes have experienced severe turbulence, conferees said. Apparently, pilots are getting around this problem by deliberately offsetting their tracks slightly (a procedure authorities strictly frown upon), but, at present, they are not ticketing transgressors.
From January 21-27, a mandatory ATC reservation system will be in place for IFR arrivals at the following San Diego area airports: Montgomery Field, Brown Field, Gillespie Field and McClellan-Palomar Airport. On January 19, the FAA will start accepting reservations for landing slots. Higher than normal traffic is expected in the area because of Super Bowl XXXII, scheduled in San Diego on January 25.
It was January 1958. Cover lines on B/CA's first issue asked rhetorically, "Will the Airports be Ready for the Jets?" The cover picture, obviously retouched, showed an air traffic controller peering into a TV-screen full of raw radar returns. The caption proclaimed, "TV gives bright daylight radar display for traffic controllers."
The number of FBOs has declined from 10,000 in 1980 to 3,800 today, according to Phillips 66. The oil company also projects that the number of turbine aircraft will increase by three percent a year for the next 10 years.
Business jet makers are preparing their maintenance and operations workshops for the coming year. At press time, the following M&O meetings had been scheduled: Bombardier Challenger, April 30 and May 1 in San Antonio; Cessna Citation, April 27-29 in Wichita; Dassault Falcon Jet, May 18-20 in Nice, France; Gulfstream Aerospace, June 2-4 in Savannah; Learjet, April 27-May 1 in San Antonio; and Raytheon Hawker, August 31-September 2 in Hilton Head, S.C. See B/CA's monthly Calendar for more details.
Just as Thanksgiving dinners were becoming sleepy memories something equally fulfilling happened in worldwide new-jet sales: 1997 eased past the 1996 full-year total-by one slim jet. Based on Aviation Data Services' preliminary accounting for November 1997-a slim 23 total aircraft sales recorded-new-jet sales for the year stood at 299, versus the final 1996 tally of 298. And November's total of nine new jets undoubtedly will go higher.
AMR Combs' share in the FlexJet fractional ownership program will be acquired by Bombardier. Despite the change in management, FlexJet's infrastructure, pilots and other personnel, training and maintenance, and customer service will remain the same, the company said. The FlexJet program, set up by Bombardier and AMR Combs in 1995, contains 40 Learjet 31As, 60s and Challenger 604s in operation for more than 175 owners (July 1995, page 24).
Formal proposals to establish new FBOs and/or for the continuation or expansion of existing FBOs were recently requested by the following airport authorities: Gainesville, Ga. for Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport; Phoenix Aviation Department for Goodyear Airport; Carroll County in Westminster, Md. for Carroll County Regional Airport; and Palwaukee, Ill. for its Municipal Airport.
Flight Safety Foundation has published a special report titled "Protection Against Icing: A Comprehensive Overview." The 250-page document contains a variety of data on ground deicing and anti-icing, inflight icing, a bibliography of related studies and literature on ice protection, and a listing of ice-related aircraft accidents from 1946-1996. Copies of the report are available at $25 each from the FSF. Phone: (703) 739-6700.
Aircraft paint companies and other users of methylene chloride are hoping for additional relief from Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules lowering exposure limits to methylene chloride, a chemical used in paint stripping (May 1997, page 17). OSHA recently extended the compliance deadline for companies with 20 or more employees to December 21, 1997, but at press time, another extension was anticipated.
Build it and they will come. That's what the political, civic and aviation leaders who dedicated MidAmerica Airport on November 8, 1997 hope will happen when the $310-million facility officially opens later this month. Located some 25 minutes east of downtown St. Louis, MidAmerica was designed from the start to be a "joint use" facility with Scott Air Force Base near Mascoutah, Illinois. The two airports will share a number of services, including runways and a newly constructed 195-foot-tall control tower staffed by U.S. Air Force personnel.
Tradewinds, the Amarillo, Texas company that markets an Allison-powered Bonanza conversion, is in the "early stages" of offering a Beech 58P Baron powered by a single P&WC PT6 turboprop engine. The firm expects the project to be completed in two or three years-after $1.5 million in funding is obtained. In the early 1980s, Beech flight tested a proposed production version of a single-turboprop pressurized Baron called the Lightning (May 1984, page 70).
Rules due to take effect January 31 require air-tour companies operating at the Grand Canyon National Park to gradually replace their fleet with "quieter" aircraft by 2008. Falling into the "most desirable" category, according to the National Park Service, are the Boeing MD520 and MD900 helicopters, the Cessna 208 Caravan and the de Havilland DHC-6-300 Vistaliner. Meanwhile, May 1 remains the effective date for a virtual doubling of the size of the Canyon's no-fly zone (February 1997, page 22).
Initial certification of an AlliedSignal Enhanced GPWS designed for aircraft with analog avionics is scheduled for this quarter in the Hawker 800. Enhanced GPWS retains all the GPWS functions, but also can provide a display of, as well as provide warnings in response to, a proprietary worldwide terrain database (January 1996, page 58).
Soloy Corp. of Olympia, Wash. hopes to receive FAA certification of its Dual Pac powerplant installation in stretched Cessna 208B Caravans by the end of the year, some two years later then originally planned (July 1995, page 30). Modified aircraft will be designated Pathfinder 21. FAA approval of the Dual Pac itself-two P&WC PT6D turbine engines turning a single propeller-came in November 1997. Soloy had to show the FAA that the system would continue to produce thrust in the event of a loss of power from either engine/drive side (December 1996, page 20).
After a brief shutdown, the Jet Room restaurant at Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wis. has reopened under new management. The new operators are well-known in the area for their O'Malley Farm Cafe in Waunakee. The eatery, co-located at Wisconsin Aviation, provides inflight catering and is open for breakfast and lunch.
