A new stand-alone Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS) was announced by Tucson, Ariz.-based Universal Avionics Corp. on April 15. The AHS-525 is solid-state system provides aircraft analog and digital pitch, roll and heading data and can directly replace increasingly difficult-to-maintain mechanical gyros. The system integrates with flight deck displays, flight control systems, flight management systems, weather radar, terrain awareness and warning system, flight data recorders and multiple other avionics systems and subsystems.
Executive AirShare became the first operator of an Embraer Phenom 300 under FAR Part 135. The Kansas City, Mo.-based fractional aircraft ownership and management company received the charter certification March 31. The Phenom 300 is is managed by Executive AirShare’s wholly owned subsidiary, Executive Flight Services. The aircraft is based in Fort Worth.
Regular readers of this column know that tolerances all too often line up unidirectionally and result in human casualties and destroyed aircraft. Apparently this is what happened on Sept. 27, 2008, when a Maryland Sate Police (MSP) medevac helicopter crashed into trees and terrain at Walker Mill Regional Park, Camp Springs, Md., while on approach to Andrews Air Force Base (ADW). Four people were killed — the pilot, a flight medic, a civilian EMT and one of the two patients being transported. The second patient suffered serious injuries.
Stevens Aviation of Greenville, S.C., has received an STC for installation of a runway awareness and advisory system in the Learjet 60. The unit employs logic algorithms that determine the appropriate sequence and timing and adjusts advisory distances based upon aircraft groundspeed to maximize and enhance crew reaction time to potential ground hazards. This enhancement, part of the Stevens Aviation Business Liner upgrade, helps improve flight crew situational awareness and minimizes the risk of runway incursions.
Hawker Beechcraft Services has won FAA certification of a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) on Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21-equipped King Air C90GTi aircraft. The WAAS installation offers operational flexibility and cost savings associated with direct area-navigation routes, which enable improved access to special-use airspace or high-traffic or terrain-challenged airports.
John Lee Baker, AOPA’s president from 1977 through 1990, and only the second person in that position, passed away Mar. 11 at his home in Angier, N.C. Baker was a U.S.A.F. fighter pilot in the Korean War, and then earned a law degree from Creighton University. He served on the staff of Sen. Roman Hruska (R-Neb.), and then was appointed assistant administrator in the FAA’s office of general aviation affairs.
Fred Towers, a renowned expert in international flight operations, was awarded the coveted Outstanding Achievement & Leadership Award by the NBAA at the Schedulers & Dispatchers conference in January. Towers has been active for years in building the S&D community’s recognition and public stature. As a veteran dispatcher himself, he has taught hundreds of his colleagues the key elements of international trip planning. Towers works as a services review program manager for Universal Weather & Aviation in Houston.
Anthony Nicholas Turiano (Air Traffic Controller Miami, FL )
I was surprised and sorry to see that BCA printed Mike O’Rourke’s letter (February 2010, page 8) without editing the offensive language from it. Mr. O’Rourke seems to attribute an awful lot of power to the controller’s union, which cannot negotiate on matters of pay. Let us remember that it was FAA management that signed off on pay reclassification, and that thousands of FAA managers benefited as well — including plenty of deadwood.
Restricted hours (7 a.m. to 3 p.m.) at Shannon Airport's new U.S. Customs Pre-Clearance may be limiting use of the process, officials at Universal Weather & Aviation and Signature Flight Support told BCA. Pre-clearance procedures allow Part 91 operators to completely process through U.S. Customs just as they would at a port of entry airport in the United States.
If your flight operation is equipped with Automated External Defibrillators but lacks a management system to ensure that batteries are replaced on schedule, a company called American Med Supply of Westlake, Ohio, says it will do the managing for you. The free service is known as AEDAlerts.com and after you send the company an inventory of your AED devices, it will manage them at all locations, notify you when inspections are due and alert you to expiration dates for electrode pads, batteries and CPR/AED certificates for all responders.
Schedulers and dispatchers who operate in the real world know that it’s unrealistic to expect a nine-to-five operating schedule in a typical flight department. Your department manager or chief pilot has been selling the executives downtown on how they can do three meetings in a single day and, assuming the aircraft can go the distance, on different continents. It can be an intimidating environment in which the cultural differences within an organization combine to possibly erode the safety of your operations.
Recovery in the global helicopter market may be sooner and stronger than many have expected as it embarks on long-term growth, according to Rolls-Royce, which powers commercial and military helicopters of all sizes. Deliveries are expected to top 16,400 aircraft worth $146 billion over the next 10 years as the market responds to improving civil market fundamentals and the world’s military operators address a growing call for more vertical lift capability, Ken Roberts, president of the Rolls-Royce Helicopter Engine business, said at Heli-Expo in Houston.
Jim Koch (Captain, Check Airman, Safety Officer Corporate Eagle Management Services Inc. Waterford, MI )
Thanks for your great detective work and the insightful writing on the Hawker 800 crash in Owatonna, Minn. (“A Failed Go-Around,” February 2010, page 59). We have operated Hawkers since 1994, currently employ 17 full-time qualified Hawker captains and have introduced and trained about 70 Hawker crewmembers over the years. It has been an ongoing process to develop the best SOP, SOT and CRM as is possible.
The newest and largest Air Traffic Control Center in Europe has been phasing in control since Jan. 5, and went fully operational when the controllers at Manchester Center handled the final aircraft from their old operations room before handing off control to their colleagues in Prestwick Scotland at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13. About 130 personnel from Manchester are being relocated to Scotland, which will bring Prestwick's workforce to 900. Prestwick in the North and Swanwick in Hampshire, near Portsmouth, now control all U.K.
We had the opportunity to fly three legs in the airplane, accompanied by senior demo pilot Errol Wuertz and Dennis Hildreth, Hawker 4000 program manager. That gave us the opportunity to look at both extended high-altitude cruise performance and low-altitude handling qualities.
Pratt & Whitney has established a Center of Excellence at the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Engineering for research in the field of aviation propulsion systems. P&W will work with UConn on fundamental and applied research initiatives that support the design and development of more-efficient gas turbine engines. The university's primary focus will be research in the field of advanced sensors, diagnostics and controls for use in commercial and military aircraft propulsion systems.
Cessna Aircraft Co. has acquired the remaining 8-percent ownership share of Greenwich, Conn.-based CitationAir still held by TAG Aviation Holding SA. The original company, then named CitationShares, was started in 2000 as a joint venture between Cessna and TAG, with each holding a 50-percent share. Cessna gradually acquired a greater share through the past decade and bought the last of TAG's stake in February.
There’s a good FAA and a bad FAA. Having just been found liable for its certificate action against Florida air ambulance and charter outfit, Air Trek, the same FAA New York office is now attempting to take action directly against the firm’s chief pilot for an entirely different matter.
Aviation Management Systems, Inc. (AMS) of Portsmouth, N.H., recently announced that it was expanding its corporate aviation consulting services to include client representation during new or pre-owned aircraft acquisitions. AMS helps determine which of the many aviation options is best for its clients and provides assistance in overall asset management, from both a technical and operational perspective. AMS officials say the expansion into acquisitions enables it to support its clients throughout the entire life cycle of aircraft ownership and asset management.
Cessna announced March 13 that the Citation CJ4 has received FAA Certification. The aircraft will debut the new Williams International FJ44-4A FADEC engines, which were certified on Feb. 2, but shares a common pilot type rating with the other CJs (a pilot rated to fly any of the CJs is rated to fly them all). The retail price in 2010 dollars for a typically equipped Citation CJ4 is $9 million, the company says.
A second Gulfstream G650 has joined the flight test program for the company's new flagship aircraft, completing its first flight Feb. 26. The second test aircraft — T2 — took off from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport at 1250 EST, piloted by senior experimental test pilots Gary Freeman and Scott Buethe. T2 flew for two hours and 33 minutes, reaching 37,000 feet and Mach 0.80 before landing back in Savannah.
Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) from World War II were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony March 10 in the U.S. Capitol. The WASP comprised 1,102 civilian female pilots, who were the first women to fly military aircraft under the U.S. Army Air Forces. WASP ferried fighter, bomber, transport and training aircraft and performed other missions in the Continental United States.
J.P. Hanley, the president of Corporate AirSearch International, a small, privately held South Florida brokerage that has been in business since 1983, characterizes today’s previously owned turbine aircraft market as “stagnant.”
“The Empty Leg Syndrome” (February 2010, page 32) was most educational. LunaJets (www.lunajets.com) is one of those broker Web sites that you mention in the article, launched as a new and anonymous distribution channel for operators’ empty legs. Our business model is different from any other, with live empty legs listed, offers of price per seat and e-mail alerts on registered members’ favorite routes. Thank you and keep the information flowing!
