No article on the NASCAR Cessna 310R crash (Cause & Circumstance, July, page 68) can be complete without extensively quoting the concurring statement by NTSB member Robert L. Sumwalt. You were remiss in not quoting any of the following:
Chevron Global Aviation donated $25,000 to Corporate Angel Network in July in support of the charity’s efforts on behalf of cancer patients, bringing its total donations to more than $200,000. CAN arranges free flights to treatment for these patients using empty seats on business aircraft. “Sometimes there is little good news in the life of a person who suffers from cancer,” said Keith Sawyer, Chevron Aviation’s general manager, general aviation. “The organization we are honoring with this donation is often the bearer of this good news.
In 2001, the NBAA and GAMA commissioned Arthur Andersen, the former accounting and consulting firm, to determine whether business aircraft contribute to better financial performance for public companies that operate them, and thus, to higher shareholder value as well. The findings, published in a white paper entitled “Business Aviation in Today’s Economy; a Shareholder Value Perspective,” provided dollar-and-cents evidence that business aircraft users outperformed competitors who eschewed that form of transport.
Australia’s Macquarie Capital has agreed to relinquish its authority to manage Macquarie Airports (MAp) in a move aimed at attracting more investors for the airports group, which has investment interests in airports at Sydney, Copenhagen, Brussels and Bristol. Macquarie officials said the new arrangement will relieve the airports group from paying base management and performance fees to the parent that have sapped the airports company an average of nearly A$300 million a year over the past six and a half years — before any distribution to investors.
The presidents of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association cemented a cooperative agreement that was first unveiled earlier this year by signing a memorandum of understanding in the middle of AeroShell Square at AirVenture on July 29. Under the agreement, both organizations pledge to support each other’s efforts to promote, protect and expand the general aviation community.
This morning I unlocked my body from the arms of Morpheus, opened my eyes to another glorious day when thoughts of food began to take over. As usual, I conjured up some concoction (foreign to normal folks) like two eggs in my friendly steamer, soft-boiled style, garnished by a generous supply of sweet corn off the cob, fresh coffee, a slice of Pumpernickel with crunchy peanut butter, and a generous slice of ham hock left over from the kale and beans.
The FAA changed its certification standards for new transport category airplanes to require automatic activation of ice protection systems or a method to tell pilots when ice protection systems should be activated. There is no requirement to modify existing designs, but the FAA is considering a similar rulemaking that also would cover them. The full text of the rule is available at the government’s docket Web site. You can post comments there as well as by mail.
Daher-Socata has selected Atlantic Aero International in Greensboro, N.C., as an authorized TBM Service Center. Daher-Socata said the latest selection helps the company achieve its goal of locating an authorized service center within a three-hour flight of the home airport of any U.S. TBM customer. The company also has a factory-owned TBM service center in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and factory authorized service center, Columbia Air Services, in Groton, Conn.
The National Air Transportation Association has named Wyvern Consulting the exclusive sales and support organization for its recently launched IC Check, a comprehensive compliance-driven flight release system for professionally flown general aviation aircraft operations. IC Check is an online application that assesses “whether individual flights for which an operator exercises operational control are flown with a legal crew, legal passengers, legal aircraft and legal flight parameters,” NATA said.
That night the two rock performers — one a drummer, the other a DJ — had wowed a crowd of 10,000 people at a free concert near the University of South Carolina. Now, even though it was approaching midnight, they wanted to get home to California. They, along with two support staffers, boarded the chartered Learjet Model 60 that had landed at Columbia Metropolitan Airport 40 minutes earlier. The passengers took their seats, the cabin door was closed and locked, and the two pilots began to taxi to the active runway. It was Sept. 19, 2008.
Hawker Beechcraft has begun offering a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV) option for Hawker 800XP aircraft. The upgrade enables operators to fly more precision approaches, reduce decision altitudes to as low as 200 feet agl and visibility minimums to as low as one-half mile, and use GPS as a primary means of navigation from takeoff through approach.
The University of Dayton Research Institute’s Patrick Haines and James Luers have been vocal advocates for exploring the effects of heavy rain on aircraft performance and have applied forensic engineering methods to several accidents. Their methodology, which was published in the Journal of Aircraft, suggests that the previously calculated effects of wind shear were in error, and that heavy rain likely contributed to the loss of performance in many mishaps.
Jet-A and AvgasPer Gallon Fuel PricesJuly 2009 Jet-A and AvgasPer Gallon Fuel PricesJuly 2009 Jet-A Region High Low Average Eastern $7.06 $3.10 $4.98 New England $5.25 $3.44
Looking for help with your foggy or scratched windows? Check out the NBAA’s Products and Services Directory to locate outfits that specialize in aircraft window repair and replacement. First, access the Web site at http://data.nbaa.org/prodsvcs/directory/search.cfm, and then from the pull-down Categories menu select Window/Windscreen Repair.
New Zealand-based aircraft tracking company spidertracks has launched spiderwatch, a flight following component that actively watches over every flight. The company is positioning the system as an alternative to ELTs. Spiderwatch is automatically turned on when the aircraft accelerates through 40 knots. This tells the system to “actively monitor the flight. If the spider tracking device loses power, the system loses contact with the spider, triggering text and e-mail alerts to be automatically sent to recipients designated by the user.
The AOPA’s Aviation eBrief says both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are backing an FAA reauthorization bill introduced in mid-July that would accelerate NextGen implementation. The bill would require satellite-based ATC at the 35 busiest U.S. airports by 2014, with the rest of the country coming online by 2018 with $40 billion in funding through 2011 but with out-year system funding unspecified, postponing the tough decisions until 2011, AOPA states as we go to press.
Especially in today’s volatile market, Rick Engles believes it is critical that aircraft brokers clearly communicate to prospective airplane sellers what the true value of their aircraft is.
The AOPA has expressed concern over the FAA’s push to extinguish all existing “through-the-fence” access at public-use airports involving homes and businesses on private property that have access to airport taxiways or runways. The AOPA says the problem is of particular concern in the Northwest where the FAA is conducting an inventory of airports that have existing through-the-fence operations and is pressuring airport sponsors to eventually eliminate that access.
There has been a great deal of talk about the damage that has been done to business aviation by politicians, the news media and ignorant senior executives. I don’t see it that way. Much of the “damage” was the predictable result of companies that leaned too strongly into unsustainable economic winds. When those economic winds stopped, they fell on their faces. Their companies, and their travel resources, have gone through the normal Darwinian process of the survival of the fittest.
Rockwell Collins’ Corporate Aircraft Service Program (CASP) offers corporate aircraft operators maintenance for their avionics and cabin entertainment equipment. Rentals, exchanges, component repairs, comprehensive reliability upgrades, equipment removal and refit coverage are included. CASP also offers one consolidated annual invoice based on a forecast of annual operating hours received at the start of the annual program and covers each aircraft for an entire year.
The following abbreviations are used throughout the tables: “NA” means not available; “—”indicates the performance is not applicable; “NP” signifies that the specific performance is not possible.
There’s not another current production business aircraft that can beat the Learjet 60 in a time-to-climb contest. With a weight-to-thrust ratio of 2.55:1, you can soar from sea level to FL 410 in less than 18 minutes. It’s also fuel efficient. After level off, its Pratt & Whitney Canada PW305A engines enable the Learjet 60 to cruise at 440 KTAS with an average fuel burn of 1,300 pph.
