Aviation Fleet Solutions has installed a QuietEagle Noise Reduction System on a VIP MD-87 for SG Air Leasing Limited. The system brings the aircraft into compliance with FAA Stage 4 and ICAO Chapter 4 noise standards. The installation was the second on a VIP MD-87. The QuietEagle includes a 16-lobe internal mixer, a muffler, a tabbed nozzle and improved front fan case, replacing the original hardware on the Pratt & Whitney Canada JT8D-200 engine.
At the World Air Transport Forum 2007 in Cannes, France, in October, Airports Council International Director General Robert Aaronson asked, "How and what are the best strategies for each of the aviation stakeholders to employ in meeting their environmental responsibilities?
Fitzgerald & Associates, Oakland, Calif. Andrew Fitzgerald has retired from KaiserAir, Inc., capping a 33-year career with the Oakland, Calif.-based charter/ management company as vice president, maintenance, aircraft acquisitions, sales and maintenance development. He has formed Fitzgerald & Associates, a consultancy providing project management, technical, presale and pre-buy audits, and aircraft acquisition and selling services. Contact him at [email protected].
Elliott Aviation, the Midwestern aircraft sales and support organization, has received an FAA STC for installation of the Rockwell Collins Integrated Flight Information System (IFIS) on King Air B200s and 350s equipped with Pro Line 21 avionics. European Aviation Safety Agency approval of the retrofit is pending.
If you did not know better you would think they are magic. And they give your airplane's appearance some real jazz. "They" are winglets and the magic is how they seem to make most of the induced drag disappear. There is no free lunch and no free lift. Produce lift and induced drag comes with it. Increased lift or increased angle of attack increases induced drag. Reduce induced drag and the rewards come tumbling out like hitting three cherries on a slot machine.
Schubach Corp. has added a Cessna Citation SII and a Hawker 800 to its charter certificate. The San Diego operator's fleet also includes two Bombardier Challenger 601s, two King Air 200s, a King Air C90, three Citation CJ1s, a Citation 1SP, a King Air 350, another Hawker 800, a Hawker 700 and two Hawker 600 fanjets.
At about 1400 PDT, a Hawker 800XP, N800CC, was substantially damaged by a fire originating from the left main landing gear after a takeoff was aborted at the John Wayne-Orange County Airport in Santa Ana, Calif. The aircraft is owned and operated by CIT Leasing Corp. The pilot reported to the FAA inspector from Long Beach that the takeoff was aborted twice before the third attempt due to an engine warning light. All three takeoff attempts were made within about a 20-minute period.
I enjoyed the Flight Log contribution by my old friend and ex-Misty mate, Ross Detwiler (November, page 112). In his piece on the Vietnam War era 13th Tactical Fighter Squadron mascot - a rather famous black leopard named Eldridge - he mentions Ramrod, an equally famous python mascot of that era.
Retail sales of previously owned business jets and turboprops dipped slightly in the third quarter, according to market statistics compiled by Amstat and published by the National Aircraft Resale Association.
Members of the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC), including the NBAA, recognized Robert E. Breiling for his significant long-term contributions to business aviation safety in the United States and worldwide.
In response to Richard Aarons' informative and alarming article "Deadly Overconfidence" in the September issue of B&CA (Cause & Circumstance, page 150), I am very glad as a high-time MU-2 pilot and owner/operator to see a factual story about the unfortunate events leading up to the May 2005, Hillsboro, Ore., crash.
Airport officials from around the nation say a passenger facility charge (PFC) hike is essential to infrastructure development, and want to make sure the increase is included in the final version of the FAA reauthorization bill. The House version of the bill includes an increase in the PFC cap to $7. However, the Senate version of legislation does not.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide launched its new Berlin Campus in early October. The campus offers a Master of Aeronautical Science degree alon g with other degree programs in aviation maintenance, technical management, professional aeronautics, integrated logistics and project management via Embry-Riddle's online learning program. Applications are being accepted for classes. Prospective students and professors may contact Thomas Giovingo, associate dean of academic support, at +49 (0) 631 303 27818 or [email protected] for education information.
Computer problems slowed progress toward the FAA's NextGen air traffic control system program. The agency had been trying to release a report by an Aviation Rulemaking Committee tasked with developing recommendations to provide incentives to operators to equip their aircraft with Advance Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipment ahead of the anticipated 2020 deadline. The ARC report was completed a few weeks ago, and the FAA had hoped to release the report either concurrently or shortly after the ADS-B proposal was released.
The White House is holding a veto threat over the House appropriations bill that includes FAA funding for fiscal 2008. Administration officials accused lawmakers of raising taxes by retaining the current fuel-tax-based funding model, rather than introducing the more dramatic financing proposal -- i.e., user fees -- proposed by the administration and supported by airlines. The administration also faulted the house bill for spending too far above the administration's budget request - primarily on the Airport Improvement Program.
I read with interest Paul Brou's article about our operation in the September issue of B&CA ("Critical Response," page 132). In my 30-plus years in aviation, many articles have been written about programs I have been associated and/or acquainted with. In my experience, one constant in the reporting regardless of whether it was a magazine article or radio or television broadcast is that there were always a few things that were not quite "right" in the final presentation. At least that is the way it used to be before I read your article.
Alpha Flying Inc.'s PlaneSense fractional ownership program has ordered 25 Grob SPn light jets. Delivery of the first Williams FJ44-3A-powered aircraft to PlaneSense, which serves the Eastern United States, is anticipated toward the end of 2008. In addition to the Honeywell Primus Apex integrated all-glass cockpit, the SPns to be delivered to PlaneSense will feature a six-passenger interior designed by Porsche Design Studio, with a large galley up front and enclosed lavatory at the rear of the cabin.
Most American boys know the drill: Your dad buys your first plastic U-control flying scale model for Christmas and you both run out to fly it. An hour later, dad's index finger bleeding from trying to prop-start the tiny Cox .049 glow-plug engine in the freezing cold, you both give it up and come in for hot cocoa -- and that's the end of it. Not for Peter Simons, though.
Eurocontrol has accepted the latest Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) concept for operations from 2020 and beyond, together with its supporting architecture and technologies. Eurocontrol says that ATM will move from "airspace-based to a trajectory-based environment allowing the safe and environmentally friendly execution of each flight as close as possible to the intention of its owner." The plan will be realized through the introduction of 4-D (three dimensions plus time) trajectory management, enabling user-preferred routing.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has won the 2007 Airport Safety Award from the Flight Safety Foundation as a result of its leadership in developing innovative safety initiatives, including perimeter taxiways, area navigation (RNAV) procedures and a surface movement guidance system. The RNAV procedures were introduced in cooperation with NASA and the FAA.
NAT Seattle Inc., a Cobham Avionics & Surveillance company, offers an airborne server allowing users to make and receive phone calls on their personal cell phones inflight. This solution is available for most hybrid cell/Wi-Fi phones, according to the company. The phone must be used in "flight mode," with wireless LAN enabled. The company claims that the technology is easily certifiable on aircraft because it uses existing wireless LANs.
