Galaxy Aviation has announced the appointment of Curtis George as general manager of the company's Boca Raton, Fla., facility. Anthony R. Sherbert has been selected as operations manager for the West Palm Beach, Fla., FBO and Alice Sutherland was appointed customer relations manager for Galaxy's newest facility in St. Augustine, Fla.
Jet Aviation Dubai has been appointed by Gulfstream Aerospace as an Authorized Warranty Repair facility. The company's maintenance and FBO facility at Dubai International Airport is now authorized to perform heavy maintenance and repairs along with warranty work on Gulfstream aircraft.
When I was an FAA designated pilot examiner, I administered practical tests to a couple of applicants who quite honestly left me uncomfortable about issuing a pilot certificate. In one notable case, the applicant exhibited a strong disdain for rules and procedures, attributing them to "those Washington bureaucrats who don't know nuttin!" The applicant was wise enough to comply with the Practical Test Standards, so under FAA guidelines, he was entitled to the new rating on his pilot certificate regardless of my personal consternation and reservations.
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your "Fast Five" featuring Steve Craig, proprietor, Beaumont Hotel (July, page 28). Years ago, when I was with Cessna and first learning to fly, that's where my flight instructor took me to practice grass strip/ unimproved runway landings. Although I haven't been there in a long, long time, it brought back a lot of memories.
Suddenly, this summer, the airborne telephone world recorded some unexpected seismic events: AirCell won an auction for an important slice of the electromagnetic spectrum, while Verizon, which dropped out of the auction, announced it was leaving the airborne phones niche to concentrate on its ground-based mass markets. And Boeing's new CEO, James McNerney, announced that Connexion by Boeing, the company's system for linking aircraft to broadband services, was under review and might be sold or shut down.
(Wichita) -- Tom Aniello, the former vice president and chief marketing officer of Pilatus Business Aircraft, has been named to succeed Phil Michel as vice president of marketing at Cessna. Aniello spent eight and a half years at Cessna before moving five and a half years ago to the North American arm of Swiss aircraft manufacturer Pilatus.
Decades ago, one of my A&P school instructors cautioned the class, "It will be years before you get to drive to and from work in the sunlight, so you'd better learn to sleep during the day." Since working nights and odd hours are facts of life for aviation technicians, he cautioned, "If you are looking for a 9-to-5 type of job, aviation is probably not for you." It was good advice.
Kansas City Aviation Center (KCAC) and Universal Avionics have launched a program to install three EFI-890R EFIS displays into the Pilatus PC-12. KCAC will hold the STC for the retrofit of the single-engine turboprop.
Bombardier has relocated two of its strategic business jet units to London Farnborough Airport. Bombardier's business aircraft sales headquarters for Europe, as well as the headquarters of its charter arm, Skyjet International, are now located within TAG Aviation's new Farnborough facilities.
(Kerrville, Texas) -- Heather Rider has been named the company's sales representative in the Northeast, with responsibility for selling airplanes in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. A graduate of the University of North Dakota, she previously served as an account manager at Iviation, an aircraft services company based in Memphis.
The pilot and copilot of a Citation Ultra arrived early at Friedman Memorial (SUN), the airport serving Sun Valley, Idaho, for what was to be a quick flight to the Carlsbad-McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ), 638 nm distant and some 30 miles north of San Diego. The two passengers that morning, Jan. 24, 2006, were a scientific instrument company executive on an out-and-back business trip and a family friend, who happened to be the wife of one of the aircraft's owners.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey defended the Bush administration's decision to seek nearly $1 billion less for airport funding in fiscal 2007 than authorized by Congress, saying, "We must make the absolute best use of the taxpayers' dollars. Like other government agencies, the FAA had to take a hard look at our programs and make some difficult choices." Blakey was testifying before a Senate Commerce Committee field hearing in Anchorage, Alaska, chaired by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who had earlier expressed concerns about proposed FAA budget cuts.
A Gates Learjet 35A operated by International Jet Charter was destroyed when it impacted water and light stanchions while making an instrument approach through afternoon fog for landing at Groton-New London Airport (GON), in Connecticut. Both pilots were killed, but the three passengers survived with minor injuries. One of the passengers said he felt the aircraft "thrust up" just before it crashed, at which point "the jet tumbled across the water" before coming to rest upside down.
Dassault elected to fit the Falcon 7X with one of the most redundant fly-by-wire (FBW) systems ever installed in a civil jet. It's highly fault-tolerant so its master minimum equipment list will be long and complete. Dispatch will be permitted with multiple single components faults, including failure of one channel of each side-stick controller, one SmartProbe inoperative and loss of a single flight data concentrator, one channel in a main flight control computer (MFCC) or in an actuator control monitoring unit.
Raisbeck Engineering, Inc., Seattle. Sam L. Jantzen Jr. was promoted to vice president and general manager; Bobby Patton was promoted to marketing manager of King Air Performance Systems; Edwin Black was named marketing manager of Learjet Performance Systems; Leslie Dycus was named advertising and public relations manager.
Klein Tools recently expanded its Tool Tote line with two new multi-pocket tote bags -- a 17-pocket Tool Tote with a shoulder strap (Cat. No. 58890) and a seven-pocket Tool Tote (Cat. No. 58886).
I wasn't surprised when I read in Intelligence (July, page 11) about the airlines' satisfaction with the Midwest Airspace Enhancement (MASE) that took effect during the second week of June. It's just another example of the incompetence at the FAA.
A dearth of open space suitable for urban development has combined with the need for cash-strapped municipal governments to seek short-term tax revenues, creating a "perfect storm" in the ongoing assault on general aviation airports.
The FAA published a final rule regarding drug or alcohol testing and medical certifications that includes several changes to airman medical certification standards and applies to all certificated airmen. It also impacts all organizations with FAA-mandated Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs. The rule changes the airman medical certification standards to disqualify an airman based on an alcohol test result of 0.04 or greater breath alcohol content.
Embraer announced the firm order backlog and production schedule for its Executive Jets business at a press conference during the 45th Farnborough International Airshow. "As of June 30th, 2006, our executive jet firm order backlog stands at U.S.$ 1.25 billion," said Maurício Botelho, Embraer chairman, president and CEO. "In respect to the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300, since our launch announcement just over a year ago, we have logged in excess of 235 firm orders." The Legacy 600 was launched in 2000 at the Farnborough Airshow, with deliveries beginning in the following year.
Vice President - Analysis, The Teal Group, Fairfax, Va. Raised in metropolitan New York, Aboulafia earned a master's degree in War Studies at Kings College in London. Trained in the details of armed conflict, he became an expert on the technology employed in war, particularly aircraft and engines. Hired by Teal in 1989, his field of interest has expanded to include all of aerospace. A fine writer, unemotional observer and pithy commentator, he is a favorite source of news editors and producers, trade conference speaker and lecturer.
