I marvel at business aviation, at the variety of its equipment, the diversity of its missions, and its responsiveness. It's a well-worn Navajo rumbling across the Alleghenies at night with a load of vital manufacturing parts strapped down in back, and it's a gleaming Global Express touching down in Santiago with a cargo of Atlanta executives, eager to do a deal.
Intercontinental Jet, Tulsa, has appointed James Andrews as its Learjet crew chief and William Wass as a Learjet technician. Andrews has over 33 years of aviation experience, with his last six years as the lead program manager of Learjet and Citation aircraft at Bizjet International.
AIG Aviation, a member of international insurer American International Group, has tailored an insurance program for fractional aircraft owners. The program, AIG said, ``offers aircraft owners a broad coverage package, providing greater risk management flexibility.'' It allows fractional owners to specify coverage for liability in excess of the primary policy for aircraft liability, non-owned aircraft liability, contingent aircraft physical damages and liability, and diminution of value.
Million Air, Cincinnati, has remodeled its FBO at Cincinnati Municipal Airport (LUK). The FBO has updated its lobby, passenger lounge, customer service counter, dining area, flight planning room, pilot's lounge and conference room. In addition to LUK, Million Air Columbus at Port Columbus International Airport (CMH) in Ohio has expanded its ramp space by 50,000 square feet.
It was a sweltering August day in 1981 when members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) struck against the FAA. Abandoning control towers and radar rooms across the country, they waved union banners, pumped their clenched fists into the sky, and began exhorting before television news crews that rushed to the picket lines. The controllers said they were angry, inveighing against a monolithic government agency. They wanted more money, better hours, better equipment, more help and the right to strike.
Checklists have popped up in several recent Cause&Circumstance columns and safety articles -- checklists ignored, misread, misplaced and misunderstood. We all agree, I think, that checklists deserve better treatment from us in that they are the undisputed mom and apple pie of cockpit management philosophy.
J.A. Air Center at West Chicago's Du Page Airport recently equipped a 2000 Cessna 208B Caravan with cutting-edge avionics. The aircraft now features a dual Garmin GPS system with a GNS530 and GNS430 comm/nav/glideslope/GPS/map. An Avidyne FlightMax 750 also was installed, as were BFGoodrich's WX500 Stormscope and SkyWatch traffic advisory systems.
Congress and the FAA seek to end new airport development gridlock by introducing legislation to streamline the approval process for new airports and runways and limit the time that can be spent debating such infrastructure improvements, but the FAA already is working the problem. A provision of AIR-21 requires the DOT to study federal environmental requirements related to planning and approving AIP projects to determine if the process can be streamlined. FAA Administrator Jane Garvey told B/CA that project has been under way at the FAA for some time.
Operational errors by air traffic controllers are up 51 percent over the past five years, despite the FAA's ongoing efforts to address the issue. In a recent study, the DOT's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) cited four incidents to illustrate the gravity of the problem: -- A near miss between an airliner and a general aviation aircraft near Atlanta in July 1999 -- collision was avoided when the airliner took evasive action based on a TCAS alert.
Frost Navratil Technical Solutions is offering its new 500 MHz ApproachView portable cockpit display for under $4,000. Specifically designed for corporate and individual pilots, the system provides a means of displaying JeppView and FlightDeck approach charts on a Fujitsu pen computer's 8.4-inch SVGA touchscreen. Weighing 2.5 pounds, the ApproachView runs any Windows program and includes a six-gigabyte hard drive. The computer can be purchased with a 12-channel GPS receiver from Garmin with a USB interface to give the unit moving map capabilities.
Lufthansa Technik is buying Composite International, the Tulsa-based aircraft component service company. Composite International has 107,000 square feet of shop space and employs 60. Lufthansa Technik also announced it is establishing a facility in Shenzhen, China to service aircraft components. The Shenzhen facility is a joint venture between Lufthansa Technik Shenzhen and two Chinese companies. The operations are expected to begin this year. The company said its latest expansion effort ``is a further step toward . . .
Ever since manufacturers started building airplanes, they've used their own products for corporate transportation. United Aircraft&Transport Corp. was no exception. Although its subsidiary companies operated airplanes starting in the 1920s, UA&TC entered the world of business aviation in November 1933 when it acquired a Model 247A made by its Boeing Airplane unit.
These three graphs are designed to be used together to provide a broad view of the Encore's performance. Do not use these data for flight planning. For a complete operational analysis, use the Approved Aircraft Flight Manual, Operational Planning Manual and other flight-planning data supplied by Cessna Aircraft Co.
Jean-Claude Gayssot, France's transport minister, is expected to approve three new airports to replace and supplement the country's overburdened existing airports. The Nantes and Brive-Laroche airports would be replaced by newer airports, while the Roissy-CDG and Orly airports, near Paris, will receive a supplemental airport.
The leading organization providing satellite services for civil communication is London, England-based Inmarsat (which describes itself as ``the world's leading celestial communications network''). Originally formed by international treaty to provide safety communication to ships at sea, that service was extended to provide similar services to aviation. Now privatized, Inmarsat furnishes a mix of emergency and commercial communication connections and services through its galaxy of eight geosynchronous satellites.
Horizon Air has come under FAA scrutiny for allegedly failing to follow its own maintenance manual after repairing an aircraft. The agency has proposed a $90,000 fine against the Seattle-based regional, for returning a de Havilland Dash 8-100 to service for more than 2,000 flights with an inoperative attitude/heading reference system. The maintenance in question occurred in May 1999, the FAA says.
Challenger Aviation Products and Global Filtration have received FAA approval for a new premium aviation spin-on filter for piston aircraft. The filters are shipped with 8130-3 airworthiness tags, certificates of conformance and are factory new with traceability. Each filter contains a lot number, which also is reflected on the 8130-3 tag, certificate of conformance, the pack slip and the invoice for internal tracking. The filters use the latest German technology that also is offered on Porsche, Mercedes and BMW automotive engines.
The NTSB added aircraft and human performance teams to its investigation of the October 16, 2000 Cessna 335 crash that killed Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, his son Roger and an aide, Chris Sifford. The Safety Board said initial analysis of the right engine vacuum system and pieces of the left engine have been inconclusive. The NTSB is continuing to examine the aircraft wiring, cables, hydraulics and cockpit instruments. The board plans to release its final report this summer.
The FAA and industry have agreed to add ``GPS'' to the titles of all RNAV (remote navigation) approach charts in a bid to resolve compatibility issues with multi-sensor FMS equipment. The change took effect with database cycle 0101, effective January 25. An approach titled ``RNAV (GPS) RWY XX'' on the chart may appear as ``GPS XX'' on the aircraft's FMS. The apparent glitch appeared on February 24, 2000, when the FAA began publishing RNAV approach procedures designed to be flown by both GPS and RNP-0.3-equipped aircraft.
Air Botnia of Finland has signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire five Saab 2000 turboprops from the Swedish manufacturer's leasing arm. Delivery of the first aircraft is planned for this month; the 47-seat aircraft will replace 32-seat Saab 340s. Air Botnia President Sveneric Persson says the Saab 2000 is fast enough to fly the same timetable as the carrier's new Avro RJ85 jets, slated to enter the fleet in May.
Heavily backed by Motorola Inc., Iridium LLC launched a galaxy of 74 telecommunication satellites in low earth orbit (LEO) designed to provide mobile, primarily voice, communication. The venture became an expensive (more than $5 billion), embarrassing flop. Following a bankruptcy filing in 1999, the service was closed down in spring 2000, leaving nearly 50,000 subscribers, including a few aviation clients, with expensive but useless equipment. Honeywell was the only major avionics firm to design and build Iridium avionics.
There are a number of service providers, and more will be established starting this year. Here is a brief rundown of the major programs in service or in test. In addition to direct service from Inmarsat and SITA as well as limited Arnav service, other well-known aviation communication services are moving into passenger satellite communication.
PrivatAir Holdings, Geneva, Switzerland, has formed a new aviation group consisting of the PrivatAir executive VIP operation and Flight Services Group (FSG). With the integration of the two companies, FSG and PrivatAir said they plan to refurbish their Transair FBO facilities at Le Bourget Airport in France. The combined group will now offer charter, management and FBO services at 20 locations in Europe and North America.
