SkyWest held an initial public stock offering on August 28. The St. George, Utah-based airline offered 2,636,100 shares of its common stock at $44.50 per share, for estimated net proceeds of $105 million. The company plans to use the money to buy additional aircraft, spare parts and support equipment. SkyWest offered 2.5 million of the shares, while selling stockholders put up the remainder.
Trade groups are pushing the FAA to reverse its final ruling regarding certification procedures for changed products. Under the new regulation, existing products that are changed must be re-certified to current airworthiness requirements, a process the AOPA claims could ``add up to $15,000 to the cost of something as simple as installing a new GPS receiver.'' Dennis Roberts, the AOPA's vice president and executive director of government and technical affairs, says the rule also will ``hamper safety improvements . . .
Pratt&Whitney Engine Services has opened a Regional Service Center in Orlando. The new center is staffed by four technicians who can perform a variety of services including hot-section inspections, engine removal and installation services, fan balancing, troubleshooting and coordination with the engine manufacturer's recently expanded West Virginia overhaul and repair facility. The Orlando location specializes in PT6, JT15D, PW300 and PW500 engines.
DaimlerChrysler Aviation (DCA) has added a Falcon 2000 and a Hawker 800XP to its managed fleet, which has doubled in size since the beginning of the year. The auto giant subsidiary now manages 11 aircraft ranging from Cessna Citation IIs to a Gulfstream IV. DCA President Tom Davis says the expansion will continue with the opening of a new arrival and departure building with on-site U.S. Customs clearance later this year and the addition of a 50,000-square-foot hangar in first quarter 2001.
Production of the Airbus Corporate Jetliner (ACJ) will be limited to four units per year, to make room for airliners on the company's Hamburg, Germany, production line.
Gulfstream Aerospace has eliminated about 200 management, administrative and support jobs, or 10 percent of its work force in those areas, in what the manufacturer calls ``the second phase of an initiative to become a more-efficient company.'' The latest reductions follow an initial wave of staff and overtime reductions completed this summer. Saying the General Dynamics subsidiary is ``strong and financially healthy,'' Gulfstream President and CEO Bill Boisture said the layoffs resulted from its need to remain competitive.
Archie Trammell is developing a Web-based version of his popular radar training seminars, expected to be available in early 2001. Trammell has scheduled seven seminars next year but will not conduct custom programs for individual flight departments so that he may focus on developing the new Internet seminars. Further information about Trammell's courses is available at www.av-wx-rdr.com.
Nestle into the cabin of a Galaxy and you might mistake it for a Gulf-stream II, if it weren't for the Galaxy's four-inch dropped aisle, plus the numerous and smaller cabin windows.
With Congress nearing recess at B/CA press time, it appeared unlikely that AOPA President Phil Boyer's nomination to the FAA Management Advisory Council (MAC) would be approved. Boyer faced tough opposition from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), long at odds with the AOPA chief on a number of issues including user fees.
Photograph: A lineman at Raytheon Aircraft Services in Tampa, Fla., services his refueler at the FBO's fuel farm. You arrive at a new destination and call for fuel. The truck shows up and you discover it is crewed by a person who seems barely old enough to have gotten by the OSHA regs. He gives you a welcoming grin, grabs a screwdriver and starts looking for the access door to your complicated single-point refueling panel. You start to feel a bit uncomfortable.
Gulfstream's newly expanded Brunswick, Ga., completions and service facility opened in late September. The 24,000-square-foot hangar and nearby 20,000-square-foot storage and maintenance building are largely dedicated to completion and service of G-IVSPs and G-Vs in the Gulfstream Shares program -- a partnership with Executive Jet International. The manufacturer expects to complete seven G-IVSPs this year and one G-V that already has arrived in Brunswick.
A pledge of community support has led Mesa Airlines to reverse its decision to discontinue air service between Hobbs and Albuquerque, N.M. The Phoenix-based carrier had planned to terminate service on the non-subsidized Essential Air Service (EAS) route on October 19, citing costs associated with the shift from FAR Part 135 to Part 121 operations. Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein said Lea County officials had ``agreed in principle to share the burden of these additional costs.''
Mercury Air Group has completed its acquisition of Raytheon Aircraft Services' FBO in Birmingham (BHM), Ala. The facility will remain a Raytheon authorized service center for Beech Barons through King Airs. Raytheon said it wants to concentrate on the expansion of its jet service centers in Atlanta and Tampa. Both facilities are undergoing expansions that are expected to be completed this fall. No changes in staff or management in Birmingham are planned. GE Support Services has launched a new Web site for ``one-stop shopping''
The FAA has withdrawn four of 38 proposed Airworthiness Directives mandating Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) revisions on the use of pneumatic deicing boot activation. The rescinded ADs cover Cessna 208, 208A and 208B Caravans; Beech 99, 1900 and 2000 Starship Models; the King Air 90, 100, 200 and 300; and Pilatus Britten-Norman BN-2T and BN-2TA Islanders. According to the FAA, the manufacturers demonstrated that the language in the AFMs of the affected aircraft adequately addressed the condition described in the proposed AD.
Following the completion of a 21-day test period, the FAA has pronounced the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) useable for limited aviation applications under VFR conditions. The test showed WAAS to be stable and accurate to within one to two meters horizontally and two to three meters vertically. WAAS is designed to improve situational awareness by augmenting the GPS signal. Now three years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, the system has come under increasing attack by Congress and the General Accounting Office (GAO).
Million Air has named Steve Hirschfeld as its manager of quality control. Hirschfeld's responsibilities include training and safety programs for all of Million Air's FBOs. As a result of recent surveys, the company has instituted a ``Licensed Line Technician'' program. The program also requires all line technicians to complete the ATI or National Air Transportation Association Safety 1st Program.
C-MAP has introduced its AvMap EKP II NT GPS portable moving map display, which incorporates software from Magellan's EC-20X, along with a SiRF powered 12-channel GPS engine. The eight-inch monochrome LCD has a screen resolution of 640 x 480 and includes the Jeppesen Navdata card covering North, Central and South America. Optional land cartography C-cards are available to provide additional road, lake and river details. Price: $999.00 C-MAP Aviation 133 Falmouth Rd. Mashpee, Mass. 02649
Sabreliner has introduced a new composite interior for Model 80 aircraft. The interior weighs about 100 pounds less and offers easier maintenance and inspection access than original interior components, says the company.
Maptech is now offering free, downloadable National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aeronautical charts through its Mapserver service. The New Hampshire company also provides free U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps, NOAA marine charts and high altitude marine navigation photos on the Internet. All charts are digitized versions of U.S. government charts. Maptech sells a CD-ROM version of sectional charts, VFR terminal area charts and world aeronautical charts, which include GPS interface, elevation profiling and other navigation tools.
Hayward, Calif.-based Spitzer Helicopter Leasing has purchased its 30th Robinson R-22 helicopter. The helicopters are leased to operators throughout the country.
Britain's Civil Aviation Authority has warned airlines and operators that not all air traffic control instructions heard on the radio may be genuine. The action follows a rash of reports of ``unauthorized and malicious'' transmissions being made on U.K. air traffic frequencies. The CAA says 20 such cases have been reported so far this year, compared with 18 last year and three in 1998. None have resulted in an accident, however, since in every case pilots questioned the radio hackers' incorrect phraseology.
Air Partner in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is offering an aircraft matching service for air charter customers. The Air Partner database uses a network of contacts that matches available aircraft, using customers' location and budget criteria.
