The FAA has launched limited operation of its Multi-Sector Oceanic Data-Link System for aircraft operating over the Atlantic Ocean. Data link is intended to reduce or eliminate voice communications between controllers and flight crews, and to increase the accuracy and timeliness of ground-to-air communications. The service is expected to be available throughout the Caribbean by year-end and then be expanded to cover the New York Air Traffic Control Center's North Atlantic sectors.
If you are operating a company plane, it almost goes without saying that it should be kept spotless inside and out, in showroom condition, because first impressions are most important. For example, years ago I was presenting a Douglas B-26 Executive to Hess Oil at Teterboro. The plane came in from Ohio a few hours before the showing, and it looked like it had been stored outside for a month (it had). My competition was a Phillips Petroleum B-26 that was shiny bright inside and out. My plane had much lower total time, lower engine times and better bells and whistles.
Mercury Air Group named Jeffrey D. Smith to the position of eastern regional director and Tina M. Muse joins as manager of sales and marketing. Additionally, Mercury purchased two FBOs, Fort Wayne Air Service and Consolidated Airways, located at Fort Wayne International Airport in Indiana. With this purchase, Mercury Air Group now operates 18 FBOs nationwide.
Aviation fuel is a ``fungible,'' meaning that everyone produces it to a common specification for transport and distribution and that different brands can be mixed without compromising integrity. In the case of aviation fuel, transportation over long distances is generally accomplished via pipeline, so the fungible standard that all aviation fuels have to meet is the ``pipeline spec.'' This means that Texaco Jet-A can be mixed with Phillips Jet-A and Chevron 100LL can be mixed in the pipe with Exxon-Mobil 100LL and so forth.
AvFuel is selling its branded fuel products through five International Corporate and Cargo Services (ICCS) FBO locations in Mexico, including Mexico City/Toluca, Cuernavaca, Chihuahua, Morelia and Monterrey.
The FAA has made permanent a Mentor Protege program for ``socially and economically disadvantaged'' small businesses. FAA prime contractors and subcontractors are encouraged to prepare smaller companies to bid on future FAA contracts. The mentoring program was introduced in 1997 on a trial basis and is meant to ``extend the benefits of our vibrant economy to all Americans,'' according to Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater. Additional information is available at www.faa.gov/sbo.
The Air Line Pilots Association has asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into Jumpseat Fraud, or the theft of air travel by individuals posing as flight crew. According to a warning sent to Northwest Airlines crews by pilot union leaders, several Internet sites contain information about flight crew procedures for gaining access to airline jumpseats. ALPA has asked its members to check the credentials of prospective riders, including company ID, pilot and medical certificates.
If Francis A. Pratt and Amos Whitney (a relative of cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney) were alive today, they would be amazed at what has become of the machine tool company they founded in Hartford, Conn., in 1860. The two 19th century craftsmen, who helped perfect the commercial methods of precision measurement that facilitated mass production of industrial products, earned a reputation for quality workmanship.
New entrant manufacturer Eclipse Aviation has selected Albuquerque as the location of its new corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility. The company plans to employ around 20 people at existing facilities at Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) this year, until a new plant at Double Eagle II Airport (AEG), a general aviation field located seven miles from the city center, is completed.
Think for a moment about the role fuel plays in our lives. From the fuel we use to heat our homes and cook our food (which in turn ``fuels'' our bodies), to the fuel we burn to generate our electricity, motivate our cars, and power the airplanes we operate, our modern society runs on hydrocarbon-based fuels.
Ever wonder how the price you're paying for a gallon of fuel breaks out for taxes, overhead and the FBO's profit? Are FBOs really gouging you on fuel sales? Here's what some managers of large executive FBOs told B/CA in a survey three years ago: -- ''For budget purposes, we plan on a wholesale cost of $0.64/gallon [remember, this was 1997] to which must be added $0.06 for airport fees. Selling price, exclusive of FET, CET, and sales tax, is $1.60 to $2.04/gallon. Overhead here is huge -- $1,080,000 lease expense and $850,000 labor cost.''
CHC Helicopter subsidiary Lloyd Helicopter Services has been selected to provide helicopter transportation and air ambulance services to the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor. Lloyd will service the $13.5 million contract with two Eurocopter Super Pumas and one Bell 212.
Honeywell's RDR-4B wind-shear detection radar, recently certified with a smaller 24-inch antenna, will shrink again in size during the next two to three years, thus making it suitable for installation in business aircraft. This is the first time, since Rockwell Collins introduced the TWR-850 radar, that a solid-state radar has been designed specifically for business aircraft applications.
Boeing is discussing the possibility of a supersonic business jet with several potential partners. According to Boeing Business Jet President Borge Boeskov, the aircraft must be capable of supersonic travel over land and across the Pacific. Executive Jet has consistently said it would have interest in an SSBJ. Boeskov said that it would likely take about 10 years or more for a supersonic business jet to be ready for customer deliveries.
Signature RMC named Robert Hohlowski as director of technical services for the West Palm Beach, Fla., regional maintenance center. Nina Cox joined the Orlando headquarters as the sales and marketing research manager. The company also named Terry Meisinger as manager of sales support and Richard Himmel as manager of the company's Las Vegas regional maintenance center.
President Clinton signed a three-year FAA reauthorization bill in April that will go a long way toward providing the money the agency needs to handle the massive increases in air traffic forecast over the next decade. The bill that finally passed Congress was about as good as the industry could hope for, given the anti-aviation animus of the Clinton administration and the fanatics on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees who held the entire process hostage for months.
A new Internet site has been created to match operators requiring maintenance and refurbishment services with companies providing those services. Called AvQuotes, the site allows operators to post job descriptions and schedule aircraft viewings in order to attract bidders that can meet their time and scheduling requirements. Service providers that have registered and paid to participate can access a separate site for a password-protected list of jobs awaiting bids. The company says that more than 50 service providers are participating thus far.
L.J. Aviation has opened an FBO facility at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (LBE) in Latrobe, Pa. The new facility has a private passenger lounge, crew lounge, conference room, weather center, compu-ter connections, snooze room and showers.
Rockwell Collins plans to acquire Sony's Trans Com division, a manufacturer of inflight entertainment systems. The former Sony unit will be combined with Rockwell's IFE business known as Passenger Systems, resulting in a projected $500 million in revenues in 2001. Rockwell Collins recently announced a joint venture with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to create an inflight entertainment network for airline passengers.
Orlando-based Aviation Teachware Technologies says its iGATE PC-ATDs (Personal Computer-based Aviation Training Devices) offer flight schools, FBOs and universities a ``low-cost, high-tech simulation solution.'' The system combines Aviation Teachware's ELITE IFR simulation software with an ergo-nomic, digital instrument panel to provide realistic instrument training to all levels of pilots in aircraft ranging from single-engine Cessna and Piper trainers to more complex twins and turbine aircraft. Price: $16,995 Aviation Teachware Technologies
The Nasdaq Stock Market has removed Kitty Hawk, Inc. from being listed on the National Market System. The action was taken after Nasdaq was informed the company was not able to comply with the reporting and other continued-listing requirements. Kitty Hawk, Inc. provides scheduled overnight air cargo service through its hub in Fort Wayne, Ind., and also provides ACMI aircraft charter services and air charter logistics management services. The company formerly traded on Nasdaq under the symbols KTTY, KTTYE and KTTEQ.
The periods when technologies change present the biggest challenges to all involved. Someday, pilots and controllers will be monitoring their systems as aircraft are automatically and smoothly sequenced to their destinations with great efficiency and safety -- or, at least, so we are told. In the meantime, we have to survive any way we can, and survival with today's hodgepodge of ground and inflight automation can be difficult if not hazardous at times.
Alamo Jet, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based (FXE) air charter operator, has added a second nine-passenger Challenger 601. The firm also operates three Learjet 55s.
