ATR launched operations of a new training center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The center, operated in cooperation with Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly, is the second ATR training center in Southeast Asia. ATR also established a center in Bankok. ATR entered the Malaysian market last year with sales of its regional turboprops to Malaysia Airlines subsidiaries Firefly and MASwings as well as to Berjaya Air.
Federal Aviation Administration officials said last week the number of serious runway incursions continued a downward trend through June, even as National Transportation Safety Board investigators are gathering information on a series of incursions that happened during the first 10 days of July.
WILL SIMMONS was named to head customer management and business development for the Charter Department of Epps Aviation at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK) in Atlanta, Ga. Simmons will market charter sales, acquire management aircraft and work with current and new customers. Simmons has been flying professionally for eight years, logging more than 4,700 flight hours. He has spent the past six years at Epps as a charter captain flying turboprop and jet aircraft. Prior to his career in aviation, Simmons held a variety of sales and financial positions outside the industry.
EADS SOCATA TBM 700 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2008-0748; Directorate Identifier 2008-CE-041-AD] – This proposed AD would require operators to check the gap between the landing gear control button and the floor panel. If the gap were found to be insufficient, operators would have to modify the floor panel in accordance with the instructions of EADS SOCATA Mandatory TBM Aircraft Service Bulletin SB 70-154 (dated April 2008).
Airbus and Boeing, along with the operators of thousands of their aircraft, will have to spend more than $1 billion in coming years to install systems to reduce the risk of catastrophic fuel tank explosions, FAA said last week in releasing a 233-page final rule. The new requirements stem from National Transportation Safety Board recommendations that resulted from the safety board’s investigation of the center-wing fuel tank explosion of a Boeing 747 (TWA Flight 800) in 1996.
CESSNA is enhancing services at its European Citation Service Center at Le Bourget Airport near Paris to provide round-the-clock support for aircraft-on-ground situations. The center plans to dispatch mobile maintenance teams through the European market to minimize aircraft downtime for Citation owners. “With the Citation fleet growing in the European market, we believe it’s the right time to step up our service levels for unplanned maintenance and AOG situations,” said Mark Paolucci, Cessna’s senior vice president of customer service.
KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY recently established an Unmanned Aerial Systems Program Office as the first major initiative of the university’s new Applied Aviation Research Center. The university tapped Kirk Demuth to head the office and work to develop policies and procedures to facilitate the entry of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace. Demuth, who has more than 1,000 hours of UAV formation flying as a chase plane observer for the Predator and Reaper UAVs, will be trained as a UAV operator and be involved with hands-on field work of UAV operations.
DASSAULT Falcon 50 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2008-0732; Directorate Identifier 2008-NM-053-AD] – This proposed AD would require operators to conduct repetitive ultrasonic inspections for cracks in the stiffeners of the right-hand and left-hand wing lower panels between Ribs 13 and 17, per the instructions of Dassault Maintenance Manual Temporary Revision 74 (dated November 2007). If any cracks are found, they will need to be repaired.
DASSAULT appointed Bhakari Aviation and Execujet South Africa, both at Lanseria International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, as Dassault Falcon Authorized Service Centers. Both Execujet and Bhakari will provide scheduled and unscheduled maintenance support, transient service, troubleshooting, AOG support and basic inspections. Dassault also named Palmali at Ataturk Airport in Turkey as an authorized provider of AOG assistance as well as scheduled and unscheduled maintenance and warranty repair work for Falcon aircraft.
CHELTON FLIGHT SYSTEMS received its first European Aviation Safety Agency approval for a synthetic vision installation. EASA approved installation of Chelton’s Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) on Bell 206A, B and L series and 407 light-single-engine helicopters. The Chelton EFIS uses three-dimensional graphics to depict terrain ahead of and around the helicopter in a real-time visual picture. The display helps the pilot “see” aircraft position in relation to surroundings, regardless of weather or time of day.
The California National Guard (CNG) is ramping up its aerial deployment – and outreach – to fight a spate of early season wildfires. Currently 22 rotary-wing aircraft are supporting the firefighting effort, including 14 CNG helicopters and eight helicopters from Utah, Nebraska, Washington state, Arizona and Oregon, according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office. Already, these rotary-wing aircraft have dropped nearly 3 million gallons of water.
EMBRAER signed sales agreements for one Lineage 1000 and two Legacy 600 business jets, the company announced last week. The Lineage 1000 was ordered by Royal Jet, which is representing the Habtoor Group conglomerate from the United Arab Emirates. In addition to conducting technical assessments and overseeing other prepurchase details, Royal Jet will provide aircraft management services for the Lineage 1000, which will be operated for private use.
Canadian maintenance specialist Cascade Aerospace struck an agreement with Swedish operator Nord-Flyg to convert Bombardier Q400 regional turboprops into freighter aircraft. Nord-Flyg initially ordered two Q400-PF Package Freighter conversions, but signed a letter of intent to acquire three more Q400s for conversion. Nord-Flyg acquired the two Q400s from SAS in March following a decision by SAS to get rid of its Q400 fleet in the wake of a series of landing gear accidents that began last year (BA, Jan. 28/40).
JOSEPH (ANDY) JOHNSON was named assistant manager of FlightSafety International’s Cessna Learning Center in Wichita, Kan. Johnson is joining FlightSafety following a 27-year career in the U.S. Navy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. and a master’s degree in financial management from the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, Calif.
RICHARD HODKINSON joined FirstFlight, Inc. as president of the company’s newly formed West Coast Division, which will be headquartered in a new facility in Van Nuys, Calif. In 1994, Hodkinson formed Elite Aviation in Van Nuys, and grew the business to a fleet of 24 jets before selling the company in 2004. He then remained with Elite for two more years as president and chief operating officer. FirstFlight is a charter management and aviation services company headed by President and CEO John Dow and headquartered in Elmira and Corning, N.Y.
ONAIR, an inflight passenger communications specialist, is teaming with Aviation Center Cologne (ACC) to provide communication services to the business jet market. ACC, which has centers at Cologne airport and in Luxembourg, will install airborne equipment that would allow passengers to use their mobile phones and other communications devices during flights. OnAir will provide air-to-ground link services using Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband satellite communications. The services will be available beginning in early 2009.
FLIGHTSAFETY has begun offering a “Required Navigation Performance Special Aircraft and Aircrew Authorization Required” (RNP SAAR) course for pilots of Gulfstream G550, G500, G450 and G350 aircraft equipped with PlaneView. The one-day course includes three hours of ground school, a detailed preflight briefing and a four-hour simulator session. FSI expects pilots to take the RNP course in conjunction with recurrent training.
CIRRUS SR20 AND SR22 AIRPLANES need to be modified to prevent the cabin doors from opening and separating from the aircraft in flight. AD 2008-14-13 requires operators to replace the cabin door rod ends with new parts, including a redesigned nonbinding hinge pin that replaces the existing pin at the upper door hinge. Parts and labor for the installation could cost up to $550 for each of the 2,308 affected airplanes, FAA said. This AD, which resulted from two known occurrences of in-flight cabin door separation, becomes effective Aug. 14.
The operators of hundreds of Bell Helicopter models face an August 14 deadline for compliance with several FAA airworthiness directives that affect a sizeable portion of the U.S. fleet. AD 2008-14-03 calls for inspection and possible adjustment or replacement of a tailboom bolt on more than 2,200 Bell 206 series rotorcraft.
Israel Aerospace Industries displayed the Gulfstream G550-based Conformal Airborne Early Warning and Control (CAEW) aircraft at last week’s Farnborough Air Show. Two of the aircraft are fielded with the Israel Air Force, the first having been delivered into operational service in February with the second following in May.
THE MAINTENANCE DATA LINK SYSTEMS on approximately 135 large-cabin Gulfstream business jets have automatically downloaded 10,000 data transmissions to the aircraft manufacturer’s technical operations centers in the nine months since the PlaneConnect system became available. PlaneConnect automatically relays messages generated by the Crew Alerting System (CAS) and Central Maintenance Computer (CMC) on airborne aircraft to operations centers on the ground, and then via e-mail to operators.
Teams led by Raytheon and Sensis have been awarded 18-month, $6 million NASA contracts to evaluate the effect that new aircraft types, from Very Light Jets to supersonic transports, might have on the next-generation air transportation system (NextGen). The two teams will use modeling and simulation to evaluate how the new classes of aircraft could effect air traffic management efficiency, aviation safety and the environment. The studies will provide NASA and its NextGen partners with research and design recommendations.
PRECISION AVIATION GROUP (PAG) of Atlanta began a major expansion and overhaul of its facilities, the third expansion in the past 10 years. The current 30,000-square-foot complex will grow to 42,000 square feet. PAG also is renovating existing shops and offices and making “large capital investments in tooling, equipment, technology and logistics to better serve our customer base and provide a solid foundation for continued growth,” said President David Mast.
EUROCOPTER AS 355N helicopters [Docket No. FAA-2008-0041; Directorate Identifier 2007-SW-16-AD; Amendment 39-15599; AD 2008-14-04] – Requires installation, on the overhead instrument panel immediately below the ammeter, a placard that defines a new load limitation for the starter-generator of 100 amps above 10,000 feet altitude.
