Aircraft Owners And Pilots Association credited NBC for accurately reporting the events but said it hoped the events gave NBC - "and the other media who make a living by generating unnecessary fear - ample reason to stop making GA a security scapegoat." National Air Transportation Association President James Coyne said the owners of the charter, "and rightfully so," were properly upset by the attempted security breach, and Coyne planned to make that message known.
SIGNATURE EXPANDS EUROPEAN PRESENCE WITH EXECAIR DEAL - Signature Flight Support reached an agreement with Menzies Aviation to buy the Execair fixed-base operation in a deal that will provide Signature Flight Support a major presence in Europe, the companies announced last week. Signature agreed to pay 11.75 million pounds (about $21.7 million U.S.) in cash for Execair, and in turn will receive operations at 10 airports in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Belgium.
CAE REPORTS JUMP IN FIRST QUARTER REVENUES, EARNINGS - Canadian simulation training specialist CAE reported nearly an 84 percent jump in earnings on an eight percent increase in revenues for the first quarter ended June 30, 2004. Earnings for the first quarter were $24.3 million (all dollars are Canadian) on revenues of $262.6 million, compared with earnings of $13.2 million and revenues of $242.9 million in the first quarter ended June 30, 2003.
Aerospace stakeholders met last week in the Washington, D.C. area to discuss strategies for getting both the Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns to focus on aerospace issues. The stakeholders are developing a handful of key issues that they would like each campaign to address. Thursday's meeting came a day after President Bush made a campaign stop at Eclipse Aviation's facilities in Albuquerque, N.M. Bush joked that he and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who also attended last week's event, would fly the first Eclipse business jet.
LATEST TERROR ALERTS TRIGGER RENEWED GA CAUTIONS - Federal authorities this month increased surveillance of New York helicopter tour operators and renewed their warnings that the general aviation community remain on guard, after the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI released another round of alerts about potential terrorist threats.
Signature Flight Support is poised to become a dominant fixed-base operator in Europe - on top of a strong U.S. presence - by acquiring Execair's facilities at 10 sites in the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe. With the acquisition, Signature will grow its European network to 14 bases. See article below.
Thales ATM won a contract from the DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH to provide an air traffic system upgrade, TECOS (Terminal Coordination System), for Hannover and Bremen airport towers. The TECOS installations are part of Germany's Tower Flight Data Processing System modernization. TECOS is an electronic flight strip module.
Federal Aviation Administration has released information on flight restrictions in the New York City vicinity during the Republican National Convention Aug. 30 through Sept. 3. The restrictions will include a "no-fly zone" within a seven-nautical-mile radius from Madison Square Garden up to 18,000 feet. Exceptions include scheduled passenger and cargo flights to and from LaGuardia, Newark and Kennedy airports, private flights at Teterboro and helicopter flights out of the three Manhattan heliports.
AOPA OFFERS HELP FOR 80-OCTANE GAS CONSUMERS - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association confirmed that the last known refinery of 80-octane aviation gasoline, Kern Oil, has stopped producing the fuel, but said 22 airports still have a supply of the avgas. The association said its online airport directory will give pilots information on where to obtain 80-octane. AOPA also lists holders of supplemental type certificates that can convert aircraft engines to run on 100LL gas.
FlightSafety International's facility in San Antonio received recognition for compliance with ISO-9001-2000 international standards. The center provides Cessna and Fairchild SA-226/227/C-26 training. The San Antonio center is the sixth FlightSafety facility to be registered by the British Standards Institute for compliance with ISO-9001-2000 standards.
Environmental Protection Agency last week formally extended by 18 months the deadlines for complying with new spill prevention control and countermeasure requirements. The agency in June proposed a 12-month extension but opted for an 18-month extension after receiving comments that the affected industries would need more time. Under the new deadlines, affected parties must implement their plans by Aug. 18, 2006.
Cessna Aircraft is developing a series of service bulletins for installation of the new Runway Awareness and Advisory System (RAAS) on the Citation Bravo, Encore, Excel and X. Cessna released the service bulletin for the Excel in July and will release the remaining bulletins in mid-September. The RAAS system improves situational awareness and helps protect against runway incursions by providing an aural advisory to the flight crew during taxi, takeoff, final approach, landing and rollout.
Million Air completed a renovation project for its facility at Van Nuys, Calif. Airport. The $750,000 project included repaving and reconfiguring the jet ramp, a new fuel farm, hangar repainting and a renovation of its terminal building. Million Air said the renovations are the beginning of a long-term construction project planned for the facility. The FBO lost its 5,500-square-foot glass terminal building in the Northridge earthquake, and has since been waiting for city approval to build a new terminal and 13 corporate jet hangars.
Corporate Angel Network (CAN) arranged 217 flights for cancer patients in July, a record for the public charity that works with corporations to provide free transportation using empty seats on business aircraft. In addition to the record number of flights, CAN recently flew its 19,000th cancer patient. "We have been able to help more patients so far this year than ever before," said CAN's Peter Fleiss.
601P CRASH INVESTIGATION FOCUSES ON AIRCRAFT WEIGHT - The National Transportation Safety Board is focusing on the takeoff weight of an Aerostar PA-60-601P twin-engine aircraft that crashed and burned just after taking off from an airport in Austin, Texas Aug. 3. The crash killed all six people aboard, including the pilot.
NATA PROMOTES BYER, KORANDA TO KEY POSTS - The National Air Transportation Association promoted Eric Byer to vice president of government and industry affairs and Amy Koranda to director of safety management. Byer assumed responsibility for steering the association's government relations and lobbying efforts as director of government and industry affairs, when Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside left the association in October (BA, Oct. 20/178). Byer joined NATA in 1998 as a legislative affairs specialist.
General Dynamics Aviation Services (GDAS) appointed David Pearman general manager of the Las Vegas service center. The Las Vegas facility is one of five centers in GDAS's regional network. Pearman will direct all service and maintenance work performed on Gulfstream, Challenger, Falcon, Hawker, Learjet and other business jets at the Las Vegas center. He formerly was senior operations manager at GDAS's facility in Westfield, Mass. Before joining GDAS, he was a crew chief for Garrett Aviation in Los Angeles.
TRIUMPH EARNINGS DECLINE DESPITE HIGHER REVENUE - Triumph Group, the Wayne, Pa. firm whose operating companies provide a range of products and services for the aviation market, reported higher revenues but sharply lower profits for the first quarter of fiscal 2005, which ended June 30.
Aviation Groups last week praised a charter operation, Fostaire Helicopters based at St. Louis Downtown Airport, for contacting the FBI and the local police after two suspicious individuals attempted to charter a helicopter. The individuals planned to pay for the flight with cash, furnished driver's licenses from two different states and drove a car from a third state. The men, described as multi-ethnic, carried backpacks and had "odd-shaped" luggage, according to an American Association of Airport Executives report.
Raynor Reavis, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. since July 2002, was elected a vice president of General Dynamics Corp., the business jet manufacturer's parent company. Reavis, 63, will continue to hold his position at Gulfstream.
Dassault Falcon completed the process of certifying the Falcon 2000 maintenance program developed by CAE SimuFlite, the French aircraft manufacturer's first training partner to meet Dassault's expanded instructor and training program requirements for the Falcon 2000. Dassault said CAE SimuFlite had to meet the stringent requirements set forth in the Dassault Falcon Training Policy Manual (FTPM). That document defines the objectives necessary to meet training requirements to operate and support Falcon aircraft.
