Summary: Pursuant to FAA's rulemaking provisions governing the application, processing, and disposition of petitions for exemption (14 CFR Part 11), this notice contains a summary of certain petitions seeking relief from specified requirements of the Federal Aviation Regulations (14 CFR Chapter I), dispositions of certain petitions previously received, and corrections. The purpose of this notice is to improve the public's awareness of, and participation in, this aspect of FAA's regulatory activities.
The Commission on the Future on the U.S. Aerospace Industry last week appealed to both the Bush Administration and Congress to create a high-level committee to coordinate aerospace efforts across all government agencies and to make sure that short-term air transportation needs are fully funded despite current budget constraints. Those requests were part of a series of recommendations included in an interim report the aerospace commission released Wednesday.
NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION will hold a Leadership Conference April 23-25 at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville for flight department maintenance technicians, flight crewmembers, schedulers, dispatchers, and flight attendants. NBAA also is offering an Inspection Authorization renewal course April 22, before the conference, and a Professional Development course, "Leading and Motivating Flight Department Personnel," the day after. For more information, contact NBAA at (202) 783-9000.
THE PILOTS of two air cargo aircraft were killed in separate accidents about 10 hours apart this month. The first accident happened March 14 when a Ram Air Freight Piper PA-32, N4451X, crashed into a television tower near Sanford, N.C. at 2150 local time and exploded. The following morning the pilot of a Cessna 208 Caravan was killed when the plane crashed about 15 miles northeast of Alma, Wis. FAA said the pilot of N228PA "encountered icing conditions and attempted to land at Winona, Minn.
VECTOR TRAINING SYSTEMS won FAA approval for its aircraft reference data for the Cessna Skylane. Vector said the approval clears flight schools that operate Vector Skylane flight training devices to receive FAA Level 3 approval. Vector has delivered Skylane FTDs to the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas and Recurrent Training Center in Champaign, Ill. FAA approval is expected next month for the devices, Vector said.
Docket No.: FAA-2002-11355 Section of 14 CFR Affected: 14 CFR Sec. 61.71(a) Description of Relief Sought/Disposition: To permit the commercial pilot certification practical tests that two Embry Riddle students successfully completed to be valid even though the completion dates of the exams exceeded the required 60-day period from their graduation date due to the flight restrictions put in place after the events that took place on Sept. 11, 2001. Grant, Feb. 27, 2002, Exemption No. 7733
FLEXJET, Bombardier's fractional aircraft program, is not yet turning a profit, Brown confirmed last week during a press conference on the parent company's financial performance last year. He said Bombardier makes its money on the margins when the Flexjet aircraft are sold to customers. He added that "we hope to be close to breakeven on operations this year."
Docket No.: FAA-2001-10555 Section of 14 CFR Affected: 14 CFR 121.433(c)(1)(iii) and 121.441(a)(1) and (b)(1), and, Appendix F to Part 121 Description of Relief Sought/Disposition: To permit DHL to combine recurrent flight and ground training and proficiency checks to DHL's flight crewmembers into a single annual training and proficiency evaluation program. Grant, Feb. 20, 2002, Exemption No. 6727B
BOEING SIKORSKY'S RAH-66 COMANCHE team selected a site in Bridgeport, Conn. for the first phase of assembly and delivery operations. The Bridgeport location will house the program's headquarters and approximately 350 employees now working in Trumbull, Conn. will be relocated to Bridgeport. In addition, up to 150 new jobs, primarily in manufacturing, will be added this summer as the program increases preliminary production. The RAH-66 Comanche is the U.S. Army's new reconnaissance and light attack helicopter.
AIR TRACTOR Model AT-602 airplanes (Docket No. 2002-CE-03-AD) - proposes to require repetitively inspecting the left hand upper longeron and upper diagonal tube of the fuselage frame for cracks and repair any cracks found. This proposed AD also would require eventual modification of this area to terminate the repetitive inspections. This proposed AD is the result of reports of excessive movement in the empennage due to the loss of fuselage torsional rigidity. The actions specified by this proposed AD are intended to prevent failure of the fuselage caused by cracks.
LETICIA TRUJILLO was named director of maintenance for Jet Aviation Dallas. She will be responsible for repair station operations. Trujillo, who has more than 14 years of aviation industry experience, was most recently a maintenance sales representative for Jet Aviation Dallas.
DINA GREEN, formerly manager of communications for the National Association of State Aviation Officials, has joined the National Aircraft Resale Association to oversee communications. Green joined NASAO in early 2000 to manage special projects, media relations and meeting and convention planning. Before that, she spent five years with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker as senior paralegal.
THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION'S William J. Hughes Technical center awarded its service operations support contract (SOS 5) to CNSI. Under the contract, which has an estimated value of $178 million over seven years, CNSI will provide services to support FAA's National Airspace System. CNSI will team with Atlantic Science and Technology Corporation to work on such projects as the En Route Air Route Traffic Control Center, terminal area air traffic control systems, and search and beacon radar and surveillance systems.
THOMAS C. FITZSIMMONS was appointed assistant to the chief financial officer at PrivatAir. He will be responsible for financial policies and controls for the company. Fitzsimmons has more than 20 years of experience in senior management.
RAYTHEON COMPANY'S former Aircraft Integration Systems unit, headquartered in Greenville, Texas, was integrated into L-3 Communications Corp. and renamed L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, company executives said last week (BA, Jan. 21/40). The companies announced in January that L-3 would buy AIS from Raytheon for $1.13 billion in cash. AIS manufactures intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment for aircraft.
THE RECESSION appears to be over and "by the end of this year we'll see four percent growth in the U.S.," a veteran economist told FAA's Aviation Forecast Conference last week. Nariman Beravetch, chief economist of DRI-WEFA, said that while the recession was relatively mild and short-lived by traditional standards, it was "one of the worst profit recessions" since the 1930s.
JET AVIATION opened a new aircraft management services facility in Hong Kong. Led by Director of Operations, Iris Riesen, the facility is the company's second location in Asia. Jet Aviation will manage a Hong Kong-based Bombardier Global Express at the new facility. To offer charter services on the aircraft, Jet Aviation has applied for an air operator's certificate from the Civil Aviation Department of Hong Kong.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION reports that a King Air 90 landing at the Reno, Nev. Airport made it to the hangar without using the runway. FAA said the Regent Air Service air taxi aircraft, N948CC, was on the back course approach to Runway 34L "when ATC lost contact with the aircraft. The aircraft was subsequently found on top of a hangar with substantial damage. The pilot and five pax all sustained minor injuries. Other circumstances are unknown at this time." The incident occurred March 14.
Operators of Bombardier CRJ700 regional jets were ordered by FAA last week to increase normal mission fuel requirements by 3,000 pounds and to limit operation of the aircraft to within 60 minutes of a suitable alternative airport. The emergency airworthiness directive follows similar action by Transport Canada because of "reports of uncommanded fuel transfer between the wing fuel tanks and the center fuel tank.
TOM MEKIS was named director of aircraft sales at Piedmont Hawthorne. He will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the aircraft and airline sales divisions for Piedmont's Winston-Salem, N.C. and Leesburg, Va. locations. Mekis was previously general manager and manager of aircraft sales at Leesburg.
RANDY GROOM was named senior vice president at Piedmont Hawthorne. He will be the chief operating officer for the aircraft sales division as well as for the maintenance, repair and overhaul divisions. Groom has worked at Piedmont for 16 years.
REGIONAL AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURERS are frustrated with a decision by the Chinese government to withhold import licenses for aircraft previously ordered by Chinese carriers. The delay in issuing the import licenses is apparently due to a policy shift by senior Chinese officials who have decided their country should be a participant in building regional jets and not just an aircraft importer.
The so-far fruitless effort to recruit a chief operating officer (COO) to head FAA's new air traffic control organization may be put on hold until Jane Garvey's successor as FAA Administrator is in place, Garvey indicated last week.
