AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION is complaining that a number of FAA Flight Service Stations remain closed for walk-in briefings. The association said that despite a General Notice from the agency that FSS locations should be reopened for walk-in customers, 14 of the 61 FSS sites remain closed to pilots since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Facilities in Gainesville and St. Petersburg, Fla.
DELTA AIRELITE BUSINESS JETS added a CitationJet to its charter and aircraft management fleet. The CJ1 is based at Tallahassee, Fla. Regional Airport. The aircraft is configured with a five-passenger interior and can fly up to 1,200 miles.
The post-Sept. 11 downturn in tax revenues from air travel has left the Aviation Trust Fund about $2.6 billion short in funding for FAA's fiscal 2003 $14 billion budget request, and more will have to come out of the General Fund, DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead told the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee Wednesday.
KAISERAIR won FAA approval to install terrain awareness warning systems (TAWS) on Gulfstream G-IIB and G-III aircraft. KaiserAir can perform the installation at its Oakland International Airport facility or sell the hardware along with the supplemental type certification authorization.
BOEING bought a supercomputer from Cray, Inc. to support its research and development. Boeing will use the computer for functions like computational fluid dynamics. The computer can process 36 gigaflops of data, which translates to billions of operations per second, said Cray.
TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION Chief John Magaw agreed to support reopening Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) to business aviation and to keep the national airspace system open to business aircraft during periods of heightened security, according to Bob Blouin, senior vice president-operations for the National Business Aviation Association. Magaw made the commitment at a recent meeting with NBAA's board of directors.
TELEPHONICS CORPORATION will deliver 14 search and rescue, weather avoidance radar systems to Agusta-Westland of Italy. The contract is valued at more than $700,000. The RDR-1600 systems will be used to support the EH-101 helicopter program in Denmark. Delivery is scheduled for 2003 through 2005.
EXECUTIVE JET's NetJets fractional aircraft program didn't make any money last year, and neither did the other fractional aircraft providers, according to Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the parent company that bought EJI about four years ago (BA, July 27, 1998/35). See article below.
Fairchild Dornier, the German manufacturer with ambitious plans to develop a line of regional and business jets, is facing a financial crisis and earnestly seeking a partner with the financial strength necessary to permit Fairchild Dornier to execute its business plan.
Mesa Airlines has signed a memorandum of understanding with Pratt&Whitney Canada under which the engine manufacturer would assume responsibility for supporting the PT6 engines that power Mesa's fleet of Beech 1900 aircraft. The MOU calls for Mesa to sell the assets of its Desert Turbine Services (DTS) subsidiary, as well as spare engines. The tentative agreement with P&WC covers 116 engines, valued in excess of $70 million, that power 58 Beech 1900s.
SHARPLY LOWER aviation user tax collections due to lower than expected airline bookings and fares are raising concerns about a big shortfall in FAA's budget in coming years.
EAST ASIA AIRLINES/HELICOPTERS HONG KONG signed a deposit agreement for an S-92 to be used for regular passenger service between Macau and Hong Kong. The operator currently provides passenger service with four S-76C+ helicopters that make 56 flights a day between the two points.
THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE will sponsor the Aerospace Products Literature Center at the 2002 Farnborough International Air Show in Farnborough, England July 22-28. The department's booth will display sales literature for aerospace products, provide product information to potential customers, and register visitors who show interest in any product for any aerospace company at a cost of $600. For more information, contact Mara Yachnin or Sean McAlister at the Office of Aerospace at (202) 482-3113.
LONGMIRE said the Administration needs to be satisfied that the level of security is equivalent to that used by scheduled carriers before general aviation could use DCA. He cited the measures taken with the air carriers, including hardened cockpit doors, air marshals and other security procedures. While he acknowledged that air marshals and hardened cockpit doors would not be practical in general aviation, operations must be at least as secure, Longmire said.
SHARPLY LOWER PRICES, low interest rates and a bountiful supply of used business jets have created a very favorable buyer's market, a couple of veteran brokers told BA last week. Sales are still slow, but activity is picking up as the economy appears to be headed out of recession. See article below.
Docket No.: FAA-2002-11468 Section of 14 CFR Affected: 14 CFR 91.319(a), 119.5(g), and 119.21(a) Description of Relief Sought: To permit The Collings Foundation to operate its former military McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom airplane, which has an experimental airworthiness certificate, for the purpose of carrying passengers on local flights in return for receiving donations.
SEN. JIM INHOFE (R-Okla.) is expected to introduce legislation this week to match the General Aviation Industry Reparations Act of 2001, H.R.3347, which would provide general aviation up to $5.5 billion in loans and compensation to cover losses stemming from Sept. 11. H.R.3347 cleared the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last month (BA, March 4/105) and backers are hopeful it will reach the House floor soon.
AIRCRAFT ELECTRONICS ASSOCIATION has sold more than 190 booth spaces for its 45th Annual International Convention and Trade Show April 25-27 in Palm Springs, Calif. AEA said it expanded the exhibit space twice to accommodate exhibitors, which include manufacturers of avionics, instruments, airframe and test equipment, and shop owners. The convention will host a series of seminars, regulatory panels and seminars covering an array of topics.
JET AVIATION, Geneva, Switzerland, recently performed its first complete wing de-mate of a Gulfstream II business jet. The aircraft was ferried to Geneva for the wing de-mate procedure after corrosion was found. In order to perform the job, Jet Aviation arranged to ship special shoring equipment to Geneva from the company's West Palm Beach, Fla. facility. Officials said X-ray and ultrasonic inspections revealed corrosion under the main landing gear locks, between the fuselage and the wings, in the clothes pin fittings and along the torque box.
CESSNA AIRCRAFT sold two 172R Skyhawks to Kawasho Corp., its Cessna Sales Team Authorized Representative in Tokyo. The aircraft will be used for flight training. "Interest in general aviation in Japan continues to grow," said Chris Bogaars, Cessna sales director in the Asia Pacific. "Over 600 single-engine piston aircraft currently operate in Japan, and over half of those are Cessnas."
TWO GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE demonstration pilots broke a 44-year-old speed record in a Gulfstream V on a flight from Tokyo Narita to Washington Dulles International Airport, the National Aeronautic Association reported last week. The pilots, Gregory Sheldon and Robert McKenney, completed the 6,739-mile flight in 11 hours and 54 minutes, averaging more than 492 knots. U.S. Air Force Brigadier General William Eubank and a crew set the previous record in 1958 flying a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker.
HOWARD W. CANNON, 90, a Democratic senator from Nevada who ruled the Senate Commerce Committee with a firm hand and helped enact the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, died March 5 at a Las Vegas hospital where he had been treated for Alzheimer's disease. Cannon, a native of St. George, Utah, graduated from college in 1933 and the University of Arizona law school in 1937. He was an Army Air Force pilot in Europe in World War II.
Docket No.: FAA-2002-11355 Section of 14 CFR Affected: 14 CFR 61.71(a) Description of Relief Sought: To permit Embry-Riddle to consider two students to have met the aeronautical experience, aeronautical knowledge, and areas of operation requirements of Part 61 although the students were not able to pass the practical test within 60 days of graduation due to Sept. 11, 2001 flight restrictions.
Dassault Aviation has begun flight testing its Falcon 900EX with an integrated EASy flight deck. The first flight last month of the fully integrated cockpit management system launched the certification program that is expected to conclude in early 2003. "The first flight marks a major milestone in the EASy development process," said Christine Courault, Dassault's EASy program manager.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION extended waivers of airport slot usage requirements until Oct. 26, 2002 to help carriers that are still running on reduced schedules. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, FAA provided air carriers a waiver until April 7 from requirements that they use at least 80 percent of the takeoffs and landing slots they are allocated into airports that are slot-controlled.
