The general aviation community was expected to receive some relief from airspace restrictions around New York and Washington, D.C. over the weekend, but faced new restrictions in Boston, continuing restrictions over the nation's 30 busiest airports, and growing public concerns about the threat of small aircraft. FAA late last week released a notice to airmen (NOTAM) scaling back the temporary flight restrictions banning Part 91 flight within a 25-nautical-mile ring of New York Kennedy International and Washington Reagan National airports to 18 nm.
Canada's air navigation services provider, Nav Canada, opened a $5.7 million(C) Air Operations Center in Saskatoon, housing the new Air Traffic Control Tower, Flight Service Station (FSS) and Technical Operations Work Center.
FATAL ACCIDENTS involving the U.S. business jet and turboprop fleets doubled in the first nine months of 2001, compared with the same period a year ago, according to Robert E. Breiling Associates of Boca Raton, Fla. Through September 2001, there were 53 accidents, including 20 fatal accidents, which resulted in 43 passenger and 23 crew fatalities. During the first three quarters of 2000 there were 37 accidents, including 10 fatal accidents that resulted in 29 passenger and 16 crew fatalities.
NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION said a survey of its associate members indicates that nearly 500 companies plan to have an exhibit presence at the rescheduled NBAA convention in New Orleans Dec. 12-14, about half the total that had planned to exhibit at the show during the original Sept. 18-20 dates. While some large manufacturers have indicated they will not exhibit in December (BA, Oct. 1/151), NBAA President Jack Olcott said he's "really encouraged" by the initial response.
WOMEN IN AVIATION, INTERNATIONAL attracted $553,000 in donations for its 2002 scholarship program, which provides financial assistance to high school or college students and other individuals pursuing an aviation career. Twenty-five organizations have sponsored the dispatcher, general, flight, engineering, maintenance, management and tuition scholarships, which will be presented at the 13th annual International Women in Aviation Conference in Nashville, Tenn. in March.
PRATT&WHITNEY CANADA CORP. delivered its 1,000th PW500 engine to Cessna Aircraft Co. The 1,000th engine, a PW545A, powers the Citation Excel business jet. "The PW500 engine family was born with Cessna and grew with Cessna, which makes this milestone all the more special to all of us at P&WC," said Gilles Ouimet, president and CEO of the Canadian engine manufacturer. The company currently produces the PW530A, the PW535A and the PW545A.
THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD recommended that FAA require Boeing to change the lubrication procedure for the horizontal stabilizer trim system on DC-9, MD-80/90 and Boeing 727 series aircraft. The recommendations resulted from the board's investigation into the Jan. 31, 2000 crash of an Alaska Airlines MD-83 off the coast of California. The board also asked that Boeing be required to revise the end play check procedure for the system.
JOHN YATES was appointed a sales associate at JB&A Aviation, based in Houston, Texas. Yates was most recently regional sales manager for the Astra SPX and Galaxy business jets at Galaxy Aerospace, where he worked for six years. He has more than 15 years' experience in sales management with a software and process engineering background.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL Michael A. Canavan, FAA's associate administrator for civil aviation security since Dec. 4, 2000, resigned Friday based on a "mutually agreed decision between he and the [agency] administrator [Jane Garvey]," said spokesman Paul Takemoto. Before joining FAA, Canavan was the chief of staff, Headquarters, U.S. European Command, Stuttgart, Germany, for the Army.
BUTLER NATIONAL CORPORATION, Olathe, Kan., filed an STC application with FAA for design and approval of an "Aircraft Cockpit Shield." The shield would "isolate and protect flight crews from unwarranted intrusion or weapon discharge," the company said.
JUDY WILLIAMS was named a sales associate at JB&A Aviation. She will be responsible for sales in Florida and the Eastern states and will open a new regional office in Orlando, Fla. Williams was most recently vice president, marketing at TAG Aviation and has held sales positions at O'Gara Aviation and Hangar One, Inc., a Beechcraft distributor.
B/E AEROSPACE delivered the first upholstered seats for the Embraer Legacy business jet. The company, under a contract with Nordam Interior Integration, is providing "single and double seats for forward and aft facing installations, along with a fully 16G-certified side-facing three-place divan," B/E said. The Legacy program could yield sales of up to $52 million for B/E by 2009, based on expected aircraft production levels, the company said.
THE AIR GROUP added a fourth Gulfstream III to its fleet to be based in Denver, Colo. The aircraft seats 12 passengers for domestic and international flights.
MERCURY AIR CENTERS, AVLOG and GE Capital Financial are launching a new, joint aviation purchasing card. The Mercury Easy Trip Mastercard, designed to replace multiple charge cards, will be accepted in more than 22 million locations. The card can be used at any FBO for various services, including fuel, aircraft maintenance and catering.
THE INITIAL FEAR that war risk insurance would not be available is largely over, NATA's Coyne said (BA, Oct. 1/157). But he added that some companies have opted against war risk insurance coverage because the costs are now too high. One member complained last week that its one-year premium jumped from $2,300 to $57,000. Aviation lobbyists hoped to build support in Congress for a measure that would extend the same risk protections provided to airlines under the Air Transportation Safety and Stabilization Act adopted Sept. 23 to other aviation businesses.
B/E AEROSPACE, INC., has begun shipping passenger seats for Boeing Business Jets to three modification and outfitting firms. Under an agreement announced last year with Lufthansa Technik of Germany, B/E will provide seats for up to 30 BBJs destined for use in a fractional aircraft program. Separately, B/E was selected to provide nearly 90 passenger seats, divans and a queen-size bed on BBJs to be completed by Associated Air Center and Ozark Aircraft Systems.
EXTRA FLUGZEUBAU GmbH Models EA-300, EA-300L, and EA-300S airplanes (Docket No. 99-CE-85-AD) - proposes to require an inspection of the upper longeron at the horizontal stabilizer attachment for cracks using a fluorescent dye check penetrant method, repair of any cracks found, and modification of the horizontal stabilizer. The proposed AD would limit operation to the "Normal" category until accomplishment of the initial inspection and modification of airplanes with less than 200 hours time-in-service.
PRIVATAIR added five new aircraft to its fleet and opened a new charter base in Houston, Texas Two Canadair Challenger CL601s will be based in West Palm Beach, Fla.; one Falcon 50 will be based in St. Petersburg, Fla.; a Hawker HS 125/800 will be located in Indianapolis, Ind. and a Citation III will be hangared at the new Houston location.
JET AVIATION DALLAS at Love Field Airport is installing a new safety package to upgrade cockpit avionics and make them compliant with FAA regulations which require turbine-powered airplanes to have a class A or B terrain system installed by 2005. The package includes a Bendix-King multifunction display unit, a weather radar, a flight management system or GPS system and a multi-hazard unit with circuitry for traffic and terrain inputs to the display unit.
JET AVIATION WEST PALM BEACH installed a Securaplane alarm and security system on a Challenger 604. The installation included infrared motion sensors in the wheel wells, black and white and color lens cameras on the aircraft's belly and a single-lens camera on the top vertical fin overlooking the forward fuselage. "The Securaplane is one of the most comprehensive and advanced aircraft security systems on the market," said Avionics Manager Brian Wilson.
GENERAL ELECTRIC and Honeywell formally terminated their merger agreement, three months after the deal was blocked by the European Union. GE agreed to reimburse Honeywell for merger-related expenses. GE also agreed to buy two businesses from Honeywell with $35 million in annual sales - Tensor, a Texas-based oil and gas sensor business, and Honeywell Advanced Composites of Newark, Del.
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, reacting to falling traffic levels for its airline customers in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, laid off 14 percent of its work force last week and said it plans to dramatically reduce aircraft production.
Kirk Van Tine was sworn in as DOT general counsel Sept. 26 after Senate confirmation, following a nomination hearing and approval by the Senate Commerce Committee. Read Van de Water was sworn in as DOT assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs Sept. 25. She was confirmed by unanimous consent by the Senate following a favorable report of her nomination by the commerce panel, which did not hold a hearing on her nomination. The committee has not acted on or scheduled a hearing on the nomination of Emil Frankel to be DOT assistant secretary for policy.
THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION this week is expected to extend the comment period by 30 days for its proposed new regulation governing fractional aircraft operators (BA, July 16/25).The original comment period would have closed Oct. 16, but the National Business Aviation Association petitioned the agency for more time. "Since Sept.
