March 2010

Book Review: Flying Drunk

By Matt Thurber

“Remember those airline pilots who got caught flying drunk?”
“They went to jail, didn’t they?”
“What a bunch of losers.”
If you bring up the story of three Northwest Airlines pilots who were caught flying while intoxicated on March 8, 1990, that’s invariably the reaction you’ll hear: the pilots were stupid, threw away their careers, risked passengers’ live more

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Southers rejects offer to lead TSA

By Paul Lowe

Erroll Southers, the White House choice to head the leaderless Transportation Security Administration (TSA), withdrew his name from consideration on January 20, saying his nomination had been “obstructed by ideology.”
The Obama Administration announced on September 10 its intention to nominate Southers as assistant secretary for the TSA, which would have made him the fifth administrator more

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TrueNorth puts focus on apps, not hardware

By Kirby J. Harrison

Following supplementary type certification of its Simphone OpenCabin airborne telecommunications system for Bombardier’s Global business jet line, TrueNorth Avionics says it is experiencing a run of orders and installations for its software-centric packages.
In the past year, TrueNorth telecommunications were selected for the U.S. Air Force fleet of some 80 executive transports. TrueNorth more

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NZ-2000 users responding to FAA guidance

By Stephen Pope

Business jet operators flying with Honeywell NZ-2000 flight management systems are responding to an FAA airworthiness bulletin describing a software glitch that could send airplanes to the wrong instrument arrival waypoint.
The FAA has issued special airworthiness information bulletins NM-10-12 and NM-10-13 to address an issue with software for NZ-2000 and FMZ-2000/IC-615/IC-800/IC-1080 Pr more

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Aircell ATG-5000 Debuts in Gulfstream G200

By Stephen Pope

Aircell announced the first installation of its ATG 5000 high-speed Internet system aboard a California-based Gulfstream G200 operated by charter provider FlightWorks. Gulfstream’s Dallas service center performed the hardware installation, which added a stand-alone ATG 5000 unit and two antennas on the aircraft belly. The ATG 5000 is designed to provide high-speed Internet service for buyers who more

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Cobham HeliSAS Earns TSO

By Stephen Pope

The FAA has issued a technical standard order to Cobham for its HeliSAS stability-and-
augmentation/autopilot system. The two-axis HeliSAS autopilot is designed to reduce pilot workload by assisting with helicopter stability while also providing autopilot altitude hold, heading select and navigation sensor coupling. Cobham holds a supplemental type certificate for installation of HeliSAS in t more

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DeVos EC130 Flies with Max-Viz EVS-1500

By Stephen Pope

One Sky Aviation, a maintenance and repair center based in Anchorage, Alaska, received an STC permitting installations of the Max-Viz EVS-1500 enhanced-vision system aboard the Eurocopter AS350 and EC130. The initial installation was performed by One Sky Aviation in an EC130 operated by Nelson AeroDynamiX of Traverse City, Mich., and owned by Dick DeVos, the son of billionaire Amway founder Richar more

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ADS-B making life easier for Gulf helicopter pilots

By Stephen Pope

Think working at New York Tracon is a tough job? Try heading down to the Gulf of Mexico, where controllers handle between 5,000 and 9,000 helicopter flights a day, all without the aid of surveillance radar.
The waters off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida might be an oasis of calm, but thanks to the oil business the activity in the skies above rivals the busiest termi more

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Nextant selects Rockwell Collins Venue cabin system for 400Next

By Stephen Pope

Nextant Aerospace has selected the Rockwell Collins Venue cabin management system for the interior of the Beechjet 400Next as part of a retrofit package that brings high-definition video screens, Blu-ray disc players, iPod docking stations and more to the passenger compartment of the original Beech 400A/XP.
The agreement announced in late January between Nextant and Rockwell Collins initia more

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Europe continues quest for ‘Green Rotorcraft’

By Thierry Dubois

As part of its Green Rotorcraft initiative, the Clean Sky public-private partnership for aeronautical research in Europe has issued its second call for proposals seeking such improvements as diesel engines, electric tail- rotor drive and waste heat conversion to electricity, all of which are expected to contribute to targeted drastic cuts in noise, CO2 and NOx emissions.
In Green Rotorcraft more

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