A Beech King Air 200 carrying members of the Hendrick Motorsports Nascar race team crashed near Martinsville, Va., on Oct. 24, 2004, because the pilots lost situational awareness while attempting to land at Martinsville/Blue Ridge Airport (MTV) in IMC, according to the NTSB.
Air traffic control
September 21, 2006 - 6:01am
First revealed publicly by AIN (December, page 20), but still not reported in other aviation media, the aerospace industry’s hitherto secret Project Mercury has, as forecast, now been acknowledged as a potential supplier of a turnkey nationwide ADS-B network for the FAA.
September 21, 2006 - 5:58am
FAA Air Traffic Organization (ATO) officials early last month briefed government and industry representatives on the cost-benefit analysis of nationwide ADS-B implementation, as requested by the agency’s top-level Joint Resources Council (JRC). The ATO is scheduled to submit the analysis to the JRC in early June.
September 21, 2006 - 5:45am
Universal Avionics last month said it flew its first test flight with the new “W” series flight-management system (FMS) designed for compatibility with the wide-area augmentation system (WAAS).
September 21, 2006 - 5:01am
The pilot of a Bombardier Challenger 600 that was substantially damaged during a hard landing on Runway 15 at Aspen, Colo., on February 9, told the NTSB that the airplane encountered wake vortices from a BAe 146 that had just taken off from Runway 33. According to the pilot, at 50 feet agl the airplane rolled hard to the left. He added power and the twinjet rolled hard to the right.
September 21, 2006 - 4:55am
Airservices Australia CEO Greg Russell made the trip to Maastricht to sign a partnership agreement with Francesco Violante, his counterpart at datalink service provider SITA, that will see the two organizations jointly support a trial in Indonesian airspace of an ADS-B network that could be a prelude to a proposed southeast Asia-wide surveillance net.
September 21, 2006 - 4:43am
While European ATM research focuses on the 2020-oriented Sesar program and the FAA has picked 2025 as the date for implementation of its new system,
private-sector companies are working on near-term improvements.
September 21, 2006 - 4:39am
Last November saw the signature in Brussels of a contract covering the definition phase of the single European sky (SES) implementation program (Sesar, formerly known as Sesame).
September 20, 2006 - 12:25pm
A new rule will end the hundreds of mode-S installation exemptions currently in effect. Beginning next March 1, Part 121 and 135 operators will no longer be exempted to fly without a mode-S transponder. No new exemptions will be granted after that date, though mode-A or -C transponders can continue to be used until they can no longer be repaired, after which they will have to be replaced with a permanent mode-S unit.
September 20, 2006 - 10:58am
The comment period on the proposal to transform the Washington, D.C., air defense identification zone (ADIZ)–which covers 3,700 sq mi that closely follow the Washington-Baltimore Class B airspace–into the Washington area special flight rules area (SFRA) closed early last month, with the FAA receiving a record 21,380 responses.
