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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 1250.PDF
IN BRIEF FAA OFFICE The US Federal Aviation Administration is to establish a programme office in Oklahoma City to oversee implementation of the sport pilot/light-sport air craft final rule, expected in July. The rule will require the FAA to certificate an existing fleet of more than 10,000 uncertificated ultralight and kit-built aircraft. EMS CONTRACTS CJ Systems Aviation Group has signed two new air medical transport contracts. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company has located a EurocopterTwinStarin Perry, Florida, for the Air Medic One programme, and assigned another to MedFlight of East Kentucky in Pikeville. BELL DELIVERY Bell has delivered a 206L-4 LongRanger to the Tulsa, Oklahoma, police department to replace an MD Helicopters MD500E. Mission equipment was installed by Bell subsidiary Edwards & Associates. EUROCOPTER DEAL Air Methods has ordered five AS350B2s and one EC130B4 from Eurocopter to be delivered by year-end. The single-turbine helicopters will be used for emergency medical services in the USA and will be com pleted by Air Methods' products division. TBO EXTENDED Bombardier has extended the time between overhauls (TBO) for its popular Rotax 912 piston engines from 1,200h to 1,500h, and is working to extend the TBO on the more powerful 914 series. DIESEL ENGINE Wilksch Airmotive is to start certification tests and series production of its 120hp (90kW) WAM-120 three-cylinder, two- stroke diesel engine this month. The Milton Keynes, UK-based manufacturer successfully tested the engine in flight in May, installed on a Thorp T-211 kit- plane, and says it aims to receive experimental class approval by the end of June. GENERAL AVIATION NAVIGATION EMMA KELLY / PERTH Australia teams on low-cost ADS-B for general aviation Successful trial could lead to national implementation, says air traffic services provider Airservices Australia has teamed with Australian manufacturer Microair Avionics to design and develop low-cost automatic depen dent surveillance - broadcast (ADS- B) avionics for general aviation. The move is part of the air traffic service provider's ongoing demon stration of ADS-B technology in the Burnett Basin region of Queensland, which Airservices Australia hopes will lead to national ADS-B implementation. GA equipage is a crucial part of Airservices' ADS-B plans. "If we don't get ADS-B to work for GA, [national deployment] won't work at all," says project manager Greg Dunstone. Microair will use its T2000SFL Mode A/C transponder as the plat form for its ADS-B kit. Microair has been tasked with producing an ADS-B transponder, meeting the small size and low price require ments of the GA and sports aircraft markets. The system will transmit a reply to conventional radar interro gations, in addition to broadcast ing ADS-B position and altitude information via digital datalink. ADS-B is expected to provide operational and safety benefits compared with the procedural sep aration services that are provided in remote parts of the country. The service provider has called for responses to a proposal to replace the national radar network with 20 ADS-B ground stations from 2005, which would cost around A$13 million ($8.5 million) - a tenth of the cost of replacing the ageing radar network, says Dunstone. While everybody sees the poten tial, the issues of who should pay for it, how much and when remain to be resolved. "Key parts of widescale deploy ment rest with GA," says Dunstone. As part of its efforts to ensure the GA community is part of ADS-B implementation, Airservices is considering innovative finance schemes, including subsidising mandatory equipment, and after a set period of leasing the equipment the GA operator would own it. Airservices launched its ADS-B programme in January. Two Royal Flying Doctor Service Beech King Airs, an Energex Eurocopter/ Kawasaki BK117 community rescue helicopter and two Sunstate Airlines Link Bombardier Dash 8s are broad casting position reports by ADS-B using Honeywell-Bendix-King's Mode S transponder (Flight Inter national, 11-17 February). Another three Dash 8s and more GA aircraft are to join the programme shortly. The Asia-Pacific region is closely following Australia's ADS-B pro gramme after air traffic manage ment service providers and opera tors decided earlier this year to implement ADS-B on major traffic flows across the region from 2006. AMPHIBIANS Beriev poised to deliver first three Be-103s to Aerocorp Beriev plans to deliver the first three Be-103 six-seat amphibians to US distributor Aerocorp International in July, when the type is expected to gain US certification. The Russian manufacturer applied to the US Federal Aviation Administration a year ago under the bilateral aviation agreement between Russia and the USA, which allows for mutual recognition of national certificates. The procedure was used by the FAA for the "shadow" certification of the llyushin 11-103 light aircraft and II-96M/T airliner. The Be-103 programme is expected to break even after production of 250 aircraft, says the manufacturer. REGULATIONS FAA calls for quieter Grand Canyon flying Eurocopter has begun EC130 deliveries to Grand Canyon tour operators as the US Federal Aviation Administration prepares a new "quiet technology" (QT) standard for aircraft used in tour operations over the national park. Eurocopter has delivered two EC130s to Grand Canyon Heli copters and will soon deliver two more to Papillon Helicopters. The six- or seven-passenger heli copter has a fenestron tailrotor, and main rotor RPM is reduced in the cruise, resulting in a flyover noise level of 84.3EPNdB, says the manufacturer. This is within the proposed QT limits. The standard aims to meet a Congressional mandate to res tore natural quiet to the canyon. 24 27 MAY - 2 JUNE 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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