Steve Dickson New FAA Administrator On August 12, 2019 Steve Dickson was sworn in as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator after being confirmed for a five-year term by the U.S. Senate July 24. Dickson recently retired from Delta Air Lines as the senior vice president of Flight Operations where he was responsible for the…
I’d like to tell you a few interesting things that I have experienced over the years involving flaps. I hope you will find them interesting and educational. Let me begin by reviewing the basic flap system design in King Airs and, with minor changes, in most other Beechcraft airplanes. The semi-fowler flaps – ones that…
On August 16, 1927, two airplanes built in Wichita, Kansas, took off from Oakland, California, bound for the shores of Hawaii, but only one would return triumphant. By early August both Arthur Goebel and Bennett Griffin had arrived at the Oakland airport with their new Travel Air monoplanes, the Woolaroc and Oklahoma, respectively. Resplendent in…
The King Air Academy (KAA) announced a new addition to its simulators will be added in September – a full-motion, dual GTN750-equipped simulator with optional Garmin 600s or traditional round gauges. The simulator will join KAA’s new full-motion G1000/G1000NXi simulator, both providing model-specific King Air initial and recurrent training. The academy prides itself on providing…
Garmin announced new features and enhancements within the Garmin Pilot application for Apple mobile devices. FltPlan.com integration now includes electronic Advance Passenger Information System (eAPIS) and Pre-departure Clearances (PDC) within the United States. U.S. pilots who have purchased premium services within FltPlan.com can now access PDC services within the Garmin Pilot app. Pre-departure clearances (PDCs)…
The lone service provider at California’s Modesto City-County Airport, Sky Trek Aviation, has changed ownership for the first time in more than three decades. Longtime customers Matt Bosco and Dan Kimmel have purchased the business and changed its name to Modesto Jet Center. Plans are being made to refurbish the Avfuel-branded facility’s 1,500-square-foot terminal, which…
From Mandatory Service Letter MTL-32-01, Rev. 1 Landing Gear – Inspect the Steering Support Bracket for Incorrect Bolts Original Date: May 30, 2019 Revision Date: July 24, 2019 Reason for Revision: Updates the Effectivity as follows: Adds defined King Air B300 airplanes. NOTE: This revision replaces the original issue of MTL-32-01 in its entirety. Revision…
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in August 2005, it shut down communication and transportation in much of southern Louisiana. The owners of Rouses Markets had no way of knowing what was happening at their 17 supermarkets or with their employees and their communities. There was no cellphone service and flooding caused many road closures. “We…
Recently I was consulted about a PT6 undergoing a Hot Section Inspection (HSI). It began benignly enough; the hot section itself was in decent shape. But things took a left turn when a broken diffuser tube was found. This meant the rest of the engine (the “cold” section, if you will) had to be removed…
ADS-B Preflight Requirement The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will issue a NOTAM that will largely exempt general aviation operators from an ADS-B preflight requirement after the Jan. 1, 2020, deadline. The NOTAM exempts ADS-B Out transmitters that use WAAS GPS receivers as a position source from the preflight requirement and states specifically: “It is not…