The controversy over testing by St. George Aviation, and the Honda/GE engine agreement.

Honda, GE Launch Honda's T-Fan Engine

At the National Business Aviation Association Convention October 12-14, General Electric and Honda announced that they are teaming to bring Honda's HF118 turbofan engine to market. The two companies formed a 50/50 joint venture called GE Honda Aero Engines, and the plan is to develop a family of engines in the 1,000 to 3,500 pound thrust range. No airframers have selected the HF118 yet, but the new company stated that it is in discussion with interested parties.

GE executives decided to work together with Honda in February. "Honda is now one step closer to the dream of entering the aviation market," said Takeo Fukui, Honda Motor president and CEO. "We always considered ourselves to be a mobility company. The third and perhaps most challenging dimension of mobility is the skies above us."

Honda has been working on the HF118 since 1986. Both companies will split manufacturing efforts 50/50, while Honda will be responsible for design and GE for systems engineering and certification. General Electric Engine Services will handle product support. The HF118 has already logged 2,000 hours of testing.

Strom Aviation Golf Tournament Raises $$$ for Charity

For the past six years, aviation staffing company Strom Aviation has held an annual golf tournament, generously not charging for entries although Strom does accept sponsorships from participating companies. This year, the tournament attracted a number of participants from a variety of airlines, maintenance companies, and sponsors. The tournament was held at the Doral Tesoro Golf Club in Fort Worth, Texas, and $1,500 was donated to the Children's Medical Center of Dallas. Sponsors included Business Air Center, Dallas Airmotive, Aero Instruments and Avionics, CAE SimuFlite, Embassy Suites Dallas Love Field, Garrett Aviation, and Miller Brewing. First place honors went to Dave King (Business Air Center), Chuck Heath (Spirit Airlines), Tonka Hufford, and Johnny Munoz (both from Heritage Aviation). Aviation Maintenance's own expert golfer Kevin Reinhart won the longest-drive contest while Randy Mengel of Bombardier won closest-to-the-pin.

Court Injunction Halts St. George Aviation A&P Retesting, FAA Relents

The FAA reopened the issue of retesting mechanics who took practical tests at St. George Aviation in Sanford, Florida between October 10, 1995 and December 31, 1998, but in early November, rescinded an order that outlined retesting procedures. The retesting is on hold until the FAA decides what to do about this situation.

Prompted by the U.S. DOT's Office of the Inspector General, which noted that allegations of improper A&P testing first came to light around October 1995, the FAA had sent a letter to almost 2,000 A&P mechanics October 4 alerting them that they must set up a retest with their local FAA FSDO.

Lawyer Mike Moulis of Fort Lauderdale, Florida sued the FAA on behalf of about 40 mechanics "to enjoin the agency...from requiring them to sit for reexamination as a condition of maintaining their certificates. We maintain that the FAA is governed by the procedure set forth in the [FAA] Handbook Order 8300.10 and therefore is without authority to issue the reexamination mandate without some `reasonable basis' or `cause' against each particular airman or mechanic prior to demanding that they submit to a reevaluation."

In early November, the U.S. District Court (Orlando Division) issued a preliminary injunction against the FAA. The injunction barred the FAA from proceeding with the retesting and ordered the FAA to comply with the provisions of FAA Order 8300.10, Volume 3, Chapter 18, Section 1, Subpart 5(B) and CFR 49 44709(c)" and present cause for the reexamination of each individual Plaintiff."

For its part, FAA officials did consider other issues raised, such as the airworthiness status of aircraft signed off by mechanics who tested during the above time period.

"We'll need to look into whether aircraft are `unsafe' vs `unairworthy,' " wrote Dave Cann, the FAA's manager, Aircraft Maintenance Division, in response to a series of questions submitted by Aviation Maintenance. "If the certificates were issued in the 1995 to 1998 timeframe, there are several considerations that would need to be made:

1. Is the individual even working in aviation and utilizing the privileges of his/her certificate?
2. When was the `return to service' or certificate privilege exercised and for what reason?
3. If the privileges were exercised numerous years ago, it is quite likely that any maintenance that was signed for has been superseded in equivalent scope and detail by now, thereby rendering the maintenance performed a moot point."

Cann added that also considered was whether retesting was even necessary for mechanics who had logged working experience in the aviation field after testing with St. George Aviation during the affected time period. "We discussed this issue at length," he wrote, "but you would have had to try to calculate how much work was done in aviation after receiving the certificate. Then there would still not be any assurance of the competency of the individual and, of course, there is still the `legal' matter that had to be dealt with. This was a difficult and complex situation with a lot of variables that had to be considered."

The FAA has not yet said how it plans to pursue the St. George testing problem.