Business & Commercial Aviation July 2014 is part of our complimentary Business & Commercial Aviation subscription.

Subscribe now to read this content, plus receive full coverage of what's next in business aviation from the experts trusted by the global business aviation community. BCA delivers critical hands-on and "how-to" information for pilot safety, proficiency and flight department management.

Already a subscriber to BCA or an AWIN customer? Log in with your existing email and password.

Subscribe    Log in    
Magazine Issue

Business & Commercial Aviation July 2014

VOL. 110 NO. 7 July 01, 2014

Pilot Report

article

TBM 900

Jul 01, 2014
Cruising at 325 kt. at FL 310 may seem leisurely by very-light-jet standards, but when that’s combined with a 20 min., 15 sec. climb to maximum cruise altitude, the TBM 900 can meet or beat the trip times of the Eclipse 550 and Cessna Citation Mustang on most missions.
article

Easier Engine Control

Jul 01, 2014
The TBM 900’s Pratt & Whitney Canada 1,825-hp PT6A-66D engine, flat rated to 850 shp to ISA+49C, gets a single power lever control that operates much like an automotive manual gear shift lever with an “h” pattern. The right side of the “h” controls condition modes, including feather, high and low idle, and cut off. The left side of the “h” controls power modes, including forward and reverse thrust, plus ground fine pitch, taxi power functions. Normal operating prop speed in flight is 2,000 rpm.
article

Enhanced G1000 Avionics

Jul 01, 2014
The TBM 900’s Garmin avionics package has been thoroughly upgraded. Pressurization control now is automatic by means of an FMS function, version 14 software makes possible display of weather radar imagery on the MFD map, and a solid-state GWX70 Doppler turbulence detection radar replaces the GWX68 magnatron unit. Several cockpit components, including the overhead panel, landing gear control panel and ice protection controls, plus the pressurization and bleed air control panel, circuit breaker panels and power quadrant, have been redesigned for better ergonomics.

Viewpoint

article

Viewpoint: On the Job

Jul 01, 2014
The demands aren’t always what they seem

Readers' Feedback

article

What About the Board?

Jul 01, 2014
Your article on Avantair was nicely done. A possible Part 3 (or business school case) could focus on the role of the board of directors. Were they…
article

Private Registers

Jul 01, 2014
I read “Island Appeal” (May 2014) about offshore registrations with interest. As you point it, privacy is perhaps the biggest incentive to choose an…
article

Skeets Coleman Remembered

Jul 01, 2014
With sadness, we in–form you that James F. “Skeets” Coleman passed away recently. Dick Aarons’ response:
article

An Unbelievable ‘Failure’

Jul 01, 2014
Recently I was again reminded that time is passing and that different lives can be lived, well, unevenly. The confirmation arrived in an email my brother sent to all family members announcing that, after 28 years on the job, he’s retiring. He’s not the first of the seven siblings to punch out, but he’s the youngest by far.
article

A Matter of Thrust

Jul 01, 2014
"Under Pressure” (June 2014, page 45) was a great article on tires, but your Learjet 60 accident synopsis gives the reader the impression that this was a typical accident for a post-V1 abort. It was not. You wrote that the thrust reversers were activated but omitted that the TRs subsequently stowed (damaged squat switches) and caused the airplane to accelerate as the engines spooled up above the N1 limit for reverse.
article

Gentleman Jim

Jul 01, 2014
It was sad to read we had lost Jim Christiansen (Intelligence, June 2014, page 14). I first met Jim 30-plus years ago at a management seminar for small flight departments that he facilitated with Dick Van Gemert of Xerox. He was generous with his time and shared his knowledge and expertise freely with those of us who were new to our positions.
article

The Pilot Is in Charge

Jul 01, 2014
Your May 2014 Cause & Circumstance was especially meaningful. As a general aviation piston pilot I have had several instances where ATC changes the…

Intelligence

article

Avfuel Adding FBOs In U.K., Switzerland

Jul 01, 2014
Avfuel is expanding its international reach with two more fixed-base operators joining its network. Rizon Jet at London Biggin Hill in the U.K. and Air Service Basel at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse Airport in Switzerland both have partnered with Avfuel. The FBOs will offer Avfuel’s contract Fuel and Avtrip Reward Points programs. They will also have access to various Avfuel operational systems and training.
article

Jet-A and Avgas Per Gallon Fuel Prices June 2014

Jul 01, 2014
Jet-A and Avgas Per Gallon Fuel Prices
article

Hawker’s Future

Jul 01, 2014
In response to a recent question about the future course of Hawker, Textron Aviation President and CEO Scott Ernest said, “There are some 2,500…
article

Gulfstream Donates Retired G100

Jul 01, 2014
Gulfstream Aerospace donated a G100 business jet that was retired last year from the company’s fleet to Savannah Technical College. The donation continues a 15-year partnership between Gulfstream and the college. Through the partnership, more than 400 students have become Gulfstream employees. In addition to the G100, Gulfstream donated fly-by-wire components, including manifolds and actuators, from the G650 and a flap assembly and fuselage panel assembly from the G450. Savannah Tech, which has a nearly 30,000-sq.-ft.
article

Aerion AS2

Jul 01, 2014
Aerion, the supersonic business jet concept long promoted by billionaire Robert Bass, has undergone a major redesign. The designers have brought forth the new Aerion AS2, which features a Gulfstream G450-sized cabin with a galley, forward and aft lavs, 5,000-nm range and three new production engines — yet to be identified — producing 15,000 lb. of thrust each. “You could say it’s our follow-on aircraft,” Bass observed during the EBACE unveiling.
article

Nextant Aerospace Launches New Nextant Finance Division

Jul 01, 2014
Nextant Aerospace launched a new division, Nextant Finance, aimed at making buying or leasing its $2.4 million Nextant C90XT or $5 million 400XTi…
article

Solar Impulse Flies Aircraft

Jul 01, 2014
The Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) solar-powered round-the-world aircraft made its first flight from Payerne, Switzerland, on June 2. The 2 hr. 17 min. flight…
article

L-3 Aviation To Provide GH-3900 ESIS For Viking Twin Otter 400s

Jul 01, 2014
L-3 Aviation Products has been selected to provide its GH-3900 electronic standby instrument system (ESIS) for new production Viking Twin Otter Series 400 aircraft. Canadian-based Viking holds the type certificates for seven legacy de Havilland aircraft — DHC-1 through DHC-7 — and manufactures the 400 Twin Otter. The GH-3900 ESIS is designed to Level A software and hardware standards and can be customized to fit a range of primary systems.
article

NetJets’ Repair Subsidiary Level III Of FAA’s SMS Program

Jul 01, 2014
NetJets’ repair station subsidiary was recognized for reaching Level III of FAA’s safety management system (SMS) program, becoming the first U.S…
article

EASA Cites CPDLC Failure Rates Up to 30 Times Higher Than Envisioned

Jul 01, 2014
Is Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) ready for a central role in heavy-duty air traffic management? According to a recent Wall Street…
article

Tr Diamond Jet Rebuilding Its Workforce oubles at Diamond Aircraft’s Canadian

Jul 01, 2014
Troubles at Diamond Aircraft’s Canadian operations seem to be easing considerably. The manufacturing facility at London International Airport in…
article

Eclipse Could Replace the T-1A

Jul 01, 2014
Is Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) ready for a central role in heavy-duty air traffic management?
article

No Plans for Mach+ Falcon

Jul 01, 2014
While Dassault has been making supersonic fighters for decades and has incorporated some of that technology — most notably, fly-by-wire control —…
article

StandardAero Singapore Authorized RR300 Center

Jul 01, 2014
StandardAero’s facility at Seletar Aerospace Park in Singapore was recognized as an authorized maintenance repair and overhaul center for Rolls-Royce RR300 helicopter engines. The authorization follows a similar agreement signed in December for StandardAero’s facility in Winnipeg, Canada. The Singapore agreement extends through 2021. StandardAero’s RR300 line will run parallel to the facility’s Rolls-Royce M250 line. The 32,000-sq.-ft. facility is equipped for full repair and overhaul, and test capabilities.
article

ATR Chooses De Castelbajac As New CEO

Jul 01, 2014
In keeping with the tradition and agreement between its two shareholders, Airbus Group and Finmeccanica Group subsidiary Alenia Aermacchi, ATR has…
article

GlobalParts Group Acquires Meyers Aircraft Model 200 Assets

Jul 01, 2014
GlobalParts Group, the Augusta, Kansas, manufacturer and distributor of business and general aviation parts, acquired the type certificate, tooling…
article

Gulfstream Aerospace Introduces G650ERad

Jul 01, 2014
Gulfstream has topped its top of the line, introducing an even longer-range version of the G650 at EBACE 2014. The G650ER is identical to the Savannah, Georgia., manufacturer’s top-of-the-line G650 save for a 4,000-lb. increase in fuel capacity, complemented by an inc rease in maximum ramp and takeoff weights. The additional fuel occupies what had been air space within the wing tanks. The modifi
article

Cessna Rolls First Production CJ3+ Off Manufacturing Line

Jul 01, 2014
Cessna has rolled the first production CJ3+ off the manufacturing line, a little more than two months after the company announced the upgraded model…
article

PC-24 Order Book at 84 and Climbing

Jul 01, 2014
For Pilatus Aircraft Ltd., the recent European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) 2014 was one for the record — and order — book…
article

JSSI: Manufacturing Flight Hours Lead First Quarter Drop

Jul 01, 2014
Most major industry sectors flew fewer hours worldwide in the first quarter, a decline that Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI) attributes to the harsh winter. JSSI, which has developed a Business Aviation Index to track global flight hours by industry, found that overall, business aircraft flew 2% fewer hours globally. The manufacturing segment marked the most significant drop, down 15%, followed by construction and health care, down 12% and 11%, respectively.
article

Moelis Capital Acquires PATS Aircraft

Jul 01, 2014
Private equity investment firm Moelis Capital Partners is expanding its reach in the aviation segment with the acquisition of Georgetown, Delaware…
article

IBAC To Release Standards Program For BizAv Handlers

Jul 01, 2014
Building off the success of IS-BAO, the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) is rolling out a similar program for business aviation handlers that will be designed to meet new international safety management system (SMS) directives. The audit program, to launch July 1, will fold in parts of the National Air Transportation Association’s (NATA) Safety First Ground Audit Program. The NATA program will cease to existing once the International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling (IS-BAH) is released.

Safety

article

Rotorcraft Safety: No Margin for Error

Jul 01, 2014
Autorotation — do it quickly and do it right
article

Altering Auto Response

Jul 01, 2014
It’s one thing to perform an autorotation correctly in the simulator or during a “canned” training session but quite another matter when the engine quits in flight. It’s during the latter that a pilot is prone to revert to first-learned habit patterns. They had better be the right ones, since action is required within 2 sec.

DOM Notebook

article

Getting the Right GSE

Jul 01, 2014
What with scheduling demands, balancing the budget, mechanical breakdowns, and staffing and training challenges, managing aircraft maintenance —…
article

Ground Support Equipment – Where to Buy

Jul 01, 2014
Many of the ground support equipment manufacturers have websites that make shopping for gear easy and convenient. Since there are so many, choosing…

Accident Free: Are You Lucky or Truly Safe?

article

The Flight Department Ops Manual

Jul 01, 2014
Risk management starts with standardization and discipline
article

Mandatory FDRs for Single-Pilot Operations?

Jul 01, 2014
For more than a decade, commercial airlines have been proactively using flight data recorders (FDRs) as key parts of their Flight Operational…

Operations

article

Don’t ‘Dive and Drive’

Jul 01, 2014
There is something strangely prehistoric about the way many of us continue to fly what we grew up calling a “non-precision” instrument approach. After flying across continents and oceans with navigational precision measured in decimals, we push the nose over a thousand feet per minute “or so” and wait for the minimum descent altitude (MDA). That altitude is measured with an altimeter accurate to plus or minus 75 ft., plus whatever temperature tolerances may exist, and based on an altimeter setting that may be an hour or more old.
article

Operating Near Hazardous Terrain

Jul 01, 2014
A pilot’s sense of situational awareness is never more challenged than when operating over — and within — hazardous terrain, especially at night…
article

BSL Airports

Jul 01, 2014
We might not think about it until we have to land at one, but as business jet captain Katha House pointed out, there are a few airports around the globe that are situated below sea level. “Thermal Airport [KTRM] in the Mojave Desert is 115 ft. below sea level,” she said, “and your altimeter will read zero on the approach, and you’ll still be flying! There’s one in Egypt that’s 436 ft. below sea level, and Bar Yehuda Airport [LLMZ] at Masada in Israel is -1,240 ft., the lowest in the world.”
article

Flying Paranoid

Jul 01, 2014
“Capt. Eddie” flies paranoid. The alter ego of Gulfstream 450 pilot James Albright, webmaster of the “Code 7700” Internet site (“Fast Five,” March…

Cause & Circumstance

article

Weather-Related Loss of Control

Jul 01, 2014
Immature cells can present significant upset potential
article

Accidents in Brief

Jul 01, 2014
June 1— About 1400 EDT, an employee from the FBO responding to a de Havilland DHC-6-200 airplane (N223AL), received fatal injuries when she was struck by an operating propeller blade as she walked toward the cockpit while the airplane was standing on a ramp at the Middletown Regional Airport/Hook Field (MWO), near Middletown, Ohio. The airplane was registered to and operated by Win Win Aviation Inc., under FAR Part 91 as a skydiving flight. The local skydiving flight was standing on the MWO ramp while waiting for passengers to board when the accident occurred.

Point of Law

article

Charter Broker Evolution

Jul 01, 2014
Last year, after the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for charter brokers, I prophesized that “2014 might see the industry step in and create voluntary broker rules and a registry of those who meet these standards.”

Washington Watch

article

Unmanned and Unmanaged

Jul 01, 2014
The FAA in June gave its first approval for commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems (UASes) over land, clearing energy giant BP to operate the AeroVironment Puma AE, a UAS that is 4.5 ft. long with a 9-ft. wingspan, to conduct surveys over Alaska’s North Slope. The agency had previously approved certificates for use of UASes to conduct aerial surveillance over Arctic waters, but this latest certificate of waiver enables BP to use the Puma to survey pipelines, roads and equipment at Prudhoe Bay.

20/Twenty

article

Canadair SE/Challenger 850

Jul 01, 2014
Ease into a large chair in any one of the Challenger 850’s three roomy cabin sections and you’d be hard-pressed to tell you’re not in a Global 6000. The cabin has the same 6.0-ft. height and 8.1-ft. width as Bombardier’s current flagship. The 1993-2004 Canadair Special Edition and 1995-2011 Challenger 850 are the two main commercial designations for 50-seat CRJs that Canadair and Bombardier delivered green for custom conversion into business aircraft.

B&CA 50 Years Ago

article

July 1964 News

Jul 01, 2014
At present, no recurrent training and proficiency flights are required by regulations, but the FAA says that “the complexity of modern turbojet…