Business & Commercial Aviation

In the little more than two months since releasing its Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) rule on Aug. 29, the FAA had received more than 30,000 new aircraft registrations from commercial operators and more than 22,500 remote pilot applications. Jay Merkle, the FAA’s Director of Systems Integration and Requirements Analysis, said more than 10,000 of the applicants for the remote pilot license had passed the test. The Part 107 rule takes the place of what was previously an onerous Certificate of Authorization process for each operation.

Satcom Direct last month completed the acquisition of TrueNorth Avionics, a manufacturer of cabin communications systems, thereby expanding its service offering to VIP aircraft operators. Ottawa-based TrueNorth, which designs, develops and manufactures satcom systems, TrueNorth becomes a business unit within the Satcom Direct family of companies focused on avionics development.

New York's Westchester County has applied to the FAA to privatize its county-owned airport, marking the third time since 2000 that the Empire State or one of its counties has attempted such a spinoff under the federal agency’s troubled Airport Privatization Pilot Program (APPP). A preliminary application filed in November names Empire State Airport Holdings as the private company that would operate the Westchester County Airport under a 40-year lease, with the transfer taking place as early as March 2017.

Beechcraft is promoting improved performance on its King Air 350HW and 350ER models by offering a more powerful version of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engines and an increased gross weight option. The improvements are FAA and EASA certified and available as factory options on new aircraft.

The Polish Ministry of National Defense has signed a contract to buy two Gulfstream 550 aircraft for VIP transport, with delivery in 2017,

Elliott Aviation has completed its seventh retrofit of a Garmin G5000 in a Beechjet 400A/Hawker 400XP. It was completed in a 1999 Beechjet 400A. Five of the upgrades were done at its Moline, Illinois facility and two at its Des Moines shop. The company says the retrofit can increase the useful load of the aircraft by 200+ lb. The program involves replacing all existing avionics including the autopilot with three 12 in landscape LCD displays that provide synthetic vision, electronic charts, WAAS/LPV, XM weather, engine indication and MFD range rings.

Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil has announced it will cease operating the Airbus H225/EC225 for offshore operations even if regulators clear the aircraft for such use. The decision comes after the April 30 loss of a Statoil-chartered H225 operated by CHC crashed as it was returning from an offshore platform, killing all 13 persons aboard. Unions say oil workers no longer had faith in the helicopter. The company says it will henceforth use the Sikorsky S-92 for its heavy helicopter requirements.

CAE and Abu Dhabi Aviation (ADA) are expanding their commercial, business, and helicopter aviation training agreement to include the sale of two full-flight simulators (FFS) as well as CAE instructor-led training and courseware. The agreement centers on ADA’s new, eight-bay training center in Abu Dhabi.

Signature Flight Support's new state-of-the art FBO at London Luton Airport is open for business. The facility comprises a 4,500 sq. meters (48,000 sq. ft.) hangar, which became operational in 2014 and is capable of housing two BBJ or ACJ-sized aircraft, and a 7,000 sq. meters (75,000 sq. ft.) parking ramp with a dedicated ground service facility in addition to the legacy apron and a covered arrivals area. The new 1,572 sq. meters (17,000 sq.

Constant Aviation has developed a ADS-B equipment solution for the Cessna Citation X. Constant Aviation, based in Cleveland, completed its first ADS-B upgrade on a Citation X, the company said. Its “solution” to meet the Jan. 1, 2020, mandate to equip differs from the manufacturer’s in that it does not require LPV capability as a prerequisite, which lowers the cost, the company said. If the work to upgrade is done concurrently with scheduled maintenance, the cost and downtime can be lower in many cases, it said.

Flying Colours Corp. has completed its first two installations of the Satcom Direct Router. The first was part of a Global 5000 cabin refurbishment package. The second was part of a new Global 5000 completion project for a private Middle Eastern owner. The aircraft is expected to return to Flying Colours in early 2017 for installation of a supplemental SD Wi-Fi hub to augment the performance of the existing SDR. It is the first time Flying Colours will have fitted the complete suite of SD router options into an aircraft.

Increased business jet deliveries in North America and Western Europe during the third quarter helped offset declining shipments to emerging market regions, along with China and Latin America, according to a recent UBS market research report. Global business jet deliveries fell 5% during the third quarter compared to a year ago. Deliveries to North American customers rose 9%, while deliveries increased 13% in Western Europe during the quarter.

Quintus Technologies has been selected by Gulfstream Aerospace to provide a high-pressure fluid cell press. The Flexform press will go to Gulfstream's Mexicali, Mexico, facility, which produces wiring harnesses, sheet metal components, subassemblies and machine parts, Quintus said. “The Flexform process requires only one rigid tool half; the other tool half is a flexible rubber diaphragm under uniform hydrostatic pressure,” the company says.

Bombardier's second Global 7000 flight test vehicle is now under Canadian registry. MSN 70002 was registered Nov. 22 with tail number C-GBLB. The registry comes less than three weeks after the first flight of the first Global 7000 test aircraft. The aircraft flew for the first time Nov. 4 in Toronto. The aircraft is now in Wichita for flight testing, which is progressing, the company said. Bombardier is not projecting first flight or other milestones for the second aircraft or for its other Global 7000 flight-test vehicles, a spokeswoman said.

The first phase of a three-part modernization of Terminal 3 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was completed Dec. 6. It includes a new atrium and museum gallery. Targeted for completion by early 2019, Phase 2 of the project will create a 15-gate south concourse with new food and retail areas. Phase 3, to be completed in 2020, will involve the demolition and construction of a new north concourse.

Once again, BCA editors and our business aviation colleagues from the Aviation Week Network have recommended BCA content from this year that readers might want to revisit.

From line boy to flight instructor, charter pilot and CEO, Charlie Priester helped steer Priester Aviation to prominence.

The ability to quickly diagnose a problem and come up with a solution is a valuable skill, even when you earn your living working on multimillion-dollar aircraft.

Teterboro Airport ranked No. 1 again, and the rest of the top five business aviation airports measured by acukwik.com user traffic during October 2016 were mostly stable, according to site metrics.

Jet-A And Avgas Per-Gallon Fuel Prices November 2016

Bombardier's third-quarter financial results show the Canadian company's turnaround plan is gaining momentum. “We are executing on our growth program with certification of the CS300 and first flight of the Global 7000,” CEO Alain Bellemare told analysts on Nov. 10. “And we are executing on our turnaround plan.” The Montreal-based company said it expected full-year earnings of US $350-400 million, and free cash flow to be $1.15-1.45 billion, an improvement from previous projections.

Rolls-Royce reports that it now has 2,000 business jets enrolled in its CorporateCare engine maintenance program—double the number covered in 2010, or better than two-thirds of the eligible fleet. The program brings guaranteed maintenance costs to new and in-service Rolls-Royce BR725, BR710, Tay and AE 3007 engines. Operators pay a fixed cost-per-flying-hour fee for a comprehensive range of scheduled and unscheduled engine maintenance events and benefits. The reason for the program’s popularity, according to Stephen M.

The business-jet resale market turned in slightly slower transaction activity during the first nine months of 2016, according to a report by Amstat.

Despite slow sales in the current down market and a years-long delay of the Falcon 5X due to development setbacks with the Silvercrest engine, Dassault Aviation is considering what next it will offer to help reenergize its lineup of business jets. “History has taught us that times of crisis are not just a storm that must be weathered. They represent an opportunity to change and improve,” CEO Eric Trappier said during the NBAA Convention.

JetBlue Airways has taken a minority stake in fast-growing, California-based jet-charter company JetSuite. Robin Hayes, CEO of the New York-based low cost carrier, said JetSuite was “changing the game in short-haul travel in the West Coast.” Launched in 2009, JetSuite operates up to four daily flights between the California cities of Burbank, Carlsbad, Concord and San Jose, as well as Las Vegas. For this JetSuiteX service, the carrier sells tickets on its Embraer 135 jets via its website as a public-charter operation.