Business & Commercial Aviation

Landmark Aviation has begun operations at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport through an equity purchase of Era FBO, a subsidiary of Era Group. The former Million Air facility has been rebranded to “Landmark Aviation.” The 26,400-sq.-ft. facility has the largest heated hangar at the airport as well as pilot and passenger lounges, an executive conference room and 7,000 sq. ft. of office space for rent.

The first transatlantic flight by a Lear Jet was made to Frankfurt, Germany, via Gander, Keflavik and Prestwick. Starting from Wichita, the 5,577-mi. flight took 10 hr. 17 min. Average altitude was 41,000 ft. and the average ground speed was 540 mph. There were three people aboard. FAA certification has been received for the Turbo Exec 400, Riley Aeronautics Corp. conversion of the de Havilland Dove. It cruised at 250 mph TAS at 12,000 ft., with 285 TAS at 20,000 ft. Range is 2,000 mi. Both custom and airline interiors are available.

​The first production-conforming aircraft, dubbed P1, is coming together at Cirrus’ facilities in Duluth, Minnesota, where the pressure vessel built at the company’s Grand Forks, North Dakota, facility and shipped to Duluth is being bonded to the tail and other components. Meanwhile, three conforming prototypes — C0, C1 and C2 — are taking part in the FAA certification program and have accumulated more than 400 hr. flight time. A fourth aircraft, a proof-of-concept model called V1, is also flyable.

It’s been over 33 years since the late Hubert Naimer, Chuck Edmondson and Karl Frudenfeld unveiled the UNS-1, the first FMS for business aircraft. Although it focused primarily on the after-market, over the years, their Universal Avionics led by President and Chairman Joachim (Ted) L.

Honeywell, Inmarsat and satcoms technology specialist Kymeta are developing a Ka-band antenna for business and commercial aviation that should offer better broadband service and suit installation in smaller aircraft. It will be the first truly flat-panel antenna for aviation, says Leo Mondale, president of the aviation business at Inmarsat. “The smaller and more compact design will allow the antenna to be installed on a wider variety of aircraft, including smaller business aviation aircraft,” Honeywell says.

Checking It Twice Your “Checklists and Callouts” (March 2015, page 40) is the best-written summary of operational best practices I’ve ever read. I’m printing it and giving it to my pilots. It explains the philosophy I’ve advocated during my entire career in corporate aviation, a segment of our industry that often has many opposing and far-flung ideas of how to do things right. As your article so clearly articulates, we do things right by doing the right things. K. L. Gregory, AvManager, RWBP Inc.

​The first production-conforming aircraft, dubbed P1, is coming together at Cirrus’ facilities in Duluth, Minnesota, where the pressure vessel built at the company’s Grand Forks, North Dakota, facility and shipped to Duluth is being bonded to the tail and other components. Meanwhile, three conforming prototypes — C0, C1 and C2 — are taking part in the FAA certification program and have accumulated more than 400 hr. flight time. A fourth aircraft, a proof-of-concept model called V1, is also flyable.

The real challenge to modernizing the ATC system in the U.S. isn’t the ADS-B infrastructure but the equipage of the system users, General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) Chairman and Hartzell Propeller President Joe Brown said at the GAMA State of the Industry presentation earlier this year.

The Pilatus PC-24 took off on its maiden flight on May 11 from Buochs Airport. Just under 1,800 Pilatus staff, all of whom are directly or indirectly involved in the PC-24 project, were there to applaud the business jet as it taxied for takeoff. Prototype P01, (HB-VXA), flew across central Switzerland for a total of 55 min. The twin-engine business jet took off from Runway 7 in just under 600 meters and climbed to 10,000 ft. (approximately 3000 meters) in about 3 min. where the two pilots completed a series of planned tests.

The Pilatus PC-24 took off on its maiden flight on May 11 from Buochs Airport. Just under 1,800 Pilatus staff, all of whom are directly or indirectly involved in the PC-24 project, were there to applaud the business jet as it taxied for takeoff. Prototype P01, (HB-VXA), flew across central Switzerland for a total of 55 min. The twin-engine business jet took off from Runway 7 in just under 600 meters and climbed to 10,000 ft. (approximately 3000 meters) in about 3 min. where the two pilots completed a series of planned tests.

​The first production-conforming aircraft, dubbed P1, is coming together at Cirrus’ facilities in Duluth, Minnesota, where the pressure vessel built at the company’s Grand Forks, North Dakota, facility and shipped to Duluth is being bonded to the tail and other components. Meanwhile, three conforming prototypes — C0, C1 and C2 — are taking part in the FAA certification program and have accumulated more than 400 hr. flight time. A fourth aircraft, a proof-of-concept model called V1, is also flyable.

Private jet service business VistaJet has closed on its offering of $300 million in unsecured notes, the company said.

Fatigue management starts before the mission by determining if each crewmember is fit for flight.

San Antonio International Airport in San Antonio, Texas, was the most popular business aviation airport among U.S., Canada and Mexico airports during April 2015, according to an analysis of acukwik.com traffic from that month.

San Antonio International Airport in San Antonio, Texas, was the most popular business aviation airport in April 2015, according to an analysis of acukwik.com traffic from that month. Doha-Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, Paris Le Bourget Airport and London Stansted Airport appeared in the top 10.

Editor’s Note: While our regular readers might think they’re seeing double, that’s not the case. These business jet specification and performance tables may at first appear to be a repeat of those published last month in our May Purchase Planning Handbook, but they are not. We received quite a few changes, additions, revisions and corrections within the category after the publication deadline. Naturally, we determined to update the digital tables immediately.

General aviation manufacturers now are riding the wave of the improved economy. Billings increased to $24.5 billion and deliveries exceeded 2,400 airplanes.

The key to correct recovery the first time is to understand where things can go horribly wrong and how to best get the airplane back to right-side up.

In April 2015, air charter customers and brokers requested more quotes for flights terminating at and originating from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas than any other airport, according to an analysis of Air Charter Guide Worldwide Trip Builder data.

Attendees and exhibitors are expected to grow at EBACE 2015. Plus, a NetJets vice president acted alone when he inappropriately blogged and tweeted about the pilots’ union activities and positions, the company said. And the first contracts signed for Dishwashair, Lufthansa Technik's inflight diswasher, have been from owners of larger executive VIP business jets, according to the Hamburg-based interiors and MRO specialist.

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Fly airplanes long enough and you’ll misidentify something sooner or later — a visual reporting point, a taxiway that looks like a runway, a lighting matrix that seems to be an airport, a waypoint that’s been fat-fingered, and so forth. Recently, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) had cause to research incidents in which flight crews misidentified ground features as an airport environment or runway. Here’s what the bureau’s incident review revealed: Australian Occurrences

Built-for-comfort, not-for-speed has been the design mantra for 90 series King Airs for more than half a century. The roomy 179-cu.-ft. main cabin, measuring section 4.8 ft. tall, 4.5 ft. wide and 7.5 ft. long, seats four passengers in club. Some aircraft have an additional seat or two in the 48-cu.-ft. aft baggage compartment. In the aft cabin, there is a full-width, internally service lavatory with privacy curtain.

Of all the weather phenomena with which pilots must contend, that old nemesis, the thunderstorm, remains the most feared. And for good reason.

These graphs are designed to illustrate the performance of Citation Latitude under a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions. Do not use these data for flight planning purposes because they are gross approximations of actual aircraft performance.