A return-to-service flight, also known as a post-maintenance check flight, can be one of the most hazardous missions undertaken by a business aircraft operator. Some flight departments rate them as their highest risk missions. Often, aviation managers personally take active roles in planning, executing and debriefing the flights.
While the 8X is essentially an iteration of the three-engine model one digit removed, its additional cabin space and increased fuel load make it the French planemaker’s most comfortable long-ranger.
Cabin Innovations, Lewisville, Texas, named Gary Stephens Engineering manager. He will be responsible for leading the engineering team and advancing the design and development capabilities for VIP galleys and interiors.
One of the Aviation Safety Action Program’s most important goals is to address problems at the company level, particularly conditions that might cause further incidents. This requires Event Review Committee members who are motivated to search out the underlying causes and smart enough to recognize them when found. Unfortunately, too often committee members lack sufficient understanding of human factors.
Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, Ga., named John Liotta, director of Product Support Sales for the East Coast of the U.S. He is responsible for maintenance sales to Gulfstream operators and reports to Mike West, vice president, Product Support and New Business Development. Tony Swift is the company’s first field service representative in Africa and will be based in South Africa.
Line Operations Safety Audits (LOSA), Aviation Action Safety Programs (ASAP) and Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs complement each other. All provide useful data for an operator’s safety management system (SMS).
In today’s litigious society, it’s a given that lawyers representing accident victims will try to access a company’s safety data in order to show that it failed to take all prudent steps to prevent the mishap. Obviously there needs to be a balance between the protection of accident data and the administration of justice, regulatory action and the public’s right to know.
Air BP, Sunbury on Thames, U.K., announced the appointment of Norbert Kamp as Global Sales and Marketing director. He will report to Air BP CEO David Gilmour. The appointment follows the retirement of Peter O’Callahan earlier this year.
Aviation Management Systems (AMS), Portsmouth, N.H., announced that Jeffrey J. Troccolo has joined the company as senior vice president. He will be based in Connecticut.
FlightSafety International, La Guardia Airport, N.Y., announced that Otto Gambrel has been promoted to assistant manager of the West Palm Beach, Fla., Learning Center. Paul Statskey succeeds Gambrel as program manager of FSI’s Hong Kong Learning Center.
Universal Avionics, Tucson, Ariz., announced the Corey Wilkinson has been appointed to the newly created position of sales manager for the Latin America sales region. He will be responsible for developing the business aviation market for the company in Latin American, including Mexico. He will be based in St. Louis, Mo.
Air Culinaire Worldwide, a Universal Weather and Aviation company, is now operating an inflight kitchen at Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC). The kitchen is located within the Atlantic Aviation FBO and is the only inflight kitchen based on the field. The new facility is the fourth kitchen based in California (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Van Nuys). Air Culinaire Tampa, Fla. (813) 449-6000 www.airculinaireworldwide.com
