There's been much talk recently in aviation regulatory circles about three issues — fatigue, aircraft automation and basic airmanship. The incident we're discussing this month has a happy ending with no injures and no significant damage to the aircraft. But it does shine a light on the dangers of fatigue when dealing with the complexities of modern flight management/control systems.
Despite news of a resurging U.S. manufacturing industry, U.S. export competitiveness in manufacturing continues to decline, according to a new report by the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation. In 2000, Europe and the U.S. remained atop the world's exporters, with Japan trailing the U.S. by a little more than one-third the total exports. Since that time, China has leapfrogged both the U.S. and Europe. U.S. exports, in terms of dollar value, have grown 70% since 2000, marking the third slowest growth among the world's top 11 exporters.
Cessna commemorated the 20th anniversary of its Greensboro Citation Service Center in December. Located at Piedmont Triad International Airport, N.C., the facility is one of the busiest in the network of company-owned service centers, handling approximately 2,500 service orders for aircrft operating in or traveling through the mid-Atlantic U.S.in 2013. Greensboro is one of 15 company-owned service centers offering maintenance, inspections, parts, repairs, avionics upgrades and other specialized services for the line of Citation business jets.
Signature Flight Support says it's the exclusive FBO launch partner for Aircell's Gogo Cloud, permitting a complete and automatic update of inflight entertainment content, “all without any intervention from the flight crew.” Orlando, Dulles and Las Vegas are already equipped, “and approximately 15 key business and resort Signature locations are expected to be live by the end of 2014,” Signature said. “We are continually introducing exclusive technology and innovation,” said Signature Flight Support President and COO Maria Sastre.
Questions for Scott Smith First among mayors, he sees general aviation as part of the nation's character, and a sometimes awesome way to cover long distances quickly. You have an overfull agenda. Why did you agree to join the Alliance board as well?
Constant Aviation, Cleveland, Ohio, announced the John Wasmund has joined the company as avionics sales manager. Lance Lajara was named regional sales manager responsible for selling maintenance, avionics, interior modifications/refurbishments, arts and composite/accessory services for customers based in the Central U.S.
MedAire has launched its free MedAire Trip Ready iPad app that provides business aviation crews with information enabling them to assess and mitigate travel and safety risks for flights. It displays content based on a user's destinations and upcoming itineraries. Depending on the user's MedAire membership level, pilots and flight departments can see medical and travel risk ratings, local time, current weather and NOTAMs for each destination, along with security and travel information, including a calendar of holidays and events that may affect a mission.
You could almost hear a collective gulp within the business aviation community last August when a U.S. Bankruptcy Court ordered Chapter 7 liquidation of Avantair, the Clearwater, Fla.-based fractional aircraft ownership program.
Beechcraft, Wichita, named John Kearns regional sales director for the Central and West Texas region. Kearns formerly spent 15 years with Tulsa Beechcraft and is a former Beechcraft sales distributor in Tulsa. Patrick O'Connell was named regional sales director for the Upper Midwest region. He served as a demonstration pilot for Beechcraft for the past 6 years.
The group insurance program launched by the Middle East Business Aviation Association (MEBAA) launched three years ago, has attracted seven operators representing 70 aircraft. MEBAA Founder and Chairman Ali Al Naqbi says some of the operators “have already saved more than $100,000, which needless to say is having a great impact on their businesses. Members are delighted.” That pleasure could increase, he says, since “The more companies that join will bring even greater discounts.”
APG Avionics and Sandel have announced an agreement for APG Avionics to install more than 30 units of Sandel's HeliTAWS on helicopters being flown for the United Nations. Effective Dec. 1, 2013, the U.N. mandated all helicopters flying under its flag to install helicopter terrain awareness and ground-proximity warning systems. In order for these Russian Mi-8 helicopters to comply, they must be equipped with the Sandel ST3400H. APG will provide installations for the systems by year-end.
These graphs are designed to illustrate the performance of the Learjet 75 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. Time and Fuel Versus Distance This graph shows the relationship between distance flown, block time and fuel consumption for the Learjet 75 at Mach 0.77 long-range cruise and Mach 0.78 high-speed cruise. Both profiles assume FL 430 to FL 470 cruise altitudes.
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association has elected Boeing Business Jets President Steve Taylor as its 2014 chairman. In addition, Hartzell Propeller President Joe Brown becomes vice chairman and will continue serving as chairman of the Policy and Legal Issues Committee. The board also elected Aviall President and CEO Ed Dolanski to chair the Environment Committee, John Uczekaj to chair the Flight Operations Committee and Piper Aircraft President and CEO Simon Caldicott to head the Safety and Accident Investigation Committee.
EQ-1 Wireless Communications, Spokane Wash., now has available the EQ-Reverse Link wireless system, which is comprised of two modules. The Reverse Link module is designed to accept input from conventional wired general aviation headset apparatus (either 2-plug GA style of single-plug helicopter style). The module is worn on the user's person and makes a wireless connection with the EQ-Link module that is plugged into the aircraft's intercom system. The system uses 2.4 Ghz TDMA protocol wireless technology instead of Bluetooth technology.
Piaggio investors Tata Group and Mubadala Development Co. have increased their shares in the Italian airframer to 44.5 % and 41%, respectively. Ferrari's stake in down to 2%, while HDI, a hedge fund, holds the balance. Piero Ferrari, part of the team that saved Piaggio from bankruptcy in 1998, remains chairman of the company. Piaggio CEO Alberto Galassi says the investment supports Piaggio's plans to diversify into new markets such as the unmanned and surveillance aircraft.
Gulfstream Aerospace, Inc., Savannah, Ga., expanded the role of commercial sales representative Prestige Jet to handle Gulfstream aircraft transactions in France, Italy and Switzerland.
Luma Technologies, Bellevue, Wash., introduced new Luma Tech LED products for King Airs and Beechjet 400s, including annunciator panels and a master caution system. The annunciator panels for the King Air family include a 45-stations variant tailored to the C90A and such newer models as the C90GT, C90GTI and C90GTx, Luma says. The new unit is designated LT-4545 and is a one-for-one drop-in replacement for the existing incandescent annunciators.
BizJet International, a Tulsa, Okla.-based subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik, was to begin work this month on a Boeing Business Jet completion, its second for a Chinese customer. Earlier it delivered its a BBJ to Chinese Nanshan Group — the first private BBJ delivered to the Chinese market. Meanwhile, in Germany, the parent firm will shortly finalize its cabin installation work on two VIP completion projects from undisclosed customers in its Hamburg hangars.
International Bureau of Aviation, Surrey, U.K., announced that Ken Sewell has joined the group as head of Aircraft Transactions responsible for aircraft remarketing and associated transaction management across IBA's managed portfolio.
True Blue Power, Wichita, Kan., is determined to reverse all the bad press surrounding lithium-ion batteries with its new low-weight, high-power-density technology for general and business aviation. “Every pound is worth a lot,” says Todd Winter, True Blue Power's president and CEO. A division of the Mid-Continent Instrument Co., True Blue is offering two main battery options to fixed- and rotary-wing turbine operators.
Innotech Aviation's engineering department has certified the installation of the Honeywell Aspire 200 satcom system on a Bombardier Challenger 604 aircraft. The ICG Iridium 120A has been interfaced with the Honeywell Aspire 200 system to provide telephony and Internet access. The ICG handsets can be used over both Iridium and Immarsat SwiftBroadband systems. The Aspire system has been interfaced through a high-gain satcom antenna to provide broadband connectivity of up to 432 Kbps. This system provides Wi-Fi connectivity in the cabin for a very low cost airborne solution.
The SJ30 light jet, now known as the SyberJet, and which is undergoing significant improvements, was launched by Ed Swearingen back in the 1980s. The prototype first flew 22 years ago. Over the decades it's had a variety of names — mighty Gulfstream briefly promoted it as the “Gulfjet” before withdrawing from the program — and owners, including Swearingen Aircraft, the Jaffe Group, Sino Swearingen and Emivest, all of which either lost interest or came to financial grief, with the last named actually going bankrupt in 2010.
Aspen Avionics, Albuquerque, N.M., announced the election of Dr. John B. “Jack” Mowell as chairman of the board. Dr. Mowell, a Tallahassee, Fla., resident, is a diversified business executive in the fields of aviation, the life sciences, and oil and gas.
