Embraer has received both FAA and Brazilian Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC) clearances for installation of its Prodigy Touch flight deck aboard the Phenom 300. NetJets is launching the new flight deck aboard the Phenom, and Embraer is offering the suite as an option for other Phenom 300 aircraft beginning in the fourth quarter. Based on the Garmin G3000 platform, the Prodigy Touch incorporates touch-screen technology with automation designed for single-pilot operation.
FlightSafety International's first AgustaWestland AW139 full-flight simulator has entered service at the company's Learning Center in Lafayette, La. The first Initial Pilot course using this new Level D qualified simulator is now underway. The simulator is equipped with a Honeywell Primus Epic avionics suite configured for single- and dual-pilot operations. It features a four-axis autopilot, GPS with Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) capabilities, a Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), and an Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS).
There's been a lot of e-chatter lately concerning the place of pilots in aviation's future. The sentiments expressed celebrate the good old days when pilots, not engineers, were in charge and when the men at the controls were rugged individualists. In following these messages, it seems the fabled Pan American China Clippers were flown by pilots with “the right stuff.”
Hawthorne Global Aviation Services is adding its third location in a little more than a year with the recent acquisition of development rights at Chicago Executive Airport. Hawthorne, which teamed with Moelis Capital Partners in 2010 to build a nationwide fixed-base operation (FBO) chain, closed on a deal May 6 to acquire the rights from Sovereign Development Group and hopesto begin construction later this month on a nearly 40,000-sq.-ft. terminal and hangar facility.
Jet Aviation's six U.S. FBO facilities — Boston/Bedford, Mass.; Dallas and Houston, Texas; St. Louis, Mo.; Palm Beach, Fla., and Teterboro, N.J. — have joined Paragon Aviation Group's network of independent FBOs nationwide. The new partnership increased the total number of connections available to support customer requirements to 23 locations in North America.
The Southwest Airlines flight had been uneventful, but shortly after the Boeing 737 touched down at Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 8, 2009, the right main landing gear's inboard wheel and brake assembly separated from the aircraft. The pilots managed to taxi the jetliner off the runway and onto a taxiway where all 142 occupants deplaned. Airfield crews recovered the sizeable broken components that upon examination revealed fatigue cracking emanating from the brake mounting bolt-hole.
Beechcraft hopes to sell most of its jet programs by midyear. Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture said earlier this year that the programs have attracted a fair amount of interest and recently told Wichita reporters that he expects a bidding process to begin shortly. Options exist for the programs, ranging from a support organization buying the lines to maintain the existing fleet, to a manufacturing operation purchasing them to bring them back into production.
When Blain Stanley, international operations director at Aircare FACTS Training, begins a class on cabin emergency training for flight crews, he asks the pilots — many of whom have described their passengers as “Type A's” — if they think their charges would be assets or liabilities during an emergency. According to Stanley, the nearly universal answer is the latter.
Michelin and the Federal Aviation Administration Safety Program (FAASTeam) have teamed to offer pilot and aircraft maintenance technicians an online tire maintenance course titled “The Impact of Tire Maintenance on Aircraft Safety.” FAASafety.gov is the primary training website for pilot and aircraft maintenance technicians. There are FAA incentive credits available for taking the training courses, which cover a variety of topics. This new course helps expose pilots and AMTs to the possible consequences of inadequate tire inflation pressure and the damages of FOD.
Federal Aviation Regulation 91.211 requires a single pilot when above FL 350 and one of two pilots in the cockpit when above FL 410 to wear and use an oxygen mask as a precaution against incapacitation in the event of a rapid or explosive decompression event. It's a rule that's routinely ignored by scores of business aircraft pilots, based upon recent confidential interviews conducted by BCA.
3M introduced a new line of masking tapes aimed at “Making Masking Simple.” Built on increasing levels of performance, the new products include: Value Masking Tape 101+ for basic jobs such as marking and wrapping; General Use Masking Tape 201+ for bundling, labeling and identifying; Performance Yellow Masking Tape 301+ for industrial paint masking, color coding and sealing; High Performance Green Tape 401+/233+ for high-performance industrial painting of aircraft trucks and other special vehicles; and Specialty High-Temperature Masking Tape 501+ for the highest degree of i
The first production model of the new Citation Sovereign has begun flight tests about six months after unveiling the upgraded aircraft. The aircraft is expected to reach market in the third quarter, a few months ahead of the Citation X upgraded variant, even though that aircraft was announced two years earlier. The flight lasted about 2 1/2 hr., and involved testing the new avionics package and autothrottles, autopilot, engine systems, aircraft systems and instrument approaches. Cessna has logged over 1,300 hr. in three flight-test aircraft.
Cessna has begun providing AOG maintenance for Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft in Europe, building on the service that the Wichita airframer recently rolled out in the U.S. Cessna's Citation Service Center in Zurich will perform the unscheduled AOG maintenance, providing services Caravans throughout the region. The Zurich center's Mobile Service Unit, one of three Cessna has in Europe, will be certified on the Caravan, along with Citation aircraft.
For the first time in a long time the general aviation planemakers have good news to report and one of their standouts had been a staggering not all that long ago. According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, 458 aircraft were delivered during the first three months of the year, representing total billings of $4.6 billion. Compared to the same quarter in 2012, those represent increases of nearly 10% and 32%, respectively. “We are very pleased to see a shift to the positive for GA airplanes,” says GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce.
Customers also are ordering satcom phones, external cameras, HD video display systems, moving maps, LED lighting and flat-screen monitors, all controlled from a single position.
Thank you for your insight regarding unpredictable and violent winds that can exist in the mountains (“Handling High Terrain Airports,” April 2013, page 46). My daughter and I encountered an event during summer 2010 while flying just west of Estes Park, Colorado. The sky was clear and nearly calm when we experienced a downdraft that exceeded 6,000 fpm. We were 3,000 ft. above the mountaintops when we entered the descending wind pattern and within 20 sec. were forced to commit to a mountainside landing.
I have finally caught up with my reading assignment — just finished the April issue of BCA. As usual you, and your team, have assembled an informative and inspiring magazine. A joy! Your “Quick Read” (Viewpoint, page 7) launched my delight. Who else, but you, could concatenate a swap meet, a Gulfstream G650, an entrepreneur's juggernaut and Lucky's book? I realized how you do it . . . so effortlessly, so smoothly month-after-month. I paraphrase you: “Turns out young Garvey is a pilot and a poet . . .”
Aircraft Electronics Association, Lee's Summit, Mo., has appointed Kevin Bruce, who is the director of airworthiness and quality for Diamond Aircraft, as the new regulatory consultant for Canada.
Executive AirShare is continuing its rapid expansion coming off its third consecutive year of double-digit growth in 2012. The regional fractional ownership program called 2012 its most successful year yet, increasing its shareowners to more than 140 and adding 36 more members in equity charter, lease and management programs, including Launch, Launch Premium and EMBark 32. The company has gone from 75 shareowners in 2009 to more than 130 by the end of 2012.
ViaSat Inc. and the L-3 Platform Integration Division (L-3 PID) have signed a memorandum of agreement to provide private transport-class aircraft with inflight connectivity services. Under the agreement, the companies will collaborate on a complete broadband satellite communication system for airline-size aircraft that are custom-fit for use by heads of state and “VVIP” customers.
Universal Avionics announced its new FlightAssure Extended Warranty Program at the recent Annual Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) Convention in Las Vegas. FlightAssure removes the uncertainty and guesswork from a customer's avionics maintenance, downtime and overall cost. The program was designed to help customers budget the cost of component repairs by extending the avionics' protection plan.
Argus Pros and its sister company, Prism, have released the 2012 edition of their Safety Management Systems (SMS) Audit results. The audit result report was launched in 2008 and has grown to incorporate and compare the findings from over 300 audit events. The main object of this comprehensive report is to highlight the recurring problem areas found in SMS implementation and execution.
As part of the global refurbishment program announced in 2012, Jet Aviation Geneva is the first company facility to be transformed with a fresh new corporate look and feel. The newly refurbished Geneva FBO is nearly twice the size of the original, adding 313 sq. meters for a total of 648 sq. meters. The main floor of the FBO now offers a new reception area and three new customer lounges.
