EPIC announced the release of the iGo EPIC app at the recent NBAA S&D Conference in San Antonio. The app offers easy search functionality and fuel pricing for FBOs within the EPIC FBO Network. For EPIC cardholders there is an added convenience of getting account specific pricing by FBO location and quick access to Bravo Rewards information and account login.
Any public company operating a business aircraft must decide early on how the costs of running the corporate aviation department will be borne. These costs may be allocated internally, or the department may be treated as a service and its costs absorbed by the company as a whole.
Piper Aircraft Inc. ended 2012 with increased annual revenue from new aircraft sales of $148,968,967, up more than 13% from $131,263,539 in 2011. The revenue increase was a result of a 16% rise in new Piper deliveries to 158 aircraft in 2012 from 136 the previous year. “We stabilized the manufacturing and delivery of new aircraft throughout the year as our initiative to level-load factory production continued to meet with success. At the same time, our overall aircraft deliveries rose faster than the rest of the industry,” said Piper President and CEO Simon Caldecott.
Dubai, UAE-based Jetex Flight Support opened a new flight-planning lounge at London Oxford Airport that was scheduled to be operational in mid-February. Jetex is taking over one of the FBO's crew lounges and rebranding it as the “Jetex Lounge” with new furnishings, signage, aeronautical charts and pictures, and world time-zone clocks. Jetex-supplied computers will link directly to their flight-planning systems while also hosting generic flight-planning software packages for crews to do stand-alone assessments of route options.
The Gulfstream Aerospace facility in Lincoln, Calif. is now an Authorized Service Station for Howell Instruments' products including ITT, EPR, fuel flow and fanspeed indicators as well as fan speed amplifiers, tachmoters, and Howell's AUTOTemp and AUTOTAK indicators. Gulfstream notes that there are approximateley 900 Gulfstream GIVs, GIIIs and GIIs flying worlwide, most of which are equiped with Howell Instrument products. Gulfstream Lincoln is EASA and FAA certified to perform inspection and repair of electromechanical components, avionics, wheels, brakes and tires.
In response to growing demand in Asia, Jet Aviation Singapore is building a maintenance hangar adjacent to its current FBO and maintenance operation in Seletar Aerospace Park. The hangars will be integrated and incorporate two stories of office space in addition to new battery, tire, upholstery and workworking shops, including two paint spray booths. The new hangar will have an arched roof tall enough to accommodate Boeing BBJ and Airbus ACJ aircraft.
NBAA advises that as of Feb. 7, ICAO rules require aircraft flying to Europe be equipped with Controller-Pilot Datalink Communications (CPDLC) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Contract (ADS-C) systems in order to access two preferred routes in the North Atlantic Organized Track System (NAT OTS). The association observes that only a fraction of business aircraft are equipped for the new requirement.
Sierra Industries delivered its 50th Citation Stallion upgrade with the Williams FJ-44-2A turbofan retrofit. The Uvalde, Texas firm also has delivered more than 20 Eagle 400 upgrades with FJ44-3A engines on Citation II and SII models. The No. 50 Stallion upgrade went to Howard Tobin, a director of the Citation Jet Pilots Association.
Duncan Aviation has partnered with Flightcraft to open an avionics installation and repair facility at Portland International Airport (PDX) in Portland, Ore. Located on the international airport at 7777 N.E. Airport Way, the shop is the newest in Duncan Aviation's list of 30 facilities located throughout the United States.
Lufthansa Technik AG says it will close its Swiss operations in Basel April 30, eliminating 31 positions, and it will reorganize its German administrative structures, likely trimming 650 positions there. The Hamburg-based international MRO provider has already trimmed its production processes, for example, engine overhaul costs have been reduced by about 20%. Lufthansa Technik employs a total of 13,070 people at its German sites and 26,000 worldwide.
Daher-Socata announced Feb. 7 that the worldwide TBM 700 and TBM 850 fleet has passed the one million flight-hour milestone. With a total fleet of 620 high-speed, single-engine turboprops, the overall fleet flies an average of 120,000 hr. annually. Daher-Socata' claims its TBM 850 is the world's fastest single turboprop aircraft, with a maximum cruising speed of 320 KTAS at FL 260 (in ISA conditions).
February's Viewpoint (“Who's Up Front?” page 9) was very good, as usual. I am 62. I have been an A&P since 1975 and pretty much worked since then for a certain business jet OEM with headquarters in Teterboro. I was always puzzled by the 65 and out rule for the guys up front. Maybe it's me, but I'm not disappointed to retire early. To steal a phrase from an old baseball player, “Them fancy jets been good to me, man.” Our industry will be in need of wrenches as well as pilots. It's anyone's guess how it will work out.
Zenith Jet's recently released 10-yr. forecast, says total business aircraft deliveries for the 2013-2022 forecast period are projected to be 9,400 units representing $253 billion in revenues based on 2012 pricing. The company made several interesting points: It sees the emergence of another high-end category above, but not replacing, the current Ultra-Long-Range (ULR) segment with its own distinct customer buying preferences and requirements.
The purpose of a business aircraft, by definition, is to move company personnel solely to further the interests of the company. On occasion, however, a dependent of one of the passengers will likely be invited to accompany that passenger. Whenever this happens, the company employee is deemed to have incurred personal use of the seat aboard the aircraft that is occupied by their family member.
Pres Henne, who led the design of the Collier Trophy-winning Gulfstream GV and G550 and oversaw development of the new G650, is set to retire from the business-jet manufacturer on March 31. Henne joined Gulfstream in 1994 from McDonnell Douglas (MDC), where he began his career in 1969. At MDC, Henne was responsible for the aerodynamic design of the C-17 wing, and was later vice president and general manager of the MD-90 program. At Gulfstream, he has overseen the introduction of six products and advances such as enhanced and synthetic vision displays.
Despite high hopes for a growing Indian business aviation market, importing business aircraft into India has become more difficult because of increased bureaucracy, a business aviation advocacy group says. Along with the usual monthly aircraft acquisition committee meeting, India's civil aviation minister is now said to be scrutinizing every application personally. Rohit Kapur, president of the Business Aviation Operators Association of India (BAOA), says this has been going on for about five or six months and the backlog has reached around 40 aircraft.
For the first time, Embraer expects to deliver more executive jets than airline aircraft. Overall Embraer looks to deliver 195-215 aircraft this year, roughly matching the 205 deliveries for 2012 reported in January. But the company expects commercial aircraft deliveries to decline from the 106 delivered in 2012 to 90-95 aircraft, down 10-15%. However, the company says large executive jet deliveries could jump as much as 36% over the 22 recorded in 2012, falling in the range of 25-30 deliveries in 2013.
Used business aircraft transactions reached a record 2,240 in 2012, according to industry analyst Jetnet. The previous record was 2,181, set in 2007. Used market transactions had plunged after the 2007 record, reaching a low point of 1,539 in 2009. But at the same time, business jet prices continued to slide — falling another 0.3% in all of 2012.
L-3 Aviation Products is preparing to increase its presence in India. L-3 plans to add more capability and collaborate on the manufacture, delivery and support of products in India for domestic and international aviation markets, while developing a foundation for a long-term support and services center in the region. L-3 Aviation Products is a major provider of commercial and military avionics.
The new Thales TopDeck avionics suite developed Sikorsky's S-76D is designed to function much as a computer, with the pilot simply calling up a menu, moving a curser to the desired position and hitting “execute.” It is also designed to provide the pilot access to a massive array of capabilities in flight with no more effort than pushing a maximum of two buttons.
A U.K. helicopter operator has received EASA approval that would allow it to begin flying air ambulance operations using night vision goggles (NVG), with pilots using the goggles to make landings into unlighted sites near accident scenes. Until now, air ambulances in the U.K. were allowed to operate only during daylight, with nighttime operations limited to landings on lighted helipads. The rules particularly limited operations in the winter months, forcing emergency services to rely on ground vehicles to reach patients in remote areas.
Congratulations to Features Editor David Esler on the excellent article “NOTAMs in Transition” (January 2013, page 24). I am operations manager in the Frankfurt office of the European AIS Database (EAD), a Eurocontrol service that deals inter alia with 1,000 to 2,500 NOTAMs/SNOWTAMs/ASHTAMs daily. I also have worked on several publications with the intent of harmonizing NOTAM procedures and to make them more user friendly. One of the most popular papers is the “OPADD” (Operating Procedures for AIS Dynamic Data), of which I was one of the authors.
Rarely has aviation history witnessed an era when so many large business jet engines have been simultaneously in development and battling for market share.
The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has added Aircraft flight Coordinator Training to its online training programming. The AFCT is a certificate program that provides core flight coordinator knowledge with an emphasis on safety and technical expertise to assist crews with in-depth planning.
