Business & Commercial Aviation

A long-time subscriber, I enjoy your “operating in. . .” articles very much (e.g. “Life in the Far North: Operating in Scandinavia,” October 2012, page 26). As a Part 91 Bombardier Global 5000 pilot, I find it very helpful when planning our flights worldwide, and I keep the issues of the magazine just in case I will fly somewhere you wrote about.

Honda has broken ground for a 90,000-sq.-ft. factory MRO facility on a 54-acre extension of the company's headquarters and manufacturing site at the Piedmont Triad International Airport.

DART Helicopter Services has expanded its office in Hawkesbury, Ontario, consolidating all Canadian divisions under one roof. Before the construction of the new office, the sales, marketing, customer support, engineering, accounting and manufacturing teams were not co-located. The 9,500-sq.-ft. office expansion allows the functions to come under one roof next to the manufacturing facility.

The FAA has selected Harris Corp. Government Communications Systems to provide Data Communications Integrated Services (DCIS), with a subcontracting team that includes ARINC Inc., GE Aviation and Thales. DataComm supplements today's analog voice-only air-to-ground communications system with a digital system, and it will become the primary mode of communication in air traffic in the future. The FAA says DataComm will provide a two-way data exchange between controllers and flight crews for clearances, instructions, advisories, flight crew requests and reports.

“Day Trippers” is a great tale well told! President National Association of State Aviation Officials Washington, D.C.

Eclipse Aerospace has announced the addition of an anti-skid braking system (ABS) as a new option for the Eclipse twin-engine jet. The system is available as an option on new production Eclipse 550 jets and will be offered as a retrofit to the existing fleet. In-aircraft testing is complete with certification and availability expected within six months, the company says. The new system will include two brake control valves installed in each wheel well, two axle-mounted wheel speed sensors, a computer, and a software update to the Avio Processing Center software.

Back in B.C. — before computers —days, many flight operations had some sort of a board upon which were pegs or pieces of plastic that got moved from a departure location to an arrival location as crews filed “On” and “Off” reports with the home office. Often I'd leave the office at night with an “Off” report from Anchorage and come in the next morning to see the peg placed firmly in the Shanghai column. That invariably produced a feeling of satisfaction for successfully completing another mission.

During one of my six-month sim checks, my cockpit partner, a former U.S. Marine Corps A-4 pilot, was tasked with recovering from a nose-high unusual attitude. He did a nice smooth job of keeping the angle of attack (AOA) comfortably within control margins, but that wasn't good enough for the instructor. Rather, he leaned in and said, “As the only jet aerobatic trained pilot in this sim (he'd done aerobatics in the T-37 and T-38, both U.S.

John and Martha King will receive the prestigious Frank G. Brewer Trophy for Aviation Education “. . . for their passion and dedication in making aviation knowledge more accessible to pilots worldwide by combining elegant technology with clear, fun teaching featuring courseware that simplifies complex concepts for students.”

American Eurocopter has delivered its 200th AS350 helicopter manufactured in the U.S. The AS350 B3e, was delivered to the Texas Department of Public Safety in April and entered service Sept. 20. Globally, there are more than 3,300 AS350 helicopters operating in all markets and missions. The first AS350 helicopter in the U.S. was delivered in 1978, and there are now 783 AStars in the U.S.

Blackhawk Modifications Inc., is expected to receive an STC for its upgrade package XP42A for Cessna 208 Caravans by year-end. The XP42A Upgrade Package includes a factory-new Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-42A engine rated at 850 shp, and a new wide-chord, 100-in. diameter Hartzell four-blade propeller. Also included: new composite cowling and high-efficiency inlet duct, new 40% larger oil cooler, the existing engine mount with a modified horse collar, new engine hose kit, new Blackhawk Hawkeye DigiLog engine gauges and new Frakes exhaust stacks.

A new FAA order provides guidance for Aircraft Certification Service personnel to accomplish certain agency responsibilities. HAI Rotor News reports that new guidelines include the evaluation and approval of production activities of manufacturers and their suppliers producing products or articles in accordance with Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR). The guidance details procedures for the evaluation and issuance of Production Certificates, Parts Manufacturer Approval and Technical Standard Order authorization.

Is the operational error problem a result of too much reliance by flight crews on cockpit automation? BCA received two points of view on one of aviation's more controversial subjects these days. “What we find in our contacts with the international operations community,” Dave Maloy, navigation resource specialist at the FAA's Eastern Region, reported, “is that the technology has led to complacency. 'Why do we have to do these crosschecks any more, since the technology is so good at protecting us?' crews ask us.

There are nearly 6,900 turbojet and turbofan business aircraft that are 30 or more years old — more than double the figure of just five years ago — and this number grows every year, according to JetNet LLC, an aviation market intelligence firm based in Utica, N.Y. And a sizable chunk of these geriatric jets, such as Cessna Citation 500s, Dassault Falcon 10/20 and Learjet 35/36 models, are pushing 40. At some point, old aircraft no longer will be viable.

Eclipse Aerospace announced an anti-skid braking system (ABS) as a new option for the Eclipse twin-engine very light jet. The new ABS is available as an option on new production Eclipse 550 jets and will be offered as a retrofit to the existing fleet. In-aircraft testing is complete with certification and availability expected within six months. ABS allows for maximum braking energy and skid control without the need for a conventional hydraulic system, which is unique to the Eclipse Jet.

Piper Aircraft and Aircraft Technical Publishers (ATP) announced that beginning Dec. 5, 2012, access to all Piper maintenance publications and regulatory documents will be available exclusively through the ATP Aviation Hub Online Service and ATP's NavigatorV Desktop Platform. Piper says ATP's single integrated solution offers several advantages for users including learning one simple software platform for publication access, daily revision updates to all content, and eliminating the cost of installing and managing software.

Bombardier Aerospace has opened a Regional Support Office in Moscow (Denisovskiy Pereulok, 26, Moscow), operated by Bombardier Aerospace Service Russia LLC. It will serve as a regional support hub for commercial aircraft customers in Russia and the CIS. According to the company, when the office is fully staffed it will include support resources for operators of Bombardier business aircraft and have as many as 15 customer service managers, liaison pilots, field service reps and mobile response technicians.

The oceanic clearance should be received, verified and accepted long before the aircraft approaches the oceanic boundary.

The Carlyle Group is set to buy the FBO chain it helped create nearly three decades ago. But its reacquisition of Landmark Aviation comes at a price believed to be $200 million more than when Carlyle sold the chain five years ago. Carlyle and Landmark owners GTCR and Platform Partners announced the sale on Sept. 14, but did not disclose terms of the agreement, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Carlyle sold Landmark in August 2007 to Dubai Aerospace under a $1.9 billion package deal that also included StandardAero.

Since many pilots, even some very experienced ones, admit they are not completely aware of the real nature of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and its ground-based counterpart Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS), we offer a brief primer. WAAS is a Space-Based Augmentation System (SBAS), as is Europe's EGNOS, India's GAGAN and Japan's MSAS. All are intended to be compatible and even interoperable.

I had a nice chuckle over the first paragraph of “Day Trippers” (Viewpoint, September 2012, page 9). I know what I would've done with my shoe if that smart-!@# said the same to me. It sounds like a great journey to the West Coast. Your story is just another reminder of why I am happy I took the corporate route for my career. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the laugh! Captain/Safety Advisor SCANA Corp. Columbia, S.C.

China's Kunming Changshui International Airport, located in the southwest China, has installed a custom built-in airport bird control manufactured by Bird-X. The first device used was the BroadBand Pro, an electronic device that combines sonic and ultrasonic broadcasts to repel birds up to six acres. The ultrasonic frequencies are nearly silent to humans. The second device was the Mega Blaster Pro, a highly powerful sonic bird control system that uses intermittent distress calls to create a “danger zone” that frightens birds away for good.

The “Fast Five” interview with the Reason Foundation's Robert Poole (September 2012, page 25) prompted this letter. Back when I was a kid traveling the New York State Thruway, my late dad used to point out the billboards facing the Thruway and the New York Central Railroad's main line, which taunted, “You'd be there by now if you flew Mohawk!” That was true — and Mohawk Airlines eventually eclipsed the passenger train as a means of getting around the Empire State for day business travelers.

NASA's Langley Research Center, Mitre and several partners have completed the first in a series of inflight evaluations of cooperative automatic sense-and-avoid (SAA) algorithms for unmanned air systems (UAS), in large part to validate a new testbed that will be used for more advanced trials next year. SAA is regarded as one of the top priorities — and one of the most difficult issues to solve — in the FAA and Defense Department's effort to safely integrate manned and unmanned aircraft in civil airspace.

Rockwell Collins' new GLU-925 Multi-Mode Receiver (MMR) enables operators to take advantage of evolving RNP/RNAV and ADS-B capabilities. It fulfills the requirements for aircraft navigation position source, Category III ILS, Category I Global Positioning Landing System (GLS) and accessing RNP/RNAV airspace (down to RNP Authorization Required 0.1). It also meets the GPS position and availability requirements for ADS-B Out mandates.