Business & Commercial Aviation

May 2012

Cessna unveiled the super mid-size Citation Longitude at EBACE. The Longitude will share its fuselage cross section with the Citation Latitude. Cessna is targeting FAA type certification and initial customer deliveries in the fourth quarter 2017. Some aero design features developed for Columbus will be incorporated in the Longitude, including its huge T-tail empennage, area-rule loft contours and moderately swept wing. The new aircraft will be powered by the Snecma Silvercrest, a clean-sheet 8,500- to 12,000-lb.

Hawker Beechcraft Global Customer Support has appointed Gama Support Services at Farnborough Airport, U.K., to its worldwide network of limited service centers to support its Beechcraft King Air 200, 250, 300 and 350 aircraft and Beechcraft Premier business jets. In addition, Gama Support Services will support the Beechcraft Baron and Bonanza products as a fully authorized service center.

Cessna Aircraft signed a new agreement with the China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Company Ltd., (Caiga) and the Shijiazhuang Municipal Government that the company says is a framework to deliver Wichita-built Cessna Caravan single-engine turboprop utility aircraft to Caiga's Shijiazhuang factory for final assembly, painting, production flight tests and sale within China.

In today's business aviation world and that includes civil government operations such as law enforcement — strict safety management is required to balance the risks versus benefits of any tactical operation.

Garmin will supply the avionics package for the Longitude. If it's similar to the one that will be installed in the Citation Latitude, it will feature three 14-in. screens and four touch-screen controllers quite similar to the system being installed in the new Citation Ten. The displays feature RGB LED backlight lighting that automatically adjusts for correct white balance for the life of the display. The screens have a 10,000:1 dimming ratio that accommodates the brightest daylight and darkest night ambient light conditions.

Gulfstream expects to receive FAA type certification for the large-cabin G650 and super midsize G280 in the third quarter with customer deliveries planned shortly after. The two aircraft are “neck and neck,” so it is not clear which will be certified first, says Gulfstream President Larry Flynn. European Aviation Safety Agency certification is due by year-end. The G280 flight test campaign, now at more than 2,000 hr., has completed all company and FAA certification flights, says Scott Neal, Gulfstream senior vice president for sales and marketing.

Great article on the IRS interpretation of the air transportation tax (Washington Watch, May 2012, page 68). No question that it is a huge overreach by IRS bureaucrats. My guess is that 90% of business aviation operators have never heard of this new ruling. Such is the value of BCA and the NBAA, otherwise we would already be priced out of the market. You do realize that you only wrote half of the article?

CAE is the first independent training provider to be qualified as a Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) approved training organization (ATO) for maintenance training for Dassault Falcon aircraft under China's CCAR-147 regulation. The approval enables CAE to deploy maintenance training courses in China for all in-production Dassault Falcon aircraft, including the Falcon 7X, Falcon 900EX EASy, 900DX, 900LX, and Falcon 2000EX EASy, 2000DX, 2000LX aircraft models.

I have been fortunate enough over the last 25 yr. to work closely with several first responder organizations — fire, police and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. The passing years have witnessed an important shift in attitudes toward risk. I remember an old greybeard Coast Guardsman telling me, “You got to go out, but you don't have to come back.” That mindset has given way entirely to a mantra uttered by all first responders that states, “Everybody gets to go home.” Let's spread the word.

Peoria, Ill.-based OSF Aviation, a division of OSF HealthCare, has received the first of four Eurocopter EC 145s outfitted with an aftermarket wide area augmentation system (WAAS) from United Rotorcraft.

Europe's business jet fleet total is down and likely to remain diminished for possibly another year due to slow new aircraft sales and used business jets sold out of Europe to buyers on other continents, aviation consultant Brian Foley says. During the past 12 months, 50 European business jets — about 2% of the total fleet — were sold to buyers on other continents. Outside Europe, the fleets have grown an overall 3%, Foley says. A vast majority, 79%, went to buyers in North America, mostly in the U.S. and Canada. Africa customers took the next highest total, 7%.

CAE is now conducting aircraft maintenance technician training at a new U.S. location, Sherwood, Ark., near Little Rock, home to the Dassault Aircraft Services (DAS) service center, the Dassault Falcon Jet production facility and the main Falcon Completion Center. CAE is providing maintenance training to Dassault service center production technicians, Dassault's frontline Customer Service staff and Dassault operators for the Falcon 7X, Falcon 900EX EASy and Falcon 2000EX EASy aircraft.

As aircraft become even more com–plex, we tend to focus on improving aircraft systems knowledge, often at the expense of learning more about other important topics such as fatigue, teamwork and communication. To help busy technicians and managers keep up to speed on the importance of human factors concerns in the hangar, the FAA has a website that has collected information and training ideas with maintainers in mind. It's worth a visit: https://hfskyway.faa.gov/hfskyway/index.aspx

NORTH Flight Data Systems of Arlington, Va., has received STC approval for the installation of their Lightweight Aircraft Recording (LARS) system in Eurocopter EC 155 series helicopters. Working with Metro Aviation, Inc., NORTH FDS integrated their voice, video and flight data recording system into the EC 155B1 airframe. The system provides six channels of audio, one channel of video, and in excess of 200 separate parameters of recorded digital aircraft data.

Pratt & Whitney Canada's PW210 engine has been selected by Eurocopter to power the next-generation X4 helicopter. The PW210-powered X4 is expected to enter into service by 2017. The engine will also power three other unspecified helicopters.

Honeywell expects certification authorities to sign off on several of its in-development cockpit upgrades before the year-end , including programs for the Falcon 7X and Falcon 2000 EASy II avionics upgrade Honeywell is conducting with Dassault Aviation. This Dassault program follows the upgrade already developed for the Falcon 900, which adds synthetic vision functionality.

While modern business aircraft cabins offer superlative levels of comfort, they can be relatively noisy environments. Loud noise levels or even sporadic low-level noise over time can cause hearing impairment, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, annoyance, sleep disturbances and overall decreased performance. Obviously, operators should take steps to mitigate passenger noise exposure in their aircraft cabin.

I enjoyed your article on second-grade math (Washington Watch, April 2012, page 61). The only thing you could have added was the name of the culprit who caused this problem in the first place. That person would be the Un-Honorable Sen. Charles “Chuck” Grassley from Iowa. The aviation community in Iowa needs to spread the word about this scoundrel and get him voted out of office.

Nextant Aerospace announced a new manufacturing facility for the Nextant 400XT, FAA-certified remanufactured business jet. The newly acquired facility at Cleveland's Cuyahoga County Airport will accommodate an annual production rate of 48 aircraft, and will quadruple Nextant's production area and office space footprint. The facility features a large production hangar which can handle six aircraft simultaneously, a second hangar for aircraft delivery and completions and a third that will house an advanced aircraft painting operation.

Dassault has approval from the FAA for steep approaches on all Falcon 900 EASy and Falcon 2000 EASy series aircraft. Both models had already received steep approach certification from EASA. With the most recent approvals, the entire current production Falcon fleet is now certified for steep approaches, which permits aircraft to operate at restricted airports with approach angles of up to 6 deg.

Thus far, we've talked about eliminating or minimizing sound. But for some operators, maximizing a cabin's audio qualities is of great importance. For those whose key passengers expect nothing less than an airborne symphony hall, IMAX theater, arena event or just some quiet meditation, a fourth way may be the path to audio bliss.

A new Bombardier Flight Deck iPad app for Challenger and Learjets provides an electronic flight manual that can automatically receive updates from Bombardier. Updates to all Bombardier flight manual revisions, including temporary revisions, are received and implemented at the push of a button. The system uses advanced encryption technology and provides the necessary FAA, EASA and Transport Canada audit trail for paperless operations.

The GAMA Board of Directors approved Air Tractor as its newest member, bringing the association's membership to 77. Air Tractor got its start as the Snow Aeronautical Company in 1951. In 1958, Leland Snow moved the production facilities to Olney, Texas, where Air Tractor is headquartered today. With over 2,700 aircraft flying, Air Tractor manufactures an extensive line of agriculture aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney piston or turbine engines. Air Tractor aircraft can be found working over fields and forests across the U.S.

Former FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt is expected to continue an aviation consulting career following the May 10 dismissal of drunk driving charges that led to his resignation from the agency in December 2011. A district court judge in Virginia dismissed the charges, ruling that the police had stopped him without sufficient reason. Babbitt said he plans to remain in aviation as a consultant.