FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt dismissed calls to allow controllers to sleep during shifts to mitigate the effects of fatigue. The agency is currently reviewing 12 recommendations to offset fatigue proposed by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association that include breaks of up to 2.5 hr., reduced work hours on certain rotations and increased training on the effects of sleep deprivation and disorders.
Jet Aviation's St. Louis facility has developed an extension for the right-hand table on the Dassault Falcon 7X to make the surface more conducive to working and dining.
Despite the uncertain economy in recent years, the European Business Aviation Association's membership has more than doubled since 2005. The association picked up 40 new members last year alone. EBAA credits a more proactive membership recruitment approach in 2010 — the association gave a trial membership to anyone who attended last year's European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition. The organization went from 211 full members in 2005 to 458 in 2011, including 23 members from the U.S.
Competition among transatlantic range business jets heated up when Embraer delivered the first Legacy 650 in December 2010. The new variant of the EMB-135BJ has an eight-passenger range of more than 3,800 nm, enabling it to fly nonstop from London to New York, perhaps even Paris to New York with favorable winds, weather and air traffic conditions. That range also bridges routes from Dubai to London, São Paulo to Miami or Singapore to Sydney. With one refueling stop, it can fly between New York and Shanghai, Dubai or São Paulo.
At an NBAA International Opera–tors Conference a few years ago, a long-range business jet captain delivering a presentation on flying the North Atlantic Track System (NATS) related a hair-raising anecdote. “We were on our way to Europe, high up in the flight levels,” he said. “It was a gorgeous morning, bright and clear, smooth as silk. We were monitoring the instruments, making our position reports to Shanwick Control, when overhead, a thousand feet above, came a Boeing 747-400 overtaking us.
Jack Pelton suddenly retired as chairman, president and CEO of Cessna Aircraft, parent Textron announced May 2. Textron Chairman and CEO Scott Donnelly stepped in to lead Cessna until a successor is found, the company said in its announcement. Textron did not cite specifics on Pelton's surprise departure, but quoted Donnelly as saying, “Under Jack's leadership, Cessna achieved many significant program and product milestones and strengthened its position as a thought leader in the aviation industry.
Hawker Beechcraft Global Customer Support (GCS) is accelerating development of its Hawker 400XPR, a re-engined version of the Beechjet, by adding a second aircraft to the test program. The second airplane will be used primarily to develop and certify various avionics upgrade options. A number of variations of Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics are planned for the 400XPR. Hawker Beechcraft says customers can choose a baseline three-display system or a more advanced four-display system, along with other enhancements to meet their operational needs.
The call came at 3 a.m. An American computer company executive was in intensive care in Abu Dhabi. He'd been diagnosed with a rare form of pneumonia, one resistant to antibiotics, and needed to get back to the States immediately. “We do not have the capacity to take care of him,” was the hospital's urgent message.
MD Helicopters Inc. announced that ADAC Luftfahrt Technik GmbH, in Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, has been approved as an Authorized MD Helicopters Service Center. ADAC is now approved to provide airframe maintenance, component overhaul, and part and accessory sales to the operators of MD 900/902 Explorer helicopters. MD Authorized Service Centers provide factory authorized service and MD factory parts and accessories to their respective regions.
The concept of Required Navigation Performance (RNP) isn't new, GE Aviation PBN Services technical fellow Steve Fulton points out. “The Boeing 737 was certified in December 1994 with that capability,” he noted. “It's encouraging to see things moving the way they are [with the FAA's RNP-dependent NextGen program]. It's taken us a long time to get there, though.”
Russian Helicopters and France's Turbomeca (Safran group), have signed contracts to supply at least 308 Turbomeca Ardiden 3G turboshaft engines to be installed on the updated Ka-62 helicopter, a new single-rotor design in the medium class designed to international standards. It is built with an enclosed tail rotor and airframe and propeller blades with over 50% polymeric composite materials. It is designed to transport 12 to 14 passengers in the cabin or a 2.5 metric ton load on the external sling, and is equipped with standard anti-icing and firefighting systems.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands (CAACI) entered into a joint partnership with CHC Helicopter, providing the company an Cayman Islands Air Operator Certificate (AOC), which allows the company to conduct offshore operations in several other foreign jurisdictions worldwide. The first two CHC AS332L2 Super Puma aircraft have been transferred to the Cayman Islands Register, and VP-CHC and VP-CHB will be commencing offshore operations in South America.
Eurocontrol has issued an updated action plan for expanded runway incursion incident reporting. The 104-page document spells out “the need to improve the quality of data provided in runway incursion incident reports and the need to disseminate the lessons that can be learned from the actual incidents.” Runway incursions in Europe occur at the average rate of two per day, Eurocontrol notes. The guidelines apply to airport operators, air navigation service providers, aircraft operators and regulators. Technology recommendations include using of GPS or airport moving maps.
Avjet Corp. — which is headquartered in Burbank, Calif., and has a number of offices worldwide (in Moscow, Dubai, throughout Asia and in Washington, D.C.) — provides aircraft charter and management solutions, aircraft sales and completion management services. A specialist in large-cabin VVIP aircraft, Avjet is a leader in the most active market sector: ultra-long-range Boeing, Bombardier and Gulfstream aircraft.
Based on the original Legacy's Primus 1000 avionics package, Primus Elite features five, 8- by-7-in. LCD screens that replace the CRTs. The layout has left- and right-side PFDs and MFDs, along with a central EICAS. Upgrading to flat-panel screens makes possible the display of charts and data link weather, plus they generate considerably less heat and have longer service lives.
Pitch-black darkness, gusting winds and a deep mountain canyon with vertical granite walls climbing up to 12,000 ft. do not make for a helicopter friendly environment. To make matters worse, the winter's worst blizzard was inbound just miles away. Earlier on that January afternoon a backcountry skier had been trapped and injured by an avalanche in very steep terrain. Rescuers had spent hours getting to the downed skier and then maneuvering in steep, snow-covered terrain to get him to a Forest Service parking lot 3 mi. distant and 4,000 ft. down.
While the investigation continues into the cause of the April 2 crash of a test Gulfstream 650, Gulfstream Aerospace is continuing to move the program forward, Jay Johnson, chairman and CEO of Gulfstream parent General Dynamics, told analysts. During a first-quarter earnings call, Johnson stressed that the company was not presupposing the outcome of the NTSB investigation, nor the FAA's certification process.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue continues to voice his opposition to the FAA's effort to limit the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program, which enables operators to ask the FAA to withhold their registration information from flight tracking agreements. “It poses a security threat to users of business aviation,” Donohue told the Chamber of Commerce's 10th annual Aviation Summit.
When Don Campion launched an aircraft service shop with partner John Price back in 1979, he named it after a tree that was common in Nigeria, where he grew up. Banyan Air Service started out servicing small charter operators like the one Campion had been flying for, but in the 30-plus years it has been growing and spreading its wings at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida, it has become a landmark full-service FBO.
The NBAA's 2011 Business Aircraft Transactions Conference is scheduled to take place Thursday, June 9 and Friday, June 10 at the Hilton New York in midtown Manhattan. The two-day event — which will be co-chaired by Eileen M. Gleimer, a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP, and David Labrozzi, president of GE Capital Corporate Aircraft Finance — is to feature a variety of expert presenters on financing, insurance and other topics related to aircraft ownership, as well as an opportunity to network with these industry principals.
The General Aviation Avgas Coalition is urging the Environmental Protection Agency to hold off on a draft plan that could lead to further restrictions on 100-octane low lead aviation gasoline because it doesn't account for recent changes to the standards. The EPA released the Draft Integrated Review Plan for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Lead in April, outlining plans for the review of the air quality criteria and national ambient air quality standards for lead.
Embraer announced May 5 that Ernest Edwards has been promoted to head the company's executive jet business, replacing Luis Carlos Affonso, who now assumes responsibility for new business companywide. Affonso led the development of Embraer Executive Jets from a single product offering, the ERJ 145-derived Legacy 600, through the development of two clean-sheet-of-paper business jets, the Phenom 100 and 300 announced in 2005, with two more on the way, the longer-range Legacy 650 and the large-cabin Lineage 1000 executive jet derived from the Embraer 190 airliner.
At press time, Nextant Aerospace was expecting imminent certification of its 400XT, a remanufactured version of the Beechjet 400 that features Williams International FJ44-3AP engines and Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics. The Ohio-based company plans to deliver the first 400XT in July and a total of 11 aircraft during this year. In addition, the firm plans to take a 400XT on a nationwide tour this summer.
