Hawker Beechcraft's facility consolidation and restructuring continues on track, and Chairman Bill Boisture estimates that the company will have closed down 1 million sq. ft. in Wichita and Salina by year's end. This represents about one-third of the company's space in those locations. Hawker Beechcraft continues to ramp up in Chihuahua, Mexico, where its employment is expected to double from 500 to 1,000 by year's end.
Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion, the company's newest and most advanced integrated avionics system, has reached a major milestone by receiving its final FAA Technical Standard Order (TSO). Certification of the avionics hardware and software sets the stage for supplemental type certification on Rockwell Collins' Challenger 601 test aircraft and on Bombardier's Global Express XRS.
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.
Embraer's large cabin Lineage 1000 received its type certificate from India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The latest certification is in addition to certifications by Brazil's ANAC and the European Aviation Safety Agency in December 2008, and the U.S. FAA in January 2009. To date, nine Lineage 1000 jets are in operation worldwide.
A new coalition designed to focus on issues affecting general aviation airports has been formed by a group of GA airport operators. The General Aviation Airport Coalition was formed to “preserve and promote our nation's general aviation airports,” according to the mission statement. The coalition began meeting late last year, but recently officially launched as a formal group.
ITT Corp. has finished more than 300 of the 794 planned ADS-B ground stations, a keystone of the NextGen ATC system. The program has deployed ADS-B at key sites in Alaska; the Gulf of Mexico; Louisville, Ky.; and Philadelphia. Air traffic controllers at Houston and Philadelphia are already using ADS-B to track and separate aircraft independent of radar. The FAA selected ITT in August 2007 as the prime contractor for the ADS-B ground stations — to build, install and maintain the nationwide network, Glen Gibbons writes in Inside GNSS.
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.
JetFlite International (JFI), an aircraft management and charter provider based in Long Beach, Calif., has added a Challenger 601 to its charter fleet. The aircraft is based at the JetFlite International facility in Farmingdale, N.Y.
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.
GE Aviation PBN Services deployed the first public-use Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedure in Alaska at Deadhorse, May 5. The satellite-based instrument approach will increase approach options into Deadhorse while reducing fuel burn, CO2 emissions and flight time over currently published approaches. Deadhorse is more than 200 mi. north of the Arctic Circle and is an important staging point for personnel and equipment bound for Alaska's Prudhoe Bay and North Slope oil operations. The airport has approximately 189 arrivals per week.
In the April 2011 Readers' Feedback (page 12), Kevin Curran voices important safety concerns in a letter titled “Caring About Aviation Safety.” Many of these concerns spring from the article titled “A Failed Culture of Safety” by Richard Aarons, which was printed in this magazine in February 2011 (page 53). As someone who has worked for more than 10 years for the Quest Diagnostics Flight Department, perhaps you would listen to a different view of our organization.
Aircraft owners looking to sell their airplanes are not the only ones being adversely impacted by depressed aircraft valuations. Original equipment manufacturers continue to be affected as well. For example, when Hawker Beechcraft reported its first-quarter financial results, the company noted “continuing weakness in the general aviation market” and cited aircraft pricing as a continuing problem, both for used and new aircraft.
Executive Helicopters won a power line inspection contract in Ireland and has added an AS355N equipped with a five-axis gyro-stabilized Sony HD camera with an onboard camera control unit and a Canon HJ 17X zoom lens with a 2X extender to its fleet.
FAA granted type certification March 18 for Honeywell's 7,445-lb.-thrust HTF7250G turbofan that powers Gulfstream's new G250. Engine certification represents a substantial milestone in the development of the G250, paving the way for planned aircraft certification at the end of this year. The engine's internal architecture is closely related to the 6,826-lb.-thrust HTF7000 aboard the Bombardier Challenger 300, retaining its 34.2-in.
For more than 30 years, the Air Charter Guide has provided a reliable and accurate listing of charter operators in the U.S. and abroad. According to Associate Publisher Francine Brasseur, the ACG does not list a commercial operator without first assuring the company holds an Air Operator Certificate (AOC), issued by the Department of Transportation, or an FAR Part 135 certificate.
Cleveland-based Constant Aviation has completed its first STC'd installation of a Wi-Fi system, along with Aircell's Gogo Biz Inflight Internet, in a Gulfstream IV. The company also is completing its STC for installation of Aircell's Gogo Biz Inflight and Wi-Fi in the Cessna Citation X, Hawker 800A/XP, Beechjet and Embraer Phenom 300.
StandardAero Business Aviation says it is the first maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider certified to perform the installation of Honeywell's Primus Elite flight deck system in Falcon 900C and 900EX aircraft. The recently issued STC enables StandardAero to replace five aging CRT cockpit displays with five modern, integrated, state-of-the-art Honeywell Primus Elite (DU-875) LCD units. The retrofit can be performed at any one of StandardAero's four facilities: Springfield, Ill.; Augusta, Ga.; Houston or Los Angeles.
Jet Aviation has received approval to lease additional land at Singapore's Seletar Aerospace Park, where it plans to build a second hangar and an engine overhaul shop. Jet Aviation Regional Sales Director Luke Chiang says the Singapore government's Jurong Town Corp., which manages Seletar, has granted Jet Aviation a lease on a plot of land next to its current facility. The new hangar will be 6,000 sq. meters (64,000 sq. ft.), twice the size of its existing facility and able to accommodate eight Gulfstream G650s simultaneously, says Chiang.
I enjoyed “The Reluctant Aviator” (Flight Log, March 2011, page 68) very much (I enjoy Mike Gamauf's regular maintenance articles as well). My father always seemed a little ambivalent about my aviation career and I was well into my career when I learned why.
Aero Dynamix Inc., Euless, Texas, named Tonka Hufford operations manager, project development. He most recently was president of RSG Aviation. Aero Law Group, Bellevue, Wash., has added Paul Lambert to its team of lawyers responsible for clients in sales, leasing, financing and the exchange of business and commercial aircraft.
Operators of Dassault Falcon 50s equipped with Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics and Beechjet 400A and Hawker 400XP aircraft equipped with Pro Line 4 avionics can now access more than 2,300 airports with Localizer Performance with Vertical guidance (LPV) approaches through two new STCed upgrades from Rockwell Collins. The enhancements are available through the avionics manufacturer's network of dealers.
Hank Krakowski, chief operating officer of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization (ATO), resigned April 14, in the wake of the incidents involving controllers either asleep or unresponsive during late night shifts. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt appointed the FAA's chief counsel, David Grizzle, as ATO's acting COO while a permanent replacement is found. “We are conducting a top-to-bottom review of the way we operate our air traffic control system,” says Babbitt.
At the end of the first quarter it appeared that the long-awaited upturn in the market for previously owned, turbine-powered aircraft had arrived. Starting at the end of 2010, many aircraft dealers and brokers reported an increase in inquiries, and by March some reported that sales were beginning to pick up, too.
FAA's plan to restrict use of the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program is “dangerous, invasive and unwarranted” and could have far-reaching implications, says the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA). AOPA was one of the more than 600 commenters on FAA's March 4 notice of a tentative decision to limit BARR participation to only those operators with a verifiable threat to their operations.
