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.
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.
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.
The European Aviation Safety Agency certified Honeywell's TPE331-12JR turboprop engine on the Cessna Caravan. Honeywell claims that with the TPE331-12JR conversion, Caravan operators experience up to 40% more power than with the production engine. They also save as much as $40 per hour in operating costs due to longer maintenance intervals, fewer life cycle-limited parts and better fuel efficiency when compared to the standard OEM engine. The engine also passes Germany's stringent maximum fly-over noise level of 78 dBA.
Bell/AgustaWestland BA609A Tiltrotor With robust sales of the AW139 helping the AgustaWestland division of Finmeccanica claim 29% of the $4.16 billion global helicopter market as measured by 2010 deliveries — that's second only to Eurocopter — the status of the AB609A tiltrotor joint venture with Bell Helicopter Textron has seemed only to grow murkier.
Private operators posing as commercial charter providers in Europe, North America, and the Middle East are soliciting money from the “ignorant public” and, certificated operators claim, are endangering their passengers while creating unfair competition for the legitimate, rules-abiding members of the industry.
Today, the light jet market is awash with more than 1,200 used aircraft, most of which are fully mature products, whose qualities, support and appeal are well known. Also for sale are more than two dozen diminutive Eclipse 500 VLJs, which are far riskier investments. These have yet to mature into productive business travel assets in spite of the $1 billion spent to develop aircraft, whose fleet total now stands at 259 units.
The first international Cessna Skycatcher delivery was to Aeromil Pacific at Sunshine Coast Airport in Queensland, Australia. It will be used for sales demonstrations throughout 2011. The Skycatcher is Cessna’s entry in the light sport aircraft category. It features a Garmin G300 avionics suite and is powered by a Teledyne Continental O200D engine. Priced at $113,500, the two-seat, single-engine aircraft has a maximum speed of 118 kt. with a maximum range of 470 nm.
The used aircraft market, while improving, remains a major concern, declared GAMA chairman John Rosanvallon during the association’s annual “State of the Industry” presentation.
At GAMA’s “State of the Industry” press conference in late February, GAMA Chairman John Rosanvallon, president and CEO of Dassault Falcon, reported that the global economic downturn continued to negatively impact general aviation manufacturers in 2010, but that signs of a recovery have started to emerge. “Our industry experienced another challenging year that required many manufacturers to continue to make careful decisions about production schedules, employment and product development,” said Rosanvallon.
CitationAir’s fleet of 81 aircraft just got faster as the company added six of the fastest production business jet to its lineup. The Mach 0.92 Citation X can take customers from Los Angeles to New York in just over 4 hr., lopping a half hour off the typical time.
Bombardier Aerospace has a dedicated support aircraft based in Dubai for rapid parts delivery to resolve Aircraft on Ground (AOG) situations for customers in the Middle East and Asia. The Challenger 601 PartsExpress business jet is now on alert around the clock to transport parts, technicians and test equipment from Dubai International Airport to Learjet, Challenger and Global aircraft operators.
As mentioned in the main text, U.S. Customs and Border Protection no longer confers “permission to proceed” authority to aircraft entering U.S. territory at Adak Island in the Aleutian Chain. Previously, aircraft using Adak as a tech stop on the way back from Asia could arrange to take on fuel at Adak, then with prior arrangement, proceed to Anchorage to clear Customs. Here, courtesy of Universal Weather & Aviation, is the two-part message received last year from CBP:
Bell Helicopter received 41 signed contracts at Heli-Expo 2011. The orders included 412EPs, 429s and 206L4s, as well as 11 new 407GXs from customers in North America, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. At this year’s Heli-Expo, Bell announced the 407GX, a new version of the Bell 407 equipped with Garmin’s G1000H Integrated Flight Deck, and the 407AH, the first Bell-qualified armed commercial aircraft.
The European Commission approved the satellite-based European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) system for aviation operations. Like WAAS in the United States, EGNOS complements and improves the accuracy of GPS, allowing reduced-separation RNP operations and LPV approaches to any runway independent of ground installations. With the approval, EU member states can design and certify approaches.
Kaman Corp. Composites Division has been awarded a contract to manufacture composite passenger entry and over-wing exit doors for the Bombardier Learjet 85 midsize business jet.
Eight furloughed pilots have been recalled in the company’s move to address growth as business recovers. FlightOptions is expanding its fleet of Phenom 300, 400XT and Citation X aircraft, along with its capacity for fractional and jet card programs. FlightOptions now employs 311 pilots.
Sabreliner Corp. recently completed a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) on a Learjet 35 air ambulance owned and operated by Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Aero Jet International. The SLEP was performed in Sabreliner’s Perryville, Mo., facility and involved an extensive inspection of all of the aircraft’s flight controls using state-of-the-art, non-destructive inspection techniques.
This short adventure began with an e-mail from a friend who flew with me at Piedmont Airlines. Vince was a 727 flight engineer but was now in Iraq with a company that has thousands of employees in Iraq. It uses Iraqi airliners with two Boeing 737-200s to shuttle its employees in country. The job was for a check airman to work on safety and compliance and to occasionally ride jump seat. A walk in the park, so to speak.
The NBAA reiterated its strong opposition to the FAA’s plan to limit participation in the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program, saying the actions represent unwarranted invasion of privacy and a potential security risk for passengers aboard aircraft. Under the BARR program, the FAA accommodates requests of aircraft owners and operators to exclude their aircraft from ASDI and NASSI data feeds. In the notice, the FAA says, “We have tentatively determined that it is in the best interests of the U.S.
Since 1993, the FAA has prohibited executives from reimbursing their companies for personal use of company aircraft. The genesis of this policy was a legal interpretation requested on behalf of Charles Schwab. The FAA took a very narrow view of FAR Part 91.501(b)(5), concluding that the rule was designed to allow reimbursement for business flights, and therefore personal flights were not covered. Simply stated, the man named Charles Schwab could not write a check to Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. for a personal flight in the company airplane.
Robinson Helicopter Company has a backlog of 169 new orders. The company delivered 162 aircraft in 2010: 40 R22s, 112 R44s, and 10 R66 turbine helicopters.
I read “A Failed Culture of Safety” (Cause & Circumstance, February 2011, page 53) with great interest. Good article. I am sure you know the NTSB report on the Quest Diagnostics fatal crash was pulled from the Internet. Not good. I believe that our industry has a shared responsibility to operate safely for the benefit of all parties. Your observations regarding Quest Diagnostics are quite disappointing as it appears that Quest lacks a commitment to safe operations
An attempt by the FAA to adopt a substantive change in the operations of FAR Part 135 certificate holders by means of a “rules interpretation” is under attack by a broad cross section of the air charter community.
