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.
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.
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:
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.
On the first of the year, this FBO became an Avfuel dealer and will offer that vendor’s Avtrip program, with double points for all purchases through June 30.
I savor reading Cause & Circumstance. It’s usually the first read for me when I get the publication. “A Failed Culture of Safety” (February 2011) was quite fascinating, but it left me feeling as if I’d watched an episode of “Hawaii Five-O” that ends with a “To be continued next week.”
Again profitable, NetJets ordered 50 Global business jets with options for an additional 70 aircraft. Bombardier said it was the largest business aircraft sale in the company’s history. The firm order transaction is valued at approximately $2.8 billion based on list prices. If all the options are exercised, the total value of the order will surpass $6.7 billion, also based on list prices. The firm order comprises 30 Global 5000 Vision and Global Express XRS Vision aircraft, with deliveries scheduled to begin in fourth quarter 2012.
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.
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.
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.
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
Europe’s FBO chain expanded again with a fourth facility, this one in Valencia. Assistair sold its existing assets to ExecuJet, and all services and staff of the 22-year business are to be retained. Passengers can feel comfortable in a VIP lounge with Internet access and refreshments. Crew briefing areas provide Internet access and 24-hr. service, and Nicole Gut will manage the facility.
Lindbergh Foundation 34th Annual Awards: Dean Kamen, noted inventor, educator and pilot, has been selected to receive the Lindbergh Award for 2011. GE Aviation is the recipient of the Foundation’s Corporate Award for Balance, and Milbry Polk, founder and director emeritus of WINGs WorldQuest will receive the Anne Morrow Lindbergh Award.
Another encroachment on FAA authority over air commerce. The National Park Service (NPS) has drafted a plan to restrain aircraft activity over Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP). The plan calls for new limits on the number of air tour operations, hours of their flights and minimum altitudes. The NPS draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), which covers air tour flights and calls for the “substantial restoration of natural quiet” over GCNP, is open for public review. Comments are due June 6.
Dennis Rousseau, president of AircraftPost.com — the Albany, N.Y.-based company that provides real-time valuations for more than 5,000 medium and large business jets — believes that aircraft prices have stabilized at roughly 25% under “a normalized market,” but that it may be up to three years before the excess inventory of used aircraft shrinks enough for airplane prices to reflect their true value. However, he cautions, “We need to be careful and not look at 2007/2008 as the ‘normal market’ to return to because prices weren’t normal; they were exaggerated.”
FlightSafety International will offer Bombardier Challenger 605 training to customers in Europe at the company’s London Farnborough facility in the U.K. Training is slated to begin early next year using a new FlightSafety-built full-flight simulator. The Farnborough center can accommodate 15 simulators and train 3,800 professionals annually. The site houses training programs for Bombardier, Cessna, Gulfstream, Hawker Beechcraft and Sikorsky models.
I chose my career field on a sunny summer day outside of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near Gatlinburg, Tenn. I was seven. We had been tooling along on a family vacation when up ahead we spotted an old, bubble front Bell 47. Beside it was a sign that read, "Helicopter Rides, $5." "Dad! Only $5! A helicopter ride! Can we? That would be sooo cool! Please."
Carter Aviation Technologies completed initial flight tests of its proof-of-concept Personal Air Vehicle (PAV), an aircraft that combines a rotor for vertical takeoff and landing with a propeller and wing for efficient high-speed flight. The four-place PAV uses Carter’s slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) technology. The rotor is unpowered, as in an autogyro, but when spun up by the engine it allows a “jump” takeoff. On landing, the energy stored in the high-inertia rotor allows the aircraft to autorotate to a “zero-roll” landing.
The FCC waived its spectrum allocation rules Jan. 26 to conditionally authorize Reston, Va.-based LightSquared to operate 40,000 high-power, ground-based 4G cell phone transmitters in a segment of the L-band previously allocated to Mobile Satellite Service (MSS), i.e. low-power satellite-to-earth service, immediately adjacent to the 1559-1610 MHz band used by GPS and other satellite navigation services.
Sikorsky Aircraft closed in February on an equity investment that gives the helicopter maker a minority stake in Eclipse Aerospace. The companies announced the agreement during the NBAA annual meeting and convention in October 2010, but neither party will disclose the deal’s value or the structure of Sikorsky’s holding. Sikorsky and Eclipse also entered into a “service level agreement” under which Sikorsky would provide global supply chain support and certain production restart services.
The flight was to be a simple aerial photography mission over a large expansion construction project at Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI). The Bell 206B maneuvered over the work area at about 400 ft. AGL. However, soon after slowing to a hover, the helicopter did a rapid 180-deg. right turn around the mast, stopped momentarily, then continued its clockwise spin. According to one witness, the helicopter continued in a descending turn until striking the ground violently, killing both the pilot and photographer.
Jan. 16 — At approximately 2000 CST, a Cessna 172A (N7262T) was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain 1 mi. east of Smiley Johnson Municipal/Bass Field (E34), Clarendon, Texas. The pilot, the sole occupant, was seriously injured. The cross-country flight originated at Abilene Regional Airport (ABI), Abilene, Texas, at approximately 1820, and was en route to E34. It was VFR at the time of the accident. When the pilot did not return as scheduled, family members became concerned. The FAA issued an ALNOT (Alert Notice) on Jan. 16 at 2345.
