Led by Europe, demand for civil helicopters is showing signs of recovery, and deliveries in the 2011-15 period will be 5% higher than over the last five years, at 4,200 to 4,400 rotorcraft, projects Honeywell. A survey of more than 1,000 chief pilots and flight department managers operating 2,150 helicopters worldwide showed a 2% increase in their five-year fleet replacement and expansion plans. Although modest, this ends two years of declining demand, Honeywell says. Planned fleet utilization also increased in almost all regions.
ExecuJet Aircraft Trading (Zurich, Switzerland) — Guillaume Chamoin has joined the aircraft sales arm of the ExecuJet Aviation Group, becoming the company’s second aircraft sales director in Europe. Based in Paris, he will primarily focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Before coming to ExecuJet, Chamoin spent the last seven and a half years with Bombardier and FlexJet.
Rockwell Collins announced the first installation of a Pro Line 21 avionics system on a rotary-wing aircraft. A Pro Line 21 Integrated Display System (IDS) was integrated into a Sikorsky S-61 long-range helicopter. The retrofit was a collaborative effort with Toronto -based Vector Aerospace.
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.
The FAA is again operating under temporary funding, until May 31. The U.S. House of Representatives Transportation & Infrastructure Committee passed a bill (H.R.1079) to give the House time to work on the four-year bill the panel passed in February (H.R.658). That bill cuts $4 billion from FAA programs and facilities and sets the spending at fiscal 2008 levels. Under the cloud of uncertainty, the FAA has stopped most travel and placed a freeze on most hiring, according to FAA Flight Standards Director John Allen.
Business operators who run on avgas can now take advantage of a computerized maintenance tracking system from Fleet Aviation in White Plains, N.Y. assuming a rule of thumb that complete aircraft records are worth 25% of the aircraft value at resale, the software could pay for itself.
Raytheon will install its Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) at 11 major terminal radar approach control (TRACON) facilities by 2015. An initial goal calls for five systems to be operational by the end of 2013, says Raytheon Director for Domestic Automation Michael Espinola. Dallas/Fort Worth will be the first of the 11 TRACONs to receive STARS, and the New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Northern and Southern California facilities are also among this group.
Bombardier delivered the 300th Challenger 300 to an unnamed North American customer in February at Bombardier Aerospace’s headquarters in Dorval, Quebec. Customer representatives, company leaders and employees from an almost 1,000-strong Challenger workforce were on hand for the occasion.
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.
The front page story in the January/February issue of “Flightlines,” an electronic magazine for Hawker Beechcraft employees, carries the headline, “Committed to Wichita” and describes the company’s acceptance of an incentive package that ties it to the city and a minimum 4,000-person workforce for at least 10 more years.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
FBO Million Air Houston announced in January a new general manager in the person of Robert Lee, most recently GM at Atlantic Aviation in Wheeling, Ill. He has more than 20 years of experience in aviation operations.
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) released a report that warns that society may be dangerously over-reliant on satellite navigation systems like GPS. According to the RAE, the range of applications using the technology is now so broad that, without adequate independent backup, signal failure or interference could potentially affect not just land, sea and air navigation, but broad swaths of the global economy. LORAN advocates would likely concur.
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.
The chief pilot of an FAR Part 91 corporate flight department that often fields Gulfstreams through Alaska to Asian destinations provided this succinct advice to flight crews who may be headed above 60°N latitude for the first time:
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.
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.”
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.
