It would be an understatement to say 2010 has been a bad year for business aviation. A grim economic outlook in January got worse as the year progressed. In recent weeks, Cessna Aircraft — which had aircraft order backlogs stretching four years into the future in 2008 — has trimmed production schedules again and announced yet another round of layoffs that will cost 700 more workers their jobs. When the latest cuts are implemented, Cessna’s employment will have fallen from 16,500 in late 2008 to approximately 7,400.
Having persistent problems getting timely log-ins of crew duty and rest time? You’re not alone, and Avianis Systems has now added some new tools to its Clarity Control Center to help solve the problem. Its Flight Crew Portal provides a pilot-pleasing format for use anywhere and anytime there’s online access so crews are encouraged to keep their time logs current. A companion Crew Dashboard provides schedulers, dispatchers and managers with an easy-to-read graphic overview of flight time, block time, duty time and rest.
Honeywell’s annual Business Aviation Outlook issued Oct. 17 forecasts delivery of approximately 11,000 new business jets 2010 through 2020, generating estimated industry sales in excess of $225 billion. This represents approximately a 10% increase in total expected industry sales value versus the prior ten-year horizon forecasted in Honeywell’s Business Aviation Outlook in 2009.
Sikorsky Innovations, the technology development organization of Sikorsky Aircraft, said Oct. 13 it completed rig testing of a Hub Mounted Vibration Suppression (HMVS) system, designed to deliver a smoother helicopter ride. The effort is jointly funded by Sikorsky and the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD). Jim Kagdis, program manager for Sikorsky Advanced Programs, said, “Combined with our active flap technology, this makes the opportunity for a ‘jet-smooth’ ride a practical reality.
Eclipse Aerospace Inc. (EAI) has developed a new windshield application and is completing engineering requirements for an existing Airworthiness Directive (AD) that would enable the Eclipse 500 very light jet to return to operations at 41,000 ft. The wind¬shield application and AD requirements were among the last of the original upgrades the company had promised when it acquired the assets of the now-defunct Eclipse Aviation. Those upgrades had been left undone by the former company.
The detention at gunpoint of King Schools founders John and Martha King by Santa Barbara police the night of Aug. 29, based on inaccurate aircraft information maintained by government agencies, has highlighted the lack of information sharing and coordination among the Department of Justice, TSA and FAA. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said, “We believe there is an urgent need for the creation of a joint government-industry group that can expeditiously conduct a top-to-bottom review of the process to ensure that incidents such as this one never occur in the future.
Garmin, Ltd. has excelled in carving out markets in business and general aviation for its integrated avionics product line. We asked the Olathe, Kan., firm’s avionics product manager, Bill Stone, a quintet of questions about his company’s navigation and terrain databases: Does Garmin create its own nav and terrain databases or does it buy them from others?
Back in the stone age of aviation maintenance, it was not uncommon to have a huge inventory of spare parts in the hangar. OEMs were not as efficient at stocking parts and turnaround times were often long and unpredictable. The best part about having of all those parts was the ability to swap them out to troubleshoot maintenance problems. It was called the shotgun approach — fire wildly and hope you hit the right target. The days of keeping so many parts on the shelf are long gone.
SimCom Training Centers will provide training on the Eclipse 500 starting in the third quarter of this year and will be the exclusive source and provider of factory authorized simulator-based training for Eclipse Aerospace in North, Central and South America. Two EA-500 Level D simulators have been relocated to SimCom’s training center in Orlando. Both sims include the Avio integrated avionics system, and planned upgrades include the Avio NG 1.7 suite, along with autopilot enhancements, GPS WASS capability and flight into known icing modifications.
Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee says he doesn’t expect a long-term FAA reauthorization bill to pass this year, effectively killing an effort to spur unionization of some FedEx workers, reports ATA SmartBrief. The FedEx provision is championed by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), who would lose his chairmanship of the House Transportation Committee if the GOP recaptures the chamber in November elections.
Richard Aarons’ September Cause & Circumstance (“A Matter of Perspective,” page 56) has got to be the most politically correct piece of aviation journalism I have ever read. I think it should have been titled “TSB Accident Report Summary of a Global 5000.”
Most likely your radar has an unfortunately mislabeled control on it somewhere marked “GAIN.” Confusion results from the word’s etymology tracing to an old, old Germanic word having to do with the ratio of output to input (or maybe input to output). In modern times it’s become a word radar engineers put on certain radar knobs to flummox pilots.
King Schools has announced its 35th Anniversary Sweepstakes. The package of prizes that will go to the winner includes an Alaskan flying vacation for two, a seaplane rating and a bush flying course. The winner also will receive a cutting-edge technology Redbird TD simulator, plus a King Get-It-All Kit of their choice. The sweepstakes is open for entries until March 14, 2011. The winner will be announced at the Sun ’n Fun International Fly-In & Expo in Lakeland, Fla. Official rules can be found on the King Schools website, www.kingschools.com/sweepstakes
A bonus depreciation provision, supported by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) would cover certain business equipment purchases in 2010, including general aviation aircraft. To qualify for bonus depreciation aircraft must be placed into service by the end of 2011. The measure would enable a business to take an additional 50% depreciation on a capital investment in the first year, rather that over a five-year period.
Embraer named the Vnukovo-3 Group the authorized sales representative for its full line of executive jets in Russia. The deal with the Russian company was announced during the opening of the fifth Russian JetExpo International Business Aviation Exhibition in Moscow, September 15-17. Vnukovo-3 operates a full-service business aviation terminal in Moscow that provides service for over 90% of business aircraft flights in the city.
Sperian Protection has produced laser protection eyewear to guard pilots from flash blindness from by laser attacks. Sperian is introducing Laser-Gard Eyewear with patented lenses that also protect against glare and provide nearly total ultraviolet protection, the company says. The Smithfield, R.I., company began producing laser visors for the U.S. Air Force starting in 1968. The lenses come in a bronze tint for daytime sunglasses use or a salmon tint for nighttime use.
Business aviation will be competing with the airline industry for 466,650 pilots and 596,500 maintenance personnel over the next 20 years to operate and maintain new and replacement airline aircraft, according to a crew assessment forecast from Boeing. Airlines will need an average of 23,300 new pilots and 30,000 new maintenance personnel per year from 2010 to 2029. The crew assessment forecast is based on Boeing’s “Current Market Outlook,” a widely respected analysis of the commercial aviation market.
A new laser-based defense system being developed at the University of Michigan and Omni Sciences Inc., with possible application to civil VIP helicopters, that would protect helicopters in combat from heat-seeking missiles by essentially blinding the missile as it approaches its target. The technology uses mid-infrared supercontinuum lasers capable of scrambling heat-seeking weapons from a distance of 1.8 mi. away. Omni Sciences received $1 million in grants from the U.S. Army and DARPA to build a second-generation prototype.
It was 1800 hours (Central European Time), late November 1990. The U.S. Air Force C-5 had been cleared to land on Rhein-Main’s (Frankfurt) 13,000-ft. Runway 25L. At this, the four-month mark of Desert Shield, it had been another day of bone-crushing fatigue.
The first swing-tail cargo plane, Canadair’s CL-44 turboprop, is rolled out in Montreal. It may cut cargo rates 50% to 60% after going into service with Flying Tigers, Slick and Seaboard & Western next year.
Regarding “Weighty Subject” (Reader’s Feedback, July 2010, page 12), I’m afraid my friend Steve Zeller is way off on this one. I don’t know the average molecular weight of Jet-A and I don’t have time to look it up right now. So let’s take avgas as an example. All hydrocarbon fuels are a witch’s brew of a range of molecular weights centered around an average. In the case of avgas or mogas, octane C8H18 is a fair approximation. Taking the atomic weights C=12, O=16, H=1 then: C*8*12 + H*18*1 = 114 MW (molecular weight) of octane.
I laughed when I read LeMarr Stanford’s Flight Log in the June issue (“X Marks the Spot,” page 68). It reminded me of a story that circulated 25 or so years ago, and true or not it is still emblematic of bush flying in the far north of Canada and Alaska. The story went like this: A rookie recruit at a commercial bush flying operation was particularly anxious to please the owner and thought that taking all the “dog” flights that nobody else wanted could be his ticket to bigger and better things.
NATA reacted strongly to language contained in the proposed rule regarding the FAA’s plan for future FAR Part 135 rulemaking, noting, “In its NPRM, the FAA states that ‘Part 135 operations are very similar to those conducted under Part 121 . . .
For me, the sound, the feel, the smell of a radial engine combine in a sensory nirvana that touches my very soul. It’s a thoroughly uplifting experience that I feel compelled to share. Sometimes with mixed results.
Embraer’s new Legacy 650 large-cabin jet debuted in New York at a Sept. 15 joint meeting of the Long Island Business Association and the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association at Republic airport in Farmingdale, N.Y.
