Hawke Capital Partners, a rotorcraft-focused private equity investor, announced in September that it has recapitalized its wholly owned operating subsidiary, Uniflight, LLC, at Grand Prairie Municipal Airport in Texas, while simultaneously completing the acquisition of the assets of Aviation Services Unlimited, based at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, N.Y. As a result, Uniflight’s maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities have expanded to three locations: Grand Prairie; Reading, Pa.; and Rome, N.Y.
Private aviation company and Embraer Phenom jet operator, Executive AirShare of Kansas City, Mo., launched an enhanced website, “www.execairshare.com” that includes news and information about its regional fractional aircraft ownership programs and a trip cost estimator, enabling aviators to estimate round-trip costs from Executive’s regional bases to any city in North America.
The midday Underground ride out to Heathrow International Airport from central London takes slightly less than an hour. One day last July, as I sat sweating with other commuters packed into an un-air-conditioned train, I contemplated the meeting I was traveling to attend.
Air traffic controller trainees at the FAA academy in Oklahoma City are already learning to use NextGen satellite-based technology. “It’s our future,” Lindy Ritz, administrator of the FAA Academy told the Oklahoman newspaper. Initial ADS-B operational capability has been achieved over the Gulf of Mexico under the control of Houston ARTCC.
Pan Am International Flight Academy acquired the training and simulator assets of Miami-based Aeroservice Aviation Center, the company announced Sept. 15. Aeroservice’s simulators will be integrated into Pan Am’s system and positioned where they most effectively serve customers. Aeroservice’s Miami training center will become Pan Am’s seventh training facility and will operate under Pan Am’s FAR Part 142 certificate. Pan Am, with the exception of a Cessna Caravan simulator in Memphis, focuses on heavy-iron training.
Nextant Aerospace expected to fly its remanufactured Beechjet 400 for the first time in early September, and the Cleveland-area company anticipates certification of the upgraded light jet during first quarter 2011.
AgustaWestland has delivered the first of four AW119Ke single-engine helicopters to the Finnish Border Guard to perform various missions, including border patrol, special operations and firefighting.
AgustaWestland’s AW139 won Russian civil certification. The medium twin helicopter successfully met MAK requirements, the company announced Sept. 17. Russian civil certification has already been received for the single engine AW119Ke as well as the AW109 Power and Grand light twin models. The first order for the AW139 in Russia was placed by HeliClub in May of this year. and the helicopter will be used to perform corporate and passenger transport missions.
As the northern hemisphere slips into the cold seasons, cautious pilots will review the ice protection information located in their airplane’s documentation (AFM, POH, etc.) and their company’s winter operating procedures. Ice destroys lift and chokes off power. Ice takes down large aircraft and small. Ice is insidious. Small amounts of barely visible ice on a modern high-performance wing can glue your airplane to the ground and send you rolling off the end of the departure runway at takeoff velocity with no options and lousy prospects.
A Sensis Corp. team has advice for airport officials who want more capacity. Matthew Blake, director of strategic initiatives for advanced development at Sensis said, “New vehicles are the mechanism to do that.” Five aircraft types: cruise-efficient STOL transports, large commercial tiltrotors, UASs, VLJs and SSTs have potential for a strong impact at airports in urban areas, including major hubs and surrounding regional airports,
There are people way behind the eight ball . . . in panic mode. There is a whole list of issues, and operators are fed up. They say, ‘Here’s another regulation. It takes time. It takes money. Why do I need it? I haven’t had an accident.’” The speaker is one of the many who deal with the safety management system (SMS) issue on a daily basis. And no operator wants to go on record expressing anything negative on the subject. “It sounds as if we’re against safety,” as one put it.
DART Helicopter Services (DHS), a distributor of certified helicopter accessories, and Hawker Pacific Aerospace have signed an agreement that will give DHS the capability to offer its complete inventory to operators in Hawker Pacific’s markets (Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Dubai), supplementing its operations in North and South America, Europe, Japan, China and Singapore. DART Helicopter Services www.darths.com Hawker Pacific Aerospace www.hawker.com
She seemed frail and delicate, but was alert throughout the proceedings, which her bright eyes followed with keen interest. At the tables filling the ballroom sat a mixture of young, less young and middle-aged, with an ample portion of white-haired or bald-domed seniors, some stooped, some hard of hearing, but all smiling, clearly glad to be there. This was the Wichita Aero Club’s second annual dinner dance and the evening’s highlight was the inaugural presentation of the club’s trophy to Mrs. Velma Wallace, the diminutive nonagenarian sitting opposite me.
Sandel’s HeliTAWS has won TSO approval from the FAA. The helicopter terrain safety system incorporates Sandel Avionics’ proprietary TrueAlert technology, which is designed to eliminate nuisance alerts, a significant problem with existing terrain-warning products that limits their usefulness in helicopter operations. With TrueAlert, Sandel claims that pilots can safely take off, cruise, hover and land at off-airport locations without triggering nuisance alerts, while still receiving the benefits of Class-A terrain warnings during the entire flight.
“There should be some optimism in our industry,” declared Carl Janssens, editor of the Aircraft Bluebook Price Digest, in the third-quarter edition of his Marketline newsletter. “Buyers and sellers are finally coming to terms with what the market will bear for a given aircraft,” explained Janssens. “And with that, the pre-owned aircraft market is seeing more completed deals. The gridlock of available inventory is starting to show some movement,” he said.
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.
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 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.
L-3 Avionics Systems’ Trilogy ESI-2000 3 ATI electronic standby instrument with battery backup won FAA TSO authorization, the company announced Aug. 13. The all-solid-state ESI-2000 provides primary flight display information for a minimum of one hour and up to four hours of backup power, depending on temperature if primary power is lost. A 3.7-in. backlit screen makes the ESI-2000 clearly visible in daylight or dark cockpit conditions.
Jack DeCrane, who had managed merger and acquisition activities for the Aerospace and Defense Group of BF Goodrich, set up his own venture to acquire aircraft suppliers in 1989. That company, DeCrane Aerospace, evolved in to a major supplier of business aircraft cabin products with projected 2010 sales of $170 million. Along the way he acquired auxiliary fuel system maker and completion company, PATS Aircraft Systems. Jack DeCrane died in 1979. Now, coming full circle, DeCrane Holdings has agreed to sell off its interior fittings business to Goodrich.
Hawker Beechcraft announced that its piston-twin Beechcraft Baron has become the only aircraft in its class to be approved for operations at London City Airport. Due to the airport’s city location and extremely steep (5.5 deg.) approach requirements, aircraft must demonstrate the necessary performance capabilities, including a 7.5-deg. approach, and receive approval from EASA and London City Airport to utilize the airport.
Everett, Wash.-based AeroMech Inc. is helping Mid-Continent Instruments of Wichita obtain an STC for the installation of Mid-Continent’s MD835 lithium ion battery in a variety of general aviation aircraft, including the Beech King Air 200 and 300 and several Citation models. AeroMech, which provides engineering consulting services, is overseeing the initial battery installation in a King Air 200.
The AOPA and NBAA will help their members make the most of their light general aviation aircraft as business tools this fall at each group’s annual convention. Speaking on “AOPA Live” at EAA AirVenture, AOPA President and CEO Craig L. Fuller and NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen unveiled the six forums that will be presented as the Light Business Airplane Conference at both the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, Oct. 19 to 21 in Atlanta, and the AOPA Aviation Summit, Nov. 11 to 13 in Long Beach, Calif.
Montreal-based aviation services firm Zenith Jet is predicting that Cessna will reinitiate the Columbus program with an entry-into-service date of 2016. In its recently released 10-year forecast, Zenith believes Cessna will account for 35% of all business jet deliveries, giving it the largest share of business jet unit volume. Embraer will move into the “Number 2 spot” in terms of unit deliveries, capturing 18 percent of the market share, Zenith forecasts.
The FAA has granted an STC for Garmin’s G1000 integrated flight deck in the Cessna CitationJet (Model 525, serial numbers 0001-0359). The RVSM-compliant system will save approximately 100 lb. of weight, and will give pilots the advantages of flying WAAS approaches with Garmin’s GFC 700 autopilot, electronic charts, data link weather and optional Synthetic Vision Technology. (See related story on page 38.)
