When I graduated from our high school in Western Massachusetts, there were three doors from which to choose: (1) state teachers college; (2) partnering with my father in a funeral parlor; or (3) something else. At that time Pratt & Whitney was running big Help Wanted ads in the local paper, so some buddies and I flung open Door #3 and headed for East Hartford.
Airport operators in the Pacific Northwest are teaming up with Boeing and Washington State University on a six-month study to explore ways of developing a regional biofuels industry that will produce jet fuel from biomass. Alaska Airlines, Oregon’s Portland International Airport and Washington state’s Seattle-Tacoma International and Spokane International will participate in the study, according to the Air Transport Associations’ e-mail news bulletin.
A bill in that would extend bonus depreciation for businesses that purchase general aviation aircraft in 2010 was introduced in June by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “Bonus depreciation is a powerful incentive to purchase a GA aircraft and is proven to increase sales during difficult economic conditions,” said Pete Bunce, GAMA’s president and CEO. Bonus depreciation allows a business to deduct an additional 50 percent of the depreciable value in the first year instead of spreading it out over five years.
Recently issued IRS rulings pertaining to liability for Federal Excise Taxes (FET), disallowance of accelerated depreciation deductions and tightened requirements for passive loss write-offs potentially threaten to hike costs for business aircraft operators. So warned attorney Keith Swirsky at the 13th annual Dassault Falcon Jet Aviation Professionals Conference held in May.
Piper Aircraft selected DeCrane Aerospace and Propel Designs to help incorporate improvements for PiperJet’s cabin interior. DeCrane Aerospace in Wichita, Kan., will provide engineering and interior “soft goods,” including carpeting, headliners and interior panels. Propel Designs, of Seattle, will oversee overall design, the styling for the flight deck and improvements to the passenger cabin. The selection of the interior specialists follows a number of meetings with PiperJet buyers, notes Randy Groom, Piper executive vice president.
For decades, FAR Part 135 charter operators have used their aviation expertise to manage aircraft for companies that own jets for their own use. The now-common practice of placing these managed corporate aircraft on a charter company's operations specifications for charter by third parties evolved from that initial management service.
Matthew Huff expects the next few months, a traditionally slow season in the previously owned aircraft business, to be quiet this year as well. “Our forecast is that the summer is going to be rather slow,” he predicted. The vice president of inventory control for O’Gara Aviation, the Atlanta-based aircraft acquisition and sales company, noted that the market showed “a noticeable improvement in late winter through mid-spring.”
Cessna Aircraft has unveiled a program to reduce lead times required for interior refurbishments of classic Citations. Under the new RightNow Interiors program, Cessna’s Citation Service Centers will stock pre-selected, certified interior design materials, eliminating long-lead times — which typically can run eight to 12 weeks — necessary to order materials for interior refurbishments of the light jets.
Sikorsky Aerospace Services (SAS), the aftermarket division of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., acquired privately owned LifePort, Inc., a Washington aircraft accessories manufacturer that specializes in air medical systems, lightweight armor, interior furnishings and galley equipment for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. The acquisition establishes accessories as a new business segment for SAS. LifePort will operate as “LifePort, a Sikorsky Aerospace Services Company,” retaining its current executive management team.
Pilatus Aircraft delivered the first of six PC-12 NG multi-purpose liaison aircraft to the Finnish Air Force under a €22.5 million contract signed in April 2009. Pilatus provided initial type conversion training for Finnish Air Force pilots and maintenance personnel at its factory in Stans, Switzerland, during the second quarter. Pilatus expects to deliver the remaining aircraft by August. The Finnish contract marked the first PC-12 fleet sale to a European air force. The aircraft will replace Piper PA-31-350 Chieftains in service since 1983.
Not that long ago, it was a challenge to operate a business jet in Mexico. There were few FBOs, ground support was sporadic — at outlying airports, nonexistent — and getting anything seemed to take forever. Even in the few cases where handling agents were available, permits and authorizations had to be walked through multiple offices by flight crews.
ExecuJet Mexico has opened a new office at Toluca Airport. ExecuJet Mexico also has offices in Monterrey’s Mariano Escobedo and Del Norte International airports. The company offers aircraft management, charter, sales and maintenance services.
Chris Holliday (Aviation Safety Inspector, FSDO 23Rochester N.Y. )
I’m a Aviation Safety Inspector here at the Rochester, N.Y. FSDO and the helicopter POI. We recently held a helicopter safety seminar and I made a presentation on three recent helicopter accidents including the Maryland State Police accident. After reading your article (“A Medevac Ends In Disaster” May, page 79), I realize I was woefully short on details. Your article was excellent in both detail and conclusions. Thanks for your contribution to aviation safety and it is an excellent review of this accident.
A Gulfstream G450 set a city-pair speed record between Tokyo and Hong Kong. The G450 took off from Tokyo’s Narita International Airport at 10:50 a.m. local time on June 7. It flew 1,694 nm at an average cruise speed of Mach 0.85, landing 3 hours and 58 minutes later at 1:48 p.m. local time at Hong Kong International Airport. According to the crew, Sean Sheldon, senior international captain, and Jaime Bahamon, international captain, the first 300 miles of the flight were flown at reduced speed because of turbulence caused by headwinds of more than 100 knots.
FAA Military Airport Program funding will go to Stewart International Airport in New York and Sacramento, Calif.’s Mather Field to perform conversion work related to their shift from military to civilian facilities. Stewart, operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will receive a year’s funding to replace electrical cable in the former Air Force airfield power circuit to meet modern civil design standards.
U.K.-based aviation services company PremiAir has taken over the management of a fleet of Learjet business jets and has acquired a new private jet operating and maintenance base at London’s Biggin Hill Airport from Gold Group International. PremiAir sister company von Essen Aviation will take ownership of the Learjet 45 fleet, while PremiAir takes over the former Gold operation.
June 19 — At 0227 MST, a Beech A36 (N155FT) collided with terrain approximately eight miles north-northeast of Seligman, Ariz. The commercial pilot, who was also the registered owner of the airplane, was killed and the airplane was substantially damaged. It was VFR at the time and no flight plan was filed. An Alert Notice (ALNOT) was issued on June 19. The wreckage was located at 1030 MST on June 23. According to a family member of the pilot, he had departed from Los Alamos, N.M., about 1930, and flew to Santa Fe, where he bought fuel.
Asking prices for previously owned business jets increased slightly, and inventories of used in-production jets continued to decline slowly in June, dropping below the 12-percent level for the first time since October 2008, said financial analyst JP Morgan in its July Business Jet Monthly report.
Cessna Aircraft Company’ McCauley Propeller Systems division has achieved ASTM compliance for a new two-blade, fixed-pitch composite propeller for the Cessna 162 Skycatcher. “This is the first of a planned family of composite propellers we have in development, designed for a range of aircraft,” said McCauley Vice President and General Manager Peter Wilkinson, July 14. The 1L100 is a new all composite fixed-pitch propeller specifically designed for the Skycatcher’s Teledyne Continental Motors O-200D engine.
BCA’s second Ops & Safety website, this one covering NextGen, is up and running at AviationWeek.com. It also covers NextGen’s European cousin, SESAR. Like the thunderstorm site, there’s an “Ask the Expert” area. Our NextGen expert is Fred George, well known for his award-winning pilot reports and technical features, including in-depth avionics systems reports for BCA. Now he’s linked to the site to answer your NextGen and SESAR questions. There is a direct link to the online NextGen site at the upper left of the Bizav channel page on www.AviationWeek.com.
First, I agree 100 percent with your well written article (Cause & Circumstance, July, page 62). A good example of overload is departing KSMO with the standard instructions. Which are, runway heading until the 310-degree radial of LAX VOR with an immediate right turn to 265 degrees for radar vectors. Of course, you also are in the middle of a very close noise abatement procedure — power back, monitor a safe airspeed, hit the 310 and turn to 265. Maybe you may get to monitor for VFR traffic, but not much. This should not be forced upon us.
The new FAA NIEC is off to a flying start with Boeing subsidiary Insitu providing unmanned aircraft for research to help develop recommendations for integrating unmanned aircraft into the national airspace. The system, including two ScanEagle small unmanned aircraft, has been delivered to the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J. The FAA will fly the UAVs in restricted airspace over the New Jersey Air National Guard’s Warren Grove Gunnery Range as it works to develop air traffic management procedures for them.
Hawker Beechcraft Services (HBS) has selected the Thrane & Thrane Aviator 200 system to provide broadband connectivity for in-service King Air 90, 200, 300 and 350 aircraft. Certification of the system on the twin turboprops is expected in the fourth quarter. In 2009, the high-speed Internet equipment was certificated on Hawker Beechcraft’s Hawker business jets.
“As we move into the summer of 2010, there has never been a market so fractured, with so many ups and downs,” commented Fletcher Aldredge, publisher of the Vref Aircraft Value Reference and the Vref Market Leader newsletter. Aldredge noted in the second quarter edition of Market Leader that international buyers have buoyed the used aircraft market in recent months. “The robust export market has helped breath life back into everything from Cessna 182s to Gulfstream 550s.”
Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock Texas, March 1967. This was it. We had arrived. The T-37 program was finished and we were on to the T-38. Nobody had their picture taken standing next to a T-37, the Cessna "Tweet" primary trainer. The supersonic Northrop T-38 Talon advanced jet trainer, aka "The White Rocket," was the plane we had waited to fly for a long time.
