Customers of FlightSafety International can request that the company transmit electronically the flight crew training information used by CharterX/Wyvern and ARGUS in their Pilot & Aircraft Safety Survey (PASS) and Charter Evaluation and Qualification (CHEQ) systems, which automatically audit a flight to ensure the crew’s standing is current and legal. By automating the transfer of information directly to PASS and CHEQ, customers are relieved of the cost and risk of data errors and save the time it used to take to enter the information manually.
Aviation supplies, materials and gear are available from the newly launched store founded by the makers of the ArmBoard, a company called 2H Innovations in Orlando. The store carries a full line of merchandise and guarantees for one full year to “fix or replace” anything it sells. Browse www.redproppilotstore.com and tell them S&D Report sent you.
Cessna has named Metrojet, located at Hong Kong International Airport, its authorized service facility in Hong Kong for the Citation XLS and XLS+. Metrojet, which provides a range of maintenance services, will work with Cessna in the coming months to expand its support services to include the remaining Citation product line.
Proposed Rules Bombardier Challenger 600, 601, 601-3A, 601-3R and 604 airplanes — Visually inspect certain selector valves of the nose landing gear and nose landing gear door to ensure proper installation of the lock wire of the end cap. If not properly installed, take corrective actions. Bombardier CL-600, CL-601, CL-601-3A, CL-601-3R, CL-604 and CL-605 airplanes — Replace certain hydraulic accumulators.
It’s called Signature Status, and it’s a new customer loyalty and relationship program for customers of Signature Flight Support of Orlando. The program was announced at the recent NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers conference in San Antonio. Signature Status comprises three tiers: silver, gold and platinum. Operators, flight departments and owners will receive an expanding list of benefits as their visits to one of the company’s FBOs increase on a percentage basis.
No, really. Nick Verdea has run in almost a dozen marathons even though he only started running from scratch in January 2007. As the director of aviation for the Midland Financial Co. in Oklahoma City, he oversees four pilots, two techs, a Challenger 601 and a Citation X. He says he started running because of two promises he made to himself back in college: “I promised myself I’d never marry a girl I met in a bar, and I didn’t; I married my best friend’s sister, Tina. And then I said if I ever hit 200 pounds, I’d change my lifestyle.” On Jan.
Some operators wait until they’re ready to sell an aircraft before they give it a good paint job. Then once they see it looking all shiny and new, they change their minds about selling it. There’s something about a slick, glossy electro-pearlescent skin on even a senior company shuttle that makes it look young again. And it’s written somewhere that a professionally designed and applied livery featuring lots of speed stripes can add five knots — or maybe it just feels that way.
In mid-February, the Shreveport, La., Airport Authority reopened its 8,350-foot Runway 14/32 following an extensive resurfacing project that closed the ILS-equipped runway in the late summer of 2009. Shreveport’s shorter 6,200-foot Runway 5/23, served by an LOC/DME approach, remained open throughout. The airport averages about 155 operations daily and is served by one FBO, TAC Air.
“During the last recovery, it became clear that aviation was going global. Emerging nations were largely responsible for taking aviation to record highs,” declared Publisher Fletcher Aldredge in the first quarter edition of his Vref Market Leader newsletter. “The current recovery, if you agree there is one, is being driven mostly by exports.” Buyers from the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — are concentrating on buying new or like-new airplanes, he explained, and this activity has helped prices stabilize.
North American Jet Charter Group, of Charleston, S.C., and Chicago, is the first charter operator to receive FAA approval for single-pilot FAR Part 135 charters in appropriately configured Eclipse 500 VLJs. In June 2007, NAJet became the first charter operator to operate the Eclipse 500. Single-pilot approval applies for Eclipse Aerospace-upgraded 500s with FIKI and AvioNG avionics.
Spring is here and with this year’s El Niño conditions, some of the most extreme weather hazards could develop now and this summer, including massive thunderstorms and severe icing. Warmer weather fires up nature’s atmospheric heat engine, the solar-powered machine that uses water vapor, lift, differential temperature and instability to create potentially the largest and most violent storms of the year.
Bob Canty, Raytheon's program manager for GPS, says while the signals are provided free to users, the total market for GPS equipment today is about $20 billion. Canty noted that, surprisingly, just 10 percent of GPS usage is for navigation, such as in automobiles and aircraft. Ninety percent of GPS use is for timing. With new applications coming every day, the total market could grow to $300 billion by 2020, Canty said.
We asked principals in the aviation advocacy associations featured in this report for advice on how to launch and maintain participation in a new group venture. Here’s what a selection of them said:
U.S. business jet departures have steadily increased since the middle of 2009, wrote Jefferies & Co. analyst Howard Rubel. “In February 2009, departures declined 29 percent year-over-year, the largest drop since we started tracking the data in 2001,” Rubel said. November and December marked the first signs of improvement in the business jet market, with departures increasing 0.5 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively. Jefferies & Co. believes the market has stabilized, and volumes are increasing. “Aftermarket sales should see a pickup in the back half of 2010.
“A Failed Go-Around” ends with a paragraph encouraging pilots to study their performance numbers and techniques for a go-around while on the runway. Though implicit in your suggestions, it should be explicit: Consider the damage from an overrun relative to the damage from a failed go-around. Going off the end of the runway at 50 knots is generally more survivable than going off of the runway at full thrust and close to flying speed.
Step into a Hawker 4000 this year and it would be all but impossible to tell that this aircraft was lucky to survive a 12-year, $1 billion-plus gestation, one of the longest and costliest in business aircraft history. Hawker Beechcraft's largest and most sophisticated offering ever, the super-midsize business jet is key to the company's future, but its cumulative problems once put that future in doubt. Questions about the program are being answered by the product itself, along with the people behind it.
The venerable JetRanger 206B could get a new lease on life if airframe manufacturer Bell Helicopter and engine maker Rolls-Royce proceed with a plan to retrofit the single-engine helicopter with the RR500 turboshaft.
Jim Bennett, Starbucks aviation manager in Seattle and president of the Pacific Northwest Business Aviation Association, offers some organizational guidelines: Define your target constituency. In the case of the PNBAA, we focused primarily on corporate flight operations and those who support the business: service providers, insurers, law firms, FBOs, FAR Part 135 operators, charter/management companies, repair stations and OEMs. Our members are from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.
Advanced short-runway airliners and large commercial tiltrotors could boost the capacity of the U.S. air transport system without impacting conventional aircraft operations once the FAA’s NextGen airspace system is fully implemented. That’s the conclusion of a NASA-funded study into the integration of advanced vehicles into NextGen completed by air-traffic management specialist Sensis. A team led by Raytheon completed a similar 18-month study.
For most Americans, Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer. But for the people of St. Louis, Labor Day 1998 marked a major milestone in the course of a most amazing duel.
John Lee Baker, AOPA’s president from 1977 through 1990, and only the second person in that position, passed away Mar. 11 at his home in Angier, N.C. Baker was a U.S.A.F. fighter pilot in the Korean War, and then earned a law degree from Creighton University. He served on the staff of Sen. Roman Hruska (R-Neb.), and then was appointed assistant administrator in the FAA’s office of general aviation affairs.
Cessna likely will mark a low point, the first quarter of 2010, but results should improve with lower second-quarter losses — or possibly break even, JP Morgan wrote analyst Joseph Nadol. “The benefit of first-half visibility on traffic data and likely growing business confidence, particularly international, [is] driving a better order-demand picture starting in the second half of 2010,” the analyst said.
Stevens Aviation of Greenville, S.C., has received an STC for installation of a runway awareness and advisory system in the Learjet 60. The unit employs logic algorithms that determine the appropriate sequence and timing and adjusts advisory distances based upon aircraft groundspeed to maximize and enhance crew reaction time to potential ground hazards. This enhancement, part of the Stevens Aviation Business Liner upgrade, helps improve flight crew situational awareness and minimizes the risk of runway incursions.
JP Morgan analyst Joseph Nadol was more upbeat than Honeywell forecasters, saying industry veterans believe demand is beginning to improve and expect “modest” growth in helicopter deliveries to begin next year and continue through 2012. Pricing is holding up “far better” than in the business jet market and availability of financing “no longer appears to be a problem,” Nadol said.”
