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.
“Although the market is still nothing to brag about, and trends still might adjust down, this market is nothing like the roller coaster ride of 2009,” commented Carl Janssens in the spring edition of the Aircraft Bluebook Price Digest. The most recent numbers from the Bluebook indicate that prices for previously owned aircraft are stabilizing. Among the various aircraft the publication tracks, jet prices were the most volatile during the last quarter. Prices for 455 jets decreased, 419 remained stable and a mere two increased.
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:
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
If your flight operation is equipped with Automated External Defibrillators but lacks a management system to ensure that batteries are replaced on schedule, a company called American Med Supply of Westlake, Ohio, says it will do the managing for you. The free service is known as AEDAlerts.com and after you send the company an inventory of your AED devices, it will manage them at all locations, notify you when inspections are due and alert you to expiration dates for electrode pads, batteries and CPR/AED certificates for all responders.
Fred Towers, a renowned expert in international flight operations, was awarded the coveted Outstanding Achievement & Leadership Award by the NBAA at the Schedulers & Dispatchers conference in January. Towers has been active for years in building the S&D community’s recognition and public stature. As a veteran dispatcher himself, he has taught hundreds of his colleagues the key elements of international trip planning. Towers works as a services review program manager for Universal Weather & Aviation in Houston.
Restricted hours (7 a.m. to 3 p.m.) at Shannon Airport's new U.S. Customs Pre-Clearance may be limiting use of the process, officials at Universal Weather & Aviation and Signature Flight Support told BCA. Pre-clearance procedures allow Part 91 operators to completely process through U.S. Customs just as they would at a port of entry airport in the United States.
Boy, do we have good news from Washington! According to an official government document published last month by the Treasury Department “the financial system is more stable and the economy is growing again. In the final quarter of 2009, the economy grew more quickly than at any time in the past six years. Credit is starting to flow again to consumers and businesses.”
“The Empty Leg Syndrome” contained an error regarding aircraft depreciation. The correct rates of depreciation are fives years for personal use (FAR Part 91) aircraft, and seven years for commercial (Part 135) aircraft. (February 2010, page 23)
Anthony Nicholas Turiano (Air Traffic Controller Miami, FL )
I was surprised and sorry to see that BCA printed Mike O’Rourke’s letter (February 2010, page 8) without editing the offensive language from it. Mr. O’Rourke seems to attribute an awful lot of power to the controller’s union, which cannot negotiate on matters of pay. Let us remember that it was FAA management that signed off on pay reclassification, and that thousands of FAA managers benefited as well — including plenty of deadwood.
Cessna Aircraft, calling Asia one of the most resilient markets in the turbulent economy, is expanding its presence in the region and will use the Singapore-based parts distribution facility of its sister Textron company Bell Helicopter to speed parts distribution to Citation service centers in Asia and the Pacific Rim. Cessna says that more than 3,400 Cessna aircraft are operating in the region.
“Business aviation” does not always mean business jet. In roadless Alaska, business gets done in small airplanes. Even though the same airplanes might be used to get the groceries, there doesn’t seem to be any congressional concern about the potential for “abuse.” The press is never going to shame a corpor–ation by flashing a picture of the exec emerging from anything with a propeller.
The newest and largest Air Traffic Control Center in Europe has been phasing in control since Jan. 5, and went fully operational when the controllers at Manchester Center handled the final aircraft from their old operations room before handing off control to their colleagues in Prestwick Scotland at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13. About 130 personnel from Manchester are being relocated to Scotland, which will bring Prestwick's workforce to 900. Prestwick in the North and Swanwick in Hampshire, near Portsmouth, now control all U.K.
A 13-member team of companies led by Saab, and representatives from regulatory agencies met in February at Eurocontrol in Brussels to kick off Europe's project to integrate unmanned aircraft in civil airspace. The group, the Mid-Air Collision Avoidance System (MIDCAS) team, faces thorny technical and regulatory issues that have so far limited UAVs to segregated airspace in Europe. The group is working under mandate from the European Defense Agency.
Helicopter Association International President Matt Zuccaro warned at Heli-Expo 2010 that the FAA's sovereignty over the National Airspace System was under threat from another federal agency, the National Park Service (NPS). The remarks were made at the beginning of this year's show and were part of a wide-ranging rundown of noteworthy developments that have presented challenges for the HAI.
J.P. Hanley, the president of Corporate AirSearch International, a small, privately held South Florida brokerage that has been in business since 1983, characterizes today’s previously owned turbine aircraft market as “stagnant.”
Organizations such as the NBAA and GAMA have teamed up to provide flight departments with tools to help demonstrate the value and performance of their operation under the banner of No Plane, No Gain (www.noplanenogain.org). The Web site provides tools and examples of how to collect and demonstrate performance metrics for the flight department. Information on performance measurement can be found in the NBAA Management Guide at www.nbaa.org.
Jim Koch (Captain, Check Airman, Safety Officer Corporate Eagle Management Services Inc. Waterford, MI )
Thanks for your great detective work and the insightful writing on the Hawker 800 crash in Owatonna, Minn. (“A Failed Go-Around,” February 2010, page 59). We have operated Hawkers since 1994, currently employ 17 full-time qualified Hawker captains and have introduced and trained about 70 Hawker crewmembers over the years. It has been an ongoing process to develop the best SOP, SOT and CRM as is possible.
