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.
WSI Corp., the Andover, Mass., weather information provider, announced at the NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers conference that it is adding an optional flight tracking Class 2 Aircraft Situational Display to its Hubcast Web alerting service. WSI Hubcast Alerting provides lightning strike alerts, current weather and forecasts. Schedulers and dispatchers can monitor weather nationwide, regionally or at a terminal and will now be able to view aircraft in flight.
Uvalde, Texas-based Sierra Industries, which specializes in modification of Cessna Citations, has received an STC for installation of the Artex C406 Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) in Citation 500, 501, 550, 551, S550 and 560 aircraft. Sierra officials say this approval provides a cost-effective solution for operators who want to update their ELTs to the current 406-MHz standard.
Recovery in the global helicopter market may be sooner and stronger than many have expected as it embarks on long-term growth, according to Rolls-Royce, which powers commercial and military helicopters of all sizes. Deliveries are expected to top 16,400 aircraft worth $146 billion over the next 10 years as the market responds to improving civil market fundamentals and the world’s military operators address a growing call for more vertical lift capability, Ken Roberts, president of the Rolls-Royce Helicopter Engine business, said at Heli-Expo in Houston.
“The Empty Leg Syndrome” (February 2010, page 32) was most educational. LunaJets (www.lunajets.com) is one of those broker Web sites that you mention in the article, launched as a new and anonymous distribution channel for operators’ empty legs. Our business model is different from any other, with live empty legs listed, offers of price per seat and e-mail alerts on registered members’ favorite routes. Thank you and keep the information flowing!
Years ago, a maintenance manager needed to be a good leader, technically proficient and capable of providing a safe aircraft that was ready to fly. Most came from the hangar floor, rising to meet the increased responsibilities of a lead technician, shift supervisor or inspector. Those with the ambition, skill and right attitude could go from coveralls to a rewarding management position. Today, the opportunities are still there, but the world of management has changed. Job performance is no longer measured by the end result, but by how efficiently you got there.
Hawker Beechcraft Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture says 2010 will be another challenging year for the company, following 2009’s record $712 million loss. But he also said that the firm is much better positioned to weather tough economic times than it was 12 months ago. “Last year, we took $200 million out of our manufacturing costs. We wrote down hundreds of millions in obsolete stock, aluminum and all sorts of parts in our inventory that aren’t usable because they don’t conform to production standards,” he told BCA.
Avinode AB will buy CharterX Corp. the companies announced Mar. 12. Avinode will purchase all outstanding shares of CharterX, making CharterX a wholly owned subsidiary of Avinode. The companies’ offerings will continue to be marketed under their current brand names. Avinode serves the air charter industry as a global platform to buy and sell charter flights. Avinode AB is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden and its U.S. subsidiary, Avinode, Inc., is located in Miami, Fla.
The 21st annual International Women In Aviation Conference, held in February in Orlando, drew nearly 3,000 attendees from 20 different countries. There were also 125 exhibitors. More than $675,000 in scholarships were awarded during the conference.
Bell Helicopter announced acquiring Aviation Service, a provider of modifications and upgrades, avionics and special mission packages, based in Prague, Czech Republic. Aviation Service's central European location will bring Bell’s customer support and service offerings closer to European customers, stated Danny Maldonado, Bell senior vice president of Customer Support and Services and Chief Service Officer.
Midcoast Aviation won FAA Supplemental Type Certificate Organization Designation Authorization (STC ODA), which allows it to produce STCs in-house to support its completions and MRO activities. Midcoast, an affiliate of the Jet Aviation Group, which is a subsidiary of General Dynamics, last year produced 12 STCs with FAA approval, but can now execute STCs with its own engineering resources.
Sears’ aviation department ceased flight operations after 64 accident-free years and closed on Jan. 31. The department was established at Chicago Midway Airport (MDW) in 1946 flying two DC-3s. Over the years, Sears operated several different types of aircraft with zero accidents. The department moved to Dupage County Airport (DPA) in 2002 and in the end operated two Learjet 60s. A source told BCA the company decided to use commercial airline service and charter for its travel needs.
After an extensive development effort, some of it involving an advisory board made up of trip support customers, Universal Weather & Aviation of Houston has been demonstrating new functionality to its online UVTriplink Trip Status that speeds access to trip details. The company’s Trip Support Teams are cutting response time to requests or changes so customers can see results sooner. Vendor confirmations are also easily retrieved, and schedulers and dispatchers can easily distribute selectable trip information to appropriate parties in their organizations.
A third Sikorsky S-76D prototype is joining two predecessors in flight trials. With customer deliveries scheduled for this year, Tim Fox, S-76D helicopter program manager, says the company is accelerating the test program. Production S-76D airframes began taking shape at Aero Vodochody (Aero) in the Czech Republic in late 2009. The first fuselage is scheduled for delivery this month to the Sikorsky Global Helicopters’ S-76D final assembly and completion facility in Coatesville, Pa., which will receive S-76D fuselages at an initial rate of one per month.
Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant, part of the rotorcraft industry holdings managed by Russian Helicopters, delivered three cargo and one passenger Mi-171 helicopters to International Handling Co. Ltd. of Azerbaijan. The helicopters are equipped for oil and gas operations — carrying loads, apparatus, passengers and shift teams to land and offshore rigs — and can perform "surveillance and integrity" missions. They are equipped with modern navigation and landing systems, satellite navigation, radio beacons and emergency water landing systems. Thirty countries operate the Mi-171.
Announcing the expansion of its business airplane program, Beech said it will build about 1,200 executive airplanes this year, against about 800 last year.
NetJets proved to be “the major problem for Berkshire last year,” according to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett, who told shareholders in his annual letter Feb. 27 that the fractional ownership provider suffered a “staggering loss” of $711 million in 2009. While optimistic about the future of NetJets, Buffett said that since Berkshire Hathaway acquired the company 11 years ago, NetJets has logged an aggregate pretax loss of $157 million. More troubling though, the company’s debt soared from $102 million at the time of purchase to $1.9 billion in April.
The European Union’s effort to strengthen its air accident investigation process faced its first major hurdle March 11, when proposed legislation was put before the transport ministers of member states. European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas will present the plan in Brussels before the Transport Council. If well received, the European Commission says the proposal could be put to parliament for a first reading in July with the potential for the directive becoming law by year-end.
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.
