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.
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.
Advance the thrust levers of the Hawker 900XP and you’d be hard pressed to recognize it as the 19th iteration of the venerable DH-125, first produced in 1964 by Britain's Hawker Siddeley. With the 900XP, fill the tanks and the seats and depart from a 5,000-foot runway. No other midsize aircraft has such range/payload flexibility. At MTOW, it will climb directly to FL 410 in 25 minutes, fly eight passengers more than 2,700 nm and land with NBAA IFR reserves.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A free online aviation wire-strike safety awareness video, “Surviving the Wires Environment,” produced by the Helicopter Association International (HAI), in cooperation with Southern California Edison (SCE) and AEGIS Insurance Services, to remind pilots of the hazards of low-level flying in the “wires environment,” is available at the HAI home page (www.rotor.com) and will soon be posted on other aviation Web sites.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
