Thanks for the March issue given out at the International Operators Conference. Good magazine. I enjoyed the Global Express XRS and South Africa articles, but I especially liked Richard Aarons’ Cause and Circumstance. That column is far better than what I've seen elsewhere.
Jet Aviation is establishing a line maintenance and AOG service operation at the Le Bourget Business Aviation Airport near Paris in conjunction with Universal Aviation France SARL. Jet Aviation will provide line maintenance and AOG support for various aircraft types, including Airbus, Boeing Business Jets, Bombardier and Gulfstream at Universal’s Facility.
OK, pop quiz: What is the name of the person who heads the federal Transportation Security Administration? What? You don’t know who’s in charge of all those TSA people digging through your luggage at the airport? Well, that’s all right, it was a trick question. There is no TSA administrator, a vacancy that has persisted since Edmund (Kip) Hawley resigned at the end of the Bush administration in January 2009.
In 2009, the U.S. business jet and turboprop fleet combined experienced 44 accidents including eight fatal accidents which resulted in 32 passenger and crew fatalities during routine business operational flights, according to Robert E. Breiling Associates, Inc. of Boca Raton, FL. Overall, this is 31 percent fewer accidents involving both jets and turboprops combined (44 accidents in 2009 vs. 64 in 2008) which occurred in 2009 vs. 2008. The number of fatal accidents is down with eight fatal accidents occurring in 2009 vs. 23 in 2008.
Blue Sky Network announced that Brazilian-based TAM Executive Aviation (TAM EA) selected Blue Sky’s D410A automated flight following and communication equipment to provide two-way text communication and location reporting to for its fleet of airplanes. The D410A is a compact, low-cost device that weighs less than a pound, can be moved between aircraft and mounted near the glareshield to exchange GPS and sensor data and text messages using the Iridium satellite network. TAM EA offers aircraft charter, maintenance and management services.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cessna Aircraft Co. has acquired the remaining 8-percent ownership share of Greenwich, Conn.-based CitationAir still held by TAG Aviation Holding SA. The original company, then named CitationShares, was started in 2000 as a joint venture between Cessna and TAG, with each holding a 50-percent share. Cessna gradually acquired a greater share through the past decade and bought the last of TAG's stake in February.
Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) from World War II were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony March 10 in the U.S. Capitol. The WASP comprised 1,102 civilian female pilots, who were the first women to fly military aircraft under the U.S. Army Air Forces. WASP ferried fighter, bomber, transport and training aircraft and performed other missions in the Continental United States.
Associated Aircraft Group (AAG), Wappingers Falls, N.Y., named Thomas McQuade president. He succeeds founder and President John C. Agor. AAG is a Sikorsky Aircraft company. City of Rock Hill, Rock Hill, S.C., announced that Eric Ramsdell, the city’s airport administrator, has been elected president of the South Carolina Aviation Association for a one-year term. Crane Aerospace & Electronics, Lynnwood, Wash., promoted Brian Barrett to vice president, Aftermarket Services for the Aerospace Group. He is located in Burbank, Calif.
Schedulers and dispatchers who operate in the real world know that it’s unrealistic to expect a nine-to-five operating schedule in a typical flight department. Your department manager or chief pilot has been selling the executives downtown on how they can do three meetings in a single day and, assuming the aircraft can go the distance, on different continents. It can be an intimidating environment in which the cultural differences within an organization combine to possibly erode the safety of your operations.
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.”
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.
A second Gulfstream G650 has joined the flight test program for the company's new flagship aircraft, completing its first flight Feb. 26. The second test aircraft — T2 — took off from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport at 1250 EST, piloted by senior experimental test pilots Gary Freeman and Scott Buethe. T2 flew for two hours and 33 minutes, reaching 37,000 feet and Mach 0.80 before landing back in Savannah.
We had the opportunity to fly three legs in the airplane, accompanied by senior demo pilot Errol Wuertz and Dennis Hildreth, Hawker 4000 program manager. That gave us the opportunity to look at both extended high-altitude cruise performance and low-altitude handling qualities.
Aviation Management Systems, Inc. (AMS) of Portsmouth, N.H., recently announced that it was expanding its corporate aviation consulting services to include client representation during new or pre-owned aircraft acquisitions. AMS helps determine which of the many aviation options is best for its clients and provides assistance in overall asset management, from both a technical and operational perspective. AMS officials say the expansion into acquisitions enables it to support its clients throughout the entire life cycle of aircraft ownership and asset management.
“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!
Western Aircraft of Greenwich AeroGroup has been selected by Piaggio Aero to become an Avanti Authorized Service Center. Located in Boise, Idaho, Western Aircraft is also an authorized service center for Honeywell, Rockwell Collins, Universal and Pratt & Whitney.
Cessna announced March 13 that the Citation CJ4 has received FAA Certification. The aircraft will debut the new Williams International FJ44-4A FADEC engines, which were certified on Feb. 2, but shares a common pilot type rating with the other CJs (a pilot rated to fly any of the CJs is rated to fly them all). The retail price in 2010 dollars for a typically equipped Citation CJ4 is $9 million, the company says.
Pratt & Whitney has established a Center of Excellence at the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Engineering for research in the field of aviation propulsion systems. P&W will work with UConn on fundamental and applied research initiatives that support the design and development of more-efficient gas turbine engines. The university's primary focus will be research in the field of advanced sensors, diagnostics and controls for use in commercial and military aircraft propulsion systems.
There’s a good FAA and a bad FAA. Having just been found liable for its certificate action against Florida air ambulance and charter outfit, Air Trek, the same FAA New York office is now attempting to take action directly against the firm’s chief pilot for an entirely different matter.
