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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
“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!
Airbus will tag many rotable parts in the A350 XWB with passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) devices, becoming the first manufacturer to require high-memory RFID tags on flyable parts. The tags will be used on more than 1,500 parts to be installed in pressurized and non-pressurized areas of the aircraft including seats, entertainment-system screens, life vests and oxygen bottles, as well as components in the aircraft’s wing and engines.
There’s a tiny ray of light illuminating a possible improved relationship between the TSA and general aviation. In an interview with National Public Radio Feb. 5, TSA general aviation manager Brian Delauter said the agency plans to collaborate more with the industry than in the past. Speaking to the LASP issue, which generated a torrent of objection last year, he said the TSA will convene a new general aviation advisory panel with industry representatives in March. “We’re going to be 10 times more successful in partnership than . . .
Kaman Aerospace Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., has reorganized around product group and named Tim Bates general manager of the Blade Center of Excellence and Subcontract Product Group; Terry Fogarty has been appointed general manager for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Group; Bob Manaskie has been appointed general manager of the Helicopter Aftermarket Group and John Shelanskas has been named acting director of the Operations support organization.
Wavepilot, LLC, has launched an online markektplace in which aircraft operators and FBOs buy and sell fuel. According to the company, the service operates similar to eBay except it is a reverse auction where sellers compete for the buyer’s business. It works like this: An aircraft operator posts a request for quote (RFQ) that invites FBOs to submit their best prices for fuel and services. FBOs post their quotes online and update them to remain competitive. The aircraft operator then reviews the quotes, awards the RFQ to an FBO and schedules the trip online.
Pratt & Whitney Canada held a special ceremony at its engine manufacturing facility in Longueuil, Quebec, Jan. 21 to mark delivery of its 500th PT6A turboprop engine to Blackhawk Modifications Inc. of Waco, Texas Founded in 1999, Blackhawk specializes in replacing engines on five aircraft models, including Raytheon King Air 90, Cessna 425 Conquest and Cheyenne turboprop aircraft with factory-new PT6As. The ceremony included Dan Rogers, owner of DuoTech Services of Franklin, N.C., whose Cheyenne II was the 250th aircraft to receive a Blackhawk upgrade.
An experienced businessman pilot and four passengers boarded a company-operated Malibu An experienced businessman pilot and four passengers boarded a company-operated Malibu Mirage Jetprop DLX (PA-46-350P) shortly before 0730 on March 28, 2008, and departed from Edmonton, Alberta, on an IFR flight plan to Winnipeg, Manitoba, a distance of about 950 nm. Thirty-five minutes after takeoff, the aircraft (C-FKKH) broke up in flight and crashed into a hillside 16 miles northeast of Wainwright, Alberta. There were no survivors.
Swiss AviationTraining has added fuel tank safety training for aviation maintenance personnel via its Learning Management System, which is a joint development by Swiss AviationTraining and their software partner infoWERK Multimedia GmbH. Other courses include human factors, winter operations and hazmat transport and handling.
NBAA President Ed Bolen said the threat of aviation user fees seems to be dead “at least for this term of Congress,” and that the FAA’s reauthorization bill could advance within the next “four to eight weeks.” The fact that the Obama administration’s 2011 budget proposal, issued Feb. 1, contained no mention of user fees to help fund the FAA was a “milestone” event, Bolen told BCA.
Wayfarer Aviation, Rye Brook, N.Y., named Wendy Burton director of Industry Charter, focusing on wholesale and internal charter. She will manage relationships with aircraft operators, brokers and vendors in the United States and overseas.
Bombardier Aerospace announced Feb. 3 that the 100th Challenger 605 had entered service. With over 800 aircraft manufactured, the Challenger 600 series had accumulated over four million flight hours with a dispatch reliability of over 99.8 percent as of September 2009.
