Another new requirement is that crewmembers must now have visas, as has been required of passengers. “On arrival the immigration officer will check for visas, and anyone not holding one will be required to leave the country immediately,” Pahl warned. That is, the authorities won’t necessarily require the aircraft to depart, just the offending passenger. However, if it’s a crewmember without a visa, then the aircraft may be required to reposition out of the country.
The most popular destination in Russia for business aviation is, of course, the capital, Moscow, with St. Petersburg the second most popular. At Moscow, most business aviation traffic uses Vnukovo Airport (UUWW), the least congested of the city’s three fields, due to its lack of commercial operations. Accordingly, Vnukovo has evolved to support business aviation with several executive-level FBOs; it also offers relatively easy access to the city (“relatively,” because Moscow’s surface traffic is very congested).
The NBAA has tapped ARGUS as a vendor partner for the association’s new Safety Management Systems (SMS) training classes. The training program will include two workshops: Introduction to SMS, designed to cover the basics of aviation safety and SMS concepts, and The SMS Toolkit, designed to address the SMS implementation and development process.
The board of directors of the Geneeral Aviation Manufacturers Association has elected Robert Wilson, president of Honeywell Business and General Aviation, as the association’s chairman for 2010. Wilson was previously GAMA’s vice chairman and chairman of its Technical Policy Committee. John Rosanvallon, president and CEO of Dassault Falcon Jet, was voted in as GAMA’s vice chairman. He also will continue to serve as chairman of GAMA’s Security Issues Committee.
The heart of any machine is its engine. The engine is the most complex and expensive piece of machinery on any airplane and for most business aircraft, there are at least two. Most maintenance technicians have a love/hate relationship with engines: love when they are running smoothly, and hate when they start to act up. Kind of like being married, except engines have manuals. They can be particularly difficult to diagnose when they are having a bad day, and when they have a bad day, your entire operation will feel the pain.
A Senior Office of Management and Budget (OMB) official agrees with business aviation advocates that aviation fuel taxes have been an efficient mechanism for collecting revenues from general aviation operators. Xavier de Souza Briggs, associate director for general government programs at OMB, assured attendees of November’s National Air Transportation Aviation Business Roundtable that the Obama administration was not seeking to add a layer of bureaucracy to bring in tax revenues. But Briggs also stated concerns that the fuel taxes will be inadequate over time.
Calls from your college kid can bring joy or worry. One last spring delivered both — grades were strong and friendships formed, but there was a rooming problem: He couldn’t have one.
Piper Chief Executive Kevin J. Gould will add the president’s title and responsibilities to his current position as CEO upon Piper President John D. Becker’s resignation on Dec. 1. Becker announced that he is leaving Piper to pursue other career goals.
Dassault Falcon recently delivered the 100th Falcon 900EX EASy aircraft into service. As of Sept. 30, the 4,500-nm Falcon 900EX EASy fleet had made over 80,000 takeoffs and landings and accrued 157,000 flight hours. Powered by three Honeywell TFE731-60 engines, the 900EX EASy was certified in December 2003, the first model with the EASy flight deck. Today, more than 320 Falcon jets of several models are equipped with the EASy flight deck.
Prototype of the Lockheed Azcarate (Mexico City) Model 60 utility aircraft is being flight tested at Marietta, Ga. The all-metal six-seater, which is powered by Continental engines with fuel injection and reportedly will sell for under $25,000, performs like the de Havilland Beaver.
Clifford Development and Stevens Aviation are partnering to market and support Clifford’s Citation 550 and the S550 engine conversions. Besides being outfitted with Williams International FJ44-3A engines, the reworked Citations feature nearly three dozen improvements, including an Ametek digital engine display, heavy-duty BF Goodrich brakes and a dual full-authority digital engine control system.
Famed NASA aerodynamic engineer Richard Whitcomb died of pneumonia on Oct. 13 at age 88. AVIATIONWEEK’s Graham Warwick noted that during his government career, Whitcomb developed three of the most important post-war innovations in aeronautics: the transonic area rule (Coke-bottle fuselage shape), the supercritical airfoil and winglets — often called Whitcomb Winglets. Born in Illinois, Whitcomb studied engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and in 1943 joined what is now NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, where he worked until retiring in 1980.
Citation CJ3 resale prices have fallen 30 to 50 percent during the current recession and that’s great news for business aircraft operators looking for one of the most versatile light jets yet to enter the market. This is an aircraft that can depart a 3,180-foot runway, climb directly to FL 450, cruise at 400-plus KTAS and fly three passengers 1,700 nm. Upon arrival, it needs less than 2,500 feet of runway for landing.
Mountain Aviation, Inc., headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC), has opened a new charter/aircraft management office in Boise, Idaho (BOI). The Boise operation markets a Citation Vll and CJ3, hangared and crewed at BOI. Mountain Aviation’s fleet has grown to 16 charter and managed aircraft, which it says makes it the largest Part 135 operator in the Denver area.
None of the operators we contacted regretted moving up to the Mustang from their former turboprop or piston-engine aircraft. They said the small fanjet has the same or lower operating costs than twin turboprops and offers speed, cabin comfort and high-altitude cruise not possible in similarly priced turboprops.
The Aircraft Electronics Association opposes the FAA’s Advanced Notification of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to collect data to justify mandating an independent safety management system for maintenance organizations, saying the SMS proposal is an “excessive, unwarranted and unjustified administrative burden.” In addition, the AEA stated, “Because the FAA has failed to identify a specific hazard it is attempting to mitigate, it is impossible to determine if any of the discussions of an SMS program as a viable solution [to undefined problems] are proper and adequate.
Arab Wings has added four new aircraft within six months, capping an expansion plan that began earlier this year. The new aircraft are a Citation Sovereign, a Challenger 604 and a 605 and a Learjet 60. They join an existing fleet of 10 aircraft that operate out of bases in Amman, Cairo and Sharjah.
Glance into the Legacy 650’s cockpit and you might not immediately notice the major improvements that are incorporated in its new Honeywell Primus Elite package. The instrument panel looks nearly the same, with five eight-by-seven-inch portrait configuration LCD screens that closely resemble the CRT displays of the Primus 1000 avionics suite installed in legacy EMB 135/145 regional jets. And much of the underlying architecture is carried over from the Primus 1000 system. But, when the power is switched on, a number of substantive changes become apparent.
Cessna Citation I, II and S-II aircraft reengined by Sierra Industries have accumulated more than 50,000 flight hours with no mechanical problems, according to the Uvalde, Texas, retrofit specialist. The company recently completed installation of Williams International FJ44 powerplants on its 54th Citation since its original Williams-powered upgrade, the Eagle II, was type certificated in 2002.
The chairman of TAG Aviation says the FAA certificate actions against its U.S. subsidiary and AMI Jet Charter, a U.S. charter provider in which it held a 49 percent interest, ultimately cost the Swiss firm approximately $100 million, along with the loss of those business entities. Speaking at a business aviation gathering in early November in Seattle, Roger McMullin said that at the peak of its operations, TAG Aviation US, which managed aircraft and arranged charters through AMI, was worth an estimated $100 million to $110 million.
General aviation leaders have shifted their NextGen focus to delivery, rather than planning, said Jens Hennig, vice president of operations for the GAMA. This focus is necessary to instill user confidence in equipage, he added. “Equipage will only take place when users are confident about the potential for benefits,” Hennig said. He also encouraged consideration of financial incentives to foster early equipage. “These incentives become important when benefits reside not only with the individual operator but also with the overall system, other operators and the U.S.
Western operators shouldn’t “be afraid of Russia,” Koshelev counseled, as “infrastructure is improving, ATC is becoming more accustomed to working with business aviation and navigators aren’t required as much as before [more on that later]. English proficiency may not be up to the mark at the smaller outlying fields, but at the bigger airports it isn’t a problem.”
While airline passengers have grown accustomed to snaking their way through TSA lines at hub airports, general aviation operators based at Hyde Field, Potomac Airport and College Park Airport, a trio of small airfields near Washington, D.C., have struggled to cope with the restrictions imposed on them since the Sept. 11 attacks more than eight years ago. Perhaps the most notable of the affected facilities is College Park (CGS), which earlier this year became the world’s first centennial airfield, having been in continuous operation for 100 years.
