Rockwell Collins recently announced several upgrade programs for Dassault Falcon business jets, including five new updates to its Pro Line 21 avionics retrofit package for Falcon 50s. Separately, the avionics maker is offering a Pro Line 4 to Pro Line 21 display upgrade for Falcon 2000s.
Abu Dhabi plans to build a business jet by 2018 to mark the emergence of the Middle East as a major player in the global aerospace industry. The first steps were celebrated Nov. 14, just prior to the Dubai Air Show, as the Mubadala Development investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government and Western partners reviewed progress in building the Strata Manufacturing composites facility that will begin supplying parts for the Airbus A380, ATR and other airliners in the second half of 2010. Strata will open with initial contracts worth more than $2 billion.
NBAA and GAMA are offering a new online resource to help businesses of all types and sizes calculate and explain the value a business aircraft brings to support a company’s business objectives. Presented as part of the associations’ joint No Plane No Gain advocacy campaign, the new Business Aircraft E-Valuation Toolkit identifies five basic resources every company in business aviation should have for measuring an aircraft’s value — regardless of the size or type of the business involved. The toolkit is at the No Plane No Gain Web site: www.noplanenogain.org.
Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that its NetJets subsidiary suffered a 42 percent or $1.5-billion decline in revenues during the first nine months of 2009 compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the latest form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This, mainly due to a 79 percent decline in fractional ownership sales and 24 percent lower flight operations. With further downsizing and more aircraft sold off, Berkshire Hathaway now believes that NetJets is “likely to operate at a modest profit in 2010,” but that assumes the U.S.
Edward W. Stimpson is one of America’s civic heroes. His long service in furthering the cause of aviation safety was capped by his most recent post as chairman of the Flight Safety Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he worked to improve airline operations even beyond the near-perfect record they’ve compiled.
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.
And, yes, operating in Russia is expensive, or as Mrocka put it after dropping $8.40 on a cup of coffee at his Moscow hotel, “outrageously expensive.” Carry cash for basic transactions, he advised, “as most places on the ground do not accept credit cards. It’s a cash-oriented society.” Williams at Universal Weather noted that rooms in Western-style hotels in larger cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg range from $300 to $600 a night; in remote locations, standards and prices will be lower (see sidebar on travel in Eastern Russia).
Sikorsky Global Helicopters announced Nov. 4 that it delivered a new VIP S-76C++ helicopter in September to the Royal Travel Office for use by the Royal Household of the United Kingdom. Sikorsky has provided helicopters to support the Royal Family since the early 1950s, including the R4, S-51, S-55, S-58, S-58T, S-76B and S-76C+.
Cessna Aircraft has qualified its Citation Sovereign for an exemption from FAA Extended Operations (ETOPS) requirements when flown between Los Angeles and Hawaii under FAR Part 135. To qualify for the ETOPS exemption, Cessna demonstrated the aircraft could remain within 180 minutes of a suitable airport when flying with an engine out. Cessna conducted an analysis to determine that the Sovereign was able to travel 1,022 nm within 180 minutes after an engine failure. That distance is just more than halfway between Los Angeles and Hawaii.
The FAA rejected an application of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority (BGPAA) to impose a nighttime ban on nearly all flights at Bob Hope Airport (BUR) in California. The agency deemed the application unreasonable because the BGPAA failed to prove that other alternatives would be less cost-effective or infeasible. The agency also determined that the BGPAA failed to provide substantial evidence to back its contention that the restriction would not create an undue burden on interstate or foreign commerce.
Also, if traffic is heavy at the destination airport and there are delays, don’t expect to be stacked into holding, Parke emphasized. “Russian controllers do not use holding patterns and vector everyone around if there are delays. This increases their workload considerably and contributes to the delays. During this maneuvering, it behooves you to keep your head up, as most of their aircraft are not equipped with TCAS for separation. They also maintain larger separation intervals than we do, which helps to string things out and adds to the delays.”
Looking to brush up on turbine engine technology? Don’t know your P3 from your T5? Pick up a copy of Aircraft Gas Turbine Engine Technology by Irwin Treager. Written for technicians, instead of engineers, the text is easy to understand, and even pilots will find it helpful. The paperback book has been updated since its first release and includes information on electronic fuel controls.
At the recent NBAA Convention, Stevens Aviation displayed the first example of its Learjet 60 Business Liner, a 1997 model of the Bombardier midsize jet that had undergone an extensive makeover.
To most people flying boats mean majestic Pan Am Clippers. But to me they’re cramped, hard-used machines, tepid coffee from a thermos and bologna sandwiches.
On Sept. 18, the FAA granted TSO authorization for Aspen Avionics’ EFD500 MFD, its EFD1000 MFD and the EWR50 Evolution Weather Receiver. With certification and production authority in hand, Aspen immediately began shipping the products to its dealers.
Forty-four percent of available fractional business jet fleet shares remained unsold at the beginning of September. Excluding card programs, the 66-percent level of purchased shares is significantly lower compared to 71 percent a year ago and to the historical average of 73 percent, according to a UBS Business Jet Report issued in September. New share sales, including renewals, are off 50 percent from the recent peak in 2007, it said.
There is no doubt that business aviation operations are facing challenging economic times, and tough decisions are being made at every level of management. Some flight departments have been closed or greatly scaled back, and others face uncertain futures. Aviation has always been a cyclical industry and many of us old-timers have weathered the roller coaster of highs and lows many times. The certainty of change is the only constant.
Forecast International predicts a $1.7 billion market for retrofits and upgrades of light aircraft through 2018. It believes propulsion upgrades will be a primary driver of the market. Electronics upgrades have increased thanks to FAA mandates, Forecast International said, but added that segment of the market should stabilize.
Carl Janssens, editor of the Aircraft Bluebook Price Digest, stated in the autumn edition of his publication, “Aircraft values reported in the previous quarter were in a spiral dive, but the economy’s pilot now appears to have neutralized the rapid descent.”
The NBAA presented the USAF auxiliary, Civil Air Patrol, with its Al Ueltschi Humanitarian Award in recognition of the organization’s efforts to provide disaster relief for people and communities in times of crisis at the NBAA’s 62nd Annual Meeting and Convention in Orlando. “The Civil Air Patrol provides an essential service to this country, by supplying not just aircrews, but also ground teams, doctors, nurses, paramedics and others to support rescue efforts following a disaster,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen.
Frasca International received FAA Level 7 qualification on its AS350 B2 helicopter flight training device (FTD) installed at FlightSafety International’s helicopter learning center in Tucson, Ariz. Frasca also is designing and building a Sikorsky S-76C++ helicopter simulator training device for Era Training Center in Lake Charles, La. That device, the third ordered by Era, will be Level 6 qualified. Era also uses Frasca trainers for the EC135 helicopter.
Russian Helicopters, JSC, the managing body of the consolidated Russian helicopter industry, is getting ready to start taking orders for its modernized Mi-8 helicopter, the Mi-8M, with first deliveries planned for 2013. Russian Helicopters is still receiving orders for M-8/17s equipped with the Transas IBK-17 integrated glass cockpit. With the planned major modifications, the company expects the Mi-8 series will remain viable in the global market until at least 2020.
We have all seen it: Just days after the city repaves the street, a utility company tears through the pavement to repair a failed line. Road work on the FARs works the same way. On Aug. 21, the FAA published a major revision to Part 61, many years in the making. On Aug. 31, the FAA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing another 16 revisions to Part 61.
Most people in the aviation community know Rick Longlott as the president of Steamboat Jets, a charter brokerage and management company in Colorado. What they don’t know is that he’s one of an elite corps of skiing instructors in the United States certified to instruct disabled people in the unique techniques of adaptive skiing. For someone who didn’t even start skiing until he enrolled in a class in college, he’s come a long way.
