Cessna Aircraft, Wichita, has named Brad Thress vice president, customer service, reporting to Mark Paolucci, senior vice president, customer service. Tracy Robinson was appointed vice president, quality and is responsible for directing all quality programs at Cessna.
FACTS Training, a division of AirCare Solutions Group, has created a customized training program designed to assist corporate flight departments in meeting full compliance with the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO). FACTS IS-BAO ASSET Training offers an intensive one-day program designed to address a flight department’s IS-BAO specific training needs, using proven FACTS procedures, according to the company. The course is a combination of classroom instruction and hands-on practice with emergency equipment.
Cirrus Design expanded the duties of Patrick Widdick the company announced August 11, naming him executive vice president and COO, and indicating the Cirrus Vision Jet program will continue. Joining Cirrus in 1988, Widdick has served as executive vice president, Operations since September 2008. As COO, his expanded role includes oversight of both engineering and manufacturing.
Aircell, Itasca, Ill., announced the transition of Ron LeMay from chairman of the board to president and CEO of the company. Jack Blumenstein, current president and CEO, will assume the position of chairman of the board.
Hawker Beechcraft Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture advised employees in an August 12 letter that more layoffs are coming, due to continued “significant economic challenges” in the company’s worldwide general and business aviation marketplace. “Buyer confidence is low, financing more difficult, and in the U.S., which is our predominant market, business aircraft have been disparaged by our political leadership,” wrote Boisture.
Textron, Providence, R.I., announced that John L. Garrison Jr. has been named president and CEO of its Bell Helicopter business unit. He replaces Richard (Dick) Milliman, who is retiring after 43 years of service to Textron.
Hart Aviation, South Jordan, Utah, announced that Keith Fritz has joined the company as an auditor/aviation advisor and will be charged with conducting aviation safety audits and consultation for clients worldwide.
GE Aviation and Tennessee-based Smyrna Air Center are teaming to offer the “Power 90” package, a retrofit of King Air 90s with 750-shp GE Walter M601E-11A turboprop engines driving Avia five-blade propellers. In addition, Smyrna will carry out any other interior or avionics upgrades customers may specify.
GAMA’s second quarter shipment and billings figures show that in the first half of 2009, total general aviation airplane shipments fell 45.9 percent, from 1,918 units in 2008 to 1,037 units this year. Industry billings are down 22.7 percent, to a total of $9.26 billion. Piston-powered airplane shipments totaled 434 units compared to 1,034 units delivered in the first half of 2008, a 58-percent decrease. Turboprop shipments decreased 13.6 percent from 221 units in the first six months last year to 191 units in 2009.
A little gray at the pilot’s temples has long been valued by operators and passengers alike, since it signaled long experience. But with the general economic meltdown of 2008 that saw 401K plans halved and pensions disappear, the gray will become total as many business aviation pilots who had planned on retirement in the next five years remain in the cockpit for quite a bit longer.
Embraer expanded the role of its new executive jet Customer Support Contact Center at the company’s headquarters in São José dos Campos, Brazil to support customers worldwide. The center has been serving North American Phenom 100 customers since last December. The Contact Center provides a 365/24/7 quick response service capability, and is integrated with the network of Embraer owned and authorized service centers, spare parts distribution centers, and field service representatives.
CitationShares is coordinating a Fatigue Management Awareness class for the company’s pilots, schedulers, dispatch staff and command staff. Fargo, N.D.-based HighTop Co. has been selected to administer the course, which is designed to teach staff how to recognize, address and avoid fatigue in the safest and healthiest way possible. The company implemented the course to increase the level of safety for its customers.
In rapid succession, the Senate Commerce Committee held confirmation hearings and the full Senate in August confirmed the nominations of Christopher Hart an NTSB member as well as Susan Kurland to be DOT’s assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, and Christopher Bertram — a longtime Senate Commerce Committee staffer — will be DOT’s assistant secretary for budget and programs and CFO.
Embraer may report higher sales volume based on business jet deliveries but revenues are likely to fall as airline sales fall off, according to Bank of America analyst Ronald Epstein. “We estimate deliveries could have reached 17 jets in July, implying 55 percent year-over-year growth,” Epstein said. Phenom jets may account for 62 percent of deliveries in the second half of 2009, he said, as reported by Bloomberg.
Aircraft industry analysts at financial services company JP Morgan believe that used business jet inventories are “at or near the peak for this cycle, though fundamentals remain weak and we still expect it to be quite a while before the market turns.” The July edition of Business Jet Monthly reported that the inventory of used jets remains at record high levels and that prices for these aircraft declined once again. Jets for sale as a proportion of the active fleet remained flat at 14.4 percent in June.
“If we knew what we were doing, we wouldn’t call it research, would we?” — Albert Einstein Vicki Cox, senior vice president and supervisor of the FAA’s NextGen program, likes to cite the iconic physicist’s famous quote when discussing the challenges implicit in bringing her agency’s ambitious ATC automation plan to reality.
On Sept. 1, 2006, a 30,000-hour airline transport pilot flew his Mitsubishi MU-2B-35 into a thunderstorm while descending for a visual approach to Panama City Bay County International Airport (PFN) in Florida. The pilot lost control and the airplane structure failed as it spiraled out of the clouds into a swamp and the pilot was killed.
Jet Aviation recently expanded is service offering to include base and line maintenance for Hawker 750/800/800XP/900XP, Gulfstream G350/G450 and Embraer 135/145 aircraft under the company’s EASA Part 145.0317 approval. In addition, the company’s newly established Boeing BBJ team is now fully operational. The center can also provide base maintenance to all drop-ins and AOGs. The Dubai facility was opened in May 2005. Jet Aviation Brazil will also provide line maintenance services to Gulfstream operators at its Sorocaba facility.
The U.S. Air Force has signed a letter contract to lease three Bombardier BD-700 Global Express business jets from Northrop Grumman for use as platforms for the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN). This includes one demonstrator aircraft already deployed operationally since December 2008. Northrop was awarded an 18-month, $276 million contract in June to install the communications payload on two additional jets as a short-term solution while it equips two RQ-4B Block 20 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft to be fielded in fiscal 2011.Graham Warwick
The U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) believes a Eurocopter Super Puma AS332L2 might have been pulled from service before it crashed into the North Sea April 1 if the relevance of a metal chip found in the gearbox module days before the accident had been diagnosed differently. On July 16, the AAIB made that finding as a result of its continuing investigation of the failure of the epicyclic reduction gearbox module on the Super Puma involved in the accident.
The NTSB continues its campaign against pilot fatigue with an extensively detailed and footnoted Recommendation Letter to the FAA calling for, among other things: modifying the Application for Airman Medical Certificate to elicit specific information about any previous diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea and about the presence of specific risk factors for that disorder (A-09-61); and implementing a program to identify pilots at high risk for obstructive sleep apnea and require that those pilots provide evidence through the medical certification process of having been appr
The NTSB has listed “Reduce Accidents and Incidents Caused by Human Fatigue” on its “Most Wanted” list for nearly 20 years now and wants the FAA to “set working hour limits for flight crews, aviation mechanics and air traffic controllers based on fatigue research, circadian rhythms, and sleep and rest requirements and to develop a fatigue awareness and countermeasures program for air traffic controllers.” Recent accidents have once again brought attention to the matter of human fatigue as a factor, along with a call for action.
Deborah A.P. (Debby) Hersman, a five-year veteran of the NTSB, was sworn in July 28 as the agency’s 12th chairman. Hersman was nominated for the two-year term by President Barack Obama on June 18 and confirmed by the Senate on July 24. She was simultaneously nominated and confirmed for a second five-year term as a board member. She immediately faced her baptism of fire as the public face of the Safety Board after the midair collision of a sightseeing helicopter and a Piper Lance over the Hudson River.
