Boeing announced that with support from Iridium Satellite it has demonstrated capability enhancements to the High Integrity Global Positioning System (iGPS) program for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory — military technology that may well spill into the civilian environment as have other GPS enhancements.
The NBAA welcomed the July FAA finding that the city of Santa Monica cannot ban certain types of business airplanes from Santa Monica Airport (SMO). “We welcome this decision from the FAA,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen.
The vastness of the United States can be best appreciated from a vantage point eight miles above it. My flight deck vista has widened my perspective of the country, which is a colorful collage of cultures spread across nearly four million square miles, encompassing mountain ranges, expansive plains, arid deserts, grand cities, small towns and seemingly endless coastlines. And few occasions underscore the country’s size and splendor better than a transcontinental flight.
Metis Systems, a division of DHK Holdings, LLC, has just released version 1.2 of the eAPIS Tool. This program safely and securely saves all of your aircraft, pilot and passenger data on your computer and makes submitting a Customs eAPIS manifiest a snap, according to the company. It validates your data against the Business Rules published by Customs, then prepares a fullly compliant and sufficient “.xml” file that can be uploaded to the eAPIS Web site. The tool keeps information in several tables that interact with the part of the program that produces the file.
Embraer began deliveries of its entry level Phenom 100 executive jet in Brazil at the end of June. The first customers to receive the aircraft were Algar Aviation, from Uberlândia; Minas Gerais, for its charter operations; Wellborn Participações, from Londrina, Paraná; and Locar Guindastes e Transportes Intermodais, from São Paulo. The latter two will be using their Phenoms as corporate aircraft. Of the 800-plus firm orders for the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300, more than 100 are for Latin America, with 70 percent of them for Brazilian customers.
Mission Costs are computed based on the business aircraft missions shown in the May Handbook. Three missions are shown for each aircraft: 300 nm, 600 nm and 1,000 nm. Ultra-long-range aircraft (Category 6) missions are 1,000 nm, 3,000 nm and 6,000 nm. The fuel expense shown for each mission is based on the fuel burn figure for that mission, computed under conditions shown in the May Handbook. Missions are calculated utilizing a manufacturer recommended cruise setting; therefore, cruise settings may vary from aircraft to aircraft, i.e. max cruise vs. long range.
Moscow Vnukovo Airport and Lufthansa Flight Training agreed to form a joint venture to provide flight crew training. Flight Training Vnukovo will start operations by mid-2010 and will be equipped with four full-flight simulators. The facility is planned to be expanded to accommodate up to 20 simulators for various aircraft types. The $200 million facility would be the first independent simulator center in the Russian territory.
Transport Canada Civil Aviation certified the Bell Helicopter 429 on July1. Bell says the 429 has also completed FAA certification requirements. First deliveries were scheduled to begin in July. Since Bell first announced the 429, it has received over over 300 letters of intent.
L-3 Avionics Systems announced that its GH-3900 Electronic Standby Instrument System (ESIS) has been selected by Rockwell Collins for the company’s Pro Line Fusion integrated avionics system. The contract is for 10 years with production units slated for 2012 delivery.
Aircraft operating costs are presented in a format that separates the data into seven separate areas: Mission Costs, Variable Costs, Fixed Annual Costs, Periodic Costs, Personnel Costs, Training Costs and Facilities Costs.
Hawker Beechcraft has begun offering a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV) option for Hawker 800XP aircraft. The upgrade enables operators to fly more precision approaches, reduce decision altitudes to as low as 200 feet agl and visibility minimums to as low as one-half mile, and use GPS as a primary means of navigation from takeoff through approach.
H3R Aviation, Inc., makers of halon and halon-alternative portable fire extinguishers, has received FAA approval of the Halotron 1 fire extinguisher for onboard aircraft use. The 11-pound Model 397 and the 15.5-pound Model 398 join the Model B394TS to complete the lineup of FAA-approved Halotron 1 clean agent extinguishers. Price: Contact vendor H3R Aviation, Inc. 483 Magnolia Ave. Larkspur, CA 94939 (415) 945-0800 h3rinfo@h3raviationcom
Hawker Beechcraft Services announced that a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV) solution will be available this summer for all Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21-equipped Hawker 800XP aircraft. The upgrade is a cooperative effort between Rockwell Collins and Hawker Beechcraft Corp. (HBC). HBC’s factory-owned aircraft service centers are now taking pre-orders and pre-scheduling aircraft for the installation.
Proposed Rules Bombardier CL-601, CL-601-3A, CL-601-3R and CL-604 airplanes — Revise the “Airworthiness Limitations” section of the “Instructions for Continued Airworthiness” to incorporate new repetitive functional tests of the engine throttle control gearbox. Learjet 60 airplanes — Revise the “Tires Servicing” and “Tires Limitation” sections of the airplane flight manual to incorporate revised procedures for servicing tires and checking for proper tire inflation.
This area of expense reflects the current average costs for engine Hot-Section Inspection, Engine Overhaul, Airframe Stripping/Repainting, Interior Refurbish-ment and a Modernization/ Modification/ Upgrade allowance. The figures shown represent an average cost for the service provided, as the need arises, and are based on both shop quotes and operator experience.
The National Air Transportation Association has named Wyvern Consulting the exclusive sales and support organization for its recently launched IC Check, a comprehensive compliance-driven flight release system for professionally flown general aviation aircraft operations. IC Check is an online application that assesses “whether individual flights for which an operator exercises operational control are flown with a legal crew, legal passengers, legal aircraft and legal flight parameters,” NATA said.
CitationShares is now associated with TerraPass, a leading retailer of carbon offsets and consumer energy efficiency products, and Corporate Angel Network (CAN), a public charity that arranges free flight to and from treatment for cancer patients. Through CAN, customers will be able to donate flight hours aboard CitationShares jets to a CAN Jet Card account and through TerraPass, customers can balance their carbon footprint by purchasing carbon offsets for the hours they fly on a CitationShares jet. CitationShares Five American Ln.
Executives at several business jet manufacturers have suggested that the return of stability to the used aircraft market may be a reason to be cautiously optimistic that the dramatic decline in aircraft prices and sales may be abating.
That night the two rock performers — one a drummer, the other a DJ — had wowed a crowd of 10,000 people at a free concert near the University of South Carolina. Now, even though it was approaching midnight, they wanted to get home to California. They, along with two support staffers, boarded the chartered Learjet Model 60 that had landed at Columbia Metropolitan Airport 40 minutes earlier. The passengers took their seats, the cabin door was closed and locked, and the two pilots began to taxi to the active runway. It was Sept. 19, 2008.
Gulfstream Aerospace recently received FAA certification for the second-generation Gulfstream Enhanced Vision System (EVS II) on the wide-cabin, high-speed Gulfstream G150. The system is available for both new and in-service G150 aircraft.
CharterMatrix LLC has introduced AirplaneManager.com, a Web application that provides aircraft charter companies and corporate flight departments with a low-cost flight scheduling option, according to the vendor. The scheduling software provides air charter quoting, aircraft and pilot tracking, and invoicing. AirplaneManger.com offers a real-time quoting application that can be placed onto an air charter company’s Web site, allowing customers to quickly estimate their trip price.
With more than half of sales headed overseas, business aviation OEMs are rightfully adjusting their sights on customer support to better match service facilities to the locations of their customers. In a down market, it seems to make more business sense to ally with a proven performer than to build your own service center from the ground up, and that’s just what’s happening.
In remarks to FAA employees at his first town-hall meeting in late June, newly appointed FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, addressing the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), said, “We need to make it work. People are not going to continue to buy equipment they can’t use.” He committed to having a “substantial” NextGen plan by the end of the summer. He struck the same note in testimony, that same week, before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation.
