The White House, in a decision applauded by every segment of the U.S. aviation industry, nominated Deborah Hersman to chair the NTSB. Hersman is a five-year veteran board member. She would fill the chairman position held on an acting basis by Mark Rosenker August 2008. Even if replaced as committee chair, Rosenker’s second five-year term as a board member continues through December 2010.
In Hawaii, when your alarm clock rings, you hop out of bed, and before you get ready for work, you grab your board and head to the beach. Thousands of Hawaiians surf, in part because they are surrounded by an ocean that provides them with some of the best conditions for the sport to be found anywhere in the world. Pete Hughes is a clinical manager for AirMed’s Hawaiian service, which operates air transportation for the state’s health system, transporting sick patients to clinics and between hospitals in a fleet of King Airs.
By David Wyss and Beth Ann Bovino, David Wyss and Beth Ann Bovino
Although the sky may be getting a little brighter, there is still no real break in the precipitation that keeps falling on the U.S. economy. The June employment report was somewhat disappointing, and other data remain at best mixed. We still believe the economy is on track to hit bottom in the fall, but it isn’t there yet. The recovery promises to be a very soft one.
StandardAero has received an STC to replace the standard Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-41 or -42 engines used on the Beechcraft King Air 200, 200C, B200 and B200C with PT6A-52 engines and four-blade Hartzell propellers. This is the same engine and propeller combination that is certificated on new King Air B200GT aircraft. With this FAA approval, StandardAero says it has become the only PT6A-designated overhaul facility that can offer customers maintenance, repair and overhaul of PT6As, as well as PT6A engine upgrade options.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Following the announcement of a $166.5 million contract for its part in the development phase of Europe’s Single European Sky Air Traffic Management System (SESAR) Joint Undertaking, Thales said it is working with the FAA on its NextGen future air traffic control system to ensure they work together. SESAR is roughly equivalent to the U.S. NextGen program although NextGen and SESAR differ operationally.
A “perfect storm” of challenges to business aircraft ownership — whether whole or fractional — is brewing in Washington, D.C., and beyond with potential far-reaching impact not only on aircraft ownership but the managed-aircraft charter business model.
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.
In the first six months of 2009, the U.S. business jet and turboprop fleet combined experienced 13 accidents — 38 percent fewer than the same period in 2008. Three of the accidents were fatal and resulted in 18 passenger and crew fatalities during routine business flights, according to Robert E. Breiling Associates of Boca Raton, Fla. The number of fatal accidents is down with three this year to date vs. 10 through June last year. In 2008, there were 20 fatalities in the first six months vs. 18 this year.
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.
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.
