Think that Washington lawmakers and the Obama administration are the only folks taking a close look today at corporations’ use of business aircraft? Increased scrutiny of corporate aviation has long preceded the Big Three automakers’ now-infamous appearance on Capitol Hill in November 2008.
L-3 Avionics Systems, Grand Rapids, Mich., announced that Jan LaFoy has been appointed president of the company, which is part of L-3 Communications’ Aviation Products business area. He reports to Kris Ganase, president of L-3 Aviation Products.
AOPA and EAA chiefs have formed a pact to explore areas where they can collaborate to promote and protect general aviation. The AOPA’s new President and CEO Craig Fuller met with Experimental Aircraft Association Chairman Tom Poberezny June 3 at the EAA’s Aviation Center in Oshkosh, Wis., to discuss collaborative efforts. The two organizations have been friendly rivals, each with strong-willed leadership, for decades.
The first-ever Wichita Aero Club Ball raised $31,000 for the United Way of the Plains to benefit laid-off aerospace workers in the region. More than 10,000 industry workers have lost their jobs in Wichita. The event attracted 200 attendees, said club executive director Dave Franson. “The original plan was to hold a black tie ball and present the club’s trophy to a worthy individual,” he said. “But with the current economic conditions and job losses, we felt it wasn’t a good year to do that,” he said.
I heartily agree with the points you made in “Beared Teeth,” (Viewpoint, May, page 9). I, too, am disgusted with the current “pabulum backbone” in Washington. It is important to remember that there’s one consistent thing that moves the politicians in Washington: RE-ELECTION. That, and that alone, seems to be the ONLY thing they all agree on. What a shame.
By C. Leo Boyd and Steve R. Hutchens, C. Leo Boyd and Steve R. Hutchens
Business aviation is all about saving time because that is the one non-replenishible asset of every enterprise, and thus directly comports to the notion that “time is money.” However, in the true business context, only productive time has real value. So the challenge to management is improving organizational productivity through the efficient use of capital and human resources. And in the long term, policy level management must directly contribute about half of the total annual value toward a company’s financial success.
The JustFly card program from ExecuJet South Africa (part of Zurich, Switzerland-based ExecuJet Aviation Group) has recently been introduced into the South African market. Membership requires an advance payment for an initial number of flight hours using a preferred aircraft type. According to the company, one of the main advantages of the program is that the price is all-inclusive and fixed throughout the entire program. There are no monthly management fees or long-term contractual commitments. Currently, three programs are available — 25, 50 and 100 hours.
Pentastar Aviation, Waterford, Mich., has hired Jessica Brant as customer care representative, Stacy McFall as aircraft charter sales representative, Steve Mineck as flight operation manager and Patrick Tschudi as flight follower supervisor.
Greenwich AeroGroup, Greenwich, Conn., named Jim Ziegler president and CEO. Prior to joining Greenwich AeroGroup he was the chief operating officer of Jet Aviation, responsible for all North American operations.
Congress has directed the GAO to formally investigate the notorious lack of standardization among the FAA’s various regions and Flight Standards District Offices. The National Air Transportation Association has called lack of standardization at the FAA one of the most pressing issues facing its members and has been urging congressional help.
The 100th Paris Air Show opened June 15 and closed June 21. A complete rundown of the show is posted on a special Web site linked to the free AviationWeek.com site. You can read each issue of the Aviation Week Paris Air Show Daily. There are multiple blogs by Aviation Week people and guest bloggers. Photos, videos, podcasts and more available through www.aviationweek.com. All things aeronautical are represented at this show. Go to the Web site and look for yourself.
Among the many worthy skills that have eluded me is that of selling unbidden things to strangers. Whenever I’ve tried, I invariably sympathize with the intended buyer’s objections, which nearly always seem quite sensible and insurmountable save to simply giving him the thing free of charge. It’s always been thus, which made my choice of a summer job one college year all the more ludicrous. I signed up to sell encyclopedias door-to-door.
IDTN/Meteorlogix has launched RotorWatch, a new premium service for subscribers to MxVision AviationSentry Online, Helicopter Edition that tracks helicopters inflight and displays the status of their bases, all in relation to bad weather. The service is aimed squarely at the airborne EMS community, with a color status code for each base. Operators can set the threshold weather level when it’s safe to accept a flight. Click on a helicopter and up pops ID, direction, speed and altitude.
July 16: Demonstrating & Quantifying the Value of Business Aviation, McGraw-Hill Corporate Headquarters, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. (800) 240-7645. www.aviationweek.com/conferences July 27-Aug. 2: Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) 57th AirVenture Oshkosh 2009, Wittman Regional Airport, Oshkosh, Wis. (920) 426-4800. www.airventure.org Aug. 7-9: Abbotsford International Airshow, Abbotsford International Airport, BC, Canada. (604) 852-8511. www.abbotsfordairshow.com
“As we move into the summer of 2010, there has never been a market so fractured, with so many ups and downs,” commented Fletcher Aldredge, publisher of the Vref Aircraft Value Reference and the Vref Market Leader newsletter. Aldredge noted in the second quarter edition of Market Leader that international buyers have buoyed the used aircraft market in recent months. “The robust export market has helped breath life back into everything from Cessna 182s to Gulfstream 550s.”
The G350 offers the lowest price of admission to Gulfstream’s large cabin, current production aircraft family. New, it retails for $32 million, according to Business & Commercial Aviation’s 2009 Purchase Planning Handbook. Used G350s — they’re rare — might command half that in today’s depressed market.
DeCrane Aerospace, Wichita, appointed Brian DeCamp as general manager for the Precision Pattern Interiors division and Patty Raisor as the new general manager of the Carl F. Booth Veneers division in New Albany, Ind.
Associated Air Center has won FAA approval for modifications designed to meet a new SFAR-88 mandatory Airworthiness Directive on its ninth Boeing Business Jet equipped with the DeCrane-PATS auxiliary fuel system.
“One of the first things we tell our clients is to make themselves part of the company,” advises Lillian Tamm, a vice president at Avicor Aviation, an Oswego, Ore.-based consultancy specializing in corporate travel assessments.
A native of Trinidad, then a British colony, Mackay earned an engineering degree from McGill University in Montreal and a Ph.D. in electronics and communications engineering from Sydney University in Australia. He taught at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, before serving as chief executive at a number of diverse companies including GEAC Computers in Toronto, Innotech Aviation in Montreal, and the Trinidad and Tobago Telephone Co. He was head of CAL Corp. in Ottawa when it was acquired by EMS Technologies in 1993.
Never a ratings hog, I was perfectly content having earned an ATR (what it was called back then) with multiengine land plane privileges, which was more than I needed to pilot my Aero Commander 500 between work in Washington, D.C., and summer, long-weekend escapes to our cottage on Crystal Lake in northern Michigan. However, when a lake neighbor and fellow pilot began talking about obtaining dealership rights to sell Lake Buccaneers for the area, I could sense waterwings in my future, and I got excited at the prospect.
The NTSB rarely undertakes a full “blue book” investigation into a light-twin accident, but the loss of NASCAR’s Cessna 310R on July 10, 2007, is an exception. The Safety Board was attracted by the facts that the piston twin was part of a large turbine fleet; that questions existed about the use of the airplane under NASCAR’s standard operating procedures; and that a critical maintenance issue may have slipped through the management cracks.
Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, Ga., promoted Terry Freeman to manager, product support warranty, responsible for aircraft production warranty administration for all Gulfstream service centers, General Dynamics Aviation Services facilities, third-party maintenance facilities and Authorized Warranty Repair facilities. Neil Vernon has been promoted to director, demonstration and corporate flight operations. He replaces Roc Miles, who retired on April 24.
FlightSafety International has launched a new Aircraft Electronics Technicians course that is accredited by the National Center for Aerospace & Transportation Technologies (NCATT). The course is designed as a foundation for the building block approach to avionics training and provides comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals of electrical and avionics technology. Classroom training focuses on the theoretical and practical aspects of the “theory of circuit operation” to enhance knowledge of aircraft systems and improve troubleshooting skills.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Paris Salon (threesome in foreground) were old-time flying boat designers Claude Dornier (right), now making STOL airplanes, and Igor Sikorsky (left), helicopter designer. Sikorsky took Dornier for a ride in his S-61 (background), which features turbine power and flying boat hull.
