“Justifying business aircraft can be a complex endeavor, but it should not be feared,” said David Almy, the driver behind the NBAA’s Travel$ense and now part of the General Aero Co. consultancy.
Corporate Angel Network received a $50,000 gift from Hawker Beechcraft in continuing support of the charity’s efforts arranging free flights to and from treatment centers for cancer patients using empty seats in business aircraft. “Corporate aircraft owners help Corporate Angel Network brighten the lives of those touched by cancer,” said W.W. (Bill) Boisture Jr., Hawker Beechcraft’s chairman and CEO.
“How can we hide the jet?” This question has been posed too frequently for way too long now. Some flying “off the balance sheet” has always occurred at the fringes of our industry, but now it is becoming mainstream. It shouldn’t be. You can block N-numbers on tracking software and create a leasing labyrinth to hide aircraft ownership, but you can’t prevent someone from snapping a picture of the boss stepping out of the jet.
The first signs of a positive response to efforts by the general and business aviation community to recapture a favorable opinion among U.S. lawmakers are now being felt, say general aviation association leaders.
May 29 — The Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) tower local controller was on position for 29 minutes working nine aircraft with no previous operational errors or operational deviations. The controller cleared PSA Airlines (JIA) Flight 390, a Bombardier CRJ-200, for takeoff on Runway 18L. N409DR, a Pilatus PC-12, was waiting to depart Runway 18L at Intersection A.
When word came earlier this year that the FAA had granted an STC to Carson Helicopter Services for installation of a Sagem Avionics integrated cockpit display system in its Sikorsky S-61, casual observers might have been surprised. After all, why would a commercial operator spend the time and money to install a glass panel in a helicopter that first flew a half century ago?
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.
Precision Aviation Group, Atlanta, announced that Phillip Fienen has joined PAG as the new regional sales manager. Sherwin-Williams Aerospace Coatings, Andover, Kan., appointed James W. Havers-Strong sales manager.
Dassault Falcon hosted the 23rd annual awards ceremony June 3, for the Teterboro Airport Community Benefit Fund that has provided more than $124,000 in scholarship awards to nearly 150 individual students since 1986. This year, nine scholarships of $1,500 each were awarded to students representing 14 towns in the surrounding area. Dassault Falcon has hosted the Teterboro Airport Community Benefit Fund awards ceremony for three consecutive years and has been a major contributor since 2001.
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.
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.
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.
Germany’s Air Alliance, one of the leading Cessna Service Centers in Europe, has been named an authorized Blackhawk Modifications distributor and installation center and has agreed to purchase three new Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-42A engines to re-engine Cessna Grand Caravans.
The New York state legislature is mulling a measure that would make the current five-year general aviation tax exemption permanent, even as the state struggles to fill a $17.9 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2010. Since the sales tax exemption for the maintenance, repair, overhaul or rebuilding of aircraft was enacted, New York has attracted significant investment in aviation services, said a spokeswoman for Assemblyman Robin Schimminger (D) who sponsored the 2004 legislation.
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.
Bombardier Aerospace’s Annual forecast included a 20-year Commercial Aircraft Market outlook, 2009 to 2028, that predicts 12,400 deliveries in the 20- to 149-seat market, worth approximately $589 billion.
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
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.
NextGen implementation is not moving fast enough and must be accelerated said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt in his first major speech since his June 5 confirmation. Speaking at the RTCA Symposium in Chantilly, Va., June 10, Babbitt emphasized the secret to launching NextGen is advice. “The only way we’re going to get rotation on this is by making sure the parties are at the table, making sure that their voices are heard. That’s the way I intend to keep it,” he said. “Decisions made in a vacuum will bring the system to its knees.
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.
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.
The House passed an amendment to limit the TSA’s use of security directives (SD) to bypass the regulatory approval process. The House agreed to the measure 219-211 as part of its consideration of the comprehensive TSA reauthorization legislation, H.R.2200. The TSA reauthorization bill subsequently cleared the House. Offered by Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), general aviation groups endorsed the amendment as a “common-sense approach” to the use of security directives. GA lobbied for the amendment after the TSA’s airport badging SD generated an outpouring of opposition.
