India’s economic boom and surging export market are causing commercial airline traffic to soar, especially with India’s proliferation of low-fare air carriers. At the same time, dozens of business aircraft operators now have the need to visit one or more cities in the subcontinent regularly. They’re finding that many of the country’s airports, air traffic control facilities and airways are overtaxed.
Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works also has a composite project with interesting implications for business jet makers. The Skunk Works expects to conduct the first flight of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) X-plane demonstrator by June. The ACCA is a heavily modified Dornier 328JET, which operates in both regional airliner and business jet applications, with a composite cargo fuselage and vertical tail fabricated using low-cost “out-of-autoclave” bonding techniques.
Seattle-based Raisbeck Engineering has won Brazilian and European Aviation Safety Agency certification of its increased gross weight Epic package for Beechcraft King Air C90s and C90GTs. Brazilian and European operators of these twin turboprops now are able to benefit from a gross weight increase to 10,500 pounds, which provides operators with an extra 400 to 850 pounds of fuel and/or payload. The heavier-weight Epic performance package includes Raisbeck/Hartzell 93-inch quiet turbofan propellers and dual aft-body strakes.
In a draft version 8.5 Advisory Circular dated Nov. 28, 2005, the FAA’s Air Carrier Training and 142 Training Branch, or AFS-210, presents guidance for “Alternatives to Classroom Training,” offering “a structured process for developing alternative training as a substitute for instructor-led classroom ground training.”
Excellent January Viewpoint (“Without Apology,” page 7) but I believe your call for assertive action has both near- and long-term components of equal importance.
Northern Jet Management , Grand Rapids, Mich., has promoted Rick Hansen to chief pilot. John Snyder was promoted to captain and Kip Catlin has been given IOE responsibilities with the flight crew team in additional to his captain duties.
Sierra Industries (Uvalde, Texas) — David M. Welch, a 21-year aviation sales veteran, has joined the sales and marketing staff for this provider of performance enhancement modifications for Cessna Citations. Welch began his career as an aviation researcher for Gantt Aviation and served in aircraft sales posts with West Air and Texas Piper before launching his own start-up aviation sales company and an aircraft sales division for an aero-medical firm.
International Communication Group (ICG) , Newport News, Va., has restructured its sales organization. Armin Jabs, ICG’s president and chief operating officer, will oversee the private label and new market development segment. He will be assisted by Bryan Trainum, who holds the new position of director of new business development. Jeff Saucedo, vice president, product sales, will lead the OEM and Completion Center sales effort, assisted by Andrew Mayfield as senior sales coordinator.
— At 1409 CST, a Sikorsky S-76C++ (N748P), registered to and operated by Petroleum Helicopters, Inc. (PHI), crashed into marshy terrain approximately seven minutes after takeoff and 12 miles southeast of Lake Palourde Base Heliport (7LS3), in Amelia, La. Both pilots and six of the seven passengers on board were killed. One person was critically injured. The helicopter departed 7LS3, a PHI base, en route to the South Timbalier oil platform ST301B to transport workers from two different oil exploration companies. No flight plan was filed, nor was one required.
Turbomeca Arriel 2B and 2B1 engines Replace the Hydra-Electric low-fuel-pressure switch in the hydromechanical unit with either of two different low-fuel-pressure switches.
Sylvain Sequin of Canadian Helicopters was another keynote witnesses who opened the NTSB HEMS safety hearing. The Canadian testimony was a striking contrast to that of Dr. Blumen (see item), noting that Canada has not experienced a single fatal HEMS accident since the country established its program in 1972.
Aviation technology provider AircraftLogs and Aircraft Spruce and Specialty Co. have partnered to market aircraft management packages and online pilot logbooks. The Aircraft Management Package provides private pilots and aircraft owners with a complete and secure management system via the Internet. It includes online logbooks, currency alerts, user-defined maintenance tracking, reporting tools and more. AircraftLogs has added Automatic Flight Posting to its product to allow any IFR flight to be automatically recorded. 4389 International Gateway
Henry “Hank” G. Beaird, Jr. , well-known test pilot and World War II pilot, died on Feb. 2 in Dallas. He was 84. Beaird received his U.S. Army Air Forces commission and wings in 1944 when he was 19. He was stationed in New Guinea with the 3rd Air Commando Group and flew P-51s and C-47s. After the war Beaird finished his aeronautical engineering degree and went to work for Chance Vought and flew for the Texas Air National Guard. He and his wife, Rosalind, moved to Long Island, N.Y., and later Lancaster, Calif., where he flew the first production model of the Republic F105.
The McDonnell 119 made its maiden flight in February from the company’s St. Louis plant. The four-engine, swept-wing aircraft will cruise at 550 mph, seat 10 passengers and has a range of 3,000 miles.
C rane Aerospace & Electronics, Lynnwood, Wash., appointed Rick Jones to senior vice president, solutions. Nigel Duncan joins the company as vice president, sales and marketing for the Aerospace Group. Dallas Airmotive, Dallas, announced that Andrew Woodworth has joined BBA Aviation Engine Repair and Overhaul as regional sales manager for Australasia.
Michelle A. James (Universal Avionics Systems Corp.)
Excellent Viewpoint in the January Business & Commercial Aviation. I agree with your points, and this has been a topic of conversation here at Universal as of late.
Price indexes recently released by Vref Publishing — the Shawnee Mission, Kan.-based business aircraft market research firm— reflect how precipitously values for older, previously owned, turbine-powered aircraft have declined in recent months. First quarter 2009 composite prices for benchmark used business turboprops and the three classes of used corporate turbojets have declined roughly 20 percent during the last year. Vref has been tracking prices for these aircraft since 1995.
- launching a new initiative “to address misinformation on the business use of general aviation aircraft and to provide a more accurate picture of the value of business aircraft. We think it’s time the other side of the story be told, and that support be given to those businesses with the good judgment and courage to use business aviation to not only help their businesses survive the current financial crisis, but more quickly forge a path toward an economic upturn,” said Cessna Chairman, President and CEO Jack J. Pelton. Cessna is a Textron company.
Air Culinaire and Morton’s Restaurant Group are taking inflight fine dining to a new high through a partnership that will offer Morton’s steaks and cuisine to private aviation clients and passengers. Aviation Customers in 12 of Air Culinaire’s 14 U.S. markets will have the option of placing orders for select Morton’s menu offerings, with a minimum of 24 hours notice. Air Culinaire will coordinate the logistics, packaging, delivery and onboard service of each Morton’s order. Air Culinaire 6525 Busch Blvd. Ste. 200
The federal government has indicted six people associated with the Feb. 2, 2005, accident when a chartered Challenger 600 failed to take off from Teterboro Airport and ran off the runway, through a fence, across a highway and slammed into a building. The accident triggered an FAA audit of now-defunct Platinum Jet Management that revealed it had a licensing agreement with Darby Aviation to use the Challenger and its FAR Part 135 certificate, but that Darby was to keep operational control of the aircraft.
Walter Hansen , a career corporate aircraft mechanic, died on January 17. He worked as a mechanic for Union Carbide from 1969 to 1971, as director of maintenance for McDonald Corp. from 1971 to 1982 and as director of maintenance for Digital Equipment in Bedford, Mass., until his retirement in 1998.
I’d been yelling at the television and pounding on the newspapers day after day. The business jet had suddenly become the whipping boy for all the world’s ills, and the righteous blather emanating from Washington, talking heads, columnists and editorial pages around the country was myopic, one sided and unchallenged. I was fed up with the quick, thoughtless castigation, the posturing pols hoping for sound bites on CNN, and the rampant hypocrisy that was doing real damage to good people in a vital transportation segment. This was madness. It was fight back.
Flexjet 25 Jet Card Program, operated by Jet Solutions, has introduced new features. The Flexjet 25 split-payment options provide card owners with the benefit of dividing the purchase price of a 25-, 30- or 35-hour jet card into two equal payments. The first half of the payment is made at the time of purchase. The second half is due after six months or upon scheduling more than half of the purchased flight hours.
Operations at FlightSafety International’s Citation Learning Center in Toledo, Ohio, are continuing as before, the company says, regardless of the shutdown of the adjacent Citation Service Center due to reduced maintenance activity related to reduced flight activity. FlightSafety spokesman Steve Phillips noted that there is no direct connection between Cessna’s maintenance business and his company’s training activities.
