Business Aviation

A Chinese word, puji, probably best summarizes the biggest remaining challenge for business aviation in the world's second-largest economy. The word means to popularize something, or to make it well known—to circulate an idea.

The collapse of a proposed $1.79 billion acquisition by a Chinese suitor could quite likely result in the permanent production cessation of Hawker Beechcraft's line of jets, a severe reduction of their factory support, the closure of plants and a drastic downsizing of the company. While negative, this is indicative of the impact international players have on today's business aviation market.

The business jet industry will remain stuck in low gear in 2013 as lingering market sluggishness suppresses deliveries of small- and mid-sized aircraft. But a shift in demand toward larger jets capable of flying longer ranges should boost sales in the coming years. That is the upshot of Honeywell's annual Business Aviation Forecast, which offers no silver bullets to an industry that has been searching for signs of a recovery since demand imploded four years ago at the onset of a global economic crisis.

Holographic video, headphone-less audio and social media may be coming.

Royal Jet has announced that its FBO and VIP Terminal facility played host to a large number of VIPs, celebrities and car racing enthusiasts from across the globe who converged at Yas Marina Circuit to watch a critical race in the closing stages of the 2012 Formula 1TM world championships.

Satcom Direct, provider of satellite voice, fax, datalink and Internet communications solutions has made a massive investment in expanding its international business activities and today opens its office in Dubai.

Dubai aerospace group, DAE, subsidiary StandardAero is introducing a new, robust array of service offerings as part of its “CompleteCare” strategy.

Airlines in the next decade will face what might be an unprecedented requirement to equip their aircraft with communications, navigation, surveillance and safety kits in order to gain access to the FAA’s NextGen system’s most efficient routing and operations.

Eclipse Aerospace announced an anti-skid braking system (ABS) as a new option for the Eclipse twin-engine very light jet. The new ABS is available as an option on new production Eclipse 550 jets and will be offered as a retrofit to the existing fleet. In-aircraft testing is complete with certification and availability expected within six months. ABS allows for maximum braking energy and skid control without the need for a conventional hydraulic system, which is unique to the Eclipse Jet.

Piper Aircraft and Aircraft Technical Publishers (ATP) announced that beginning Dec. 5, 2012, access to all Piper maintenance publications and regulatory documents will be available exclusively through the ATP Aviation Hub Online Service and ATP's NavigatorV Desktop Platform. Piper says ATP's single integrated solution offers several advantages for users including learning one simple software platform for publication access, daily revision updates to all content, and eliminating the cost of installing and managing software.

Bombardier Aerospace has opened a Regional Support Office in Moscow (Denisovskiy Pereulok, 26, Moscow), operated by Bombardier Aerospace Service Russia LLC. It will serve as a regional support hub for commercial aircraft customers in Russia and the CIS. According to the company, when the office is fully staffed it will include support resources for operators of Bombardier business aircraft and have as many as 15 customer service managers, liaison pilots, field service reps and mobile response technicians.

The oceanic clearance should be received, verified and accepted long before the aircraft approaches the oceanic boundary.

The Carlyle Group is set to buy the FBO chain it helped create nearly three decades ago. But its reacquisition of Landmark Aviation comes at a price believed to be $200 million more than when Carlyle sold the chain five years ago. Carlyle and Landmark owners GTCR and Platform Partners announced the sale on Sept. 14, but did not disclose terms of the agreement, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Carlyle sold Landmark in August 2007 to Dubai Aerospace under a $1.9 billion package deal that also included StandardAero.

Since many pilots, even some very experienced ones, admit they are not completely aware of the real nature of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and its ground-based counterpart Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS), we offer a brief primer. WAAS is a Space-Based Augmentation System (SBAS), as is Europe's EGNOS, India's GAGAN and Japan's MSAS. All are intended to be compatible and even interoperable.

I had a nice chuckle over the first paragraph of “Day Trippers” (Viewpoint, September 2012, page 9). I know what I would've done with my shoe if that smart-!@# said the same to me. It sounds like a great journey to the West Coast. Your story is just another reminder of why I am happy I took the corporate route for my career. Thanks for sharing and thanks for the laugh! Captain/Safety Advisor SCANA Corp. Columbia, S.C.

China's Kunming Changshui International Airport, located in the southwest China, has installed a custom built-in airport bird control manufactured by Bird-X. The first device used was the BroadBand Pro, an electronic device that combines sonic and ultrasonic broadcasts to repel birds up to six acres. The ultrasonic frequencies are nearly silent to humans. The second device was the Mega Blaster Pro, a highly powerful sonic bird control system that uses intermittent distress calls to create a “danger zone” that frightens birds away for good.

The “Fast Five” interview with the Reason Foundation's Robert Poole (September 2012, page 25) prompted this letter. Back when I was a kid traveling the New York State Thruway, my late dad used to point out the billboards facing the Thruway and the New York Central Railroad's main line, which taunted, “You'd be there by now if you flew Mohawk!” That was true — and Mohawk Airlines eventually eclipsed the passenger train as a means of getting around the Empire State for day business travelers.

NASA's Langley Research Center, Mitre and several partners have completed the first in a series of inflight evaluations of cooperative automatic sense-and-avoid (SAA) algorithms for unmanned air systems (UAS), in large part to validate a new testbed that will be used for more advanced trials next year. SAA is regarded as one of the top priorities — and one of the most difficult issues to solve — in the FAA and Defense Department's effort to safely integrate manned and unmanned aircraft in civil airspace.

Rockwell Collins' new GLU-925 Multi-Mode Receiver (MMR) enables operators to take advantage of evolving RNP/RNAV and ADS-B capabilities. It fulfills the requirements for aircraft navigation position source, Category III ILS, Category I Global Positioning Landing System (GLS) and accessing RNP/RNAV airspace (down to RNP Authorization Required 0.1). It also meets the GPS position and availability requirements for ADS-B Out mandates.

A few years back, I received a call from a man who wanted to compare his department with ours. I've found such “benchmarking” exercises to be a great way to share good ideas and hear what's working for others. Organizations such as the NBAA, manufacturers' websites and the Chief Pilots' Roundtable provide invaluable help in running flight organizations through that technique, disseminating information that's applicable to both administrative and technical operations. I looked forward to what I could glean from this man's large operation.

Robert E. Breiling Associates Inc., a global resource for business turbine aircraft/helicopter accidents and incidents and their analysis, has provided BCA with a current world accident picture. The data presented show the U.S. and non-U.S. fleet accident/incident data by major operator type through the first nine months of 2012 versus 2011. Data are preliminary and may change as the year progresses, particularly with non-U.S. data, which are obtained from numerous international sources. Business Jets

Eurocopter Canada Limited delivered an AS350 B3e to Blackcomb Aviation for its utility and heli-skiing operations in British Columbia. Blackcomb now operates seven Eurocopter aircraft: one AS350 B3, one AS350 B2, four AS355s, one EC130 B4 and one EC120 B.

CAE will provide a suite of products, engineering services and simulation-based technology tools, including a simulator, to support the design, testing and certification of the Global 7000 and Global 8000 aircraft platform as part of Bombardier's Integrated System Test and Certification Rig (ISTCR).

Need help navigating the rules of hazardous material? The International Air Transport Association has a dedicated website to help you understand and comply with the rules for dangerous goods. Their training material has been accepted by the FAA and other government agencies. Many of the large carriers use the IATA handbook as the source data for their training courses. To learn more visit IATA's website: http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dangerous_goods/Pages/index.aspx

Jack Pelton, the retired Cessna CEO, sent an email to Carl Brewer, Wichita's Democratic mayor, immediately after the debate, urging his intervention with the leader of his party. According to Pelton, Obama's anti-business jet comment — only the most recent of a continuing criticism of business jet owners — was “damning to the great people who work on the production lines here in Wichita.” The missive continued, “We cannot afford to have our industry held out as an example of excess. The facts simply do not support this.