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.
To Dave Stohr, the whole issue of GNEs, LHDs, Mach control and serious procedural mistakes can be boiled down to two deficiencies: lack of SOPs — or having but not following them — and lack of knowledge. President and founder of Air Training International, Stohr teaches international procedures and, through IBAC, represents business aviation to the North Atlantic Systems Planning Group.
The FAA proposes to adopt ICAO noise standards for helicopters. In a Sept. 18 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the FAA says that incorporating these more-stringent noise certification standards into U.S. regulations is consistent with the agency's goal of harmonizing U.S. regulations with international standards. A helicopter certificated under this standard would be designated a Stage 3 helicopter.
Cessna has opened its first U.K. Cessna-owned Citation Service Center at Robin Hood Airport, Doncaster Sheffield. The newly acquired 50,000-sq.-ft. facility, rebranded Doncaster Citation Service Center, offers services from maintenance to modernization and paint. Previously known as Kinch Aviation Services, the business has operated for 15 years and has been an authorized Cessna facility for the past four years. The U.K.
Blackhawk Composites Inc., a producer of composite aerospace and commercial components and a sister company of Blackhawk Modifications Inc., has earned ISO 9001:2008 and AS9100C certification for its manufacturing and quality management systems. The company specializes in rapid prototyping and low-cost, high-quality production.
Cessna has opened two Citation Service Centers — one in Valencia, Spain, and its first in the U.K, at Robin Hood Airport, Doncaster Sheffield. The 100,400-sq.-ft. Valencia facility is located at Valencia Airport (LEVC) in eastern Spain, convenient to Citation customers across Western Europe and North Africa. The newly acquired 50,000-sq.-ft. U.K. facility, rebranded as the Doncaster Citation Service Center, was previously known as Kinch Aviation Services. The business has operated for 15 years and has been a Cessna authorized service facility for the past four years.
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. The advantages for Piper operators include learning one software platform, daily revision updates to all content and eliminating the cost of installing and managing software.
Piper Aircraft recently rolled out the 500th pressurized single-engine turboprop M-Class Meridian to SouthEast Piper for delivery to the aircraft's new Florida-based owner. “The milestone delivery of the 500th Piper Meridian, since first delivery in the year 2000, emphasizes its enduring value proposition even during recent periods of economic uncertainty around the world,” said Piper President and CEO Simon Caldecott.
For U.S. operators, charging someone for a ride in the company jet is a subject thick with claims and counterclaims, ignorance and outright bad behavior. The arguments are old, but some of the consequences are new. Today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may be more likely than the FAA to punish practitioners of any "Part 134½."
Bell Helicopter is continuing to work with U.S. and European certification authorities in the hope of overturning their rejection of a gross weight increase for the Model 429 light twin that takes the aircraft beyond the certification limit for its class.
New Zealand-based Altitude Aerospace Interiors is beginning work on a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) based on a 737-700, the first interior completion of a new BBJ in the Australasian region. A Boeing spokeswoman says that no BBJ completions have been done in Australia, and while Altitude has previously performed BBJ refits, this will be the company's first “green” BBJ. The BBJ is owned by Samsung Electronics, Boeing says. Altitude is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air New Zealand.
Argus TRAQPak data indicates that September 2012 business aircraft flight activity decreased from August 2012 by 7.1% overall. The results by operational category were all down from the previous month, with fractional flight activity posting a 11.6% month-over-month decrease.Reviewing activity year-over-year (September 2012 vs.September 2011) TRAQPak recorded a decrease of 2.9% in overall aircraft activity. Results by operational category were led by fractional activity, down 6.2%.
Industry advocates are encouraged that senior Internal Revenue Service officials have continued a dialogue about recent tax changes stemming from a March agency memorandum, but they stop short of saying any progress has yet been made. In the interim, numerous charter operators have undergone audits and are facing new tax bills in the “high six figures” and some even beyond that since the guidance's release.
Honeywell is expanding its partnership with Inmarsat, signing a five-year agreement to serve as a “master distributor” of the GX Aviation inflight connectivity services for the business aviation market. Honeywell previously had signed an agreement to develop and provide hardware for the services using Inmarsat's planned Global Xpress satellite system. But the new agreement marks Honeywell's first entry into distribution of the actual service itself. Inmarsat has selected OnAir and Gogo to provide the service to the commercial airlines.
The first time I saw Neil Armstrong in person was in Bethpage, N.Y., not too long after he, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins plopped into the Pacific, ending their historic Apollo 11 moon mission. He and Aldrin had come to Grumman's Long Island “Iron Works” where their lunar module was conceived, designed and built. A local newspaper reporter, I was excited to witness the visit.
Algae.Tec Ltd. and Lufthansa have signed a collaboration agreement to construct a large-scale algae-to-aviation biofuels production facility. The site will be in Europe, adjacent to an industrial CO2 source. Lufthansa will arrange 100% funding for the project. Algae.Tec will manage the project and receive license fees and profits from the project. Lufthansa has committed to a long-term offtake of at least 50% of the crude oil produced at an agreed price.
Sikorsky has delivered the first two of 16 S-92 offshore-support helicopters to the U.K.'s Bond Aviation Group. Once completed at Sikorsky's Coatesville, Penn. commercial helicopter facility, the aircraft will be delivered in January to new Bond subsidiary Norsk Helikopterservice in Stavanger, Norway. The first two S-92s are being delivered four months earlier than planned when the 16-aircraft order was signed in December 2011, to help Bond compete as a third player in the Norwegian North Sea market, says Richard Mintern, CEO for the U.K., Northern Europe and Australia.
Ascension Air, Atlanta, announced that Jamail Larkins, president and CEO, was reappointed by the FAA as honorary ambasssador for Aviation and Space Education. Banyan Air Service, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., announced that George Tucker is the director of the Banyan Pilot Shop, responsible for the shop and banyanpilotshop.com.
Jet Aviation has added a Moscow-based Global 5000 to its managed aircraft fleet. The company is working in close cooperation with Swiss certification authorities to bring the aircraft onto its AOC, and expects the aircraft to be available for charter services in December 2012.
As aviators, we now take the global positioning system (GPS) and its constellation of transmitting satellites for granted. The U.S. Air Force manages the constellation to ensure the availability of at least 24 GPS satellites 95% of the time. For the past several years, the Air Force has been flying 31 operational GPS satellites, plus 3-4 decommissioned satellites (residuals) that can be reactivated if needed.
Lessons learned from the fatal crash of a Gulfstream G650 test aircraft in Roswell, N.M., could bolster safety for airframe manufacturers and flight test departments globally. Along with determining a probable cause for the accident, which killed two test pilots and two flight test engineers, the NTSB issued 10 recommendations, many of which called for the dissemination of information about the underlying reasons for the accident, and program countermeasures that may eradicate errors made during the G650 test program.
I love aircraft and I love dogs. Your “Sound of Silence” (Viewpoint, August 2012, page 9) is beyond compare . . . poignant. Thank you. As for Boomer, he'll be with you always, but may you have the courage to adopt another. San Diego, Calif.
There are nearly 6,900 turbojet and turbofan business aircraft that are 30 or more years old — more than double the figure of just five years ago — and this number grows every year, according to JetNet LLC, an aviation market intelligence firm based in Utica, N.Y. And a sizable chunk of these geriatric jets, such as Cessna Citation 500s, Dassault Falcon 10/20 and Learjet 35/36 models, are pushing 40. At some point, old aircraft no longer will be viable.
