Bombardier Aerospace announced that charter operator London Air Services of Richmond, B.C. ordered five Learjet 75s. The $65 million order makes the aircraft charter firm the Canadian launch customer for the light jet. London Air has a fleet of five Learjet 45XRs, a Challenger 604 and two Challenger 605s. It has a Global 7000 on order for delivery in 2017.
As of June 1, the only way for general aviation pilots, flight instructors and mechanics to learn about and register for FAA safety seminars will be online at FAASafety.gov. The FAA will no longer send postcards. If you have not already done so, the FAA Safety Team encourages you to register online using your airman certificate number.
Embraer Executive Jets' Melbourne, Fla., campus has received its own FAA Production Certificate to assemble Phenom 100s in the U.S. Previously, Phenom jets assembled in Melbourne were certified under the FAA type certificate granted to those produced in Brazil. “This is a significant milestone for Embraer and is the culmination of a series of achievements in the last year,” said Ernest Edwards, president, Embraer Executive Jets.
Jet Aviation has launched a new fuel sales service for its entire chain of Fixed Based Operations in the EMEA and Asia regions. Using its global purchasing power to negotiate a better fuel price with World Fuel Services, a leading jet fuels supplier, Jet Aviation has introduced the new fuel sales service to pass significant cost savings on to FBO and MRO customers visiting Jet Aviation FBO facilities in EMEA and Asia: London Biggin Hill, Dusseldorf, Riyadh, Dubai, Jeddah, Singapore, Zurich and Geneva.
Business aviation operators, both private and commercial, have the NBAA's Security Council, among other aviation advocacy entities, to thank for the currently harmonious relationship with the TSA.
NetJets also has signed 15-year engine maintenance, repair and overhaul agreements with GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC), the two companies announced on June 18. The contracts are associated with NetJet's order for midsize and heavy business jets announced in early June. The GE agreement covers maintenance, repair and overhaul of the CF34 engines included in NetJet's June order that contains 25 firm CF34-3B-powered Bombardier Challenger 605 aircraft with options for up to an additional 50 aircraft.
The NBAA website contains a useful primer on the Twelve-Five Standard Security Program. Here is an excerpt providing a concise history of the security protocol:
The TSA is working to devise means such as gateway airports that would enable business aviation to access restricted airspace during TFRs, says Zach Carder, who handles business aviation issues for TSA. Carder, speaking at the June National Air Transportation Association 2012 Air Charter Summit, said he “recognizes fully that this is a tender topic” for the business aviation community, particularly as it is facing an increasing number of TFRs with the presidential election season heating up.
My town loves its trees, and boy, we've got 'em — sycamore, sugar maple, sassafras, scarlet oak, beech, birch, yellow poplar, black tupelo. If they can handle winter, they're here in abundance. The town crest features a spreading white oak. A Tree City USA for 10 years running, we have a tree committee, annually budget for tree plantings, which are overseen by our tree warden, and publish a directory of our “Notable Trees.”
On May 14, with little advance notice, Teterboro Airport (TEB) was shut down to all traffic and remained closed for 5 hr. How much notice was given is unclear — some say it was 1 hr., while others suggest 12. Undisputed is the fact that TEB, among the nation's busiest general aviation facilities, was shuttered on a workday, surprising many users and forcing the reroute of scores of incoming aircraft. The reason? A presidential visit to the west side of Manhattan, directly across the Hudson River from the close-in New Jersey airport.
Jet Aviation has launched a global refurbishment program to “renew and harmonize” the look and feel of its FBO and major MRO facilities worldwide, beginning with the Geneva, Zurich and Basel facilities in Switzerland and focusing on the facility lobbies and customer and crew lounges, Completion of the Geneva and Basel facilities is scheduled for year-end. The Zurich facility is scheduled for completion in spring 2013.
The Global Vision Flight Deck designations for the Global 5000 and 6000 do not represent FAA, EASA or Transport Canada model designations. They are Bombardier's commercial names for Global airplanes on which Major Change Modifications, known as “modsums,” 700T001900 and 700T901901 have been fitted to BD-700-1A10 (Global XRS) airplanes or modsums 700T901900 and 700T901902 have been installed on BD-700-1A11 (Global 5000) airplanes.
Exact Air Flight ET822 descended below MDA into dark, wooded terrain while attempting a night non-precision RNAV (GNSS) Runway 12 approach at Chicoutimi/Saint-Honore, Quebec, on Dec. 9, 2009. Both pilots were killed and two passengers — the only other occupants of the aircraft — were seriously injured when the Beech King Air A100 (BE10) struck the ground in controlled flight on the approach centerline some 3 nm from the threshold.
ARGUS TRAQPak data indicates that May 2012 business aircraft flight activity increased from April 2012 at 3.5% overall. The only month over month decrease was the fractional segment, down 1.0%. Part 135 activity was up 5.3% and Part 91 was up 3.9%. Reviewing activity year over year (May 2012 vs. May 2011) TRAQPak observed a 1.6% increase in overall aircraft activity. Results by operational category were mixed with Part 91sector activity up 4.3%.
The Beech King Air 350 is the largest business turboprop yet built by the Wichita manufacturer and by far its most versatile performer. More than 685 first-generation aircraft were built between 1990 and 2009 before it was succeeded by the more luxurious King Air 350i in 2010.
Bombardier is the final manufacturer of large-cabin, long-range business jets to upgrade its flagship aircraft with large-format, flat-panel avionics, but based upon our recent demo flight, the wait was well worth the results. The Vision Flight Deck provides strong incentives for operators of older Globals with early 1990s vintage avionics to upgrade to the Global 6000's 21st century cockpit technology.
Belize Belize is the only Central American country that was not solely a Spanish colony, with Spain and Great Britain disputing rule over the territory in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1854, it officially became the colony of British Honduras, and remained so until it achieved independence in 1981 and became Belize. (The independence process was inhibited by a border dispute with Guatemala, which continues toward a so-far unscheduled referendum in both states to determine whether to refer the conflict to the International Court of Justice at The Hague.)
After decades of overflying Central America, executives of U.S., Canadian, and European corporations in growing numbers are accelerating their commercial activities in the seven countries constituting the subcontinent and dispatching their owned and chartered business jets to take them there.
“A Disastrous Save” (Cause & Circumstance, June 2012, page 52 highlights the double tragedy associated with the crash of a helicopter attempting a rescue. Twenty years of flying U.S. Air Force rescue helicopters left me feeling that remote area operations are one of the most challenging flight operations a pilot can confront. This is due to the wide range of uniqueness each remote area brings. Add nighttime, weather and fatigue to this and you have an operation that probably should be in the Emergency Section of the AOM.
Flexjet joined other fractional operators suing the IRS over assessments of federal excise taxes. Flight Options and NetJets/Executive Jet Management already are enmeshed in lawsuits over refunds and imposition of the passenger ticket tax over certain activities. Flexjet filed its suit a couple of weeks ago, says Tony Gasaway, principal of Gasaway Tax Law. The lawsuits come as management companies face their own escalating tax assessments based on recent IRS guidance that management fees could constitute commercial air carrier activity.
Anxious to avoid the problems that bedeviled Boeing’s 787 and other recent development programs, systems supplier Parker Aerospace is funneling extra resources into controlling its supply chain as production ramps up on several key air transport, business jet and engine programs.
NATS, the global provider of Air Traffic Management solutions, today announced its collaboration with private jet operator Royal Jet to assist the airline's continuous effort to improve the environmental performance of its flights in UK airspace.
