FltPlan.com, an online flight-planning specialist, has teamed with Corporate Angel Network (CAN) to make it simpler for corporate flight departments to notify CAN of the availability of empty seats in the aircraft they fly. CAN arranges free transportation for cancer patients to treatment using donated space on corporate aircraft. Since its founding in 1981, the organization has arranged nearly 40,000 patient flights. FltPlan modified its software to enable CAN participants to automatically send flight schedules into CAN's database.
Abu Dhabi Airports Co. estimates the value of deals signed at the region's first general aviation exhibition, Abu Dhabi Air Expo at Al Bateen Executive Airport, totaled in excess of $365 million. The show saw more than 10,700 visitors and 105 exhibitors from local, regional and international companies. The exhibition was opened by His Highness Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor and Vice-Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, alongside honorary attendees from Royal families and senior dignitaries.
A shortage of a resin used to produce composite materials in the Hawker Beechcraft Premier 1A and Hawker 4000 has forced a pro–duction hiatus and rolling furloughs of employees who work on the aircrafts' final assembly line. According to a company spokeswoman, the fur–loughs take effect over a 30-60 day period and last from 30 to 45 days.
The loss of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 — a Boeing 737-800 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea some 5 mi. southwest of the international airport at Beirut — was the topic of last month's Cause & Circumstance. Lebanon's Ministry of Public Works and Transport conducted the investigation with input from U.S., French and Ethiopian air safety agencies.
James Coyne, who has led NATA since 1994, announced he plans to leave the charter operators and FBOs association at the end of this year. He told Aviation Week, “It's always hard to know [the right timing],” but that “it seemed to be the right time.” He said he would work with the board of directors on the transition process as it begins a search for a successor, which could take six to nine months.
Sikorsky plans to demonstrate its fly-by-wire and autonomous flight technologies on a newly purchased S-76, according to Igor Cherepinsky, who leads the effort in the company's Innovations Division. Cherepinsky says he hopes for first flight late this year or early in 2013. A date has yet to be set for an optionally piloted or unmanned flight; Cherepinsky says the program is event-driven, not “marketing-driven.” The aircraft will contain the company's latest fly-by-wire technology.
The Center for Environmental Health has filed suit against numerous FBOs in California, citing that state's Proposition 65, seeking damages for distributing 100LL avgas without warning nearby residents of their potential exposure to lead. The aviation community is still assessing options for its response to the lawsuit, but FBOs are believed to be leaning toward a settlement given the costs they face fighting the lawsuit and the success rate that the Center for Environmental Health has had in its numerous other lawsuits filed under Proposition 65.
Piaggio America is climbing out of its sales doldrums with a 27% increase in deliveries, and President and CEO John Bingham anticipates an even larger gain in 2012. The Italian manufacturer delivered 14 P180 Avanti II turboprops in 2011 versus 11 the previous year, and Bingham says it should up that to 18-20 aircraft in 2012.
Jet Aviation bought the Enterprise Jet Center FBO at Hobby Airport in Houston, making it the 14th FBO to its global network of aircraft service and support facilities. The facility becomes the sixth Jet Aviation FBO in the U.S., including Boston/Bedford, Mass.; Dallas; Palm Beach, Fla.; St. Louis; and Teterboro, N.J. Enterprise Jet Center opened its doors in 2006.
I really enjoy reading Cause & Circumstance every month. The analysis and point of view are very good and interesting. It's sad for the people who lost their lives in the accidents, but your articles help others to avoid the same or similar fate. RPG Group Kolkata, India
The experience was at once frustrating and deflating. One of those any-fool-can-do-this-but-me kind of moments. I'd studied the instructions and illustrations, watched the video, and yet still could not make it work. It was just a piece of cloth, for cripes sake, and yet it elicited terrible statements from me — words so frothing and foul, Boomer took shelter in the closet beneath the stairs.
If a collaborative European effort succeeds, pilots are likely to become intimately familiar with Desdemona — no, not Shakespeare's Venetian beauty who eloped with Othello, but rather a new flight simulation concept for teaching aviators to recover from flight upset.
One of the important questions that resulted is whether upset recovery training can and should be conducted in simulators and, if so, would it be effective?
The International Civil Aviation Organization has published a manual, Flight Safety and Volcanic Ash (Doc 9974), providing guidance on the handling of aircraft operations when there is forecast volcanic ash contamination. The manual was developed by the ICAO International Volcanic Ash Task Force (IVATF) that was established following the 2010 eruptions of the Eyjafjallajökul volcano in Iceland. ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin said, “[Eyjafjallajökul] forced us to align our guidance material with the latest technological and scientific developments.
It has been more than two years, 786 days, to be precise, since our application for a simple, single-pilot FAR Part 135 air carrier certificate was filed with our local FSDO. While we were certainly not new to the bureaucracy and extended timelines that are trademarks of any FAA certification process, it was our reasonable expectation that within a year we would be close to certification.
The business aviation market is showing early signs that the momentum at the end of last year is carrying into 2012 with key indicators improving in January, according to initial analyst reports. Used aircraft sales continued to strengthen, and prices jumped dramatically in January for the first time in months, according to Jetnet's latest report. Business aircraft flights, meanwhile, reached their highest levels of activity in nearly a year, according to FAA and Morgan Stanley data.
The Gulfstream G280 received a provisional type certificate (PTC) from the FAA, the company announced March 2. The Civil Aviation Authority of Israel (CAAI) provisionally certified the G280 on Dec. 29, 2011. Gulfstream Aerospace says a software update for the aircraft's avionics is the final major milestone prior to full certification by the FAA and CAAI, expected later this year. According to the company, the three aircraft in the flight test program have flown more than 1,845 hr. during more than 685 flights.
China and Russia will join forces to build general aviation aircraft in Erdos, China according to China's Peoples' Daily Online, The project to build four- to 12-seat airplanes is expected to produce 400 aircraft per year. China Oriental Sciences Group and the China-Russia International Investment Co. will partner with a Russian aircraft design firm. The Erdos project will not only involve manufacturing but also a general aviation research base, a general aviation pilot training base and an aviation club.
Embraer's large-cabin Legacy 650 executive jet received type certification from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India, paving the way for Legacy 650 customers to register and operate the aircraft in India. The 2012 version of the Legacy 650 features refinements to the interior and cabin management system and improved cockpit avionics.
Area navigation (RNAV) Required Navigation Procedure with Authorization Required (RNP AR) instrument approach and departure procedures are key components of the FAA's Next Generation air traffic management system and the European Aviation Safety Agency's Single European Sky (SESAR). Certificated U.S. air carriers, such as Southwest Airlines, along with NetJets pioneered RNP approaches as a means of gaining lower weather minimums at some of the airports they frequently use or to save fuel by flying tighter approach and departure paths.
“Normalized access,” allowing unmanned aircraft systems (UASes) to “file and fly” anywhere in the national airspace system (NAS), will require airborne sense-and-avoid (ABSAA) in addition to GBSAA, and will take longer to achieve, says Steven Pennington, U.S. Air Force director of bases, ranges and airspace (see above item). The FAA has yet to develop a plan for full integration of UASes into the airspace system by the 2015 target date set by Congress, but “the Defense Department, with GBSAA, will get there by 2015 because we routinely fly to the same place,” he says.
