TWC Aviation closed out 2013 with transactions that expand the company’s geographic coverage of its charter and management services. TWC added a Gulfstream G200 based in Florida. The aircraft is the fifth G200 managed by the company. TWC’s Aircraft Sales & Acquisitions group also completed a sale of a Gulfstream III and the acquisition of a Dassault Falcon 2000. The Falcon is added to TWC’s managed fleet, the ninth of that model.
DASSAULT Model Falcon 7X airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2013-1032; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-121-AD] – supersedes AD 2011-13-07 that requires revising the airplane flight manual (AFM) to include a procedure to power off a radio-altimeter or revert to the correct radio-altimeter output. Since FAA issued AD 2011-13-07, an analysis showed that AFM procedures could be simplified. This proposed AD would require revising the AFM to include a simpler procedure to revert to the correct radio-altimeter output.
Helicopter lessor Milestone Aviation Group continues to increase its access to capital by closing on an unsecured $200 million revolving line of credit, a move that enables it to continue to rapidly expand its customer base that now numbers more than two dozen operators.
Gulfstream Aerospace’s service center at London Luton Airport in the U.K. recently received European Aviation Safety Agency approval to perform maintenance on the Gulfstream G280. The facility earned similar EASA approval for Gulfstream’s G650 last year. The G280 entered service in November 2012, followed by the G650 in December 2012.
Wheels Up, the membership-based private aviation company founded last summer, remains “slightly ahead of plans” with 150 members signing on in its first few months of operation and finishing the year with nine aircraft in service, says founder and CEO Kenny Dichter. “We’re just getting started,” says Dichter, who believes the company is on pace to top 250 members shortly. “We are already flying missions and are aggressively building our fleet.”
Gulfstream, in the midst of a long-term expansion plan that has almost doubled its employment in Georgia over the past seven years, is adding a 406,000-sq.-ft. Product Support Distribution Center near its Savannah headquarters. The facility, slated to open in 2015, is to house the company’s worldwide material distribution departments that are currently spread out over several warehouse buildings near Gulfstream’s main campus.
William (Bill) Stine, the longtime director of international operations for the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), retired Jan. 10 after serving for nearly 35 years. Stine had steered the association on internal business aviation communications, navigation and surveillance issues and served as the staff liaison to the NBAA International Operators Committee and Schedulers & Dispatchers Committee. He was a founding officer of the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) and had served as its corporate secretary.
Zenith Aviation, a Fredericksburg, Va.-based marketer and distributor of Dornier 328 parts, has significantly increased its inventory with the purchase of Dornier 328 jet assets from Comtran and Jetran International. The assets include two Dornier 328-310 aircraft heavyweight jets, six Pratt & Whitney 306B engines, two sets of Dornier 328-310 heavyweight landing gear, a complete 12-seat executive interior, and more than 2,000 line items of rotable parts.
DAVID PEARMAN was appointed general manager of Gulfstream Aerospace’s service center in West Palm Beach, Fla. Pearman, who has served as general manager of Gulfstream’s component repair facility in Lincoln, Calif., since January 2008, will be responsible for the daily operations of the West Palm Beach facility. Pearman has served with the company since 1994, beginning as an airframe and powerplant mechanic at Gulfstream Long Beach Service Center in California. He has also held management roles at Gulfstream’s center in Las Vegas and Westfield, Mass.
JERRY DEMURO was named president and CEO of BAE Systems Inc. DeMuro, a former executive with General Dynamics, will take over on Feb. 1. He will be appointed as an executive director of BAE Systems plc in the U.K. and serve on the company’s executive committee as well as on the board of the U.S. side of the company. DeMuro led General Dynamics’ Information Systems and Technology from October 2003 to March 2013. He also spent time at the U.S. Defense Department as an acquisition official.
DOWTY PROPELLERS Model R408/6-123-F/17 propellers [Docket No. FAA-2008-1088; Directorate Identifier 2008-NE-15-AD] – proposes to revise AD 2008-21-07, which requires initial and repetitive inspections of the blade bonded metallic leading edge (L/E) guards for correct bonding until they accumulate more than 1,200 flight hours (FH) time in service. Since FAA issued AD 2008-21-07, Dowty Propellers has introduced updated service bulletins that identify terminating action to the requirements of AD 2008-21-07.
Correction: The Transportation Security Administration has approved 92 gateway airports and a total of 148 approved gateway facilities for business aircraft seeking to fly into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Of the gateway facilities, 113 are approved fixed-base operations. The Jan. 6 edition of BA published an incorrect number of approved FBOs.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) latest round of general aviation safety alerts continues the concerted effort of the agency, along with FAA and industry stakeholders, to address a general aviation accident rate that has refused to decline in recent years.
A decade after Congress mandated that the Transportation Security Administration adopt new repair station security regions, the agency is finally issuing the rule and effectively lifting a ban on certification of new foreign repair stations. Congress, frustrated with TSA’s inaction on the issue, banned FAA from certifying new foreign repair stations until the final rule was issued. That ban had been in place for more than five years, and the number of repair stations awaiting FAA certification had grown to more than 90.
U.S. business aircraft were involved in more accidents and more fatal accidents overall, even as the number of business jet accidents dropped in 2013, according to preliminary data released by safety expert Robert E. Breiling Associates, Inc. U.S. business jets and business turboprops combined for 49 accidents in 2013, up slightly from the 48 accidents in 2012. Fatal accidents more than doubled, from 11 in 2012 to 23 in 2013.
Bristow Group has taken delivery of the first two Sikorsky S-76Ds, configured for offshore oil support, initially for services in the Gulf of Mexico. Delivery of the first VIP-configured helicopter is imminent, with emergency medical service (EMS) and search-and-rescue (SAR) variants to follow.
FAA was expected to file its response Jan. 10 to a lawsuit filed by the city of Santa Monica, Calif., seeking control over the destiny of Santa Monica Airport (SMO). If successful, the lawsuit could clear the city to close the general aviation airport in 2015.
Cutter Aviation’s facility in Phoenix was appointed an authorized service center for Beechcraft Beechjet/Hawker 400XP series aircraft. The designation expands upon Cutter’s Beechcraft authorizations, which also cover Baron, Bonanza and King Air series aircraft. Cutter’s facilities in Albuquerque, N.M., and Addison, Texas, are also authorized service centers for Baron and Bonanza aircraft.
M7 Aerospace Models SA226-AT, SA226-T, SA226-T(B), SA226-TC, SA227-AC (C-26A), SA227-AT, SA227-BC (C-26A), SA227-CC, SA227-DC (C-26B), SA227-TT, SA26-AT, and SA26-T airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2013-1057; Directorate Identifier 2013-CE-041-AD]—proposes to require repetitively inspecting (visually) the FS 51.31 front pressure bulkhead on SA26 series airplanes and FS 69.31 front pressure bulkhead on SA226 and SA227 series airplanes for cracks, and repairing any cracked bulkhead. This proposed AD also requires reporting certain inspection results to M7 Aerospace.
MARKE GIBSON , a retired major general with the U.S. Air Force, was named executive director of the NextGen Institute, effective Jan. 13. Gibson spent several decades in the USAF, holding positions in both the Pentagon and in the field. Most recently, Gibson served as director of current operations and training at USAF Headquarters. He was also deputy commander of the 7th Air Force Korea; commander of the 354th Fighter Wing, Eielson AFB, Alaska; wing commander of the 332nd Expeditionary Wing, Balad, Iraq; and as the deputy director of operations of NORTHCOM.
Peter Fleiss, who has steered the Corporate Angel Network (CAN) for the past 14 years, is retiring effective Jan. 20. Former Flying Magazine Publisher Dick Koenig, who has served on the CAN board, will succeed Fleiss. Fleiss will take on the title of director emeritus and work with Koenig during the transition.
Embraer has begun flight-testing its Legacy 450 mid-light business jet, a smaller version of the all-new mid-size Legacy 500 that is scheduled for certification in the first half of this year. Making its 1-hr., 35-min. first flight from Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, on Dec. 28, the Legacy 450 has the same 6-ft. cabin height, Honeywell HTF7500E turbofans, Rockwell Collins Fusion avionics, fly-by-wire and side-stick flight controls as the 500, but with a shorter cabin.
