While keeping tools from being left behind is an important part of any foreign object damage (FOD) control program, do not forget about the importance of keeping debris, trash and flotsam out of your aircraft. The National Aerospace FOD Prevention Inc. website (www.nafpi.com) can help maintenance managers develop and manage FOD control programs. The group provides access to experts on the subject and provides links to helpful hints and training materials for FOD prevention.
The used jet inventory, as a percentage of the active fleet, decreased in June by 20 basis points to 10.4%, according to J.P. Morgan. The financial analysts also reported that average asking prices fell 0.7% from May levels, making the average used jet worth $10.68 million. By category, medium and light jet inventories decreased in June by 0.5% and 0.1%, respectively, while heavy jet inventories inched up 0.1% during the month. Prices for heavy and medium jets decreased 0.4% and 1.9%, respectively, while light jet prices increased 1.4%.
Rockwell Collins agreed to sell its Rollmet product line to Precision Castparts. Rollmet makes seamless alloy and stainless steel pipes and propulsion system components for the energy, petrochemical and defense industries. The sale is expected to be completed in the fiscal fourth quarter.
Air Traffic Organization (ATO), Washington, has appointed David Grizzle chief operating officer.` Avantair Inc., Clearwater, Fla., has hired Robert DeGrie as vice president of maintenance responsible for the Maintenance and Materials departments including the Camarillo, Calif.; Clearwater/St. Petersburg; and Dallas locations. Christopher Gleason has joined the company as area sales manager for Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Utah.
In your June edition we printed a RUAG ad with wrong information (page 14). “In reference to RUAG's advertisement that appeared in the June issue of Business & Commercial Aviation magazine, RUAG would like to clarify that RUAG is not an official OEM partner and/or approved major service center for Twin Otter. RUAG holds a EASA Part 145 base and line maintenance approval with respect to Twin Otter DHC-6 Series. RUAG regrets any confusion and inconvenience caused to its customers and partners.”
Eclipse is now turning a profit. “We make more money than we spend,” Eclipse Aerospace CEO and Board chairman Mason Holland told BCA Editor-in-Chief William Garvey. “We're a profitable company year in and year out.” “We are investing additional dollars toward the production effort every month,” Holland says. He speaks about the return to production now as a certainty, with the recent partnership with Sikorsky a major factor in moving forward. He anticipates 60% of sales being outside the U.S.
Flight Options, the second-largest fractional jet operator in the U.S., has obtained a three-year, $167 million financing package with Brazil's Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) to finance the purchase of Embraer Phenom 300s. This first-of-its-kind loan agreement between BNDES and a fractional jet operator will be guaranteed by the Brazilian Ministry of Finance, advised by the Brazilian Export Credit Insurance Agency (SBCE). In 2007, Flight Options placed an order for 100 of the light jets, plus an option to purchase 50 more.
Push up the throttles in the Hawker 200 on takeoff and you might think you're strapped in a Learjet 25, considering this aircraft's rapid runway acceleration, excellent climb performance and near Mach 0.80 cruise speeds in the mid-forties. That's to be expected. The Hawker 200 has the best thrust-to-weight ratio of any business aircraft in current production, even edging out the athletic Cessna Citation CJ4.
H4 Aerospace Ltd., a U.K. aircraft design firm, has engineered the first ever retrofit of a Bombardier Global Express with Lufthansa Technik's Nice cabin management and inflight entertainment (CMS/IFE) system. The installation of this system was performed during an 8C-check, the Global Express' biggest scheduled maintenance event, which is performed on the aircraft every 10 years. The owner of the long-range airplane had opted for a complete refurbishment of the interior, which provided an opportunity to update the cabin to the latest CMS/IFE technologies.
The Chinese air force said it will open six airfields to joint military and civil use during the current five-year planning period, running to 2015, according to Chinese media. The newly opened airfields, which have not been identified, join 63 military fields that the air force has made available to civilian use since the 1990s. Military flying takes up 23.51% of China's usable airspace, the air force said in a statement released under the guise of a Xinhua news agency report. Civil traffic uses 32%, it said, without accounting for the rest.
2011 Operations Planning Guide Aircraft operating costs are presented in a format that separates the data into seven separate areas: Mission Costs, Variable Costs, Fixed Annual Costs, Periodic Costs, Personnel Costs, Training Costs and Facilities Costs.
Sean Tucker is an extremely talented performer whose air show routine leaves literally no room for error. (Fast Five, June 2011, page 26) But having lost six colleagues to aviation and witnessed the deaths of two air show performers on separate occasions, I don't attend air shows anymore featuring radical acts like Mr. Tucker's. I fail to see the purpose of such radical flying. Will Mr.
Hubbard Aviation Technologies has thrown a lifeline to operators of European-registered Gulfstream II, II-SP, II-B and III aircraft, winning EASA certification of its QS3 Hush Kit System that brings the jets to compliance with Stage 3 noise standards. The company says a QS3-equipped Gulfstream not only meets Stage 3 noise requirements but maintains the aircraft's performance, allowing max gross weight takeoffs, using Gulfstream-approved flap settings with no reduction of EPR, the company says, and is the only such system with EASA certification.
Hawker Beechcraft will open a new maintenance facility at New Castle Airport in Wilmington, Del. The facility, expected to open in second quarter 2012, will be a full-service repair and overhaul operation offering airframe, engines, avionics and mobile service support for the company's entire product line, from the single-engine Bonanza to the super-midsize Hawker 4000.
These graphs are designed to illustrate the performance of the Hawker 200 in a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions. Hawker Beechcraft's chief sales engineer, Martin Tuck, provided the chart data. Please note: These data are preliminary and are subject to change as a result of flight tests leading up to aircraft certification, now slated for the first half of 2012.
Eclipse Aerospace has received FAA certification for a newly redesigned canister to be used with the PhostrEx fire-suppression system on the Eclipse 500 very light jet. Canisters are expected to be available for purchase beginning this month.
Associated Air Center, StandardAero's large transport category, VIP aircraft completions center in Dallas, has developed a full-scale airframe mockup center for creating and testing new designs, fittings and systems for Boeing Business Jets (BBJ). The re-engineered facility now offers full-scale fit capabilities on the BBJ while continuing to support designs on the Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ). The airframe mockup allows AAC to reduce aircraft downtime by starting key elements of the completion process before the customer's aircraft arrives at the AAC facility.
Aviation Research Group/US is the industry leader in providing specialized aviation services to companies that manufacture, finance, operate, maintain, and market commercial and business aircraft, as well providing products and services to consumers worldwide.
Jim D'Agostino (JAR auditor ), Via e-mail (JAR auditor )
I thought Fred George's article, (July 2011, page 52) was excellent. As far as I know high-altitude upset recovery and high-altitude stalls are no part of regular recurrent or initial training. I was an instructor and examiner at Flight Safety on the Falcon 900 series of aircraft. If time permitted, during a recurrent session, I always had crews demonstrate a stall and a recovery at altitude, above FL 370. Most stall and usual attitude training is accomplished at 10,000 ft. in the simulator.
Cessna in June marked 15 years since opening its manufacturing facility in Independence, Kan., where the company has produced nearly 9,500 single-engine pistons and more than 350 Citation Mustang business jets. Work at the Cessna Independence facility includes assembly, paint, installation of interiors and delivery of seven single-engine piston aircraft models — the 172R Skyhawk, 172S Skyhawk SP, 182T Skylane, T182T Turbo Skylane, 206H Stationair, T206H Turbo Stationair and the Corvalis TTX — as well as the Citation Mustang entry-level business jet.
The Hawker 200's Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 cockpit looks a lot like that of the Premier IA, with its three 10-in. by 8-in. AFD-3010E LCD screens, stand-alone annunciator light panel and dual multifunction CDUs in the center console. The most obvious difference is the Meggitt EPD-40002 integrated electronic standby instrument system that replaces the cluster of three standby instruments aboard the Premier IA.
Constant Aviation – the Cleveland-based maintenance, repair and overhaul facility – has earned an STC for installation of Aircell's Cabin Wireless Access Point (CWAP), which provides in-cabin Wi-Fi service for Gogo Biz Inflight Internet, in two Embraer EMB135 corporate shuttles. This reportedly is the first installation of its kind in this aircraft type.
Two important vacancies at the FAA and TSA have now been filled. FAA Chief Counsel David Grizzle has been appointed COO of the agency's Air Traffic Organization. He replaces Hank Krakowski, who resigned in April. The TSA has tapped Kerwin Wilson to serve as acting general manager for general aviation. Wilson succeeds Brian Delauter, who left the agency in May to accept a corporate security position. Wilson had been Delauter's assistant general manager at the TSA.
