T his past Feb. 1, some aerospace heavy hitters came to Wichita, and they were on the prowl. Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, even upstart Nextant Aerospace — all were shopping for experienced workers at an informal job fair held at the local Marriott. They know that many of the assembly lines in this town are quiet and that the people who work on them may be sitting at home, waiting for an upturn, which is way overdue.
The used aircraft market, while improving, remains a major concern, declared GAMA chairman John Rosanvallon during the association’s annual “State of the Industry” presentation.
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) released a report that warns that society may be dangerously over-reliant on satellite navigation systems like GPS. According to the RAE, the range of applications using the technology is now so broad that, without adequate independent backup, signal failure or interference could potentially affect not just land, sea and air navigation, but broad swaths of the global economy. LORAN advocates would likely concur.
Today, the light jet market is awash with more than 1,200 used aircraft, most of which are fully mature products, whose qualities, support and appeal are well known. Also for sale are more than two dozen diminutive Eclipse 500 VLJs, which are far riskier investments. These have yet to mature into productive business travel assets in spite of the $1 billion spent to develop aircraft, whose fleet total now stands at 259 units.
Sabreliner Corp. recently completed a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) on a Learjet 35 air ambulance owned and operated by Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Aero Jet International. The SLEP was performed in Sabreliner’s Perryville, Mo., facility and involved an extensive inspection of all of the aircraft’s flight controls using state-of-the-art, non-destructive inspection techniques.
The European Commission approved the satellite-based European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) system for aviation operations. Like WAAS in the United States, EGNOS complements and improves the accuracy of GPS, allowing reduced-separation RNP operations and LPV approaches to any runway independent of ground installations. With the approval, EU member states can design and certify approaches.
FBO Million Air Houston announced in January a new general manager in the person of Robert Lee, most recently GM at Atlantic Aviation in Wheeling, Ill. He has more than 20 years of experience in aviation operations.
“If recent history is any guide, we may be nearing the bottom,” declared Vref Publisher Fletcher Aldredge in the most recent edition of his quarterly newsletter, Market Leader. Noting that it took approximately three years for the used aircraft market to recover after the dot.com recession that started in 2000, Aldredge believes the industry might be poised to finally break free from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
I just read Mike Gamauf’s “The Reluctant Aviator” (Flight Log, March 2011, page 68) and I really enjoyed it. The time spent with his father, I’m sure, was priceless. His description of wanting to fly for the Army was exactly what I went through as well. After four years as a Huey crew chief I went on to college and Air Force ROTC, where they were more lenient on eyesight restrictions (correctable to 20/20). Unfortunately, timing was not on my side when I commissioned (148 AFROTC pilot slots for the nation).
At GAMA’s “State of the Industry” press conference in late February, GAMA Chairman John Rosanvallon, president and CEO of Dassault Falcon, reported that the global economic downturn continued to negatively impact general aviation manufacturers in 2010, but that signs of a recovery have started to emerge. “Our industry experienced another challenging year that required many manufacturers to continue to make careful decisions about production schedules, employment and product development,” said Rosanvallon.
Eurocopter’s next helicopter, the X4 replacement for the Dauphin and EC155 light twins, will dispense with a cockpit, said President and CEO Lutz Bertling at Heli-Expo in Orlando, Fla. “The X4 will not have a cockpit as you know it,” he says. “The way of flying this helicopter will be completely different from any other aircraft you’ve ever seen.” Eurocopter is working with avionics companies on the new concept, which might not be fully implemented by the time the X4 is formally launched late in the first half of this year.
Kaman Corp. Composites Division has been awarded a contract to manufacture composite passenger entry and over-wing exit doors for the Bombardier Learjet 85 midsize business jet.
Since 1993, the FAA has prohibited executives from reimbursing their companies for personal use of company aircraft. The genesis of this policy was a legal interpretation requested on behalf of Charles Schwab. The FAA took a very narrow view of FAR Part 91.501(b)(5), concluding that the rule was designed to allow reimbursement for business flights, and therefore personal flights were not covered. Simply stated, the man named Charles Schwab could not write a check to Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. for a personal flight in the company airplane.
On the first of the year, this FBO became an Avfuel dealer and will offer that vendor’s Avtrip program, with double points for all purchases through June 30.
This short adventure began with an e-mail from a friend who flew with me at Piedmont Airlines. Vince was a 727 flight engineer but was now in Iraq with a company that has thousands of employees in Iraq. It uses Iraqi airliners with two Boeing 737-200s to shuttle its employees in country. The job was for a check airman to work on safety and compliance and to occasionally ride jump seat. A walk in the park, so to speak.
Business operators who run on avgas can now take advantage of a computerized maintenance tracking system from Fleet Aviation in White Plains, N.Y. assuming a rule of thumb that complete aircraft records are worth 25% of the aircraft value at resale, the software could pay for itself.
In light of an increasingly strong charter trend, FlightWorks of Atlanta has added a Falcon 2000EX in Virginia and a Falcon 50EX in Tennessee. The company claims 15% year-on-year growth in charter sales.
Dassault says its sales and business aircraft deliveries will fall this year, with uncertainty over when the market will properly recover. Although there has been a slowdown in order cancellations and a slight uptick in order activity in the business aviation market, company president Charles Edelstenne said that the uncertain macroeconomic environment makes it difficult to predict how quickly the market will rebound.
American Eurocopter announced that Air Medical Resource Group signed an agreement to buy three AS350 B3e helicopters with options for four more, making it the U.S. launch customer for the updated version of the AStar family. The AS350 B3e has a more-powerful Turbomeca Arriel 2D turboshaft engine with FADEC. Certification is planned this summer, with deliveries before year-end, the company said.
I read “A Failed Culture of Safety” (Cause & Circumstance, February 2011, page 53) with great interest. Good article. I am sure you know the NTSB report on the Quest Diagnostics fatal crash was pulled from the Internet. Not good. I believe that our industry has a shared responsibility to operate safely for the benefit of all parties. Your observations regarding Quest Diagnostics are quite disappointing as it appears that Quest lacks a commitment to safe operations
Robinson Helicopter Company has a backlog of 169 new orders. The company delivered 162 aircraft in 2010: 40 R22s, 112 R44s, and 10 R66 turbine helicopters.
Again profitable, NetJets ordered 50 Global business jets with options for an additional 70 aircraft. Bombardier said it was the largest business aircraft sale in the company’s history. The firm order transaction is valued at approximately $2.8 billion based on list prices. If all the options are exercised, the total value of the order will surpass $6.7 billion, also based on list prices. The firm order comprises 30 Global 5000 Vision and Global Express XRS Vision aircraft, with deliveries scheduled to begin in fourth quarter 2012.
Eight furloughed pilots have been recalled in the company’s move to address growth as business recovers. FlightOptions is expanding its fleet of Phenom 300, 400XT and Citation X aircraft, along with its capacity for fractional and jet card programs. FlightOptions now employs 311 pilots.
An attempt by the FAA to adopt a substantive change in the operations of FAR Part 135 certificate holders by means of a “rules interpretation” is under attack by a broad cross section of the air charter community.
