Intermountain Healthcare has signed for three AgustaWestland GrandNew helicopters with options for two additional aircraft. Operated by Intermountain Life Flight, Intermountain Healthcare’s aviation division, these aircraft will join two A109K2’s already in service performing critical medevac missions in Utah and Northern Nevada.
European Union interior ministers came away from a meeting in Luxembourg stressing a need for the European Union to speak with one voice on security matters such as terrorism threats, Homeland Security Today reported Oct. 8. The interior ministers heard from U.S. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Holl Lute, who was invited to join the meeting to explain a recent travel alert from Washington warning U.S. citizens to be vigilant of terrorist attacks when visiting Europe. In the wake of the U.S.
If I say “Reno” and you don’t immediately picture P-51 Mustangs, F8F Bearcats and other monster recips, along with little sport biplanes, racing planes and North American T-6s, all in close proximity, at very low level, and screaming, then I say, “Put down the magazine and slowly step away from the table. You’ve wandered into a pilot area and don’t belong.”
William Garvey’s “Studebaker Time” (Viewpoint, June 2010, page 11) got me thinking. Maybe in the near future we will discover that at the end of the course we’re now following — building big people-carrier aircraft that are cheaper, slower, fly lower, but are safer and greener — we’ll discover that the ideal conveyance is called a ship. And we’ll further recognize that pushing mankind’s limits is nonsense because it is not good business. What a sad, blue, depressing future.
Duncan Aviation’s Authorized Service Center agreement with Bombardier Aerospace was officially extended in September to include Duncan Aviation’s newest maintenance facility in Provo, Utah. Duncan Aviation-Provo joins Duncan’s full-service facilities in Lincoln, Neb., and Battle Creek, Mich., as a Bombardier Authorized Service Center. The Provo facility opened Aug. 1 and also is in the process of obtaining authorizations for the Embraer Phenom 100 and 300 and the Legacy executive jets.
The FAA proposed broad new rules for helicopter operators Oct. 7, which, if finalized, would require stricter flight rules and procedures, improved communications and training, and additional onboard safety equipment. Under the proposed rules, air ambulance operators would use the latest onboard technology and equipment to avoid terrain and obstacles. The proposal also contains provisions that, if finalized, would require commercial and FAR Part 91 operators to develop procedures for flying in challenging weather, at night and when landing in remote locations.
Air Ambulance Worldwide announced has started a medevac and air ambulance service operating Piaggio Aero P.180 Avanti aircraft in an air ambulance configuration. The first U.S. medevac flight for a P.180 in the U.S. was from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. to Lancaster, Penn. on August 27. The West Palm Beach, Fla. selected P.180 after an evaluation process that took into consideration aircraft performance and its cost effectiveness in the medevac role.
It would be an understatement to say 2010 has been a bad year for business aviation. A grim economic outlook in January got worse as the year progressed. In recent weeks, Cessna Aircraft — which had aircraft order backlogs stretching four years into the future in 2008 — has trimmed production schedules again and announced yet another round of layoffs that will cost 700 more workers their jobs. When the latest cuts are implemented, Cessna’s employment will have fallen from 16,500 in late 2008 to approximately 7,400.
Gulfstream’s large-cabin G450 business jet recently established a city-pair speed record between Savannah, Ga., and São Paulo, Brazil. The aircraft, flying to LBACE, completed the 3,922-nm flight in less than 9 hr. The G450 departed Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport at 8:07 a.m. local time with six passengers, one flight attendant and international captains Eric Parker and Jaime Bahamon on board. The aircraft landed at the Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo 8 hr. and 50 min.
Congratulations on your article “Operating in Mexico” (August 2010, page 30). In my opinion it is an excellent summary of the present situation and clarifies many concepts about flying to our country.In particular, as director of planning of Cabo San Lucas Airport (MMSL) and on behalf of Mr. Romo, our CEO and owner, I thank you for the inclusion of our facility and the concepts of it in your report. By the way, the altitude at MMSL is 690 ft. not 459. Thank you very much.
Aug. 16 — At about 0645 MDT, a Bellanca 7GCBC (N5034K) crashed approximately 10 nm south of Douglas, Wy. The commercial pilot and his passenger received serious injuries, and the airplane, which was owned and operated by Laird Flying Service, was substantially damaged. The local FAR Part 135 aerial wildlife spotting flight departed Douglas about 10 min. prior to the accident. It was VFR and no flight plan was filed. According to the FAA inspector who interviewed the passenger, the pilot was maneuvering about 300 ft.
Business jet marketers in the United States might envy their counterparts in Australia in the recessionary era of low sales. “Business aviation has gained momentum in the last three years, with development in all facets of it, especially the big iron,” Mike Keenan told BCA. Kennan is sales manager at Cessna dealer Aeromil Pacific at Bankstown Airport in a suburb of Sidney. A veteran aircraft salesman, he also serves as chairman of the Australian Business Aircraft Association.
Having persistent problems getting timely log-ins of crew duty and rest time? You’re not alone, and Avianis Systems has now added some new tools to its Clarity Control Center to help solve the problem. Its Flight Crew Portal provides a pilot-pleasing format for use anywhere and anytime there’s online access so crews are encouraged to keep their time logs current. A companion Crew Dashboard provides schedulers, dispatchers and managers with an easy-to-read graphic overview of flight time, block time, duty time and rest.
Bell 407 direct operating costs have been lowered as a result of the manufacturer removing 14 life-limited parts from the rotorcraft’s maintenance manual. The removal of these items, plus an adjustment to the on-condition section, will result in a reduction of more than 12% per flight hour to the published direct maintenance cost estimate, according to Bell.
JetFlite International has been providing private air service for 20 years from its Farmingdale, N.Y., operation at Republic Airport and now adds a West Coast facility with Long Beach Air Center, which will operate as a JetFlite FBO.
Hawker Beechcraft and Machinists union negotiators reached a tentative deal, Oct. 13, on a seven-year contract that calls for a 10% reduction in base pay and increased health care contributions from workers, but keeps two-thirds of the union jobs in Wichita, Kan. The union recommended its members accept the agreement, saying, “These have been extraordinary negotiations, during extraordinarily bad times. This community has suffered from layoffs and job losses. With plant closures and threats of relocation, we kept one goal in mind: It’s about having a job.
European Maintenance Service AB has opened the first Cessna-authorized Citation Service Center in Scandinavia. Located at Gothenburg Säve Airport in Sweden, the 3,000-sq.-meter Nordic Citation Service Center will serve customers throughout Scandinavia. The center will provide maintenance for 500, 525, 550, 560, 560XL and 680 series Citation business jets and can house up to eight aircraft at a time.
Eclipse Aerospace Inc. (EAI) has developed a new windshield application and is completing engineering requirements for an existing Airworthiness Directive (AD) that would enable the Eclipse 500 very light jet to return to operations at 41,000 ft. The wind¬shield application and AD requirements were among the last of the original upgrades the company had promised when it acquired the assets of the now-defunct Eclipse Aviation. Those upgrades had been left undone by the former company.
SmartView, Honeywell’s trade name for its synthetic vision system, is getting a significant enhancement. Honeywell and Gulfstream won a $1.2 million contract from NASA in early October for an 11-month flight test program to evaluate head-down SmartView with an enhanced vision overlay. Officials from the two firms believe that the enhanced display has the potential to allow pilots to fly instrument approaches down to lower weather minimums than they can with unaided vision.
Honeywell’s annual Business Aviation Outlook issued Oct. 17 forecasts delivery of approximately 11,000 new business jets 2010 through 2020, generating estimated industry sales in excess of $225 billion. This represents approximately a 10% increase in total expected industry sales value versus the prior ten-year horizon forecasted in Honeywell’s Business Aviation Outlook in 2009.
It was a BIG anniversary, so we pushed the MasterCard throttles way past redline and — Poof! — there we were on a beachfront aerie watching the sun climb out of the topaz waters of Castle Harbour. Bermuda delivered all we hoped – perfect weather, palms of every kind, candy-colored houses with bright-white roofs, kamikaze bus drivers, rum fun, pink sand beaches, and oh-so-welcoming islanders.
Tailwind Technologies, the parent company of Hartzell Propeller Inc., has purchased assets from Kelly Aerospace Energy Systems LLC, of Montgomery, Ala. Price of the transaction was not disclosed. The new Tailwind-owned company is named Hartzell Engine Technologies LLC, and will be led by Mike Disbrow, who currently serves as senior vice president of sales, marketing and customer support at Hartzell Propeller in Piqua, Ohio.
Garmin International Inc. has launched a G1000 retrofit program for Beechcraft King Air 300s and 350s, and the Olathe, Kan., avionics manufacturer expects to receive an FAA STC for the installation in mid-2011. The G1000 package for the King Air 300 and 350 features two 10.4-in. primary flight displays and a 15-in. multifunction display. The installation can include many of Garmin’s newest G1000 capabilities, such as the company’s electronic stability and protection system and synthetic vision.
Aviation market data provider, AMSTAT, of Tinton Falls, N.J., remarked on this year’s used aircraft resale activity, “While year-to-year market conditions do vary, a simple comparison of overall resale retail transactions by quarter using data from 1990 through 2009 shows that in any one given year the market will perform ‘well’ in Q1 and Q2, slow down in Q3 and then ramp back up with Q4 historically being the best quarter of each year. To date, 2010 has followed this historical pattern with Q1 and Q2 performing better than Q3.
Embraer reported it delivered 44 jets during the third quarter of 2010, 20 to airlines and 24 executive jets. The total number of jets delivered during the first nine months of the year was 154, with the firm order backlog remaining stable during the quarter, totaling $15.3 billion as of Sept. 30, the company said.
