In reading “Fully Baked,” I agree, as usual, with your historical perspective on the TSA, the Large Aircraft Security Program and the knee-jerk government reaction to all things aviation. But here’s a question I would like you to consider: Doesn’t the yearlong break from the rhetoric and nonsense regarding corporate aviation from the TSA constitute sufficient proof that nothing needs to be changed?
Hawke Capital Partners, a rotorcraft-focused private equity investor, announced in September that it has recapitalized its wholly owned operating subsidiary, Uniflight, LLC, at Grand Prairie Municipal Airport in Texas, while simultaneously completing the acquisition of the assets of Aviation Services Unlimited, based at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, N.Y. As a result, Uniflight’s maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities have expanded to three locations: Grand Prairie; Reading, Pa.; and Rome, N.Y.
John Didier, president of Sacramento Aviation, which specializes in handling Cessna Citations and Beechcraft King Airs, would like to believe that the market for previously owned business airplanes is improving, albeit slowly. The number of phone inquiries his company is receiving has increased, and he sees more “serious people” in the market for a used business aircraft.
An EADS’s all-electric aircraft flew for the first time from Le Bourget Airport in Paris on Sept. 2. The composite-structure, four-motor, aerobatic Cri-Cri — jointly developed by EADS Innovation Works, Aero Composites Saintonge and the Green Cri-Cri Association — reportedly performed well during the 7-min. initial flight. The airframe design is directly descended from a tiny homebuilt beloved for decades in France.
Jeppesen and the Russian Ministry of Transportation have contracted for Jeppesen to access Russian domestic airport data. Jeppesen previously had access to Russian airway system data. With access to both airway and airport data, Jeppesen will be able to provide customers with a complete Russian flight information package, which includes domestic and international NavData services, JetPlan flight planning, OpsData aircraft performance analysis, and paper and digital charting.
FAA is proposing a sweeping overhaul to airline pilot fatigue regulations that would ensure that pilots get 9 hr. of rest — not including commuting time — between duty periods and would restrict duty to 9 hr. to 13 hr. at a stretch. The FAA is required to show that stricter limits would save enough lives to justify the additional cost to airlines, which could reach into the billions of dollars. “We’re always very concerned about added costs without a demonstrable safety benefit,” said an Air Transport Association official.
Electrical faults can be extremely frustrating to troubleshoot, especially with modern low voltage systems. The good old multimeter is fine for finding voltage drops, shorts and opens, but that just confirms the problem, not necessarily the solution. To increase your diagnosis capability, a time domain reflectometer (TDR) can help you pinpoint the problem without wringing out all of your wires at each connector. The TDR sends a pulsed signal through the wire and measures the time to return, similar to radar.
“There should be some optimism in our industry,” declared Carl Janssens, editor of the Aircraft Bluebook Price Digest, in the third-quarter edition of his Marketline newsletter. “Buyers and sellers are finally coming to terms with what the market will bear for a given aircraft,” explained Janssens. “And with that, the pre-owned aircraft market is seeing more completed deals. The gridlock of available inventory is starting to show some movement,” he said.
Vector Aerospace Corporation has opened a new service center in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The facility will specialize in field service and engine repairs on the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A and PW100 engine series. The facility will also distribute parts for PT6A and JT15D engines in Western Canada.
It was bad enough that nobody could pronounce the name of the late spring volcano that erupted in Iceland and disrupted air travel throughout Europe. What was worse is that nobody really knew what to do about it. For European operators of airlines and charter aircraft, the meter kept running on their cost of overhead while their passenger and freight revenues dropped to zero. In response to a threat of which they had little, if any, knowledge, government agencies simply closed airports and airspace because shutting everything down seemed like the safe course.
Embraer delivered a Lineage 1000 executive jet in early September to the Al Habtoor Group of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The aircraft is to be managed and operated by Royal Jet, based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The deal was originally announced in July 2008.
Sikorsky’s X2 Technology demonstrator achieved 250 KTAS in level flight on Sept. 15, at Sikorsky’s Development Flight Center in Florida. The speed, reached during a 1.1-hr. flight, is an unofficial speed record for a helicopter since there was no National Aeronautic Association observer on hand to make the record official. The X2 Technology features counter-rotating coaxial rotors and a rear pusher prop.
Textron’s Bell Helicopter announced its Bell 429 won certification of a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) permitting a 9-deg. glidepath on LPV approaches at a minimum velocity for instrument procedures (Vmini) of 45 kt. , which allows point-in-space approaches to as low as 250 ft. the company says.
Private aviation company and Embraer Phenom jet operator, Executive AirShare of Kansas City, Mo., launched an enhanced website, “www.execairshare.com” that includes news and information about its regional fractional aircraft ownership programs and a trip cost estimator, enabling aviators to estimate round-trip costs from Executive’s regional bases to any city in North America.
AgustaWestland has delivered the first of four AW119Ke single-engine helicopters to the Finnish Border Guard to perform various missions, including border patrol, special operations and firefighting.
Air traffic controller trainees at the FAA academy in Oklahoma City are already learning to use NextGen satellite-based technology. “It’s our future,” Lindy Ritz, administrator of the FAA Academy told the Oklahoman newspaper. Initial ADS-B operational capability has been achieved over the Gulf of Mexico under the control of Houston ARTCC.
Sandel’s HeliTAWS has won TSO approval from the FAA. The helicopter terrain safety system incorporates Sandel Avionics’ proprietary TrueAlert technology, which is designed to eliminate nuisance alerts, a significant problem with existing terrain-warning products that limits their usefulness in helicopter operations. With TrueAlert, Sandel claims that pilots can safely take off, cruise, hover and land at off-airport locations without triggering nuisance alerts, while still receiving the benefits of Class-A terrain warnings during the entire flight.
Congress is rushing two more unmanned aircraft into the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) fleet. Under the roughly $600 million bill passed in mid-August, Congress appropriated $32 million for UAVs through September 2012. The agency counts six General Atomics Predator Bs now, including one that was re-engineered specifically for maritime sensing in a joint program with the U.S. Coast Guard, which like CBP is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Flight Display Systems introduced a combination 32-in. HD LCD and low-profile motorized lift (FD320LIFT-LP). Unique features are the large high-definition 1080p LCD and its small 23-in. height in the stowed position. Recently, these two products were installed on a Gulfstream G550; Gulfstream Appleton has confirmed that other Gulfstream models will support a similar installation in a standard cabin credenza.
She seemed frail and delicate, but was alert throughout the proceedings, which her bright eyes followed with keen interest. At the tables filling the ballroom sat a mixture of young, less young and middle-aged, with an ample portion of white-haired or bald-domed seniors, some stooped, some hard of hearing, but all smiling, clearly glad to be there. This was the Wichita Aero Club’s second annual dinner dance and the evening’s highlight was the inaugural presentation of the club’s trophy to Mrs. Velma Wallace, the diminutive nonagenarian sitting opposite me.
There are people way behind the eight ball . . . in panic mode. There is a whole list of issues, and operators are fed up. They say, ‘Here’s another regulation. It takes time. It takes money. Why do I need it? I haven’t had an accident.’” The speaker is one of the many who deal with the safety management system (SMS) issue on a daily basis. And no operator wants to go on record expressing anything negative on the subject. “It sounds as if we’re against safety,” as one put it.
Nextant Aerospace expected to fly its remanufactured Beechjet 400 for the first time in early September, and the Cleveland-area company anticipates certification of the upgraded light jet during first quarter 2011.
As the northern hemisphere slips into the cold seasons, cautious pilots will review the ice protection information located in their airplane’s documentation (AFM, POH, etc.) and their company’s winter operating procedures. Ice destroys lift and chokes off power. Ice takes down large aircraft and small. Ice is insidious. Small amounts of barely visible ice on a modern high-performance wing can glue your airplane to the ground and send you rolling off the end of the departure runway at takeoff velocity with no options and lousy prospects.
DART Helicopter Services (DHS), a distributor of certified helicopter accessories, and Hawker Pacific Aerospace have signed an agreement that will give DHS the capability to offer its complete inventory to operators in Hawker Pacific’s markets (Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Dubai), supplementing its operations in North and South America, Europe, Japan, China and Singapore. DART Helicopter Services www.darths.com Hawker Pacific Aerospace www.hawker.com
