AVWest of Perth Australia has placed a firm order for four ultra long-range Global Express XRS jets, including two with the Global Vision flight deck. The total value of the order is approximately $213 million US, based on the 2010 list price for typically equipped aircraft Bombardier announced July 15. “Our clientele is increasingly traveling to overseas destinations, including Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and now is the right time to add ultra-long-range jets to our fleet,” said Tim Roberts, AVWest Principal.
Most technicians are familiar with the “Aircraft Mechanics Creed;” some of us old guys keep a business card size copy in our wallet. Created by the Flight Safety Foundation, the creed served as a reminder of the trust we are given to ethically maintain the highest technical standards. The FAA Safety Team modified the creed for those who manage the maintenance function, to reinforce our duty to provide our technicians with an environment where they are able to focus on safe and effective maintenance, and not pressures to meet schedule. Visit www.faasafety.gov
If you want an illustration of why the U.S. Congress gets such low ratings in public opinion polls, look no further than what transpired just before House and Senate members left Washington for the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Airport operators in the Pacific Northwest are teaming up with Boeing and Washington State University on a six-month study to explore ways of developing a regional biofuels industry that will produce jet fuel from biomass. Alaska Airlines, Oregon’s Portland International Airport and Washington state’s Seattle-Tacoma International and Spokane International will participate in the study, according to the Air Transport Associations’ e-mail news bulletin.
A bill in that would extend bonus depreciation for businesses that purchase general aviation aircraft in 2010 was introduced in June by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “Bonus depreciation is a powerful incentive to purchase a GA aircraft and is proven to increase sales during difficult economic conditions,” said Pete Bunce, GAMA’s president and CEO. Bonus depreciation allows a business to deduct an additional 50 percent of the depreciable value in the first year instead of spreading it out over five years.
Matthew Huff expects the next few months, a traditionally slow season in the previously owned aircraft business, to be quiet this year as well. “Our forecast is that the summer is going to be rather slow,” he predicted. The vice president of inventory control for O’Gara Aviation, the Atlanta-based aircraft acquisition and sales company, noted that the market showed “a noticeable improvement in late winter through mid-spring.”
Piper Aircraft selected DeCrane Aerospace and Propel Designs to help incorporate improvements for PiperJet’s cabin interior. DeCrane Aerospace in Wichita, Kan., will provide engineering and interior “soft goods,” including carpeting, headliners and interior panels. Propel Designs, of Seattle, will oversee overall design, the styling for the flight deck and improvements to the passenger cabin. The selection of the interior specialists follows a number of meetings with PiperJet buyers, notes Randy Groom, Piper executive vice president.
For decades, FAR Part 135 charter operators have used their aviation expertise to manage aircraft for companies that own jets for their own use. The now-common practice of placing these managed corporate aircraft on a charter company's operations specifications for charter by third parties evolved from that initial management service.
ExecuJet Mexico has opened a new office at Toluca Airport. ExecuJet Mexico also has offices in Monterrey’s Mariano Escobedo and Del Norte International airports. The company offers aircraft management, charter, sales and maintenance services.
Canadian certification of the Honeywell Primus Apex integrated avionics system in the reborn Twin Otter has been signed. This will be the second OEM forward fit installation of the system. Built by Viking Air, headquartered at Victoria, B.C., International Airport, the newly manufactured Twin Otter Series 400 features more than 400 modifications to the original DHC-6, the foremost being the Apex flight deck and installation of twin Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-34 turboprops.
Sikorsky Aerospace Services (SAS), the aftermarket division of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., acquired privately owned LifePort, Inc., a Washington aircraft accessories manufacturer that specializes in air medical systems, lightweight armor, interior furnishings and galley equipment for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. The acquisition establishes accessories as a new business segment for SAS. LifePort will operate as “LifePort, a Sikorsky Aerospace Services Company,” retaining its current executive management team.
Pilatus Aircraft delivered the first of six PC-12 NG multi-purpose liaison aircraft to the Finnish Air Force under a €22.5 million contract signed in April 2009. Pilatus provided initial type conversion training for Finnish Air Force pilots and maintenance personnel at its factory in Stans, Switzerland, during the second quarter. Pilatus expects to deliver the remaining aircraft by August. The Finnish contract marked the first PC-12 fleet sale to a European air force. The aircraft will replace Piper PA-31-350 Chieftains in service since 1983.
Cessna Aircraft has unveiled a program to reduce lead times required for interior refurbishments of classic Citations. Under the new RightNow Interiors program, Cessna’s Citation Service Centers will stock pre-selected, certified interior design materials, eliminating long-lead times — which typically can run eight to 12 weeks — necessary to order materials for interior refurbishments of the light jets.
Asking prices for previously owned business jets increased slightly, and inventories of used in-production jets continued to decline slowly in June, dropping below the 12-percent level for the first time since October 2008, said financial analyst JP Morgan in its July Business Jet Monthly report.
U.K.-based aviation services company PremiAir has taken over the management of a fleet of Learjet business jets and has acquired a new private jet operating and maintenance base at London’s Biggin Hill Airport from Gold Group International. PremiAir sister company von Essen Aviation will take ownership of the Learjet 45 fleet, while PremiAir takes over the former Gold operation.
June 19 — At 0227 MST, a Beech A36 (N155FT) collided with terrain approximately eight miles north-northeast of Seligman, Ariz. The commercial pilot, who was also the registered owner of the airplane, was killed and the airplane was substantially damaged. It was VFR at the time and no flight plan was filed. An Alert Notice (ALNOT) was issued on June 19. The wreckage was located at 1030 MST on June 23. According to a family member of the pilot, he had departed from Los Alamos, N.M., about 1930, and flew to Santa Fe, where he bought fuel.
FAA Military Airport Program funding will go to Stewart International Airport in New York and Sacramento, Calif.’s Mather Field to perform conversion work related to their shift from military to civilian facilities. Stewart, operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will receive a year’s funding to replace electrical cable in the former Air Force airfield power circuit to meet modern civil design standards.
Not that long ago, it was a challenge to operate a business jet in Mexico. There were few FBOs, ground support was sporadic — at outlying airports, nonexistent — and getting anything seemed to take forever. Even in the few cases where handling agents were available, permits and authorizations had to be walked through multiple offices by flight crews.
When I graduated from our high school in Western Massachusetts, there were three doors from which to choose: (1) state teachers college; (2) partnering with my father in a funeral parlor; or (3) something else. At that time Pratt & Whitney was running big Help Wanted ads in the local paper, so some buddies and I flung open Door #3 and headed for East Hartford.
Stephen T. Ferguson (Assistant Airport ManagerWestchester County Airport)
The airfield safety article, (“When the Siren Sounds” by Partrick Veillette, May, page 52) is an excellent training read for airport managers. The most important aspect of aircraft rescue and firefighting is for crews to have a working knowledge of the airport and the aircraft that use the airport. When an aircraft incident occurs on a dark and stormy night, ARFF crews must know how soft the turf is, where the nearest hydrant is located, etc. Aircraft familiarization training is important for the obvious reasons.
Cessna will to extend its Citation Mobile Service Unit (MSU) teams to Europe by year-end. Part of Cessna’s Service Direct program, mobile units are already operational in the United States. Cessna executives say the extension to Europe is a “natural progression” of the program since more than 1,000 Citations have been delivered to customers in the region. Cessna has not yet determined the specific base for the European MSU but expects the unit will be located in southern France and also cover Geneva, northern Italy and northern Spain.
DOT officials intend to issue an NPRM aimed at air charter brokers. Dayton Lehman, DOT’s deputy assistant general counsel in the Office of Aviation speaking at the NATA Air Charter Summit in June said the NPRM will be “quite expansive,” seeking a substantial amount of input on a proper direction for regulating charter brokers. “There are areas where we have truly not made up our minds as to what to do,” Lehman told the audience at the summit held in Chantilly, Va. The NRPM is expected later this year.
The new FAA NIEC is off to a flying start with Boeing subsidiary Insitu providing unmanned aircraft for research to help develop recommendations for integrating unmanned aircraft into the national airspace. The system, including two ScanEagle small unmanned aircraft, has been delivered to the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J. The FAA will fly the UAVs in restricted airspace over the New Jersey Air National Guard’s Warren Grove Gunnery Range as it works to develop air traffic management procedures for them.
Hawker Beechcraft Services (HBS) has selected the Thrane & Thrane Aviator 200 system to provide broadband connectivity for in-service King Air 90, 200, 300 and 350 aircraft. Certification of the system on the twin turboprops is expected in the fourth quarter. In 2009, the high-speed Internet equipment was certificated on Hawker Beechcraft’s Hawker business jets.
Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock Texas, March 1967. This was it. We had arrived. The T-37 program was finished and we were on to the T-38. Nobody had their picture taken standing next to a T-37, the Cessna "Tweet" primary trainer. The supersonic Northrop T-38 Talon advanced jet trainer, aka "The White Rocket," was the plane we had waited to fly for a long time.
