ExxonMobil Aviation has expanded its Avitat network as Chevron Texaco contracts its branded avfuel business. Five new Jet Aviation Avitats are located in Dubai, UAE; Dusseldorf, Germany; Geneva; London Biggin Hill; and Zurich. Jet Aviation currently operates four FBOs under the ExxonMobil Aviation Avitat brand in North America at Bedford, Mass.; Dallas; Palm Beach, Fla.; and Teterboro, N.J. The addition of the Jet Aviation FBOs increases the Avitat network to nearly 50 locations worldwide.
As more business jet operators register for the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO), many are (unhappily) discovering their aircraft must be equipped with a flight data recorder. The ICAO standard applies to all jets with certificates of airworthiness issued after Jan. 1, 2005, “and no one knew it was there,” Roger Baker told BCA editor-in-chief, William Garvey. The head of the Safety Focus Group, Baker conducts IS-BAO audits of flight departments. He and other auditors say the FDR rule is becoming better known as more U.S.
Icelandair wants to capture more data on flying in volcanic ash clouds, so its maintenance operation, Icelandair Technical Services, modified a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle to enable the aircraft to measure ash cloud density, says Jens Bjarnsson, senior vice president of technical services for Icelandair. “We put the required cables in, so when there’s another volcano, we just have to put the external probes on, and the aircraft can take off and start measuring,” he says.
In reviewing the FAA's final rule pertaining to Automatic Dependent Surveillance — Broadcast (ADS-B), one of the critical building blocks of its NextGen air traffic management system, two things are apparent: First, the agency lowered the bar to make compliance more affordable; and second, the thing is still way, way expensive and could cost the aviation industry $2.5 billion to $6.2 billion, depending upon discounted rate of return assumptions. General aviation will incur costs of $1.2 billion to $4.5 billion.
Belgian charter operator Philippe Bodson has become the first European operator to place Hawker Beechcraft’s King Air 350i twin turboprop into service. Hawker Beechcraft obtained EASA type approval for the 350i in December 2009. Bodson founded and manages Antwerp-based charter ASL, which operates 14 aircraft throughout Europe and North Africa.
Hawker Beechcraft is the newest broker/dealer member of the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA). In addition, three new associate members — Avtrak, LLC, the Law Offices of Christopher B. Younger and Rolland Vincent Asso-ciates, LLC — recently joined the organization. NARA now has a total of 32 broker/dealer members and 48 associate members.
Mike Ellis, Hawker Beechcraft’s vice president of pre-owned aircraft, characterizes today’s market for previously owned business aircraft as “tentative.”
The U.S. Senate declined to consider a resolution disapproving EPA regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions by a vote of 47-53 on June 10. The Helicopter Association International reports the White House aggressively lobbied against the bill. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ala.) introduced the resolution that would have put the Senate on record as wanting to bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse-gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, which the EPA says gives it the authority to regulate any greenhouse gas emissions by rulemaking, without legislation.
“As we move into the summer of 2010, there has never been a market so fractured, with so many ups and downs,” commented Fletcher Aldredge, publisher of the Vref Aircraft Value Reference and the Vref Market Leader newsletter. Aldredge noted in the second quarter edition of Market Leader that international buyers have buoyed the used aircraft market in recent months. “The robust export market has helped breath life back into everything from Cessna 182s to Gulfstream 550s.”
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.
According to NASA Ames Research Center, pilot distractions are an accident category that is difficult to measure. As such, assembling data about distraction events is the only way to understand the risk fully so as to create strategies to defeat the problem. If you have a cockpit distraction that leads to a miscue, do make use of the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). It captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data and disseminates this critical information to the aviation community. Go to asrs.arc.nasa.gov for more information.
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.
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.
Rated at 550 shp up to ISA+30°C, the -135 enables the C90GTx to climb directly to FL 300 and reach FL 250 in 18 minutes. Maximum cruise speed is 272 KTAS at 9,500 pounds, assuming ISA conditions at FL 200.
On the European front, London Executive Aviation CEO Patrick Margetson-Rushmore says he’s optimistic that European business aviation traffic will continue to increase this year. “For us, the year is going well so far. One glance at our order book shows that the European business aviation industry is beginning to recover,” he notes. “We’re realistic, of course. The industry recovery will be gradual rather than dramatic.”
The FAA wants to issue an NPRM covering small unmanned aircraft under 55 pounds, like the Insitu ScanEagle, by the first quarter of 2011, with publication of a special federal airworthiness rule targeted for late 2012. Insitu hopes that FAA operating experience with its ScanEagle will accelerate FAA rulemaking required to integrate UAVs into civil airspace, according to Paul McDufee, Insitu vice president-commercial business development.
Citing FAA data, Morgan Stanley says business jet takeoff and landing activity increased 17.9 percent in April compared with the same month in 2009 — the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year gains. The increases trended across aircraft models, says analyst Heidi Wood. “Cessna and Gulfstream posted mid-teens growth compared to April 2009,” when both manufacturers started to show “signs of stabilization,” she says. “The U.S.
Are airplane pilots destined for the same fate as flight navigators and engineers? Will they be replaced by lines of code, electrons and data-linked commands from faceless controllers beyond the horizon? However unlikely that scenario, the trend is worth noting. As is being demonstrated daily in thousands of operations around the world, the black boxes on a growing number of aircraft are so “smart,” they obviate the need to have a human operator on board to complete a given mission.
On Aug. 1, 1999, a 1968 Cherokee Six crashed shortly after takeoff from an airport in Ohio, killing the pilot and three passengers and seriously injuring a fourth passenger. The NTSB version of the crash is straightforward. The airplane had landed to refuel and once its main tanks were filled, the five people got back on board. After takeoff, the Piper appeared to have a hard time climbing out and was “hanging on the prop.”
London Oxford Airport increased its visiting jet movements, year on year by 31.6 percent and saw its overall business aviation movements increase 12 percent from April 2009 to March 2010. Jet fuel sales at its oxfordjet business aviation facility during the period were up 47 percent. The airport is now handling an average of 20 business aircraft movements a day. “This will equate to approximately 6,000 business aviation movements a year, assuming continuation of the current rate — an achievement we are very pleased with,” commented Managing Director Steve Jones.
Russia’s Avia Group is about to start construction on a new business aviation terminal at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport (SVO). The 2,700 square-meter facility, dubbed Terminal A, is expected to open within the next 12 months.
Regarding “A Medevac Ends in Disaster” (Cause & Circumstance, May 2010, page 79), I have a theory that most helicopter pilots received their basic training in the U.S. Army or one of the military flight schools. In those schools the mindset is “the mission, the mission, the mission.” At their age, they are “going to live forever” and the mission — that is, to deliver the weapon, rescue the wounded, deliver the freight under fire, etc. — must be accomplished at all costs.
While the most recent of the studies cited in “Double Standards” is several years old, the problems delineated continue to this very moment. We have received credible reports about federal public aircraft being routinely operated past mandatory inspection and overhaul limits; outside weight, altitude and temperature limitations; into known icing condition without anti-ice or de-icing equipment; and being fitted with non-approved transparencies and automotive-grade ball bearings in prop governors.
The Presidential Flight of Abu Dhabi has recently introduced into its fleet a second BAE Systems Avro Business Jet, a late model Avro RJ100, which joins the operator’s existing VIP RJ70. The RJ100 was converted into a VIP aircraft by Inflite Engineering Ltd. at London Stansted Airport. Over the past 12 months, three Avro Business Jets have been placed with operators, and approximately 25 of the four-engine VIP aircraft are now either in service or in the process of being converted.
