Cessna Aircraft, Wichita, has named Brad Thress vice president, customer service, reporting to Mark Paolucci, senior vice president, customer service. Tracy Robinson was appointed vice president, quality and is responsible for directing all quality programs at Cessna.
The city of São Jose dos Campos in Brazil will be the site of a new service center for Embraer. The 19,380-square-foot center (17,440 square feet for aircraft and 1,940 square feet for administration) will be located at the company’s headquarters and offer Embraer executive jet owners a dedicated maintenance facility. Embraer will offer scheduled and unscheduled maintenance for Phenom and Legacy aircraft as well as remote assistance for aircraft that cannot go to the center.
Steve Zeller (PresidentSouthbrook Technologies, Inc.Alpharetta, GA)
Keep hammering on your message in the July Viewpoint (“A Matter of Perception,” page 9). Our industry has done a generally lousy job of selling business flying, even dating back to my old days at Garrett AirResearch. The main reason we build and fly these airplanes is to make money and we best not let anyone forget it.
Hawker Beechcraft Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture advised employees in an August 12 letter that more layoffs are coming, due to continued “significant economic challenges” in the company’s worldwide general and business aviation marketplace. “Buyer confidence is low, financing more difficult, and in the U.S., which is our predominant market, business aircraft have been disparaged by our political leadership,” wrote Boisture.
Embraer expanded the role of its new executive jet Customer Support Contact Center at the company’s headquarters in São José dos Campos, Brazil to support customers worldwide. The center has been serving North American Phenom 100 customers since last December. The Contact Center provides a 365/24/7 quick response service capability, and is integrated with the network of Embraer owned and authorized service centers, spare parts distribution centers, and field service representatives.
GE Aviation and Tennessee-based Smyrna Air Center are teaming to offer the “Power 90” package, a retrofit of King Air 90s with 750-shp GE Walter M601E-11A turboprop engines driving Avia five-blade propellers. In addition, Smyrna will carry out any other interior or avionics upgrades customers may specify.
FACTS Training, a division of AirCare Solutions Group, has created a customized training program designed to assist corporate flight departments in meeting full compliance with the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO). FACTS IS-BAO ASSET Training offers an intensive one-day program designed to address a flight department’s IS-BAO specific training needs, using proven FACTS procedures, according to the company. The course is a combination of classroom instruction and hands-on practice with emergency equipment.
Hawker Beechcraft will replace its King Air C90GTi turboprop twin with the C90GTx in early 2010, the company announced at the EAA AirVenture. The new C90GTx has nearly double the payload with full fuel — 737 pounds vs. 385 pounds on the GTi — carrying four passengers over 1,000 miles with IFR reserves — 200 nm more than the GTi.
Embraer broke ground July 26 for a composite structures manufacturing facility in Evora, Portugal. Portugal Prime Minister Jose Socrates, Embraer President and CEO Frederico Fleury Curado and other Portuguese government officials were in attendance. “Today’s groundbreaking celebrates a milestone for Embraer, as it expands its global presence,” said Curado. “This is a strategic step toward improving our company’s productivity and competitiveness.
CitationShares is coordinating a Fatigue Management Awareness class for the company’s pilots, schedulers, dispatch staff and command staff. Fargo, N.D.-based HighTop Co. has been selected to administer the course, which is designed to teach staff how to recognize, address and avoid fatigue in the safest and healthiest way possible. The company implemented the course to increase the level of safety for its customers.
An AVIATION WEEK Management Forum held July 16 at The McGraw-Hill Companies’ headquarters in New York City focused on the very problems that drew the interest of NEXA researchers. The forum’s theme, “Demonstrating & Quantifying the Value of Business Aviation,” touched on the frustrations and concerns besetting so many flight departments today.
Aerospatiale SN-601 Corvette airplanes — Conduct a visual inspection to verify the proper position of the landing gear shock absorber’s lock washer. Also, check the tightening torque of the nut of the shock absorber locking system on both the left-hand and right-hand main landing gear. If improperly assembled, replace the lock washer and re-install the main landing gear shock absorber body and the main landing gear shock absorber before further flight.
The Experimental Aircraft Association reports that attendance at July’s AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., was up 12 percent to 578,000 compared with the 2008 event when 540,000 people visited the show. Preliminary figures also include 2,652 showplanes (the most since 2005), 750 estimated exhibitors, 2,000+ international visitors from 75 countries, and more than 10,000 people who toured the Airbus A380. You can review our coverage of the event in stories, blogs and photos posted on the AviationWeek.com free Web site’s
Aircraft industry analysts at financial services company JP Morgan believe that used business jet inventories are “at or near the peak for this cycle, though fundamentals remain weak and we still expect it to be quite a while before the market turns.” The July edition of Business Jet Monthly reported that the inventory of used jets remains at record high levels and that prices for these aircraft declined once again. Jets for sale as a proportion of the active fleet remained flat at 14.4 percent in June.
Embraer may report higher sales volume based on business jet deliveries but revenues are likely to fall as airline sales fall off, according to Bank of America analyst Ronald Epstein. “We estimate deliveries could have reached 17 jets in July, implying 55 percent year-over-year growth,” Epstein said. Phenom jets may account for 62 percent of deliveries in the second half of 2009, he said, as reported by Bloomberg.
Skyplan Services, Calgary, Canada, announced the opening of a U.S. sales office in San Jose, Calif., and that Jay Smith will serve as senior executive of sales and marketing at the new location.
Chevron Global Aviation donated $25,000 to Corporate Angel Network in July in support of the charity’s efforts on behalf of cancer patients, bringing its total donations to more than $200,000. CAN arranges free flights to treatment for these patients using empty seats on business aircraft. “Sometimes there is little good news in the life of a person who suffers from cancer,” said Keith Sawyer, Chevron Aviation’s general manager, general aviation. “The organization we are honoring with this donation is often the bearer of this good news.
No article on the NASCAR Cessna 310R crash (Cause & Circumstance, July, page 68) can be complete without extensively quoting the concurring statement by NTSB member Robert L. Sumwalt. You were remiss in not quoting any of the following:
The presidents of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the Experimental Aircraft Association cemented a cooperative agreement that was first unveiled earlier this year by signing a memorandum of understanding in the middle of AeroShell Square at AirVenture on July 29. Under the agreement, both organizations pledge to support each other’s efforts to promote, protect and expand the general aviation community.
In rapid succession, the Senate Commerce Committee held confirmation hearings and the full Senate in August confirmed the nominations of Christopher Hart an NTSB member as well as Susan Kurland to be DOT’s assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, and Christopher Bertram — a longtime Senate Commerce Committee staffer — will be DOT’s assistant secretary for budget and programs and CFO.
The FAA changed its certification standards for new transport category airplanes to require automatic activation of ice protection systems or a method to tell pilots when ice protection systems should be activated. There is no requirement to modify existing designs, but the FAA is considering a similar rulemaking that also would cover them. The full text of the rule is available at the government’s docket Web site. You can post comments there as well as by mail.
Daher-Socata has selected Atlantic Aero International in Greensboro, N.C., as an authorized TBM Service Center. Daher-Socata said the latest selection helps the company achieve its goal of locating an authorized service center within a three-hour flight of the home airport of any U.S. TBM customer. The company also has a factory-owned TBM service center in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and factory authorized service center, Columbia Air Services, in Groton, Conn.
