BOMBARDIER Model DHC-8-400 series airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2012-0588; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-017-AD; Amendment 39-17210; AD 2012-20-04] – requires inspecting the wire harness along the leading edge for chafing damage, and repair if necessary; and relocating and installing new anchor nuts. This AD was prompted by reports of chafing between the wire harness along the wing leading edge and the inboard end rib of the wing leading edge due to insufficient clearance.
NetJets has signed another agreement for its exclusive use of a fixed-base operation (FBO). The newest addition to an emerging NetJet’s FBO network is the Atlantic Aviation facility at Atlanta’s DeKalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK). The 2,800-sq.-ft. facility includes customer and crew lounges, a conference and business center and flight planning accommodations. Atlantic and NetJets plan to customize the facility for the NetJets clientele. NetJets says PDK is one of its most popular domestic destinations with about 4,000 flights annually.
Slow sales in the mid- and light segments are keeping business jet deliveries relatively flat for the year, but the market for turboprops has continued to gain momentum in 2012, according to the latest report from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Manufacturers delivered 428 business jets through the first nine months of 2012, just one more compared with the same period in 2011. Turboprop deliveries, meanwhile, are up 10.5% to 368 units in 2012. Piston aircraft deliveries also inched up 3.5% to 597.
PIAGGIO Model P-180 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2012-0755; Directorate Identifier 99-CE-65-AD; Amendment 39-17217; AD 2000-07-11 R1] – rescinds an AD calling for repetitive inspections of affected brake system rods and tubings. That AD was prompted by mandatory continuing airworthiness information issued by the airworthiness authority for Italy.
Hawker Beechcraft is beginning to hand out another round of layoff notices as the company finishes what is expected to be the last of its jet products and closes its Hawker Beechcraft Services facilities in Little Rock, Ark., Mesa, Ariz., and San Antonio, Texas. The latest moves affect 240 employees.
Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) has flown a Dassault Falcon 20 with one engine burning 100% unblended biofuel produced from carinata, an inedible oil seed crop. Previous biojet flights have used a maximum 50% blend with conventional kerosene, but the fuel’s developers say its hydrocarbon makeup is almost indistinguishable from petroleum-based jet fuel.
The Air Charter Safety Foundation has doubled its membership since 2010 and now has 95 on-demand operators, fractional aircraft management companies, brokers, underwriters, consultants and aircraft OEMs as members. Founded in 2007, ACFS counted 40 members in November 2010, which had grown to 60 last year.
China’s Avic may be looking beyond Cessna for its planned business jet line in Chengdu. “We are in discussions with China, but also with IAI (Israeli Aircraft Industries) about manufacturing,” a senior Avic official tells Aviation Week. “We are not interested in the Westwind or Asta, but we are talking about newer jets like the Galaxy.”
KENG KUM YONG was appointed vice president and technical specialist, heading a newly opened Singapore office for Jetsolution International Services Limited. Yong has 15 years of aircraft maintenance, interior completions and evaluation service.
BENOIT BEAULIEU was named vice president, human resources for Esterline CMC Electronics. Beaulieu has more than 25 years of experience in human resources management, including 10 years in the aerospace industry. He previously served with L-3 Communications MAS (Canada), most recently as vice president of human resources, organizational effectiveness, information systems and technologies. Before that, he spent 15 years in the retail and food distribution industry, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in the management of human resources and operations.
Bombardier Aerospace’s backlog has jumped 18.6% this year, as the Canadian manufacturer continues to bring in major fleet orders for its Global long-range large business jets. Bombardier Business Aircraft reported 45 net firm orders during the third quarter, up 50% from the 30 firm orders in the same period last fiscal year. These orders included three multi-fleet contracts for 19 Globals valued at $1.2 billion.
Jeppesen has completed successful rapid decompression tests of the new iPad (4th generation) with Retina display and iPad mini, proving device integrity should there be a sudden cabin pressure loss. The tests, completed to an altitude of 51,000 ft., are part of the program used by operators to obtain FAA authorization for inflight use of Jeppesen’s iPad mobile apps. Similar tests were conduced for the iPad, iPad 2 and iPad 3rd generation.
Twenty aviation associations are cautioning FAA acting Administrator Michael Huerta to focus more on safety and airspace access than privacy issues as it works to help facilitate the introduction of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) into the national airspace system (NAS). In a Nov. 8 letter to Huerta, the associations, representing business and general aviation, airports, airlines, repair stations, and air traffic controllers, among others, acknowledge the challenges FAA is facing as it attempts to help integrate UAS into the NAS.
Hawker Beechcraft named Horizontal De Aviación at Aeropuerto Internacional el Dorado in Bogota, Colombia, as an authorized service center to support Beechcraft King Air aircraft. Hawker Beechcraft says the Colombian aviation market is one of the fastest growing aviation segments in Latin America. Horizontal De Aviación has provided private, civil, military and state government aircraft maintenance for more than 23 years, and has served a number of Beechcraft models, including the King Air 90, 200 and 300 series.
Signature Flight Support signed on Fort Worth-based American Aero to its Signature Select program. American Aero is renovating its facility housed in the historic “Hangar 11N” American Airlines terminal building at Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (KFTW). American Aero will operate in a temporary facility while the renovations are ongoing. As a Signature Select fixed-base operation, American Aero will receive marketing and sales support and participate in Signature Status and Signature TailWins customer loyalty and rewards programs.
BOMBARDIER Model DHC-8-400 series airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2012-0724; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-043-AD; Amendment 39-17215; AD 2012-20-09] – supersedes an existing AD that currently requires a modification to trim the edge of the bumper plate, including performing an inspection for damage or cracks of the bumper plate and base fitting, and replacing any damaged or cracked part. That AD also currently requires, for certain airplanes, reidentifying the bumper plate.
Business aviation leaders are hopeful that the finality of last week’s elections, along with a Washington that is taking up issues placed on hold in the weeks leading up to them, will bring a certainty to the market and serve as a catalyst to jump-start the languishing portions of the industry.
Bombardier and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM ) have reached a tentative agreement on a contract for about 825 workers at the company’s Learjet facility in Wichita, setting the stage to end the month-long strike. Bombardier’s Learjet unit and IAM Local 639 returned to the bargaining table Nov. 7 at the request of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS).
Some Eurocopter Super Pumas are returning to offshore service after being retrofit with an older-style gearbox component following the controlled ditching of an EC225 in the North Sea on Oct. 22. Inspection of the main gearbox from the CHC Helicopters EC225 Super Puma revealed a circumferential crack in the bevel gear vertical shaft that drives the two lubrication pumps. The same vertical shaft was found to be ruptured in a Bond Offshore Helicopters EC225 that made a controlled ditching in the North Sea in May.
JEFF FILKINS was named regional sales manager for aircraft maintenance and management sales for JFI Jets. Filkins, who will be responsible for sales on the West Coast, formerly was West Coast sales manager for Honeywell Flight Support Services. He also has been an operations leader at Honeywell International’s Global Data Center.
Flexjet received conditional FAA authorization for use of Apple iPads as electronic flight bags for its Part 91 Subpart K fractional flights. The Phase 5 authorization follows six months of validation testing across the fleet, along with acceptance of the standard operating procedures. The company is planning to complete its transition from paper to electronic navigational charts by January.
BRANTLY Model B-2, Model B-2A, and Model B-2B helicopters with a certain main rotor blade [Docket No. FAA-2012-1093; Directorate Identifier 2011-SW-020-AD] – proposes to require inspections of the main rotor (M/R) blade for a crack, nick, wrinkle, or bend and corrective actions, if necessary. This proposed AD was prompted by multiple reports of M/R blade cracks and an accident in which a crack that originated near the M/R blade trailing edge resulted in the loss of a large section of the M/R blade.
