Mesa Airlines has purchased 29 two-seat Pipistrel Alpha Trainer 2 aircraft and placed options to buy another 75 over the next year to serve as the foundation of the company’s in-house training course called the Mesa Pilot Development Program. Announcing the move last Thursday, Mesa said it expects the program, which gives pilots the opportunity to accumulate the 1,500 flight hours required for a Part 121 first officer, to help alleviate a shortage of pilots at the airline and offer them a direct route to a long-term career.
“The pilot shortage could become a permanent feature of the airline industry if we don’t get more aviators into the system,” said Mesa chairman and CEO Jonathan Ornstein. “It is basic math. If there aren’t enough trained pilots, customers suffer from loss of service and high-ticket prices.”
Sitting behind a long table in front of Congress in November, the CEOs of Detroit’s Big Three automakers had barely begun pleading for a taxpayer bailout when they hit a totally unexpected snag.
Without warning, the media suddenly became obsessed with the business jets that Ford’s Alan Mulally, GM’s Rick Wagoner, and Chrysler’s Robert Nardelli had used to reach Washington, D.C. Soon after the airplane story began making the rounds, the House Financial Services Committee hearings descended into a textbook example of public relations gone awry, proving yet again that corporate images have almost everything to do with perception and often little to do with reality.
CAE has introduced an enhanced recurrent training option for business aviation that leverages modern competency and evidence-based training philosophies. The program includes human-factors-based scenarios and uses data to reduce risk by continuously evolving recurrent training sessions to improve pilot competency and resilience. Best of all, this program satisfies all required proficiency checks and provides an alternative to the traditional “box-checking” events.
Current-day training programs that are maneuvers-based are the bane of most business aviation pilots and industry safety advocates. For over a decade, the NBAA safety committee has recommended ditching these cookie-cutter training and checking events in favor of scenario-based training sessions tailored to meet the specific needs of a business aviation operation.
Which wings are best for your mission? It’s a question almost as old as powered flight itself. No one aircraft does everything well. But depending on your needs, some are better than others.
For 17 years, I’ve covered the new and used markets for Business Jet Traveler and flown some remarkable airplanes. Here are my suggested mission-aircraft pairings. They are not all as perfect as the gastronomical equivalent of savoring a bottle of 1959 Chateau Lafite Rothschild with chateaubriand at Restaurant Paul Bocuse in Lyon, but some can get you pretty close.
Comac has received Chinese certification for the C919 narrowbody, marking the end of a long and often disrupted campaign to ready the airplane for market since program launch in 2009. Chinese authorities awarded the type certificate during a ceremony in Beijing Thursday morning.
Plans called for delivery of the first of five aircraft on order to China Eastern Airlines by the end of the year, but reports in Chinese state media suggest a further slip into 2023.
Now that more aircraft come from the factory with avionics suitable for flying the latest RNAV RNP instrument approach procedures that require special authorization, pilots and operators might wonder how they can gain access to these approaches.
RNP-AR offers significant benefits; at terrain-challenged airports where it is available, RNP-AR can allow a safe, comfortable arrival in much lower weather conditions versus having to divert to an alternate because the ordinary instrument approach has much higher minimums.
Chicago’s metropolitan sprawl got a taste of what an urban air mobility (UAM) future could look like during a two-week simulation exercise in which helicopters were used in place of eVTOL aircraft. According to Eve, the Brazil-based company working to bring a four-passenger eVTOL aircraft into commercial service in 2026, the flights carrying fare-paying passengers were used to gather real-world experience that will lead to a concept of operations for the U.S. city.
The manufacturer conducted its latest simulation exercise with partner Blade Air Mobility, which on Tuesday reported that its FlyBlade India operation has placed a "non-binding order" for up to 200 of the Eve aircraft. FlyBlade India, which is jointly owned by New Dehli-based investor Hunch Ventures, says the eVTOL vehicles will provide capacity for up to 50,000 flight hours.
Automakers believe they can help to transform air transport with mass-produced eVTOLlike the S-A1 model that Hyundai recently rolled out at a major airshow. The company’s new Supernal division is committed to reducing aviation’s carbon footprint and also to changing the way people live and work with improved transportation options in and around major cities.
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