The Daher TBM 960 turboprop single is making its European public debut this week at Aero Friedrichshafen, Europe’s largest general aviation show. Purchased by a private customer, the aircraft on display this week at the show in Germany sports the French airframer’s new Sirocco paint scheme.
Daher has thus far delivered more than 60 TBM 960s since it handed over its first a year ago. While the majority have gone to North American customers, the model has also been delivered to operators in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK.
The TBM 960 is powered by the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6E-66XT engine, which drives a five-blade composite Hartzell propeller. Both the engine and the propellor are linked to a dual-digital engine and propeller electronic control system that allows for more precise settings. At the OEM's recommended cruise speed of 308 knots, the airplane’s fuel consumption is just 57 gallons per hour, a 10 percent savings compared with consumption at the maximum cruise setting.
“The TBM 960 has surpassed all previous sales records, confirming the capabilities of digital power for this latest high-end member of our TBM 900-series family,” said Daher aircraft division senior v-p Nicolas Chabbert. “Owners and operators give high marks for its superior piloting experience, high level of safety, and increased cabin comfort, as well as the enhanced efficiency and sustainability.”
Bombardier’s Smart Link Plus aircraft health monitoring system is now approved by Transport Canada, EASA, and the FAA for installation on most Challenger and Global models. The approvals permit operators of all in-service Challenger 300/350/3500s, Challenger 605/650s, and Global Express/XRS/5000/6000s to install Smart Link Plus. Approvals for the Challenger 604 and Global 5500/6500 are expected by early 2024, Bombardier noted.
Smart Link Plus collects crucial aircraft data that enables flight and maintenance crews to quickly prioritize and proactively troubleshoot essential in-flight alerts, increasing operational efficiency, according to Bombardier. Further, it said, aircraft operators can track, troubleshoot, and dispatch a technician based on information received from the system, reducing downtime due to maintenance issues.
“Smart Link Plus is fundamentally changing the way Bombardier supports its customers,” said Paul Sislian, Bombardier executive v-p for aftermarket services and strategy. “With Smart Link Plus, customers can make concrete maintenance decisions in real-time, significantly enhancing the efficiency of their operations.”
Smart Link Plus was first introduced on Bombardier’s flagship Global 7500 and many of these customers are now enrolled in the Smart Link Plus service. Bombardier has been gradually expanding the program to offer retrofit options to in-service Challengers and Globals. Smart Link Plus will also be standard equipment on the Global 8000, which is set to enter service in 2025.
Aircraft maintenance provider Aerocare Aviation Services has completed its first full exterior repainting of an Embraer Praetor 600 aircraft at its expanded paint facility at Hawarden Airport (EGNR) near Chester, UK.
Aerocare had recently made significant investments in upgrading the Chester paint facility, including the widening of its doors to accept larger aircraft types such as the Embraer Legacy family and the Bombardier Challenger series. The Praetor 600 repaint was completed using an approved paint system from Akzo Nobel.
Craig Radford, Aerocare head of sales and business development, said, “We’re extremely proud to have completed our first Embraer Praetor repaint project. It produced a fantastic result, surpassing the high standards our client expects and we look forward to developing our future cooperation with them. We have a fantastic facility for all our customers looking to refresh their aircraft exteriors with a VIP finish. Based on this highly successful experience, the client has already positioned a further aircraft for a full repaint to Chester and has several projects booked in with us during the next 12 months."
With its EASA Part 145 MRO facility located adjacent to the paint hangar, Aerocare specializes in providing maintenance, repair, modifications, interior refurbishment, and exterior paint.
Stack has integrated its business operations system (BOS) with online charter broker platform Avinode. Stack said its BOS was the first plug-and-play customer relationship management system to be integrated with the Avinode platform, which processes about 18 million requests per year.
The Stack BOS will manage the entire trip request lifecycle from initial client contact through aircraft sourcing, quoting/contracting, trip management, and financial reconciliation, Stack said. Integration of the system provides for synergies between Avinode’s business-to-business marketplace and Stack’s business-to-consumer tools.
In addition, the integration streamlines communications between charter brokers and aircraft operators, enables quotes sourced from Avinode and charter brokers' proprietary systems to appear on a single screen, provides access to “rich” data that enables charter brokers to enhance client relationships, and merges customer relationship management workflow tools and quoting and booking data, Stack said.
“Integration with Avinode is a real game-changer for us,” said Stack CEO Greg Jarrett. “It allows our clients to access their proprietary databases—plus the Avinode platform—in a single workflow. The result is access to a massive amount of data and the ability to compare and propose best aircraft/best route/best price options quickly and easily. Working with Avinode, we have developed a very powerful digital platform that is customized for charter brokers."
Gogo 5G and Global Broadband Progressing
Gogo Business Aviation is the world's largest provider of broadband connectivity services and solutions for the business aviation market. We’re connecting you to the sky’s most incredible inflight connectivity and entertainment experiences now, but also revolutionizing the breakthrough innovations coming next.
Clay Lacy Aviation is ahead of schedule on the first phase of development of its $20 million, 11-acre expansion at Waterbury-Oxford Airport (KOXC) in Connecticut, it announced this week. The company also has already lined up multiple letters of intent and has begun to incorporate specific design features into offices and hangars at KOXC per client requests.
After having a maintenance and charter presence at KOXC since 2015, California-based Clay Lacy Aviation broke ground in August on an FBO and MRO facility. The company said its team is ahead of schedule on the construction of the project, with footings poured before winter began and steel being erected shortly. Plans call for the first hangar to be ready for occupancy beginning in early 2024. The project includes a 5,000-sq-ft terminal with covered vehicle parking and a 40,000-sq-ft heated hangar.
Upon completion of this phase, Clay Lacy Aviation will kick off a second phase that includes an additional 80,000 sq ft of hangar space and 12,000 sq ft of office and shop space. Noting that the company is working with clients to add in features based on their specific needs for office and hangar space, Clay Lacy senior v-p of FBO operations Buddy Blackburn said that “aircraft owners who commit now will be in a greater position for flexibility and availability.”
Global MRO services provider JetMS Holdings is opening a 7,000-sq-m (75,347-sq-ft) aircraft interior fabrication and installation facility in Kaunas, Lithuania, in response to rising demand for high-quality aircraft interior solutions for both business and cargo aircraft, according to the company. The facility will be equipped with the latest technologies, including CNC and milling machines, enabling the company to offer the design and production of custom cabin interior components as engineering modifications, in-house engineering services, and customized solutions.
Gegams Hanamirjans, chairman of JetMS Holdings, noted that the factory will enhance efficiency in the supply chain. "Over the years, we managed to gather an incredible team of dedicated professionals with a broad range of expertise in performing aircraft maintenance, interior and exterior modifications, and manufacturing aircraft cabin components,” he said.
“More than 350 people work to offer our clients a seamless one-stop-shop experience,” Hanamirjans added. "We have brought together a team of commercial aviation experts with over 30 years of total experience; therefore, we’re entering this market with confidence and industry know-how.”
Two of Ametek MRO’s U.S. and UK facilities have combined to win three industry awards for operational excellence and sustainability. Ametek MRO Drake Air in Tulsa, Oklahoma, received the Lux Award for Operational Excellence and The 145's “Top Shop” award, while Ametek MRO in Ramsgate, UK, won the annual Elizabeth A. Varet Sustainability Award.
The Lux Award is awarded annually to the Ametek team that best demonstrates a significant operational excellence accomplishment. This year’s winning team involved 44 of Drake Air’s team members who dynamically restructured the company’s customer support strategy, which relieved pressure on customer supply chains, enabling the MRO to diversify its repair portfolio and allowing expansion across all markets and platforms.
The 145's “Top Shop” award for “Best Heat Transfer” was awarded to Drake Air. The award is nominated and voted upon by the customers and vendors, with more than 20 heat-transfer MRO companies in the competition this year.
Meanwhile, Ametek MRO Ramsgate won the Varet Sustainability Award over other Ametek MRO locations for its development of a vacuum evaporation of hazardous waste effluent system.“The team installed a closed-loop evaporation and reverse osmosis system to reuse effluent that is generated by the plating process,” explains Andy Wheeler, v-p and managing director of the UK facility. “This project resulted in a $2.6 million cost savings to date compared to disposing of the hazardous waste offshore.”
During a groundbreaking ceremony held on Monday, construction commenced for Epic Flight Academy’s aviation maintenance technician (AMT) school at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (KCVG). The project is a partnership between pilot and mechanic training provider Epic and FEAM Aero, which specializes in line maintenance services globally for airline and cargo aircraft. FEAM operates from one hangar at the airport and is building a second.
"The opening of this new school at KCVG Airport is a significant step towards our goals of helping to expand the aviation maintenance technician workforce and diversifying the industry,” said FEAM president Cam Murphy. “Working with Epic in conjunction with KCVG allows FEAM Aero to provide invaluable hands-on experience to all future AMTs by giving them real-world experiences, working on the various aircraft that enter our hangars, and the ability to work while in school.”
In the Cincinnati region, as in many areas in the U.S., demand for AMTs is strong. To help promote careers in aviation maintenance, FEAM will award up to eight scholarships for the inaugural year of the AMT school.
Maintenance classes at Epic Flight Academy at KCVG will begin in 2024, once construction of the 32,000-sq-ft facility is completed. Space will be available for up to 300 students and staff.
Model(s): Challenger 600, 601-1A/3A/3R, 604, 605, and 650
Published: April 13, 2023
Effective: May 18, 2023
Requires replacing affected passenger oxygen mask dispensing units with ones that meet the proper length specifications, replacing the placards, and re-identifying the assemblies. Prompted by reports of some passenger oxygen mask dispensing units with lanyards that are too long to meet the proper length specifications of the airplane.
Requires an inspection or records review to determine whether any smoke hood with a certain part number is installed in any location on the airplane and, depending on the results, removing the smoke hood and associated placards and installing new placards. Prompted by a determination that, due to a lack of flight crew awareness, smoke hoods with a certain part number installed throughout the airplane could be mistaken for protective breathing equipment.
Requires an inspection for corrosion in certain areas of the wing skin fairings, additional inspections if necessary, resealing the fairings with new fillet seal, and any applicable corrective actions. Prompted by reports that wing flap fairing debonding and corrosion were discovered at certain areas of the lower skin on both wings.
Model(s): Global Express, XRS, 5000, 5500, 6000, 6500
Published: April 13, 2023
Effective: April 27, 2023
Requires revising the aircraft maintenance manual task for "functional test of the passenger door mechanism" to add the inspection of the external handle detent and torque tube detent, as well as instructions to measure the force applied on both the external handle and the internal handle to open the door. Prompted by a finding that the current time-limited door check doesn't detect latent failures of the passenger door detent mechanisms.
Requires determining whether an affected tail rotor drive shaft (TRDS) is installed; repetitively inspecting the bond line for damage; repetitively performing a proof load test of the TRDS assembly; and, depending on the results of the inspections or the proof load tests, removing an affected TRDS from service and replacing it with a serviceable TRDS. This AD also prohibits installing a TRDS unless it meets certain requirements. Prompted by a loss of tail rotor drive due to a failure of an adhesively bonded joint between an adapter and a tube on one of the segmented TRDS assemblies.
Requires replacing certain main and nose landing gear electromechanical actuators. Prompted by findings of corrosion of the actuator attachment lug areas underneath the anti-rotation pads of the main and nose landing gear.
Introduces new and/or more restrictive maintenance tasks for certain life-limited parts and the rotor hub system.
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