Atlanta-based Volato is floating a $25 million convertible debt to equity offering that the fractional operator is expected to use in part to finance the acquisition of 25 HondaJet Elite II twinjets. Those aircraft, with a retail value of $174 million, were ordered late last year and will join Volato’s existing fleet of 17 HondaJets, making Volato the largest operator of the type. According to a recent Form D filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company already has raised $9 million of the total, which it is offering in minimum amounts of $250,000.
Founded in September 2021 with a single HondaJet Elite S, Volato has moved quickly to establish bases in Atlanta; Baltimore; St. Augustine and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Carlsbad, California. Volato also has a base at Houston Hobby Airport that is part of its recent acquisition of Gulf Coast Aviation and offers access to additional aircraft, including King Air 350s and Hawker 750s.
Volato’s business model includes a pay-by-the-hour charter program, a jet-card, and cash commissions to charter brokers.
Business jet MRO Jet East has opened its newest full-service facility at Statesville Regional Airport (KSVH) in North Carolina. The site boasts two modern facilities, providing 75,000 sq ft of hangar space for scheduled and unscheduled aircraft maintenance services for Cessna Citation, Bombardier, Embraer Executive Jets, and Gulfstream business airplanes.
In addition to the expansive hangar, the facilities also include 40,000 sq ft of office and back-shop space, which will accommodate a variety of administrative and support functions. The location at KSVH also consists of an adjacent parcel of land for future expansion, providing continued growth and development opportunities.
“The opening of a new location in North Carolina provides customers with more options for their maintenance,” said Dan Podojil, COO of retail operations at Jet East. “The facility is conveniently located and offers the full spectrum of services. We have combined an experienced team of individuals and a strong leadership team who collectively possess the desire to be a preferred solution for aircraft maintenance. Our commitment to providing the best service will be reflected throughout the new hangar, and we are confident that we will deliver on the promise of high quality that is expected in our line of work.”
Worldwide flight training provider CAE yesterday held the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for its newest training center near Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport. The 50,000-sq-ft facility is the company’s first on the U.S. West Coast and began operations late last year.
With a capacity for eight full-flight simulators, the center is already equipped with seven—representing the Bombardier Global 7500; Gulfstream G650, G550, GV, and GIV; and Embraer ERJ-145 and Phenom 300E. The latter is the seventh Phenom 300 simulator deployed globally as part of the Embraer CAE Training Services joint venture.
The facility added 75 jobs to the local economy and will train more than 2,500 pilots annually, according to CAE.
"The inauguration of CAE Las Vegas is another significant milestone in the expansion of our business aviation training network, bringing CAE closer to customers on the West Coast and beyond,” said company president and CEO Marc Parent. “Offering a strategic location, an attractive business environment, and a highly specialized workforce, Nevada is the perfect location for CAE's first West Coast business aviation training center. We are proud to officially call the Silver State home, and we are grateful to Nevadans for their support and warm welcome."
Prizm Aircraft Products has named business jet MRO Atlas Air Service as the first European dealer for its line of LED cabin lighting and electronically dimmable window shade products. “As we continued to see significantly increasing demand from other parts of the world, more notably the European region, our next logical step was to pursue these opportunities by fostering a relationship with one of the strongest MROs in the region,” said Prizm national sales manager Tim Lockerby.
Atlas Air Service is one of Europe’s biggest MRO providers specializing in Textron and Embraer business jets. It has facilities in Bremen, Ganderkessee, and Augsburg, Germany, as well as Altenrhein, Switzerland.
“After the first contact to Tim Lockerby and his team had been made, and first online meetings had been held, we concluded that a partnership with Prizm aircraft lighting will be a great opportunity for both parties,” said Hermann Kahler, MRO sales representative at Atlas Air Service. “Now, after a few weeks, Prizm and Atlas Air Service are on a good path to establish a strong partnership to get Prizm installed in as many business jets as possible.”
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.
A new final rule revising FAR Part 33 bird ingestion certification test requirements ensures that modern-day turbofan engines can ingest the largest medium flocking bird (MFB) into the engine core during climb or approach conditions without an engine failure. The rule traces its roots back to the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
On Jan. 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 struck a flock of Canada geese at 2,800 feet during climb-out from New York LaGuardia Airport. Both of the airplane’s engines ingested at least two birds, substantially damaging both engine cores and causing total thrust loss. The captain, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, was able to glide the aircraft to a safe ditching in the Hudson River.
As a result of the accident, the FAA established an aviation rulemaking advisory committee (ARAC) to review bird ingestion standards. In its 2015 report, the ARAC concluded that modern engine fan blades have relatively wider chords and also noted that tests are currently conducted with the engine operating at 100 percent takeoff power—not representative of the lower fan speeds used during climbs and approaches.
In July 2018, the FAA proposed rulemaking to revise the tests to reflect the recommendations from the ARAC as well as those in the NTSB’s final investigation report of the A320 accident. The updated requirements were adopted yesterday and take effect on June 5.
Duncan Aviation’s MRO facility in Battle Creek, Michigan, recently delivered a fully transformed Falcon 900EX to an undisclosed customer. Following a comprehensive 3C inspection, the trijet underwent a refurbishment of its interior and exterior.
According to the company, when the aircraft arrived at Duncan Aviation, “It lacked the character and uniqueness the customer wanted.” Under the direction of lead designer Heather Pridemore, Duncan Aviation’s creative teams restyled the jet’s interior and exterior. Along with the overall black-and-white aesthetic, the interior features a three-place custom divan and a center divider featuring transparent acrylic panels that provide privacy in the aft cabin without feeling cut off from the rest of the aircraft.
To complement the custom seating while streamlining the interior’s look, the design team incorporated a variety of subtle design cues, such as running the veneer grain forward to aft, updating the lavatory vanity to a modern look, and installing LED lighting.
The Falcon 900EX’s exterior received a custom modernized paint scheme. The graphics' sleek lines and flowing curves are done in a dynamic black-and-white, two-tone design with metallic silver accents to evoke a sense of speed and motion, Duncan Aviation said.
Now that controller-pilot data link communications (CPDLC) capability is deployed in 11 of the 20 air route traffic control centers in the U.S., NBAA and GAMA are asking the FAA “to restore full availability of en route data link communications for all equipped general aviation aircraft.” In 2019, the FAA requested a stop to use of en route CPDLC by general aviation aircraft, which was followed by restoration of some service under the agency’s U.S. Domestic Enroute CPDLC Avionics Trial. “However,” according to the associations, “confusion escalated…after the FAA closed that program to new aircraft last year.”
In a March 31 letter sent to FAA Air Traffic Organization COO Timothy Arel and David Boulter, acting associate administrator for the FAA Aviation Safety Office, NBAA and GAMA asked for an update by April 30. The associations are also seeking information on acceptable performance standards for CPDLC for all operators and a timetable for publication of guidance documents.
While operators are still able to use departure clearance (DCL) with their CPDLC-equipped aircraft, the situation with en route CPDLC is preventing the use of its benefits. CPDLC enables text message-type communications between pilots and controllers “of non-urgent strategic instructions and clearances, increasing the flight crew’s situational awareness and reducing radio frequency congestion,” according to NBAA. DCL greatly reduces radio congestion for pilots obtaining IFR clearances.
Stevens Aerospace and Defense Systems recently received U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) approval to perform periodic and required testing on hydrostatic cylinders at its Nashville, Tennessee location. In addition, approvals to perform testing on nitrogen and fire-suppression cylinders are expected soon.
The company states that by having DOT approval to perform these critical tests in-house, it can provide recertification much faster than it could by sending the cylinders to a third-party testing facility, lowering downtime for aircraft operator customers.
“This is a huge benefit for our customers as they can now get in and out faster when they are coming in for smaller inspections that could only take a day or two, rather than waiting on an outside source and being subject to variable shipping times,” said Kenyon Blacker, general manager at Stevens’s Smyrna, Tennessee facility.
The DOT approvals cover aviation-related equipment and services for public- and private-sector entities needing equipment recertification for emergency oxygen, as well as other related items used by fire departments, first-responder groups, and scuba-diving professionals.
Requires an inspection to determine wether portable protective breathing equipment (PBE) is installed and, if not, requires a portable PBE to be installed along with the associated placard. According to Bombardier, some of these airplanes were delivered without a required portable PBE device located in the left-hand forward wardrobe or cockpit or passenger cabin area.
Requires a one-time dimensional check of the pitch link upper rod end assembly and, depending on findings, replacement and re-identification. Prompted by a reported occurrence of excessive play of the bearing installed in an affected part. Subsequent investigation results revealed that the excessive play was due to an incorrect bearing installation during production.
Requires revising the existing airplane flight manual with new limitations to mitigate identified hazards due to 5G C-band interference. Prompted by the determination that radio altimeters cannot be relied upon to perform their intended function if they experience interference from wireless broadband operations in the 3.7- to 3.98-GHz frequency band (5G C-band), as well as a determination that this interference can result in unavailable or misleading radio altimeter information, adversely affecting the performance of the automatic flight control system and fly-by-wire systems and resulting in increased flightcrew workload during takeoff, approach, and landing below 400 feet agl.
Requires updating the Garmin G3000 avionics with a new software version. Prompted by an occurrence of the barometric pressure setting being inadvertently changed with no input from the flight crew. When synchronization of the barometric pressure setting is enabled, it may change the altimeter values on both primary flight displays "without an adequate input for the flight crew."
Requires revising the existing maintenance or inspection program, as applicable, to incorporate new or more restrictive airworthiness limitations.
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