Sheltair will break ground tomorrow on its FBO at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (KBJC). The 21-acre, $20 million facility will include a 10,000-sq-ft terminal featuring a full slate of pilot and passenger amenities, aircraft arrivals canopy, a heated 35,000 sq ft hangar—capable of sheltering the latest big business jets—with 5,000 sq ft of build-to-suit office space, 10 acres of aircraft ramp space, and parking for up to 120 vehicles.
In January, Sheltair opened a temporary facility at the Jefferson County airport, the fourth busiest in the state, which handled 171,994 operations last year, an average of 471 a day. The Colorado FBO represents the Florida-based company’s first location outside the U.S. East Coast, and the new complex is expected to be completed in summer 2020.
“We are proud and honored to serve the aviation community and the regional economy that depends on a strong and dynamic KBJC,” said company founder, chairman, and CEO Jerry Holland. “When we made the strategic decision to expand our company’s presence westward, we quickly realized that Jefferson County would be a welcoming partner because its public and private leadership recognizes the power of general aviation.”
West Star Adds Two More Hawker STCs to Portfolio
West Star Aviation recently received STC approval for modifications involving waste drain valves and LED light assemblies on Hawker airframes. The STC work can be performed at West Star’s Textron Aviation-authorized service centers.
One of the STCs was developed for West Star’s lavatory waste drain valve modification. “We’ve installed around 20 of these now via FAA Form 337 Field Approvals, and the FAA asked us to get an STC for this,” said Hawker program manager Kendall Kreiling.
A second is a “new concept” STC, Kreiling said, involving the replacement of refuel panel magnetic valve position indicators (“doll’s eyes”) with LED light assemblies. “The OEM indicators have become difficult to obtain in either new or serviceable as removed condition, so this STC provides operators with a modern solution at very favorable pricing,” he added.
The company has developed STCs for a range of aircraft models, among them Citations, Challengers, Learjets, Embraers, Falcons, Gulfstreams, and Hawkers. West Star last month said it would make certain STCs available for a limited time to third-party centers. “Access to our extensive library of STCs will allow other MROs to complete installations and upgrades that were previously uneconomical due to the high cost and time required to develop their own,” said Dave Feuerhak, technical sales manager for avionics. STCs will be issued for one-time use with a letter of authorization.
NATA Aims To Arm Against Illegal Charter with Website
Concerned that paying passengers don’t understand the risks that they face when stepping aboard illegal charters, NATA has retooled its “Avoid Illegal Charter” website to “empower the market” with the ability to look up charter operators, access fact sheets, and report questionable operations.
Rolling out the revamped site, NATA executives highlighted a need to ensure safer skies as new models push boundaries of what is legal. Jacqueline Rosser, senior advisor, regulatory affairs–air charter, for NATA, pointed to an apparent shift in what defines a private operation and a commercial operation. “Our primary goal from the organizational standpoint, the air charter standpoint, is to establish clarity,” she said.
Entities are “popping up, commercializing the [Part] 91 space,” agreed NATA v-p of aircraft management, air charter services, and MROs Ryan Waguespack. “It is a real concern, because the general flying public does not truly understand the risks they are getting into. You are not getting into an Uber when you get into an aircraft.”
As for the website, “You can look up a charter operator, you can submit a questionable operation—we’ve had a number of those—or you can call the illegal charter hotline,” he said. “We’re trying really to push out there how charter brokers, other operators, and end-users can look up and see if the aircraft they are engaging is on a charter certificate.”
FACC AG has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with China-based STAECO to gain a foothold in the Chinese MRO market, the Austria-based developer and manufacturer of lightweight composite civil aircraft parts announced today. “Aftermarket services today already constitute an important economic pillar for FACC with great potential for the future,” FACC CEO Robert Machtlinger said. “I am therefore very pleased that we were able to establish a partnership with the distributor STAECO. I am convinced that, together, we will be able to successfully market FACC's MRO services in China."
As part of the cooperative agreement, STAECO will distribute FACC’s portfolio of aftermarket parts and services for commercial and business jets. It also will serve as a base for component repairs.
“With the sharp rise in air traffic in China as well as the growing share of composite materials used in aircraft construction in general, the demand for qualified MRO services in the composite sector is also increasing,” added FACC v-p of aftermarket services Christian Mundigler. “This gives us the opportunity to grow together as a qualified MRO partner with the comprehensive range of maintenance and repair services offered by FACC and STAECO.”
FACC said it has similar agreements with California-based aerospace distributor Proponent and Alaris Aerospace Systems in Florida.
Operator Seeks Damages after DEF Incident
Air charter provider Air Trek and its Ambulance by Air Trek aeromedical services subsidiary is preparing to file a lawsuit against Florida’s Punta Gorda Airport for monetary damages after two of its aircraft fell victim to the latest instance of fuel contamination with diesel exhaust fluid (DEF).
According to a letter sent to the Charlotte County Airport Authority by the company’s attorney, the May 9 incident resulted in irreparable damage to a pair of the company’s Cessna Citation 550s that were fueled at their home base before departure. One of the jets, bound for Niagara Falls, New York, suffered a dual-engine flameout but landed safely in Savannah, while the other, headed to Chicago, diverted to Louisville, Kentucky, when it experienced engine failure. No injuries were reported in either instance.
The NTSB’s preliminary report on the incidents stated that a lineman at the airport-operated FBO admitted that he had inadvertently combined a container of fuel system icing inhibitor (FSII) and a container of DEF instead of what he thought were two partially empty containers of FSII.
The damages sought include incurred costs, as well as loss of revenue from the inoperable aircraft.
Nomad Technics Successfully Responds to Weekend AOG
Nomad Technics returned to service a Bombardier Challenger 650 over the weekend that was AOG at Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport (AGP) in Spain, the Basel, Switzerland-based MRO provider said yesterday. “We are proud that we completed the AOG event on the Challenger 650 with an extremely short reaction time during the weekend,” said Nomad Technics v-p and general manager Roman Hug.
Nomad was notified on Saturday afternoon of the AOG, which was a hydraulic leak on the landing gear of the Challenger 650. Bombardier dispatched its Mobile Response Team Challenger 300 to Basel to pick up a Nomad technician and tools and flew them to AGP, with repairs beginning Saturday evening. Spare parts were ordered Sunday morning, and that afternoon they and a second technician arrived with additional tools and test equipment. The Challenger 650 was returned to service at 9 p.m. local time on Sunday.
“Thanks to the flexibility of the engineers and the short communication channels we could rectify the defect to the full satisfaction of the customer,” said Heinz Koehli, executive chairman of Nomad Aviation, the parent of Nomad Technics.
Nomad Technics is an EASA Part 145 repair station and provides inspection and non-routine repair work on Bombardier Challenger 600 and 850 series and Globals, as well as Embraer Legacy 600/650s.
Garmin Pilot Integrated with FltPlan
Garmin has added new capabilities to its Pilot EFB application with the integration of FltPlan, following Garmin’s purchase of the flight-planning company last year. Garmin Pilot users can now access FltPlan’s electronic Advance Passenger Information System (eAPIS) and Pre-departure Clearances (PDC) services for in the U.S.
The eAPIS and PDC services require paying for premium services at FltPlan. Users can obtain PDCs 20 to 30 minutes before departure on Apple iPads running Garmin Pilot, then view routing, confirm, and activate the flight plan in Garmin Pilot. The app can also be used to enter and upload crew and passenger manifests to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Other integration capabilities include viewing suggested FltPlan routing in Garmin Pilot, then filing and activating the flight plan in the app. Features such as European VFR navigation data and flight plan filing in Europe with Eurocontrol validation and filing have also been added to Garmin Pilot.
FAA Approves Kansas for First BVLOS Drone Flight
The first-ever beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operation using only onboard detect-and-avoid systems in the U.S. will be conducted in Kansas following just-received FAA approval, the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) announced today. It won’t require visual observers or ground-based radar.
A collaboration between Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus, electric utility Westar Energy, Iris Automation, and KDOT, the operation will involve a drone flying a nine-mile track evaluating technologies for inspecting power lines in rural Kansas. It is hoped it will be the first step in allowing routine commercial infrastructure inspection across the state.
“The ability to fly BVLOS missions without ground-based radar or visual observers is a significant advancement, and Westar Energy views this as an opportunity to play a key role in shaping the future of [drone] operations within the utility industry,” Westar senior UAS coordinator Mike Kelly said.
Kansas officials credit the state’s participation in the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Integration Pilot Program (IPP) for approval to conduct the flights. K-State Polytechnic’s Applied Aviation Research Center will oversee training and flight operations with a cross-functional team from the 31-member KDOT IPP team. Flights will take place over the next few months.
While sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is a drop-in replacement for turbine engines, there is a lot more to this new fuel than meets the eye. Manufacturing and distributing SAF is just a technological hurdle, but getting the new fuel into widespread use is going to require a robust pull on the demand side. Aircraft operators need to know what SAF is, how it runs in turbine engines, how it benefits the environment, where it can be purchased, and how much it will cost. Join us on September 10 at 1:30 p.m. ET for this free one-hour webinar on SAF presented by Marcelo Goncalves of Embraer and Thomas Parsons of Air BP.
Requires an inspection to verify the horizontal stabilizer trim electronic control unit (HSTECU) part number, a software upgrade for certain HSTECUs, and installation of HSTECUs with upgraded software. Prompted by a report of a mis-installed no-back pawl discovered on a horizontal stabilizer trim actuator.
Requires removal of a certain fuel pump metering unit (FPMU) assembly and its replacement with a part eligible for installation. Prompted by damage found on the permanent magnetic alternator drive gear within the FPMU assembly.
Requires inspection of the tail rotor pitch change mechanism, installation of additional locking wire, and repetitive inspections of the tail rotor duplex bearing and, depending on findings, any necessary corrective actions. Preliminary investigation of an AW119 MKII accident identified disassembled connection between the yaw control input lever and the rotating input shaft, partial presence of spalling on inner races of the affected duplex bearings and missing plug and related lock wire.
AD partially retains the requirements of EASA AD 2018-0248, which is superseded, and requires repetitive inspections of the tail rotor transmission assembly spindle bolts until the replacement of flapping hinge components starts and reduces the replacement compliance time for helicopters involved in high torque cycles per flight hour operations. It also requires operators to send back to Airbus Helicopters the removed flapping hinge components to support investigation of deterioration mechanism and scenario of those components.
Mandates incorporation of airplane flight manual procedures that will bring "crew workload to an acceptable level" during a multifunction spoiler (MFS) jam scenario. Prompted by an incident where a crew received a "SPOILER FAIL" message and had difficulties maintaining roll control of the aircraft. "They followed the quick reference handbook procedure for the 'SPOILER FAIL' message, however, the aircraft experienced a heavy right-wing-down roll moment when reducing speed to Vref+8 knots," Transport Canada said. "Post-incident investigation revealed that uncommanded deployment of the MFS at certain positions, in combination with specific flap positions and airspeeds, can create an unacceptably high crew workload in maintaining roll control of the airplane."
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