Stellar Aviation Group has won an RFP tender to operate the second FBO at Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO) in Nevada. The company had a soft opening late last month at the former Million Air facility, which had remained largely unused for the past several years, as it prepares for construction on its permanent new location.
Stellar received a 50-year lease from the Reno Tahoe Airport Authority to develop 40 acres on the northeast corner of the field, near the Dassault maintenance center. It expects to break ground by the end of the year on the first phase of the more than $20 million project, which will include a 5,000-sq-ft terminal and a 30,000-sq-ft hangar. The new facility is expected to be operational in 18 to 24 months.
Stellar also operates facilities at Palm Beach County Park Airport in Florida and at Springfield Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Illinois, along with managing the Dassault FBO at Delaware’s New Castle County Airport.
“This new location is another strategic cornerstone for our growing FBO network as we look to expand beyond the East Coast and Midwest by garnering an important foothold in the West,” said company president Jonathan Miller.
AINsight: Navigating Aeromed Documentation, Part 1
Pilots are often required to provide documentation to the FAA to facilitate review of medical conditions of potential aeromedical concern. These can be for relatively minor medical treatments or for complicated, formal, and extensive “special issuance” evaluations. This scenario is usually triggered by a pilot disclosing to the AME that a new medical condition has been identified during the time period between required FAA examinations.
Once a medical condition is disclosed, and the AME has submitted any information that might be required, the FAA might respond with a letter. This letter will state whether the FAA is satisfied with the data as presented and/or whether additional data is required. The manner in which the documentation is presented to the FAA can vary and often remains a confusing jungle of protocols that the pilot and AME must navigate. The “treating physician,” who is required to provide the medical documentation for the pilot, is often left wondering exactly what the FAA wants.
What the FAA wants from the treating physician is a discussion about the medical condition itself, what treatments or medications were/are involved, follow-up plans, and whether the pilot is stable. Remember that word: “stable.” That’s what the FAA wants to hear. Treating physicians should never state that the pilot is “cleared to fly,” since this determination is solely in the FAA’s domain.
Duncan Aviation president Aaron Hilkemann is expected to begin easing into retirement starting this summer, the MRO provider announced yesterday. On July 1, Hilkemann will transition to CEO and chairman of the board of advisors, a newly created part-time position. Jeff Lake, COO for Duncan Aviation’s Lincoln, Nebraska facility, will succeed Hilkemann as president.
“Aaron has been a transformative leader for Duncan Aviation and leaves a remarkable legacy,” said Duncan Aviation chairman Todd Duncan. “His servant-leadership style and integrity instilled a formal, consistent leadership structure that allowed the company’s culture to flourish.”
Duncan also credits Hilkemann with increasing professionalism at the company and said he has a decision-making style that was “strategic and compassionate.” Hilkemann joined the company in 1996 as executive v-p and COO and was appointed president a year later.
His semi-retirement plan is part of a company-developed succession plan that includes semi-retirement positions, which Duncan said allow the company “to tap into the knowledge and experience of its long-term senior leaders” during a transition in leaders.
Lake, who has been with the company since 1993, started as controller. He was promoted to CFO in 1998 and in 2008 became COO of the Lincoln facility, which is headquarters to Duncan Aviation.
Business aircraft flights in North America and the Caribbean last month dipped 0.5 percent year-over-year, as gains in jet flying were more than offset by turboprop activity, according to TraqPak data released yesterday by Argus. This fell well short of the company’s prediction of a 5.8 percent gain last month; it has forecast a 3.8 percent increase in flying this month.
Looking at operating segments, only fractional activity was in the black last month, up 6.6 percent from a year ago. Part 91 flying was down 0.4 percent, while the Part 135 segment slipped by 3 percent.
All business jet categories logged modest year-over-year increases last month, with large-cabin and midsize jet activity each up by 0.9 percent from last January. Light jets were not far behind with a 0.8 percent gain. Turboprop flying fell 3.6 percent last month, according to the Argus data.
There was just one double-digit increase last month in individual categories as fractional light jet activity climbed 12.1 percent year-over-year. Fractional midsize flying gets an honorable mention, rising 8 percent from a year ago.
Once again, the Southeast was the leader by U.S. region, at 59,750 departures, with the top-three rounded out by the Southwest Coast (36,161 departures) and Central South (29,087 departures).
VistaJet Continues Ferrari Racing Team Partnership
For the second year in a row, charter provider VistaJet will serve as an official supplier of private jet travel to the Scuderia Ferrari race team, the London-based company announced this week. Under the partnership, VistaJet will support the team throughout the 2020 Formula One season.
The season runs from March to November and includes races in 22 countries. “I am incredibly proud to be supporting the most iconic and successful racing team in the world for a second year,” said VistaJet founder and chairman Thomas Flohr. “Innovation, technology, and a focus on efficiency are values we share with them. VistaJet will continue to provide the Scuderia Ferrari team with seamless travel to ensure their focus is on what is important: the competition on the track.”
Flohr previously raced competitively with Ferrari for many years and is an official driver in the FIA World Endurance Championship. VistaJet and its subsidiaries operate as a charter broker in the U.S. while VistaJet Ltd. is a European air carrier. VistaJet’s fleet comprises more than 70 aircraft.
ACS Adds Commercial Pax Ops to Offset Program
UK-headquartered Air Charter Service (ACS) is expanding its carbon offsetting program to include commercial passenger flights on March 1. The program is available for customer bookings through the firm’s Europe, North America, Africa, and Australia offices. ACS’s office and business travel operations have been carbon neutral since 2007.
“We appreciate that aviation is up there with the automotive industry and power generation as one of the industries that are producing carbon emissions,” said ACS CEO Justin Bowman. “Unfortunately, unlike those industries, ours is some way from having the technology to stop the reliance on burning fuel.” Funding reductions in carbon is a short-term solution, while the industry progresses toward longer-term solutions such as electric flight, he added, noting ACS has been funding electric flight efforts since 2014.
ACS analyzed aircraft fuel burn rates and route distances for 8,000 passenger charter flights over the past two years and decided 0.5 percent of the charter price would be an appropriate offset for each flight. That money will be deposited into an offset fund and then used to purchase carbon credits.
Textron Shuffles Senior VPs after Thress Retirement
Textron Aviation has some new and different faces overseeing parts of its business, following the retirement earlier this month of senior v-p of parts, programs, and flight operations Brad Thress, who was with the Wichita-based airframer for nearly 28 years. Assuming Thress’s post is Kriya Shortt, a nearly 14-year veteran of the company who was most recently senior v-p of global customer support.
As part of the move, which will give Shortt oversight of Textron Aviation’s global parts and distribution business, she also has been named president of Able Aerospace and McCauley Propeller Systems.
New to a senior leadership role at the manufacturer of Cessna and Beechcraft aircraft is Brian Rohloff, who takes over as senior v-p of customer support. A more-than-11-year veteran of the company, Rohloff was most recently v-p of supply chain management. He’s also held leadership positions in sales, customer support, and quality. In his new position, Rohloff will be responsible for overseeing all of Textron Aviation’s customer support operations, including its service centers, authorized service facilities, 1Call customer contact center, and AOG support.
New Garmin Flight Control System for Airbus AStars
Garmin has received FAA STC approval for the GFC 600H helicopter flight control system in the Airbus Helicopters AS350 B2/B3 single. The attitude-based (AHRS-derived) flight control system features include attitude hold (ATT), Helicopter Electronic Stability and Protection (H-ESP), dedicated return-to-level (LVL) mode, hover assist, and overspeed and low-speed protection. The GFC 600H requires the Garmin G500H or G500H TXi flight displays and offers integration with compatible instruments and navigation sources. The system is expected to be available later this month through select Garmin dealers.
The GFC 600H provides inputs designed to help stabilize the helicopter while hand-flying. The stability provided by the GFC 600H system offers significant workload reduction and benefits helicopter operators by maintaining a commanded attitude and its cyclic-mounted trim controls facilitate seamless interactions without removal of hands from flight controls during basic operations, including system initialization of ATT mode and adjustments of the pitch and roll trim.
Hover-assist mode automatically detects a hover condition and provides flight control inputs to help maintain position over the ground. The optional yaw axis control holds heading while in a hover. Available groundspeed hold allows the pilot to input a forward or sideways command, useful during taxi and takeoff. Additional vertical and lateral modes include altitude hold, altitude select, vertical speed, indicated airspeed, and heading select.
AINalerts News Tips/Feedback: News tips may be sent anonymously, but feedback must include name and contact info (we will withhold name on request). We reserve the right to edit correspondence for length, clarity and grammar. Send feedback or news tips to AINalerts editor Chad Trautvetter.
AIN Alerts is a publication of AIN Publications, 214 Franklin Avenue, Midland Park, New Jersey. Copyright 2020. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited.
For advertising in AIN Alerts please contact Nancy O'Brien at nobrien@ainonline.com.
