The NBAA regional forum today at Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport (KOPF) attracted more attendees and exhibitors than initially expected, reflecting optimism in the business aviation industry. Association president and CEO Ed Bolen said they had planned for 1,500 attendees and about 120 exhibitors, but the tally this morning was 2,200 registered attendees and more than 130 exhibitors. There were also 15 aircraft on static display at the forum, which is NBAA's first in-person event this year.
Addressing the optimism, Bolen noted that industry backlogs are now measured in years, not months, while preowned business aircraft inventory is less than 3 percent of the in-service fleet, far below its historical 10 percent level. That’s due to business aviation’s rising role in the pandemic as a wider audience has come to appreciate the industry’s attributes, which Bolen described in general as “on-demand air mobility—getting people where they need to be, when they need to be.”
Further, he said this is an “exciting time” for the business aviation industry as electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft are being developed to make aviation more sustainable. However, supply chain and labor shortages are headwinds for the industry, Bolen noted, but said NBAA and other groups are working to help alleviate this pinch point.
“This is our time, and we can take it forward,” he concluded.
After Jet Support Services Inc. (JSSI) acquired two maintenance tracking companies nearly six months apart last year, CEO Neil Book doesn’t envision additional acquisitions ahead in the near term. Instead, his focus is on seamlessly combining SierraTrax and Traxxall into JSSI’s operations. The acquisitions are a step toward not only growing a robust maintenance tracking business but using them to further the growth of its other businesses: hourly cost maintenance; JSSI Advisory Services and Conklin & de Decker; and JSSI Parts & Leasing.
“The goal with any acquisition we’ve done or with any new business line that we’ve started, the idea has been to focus on maintenance, something where we have our historical roots,” Book told AIN. Acquired last June, SierraTrax supports about 1,000 mainly owner-operators of light and midsize business jets. Montreal-based Traxxall is a larger maintenance tracking provider supporting 2,000 jets, turboprops, and helicopters that offers a broader array of services to Part 91 and Part 135 customers including inventory management and MRO workflow software capabilities.
Following integration, Book expects to find cross-selling opportunities between customers of its maintenance tracking and those utilizing JSSI’s other services.
“Having the platform that allows you to track [maintenance] for operators to me is critical and serves as sort of a front door for us to begin finding new ways to create value for these customers,” he added.
C&L Aviation Services has received STC certification from the FAA for its upgrade of the Universal UNS-1K (SCN600 or SCN800) series flight management system (FMS) to the UNS-1LW (SCN1000-series) WAAS-enabled unit for the Embraer ERJ 135/145, including the Legacy 600/650 business jet variant. Additional approvals from EASA and the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority are expected this spring.
“We have invested heavily in the success of this aircraft and having a viable option for operators to upgrade their FMS systems as these systems continue to evolve is an important piece of that,” said C&L Aviation avionics sales manager Charlie Carroll. “Having our own in-house engineering group allows us to dedicate resources to STC projects like this one that meets customer needs.”
For several years Bangor, Maine-based C&L has been modifying and upgrading ERJ cabins and systems, converting them into business-class and private jets. It also carries one of the world’s largest inventories of ERJ parts.
The Flying Classroom Bombardier Academy graduated its first class of 30 students today at the NBAA regional forum at Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport (KOPF). Announced at NBAA 2019, the academy is a partnership between Barrington Irving’s Flying Classroom and Bombardier to familiarize college students, military veterans, and technical school students of what business aviation has to offer career-wise.
According to Irving, the first class—the Bombardier AMT Academy—was delayed due to the pandemic. He said that all 30 students had perfect attendance records for the three-week course, which familiarized them with the full Bombardier business jet line-up and gave them real-world hands-on experience from Part 147 instructors. Other three-week courses, which are free and held on a rotating schedule, include the Bombardier Aftermarket Academy and Bombardier Avionics Academy.
At the conclusion of a course, graduates can be offered jobs at Bombardier service centers, internships, or other opportunities. In fact, many of the first class have been offered jobs at Bombardier’s Fort Lauderdale service center, which will be moving to a larger facility at KOPF later this year.
Also under the partnership, Bombardier has provided Irving with a Learjet 40XR to use for aviation STEM outreach at high schools and colleges in the U.S.
Participating in the European Commission’s recent Joint Research Centre (JRC) alternative positioning, navigation, and timing (APNT) evaluation in Ispra, Italy, NextNav demonstrated its capabilities in GNSS-free environments, “including instances of outages, spoofing, and jamming.”
“The trials conducted…on behalf of the European Commission are part of the global trend to develop a resilience layer to space-based GPS/GNSS systems that is more secure and available,” said NextNav CEO Ganesh Pattabiraman.
The tests are designed to help the European Union develop a reliable backup to the global navigation satellite system (GNSS), which relies on global positioning system (GPS) and Galileo satellite networks for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services. Research on suitable backups is underway in the U.S. as well. The goal is to develop a backup for PNT that is independent of GNSS.
According to NextNav, “As a part of the trial, NextNav also demonstrated its capabilities in providing both indoor and outdoor ‘z-axis’ vertical location.”
“We are redefining the capabilities of APNT technologies,” Pattabiraman said, “and look forward to working with the European Commission on furthering these initiatives to build a GNSS-backup layer that can deliver highly-precise PNT across use-cases.”
Industries such as aviation, shipping, logistics, agriculture, and others are increasingly relying on GNSS-based PNT services, and estimates put the contribution to the European gross domestic product at 10 percent.
Russian MRO Jet Flight Service (JFS) has signed a services agreement with EmbraerX for its Beacon digital maintenance coordination platform. Using Beacon, JFS looks to streamline maintenance cases, reduce out-of-service time, eliminate redundant communications, and leverage data to improve the operation.
“Beacon is easy to use and adopt as it does not replace any systems for us,” said JFS general director Kirill Trushkovskiy. “First, it is a communication solution and second, it is a machine learning engine that builds knowledge bases for the technicians of the future. You can't find that combination anywhere else.”
Certified by EASA and the Russian Federal Agency for Air Transport, JFS has been in business since 2002. The Moscow-based company services a variety of aircraft including Embraer Legacy 450/500/600/650s, Praetor 500/600s, Gulfstream G450s and G550s, and Boeing BBJs. It also has base maintenance operations at Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai and Riga that provide service for the range of Bombardier Challengers and most Globals.
Online aircraft services quote facilitator MRO Insider has introduced a new live map feature on its system that will enhance its functionality for users.
Previously, quote requests for services were sent through the app to vendors based on the location/radius of the aircraft. With the enhancement, users can now identify specific vendors and direct-request quotes through the platform, depending on where they want to have the work or services performed.
Using the system, those requests are sent directly to the service provider through email and text. The service provider can then respond back to the aircraft owner/operator via MRO Insider—which currently has more than 250 provider locations and 2,500 registered tail numbers—with pricing, timing of the work, and contact information.
“Our platform traditionally allowed users to send requests based by airport identifier and automatically notified providers located within a specific radius,” said company president Andy Nixon. “With our map feature, users will be able to find the location on the map where they need service and send direct requests to providers for AOG support, FBO pricing, or detailing needs through our network.”
Langhorne Bond, 84, who had served as FAA Administrator from 1977 to 1981 and remained involved in Washington aviation and transportation circles in the decades following, died on January 29. “Langhorne was a charismatic administrator with a strong focus on safety and a deep love of all things aviation,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “His leadership at the FAA helped to establish the safety-driven foundation for which our national airspace system is known today.”
While at the FAA, Bond steered the early phases of a computerized national air traffic control system that paved the way for today’s next-generation ATC system, NBAA said. The Air Traffic Control Association in 1999 had honored Bond with its Glen A. Gilbert Memorial Award as a “father of ATC.”
Born March 11, 1937, in Shanghai, Bond had a long history of public service, including as a special assistant to the Undersecretary of Commerce for Transportation from 1965 until the formation of the Department of Transportation in 1967. He also had served as Secretary of Transportation in Illinois and as president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials before receiving the nomination from then-President Jimmy Carter as FAA Administrator.
He subsequently held roles with the Urban Mass Transportation Administration and the National Transportation Center, as well as for years served as a consultant.
Genesys Aerosystems—a wholly owned subsidiary of flight control manufacturer Moog—identified a perfect opportunity to extend the life of the versatile and dependable utility Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. The Genesys cockpit upgrade replaces legacy UH-60A/L Black Hawk avionics with an FAA-certified, fully integrated IFR glass cockpit that includes dual all-digital air data/attitude heading reference system (ADAHRS), HeliSAS stability augmentation system (SAS) and three-axis autopilot, and other modern components that not only enhance aircraft safety and mission performance but provide a strong alternative to buying a new aircraft.
Supersedes an AD requiring limiting the use of Map Mode to the center Display Unit for Bell 429 models equipped with Rogerson Kratos display units (DUs) and Garmin GTN 750/650 main software version 6.21 or later, as well as providing a new emergency and malfunction procedure in the event of center DU failure. Since then, Transport Canada received a report where a Bell 429 lost all three DUs during flight. Investigation revealed that, when the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) is configured on the helicopter with the TCAS Pop-up mode enabled, the TCAS traffic alerts automatically activate the Map Mode on the DUs, which could cause the DUs to power cycle. This AD revision mandates the incorporation of a revision to the RFM Supplement prohibiting the use of the TCAS Pop-up mode for all three DUs and provides instructions to disable the TCAS Pop-up mode.
Model(s): Hafex (Halon-free) hand-held fire extinguishers
Published: January 31, 2022
Effective: March 7, 2022
Requires removing affected fire extinguishers from service. This AD was prompted by reports of a quality control issue on certain fire extinguishers, where the spindle geometries of the fire extinguishers were found to be out of tolerance. The affected models are found on various Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo models.
Model(s): various AS350, EC130T2, AS355, and SA-365 models
Published: January 31, 2022
Effective: March 7, 2022
Requires the application of alignment markings on, and repetitive inspections of, the main rotor (MR) pitch rod upper links and, depending on findings, the accomplishment of applicable corrective actions, as specified in a European Union Aviation Safety Agency AD. This AD was prompted by a report of increased vibration during flight.
Requires repetitive inspections of affected parts and the area around the main gearbox oil cooling fan hub attachment screws, close monitoring, and replacement if necessary. The AD stems from occurrences of failure of the oil cooling fan hub. Detachment of the fan could damage surrounding harnesses and cause a loss of certain monitoring and warning functions.
Mandates the introduction of an expanded pitch trim pre-flight check, trim malfunction procedures, and revisions to the AP STAB TRIM FAIL caution and STAB TRIM FAULT advisory procedures. The AD stems from multiple in-service events, where following a STAB TRIM FAULT advisory message and an Auto-Pilot disconnect, both pilot and co-pilot commands to the horizontal stabilizer for an aircraft nose-up trim resulted instead in a nose-down trim movement of the horizontal stabilizer. In some events, the horizontal stabilizer reached the full aircraft nose-down trim position before the crew recognized the nature of the problem, which resulted in increased crew workload and reduced safety margins. If not correctly managed by the flight crew, an uncommanded horizontal stabilizer motion could result in the stabilizer reaching its full travel position, and consequently, the crew may not be able to regain control of the horizontal stabilizer, which would result in reduced controllability and high control forces.
Supersedes EASA AD 2017-0189, retaining the requirements surrounding modification involving the front attachment fitting pin(s) of main gearbox (MGB) suspension bars. This AD incorporates procedures of an improved modification, including a new tightening torque check.
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