The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) has issued its first International Standard for Business Aircraft Operators (IS-BAO) Remote Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) registration to Cartersville, Georgia-based Phoenix Air Unmanned, the group announced today. This RPAS component can be added by IS-BAO operators who have a remote-piloted aircraft in their fleet, as well as any stand-alone RPAS operators seeking IS-BAO registration.
IBAC’s RPAS standard option went into beta testing last year after a working group analysis by industry representatives and IS-BAO standards board members. The working group also addressed the RPAS concept of operations (ConOps) that is being drafted for inclusion into ICAO Annex 6.
Phoenix Air Unmanned is a sister company to Phoenix Air Group, an IS-BAO-registered charter aircraft operator with a fleet of 49 Gulfstream, Learjet, and Embraer business jets. “We have an outstanding team here at Phoenix Air, and we are committed to implementing best practices in unmanned flight,” said William Lovett, the managing director at Phoenix Air Unmanned.
U.S. airlines have called for “immediate intervention” by the FAA to halt implementation of 5G cell networks within two miles of affected airport runways, calling the harm that will result from the planned rollout tomorrow “substantially worse” than originally anticipated. C-band 5G networks have the potential to interfere with aircraft radar altimeters.
In a letter sent yesterday to the heads of the DOT, FAA, FCC, and White House National Economic Council, Airlines for America (A4A) further asked that the FAA immediately identify the base stations close to “key” airport runways “to be addressed to ensure safety and avoid disruption.” The airlines expressed concern that most of the 50 large airports identified by the FAA for relief will remain subject to flight restrictions when 5G is switched on.
“Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded,” said A4A. “This means that on a day like [January 16], more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers would be subjected to cancellations, diversions, or delays.” A4A also warned that flight restrictions will not be limited to poor weather operations because radio altimeters provide critical information to other safety and navigation systems.
“To be blunt, the nation’s commerce will grind to a halt,” it concluded.
Following its acquisition of AeroJet FBO at Texas’s Georgetown Executive Airport (KGTU) at the end of December, Cutter Aviation has further consolidated its presence at the airport with the purchase of GTU Jet FBO—the second full-service provider on the field.
The GTU facility includes a 20,588-sq-ft terminal and 78,000 sq ft of hangar space capable of sheltering aircraft up to a Gulfstream G450. It brings the company to 152,000 sq ft of hangar space at KGTU for based clients and transient traffic and 34,588 sq ft of FBO and office space, including conference rooms, pilot lounge with snooze room, flight-planning area, crew car, and concierge service. According to the company, it will relocate its FBO operation into the GTU terminal and renovate the former AeroJet facility for other purposes such as office space.
In addition to Georgetown, Cutter also operates full-service FBOs at Phoenix Sky Harbor and Deer Valley Airports, Albuquerque International Sunport, and Colorado Springs Municipal Airport.
“Georgetown is in one of the fastest-growing counties in the country with some of the largest companies in the world moving to the area,” said Cutter president and CEO Will Cutter. “We are very proud to have the opportunity to be involved in the town’s growth and to be able to generate jobs while providing first-class FBO services to clients and visitors.”
Inventory of for-sale preowned business jets at the end of 2021 was 54 percent lower than a year earlier, according to the Asset Insight AI2 Market Report published today. That period was characterized by “impressive transaction rates and values that, at times, significantly exceeded ask prices,” said the report, which covers 134 fixed-wing models and 884 aircraft listed for sale.
Record-high demand was seen across all aircraft groups in the fourth quarter. Average posted prices decreased to a record low figure for aging aircraft. But younger, low-time aircraft sold quickly last year, especially in the fourth quarter, often without being advertised for sale and many times with aggressive bidding wars, Asset Insight noted.
The report further said the reason behind the listed fleet’s days on market increasing 11 percent during the fourth quarter was “the difficulty aging aircraft sellers are encountering remarketing these older aircraft.” While the overall quality rating fell in the fourth quarter, the remaining inventory remained in the “very good” category but carried more near-term maintenance events.
“Twenty-one months into the pandemic, business aviation continues to prove its value in the business world, globally,” said Asset Insight president Tony Kioussis. “Companies with staying power through the pandemic rely heavily on their business aircraft, with the industry expanding and the market reflecting the critical nature of this important equipment to businesses in all industries.”
Priester Aviation added a mix of five long-range, super-midsize, and midsize managed business jets in the fourth quarter last year, bringing its managed and on-demand charter fleet to 75 aircraft. The fleet additions and their bases include a Bombardier Global 6000 in Chicago, Gulfstream G500 in North Dakota, Dassault Falcon 2000LXS in Florida, Bombardier Challenger 300 in Michigan, and Bombardier Learjet 45 in Oklahoma.
“These additions advance our goal of delivering incredibly high-quality, responsive services in key markets,” said Priester Aviation president and CEO Andy Priester. “More and more people recognize the unrivaled flexibility and benefits afforded by aircraft ownership and private charter flights. We see demand continuing to grow.”
The addition of aircraft follows Priester Aviation’s move to offer a parts-procurement program for its managed fleet through JSSI Parts & Leasing, which has more than 38,000 stock lines of inventory that supports nearly every make and model of business jet.
Ross Aviation at California’s Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport is now the latest service provider to offer continual supplies of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The Avfuel-branded FBO accepted its first load of the blended fuel produced by Neste on January 14, ahead of this week’s professional golf tournament in the area. It thus became the first among the company’s 19 locations in the U.S. and Caribbean to offer it on an ongoing basis.
“This shipment of SAF is the first of many more to come and represents another key component in support of our commitment to reducing business aviation’s impact on the environment,” said Ross CEO Brian Corbett. “It dovetails perfectly with our other sustainability initiatives already underway such as our ‘Fly More, Leave Less’ carbon offset program, as well as additional initiatives underway across our network.”
According to Avfuel, each approximately 8,000-gallon truckload of blended SAF, a mixture of jet-A and renewable fuel produced from wastes such as used cooking oil, represents a 19-tonne lifecycle reduction in CO2 emissions. Once approved for use in its unblended form, those emissions savings from SAF use can equal an 80 percent reduction from conventional jet fuel over its lifecycle.
Innovative Solutions & Support appointed president Shahram Askarpour to CEO following founder, chairman, and CEO Geoffrey S.M. Hedrick’s death that was announced last week. “We are deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Geoff Hedrick, who has been a friend and colleague of mine for more than 18 years,” said Askarpour. “Since founding IS&S in 1988, Geoff built up a strong and reliable management team to solidify our company for the future.”
Askarpour joined IS&S as v-p of engineering in 2003 and in March 2012 was promoted to president.
He has more than 40 years of aerospace industry experience and before joining IS&S worked at Smiths Aerospace, Instrumentation Technology, and Marconi Avionics. Askarpour holds an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Middlesex University in the UK, a post-graduate certificate in systems engineering, and a Ph.D. in automatic control from Brunel University London.
The “explosive” growth in the emerging eVTOL aircraft industry is spilling over to the Vertical Flight Society (VFS), which saw its company membership base climb by nearly 20 percent in 2021 and double over the past five years. At the beginning of this year, VFS counted 163 company members, up from 127 a year earlier.
Further, individual membership has also grown to more than 6,300—a nearly 10 percent jump from early 2021 and 30 percent higher than five years ago. According to VFS, much of this growth is due to the extensive support efforts and resources that the association provides to the vertical flight industry, including technical resources, talent acquisition, educational opportunities, and networking.
“This past year saw steady technical progress and eye-popping financial investments in the leading eVTOL developers,” said VFS executive director Mike Hirschberg. “VFS had estimated $4.5 billion of investments in eVTOL companies in 2010 to 2020. However, last year saw several additional developers go public and/or attract sizeable private investments; the total additional global estimate in 2021 alone was around $6 billion.”
Currently, VFS has cataloged more than 590 different electric VTOL concepts from nearly 350 companies. When VFS started keeping track of this industry in April 2017, only a dozen eVTOL programs were under development. Nearly 200 new designs were added last year, it noted.
Next week, the group will hold its 2022 Transformative Vertical Flight event in San Jose, California, which includes the Electric VTOL Symposium.
AIN Seeks Feedback on 5G Interference
As telecommunication companies roll out 5G C-band around U.S. airports, AIN is seeking feedback from pilots and aircraft operators about any anomalies with radar altimeters and associated systems they've seen. Please let us know what you’ve experienced after the January 19 activation; be sure to also submit any reports of faults to the NASA ASRS database.
People in Aviation
USAIG has promoted M.C. Ernst to senior v-p and special risks underwriting department manager. Ernst has served with the company for more than nine years, becoming airline underwriting manager in 2018 and then senior v-p in 2020.
The Association of Air Medical Services elected its 2022-2023 board of directors, naming René Borghese, administrative director for Duke LifeFlight in Durham, North Carolina, as chair and Kolby Kolbet, chief clinical officer for Life Link III in Bloomington, Minnesota, as chair-elect. Other officers include James Houser, CEO of STAT MedEvac in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, as secretary/treasurer and Deborah Boudreaux, assistant v-p of nursing for Teddy Bear Transport at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas, as the immediate past chair.
Catherine “Cat” Buchanan joined Stack as director of business development. Buchanan brings 15 years of business aviation charter and brokerage experience to her new role, primarily in the United Arab Emirates, including as head of brokerage and FBO sales at Royal Jet, sales manager at Chapman Freeborn, and passenger charter analyst at Air Charter Service.
Cory Flatoff, who currently serves as safety manager and G550 captain for Pentastar Aviation, has joined the Bombardier Safety Standdown Advisory Council.
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