CAE Defense & Security this week received a competitive recompete award valued at up to $250 million to provide fixed-wing flight training to the U.S. Army. The contract includes an initial base period and seven single-year options through 2032.
CAE—which won the first Fixed-Wing Fight Training Program contract in 2016—will continue to provide the training at its facility in Dothan, Alabama. Supporting both initial and recurrent training for fixed-wing and transitioning rotary-wing pilots, the program encompasses academic, simulation, and aircraft flight training. This includes CAE’s Trax Academy, which combines ground-based training with self-paced virtual and augmented reality in C-12 Beechcraft King Airs and Grob G 120TPs.
In addition, CAE’s facility houses Grob G 120TP flight-training devices, a suite of desktop trainers and courseware, and a fleet of C-12U (King Air 200) turboprop twins that are owned and maintained by the Army.
“The training center is a prime example of delivering live, virtual, and constructive training with adaptive technologies and agile learning to deliver the highest-quality instructional solutions to our military customers,” said Dan Gelston, group president of CAE Defense & Security.
AINsight: Don’t Shoot the Messenger
Every week, my API colleagues and I find ourselves in a “change agent” role. Especially when we hear from corporate HR representatives, calling to tell us that they’ve lost a pilot and need to hire a replacement. In many instances, these conversations are regarding a pilot who has left for higher compensation and a better work/life balance that includes hard days off.
So let me set the scene for this all-too-commonplace occurrence: the HR rep knows that their company’s compensation package is well under market rate. And often they’re flying smaller or older aircraft based in a small aviation market. That typically means it’s going to take time and money to recruit and relocate someone into that market.
This is when one of us puts on our change agent hat and starts the hard conversation with “please don’t shoot the messenger.” As their partner, we work to bring clarity to the current hiring environment, where it’s almost impossible to retain pilots and maintenance personnel if compensation and schedule are not competitive. Without these two key elements, it’s almost guaranteed to create a domino effect.
The manufacturer of a defective main rotor component linked to the 2021 fatal crash of a Bell 212 in Canada has agreed to settle a related civil suit for $10 million. Fore Aero of Haltom City, Texas, manufactured the main rotor hub strap retaining pin on the first blade assembly of the accident helicopter. The pin failed after only 20 hours time in service, causing the entire main rotor assembly to separate from the helicopter in flight and killing the pilot, who was the sole occupant.
An investigation by Canada’s Transportation Safety Board found that the pin was made from weaker steel than specified by the helicopter’s OEM and that resulted in the “catastrophic failure of the main rotor assembly,” according to Dallas aviation attorney Ladd Sanger, who served as co-counsel in the suit filed on behalf of the pilot's family.
The accident helicopter was a 1979 Bell 212 owned and operated by Yellowhead Helicopters and was being flown on a fire-suppression support mission, transporting fire crews near Evansburg, Alberta. The crash triggered an emergency grounding, inspection, and pin replacement impacting 400 Bell 204, 205, and 212 models worldwide.
“The defective shear pin and the lack of quality control in the manufacturing process resulted in the death of a very experienced pilot and family member under routing flying conditions,” said Sanger. “The tragedy should have never happened.”
Enigma Labs is launching an unidentified aerospace phenomena (UAP) sightings platform for the aviation community and military personnel to coordinate and provide access to information. The private technology company is seeking to build an empirical network of UAP sightings for aviators and researchers.
The platform allows users to submit incident reports using a pseudonym and includes fields for describing the shape, quantity, witness count, any present radar data, distance, and size of the object.
“Enigma Labs is committed to maintaining data transparency and privacy for the people using our platform. We recognize the courage necessary to come forward and report an anomalous event,” said Enigma Labs founder Alex Smith. “There has historically been some stigma around this topic, but the tide has dramatically turned towards productive and open dialogue over the last few years.”
The platform is accessible by way of a mobile app that is in beta testing. Pilots wanting access to the app can sign up at the company’s website. Enigma Labs plans to expand the app to a wider audience later.
Following a pilot test last year on the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at Changi Airport, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has launched a tender for consultants to help develop an offtake mechanism for renewable fuels going forward. The move follows the authority’s desire to boost Singapore’s competitiveness as a sustainable aviation gateway and is being initiated following the recommendations of the International Advisory Panel on Sustainable Air Hub in September.
A study—expected to last for a year—will begin shortly and among its methodology will be analyses to assess the impact on SAF demand across various segments, with the goal of designing an operating model to implement structural offtake, including the flow of SAF credits and physical SAF.
“The setting up of a SAF offtake mechanism is an important next step in CAAS’s effort to catalyze the development of a self-sustaining ecosystem and flow of funds for SAF in Singapore,” explained CAAS director-general Han Kok Juan, who added that the renewable fuel is a key pathway to enable aviation’s decarbonization ambitions. “It will encourage greater SAF adoption at Changi Airport and help create long-term, predictable demand to incentivize capital-intensive investments in SAF production and help drive down price over time.”
The city of Cleveland is exploring the possible closure of Burke Lakefront Airport (KBKL), having commissioned two separate studies to determine the economic impact and land-use options for the property on the shores of Lake Erie. According to AOPA, the airport is grant obligated, having received $20 million in FAA airport improvement grants since 2005, with most recent funding coming in 2013. That should extend the city’s obligation to operate the airport for at least another decade.
In a letter to Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb, the general aviation pilot organization expressed its concerns over the closure discussion and requested that the city include aviation stakeholders in the process, as well as keep the studies transparent to the taxpayers of Cleveland and airport users.
Established in 1947, KBKL has a 6,600-foot main runway and since 1964 has served as host to the annual Cleveland National Airshow, an event that attracts tens of thousands of spectators. The airport is close to downtown and within walking distance of FirstEnergy Stadium, home to the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
“Burke Lakefront is an airport that the aviation community cannot afford to lose,” said Kyle Lewis, AOPA’s Great Lakes regional manager. "The mayor's plan is short-sighted, and we hope to change the conversation."
The NTSB has released its preliminary report on the December 29 crash of a Rotorcraft Leasing Bell 407 at the West Delta 106 energy platform helipad in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast. It crashed on takeoff, killing the pilot and three passengers.
The report catalogs physical evidence that suggests the helicopter hit a chain link perimeter skirt around the 24-by-24-foot platform and then plunged into the water below. It notes that there were no eyewitnesses to, or video of, the accident, either from the platform or the Appareo Vision 1000 camera system aboard the aircraft. The helicopter wreckage and occupants were recovered on January 2. The Appareo image recorder was not found on the platform or in the wreckage, “however, there was extensive fuselage damage in the area that the cockpit image recorder is normally mounted,” according to the report.
While no one witnessed the crash, the crew of the platform did hear the associated noise, went outside, and then observed the helicopter’s fuselage floating in the water inverted, separated from its tail boom and landing gear with deployed emergency floats. The fuselage sank before the crew could reach it with the platform’s emergency escape capsule. Weather in the area was reported as VMC, ceiling 8,500 feet, 10 miles visibility, with the wind at 12 knots out of the southeast.
The Airports Council International Latin America and the Caribbean (ACI-LAC) is the next stop for Ary Rodrigues Bertolino, whose new role is manager of airport industry relations in Brazil and South America. In a nearly 40-year career at the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), Bertolino rose to the rank of brigadier and headed a number of high-complexity, high-profile efforts.
This includes preparing the country’s FAB-managed air traffic infrastructure for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, as well as leading projects to improve air navigation in the country’s vast equatorial region and testing new technology such as remote air traffic control towers. Named to the Brazilian delegation to ICAO, he was Brazil’s unsuccessful candidate for ICAO secretary-general. He has also served in several regional airspace control associations.
“We are pleased to announce that ACI-LAC can count on a professional with broad and diverse experience in the aviation industry as brigadier Ary Bertolino. We believe he will contribute to strengthening our presence in Brazil…as well as throughout South America,” said ACI-LAC general director Rafael Echevarne.
Photo of the Week
Oceanic adventurer. Bombardier Challenger 604 pilot Ashwin van der Aarssen took this photo in cruise over Europe on his first oceanic crossing while the captain took a quick coffee break. “I hope someone gets a kick out of it. I know it makes me smile every time I see this picture,” he said. Yep, we’re smiling, too. And thanks for sharing, Ashwin!
Keep them coming. If you’d like to submit an entry for Photo of the Week, email a high-resolution horizontal image (at least 2000 x 1200 pixels), along with your name, contact information, social media names, and info about it (including brief description, location, etc.) to photos@ainonline.com. Tail numbers can be removed upon request. Those submitting photos give AIN implied consent to publish them in its publications and social media channels.
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