In its continuing efforts to bring more maintenance work in-house, Dassault Falcon plans to begin construction in the second half of the year on a 175,000-sq-ft maintenance facility at Florida's Melbourne Orlando International Airport (KMLB). An opening is expected in late 2024.
Dassault’s aim with the facility is to serve Falcon customers in North and South America. The facility will accommodate major maintenance and modifications on up to 18 Falcon aircraft simultaneously. “This new factory service center will considerably grow our presence in the U.S., positioning us to keep up with demand for state-of-the-art maintenance services as the Falcon fleet grows and as new models such as the Falcon 10X and the extra widebody Falcon 6X enter service,” said Dassault Aviation chairman and CEO Eric Trappier.
As a heavy maintenance facility, the center will handle a range of inspections, repairs, and overhauls such as line maintenance and C-checks, as well as engineering and modification services. Features will include workshops, customer offices and lounges, and a large warehouse to support work there. The Melbourne service center will also have a 54,000-sq-ft paint shop and serve as a regional distribution hub for parts.
Despite the post-Covid bounce in business aircraft flight activity waning over the latter half of 2022—with December down 2 percent from a year ago—WingX Advance said it was still a record year. The more than 5.5 million business aircraft flights recorded globally by WingX was 10 percent higher year-over-year, 53 percent above 2020 levels, and 14.4 percent above 2019.
With 2.8 million flights, North America accounted for about half of this traffic. Business aviation flying in this region was up 11 percent from 2021, 65 percent above 2020, and 18 percent above three years ago. Most of the growth in this region came from private and corporate flight departments, which represented some 40 percent of all business jet activity, WingX said. Reflecting this surge, Teterboro regained its status as the busiest business aviation airport in 2022.
Europe saw 600,000 business jet flights last year, up 10 percent from 2021, 56 percent above 2020, and 15 percent higher than in 2019. France was the top business aircraft market in Europe in 2022, followed by the UK and Germany.
Outside of North America and Europe, business aircraft activity last year climbed 20 percent above 2021, 74 percent from 2020, and 54 percent above 2019. Private Flight departments were responsible for 41 percent of all departures in the rest of the world in 2022, marking a 29 percent increase from 2021.
Innovative Solutions & Support (IS&S) has added Beechcraft King Airs equipped with Garmin G1000 and G1000 NXi avionics to its ThrustSense autothrottle supplemental type certificate (STC) program. The move adds a significant number of aircraft to the potential market for the ThrustSense autothrottle and adds the safety benefits of ThrustSense—including LifeGuard engine-out VMCa mitigation—to G1000-equipped 200 and 300-series King Airs.
In addition to the modified throttle quadrant, the STC requires installation of an IS&S standby instrument, which is a form-fit replacement for the Mid-Continent Standby Attitude Module in the G1000-modified King Airs. The IS&S standby also is the controller for the ThrustSense autothrottle and the pilot interface.
IS&S’s autothrottle was first certified in the Pilatus PC-12 and Collins Pro Line 21-equipped King Airs and it is standard equipment on new King Airs. The potential market for G1000-equipped King Airs is large, with more than 800 already upgraded, and continues to grow, in part because so many pilots learn on G1000-equipped aircraft and prefer to stick with those avionics as they climb the aviation ladder, said IS&S director of autothrottle products Tom Grunbeck.
The IS&S autothrottle STC is now available for almost all King Air models, Grunbeck explained, including older ones with legacy avionics, except for the C90. “We call it an agnostic-type system,” he said.
Seeing a jump in the number of authorized public charters and proposed flights, the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has developed a resource to help operators better understand the associated privileges and limitations.
NATA said its review of the Department of Transportation’s lists surrounding Part 380 and scheduled Part 135 has shown growth in the public charter sector. This trend provides opportunities in certain markets but in some cases has also raised concerns of the local community, the association said. In response, it created a Public Charter Operations white paper to help provide clarity on operating authority requirements and guidelines.
“The benefits of travel in smaller, private aircraft typical to Part 135 charter operations have become more apparent in recent years,” NATA said. “However, full-aircraft private jet charter remains prohibitively expensive for many potential customers, particularly when they will not fill all available passenger seats. To offer a lower cost of entry, there have been efforts over the last two decades to improve the ability to aggregate multiple individuals or groups on a single aircraft.”
The result has been an edging up of public charters, a near tripling of participating carriers, and skyrocketing of proposed flights (from 8,420 in 2011 to about 211,000 in 2021). Areas of need addressed in the paper include surveillance, community outreach, data, coordination between the agencies and operators, and operator safety.
Aircraft lighting supplier PWI of Wichita has received FAA parts manufacturer approval authorization for its replacement LED entry-door light for King Air 200, B200/250, 300, and B300/350 turboprop twins. King Air 90-series airplanes are not equipped with an entry-door light.
Mounted between the engine and the fuselage on the left wing, the entry light turns on upon the lowering of the passenger cabin door, illuminating the ground beneath it. PWI’s LED light is a form-fit, no modification replacement for the conventional incandescent bulbs MS24513-4174, A4174-24, and M6363/3-1. The LED light provides a service life of 100,000 hours compared with a 300-hour lifespan for the incandescent bulb, along with a fraction of its power draw. It also provides 730 lumens, compared to 650 lumens with the original bulb.
“King Air owners and operators, regardless of mission, will benefit from this exterior LED light upgrade,” said PWI president and CEO Robi Lorik. “In addition to charter and business missions, cargo and airmed operators will also appreciate the brighter light for loading patients, cargo, and equipment without running the engines.”
PWI is the OEM for most of the interior lighting for the King Air product line, part of its long history of providing business jet fluorescent lighting solutions.
The White House yesterday renewed its nomination of Phillip Washington to become the next FAA administrator after the Senate failed to act on it in the previous Congress. Washington, who is CEO of Denver International Airport, was announced as the selection for the role in July.
Billy Nolen, who joined the agency at the beginning of 2022 as associate administrator for aviation safety, has been acting FAA administrator since the departure of Steve Dickson at the end of March.
Washington led the Denver airport for just a year when originally nominated but brought a background in managing large transportation organizations, including as CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and of the Denver Regional Transportation District. He also spent 24 years in the U.S. Army, retiring from active duty as a disabled veteran with the rank of command sergeant. Washington further led Biden’s transition team for the Department of Transportation after the 2020 election.
The Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FAA post, never moved on the nomination, which was reportedly bogged down over a corruption probe stemming from his time with the LA Transportation Authority. Washington has denied any wrongdoing.
Satcom Direct has mounted its Plane Simple Ka-band satcom antenna on the company’s Gulfstream 550, the first such installation on a business jet. Testing of the Ka-band satcom system will be done during normal flight operations in the G550 to validate the prototype satcom terminal and “finalize the design for optimized functionality,” according to Satcom Direct.
The Plane Simple system operates on Inmarsat’s Jet ConneX broadband satcom service, which is supported by Inmarsat’s Global Xpress satellite constellation. This Ka-band antenna is the second Plane Simple system, with the first developed for Ku-band satcom. Plane Simple systems consist of two LRUs the antenna mounted on the airplane’s empennage and the SD modem unit.
In the fourth quarter, Satcom Direct plans to start customer in-service evaluation of the Ka-band Plane Simple antenna, followed by supplemental type certificates “confirmed by the end of 2023,” the company said. Installations will be available for midsize to large jets and the Ka-band service will enable high-speed data transfer to support teleconferencing and video streaming and use of multiple digital applications by large numbers of users.
“We’ve rigorously tested the Plane Simple Ku-band, which has performed beyond expectations,” said Satcom Direct president Chris Moore. “Now, with the validation of the Ka-band terminal, we’re adding more value to our offering to meet the needs of our customers.”
Aircraft maintenance company Alpine Aerotech has received supplemental type certificate (STC) approval from Transport Canada Civil Aviation for its Bear Paw skid gear kit that is compatible with Airbus H125 (AS350/355) series helicopters. FAA and EASA STCs are pending.
The Bear Paws are priced at $2,600 and weigh 15.5 pounds. Adding optional ice grippers increases the weight by 1.7 pounds. “Operators seem to really like our Bear Paws, and the AS350 version has been the most requested,” said Taylor Wilson, manufacturing manager for Alpine.
Based in West Kelowna, British Columbia, Alpine provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul services in Western Canada and supports leading makes and models of helicopters worldwide, including those from Airbus, Bell, and Leonardo. The company’s extensive aftermarket catalog includes replacement instruments, exhaust ducts, baggage compartment protection kits, brackets, and panels.
Supercedes but retains the requirements of EASA AD 2022-0038, which requires repetitive inspections of the TGB magnetic plug at reduced intervals, the use of new criteria for particle assessment and, depending on findings, replacement of the tail rotor gearbox (TGB) or the dual bearing, as applicable, for Group 1 helicopters. Since that AD was issued, further investigation determined the need for an additional one-time inspection of the TGB control rod dual bearing for Group 2 helicopters.
Mandates a revision to the airplane flight manual to incorporate additional instructions in the "Ground Spoilers Unsafe and Weight-on-Wheels Input Fault" abnormal procedures to prevent ground spoilers from deploying in air. Prompted by an investigation into an in-service aircraft event during which ground spoilers deployed in air while the airplane was on approach to landing. After takeoff, the weight on wheels "INPUT" caution message appeared on the EICAS and persisted throughout the flight even after the flight crew executed the "WOW INPUT" quick reference handbook procedure. During this time, the ground spoilers "NOT ARMED" message also posted and, consequently, the flight crew manually armed the ground spoilers as required by the procedure for that message. The investigation revealed that a fault had occurred in the proximity sensor electronic unit, which erroneously indicated "ON GROUND" while the aircraft was in the air.
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