About 800 aircraft—including 52 turboprops, business jets, and turbine helicopters—registered with the FAA under trustee Southern Aircraft Consultancy Inc. (SACI) are now grounded because they no longer have valid registrations, the U.S. agency said yesterday. According to the FAA, all of SACI’s aircraft registration certificates are invalid, effective immediately, because the company violated U.S. citizenship requirements when it submitted the registration applications. The FAA also instructed UK-based SACI to surrender all certificates within 21 days.

“SACI registered aircraft for U.S. citizens and foreign nationals using trust agreements,” the FAA said. “To register an aircraft using a trust agreement, the company/trustee must either be a U.S. citizen or a resident alien.” However, SACI violated FAA regulations regarding U.S. citizenship requirements, the agency noted.

“The invalid certificates of aircraft registration will result in the immediate grounding of all aircraft registered to SACI,” the FAA noted. “To operate legally, affected aircraft owners must reregister their aircraft,” either through the U.S. or another country’s aircraft registry. Aircraft owners will then have temporary authority to operate within the U.S. until the applicant receives a certificate of aircraft registration or until the FAA denies the application.

While this temporary authority does not cover flights outside the U.S., an applicant for registration who operates an aircraft outside the U.S. can request expedited processing.

DRF Maintenance has opened a new EASA Part 145 helicopter hangar at Straubing in Germany’s Bavaria state and completed the location’s first extensive maintenance contract. The location joins DRF’s maintenance facilities in Wilhelmshaven in Lower Saxony and Rheinmünster at Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport, and it is ideally positioned to serve aeromedical helicopters operated by DRF Luftrettung and Austria’s ARA Flugrettung.

The first contract done at Straubing included software updates and detailed engine and avionics inspections. Aircraft serviced at Straubing include the Airbus EC155 and H145, and DRF plans to add the H135. The facility is equipped with “maintenance docks, modern workstations for complex maintenance work, and workshops for sheet metal repairs and avionics,” according to DRF.

“The opening in Straubing is an important step, both for us and for our customers,” said Hendrik Schubien, managing director of DRF Maintenance. “It brings our service quality closer to them and at the same time enables more efficient processes.” With more than 50 years of experience in air rescue and maintenance, he added, “This expertise remains at the heart of our quality promise.”

In its newly-released Charter Trends Report, ACC Aviation cautioned that, despite entering 2026 “with considerable momentum,” the private aviation sector will nevertheless continue to face operational challenges. Specifically, regional differences—such as varying European tax burdens and increasing environmental considerations—will augment challenges posed by ongoing geopolitical uncertainty worldwide.

The UK-headquartered wet-lease, charter, and consultancy provider concludes that the “most immediate cost driver in 2026 will be taxation,” with France’s 2025 so-called “solitary tax” to be joined by a “substantial increase” in UK air passenger duty from April. “Factoring these costs into trip budgets—and where feasible, routing through jurisdictions with lower levies—will become an integral part of [private] charter planning in 2026,” stated ACC.

Nevertheless, ACC believes the U.S. air charter market is “set for continued growth, supported by a large domestic network" and driven in part by major sporting fixtures. “These clients are encouraged to remain flexible on routing and airport selection…and select aircraft types that balance resilience with value,” said ACC Aviation director of charter Charlie Wilcox.

Wilcox has also noticed a shift in customer behavior, with “established corporates becoming more cost-conscious, often prioritizing efficiency and savings over traditional travel patterns.” This is augmented by new entrants, typically from high-growth technology companies, who “are more willing to adopt charter solutions when commercial travel proves restrictive or unreliable.”

Introduced in 2021, the Thales/StandardAero StableLight autopilot is the first four-axis autopilot for light helicopters, and the two companies have targeted the popular Airbus Helicopters AS350/H125 AStar as a large market opportunity for the upgrade. The autopilot received FAA supplemental type certificate (STC) approval in late 2023. Heli Austria is the European launch customer and will install the autopilot once EASA validation of the U.S. STC is completed. StableLight is approved by the FAA, Transport Canada, Brazil’s ANAC, and Mexico’s AFAC.

Unlike helicopter autopilots that are adapted from fixed-wing products, the StableLight autopilot derives from four-axis autopilots designed for larger IFR helicopters such as Sikorsky’s S-76 series. The StableLight autopilot incorporates stability augmentation without feedback in the flight controls, according to StandardAero.

Features include stabilized climb, flight attitude recovery, auto pull-up terrain avoidance, approach to hover, groundspeed hold, and other typical helicopter autopilot modes such as GPS nav and lateral and vertical approach. The autopilot also has protections such as coupled collective power limiting.

“There is a lot of interest,” said James Sleigh, Thales engineering test pilot, avionics systems. “The feedback has been excellent with everyone we’ve flown and engaged on it.”

Sleigh explained the development of the StableLight autopilot as a “descendant of our Part 29 IFR single-pilot autopilot,” which is installed in the S-76D. “It does follow a traditional autopilot from the IFR helicopter world.”

For many aging aircraft, sourcing replacement structure isn’t practical. In this Falcon 20 repair, DAS Aviation demonstrates how disciplined sheet metal practices and engineering-driven decisions can extend component life while maintaining airworthiness and safety.

Trip support software provider iFlightPlanner has introduced monthly aviation fuel pricing reports with data culled from 3,350 FBOs and fuel service providers across the U.S. In its inaugural report, the company noted that fuel prices in the U.S. showed a general decrease last month. Full-service jet-A averaged $6.24 a gallon, a decrease of 13 cents versus November.

In the U.S. central region, pricing averaged $5.67 per gallon, down 26 cents month over month, while in the South, it was down 2.5% to $6.22 a gallon. Aside from Alaska ($8.09) and Hawaii ($7.85), the New England region saw the highest average price per gallon at $6.52, still an approximate 1% month-over-month decrease. For the contiguous U.S., the average price was $6.15 a gallon, while self-service jet-A averaged about $1 less per gallon.

Nationally, 100LL avgas pricing followed a similar trend. Full-service 100LL averaged $6.34 (with peaks of $10.19 and $9.92 for Alaska and Hawaii, respectively), a decrease of 4 cents (down 0.6%) from November, while 100LL self-service averaged $5.46, representing an approximate 14% savings where self-service fuel is available.

Under a notice of proposed rulemaking, the FAA estimated that some 58,579 new and in-service airliners and general aviation aircraft must be equipped with radio altimeters (RAs) that meet minimum performance standards. Notably, the units must withstand interference from wireless signals in neighboring spectrum bands and continue to provide accurate altitude readings to both pilots and integrated aircraft safety systems.

The rule would apply to aircraft currently required to have RAs, including those operating under Part 121; the majority of aircraft operating under Parts 91K, 125, 129, 135, and 194; and a minority of general aviation aircraft operating under Part 91.

“Initial RA performance deadlines will be achievable between 2029 and 2032,” claimed the FAA. Compliance dates will apply first to aircraft operating under Parts 121 and 129 and with 30 or more passenger seats, or a payload capacity exceeding 7,500 pounds. All other affected aircraft would be required to comply two years later.

A joint U.S. and European committee has developed a draft standard for the minimum performance requirements. The FAA has requested that the committee publish the standard by June to align with its anticipated timeline for final-rule publication. Once the standard is validated, it will undergo a final public comment period and then be published around March 2027. Comments on the FAA’s proposed rule are due March 9.

International private equity group MML Keystone has bought a majority stake in rotorcraft simulator training center Coptersafety. The companies announced the deal on Monday but did not disclose the size of the investment.

MML Keystone has committed to providing financial backing for the Finland-based group to expand its pilot training capacity. Coptersafety—which holds training approvals from the FAA, EASA, and Transport Canada, among others—plans to add further level-D full-flight simulators in 2027 and 2028 to its facility near Helsinki International Airport (EFHK).

The existing management team at Coptersafety is also directly investing in the company and will continue to lead the business with what it described as “a meaningful shareholding.” Finnish private equity investor Sentica Partners is selling its stake in the training group, which it has backed since 2015.

“Coptersafety runs a scarce piece of safety infrastructure in European aviation: full-flight simulator training capacity on the helicopter types operators depend on for the most demanding missions,” said Sharand Maharaj, co-managing partner of MML Keystone. “In a market where approvals are hard-won and capacity cannot be conjured overnight, Coptersafety has business with disciplined capacity economics and highly recurring demand.”

The company provides training for helicopters such as the Leonardo AW139 and AW169, as well as the Airbus H145 and H125.