Gulfstream Opens New Farnborough Service Center

Gulfstream Aerospace’s new service center at Farnborough Airport is now open and took in its first aircraft, a Middle East-based Gulfstream G450, for service, the company announced today. The 225,000-sq-ft/20,903-sq-m facility can simultaneously accommodate up to 13 ultra-long-range Gulfstream G650s or G700s.

The Farnborough center is able to provide maintenance, repair, and overhaul services, as well as interior refurbishments and aftermarket modifications. To complement the site, Gulfstream’s Field and Airborne Support Teams (FAST) continues to maintain a presence at London Luton Airport.

“Gulfstream Farnborough is already seeing great demand,” said Gulfstream Customer Support president Derek Zimmerman. “This opening marks the completion of another goal in our overarching strategy to enhance convenience and increase options for our customers. The new facilities we are building can better accommodate more of the large-cabin Gulfstream aircraft our customers are flying.”

The Farnborough facility has been designed with the environment in mind, including rainwater harvesting, hangar radiant heating, intelligent lighting controls, and heat recovery systems. Gulfstream also expects the complex to achieve a “very good” Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method rating.

In addition to Farnborough, Gulfstream Customer Support recently expanded in the U.S., with new facilities in Savannah, Georgia; Appleton, Wisconsin; and Van Nuys, California. An expansion project is underway in Palm Beach, Florida, and in February Gulfstream announced an upcoming expansion in Fort Worth, Texas.

Pilatus Kicks Off Flight Tests for KSA’s Aeromed PC-24s

Pilatus Aircraft began flight testing the first of six PC-24 light jets that will be delivered to the Swedish air ambulance organization Kommunalförbundet Svenskt Ambulansflyg (KSA) next year.

The flight of the aircraft, which is sporting the Swedish national colors of yellow and blue, marked an important milestone for Pilatus, which worked to meet a tight production schedule despite disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Swiss manufacturer said. Pilatus will complete a series of flight tests before transferring the aircraft to Aerolite for the installation of the medevac interior.

KSA is the third organization to order the PC-24 for medevac use, following the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia and the U.S. North Slope Borough Search and Rescue Department. Equipped with a large cargo door to facilitate loading and unloading, the aircraft can accommodate three patients, along with medical personnel, Pilatus said.

Garmin Restores Database and Flight-planning Functions

Garmin, which suffered a reported ransomware attack last week that affected its servers, has resumed delivering database updates with its flyGarmin service, a company spokeswoman told AIN this morning.

“The current navigation database cycle is effective July 16, 2020, to Aug. 13, 2020,” she said. “The next navigation database cycle will be available for download on August 6.” The Garmin Pilot app also suffered from flight-planning issues and customers can now use the app to file flight plans, she said. Garmin’s Connext wireless database and flight-plan transfer service are operational, as is its FltPlan flight-planning service. 

Last week when the cyberattack occurred, Garmin suffered issues with flight-plan filing, account syncing, and database concierge capabilities in the Garmin Pilot app, as well as with data from the Central Maintenance Computer (CMC).

On its support website, as of this morning, Garmin noted: “We are currently experiencing an outage that affects our call centers, and we are currently unavailable to receive any emails or chats but do have limited availability for calls. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience.”

Embraer Extends Phenom Mx Intervals

Embraer Executive Jets is extending the scheduled maintenance requirements for its Phenom light jets from every 600 flight hours or 12 months, whichever comes first, to every 800 hours or 12 months. The extension marks a 33 percent maintenance interval improvement and is a result of the Phenom 100 and 300 fleet performance in the model series’ first 10 years. High-volume operators, such as charter and fractional companies, are the ones to benefit most from the extension.

“Conceived as clean-sheet designs to be the best in their respective classes, the Phenom 100 and 300 series aircraft were built for high utilization,” said Embraer Services and Support president and CEO Johann Bordais. “Now, 11 years after the first delivery, with a fleet of more than 900 jets in operation, our customer support and engineering team can reaffirm, once again, that our products are even better than the initial specification.”

More than 1.7 million flight hours and 1.4 million cycles have been accumulated by the Phenom fleet since the first delivery of a Phenom 100 in December 2008.

New Bizav Coalition To Share Covid Safety Practices

The CleanFlying Coalition, a non-profit group of private aviation companies committed to promoting and implementing best health practices in the Covid-19 era, has launched. Organized by industry data provider FlightAware, founding members include Atlantic Aviation, FlightSafety International, ForeFlight, Global Appearance Partners, Go Rentals, Keystone Aviation, Simcom, and Tac Air.

The group's mandate is to share health safety measures adopted by the business aviation community, which will help drive demand and utilization for private aviation. Included on its website is a resource section with continually updated sanitary guidance from agencies, as well as a news area where members can post their latest innovations and suggestions.

“This coalition addresses business aviation passengers who need reassurance that the organizations supporting their flight operations are committed to their health and safety,” said FlightAware CEO Daniel Baker. “From the FBO staff to caterers, to the pilots on board and everyone in between, sharing that you’re a member of this coalition will give travelers and flight departments confidence that the company is committed to a clean and safe flying experience.”

Cutter Adds Phoenix-area Mobile Service Unit

Arizona-based Cutter Aviation has added a dedicated mobile response unit for AOG response in the Phoenix area. The company’s FAA Part 145 repair station at Sky Harbor Airport is capable of working on a wide range of GA and corporate aircraft, ranging from single pistons through midsize business jets.

A factory-authorized service center for Pilatus, Piper, and HondaJet, and highly experienced in maintaining Hawker Beechcraft turbine and jet airplanes, along with Cessna Citations, the company also specializes in upgrade products from Garmin, Raisbeck Engineering, Blackhawk, AmSafe, BLR, and UTC Goodrich Deicing Systems.

“Now more than ever we must be prepared to assist our clients properly wherever they are to get them back in the air as soon as possible,” said company president and CEO Will Cutter. “Our new mobile response unit allows us to accomplish this and bring our experienced technicians with all the tooling and equipment necessary to our client’s location.”

Blackhawk’s King Air 350 XR Upgrade Kit Gets FAA Nod

Blackhawk Aerospace has received FAA supplemental type certificate (STC) approval for its XR Upgrade Kit for the King Air 350-series twin turboprop. The XR package increases cruise speed by 30 to 40 knots and maximum takeoff weight to 16,500 pounds, as well as cutting climb time to FL350 by 60 percent to 18 minutes. The modification reduces basic aircraft empty weight by 220 pounds and provides 25 percent more endurance and 24 percent more horsepower at typical loiter altitudes for the multi-role aircraft. 

The XR kit replaces the original Pratt & Whitney PT6A-60A engines and four-bladed aluminum propellers with new 1,200-shp PT6A-67A engines and MT five-bladed composite propellers. It also includes new heavyweight landing gear, high floatation tires, Raisbeck fully enclosed high floatation gear doors, the True Blue Power TB44 lithium-ion battery, and conformal auxiliary CenTex Saddle tanks that are 172 pounds lighter than the OEM’s extra range fuel tanks.

The quieter propellers have higher ground clearance. The new lithium-ion battery yields a weight savings of 30 pounds and doubles cranking amps.

Flight Depts Used Pandemic Downtime To Improve Ops

AviationManuals says it saw strong demand for its digital and safety services in the first half of 2020 as flight departments took advantage of Covid-related downtime to improve their operations. Companies have stepped up efforts to implement safety management system (SMS) software and improve or develop operational manuals during the period.

"We have had surprisingly robust demand in 2020, especially considering the negative effects the pandemic has had on business aviation activity overall,” said Mark Baier, CEO of Washington-based AviationManuals. “Operators showed a lot of initiative and foresight using the additional time they had available to review and improve the way they operate."

In addition, operators have found a need for support tools to help them manage through Covid-19, including new health and safety considerations that have come to the forefront. Demand has increased for product categories such as AviationManuals' health travel preparedness, organizational changes, and metrics reporting.

"Our advisers have been remarkably busy helping flight departments and FBOs, particularly with ARC SMS software and emergency response plans (ERP),” Baier added.

During this time, AviationManuals enhanced and expanded its portfolio with a new maintenance manual, new risk-assessment-tool features, and an updated ERP. The company also expanded its outreach efforts with a series of white papers and guides to help flight operations, ground support, and FBOs manage through the pandemic.