New Hangar Complex Lands at Las Vegas Henderson Airport

Las Vegas-area Henderson Executive Airport has received a new hangar complex. It is the first purpose-built, multi-use aviation facility at the dedicated general aviation airport.

The new facility has been developed in a partnership between aircraft sales, rental, and Cirrus flight training provider All In Aviation and Part 145 aircraft maintenance company Lone Mountain Aviation. It will cater largely to the owner-flown aircraft sector and consists of 25 separate hangars, including 16 T-hangars that can accommodate small aircraft such as a Daher TBM or Citation Mustang and nine larger 4,500-sq-ft box hangars able to fit up to midsize business jets.

Located directly across from the new headquarters of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders on Jet Stream Drive, the complex also includes a 22,000-sq-ft maintenance hangar/two-story office building with 9,000 sq ft of office space, five training rooms, a ground school classroom, 18-seat conference room, avionics workshop, pilot shop, parts department, and customer lounge featuring sweeping mountain views.

All In Aviation founder Paul Sallach expressed excitement over the conclusion of four years of planning and an additional year of construction. “Although we have decided to delay in celebrating our grand opening with the general public, we are open for flight training, aircraft rental, sales, and maintenance and look forward to serving the needs of our growing community.” The new facility is already fully occupied.

Airbus, Bell Continue Rotor Research

Covid-19 has not stopped new rotor blade research and patents at Airbus and Bell. Earlier this month, Airbus announced its $2.5 million BladeSense project, which uses interferometric fiber-optic sensors for real-time monitoring of blade strain and shape using an Airbus Helicopters H135 light twin testbed. The work appears to build on research first promulgated in a 2013 conference paper published by the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing, which outlined the usefulness of such technology as part of a health and usage monitoring (HUMS) system.

Meanwhile, Bell has received U.S. patents related to split-tip main rotor blades and a new form of anti-torque control that uses a “centrifugal blower system” embedded in the tail boom mated to “variable aperture” ducts. In an e-mail to AIN, a Bell spokesman declined to comment on the company’s specific plans for the technology. “Our teams are continuously designing and assessing new concepts to anticipate the evolving needs of our customers around the world,” he said.

However, in its patent applications, Bell notes that both technologies hold the promise of less noise, increased performance, and reduced complexity. In the patent filings, the company also claimed the new split-tip blades could reduce fuel consumption by more than 15 percent.

First ACJ320neo Encounters Covid Headwinds

When Acropolis Aviation CEO Jonathan Bousfield signed his company on as the launch customer for the Airbus ACJ320neo five years ago at EBACE, like everyone he had no idea what the world would look like when it was scheduled to enter service in 2020. But given the current Covid-19 pandemic, the aircraft that is intended to be the last word in private VVIP charter has had a somewhat inauspicious debut. “We managed to get two revenue trips in before the world shut down,” Bousfield told AIN. 

The fuel efficiency from the new CFM LEAP-1A engines coupled with the Sharklet wingtip extensions gives the operator an additional 2.5 hours of endurance over its previous aircraft, according to Bousfield. Thus far, the longest leg flown by the aircraft was 11 hours and 39 minutes. Along with better fuel efficiency, the engines run much more quietly than previous powerplants.  

ACJ president Benoit Defforge told AIN that seven ACJneos (both 319 and 320) have been delivered thus far, the most recent to Comlux at the end of May, and the second aircraft is due to finish completion and enter service shortly. He noted that the next available slot in the program is in the third quarter of 2021.

Canada’s Universal Helicopters Shuts Down

Canada’s Universal Helicopters ceased operations last week. The move comes after the almost 60-year-old company based in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Canada, made several unsuccessful, debt-fueled acquisitions and investments in recent years and also as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Universal operated a mixed fleet of 35 mostly Airbus and Bell light singles.

The shutdown includes subsidiaries acquired in recent years, including Lakelse Helicopters Limited and Lakelse Air Limited, based in Terrace, British Columbia. Universal also took a 49 percent share in California-based South Coast helicopters in 2018. South Coast provides services to a diverse clientele including the motion picture industry and government customers, including NASA and the U.S. Forest Service. South Coast was still answering its phones on Thursday and a representative told AIN that the company was continuing normal operations “as far as I know.”

Universal issued a statement on Tuesday saying it had no choice but to cease operations due to “high levels of bank debt” emanating from the Lakelse acquisition in 2018, poor operating performance in 2019, and the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. "These occurrences have had a drastic negative impact on the operations of all businesses of Universal Helicopters,” the company said.

Covid-19 Forces Mx Schools To Seek New Ways To Instruct

For the aviation maintenance training community, Covid-19 has presented a number of challenges but perhaps also an opportunity for aircraft maintenance technician (AMT) schools to move beyond traditional methods of instruction—if they can get past the regulatory barriers that have made that transition difficult. That was the message from Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC) executive director Crystal Maguire, who during a recent Helicopter Association International webinar on remote maintenance training and compliance during a pandemic enumerated those challenges but also illustrated how Part 147 schools had to quickly respond to the effects of the pandemic.

At the onset of the pandemic, she said there were only five or six maintenance technician schools in the U.S. that were actively providing online content to their students. That online content, she noted, has to be approved by the FAA.

Working with the FAA, ATEC was able to get the agency to temporarily “free up” maintenance schools from requirements preventing them from offering online instruction. ATEC is pushing for legislation in Congress—the Promoting Aviation Regulations for Technical Training (PARTT) 147 Act—that “rewrites [the] Part 147” rule that would modernize and provide more flexibility for AMT schools, Maguire said, in particular eliminating the burden on them to get FAA approval for courses they offer online, including practical skills training and evaluation. 

Lilium Hopes To Soon Resume eVTOL Flight Testing

Germany-based Lilium is preparing to resume flight testing with a second demonstrator example of its all-electric Lilium Jet eVTOL aircraft once restrictions imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic are eased. A small contingent of the company’s engineering team is currently able to work on the aircraft at its headquarters near Munich and a spokesman told AIN that it hopes changes to social distancing rules will permit flight tests to restart in “a few months.”

The second technology demonstrator will be the same size as the first and will incorporate some design changes to the five-seat aircraft. The second phase of flight testing, which was interrupted by both Covid-19 and a fire in Lilium’s facilities, is expected to see the aircraft flown faster and demonstrate a full transition to wing-borne cruise flight as the company aims to complete the preliminary design review.

In a presentation to the Vertical Flight Society on May 21, Lilium’s chief program officer Yves Yemsi explained that the company is using program management processes, including stage gate reviews, that are similar to those at major aerospace groups such as Airbus and Rolls-Royce. Lilium intends to achieve type certification in 2025. “We don’t want to lose quality at any stage so we are putting controls in place at all levels,” explained Yemsi, who formerly held a senior engineering role with Airbus.

FAA Provides More Time for Part 135 Training Reqs

With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to drag on, the FAA is beginning to extend certain exemptions and other leniencies designed to keep the air transportation system operating during the crisis, including two such actions surrounding Part 135 training requirements. In March, the FAA initially granted petitions for exemptions to provide Part 135 flexibility in meeting protective breathing equipment (PBE) requirements during training, as well as to provide more time to meet the crew recurrent training requirements.

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) subsequently asked for additional time, seeking a push in some deadlines until year-end and noting that operators still face many of the same issues that led to the initial grant of exemptions.

The FAA agreed to extend those deadlines, but with a shorter timeframe. It provided two additional months of flexibility on the PBE requirements, extending that exemption until the end of July. Similarly, the FAA extended the grace period for recurrent training requirements coming due through the end of July. Operators typically have a one-month grace period, but under the exemption granted in March, that was extended to three months. Under the latest extension operators that have training due in July now have until the end of October.

The extensions come with a series of conditions that ensure the operator intends to meet the intent of the safety regulations.

Vortex Ring State Likely Preceded Fatal Bell 407 Crash

The NTSB has issued its final report on the fatal Aug. 12, 2017 crash of a Virginia State Police (VSP) Bell 407 helicopter that killed both crewmembers. While not listing a probable cause, the report presented data suggesting that failure to avoid and recover from settling with power, also known as vortex ring state, might have been a factor.

This condition produces uncommanded pitch and roll oscillations and little or no collective authority that can quickly produce descent rates of nearly 6,000 fpm. The aircraft was observed in a rapid descending spin before impact. “The helicopter’s low forward speed while descending put it in or near a region conducive to a vortex ring state,” according to the NTSB, explaining that this occurred in a downwash in which the descent rate could not be arrested with increased collective.

According to the NTSB, the VSP flight training manual did not include specific lesson plans dealing with vortex ring state. It added that “associated maneuvers were considered to be optional” and a review of the pilot’s records “found no record of him receiving settling with power or vortex ring state recognition and recovery training on the accident helicopter make and model.” This was despite the fact that the FAA’s test standards require the pilot to understand, recognize, and be able to use the appropriate recovery from the condition.