Middle East Bizjet Deliveries Expected To Trend Up
Middle East business jet deliveries are projected to pick up in the next three years, reversing the trend in falling shipments that has occurred over the past decade, according to figures released by JetNet iQ as the Saudi Airshow launched for the first time at Al Thumamah Airport in Riyadh on Tuesday.
According to the latest JetNet iQ forecast, business jet deliveries in the region are estimated to reach 14 aircraft this year, 15 next year, and 16 in 2021. Deliveries of business jets to operators in the Middle East peaked at 41 in 2009 before bottoming at 12 in 2018, JetNet iQ data shows.
A Luxaviation official recently told AIN that this market had indeed faltered. “It’s not like the days when we had aircraft transactions happening all over and people upgrading and buying aircraft. It has been very quiet. Yes, the OEMs have been successful in delivering a few new aircraft into the region, but it’s not like it used to be.”
Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdelaziz—founder and chairman of Saudi Airshow host Saudi Aviation Club and the Arab world’s first astronaut—was the show’s guest of honor on the opening day. Didier Mary, the French organizer of the show, said the inaugural Saudi Airshow signed 260 exhibiting companies and expects more than 4,000 attendees.
NTSB Renews Call for Mandatory FDM, SMS for Part 135
The NTSB yesterday renewed its call for the FAA to mandate flight data monitoring and to implement measures to improve training and safety management on all Part 135 operations. In all, the NTSB made three new and reissued six previous recommendations as a result of its findings on the May 15, 2017 crash of a Learjet 35A (N452DA) near Teterboro Airport in New Jersey (TEB). Both the pilot-in-command (PIC) and second-in-command (SIC) were killed on the Part 91 positioning flight after they lost control of the aircraft during a circling approach to TEB’s Runway 1 and crashed into a nearby commercial building and parking lot.
During its March 12 board meeting in Washington, the NTSB agreed that the probable cause of the accident was “the PIC’s attempt to salvage an unstabilized visual approach, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall at low altitude.” The Safety Board cited as a contributing factor the decision of the PIC to allow an unapproved SIC to act as the pilot flying, the PIC’s inadequate and incomplete preflight planning, and the flight crew’s lack of an approach briefing. The NTSB additionally pointed to operator Trans-Pacific’s lack of safety programs and ineffective FAA safety assurance system procedures.
The NTSB investigation revealed a number of deficiencies, including the failure of the crew to get updated weather, an inexperienced second-in-command acting as the pilot flying despite company procedures, inattentiveness to the flight plan, and decision-making.
Naples Jet Center at Florida’s Naples Municipal Airport has received Brazil ANAC approval to provide airframe, engine, and avionics services for certain jets and turboprops registered in Brazil. “The ability to service Brazilian-registered aircraft is vital to our continued growth in southwest Florida,” said Matt Hagans, CEO and founder of Naples Jet Center and parent company Eagle Creek Aviation.
According to Hagans, the facility has partnered with Embraer Executive Jets and worked with ANAC since the Embraer Phenom 100’s introduction to the U.S. market in 2008. In fact, he said, “Our first Phenom 300 customer from Brazil has already arrived in Naples to complete the scheduled 72-month airframe inspection series and hot section engine inspections on the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW535E engines, all completed at Naples Jet Center.”
Besides being an Embraer Executive Jets-authorized maintenance facility, Naples Jet Center is also “known in the industry as…[a] Twin Commander expert,” Hagans noted, adding that the FBO/MRO already holds approvals for the aircraft makes from Mexico (DGAC), Colombia (UAEAC), and Venezuela (INAC). With ANAC’s nod, “Now are able to expand our offerings to much more of South America. In the near future, we will extend our support to include additional aircraft models, including Cessna Citations and Hawkers.”
MyGoFlight HUD Aims for Initial Part 23 Approval
The lightweight MyGoFlight SkyDisplay head-up display (HUD) should receive FAA certification “by late spring,” according to MyGoFlight CEO Charles Schneider. The HUD receives flight information from installed avionics and “allows pilots to fly with their head up and eyes out,” according to the company. “The purpose of the HUD is to increase pilot safety, enhance visual awareness, and reduce pilot workload.”
The SkyDisplay HUD weighs less than two pounds and is small enough to fit in light aircraft through light jets. Although the HUD is non-conformal, which means that the symbology doesn’t exactly match the terrain in the outside world, the HUD’s flight path marker (FPM) and flight director cue mirror navigation and attitude information and thus can be used to fly instrument approaches with great precision.
Some delay in the certification program occurred during the U.S. government shutdown, and MyGoFlight has now elected to seek approval for its HUD as a portable electronic device, including certification for the installation provisions. Initial certification will be for Part 23 aircraft flown under Part 91 regulations. MyGoFlight will later help Part 135 operators obtain approval to fly with the HUD, according to Schneider.
The introductory price is $25,000, which includes installation by MyGoFlight in Denver, Colorado; training; and one year of the MGFCare warranty and software-upgrade program.
Duncan Aviation Gets Charged Up by Battery Mx Growth
Growth in Duncan Aviation’s MRO business has prompted an expansion of its in-house battery services business at its Lincoln, Nebraska location, the company announced this week. It has thus nearly doubled the size of its aircraft battery shop there to nearly 1,400 sq ft.
Along with the facility expansion, Duncan has added a new battery cooler and new advanced test sets, including 2,400-Watt programmable DC electronic load banks, lead-acid analyzers, and main NiCad charger analyzers. Bench space has also increased, as has the number of its technicians, which now total seven. That’s nearly double what Duncan had in Lincoln five years ago. The company handles 85 to 100 batteries a week in Lincoln, with an average of 75 percent of them checked, charged, and returned to customers within five days.
“When the Lincoln facility added two new maintenance hangars in 2014, the battery shop saw an increase in business from aircraft on site for maintenance,” team leader Brian Teeters said. Growth in Duncan’s battery service business has continued with the addition of its maintenance hangar in Provo, Utah, which accepted its first aircraft in early January. The Provo site includes a 251-sq-ft battery shop that has dedicated space for both lead acid and NiCad battery services, Duncan noted.
Flight-Sharing Provider Wingly Revamps Website
UK flight-sharing site (and app) Wingly has rolled out a “complete redesign” of its website, saying it makes it “even easier for pilots to share their passion for flying with others.”
The changes include simplifying how pilots can post flights and improving the cost calculator. This, said Wingly, “leverages our database of aircraft and flights down to the aircraft registration to define the precise cost-shared amounts. Moreover, this method significantly reduces the possibility of overstating costs, so as to ensure pilots strictly adhere to the cost sharing regulations.”
The “flight request” page is not on the new site. Flight sharing remains a controversial subject for charter brokers and operators in both the U.S. and Europe. Wingly said the disappearance of the flight request page had “nothing to do with…the business aviation lobby.” It said the flight requests “were developed as a test last summer for Version 1 and not scheduled in our Version 2 plan, for which the development had started long ago, before we initiated the flight request.”
After months of testing with helicopter pilots across the UK, Wingly has now included helicopters. “Passengers can now filter their search for cost-shared flights by either helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft. We hope this gives a lot of visibility to the helicopter pilots who can also benefit from sharing the costs of their even more expensive hobby."
StandardAero has secured European Aviation Safety Agency approval for its facility in Fleetlands, UK. The nod follows Honeywell signoff of the Fleetlands facility’s test cell earlier this month. Honeywell had reached an agreement with StandardAero last year for the Fleetlands shop to serve as an authorized TFE731 heavy-engine maintenance provider for the region encompassing Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India (EMEAI).
The certification followed successful testing of TFE731-5BR and TFE731-60 engines. Data produced from the test was correlated within a Honeywell production test cell in Phoenix, Arizona. Meanwhile, the EASA approval entailed audits of personnel and training procedures; engine, inspection, and test tooling; company procedures; the test cell; approved technical data and update procedures; and engineering documentation.
“This was the final step in fully industrializing our TFE731 overhaul capabilities, including CZI, MPI, and core repairs at Fleetlands,” said StandardAero Business Aviation president Marc Drobny. “We are now serving the full needs of EMEAI TFE731 operators locally in that region, with the same quality, speed, service, and value that we provide from our MRO shops located in the U.S.”
The Fleetlands facility is approved to provide support for TFE731-2/-3/-4/-5/-20/-40/-60 engine series models. StandardAero further is authorized to perform line level maintenance on Honeywell 36-series APUs at the facility.
FSF, Aireon Collaborate on Space-based ADS-B Data
Now that Iridium’s Next satellite constellation is in place, data generated by Aireon’s ADS-B payload in the new Iridium satellites will play an important role, and the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) will help Aireon to put that data to work.
Under an agreement between FSF and Aireon, the FSF through its Global Safety Information Program (GSIP) “will oversee the development of safety performance indicators (SPIs) and other important safety metrics and analytics using space-based ADS-B data.” The SPIs to be examined initially will focus on approach and landing, loss of separation, and surface safety risks. SPIs will be shared with industry stakeholders.
“The goal of GSIP is to accelerate the knowledge gained from collecting and analyzing operational data in order to impact future safety performance,” said FSF president and CEO Hassan Shahidi. “We believe that Aireon’s ADS-B data, derived from their real-time air traffic surveillance system, is a key component of the operational information needed to produce safety performance knowledge, which can provide new insights into safety of operations in all regions around the world.”
AIN Webinar: Safe and Efficient Single-pilot Operations
Technology and a shortage of pilots to fill the flight decks of tomorrow’s business jets and airliners are creating pressure to facilitate more single-pilot operations. Avionics manufacturers are developing technology for safe single-pilot operations, but pilots have been flying alone safely in light aircraft through Part 23 jets for many years. Learn about factors that are causing the flying landscape to shift toward more single-pilot operations, what kind of automation avionics manufacturers are developing for single-pilot operations and what we can learn from experienced pilots flying in single-pilot operations.
Join AIN editor-in-chief Matt Thurber on April 24 at 1:30 p.m. EDT as he moderates the discussion with Tal Golan, manager, rotorcraft business development for Universal Avionics, and Charlie Precourt, former NASA astronaut, safety expert, and Citation owner. Sponsored by Universal Avionics
Requires revision of the existing maintenance or inspection program, a general visual inspection for damage of a certain cotter pin present on certain configurations of the nose landing gear (NLG) strut assembly and for the modification number shown on the identification plate for the NLG strut, and modification of the NLG retraction actuator hardware on any damaged NLG strut assembly. This AD was prompted by in-service findings that a cotter pin at the main fitting joint of the NLG retraction actuator to the NLG strut showed evidence of shearing after an NLG retraction-extension cycling.
Requires, within 30 days from the effective date of this AD, an amendment to the applicable airplane flight manual supplement by incorporating the navigation system limitation to prohibit the editing of the CLIMB TO altitudes and the use of the Temperature Compensation on the FMS. This limitation stems from the discovery that if the crew edits a CLIMB TO altitude in a departure or a missed approach procedure, either manually or by activating the Temperature Compensation, the FMS will remove the database’s turn direction (if any) on the following leg. The FMS will command the aircraft to turn in the wrong direction after sequencing the CLIMB TO leg if the shortest turn direction is different from the required turn direction onto the next leg.
Requires, within 30 days from the effective date of this AD, an amendment to the applicable airplane flight manual supplement by incorporating the navigation system limitation to prohibit the editing of the CLIMB TO altitudes and the use of the Temperature Compensation on the FMS. This limitation stems from the discovery that if the crew edits a CLIMB TO altitude in a departure or a missed approach procedure, either manually or by activating the Temperature Compensation, the FMS will remove the database’s turn direction (if any) on the following leg. The FMS will command the aircraft to turn in the wrong direction after sequencing the CLIMB TO leg if the shortest turn direction is different from the required turn direction onto the next leg.
Requires modification of the main gearbox (MGB) tail rotor (TR) drive flange. This AD stems from reports of several occurrences of loss of tightening torque of the Shur-Lok nut, which serves as a retainer of the MGB TR drive. Subsequent investigation determined that these events were the result of failure of the Shur-Lok nut locking function, which is normally ensured by two anti-rotation tabs engaged into two slots at the end of the MGB output shaft pinion. EASA previously issued and later revised AD 2014-0179 to require a one-time inspection of the radial play inside the TR rotor drive flange and the condition of the Shur-Lok nut and, depending on findings, accomplishment of applicable corrective action(s). Since EASA AD 2014-0179R2 was issued, a further occurrence was reported of on-ground loss of synchronization of the tail rotor, resulting from Shur-Lok disengagement. Prompted by this new occurrence, EASA decided to make the modification mandatory.
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