Tamarack Emerges from Bankruptcy after Court Approval

Tamarack Aerospace Group’s plan of reorganization has been approved, allowing the Sandpoint, Idaho-based manufacturer of active winglets to emerge from bankruptcy. The plan approved by the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington calls for repayment of all creditors in full and affirms that the Tamarack shareholders remain intact, the company said on Monday.

"We continue to make significant progress in the reorganization as well as our general growth,” said Tamarack president Jacob Klinginsmith. “We have made a number of strategic changes to the business which have made us more resilient. Entering the voluntary bankruptcy was a difficult choice, but in the end, it has made us an even stronger company.” Tamarack announced its voluntary bankruptcy filing on June 7 following airworthiness directives (AD) from the FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) that grounded Cessna CitationJets, CJ1s, CJ2s, and CJ3s equipped with its active load-alleviation system (Atlas) winglets. A month later, EASA lifted its AD followed by an FAA alternative method of compliance.

As Tamarack worked through the reorganization, it completed its 100th active winglet installation and recently added four new partners to its installation and service network, bringing the total to 20. Tamarack also noted it’s been meeting with the military, commercial airlines, and airplane OEMs about its active winglets.

WingX: Covid-19 Dampening Bizav Flights in Europe

European business aviation flights ebbed 0.8 percent year-over-year in February, a decline that WingX said, in part, reflected the effects of Covid-19. The drop in February chipped away at gains made a month earlier, but traffic through the first two months of the year remained 1.7 percent ahead of 2019, according to WingX’s latest monthly Business Aviation Monitor.

“February trends were disappointing, coming off a strong January 20 performance, but the effects of Covid-19 are already evident, with business jet arrivals from China down by 30 percent [year-over-year], and Germany's market seeing the largest impact of the virus crisis in Asia,” said WingX managing director Richard Koe.

The dip in February activity jumps to 3 percent when adjusting for Leap Year, and the first week of March marked a 6 percent decline with a 40 percent drop in flights from Italy.

In February, business aviation flight activity slumped 13 percent in Germany. UK flights also declined. Large-jet activity, in particular, was down in Germany but up in Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. Russia led the increase in charter activity.

“Within Europe, there was some growth in February, notably in the ski-season flights connecting Moscow, Geneva, Chambery, also solid growth in large-jet activity in London airports,” Koe said. “But looking ahead, we can already see the escalating negative effect of virus containment measures in Europe.”

Honeywell Integrates Flight Management with Forge

Honeywell is rolling out an analytics platform, Forge, that will provide operators with a holistic approach to mission management; from connectivity, to flight operations, navigation databases, and maintenance. The Forge platform builds on what had formerly been known as Honeywell’s GoDirect portfolio, providing an integrated approach that enables operators to manage multiple aspects of a flight through a single dashboard.

“Honeywell Forge is a powerful suite of technologies that enable operators to prevent problems and have ongoing visibility into their fleet status in real time,” said John Peterson, vice president and general manager of software and services at Honeywell Connected Enterprise, Aerospace.

Through the dashboard, flight departments can see and fix issues as they arise, Honeywell said. The result will be lower costs to the operator. The dashboard is customized to each operator and provides alerts enabling directors of maintenance and flight operations to know fleet status. It further provides real-time views of connectivity issues, changes in flight plans, navigation database availability, and maintenance events. 

Honeywell unveiled Forge to its customer advisory board early last week and said the response was “overwhelming” with operators wanting it immediately and asking for as many capabilities as soon as possible. The first release went live at that time with initial capabilities, he said, adding the company will update it with new releases and added capabilities every six to 12 weeks. 

Flying Colours Opens New Ontario Paint Facility

Flying Colours Corp. has opened the first phase of a 100,000-sq-ft MRO hangar that will accommodate the painting of aircraft as large as a VIP Boeing 737-900. The paint shop located at Flying Colours’ headquarters in Peterborough, Ontario, incorporates the latest technology to support painting on in-service and new-completion aircraft including Bombardier’s Global 7500 and Gulfstream’s G700, the company said.

The paint booth is fully computerized and climate-controlled with 168 energy-efficient lights that simulate natural daylight. With the new paint facility, Flying Colours will offer a variety of paint techniques including electro-static applications. It is using the addition of the paint facility to move away from chromate primers to non-chromate products, which Flying Colours said will deliver improved specifications and conformances for the aviation industry to improve the paint finish, reduce waste, and improve environmental protection.

Completion of the second phase of the project, expected later this spring, enables the company to perform maintenance, interior modifications, avionics upgrades, and paint simultaneously. Running such projects in parallel will reduce downtime, maximize budgets, and ensure on-time completion, the company said. “We are in a strong growth period and the additional paint shop adds real value to our existing paint facilities,” said Flying Colours president and CEO John Gillespie.

FlightOS Automation System Promises Safety, Flexibility

Flight automation specialist Skyryse is today launching a new FlightOS system that it says can be retrofitted into any aircraft to help pilots fly more safely by reducing flight deck workload. According to the California-based startup, the flight automation system will expand the envelope in which aircraft can operate and alleviate the pilot skills shortage.

FlightOS combines on-board computer with hardware that powers the flight control actuators, essentially delivering four-axis, envelope-protected flying capability. According to Skyryse, the system could be retrofitted into any fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft and it is also offering it for new designs, including eVTOL aircraft being developed for applications such as urban air mobility (UAM). 

Skyryse says it will be ready to start developing supplemental type certificates (STCs) within a few months, hopefully working in tandem with an OEM. It has previously flown a prototype of the technology on a small fleet of Robinson R44s.

The company claims that its automation capability means that “pilots no longer need to worry about the complex flight controls or structural and airframe operating limits.” It says the new technology will be especially beneficial for operations such as emergency medical flights, firefighting, and search and rescue.

Groden told AIN that it intends to start introducing the system to experienced pilots, but ultimately he feels it would be of value to pilots with almost any level of experience.

Canada Reports No Bizjet Fatal Accidents in 2019

For the third year in a row, there were no fatal business jet accidents in Canada in 2019, according to preliminary statistics recently published by the nation’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB). However, the tally of five nonfatal accidents involving privately operated small turbine-powered aircraft reported last year in Canada was unchanged from 2018.

The TSB also recorded five nonfatal accidents in 2019 involving on-demand large business jets compared with just one mishap in 2018. Air-taxi operators of small piston and turboprop airplanes suffered 26 total accidents last year, three more than in 2018. There were four turboprop accidents last year that claimed the lives of 11 crew and passengers.

Overall, the TSB said the total number of aviation accidents (226) reported in 2019 was slightly lower than the five-year average of 234. However, fatal accidents increased to 32 with 67 fatalities in 2019, compared with 23 fatal accidents in which 38 people were killed in 2018.

The last fatal business jet accident in Canada occurred on Oct. 13, 2016, when a privately operated Cessna Citation 500 on an IFR flight at night lost control and crashed shortly after departure. The pilot and three passengers were killed. The TSB said the absence of an FDR or CVR prevented investigators from “fully identifying and understanding the sequence of events and the accident’s underlying causes and contributing factors.”

In Crisis, Luxaviation Offers a Helping Hand

In the spirit of helping its industry peers during this time of crisis, Luxembourg-based services provider Luxaviation has launched the European Business Aviation Solidarity Initiative (EBASI), a move that will make its administrative, financial, and procurement resources available to its competitors for the next three months. It will allow any participating jet operators to receive, where possible, the same pricing that Luxaviation receives from its suppliers and use the same payment terms. It will also provide operators with the option to get access to all documents required to be sent to authorities and other regulators to save costs.

“As a major player in business aviation, we take our responsibility towards our clients, partners, and the wider industry very seriously,” said Patrick Hansen, Luxaviation Group CEO, adding that the company builds its business on resources that smaller operators may lack during any Covid-19-induced lockdowns. “The initiative allows them to focus their limited resources on keeping their clients and assets safe, which is paramount to keeping the industry as healthy as possible.”

Hansen also invited the EBAA to participate in the program, to help establish a “guarantee fund" that could provide for companies in need. “If the EBAA were onboard with the initiative, we would be very much inclined to put EBASI under their supervision or coordination,” said Hansen.

Canada’s Green Research Network Sees SAF Opportunities

A recent report from Canada’s Green Aviation Research & Development Network (Gardn) showed that slowly growing use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will help facilitate the country’s aviation industry goal of a 2.6 megaton reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2030 and could eventually account for 98 percent of that total reduction.

Over its production cycle, SAF can result in CO₂ emission reductions of more than 85 percent compared to conventional jet fuel, and the report stated that while the fuel is not  commercially available in Canada for the time being, this growing sector represents many business opportunities worldwide and that a major effort must be made towards its development.

A non-profit organization, Gardn has funded 19 collaborative technology research projects to a total value of more than $20 million (CDN) that could help address environmental issues related to the aviation sector, such as greenhouse gas emissions, fuel burn, noise pollution, non-volatile particulate matter, and NOx emissions, among others.

“These collaborative projects have led to groundbreaking innovations along the supply chain and have helped transform ideas into economic value,” said Kateryna Derkach, Gardn’s director of strategy and sustainability. “By integrating cross-sectoral strengths that accelerate the development of sustainable alternatives to aircraft design, engines, avionic systems and most importantly aviation fuel, Canada would position itself as a leader in the sector.”

Important Events Note

While there have been many cancelations and postponements of important events during the Covid-19 crisis, AIN remains committed to covering the business aviation industry. Please send any news and press releases, especially related to events you had been planning to attend, to ctrautvetter@ainonline.com and we will endeavor to help share your news.