UK Bizjet Confiscated in Nigeria over Covid Violations

An Embraer Legacy 600 operated by UK-based charter provider Flairjet—a subsidiary of Flexjet Ltd.—was impounded this week and its crew arrested and placed in quarantine after allegedly violating Nigeria’s Covid-19 travel restrictions. According to reports, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority is investigating whether the aircraft, registered as G-ERFX, was engaged in commercial operations despite airspace closure in the country due to the pandemic.

The reports state Flairjet was granted a permit for a humanitarian flight on May 13 and, according to its flight plan, the 13-seat Legacy departed London Stansted Airport on May 17 with six passengers on board. After a stop in Spain, it landed in Nigeria with a total of seven passengers. At Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, it was determined by Nigerian officials that Flairjet actually was conducting a revenue flight with a plan to return with another seven passengers on board.

Hadi Sirika, the country’s Minister of Aviation, tweeted, “Flair Aviation [sic], a UK company, was given approval for humanitarian operations, but regrettably we caught them conducting commercial flights,” adding “there shall be maximum penalty.”

In response to an inquiry from AIN, Flairjet responded: “We are continuing to respectfully work with the Nigerian authorities and the British consulate to resolve this situation for this flight. However, because it is an evolving situation we cannot say anything further at this time.”

10-year Phenom Inspections Keep Clay Lacy Aviation Busy

Clay Lacy Aviation has been keeping busy with 10-year/120-month inspections of Embraer Phenom 100 and 300 twinjets, even adding $1.8 million in Phenom parts inventory to keep pace with the work and ensure on-time aircraft delivery. The company has completed 10 Phenom 100/300 120-month inspections at its California Part 145 repair stations at Van Nuys (VNY) and McClellan-Palomar (CRQ) airports, and it has five more such inspections underway.

So far, the inspections have yielded additional work such as seat reupholstery, new carpet installation, baggage-area refurbishment, connectivity upgrades to Gogo Avance L3, and, in the Phenom 100, installation of Garmin’s G1000 NXi integrated flight deck. “The Phenom is a tremendous aircraft, and demand for inspection and upgrade services has been very strong,” said Clay Lacy Embraer program manager Ned Zolota.

A Phenom 120-month inspection involves removal of the interior and opening of all inspection panels and generally lasts three weeks without landing-gear overhaul. If the landing gear is overhauled, the project typically extends to four or five weeks.

An authorized Embraer service center, Clay Lacy Aviation supports more than 100 Phenom 100s and 300s with more than 20 Phenom-trained technicians between its VNY and CRQ facilities.

Dominvs Aviation Merges with Azzura Charters

London-based Dominvs Aviation is building on its air charter capabilities with the incorporation of Azzura Charters into its business. The merged entity helps Dominvs Aviation to continue to build on its business aircraft charter expertise and experience, the company said.

Melanie Blackman, who has led Azzura Charters for the past seven years, is joining the Dominvs team as head of charter services. In that role, she is managing day-to-day charter sales and operations for Dominvs's owned and managed fleet, along with brokerage of partner jets and helicopters. 

Part of the Dominvs Group, Dominvs Aviation was launched a year ago by its CEO, Chris Mace, and Dominvs Group chairman Sukhpal Ahluwalia to provide a range of business aircraft sales, charter, and asset-management services. Mace had previously founded charter operator SaxonAir.

Teaming with Dominvs Group gives the business aviation services startup Azzura a strong backer—the privately-owned Dominvs Group has more than £1 billion ($1.23 billion) under management in the hotel, residential, and commercial real-estate sectors in the UK.

Pro Star Completes First Avance L5 Install in PC-24

Pro Star Aviation has completed the first installation of Gogo’s Avance L5 air-to-ground connectivity system in a Pilatus PC-24, replacing its factory-installed Gogo ATG 2000 system. “The connectivity requirements of our customers and the connectivity equipment options are ever-changing,” said Pro Star business development manager Jeff Shaw. “Even though the PC-24 is a new aircraft, Pro Star Aviation was still able to enhance the aircraft by installing the latest, most powerful connectivity solution available for this class of aircraft.”

The business aviation and special missions modification specialist at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire said it completed the installation in less than two weeks. It did so using FAA-approved data along with its in-house engineering team and a designated engineering representative (DER), allowing it to create a custom engineering package specifically for the Swiss-built PC-24 twinjet.

Avance L5 is a single platform system offering high-speed 4G broadband connectivity for video streaming, internet, and email-with-attachment access, as well as voice and text capabilities, that allow up to 40 devices to connect simultaneously. It also provides secure connections such as virtual private networks (VPN).

GKN Signs as Key Supplier on Eviation’s Alice Electric Aircraft

GKN Aerospace has agreed to supply the wings, empennage, and electrical wiring interconnection systems (EWIS) for the Alice regional electric aircraft recently launched by Eviation, the companies announced Monday. The all-composite electric aircraft, designed to fly up to distances of 650 miles, will use distributed propulsion, high-energy-density batteries, so-called mission-driven energy management, and a new airframe tailored to such technological advances for regional flight operators.

In January, a prototype of the Alice caught fire during ground testing and was badly damaged. Eviation has declined to comment on when plans to start flight testing, which had been expected early in 2020, may resume.

GKN lays claim as the world’s multi-technology leader in the design and manufacture of lightweight aerostructures and EWIS systems. It serves as a partner in the Airbus ‘Wing of Tomorrow’ program and is a Tier 1 supplier of lightweight business jet empennages. As part of GKN Aerospace’s collaboration agreement with Eviation, design and manufacturing activities have already begun at Eviation’s Isreal facilities and in several GKN Aerospace engineering centers across Europe.

"The development of all-electric aircraft is ground-breaking; it’s a step-change in aviation and we are delighted to contribute,” said GKN president of civil airframes John Pritchard. “As technology leaders in wing, empennage, and EWIS design, we can bring unrivaled knowledge and expertise to the project.”

NATA Sees Red Flags in “Stop-eviction” Ordinances

With many local governments and municipalities issuing stop-eviction ordinances intended to provide short-term relief to commercial businesses during the Covid-19 crisis, NATA sees this as a potential problem in the case of airports because it might cause them to run afoul of their FAA grant assurance compliance.

In a white paper released this week, NATA argued that “any county or city council action or amendment that puts an airport enterprise fund at risk by allowing the airport commercial tenants to forgo paying rent without showing and having confirmed evidence of financial need and without facing any repercussion of eviction, thereby interferes with the airport’s ability to comply with Grant Assurance 24 because it directly and significantly reduces the collection of revenues by the airport.”

NATA observed that due to the current downturn in operations as a result of the pandemic, most public-use airports are struggling to meet their own operating expenses and financial obligations, and any unilateral ordinance allowing deferment of rent or fees without penalty could result in negative cash flow.

Likewise, master leaseholders, who are required to make expensive capital improvements to their leaseholds, are dependent upon monthly payments from subtenants, while still being required to make full payments to their lenders.

In response, NATA advised municipalities to permit airports to work individually with their commercial tenants in establishing relief efforts.

ACA Purification System Installed on First Falcon 900

Western Aircraft has completed the first installation of the Component cabin purification system from Aviation Clean Air (ACA) on a Dassault Falcon 900, the Boise, Idaho-based MRO announced this week. “Since the COVID-19 issue arose, we have received a great deal of customer interest in the ACA Component,” said Western Aircraft's sales and marketing director Kerry Heiss. 

The device is an ionizer that neutralizes a variety of pathogens in aircraft cabin air and surfaces continuously. Mounted to an airplane’s existing environmental control system supply duct, it works electronically to create positive and negative ions from hydrogen and oxygen molecules in the water vapor present in the air that cluster around microparticles, gases, airborne mold spores, viruses, and bacteria.

When the system is on, pathogens on cabin surfaces and in the air are inactivated, according to ACA, which notes on its website that independent testing of bipolar ionization has been effective in killing eight different pathogens including C. difficile, staph, and norovirus. The company also acknowledged that no analytical testing has been done on the effects of bipolar ionization on Covid-19.

Western’s Heiss added installation of Component is simple and provides for minimal aircraft downtime. In addition to operating as a Dassault Falcon-authorized service center, Western is able to install Component on other business aircraft, including Gulfstream, Embraer, and Citation models.

ERAU: Drones Often Lack FAA Approval and Fly Too High

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University researchers today reported that the vast majority of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) detected around Daytona Beach International Airport during a 30-day period in 2019 lacked FAA approval, while more than one-third of those drones were flying higher than the law allows. This report follows safety research published April 23 in the International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace (IJAAA) revealing that aircraft too often must share airspace with unauthorized drones.

An FAA-approval system for commercial and recreational drone flights in controlled airspace, called LAANC (Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability), would reduce noncompliant UAS operations by at least 30 percent within six months, the researchers noted. “This voluntary approval process doesn’t seem to be working as expected,” said Embry-Riddle associate professor of aeronautical science Dr. John M. Robbins.

Only 19 of 271 detected DJI-type drone flights (7 percent) had received approval from the FAA to fly in the locations and at the times they flew, according to the study. The study also revealed that 34.3 percent of the detected drones exceeded the legal altitude level of 400 feet agl. Among the group flying too high, 32 were higher than 500 feet agl, six were detected above 1,000 feet, and three exceeded 1,500 feet.

AIN Product Support Survey Now Open

Tell us about the product support you receive from business aviation OEMs. The 2020 AIN Product Support Survey is now online, ready for selected readers to rate aircraft, engine, and avionics support. AIN readers who have been selected to participate in this year’s Product Support Survey should have received their account number and link to the online survey website by e-mail. The survey needs to be completed by midnight on June 12.