New York’s HPN Is Back in Business

New York City-area business aviation hub Westchester County Airport (HPN) reopened its 6,500-foot Runway 16/34 Thursday after a three-week-long resurfacing project. While the project was originally intended to involve mainly nighttime work, officials decided to take advantage of the Covid-19-induced lull in traffic to accelerate the work schedule.

According to county executive George Latimer, by changing the schedule, paving operations were shortened from three months to three weeks, with as much as 6,000 tons of asphalt placed in one day.

To celebrate the reopening, HPN-based aircraft charter, management, maintenance, and flight training provider Performance Flight launched an aerial “Scavenger Hunt” for clients looking to fly again. “On the heels of a lengthy quarantine, they were anxious to leave their homes and enjoy some freedom,” said company president Lewis Liebert. “After nearly three months of planes sitting idle, we needed some innovative ideas.” Pilots were given a list of airports, each with an assigned point value, as well as certain landmarks.

Once the new pavement on HPN's Runway 16/34 has aged for a minimum of 30 days, it will require grooving to provide channels for the escape of standing water, and the airport will issue another notice regarding nighttime closures that will begin around mid-June and last for approximately 20 days, according to airport manager Peter Scherrer.

Opinion: Autonomous Genav Flight Not Far Away

The recent news that Garmin’s Autoland system received FAA certification in the Piper M600/SLS signaled a step-change for general aviation (GA): near-autonomous flight capability. Garmin’s Autonomi product family, which includes Autoland, has implications beyond traditional GA operations.

Autoland is already awaiting certification in the Daher TBM 940, where it is branded as HomeSafe, and Cirrus Vision Jet as Safe Return, and Garmin has said that more applications are coming. It is a remarkable achievement—a system that with the push of a button takes control of the airplane, finds a nearby suitable airport, lands the airplane, and shuts off the engine. The idea here is to give passengers an option if the pilot becomes incapacitated, but there is a lot more to Autoland.

There have been plenty of accidents where a pilot flying alone has passed out. Autoland, if installed in these airplanes, could easily have prevented these accidents, because even if no one pushes the button, it will automatically engage if there is no pilot interaction with the avionics after a set period of time.

But what’s next? How big a market would GA be if someone could buy an airplane and fly it without any experience at all? I’m going to guess it would be huge, and we might be about to find out.

Covid Putting Charter Ops Under New Level of Scrutiny

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way customers are approaching their air charter trips, with some paying close attention to health and sanitization protective measures and details down to the brands of cleaners used, industry executives said. Speaking during an NATA “Air Charter Roundtable: Forging Ahead” webinar last week, the executives warned that charter operators must implement best practices for future survivability.

Elleana Spanos, North America legal counsel for charter broker Air Charter Service (ACS), said the number-one question her firm gets from prospective clients is how the operator handles health and sanitization protection. In turn, she added, “We’re proactively looking into that.”

“We've had to literally double the number of metrics that we track, things that we never knew that we would have to be interested in,” said Todd Weeber, COO of jet membership firm Magellan Jets. “We had a supply chain of 112 operators and we pulled it back worldwide to 35” so they could have better clarity of the operators' financial underpinnings, as well as whether they are complying with U.S. CDC and FAA guidance.

“We get detailed reports [from clients] of who's wearing masks and when, who had hand sanitizer, who had PPE available for guests and who didn't,” he noted. “The main thing that will benefit all of us is…bringing people together and the free sharing of information.”

NTSB Faults Safety Culture in Aeromed Crash

Last week, the NTSB found that a helicopter air ambulance operator’s “inadequate management of safety” was the probable cause of the fatal crash of a Bell 407 in Zaleski, Ohio, on Jan. 29, 2019. The Survival Flight helicopter crashed while on a VFR flight in an area of deteriorating weather en route to a patient pickup, killing all three crew aboard. Pilot Jennifer Topper was attempting to make a 180-degree turn in an area of localized snow showers when the aircraft crashed in a heavily wooded area.

The NTSB found that Survival Flight’s routine failure to use preflight risk assessment had become “normalized” and that employees said management pressured them to accept flights rejected by other helicopter air ambulance services due to weather. The NTSB again called for mandated safety management systems (SMS) for all Part 135 operators and faulted the FAA for “inadequate oversight” of Survival Flight’s risk-management program.

NTSB Investigators said the safety risks that existed at Survival Flight would likely have been identified and mitigated by a properly-run SMS, which could have prevented this crash. “We keep asking that safety management systems be required of Part 135 operators because we keep seeing crashes the systems are designed to prevent,” said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt. “This has to change, and it is past time for the FAA to implement our recommendation.”

ERAU Sets Stage for June 30 Return of Classes

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), which has resumed flight and housing operations, plans to reopen its campuses in Florida and Arizona for face-to-face instruction beginning June 30 with a series of health precautions in place.

The board of trustees unanimously voted in favor of the move, the university said. “We continue to review all progress and monitor every phase of the strategy. We believe that a structured, cautious return to normal operations will provide a platform for our institution’s long-term success and better prepare us for the fall semester,” said Mori Hosseini, chairman of the university’s board of trustees.

ERAU outlined a series of measures that it plans to implement over the summer, including following all federal, state, and local guidance; limiting classroom capacity to ensure physical distancing; optimizing class schedules to minimize contact; pre-screening returning students; requiring cloth face coverings in common areas on campus; mandating daily wellness checks; installing plexiglass barriers and implementing “smart pathways;” and making sanitizers readily available.

“Our plan focuses on statistical risk testing, risk mitigation, support for contact tracing—and, most importantly, education,” said ERAU president P. Barry Butler. “We are continuing to educate our community on the risks, create redundancy across all of our safety standards, and finalize our testing protocols.”

Appareo Upgrades EnVision FDM Software

Appareo has upgraded its web-based EnVision analysis software for flight data monitoring (FDM) and flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) programs. EnVision can now accept flight data from devices other than the company’s Vision 1000 cockpit recorder, including other Appareo devices and third-party sources.

“While many flight analysis applications require significant technical capability to operate with effectiveness, EnVision was built with a focus on ease of use,” said Appareo president and CEO David Batcheller.

EnVision allows aircraft operators to access past and current flight data, generate detailed reports, and see trends in the safety improvements in their operations. Data is transferred from an aircraft to a local computer via SD card, then uploaded to Appareo's servers for analysis. The software parses all flight data against customized, user-defined event triggers, enabling detailed reports and trend analysis.

Data transfer can be instantaneous or scheduled to accommodate operators who need to move it during periods of low network activity due to bandwidth limitations. Flight data is archived to, and retrievable from, Appareo servers, allowing customers to access data online as needed. EnVision is offered on a per-aircraft subscription basis without user limits and includes the hosting of stored flight data.

Uniflight Global Adds Fixed-wing Avionics Offering

Helicopter MRO provider Uniflight Global is expanding its avionics product and service offerings to include fixed-wing aircraft, the Grand Prairie, Texas-based company announced this week. “The influx of new business as a result of recent wins to upgrade both government and private-sector fixed-wing aircraft offers a testament to our focus on and support of fixed-winged platforms,” said Uniflight v-p of sales Ray Weiser.

The company—which operates Part 145 repair facilities in Texas and Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania—noted that it has prior experience with fixed-wing avionics, including a 2017 project to install a tactical flight officer station in a law enforcement customer’s Cessna 206 that led to additional installs for its fixed-wing fleet. More recently, the appointment of Kimberley Christianson to oversee Uniflight’s avionics and aircraft completions business has bolstered its opportunities for more fixed-wing projects.

“Kim’s vast knowledge and depth of experience with design and integration have earned her a reputation for quality with a strong following of loyal customers who operate both rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft in very demanding missions,” Weiser said.

European Orgs Ask for More Industry Input on Drone Regs

The European aviation community, including EBAA, is asking to regulators put a pause on its current proposal surrounding the integration of drones into the airspace and pursue a more comprehensive consultation on the issue that provides for greater industry input and clarity. Members of the “We are all ONE in the sky” initiative, including 17 industry organizations, wrote the European Commission last week saying they believe the upcoming “U-Space” airspace regulation is an important first step toward achieving a performance- and risk-based approach to integration.

“Unfortunately, while some progress has been made since the draft opinion was first published in October 2019, the draft regulation still does not fully address the concerns that have been consistently raised by the signatories to this letter,” the organizations said.

The groups previously had voiced concerns surrounding conflict management flight authorizations, responsibilities, and information exchanges. “It is essential to pause activities (at least four months) to provide the opportunity for all manned and unmanned aviation stakeholders to work together and address the key areas of concern,” they told the EC.

“EBAA has always supported an inclusive approach that takes into account the needs of all airspace users. The current proposal from EASA is a promising first step, but more work is required to find a solution that does not limit airspace availability,” said EBAA secretary-general Athar Husain Khan.