AIN today announced the nominees for its second-annual Top Flight Awards, recognizing individuals, organizations, and technologies for excellence, innovation, and service in business aviation and its related disciplines. This year, lifetime awards for individuals have been added. Winners will be announced on December 1.
Finalists by category for this year’s awards for individuals includes Charitable Hero: the Duncan Aviation family, Randall Greene, James Raisbeck, and Kenn Ricci; Safety Hero: Don Baldwin, Robert Sumwalt, and Tim Tucker; Excellence In Innovation Or Design: Jay Beever, Kenny Dichter, and Rob Weisenthal.
Nominees for best new aircraft include Cirrus SF50 G2+, Cessna Citation CJ4 Gen 2 (Textron Aviation), and HondaJet Elite S in the jet category; Epic E1000 GX and Textron Aviation King Air 260 and 360 in the turboprop segment; and NASA Mars Ingenuity and Airbus H125 with enhanced power in the helicopter category.
Other categories and nominees include Contribution to Safety: Air Charter Safety Alliance, Argus SafetyLinQ, MicroShield 360, NATA Anti-human-trafficking Campaign and U.S. Helicopter Safety Team; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Duncan Aviation Refugee Hire Program, Flexjet, and GE Foundation Next Engineers Program; Sustainability: AvFuel Book-and-Claim, the Council on Sustainable Aviation Fuels Accountability (CoSAFA), Clay Lacy Aviation, GAMI G100UL, Neste, and Rolls-Royce SAFinity; Training: APS Virtual Recovery Upset Training and VRM Switzerland; Technology: MyGoFlight HUD, Garmin Smart Glide and Smart Rudder Bias, and Mid-Continent Flex; Charter/Jet Card/Fractional: Wheels Up, Sentient Jet, Jet It/Jet Club, and Volato; and Maintenance Innovation: Bluetail and FlightSafety VR Training.
FlyExclusive Establishes New Aircraft Operations Center
Wholesale and retail charter operator flyExclusive has established a 2,500-sq-ft aircraft operations center at its Kinston, North Carolina headquarters. The new aircraft operations center brings together flyExclusive’s sales, operations, and client services teams in a single location for planning, scheduling, and operating the six-year-old company’s owned floating fleet of more than 70 business jets. The flyExclusive fleet includes Gulfstream IV-SPs and Cessna Citation Xs, Sovereigns, Excel/XLSs, CJ3s, and Encores.
Among the equipment flyExclusive operates in the new aircraft operations center is a 24-screen video wall that provides staffers information for dispatch, flight control, and crew scheduling to facilitate instantaneous communication and real-time decision-making. The center houses about 50 employees.
“The opening of our new aircraft operations center further supports flyExclusive’s explosive growth and commitment to innovation,” said president Tommy Sowers. “The investments we’ve made in bringing our teams together in a single location and equipping them with the best technology allow our clients to fly with confidence.”
Dassault Selects Ingenio for Falcon EFB Solution
Dassault Aviation has selected Ingenio Aerospace’s cockpit tablet arm to provide electronic flight bag mounting solutions for in-production Falcon jets, including the Falcon 900, 2000, 6X, 7X, and 8X. The aircraft cabin and cockpit solutions developer’s compact and lightweight cockpit tablet arm provides a secure and robust in-flight mounting system for electronic tablets, including for the Apple iPad.
Several successful project partnerships between Dassault Falcon Jet and Ingenio led to cabin and cockpit products being offered to Falcon aftermarket clients, Ingenio said. Dassault Aviation has now extended this relationship by endorsing Ingenio’s cockpit tablet arm as a newly available feature on production Falcons. According to Ingenio, the cockpit tablet arm is customized for each Falcon model, optimizing flight crew efficiency and offering access to Dassault tablet applications.
“We are very pleased to have been selected by Dassault Aviation,” said Ingenio Aerospace president and CEO James Bell. “Dassault Aviation is committed to providing world-class solutions to both its production and in-service clients. As part of that vision, we are directly contributing to the optimization of mission performance by facilitating in-flight access to critical tools such as tablets.”
Million Air Launches Green Initiative
FBO chain Million Air has unveiled a two-pronged sustainability plan, with the goal of making the Houston-based service provider net-zero in carbon emissions by 2023. This past June, the company’s Burbank, California location became its first to offer sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), with each 8,000-gallon truckload providing a 22-tonne lifecycle carbon reduction.
Beyond that, Million Air is also making environmental improvements at its facilities, with its Westchester County, New York location slated to be the first to achieve net-zero. It has been converted to 100 percent LED lighting supplemented by natural light, and hangar roofs received reflective white coatings to reduce heat gain in the summer. Along with those efforts, Million Air will invest in high-quality carbon offsets as part of its carbon assessment plans.
Other measures include the replacement of styrofoam with paper cups at its coffee bars, initiating recycling of refuse, adding electric vehicle charging stations, and running biodiesel in its ground service equipment. Further initiatives call for the use of high-carbon-uptake plants in landscaping and installation of solar energy panels at suitable locations.
“Our strategy recognizes there are two sides to general aviation’s opportunities to reduce carbon,” said chief brand officer Sandy Nelson, “not only by providing SAF to our carbon reduction-committed customers but also ensuring Million Air is equally focused on carbon reduction efforts at its own facilities.”
Avionics Update for the venerable King Air
Upgrading your King Air panel with Avidyne’s FMS/LPV solution will improve your aircraft’s flight deck capabilities with more features and simplicity of operation. Learn more about Avidyne’s FMS and LPV Upgrade Solutions for your King Air.
NBAA Offering Safety Management Certificate Program
NBAA is launching a safety manager certificate program that is designed to elevate education on safety in business aircraft operations. The association collaborated with Advanced Aircrew Academy, Convergent Performance, and Fireside Partners to develop the certificate initiative as an entry-level or mid-level path to expanding and demonstrating knowledge of safety management.
Program participants will complete course modules covering leadership, safety policy, safety risk management, safety assurance, safety promotion, and emergency response. These areas are all elements of safety management system programs.
Once participants complete the program and pass a final exam, they will receive a certificate and digital badge validating their knowledge. Beginning in January, the program will be offered in two eight-week periods each year, including several hours of weekly asynchronous learning modules, self-study reading references, webinar interaction, “ask the experts” elements, and test preparation.
NBAA believes the program will benefit flight department personnel who are responsible for safety management responsibilities, as well as professionals looking to work in business aircraft operations.
“The primary objective of the assessment-based certificate program is to help flight department personnel who have been assigned safety management responsibilities, typically as an ancillary duty, so they can effectively manage a business aviation organization’s safety management efforts, including its safety management system,” said Mark Larsen, NBAA director of safety and flight operations.
Skytrac and Stars Test In-flight Medical Data Transfer
In partnership with Canadian air ambulance provider Stars, Skytrac Systems has successfully tested in-flight medical data transfer from a new five-blade Airbus Helicopters H145D3. Skytrac used a combination of satellite and cellular connectivity via its ISAT-200A Iridium satcom and DAL-200 cellular/Wi-Fi communications unit to provide dynamic data routing through various channels for real-time patient data.
Metrics such as O2 and CO2 saturation, pulse rate, and blood pressure acquired from onboard medical devices can be viewed by transport physicians remotely through secure servers in real-time. In 2020, Skytrac and Stat Medevac successfully ground-tested the transmission of encrypted medical data from a Zoll X series monitor/defibrillator.
According to Skytrac, transmission of real-time medical data in-flight will enable healthcare practitioners to access data such as 12-lead electrocardiogram reports before patients arrive at the receiving hospital, saving valuable seconds during one of the riskiest phases of care. Telemedicine applications may also be enabled, pending the availability of the required onboard equipment.
Stars provides air medical transport from bases in Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Regina, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg. Since 1986, Skytrac has developed flight following, flight data, and communications technology. Its systems are certified on more than 900 airframes and its online data management portal is used by 7,500 customers worldwide.
Field Aero Upgrades Avionics on USAF Beechjet Fleet
Field Aerospace has completed avionics upgrades on more than 50 T-1A Jayhawks, the military designation for the Beechjet 400A, for the U.S. Air Force. Oklahoma City-based Field was selected as the prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force Avionics Modernization Program on the T-1A.
That contract calls for Field to upgrade the Air Force’s fleet of 178 T-1As over seven years. The company is teaming with subcontractors Nextant Aerospace, Collins Aerospace, Hebco, and FlightSafety International to complete the work, which calls for upgrading the twinjets' flight decks to Collins’s Pro Line 21 avionics. That system enables the T-1A to meet the FAA’s ADS-B Out mandate, as well as eliminate avionics obsolescence.
Stationed across five Air Force and Navy bases—Columbus in Mississippi, Laughlin and Randolph in Texas, Vance in Oklahoma, and Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida—the T-1A is used for advanced-phase training of airlift and tanker pilots, as well as combat systems officer training.
New South Wales Police Switch To Bell 429s
Australia’s New South Wales Police Force (NSWPF) Aviation Command has acquired three new Bell 429 helicopters to be used to support patrols, search and rescue, surveillance, and special operations across the state. The new helicopters are equipped with a suite of special mission equipment including a Trakka beam searchlight, FLIR HDc 380 camera system, advanced mapping systems, tactical radios, and a rescue hoist winch.
Funded by the $50 million Future Light Helicopter Program, the three rotorcraft will replace a mixed fleet of older Airbus single and light twin helicopters, and join the NSWPF’s existing fleet of two Bell 412s and three Cessna Caravans. The new 429s were assembled in Canada in 2020, before being delivered to the command’s airbase in Bankstown this year, where they will be maintained by the command’s full-time crew of on-site maintenance technicians.
The aviation command services NSWPF across an area of approximately 309,000 square miles in major land and sea operations, emergency rescues, major incident response, surveillance and reconnaissance, tactical operations, counter-terrorism, and organized crime operations/investigations.
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
Provided by
Which of the following hazards increase the risk of a runway overrun?
A. Unstabilized approach.
B. High density altitude.
C. A wet or contaminated runway.
D. All of the above.
AIN Events: Building a Sustainable Flight Department
AIN continues to host one-day regional conferences to help corporate flight departments become more sustainable, with the next set for November 10 in Dallas. Attendees will learn about aviation’s contribution to carbon emissions, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), regulator/government roles in minimizing aviation emissions (including CORSIA and carbon credits), and making sense of carbon offsets, among others. You’ll also have an opportunity to network with other top-tier aircraft operators and presenters. Future events will also be held in Fort Lauderdale (December 8) and Los Angeles (January 19). Register today, as seating is limited.
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