Raisbeck Wins FAA STC for Hartzell King Air 200 Prop

Raisbeck Engineering has received an STC from the FAA for Hartzell’s new composite five-blade swept propeller introduced at NBAA-BACE 2019 for Beechcraft King Air 200 series twin-turboprops, allowing installations and first deliveries to begin next month, the Seattle-based aircraft modification company announced this week. “We’re very excited about this latest performance improvement certification for the King Air 200,” Raisbeck president Lynn Thomas said. “Our new composite five-blade propeller will enable King Air owners to take advantage of a broader offering and more opportunity to upgrade the performance of their aircraft.”

According to Hartzell, the structural carbon fiber composite propeller with nickel cobalt leading edges provides for a larger, 96-inch diameter prop with less blade tip noise that weighs 48 pounds less than OEM-installed propellers. Raisbeck added the propeller delivers more than 15 percent greater takeoff acceleration, more than 20 percent improved climb rate, and 30 percent less noise in the cabin.

Raisbeck will now seek STC approvals from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Transport Canada, and Brazil's ANAC.

AINsight: A Day to Remember

They are called the Greatest Generation, the soldiers, pilots, and sailors who fought and won World War II, and there are fewer of them every day. After the National World War II Memorial opened on the National Mall between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial in 2004, Earl Morse, a retired Air Force captain and physician assistant who worked in a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Springfield, Ohio, realized that many of his WWII patients would not be able to travel to D.C. to visit it.

A private pilot, Morse offered to fly with two veterans to Washington, and in January 2005 he pitched the idea to fellow private pilots at his local Air Force aero club. That May, after forming a charitable organization and raising funds, six small airplanes each carried two WWII veterans to D.C. in what became the first Honor Flight. By the end of the year, that number had swelled to 126 veterans transported on a mixture of small aircraft and commercial flights.

A similar organization struck up the idea of ramping up the scale of the project and chartering whole commercial airliners to carry the veterans and their escorts; the two merged in 2007 to form the Honor Flight Network. By 2017, a total of 130 regional hubs existed across the U.S., and they had transported more than 200,000 WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans on expense-paid trips to view their memorials.

On October 12, I had the proud task of serving as my 94-year-old WWII-veteran uncle’s escort/guardian on the Hudson Valley (New York) Honor Flight’s 24th mission.

GAO Report Examines FBO Pricing

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on pricing of aviation services found that FBO pricing depends on many variables. According to the results from interviews with industry stakeholders, the GAO found that an FBO's costs to build and maintain facilities such as hangars and fuel farms, as well as operating costs, seasonal demand, and competition, influence pricing.

While some aviation groups, spearheaded by AOPA, have called for greater transparency of prices, the GAO developed a statistical model to analyze variation in fuel prices across airports in the contiguous U.S. in response to a request to examine FBO pricing and the FAA’s oversight of related airport grant assurances. Since 2007, the agency has doled out more than $37 billion in grants to airports to fund capital development and is responsible for ensuring compliance with requirements, including providing airport users equal access to airport services such as fueling.

The GAO statistical model confirmed a correlation between cost and demand factors and found higher prices at airports with higher cost and demand. While on-airport competition could result in lower prices at busy airports, the agency noted not all airports can support more than one FBO. According to the report, FBO pricing has not been identified as a widespread area of concern.

FAA To Take Full Control of Max Airworthiness Certification

Boeing has lost its approval to certify individual 737 Max jets for flight as a result of a decision by the U.S. FAA to bar the manufacturer from issuing its own airworthiness certificates under its organizational designation authority (ODA). The agency said it would reserve the authority to issue the certificates until Boeing puts in place “fully functional quality control and verification processes.” In the past, the FAA shared responsibility with Boeing to issue certification ahead of delivery.

“The FAA will retain such authority until the agency is confident that, at a minimum, Boeing has fully functional quality control and verification processes in place; delivery processes are similarly functional and stable; and Boeing’s 737 Max compliance, design, and production processes meet all regulatory standards and conditions for delegation and ensure the safety of the public,” the agency wrote in a November 26 letter to Boeing. In a statement issued to AIN, the agency said it has enough inspectors in place to meet Boeing’s expected delivery capacity. 

The FAA’s retention of the authority does not affect Max jets certified before the model’s grounding in March. However, operators of those aircraft must comply with all changes required by an FAA airworthiness directive the agency will issue as part of its requirements for the model's return to service.

Canada Looks To Add SAF at Vancouver Intl. Airport

With an aim toward advancing the availability of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Canada, fuel provider SkyNRG has partnered with several industry stakeholders, including the Green Aviation Research and Development Network (GARDN), a non-profit funded by the Canadian government and the country’s aerospace industry; Waterfall Group; and the Vancouver Airport Authority to launch BioPort YVR.

The new organization will consider the viability of implementing regional supply chains to distribute SAF at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), Canada’s second busiest airport, and its surrounding British Columbia aviation gateways. Its first step will be a comprehensive feasibility study commissioned by GARDN that brings together SAF initiative development and airport sustainability experts. The report is due in March 2020, after which project partners will develop a series of recommendations for the introduction of SAF at YVR.

Additionally, Canada-based charter operator NovaJet Aviation recently announced it would partner with carbon offset provider TerraPass to allow its clients to purchase credits to offset the carbon footprint of their private flights.

“By partnering with TerraPass, we are ensuring that contributions go towards research and environmental initiatives aimed at a long-term approach to sustainability, said NovaJet president and CEO Phillip Babbitt.

MD Helicopters Increases Afghan Deliveries

MD Helicopters has delivered the final five MD 530F Cayuse Warriors to the Afghan Air Force that were part of a 30-aircraft order placed in September 2017, the comany announced on Monday. The order was part of a $1.4 billion, five-year IDIQ (indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity) contract. Sixty 530Fs have been delivered to the Afghan Air Force.

The aircraft are shipped to Afghanistan via Boeing 747 freighter from MD’s assembly plant in Mesa, Arizona, to Kandahar, where they are reassembled and readied for flight. MD has 24 aircraft contracted via the IDIQ contract and future deliveries remain on schedule.

“The iconic MD Helicopters airframe was born to serve the warfighter,” said MD CEO Lynn Tilton. “As a proud American manufacturer with a decades-long pedigree of delivering best-in-class rotorcraft options, we remain committed to the ongoing delivery of robust light scout attack helicopter solutions to U.S. and allied nations around the world.” 

BBD Awards Safety Honor to Phoenix Air Group’s Ott

Bombardier honored Michael Ott of the international air ambulance provider Phoenix Air Group with the 2019 Bombardier Safety Standdown Award. Presented during the 23rd annual Safety Standdown held earlier this month in Fort Worth, Texas, the annual award recognizes an “aviation professional who has demonstrated exemplary dedication to improving aviation safety through the Safety Standdown principles of learn, apply, and share.” Ott was nominated for his outstanding leadership in aviation safety management over a 35-plus year career, Bombardier added.

Currently director of government contracting and lead international captain/instructor pilot for Phoenix Air Group, Ott also has spent more than a decade as a line captain on the Learjet 35/36 for the operator and steered the development and implementation of its safety management system. He is active in a range of safety initiatives, serving as a designated IS-BAO auditor, a member of the IS-BAO standards board, and the communications and events team lead for the NBAA Safety Committee.

A former Marine, Ott has amassed more than 14,200 flight hours, half of which involved international missions that included evacuation flights out of North Korea and out of West Africa during the Ebola crisis. Andy Nureddin, v-p of customer support for Bombardier Aviation, praised Ott “for his great passion and his exemplary leadership in promoting aviation safety and professionalism in our industry."

U.S. Security Concerns Mount Over Chinese Drones

The U.S. Department of Interior is standing down its 800-plus drone fleet either of Chinese origin or that carry Chinese components pending a security review, the department announced last week. The move came after the House Committee on Homeland Security voted on October 23 to ban the U.S. government purchase of Chinese drones for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It's the latest measure highlighting potential security concerns voiced by lawmakers and other government officials regarding the potential for Chinese companies and the Chinese government to misuse data from U.S.-based drones for nefarious purposes. 

Concern about the issue was first widely publicized in 2017, when separate organizations within the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy issued memoranda outlining technological and operational risks associated with using Chinese-manufactured drones and the Army ordered its forces to stop using them. Separately that year, Homeland Security issued an unclassified memo that flagged drones manufactured by China’s DJI, the world’s largest manufacturer of recreational UAS, as a security risk. 

DJI has repeatedly and vociferously denied charges that data from its drones is used for illicit purposes such as espionage, but did admit that its data was shared with the Chinese government as it applies to drone operations in China to comply with “location-specific rules and policies within China” related to registration and no-fly zones.

Pilatus Refreshes PC-12 with New NGX Model

Pilatus is refreshing its strong-selling PC-12 family of business and utility aircraft, with the launch of the new PC-12 NGX model. The new version of the highly versatile single-engine aircraft offers a newly designed cabin, a new avionics suite and a higher-performance, more cost effective engine.