AINalerts will not be published on Thursday, November 28 in observance of Thanksgiving Day in the U.S.

Pilatus Aircraft Delivers 1,700th PC-12

Pilatus Aircraft this week handed over the 1,700th PC-12 some 25 years after the turboprop single entered service. The milestone aircraft—S/N 1912—went to long-time fleet customer Jetfly Aviation, with the fractional provider’s managing director, Maxime Bouchard, taking the keys during a ceremony at Pilatus’s headquarters in Stans, Switzerland.

“We are thrilled to be taking delivery of the 1,700th PC-12,” said Jetfly CEO Cédric Lescop. “Jetfly operates the largest fleet of PC-12s in Europe, with 40 aircraft in service. The success of the Jetfly fractional program would not have been possible without this…aircraft.”

Meanwhile, Pilatus reported that the worldwide PC-12 fleet has logged more than seven million hours since the type entered service in mid-1994 with launch customer Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, which currently has 31 PC-12s and three PC-24s in its fleet. The Swiss aircraft manufacturer said it expects to deliver more than 80 PC-12s this year.

Embraer Exec Jets Expands Mx Footprint at FLL

Embraer Services & Support has expanded its executive jets service center at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) via a lease agreement with Jetscape Services for a dedicated hangar. The company's Florida presence is “strategic” to its business jet customers throughout the Southern U.S., the Caribbean, and Central America, as well as to those who transit South Florida.

“The added capacity [will] better serve our customers, whether they are based in the region or just traveling through Florida,” said Embraer Services & Support v-p for global MRO centers Frank Stevens. “Our expansion in South Florida allows us to further elevate the customer experience for aircraft owners and fleet operators alike, in addition to creating 40 new jobs for the community.”

Embraer’s service center in South Florida is also the base for its airworthiness management program, where customers can meet with the team to learn how the program can be customized. The program provides customers with a dedicated certified airworthiness manager to plan, coordinate, and monitor all maintenance and airworthiness requirements throughout the aircraft’s lifecycle, according to Embraer.

APS Turns Focus to Single-pilot UPRT

Upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) specialist Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) is offering a free, special week-long safety initiative for single-pilot operators that includes an upgraded hour-long simulator session, along with multi-day on-aircraft training. To take place at APS headquarters in Arizona, the training is available to all single-pilot operators, whether piston, turboprop, turbofan, or turbojet. APS is offering the free one-hour advanced UPRT simulator upgrade to the first 50 booked through November 29.

“Because single-pilot operators are more than six times as likely as crew pilots to experience a loss of control inflight [LOC-I] related incident, mitigating this risk through properly conducted UPRT is a critical safety goal for the aviation industry,” APS said.

While the training provider stressed the effectiveness of in-aircraft UPRT programs, it added that some critical UPRT scenarios cannot safely be practiced in an airplane. “This upgrade allows single pilots, who are generally less likely to add simulator training to their UPRT program, an opportunity to get comprehensive training and reduce their risk of LOC-I.”

Belgian FBO To Add Antwerp Hangar

Belgium-based aviation services provider ASL Group, which began offering FBO services earlier this year at several European locations, has broken ground on a 26,000-sq-ft (2,400-sq-m) hangar at its facility at Antwerp International Airport. It will join the company’s existing hangar, which opened in 2006 to support the company's initial private jet charter business. The new structure features a 131-foot-wide, 26.9-foot-high door and is located directly across from the original hangar. It is expected to be completed in the third quarter.

“This marks a very important milestone in the development of our company and of our activities, and also in our strong partnership with the airport management team and authorities,” said company CEO Philippe Bodson. “With the growth of our fleet and with the expansion of our services, this new hangar marks even more the importance of Antwerp for the future of our company.”

In addition to Antwerp, which Bodson noted is ASL’s most important base, the company also provides FBO services at the Netherlands’ Maastricht and Groningen Airports, as well as some handling at Liege Airport.

Services include short- and long-term parking (outdoors, with limited hangar space available); refueling; line service, including cleaning, dishwashing, laundry, and lav service; line maintenance; customs and immigration (in coordination with airport police and customs); catering; flight-planning facilities; crew lounge; and car rentals.

MRO Insider Adds Yingling To Mx Quoting Network

Yingling Aviation—a Wichita-based FBO and maintenance, repair, and overhaul provider—has joined Michigan-based maintenance quoting platform MRO Insider. “They have a stellar reputation for providing quality Cessna Citation and King Air maintenance in a timely manner,” said MRO Insider co-founder Andy Nixon. “With around 300 Citations and King Airs registered on MRO Insider to date, this addition will allow yet another option for maintenance besides the OEM.”

The move comes after Yingling added 70,000 sq ft of space at Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) earlier this year to include a paint shop and expanded space for maintenance and its avionics shop. In all, Yingling occupies 125,000 sq ft at the Wichita airport.

“We have been interested in the MRO Insider program and have monitored it for over a year,” said Yingling v-p of business development Jerry Pickett. “With its continued growth and our significant expansion of capabilities, facilities, and staff, the time was right for us to participate in the MRO Insider network.”

Vref: Used Bizjet Sales Slow, Inventory Creeps Up

Business jet market activity is slowing with fewer preowned transactions and increasing inventory, Vref Aircraft Reference Value, Appraisal & Litigation Services said today. The for-sale fleet of in-service aircraft is up 1 percent from this time last year, to 10 percent, while retail transactions in the third quarter were down 15 percent year-over-year. Third-quarter transactions also were down 17 percent from the second quarter, Vref added.

Of the for-sale business jet fleet, 20 percent are 10 years or younger while 25 percent are more than 30 years old. More than half of the fleet older than 30 years is not equipped with ADS-B Out, Vref noted.

But Vref also said that 82 percent of the worldwide business jet fleet is now equipped. The oldest models—those over 30 years—represent 61 percent of the unequipped fleet. This amounts to 2,500 aircraft. Of those, just over 2,000 are midsize or smaller, Vref said.

Meanwhile, the preowned turboprop market is stable and “demonstrating…normal market conditions,” Vref noted. The average days on market are the same as a year ago, but prices are down. Available inventory is a mixed bag, with some models up for certain King Air models but turboprop singles holding steady with few Pilatus PC-12 NGs available and a “sharp decline” in Cessna Caravan inventory.

Inmarsat Moving forward with Helo Connectivity Service

Inmarsat is rolling out of a new high-speed system specifically designed to provide reliable connectivity services to rotorcraft. SwiftBroadband Helo X-Stream was developed to enable advanced streaming through intermediate and high-gain antennas, alleviating long-standing connectivity issues that have stemmed from rotor-blade interference.

Inmarsat said the system delivers additional power and effectively reduces packet loss and jitter. This significantly improves bandwidth, quality, and reliability of service, the provider further said, adding it enables consistent transmission of real-time data, including video streaming.

Testing earlier this year showed that the SB-Helo X-Stream service can achieve a 40 percent reduction in data packet loss and deliver up to 400 kbps per single channel. Multiple channels can be aggregated to enhance the overall performance of the system, Inmarsat said.

Todd McDonell, president of Inmarsat’s Global Government business unit, said the company has had a long-standing commitment to developing helicopter connectivity technology. “The introduction of this new solution will ensure government helicopter operators have reliable satellite connectivity, enhancing the capability of rotary-wing platforms by providing simultaneous voice and data communications.”

Inmarsat plans for the service to be transmitted through a variety of hardware options, permitting customers to select the most appropriate technologies for their platform and crew needs.

Elliott Charts Growth with G5000 Installs on Excel/XLS

Elliott Aviation delivered three Cessna Citation Excel/XLS jets upgraded with Garmin G5000 avionics in the past month and has another 15 Excel/XLS installations on its schedule, the Moline, Illinois-based MRO announced. “The demand for the Garmin G5000 avionics suite in the Citation Excel and XLS is very strong, and all indications show this program being a tremendous success,” said Elliott v-p of avionics programs and operational logistics Mark Wilken.

The G5000 retrofit on Excel/XLS replaces existing Honeywell Primus 1000 avionics including the autopilot and flight director found on the midsize business jet. 

Features of the G5000 retrofit are WAAS/LPV, ADS-B, XM weather, electronic charts, SafeTaxi, engine monitor data, and emergency descent mode. It also has optional synthetic vision, turbulence detection, SurfaceWatch, under-speed protection, ChartView, controller pilot datalink communications (CPDLC), and lightning and hail prediction.

In addition to the Excel/XLS installs, Elliott has completed more than 25 G5000 installs on the Beechjet 400A/Hawker 400XP and more than 350 G1000/G1000Nxi installs on Beechcraft King Airs.

AIN Webinar: Key Steps to a Successful Aircraft Transaction

There are several steps where business aircraft deals can go sideways, including miscommunication, ethics issues, misunderstanding of regulations, and any number of traps for the unwary. Learn how to identify and assemble the right team early in the aircraft buying or selling process, a checklist of action items/steps, and caveats for financial stages. Join us for this free webinar on December 10 at 1:30 p.m. EST as AIN editor-in-chief Matt Thurber moderates a panel of experts that includes Keith Swirsky, president of GKG Law, P.C.; Keith Hayes, senior v-p and national sales manager at PNC Aviation Finance; and Jad Donaldson, past chairman of the NBAA Business Aviation Management Committee, a past co-chair of the annual NBAA Leadership Conference, and now director of aviation for Harley-Davidson Motor Company.  Sponsored by Duncan Aviation and Mesinger Jet Sales.