CAE Forecasts Need for 260,000 New Pilots through 2029

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic’s toll on the current civil aviation market, CAE forecasts a global demand for 260,000 new pilots over the next decade. Releasing the 2020-2029 CAE Pilot Demand Outlook this morning, the international training specialist said its analysis shows that the active pilot population is expected to return to 2019 levels in 2022. But retirements and attrition are expected to become a challenge as air travel recovers and will create an “acute demand” with a short-term need for some 27,000 new pilots as of late 2021, growing to 260,000 over a 10-year period.

In business aviation alone, CAE is predicting 41,000 new pilots will be needed over the next decade to make up for anticipated retirements and attrition and another 4,000 to accommodate growth, for a total of 45,000 new professional business aviation pilots over the forecast period. The airlines, meanwhile, need 126,000 new pilots to offset attrition and retirements and then 93,000 to accommodate growth.

CAE acknowledged that the sudden drop in air travel demand hindered the industry’s growth trajectory, spurring thousands of furloughs. But it wondered whether this might play into stronger pilot needs in the future. “Many of them have pivoted to other professions and might not want to resume their pilot careers,” CAE said, stressing that fundamental factors driving pilot demand before the pandemic remain in place.

New Bidders Emerge as One Aviation Auction Looms

MOA Corp. and Nautical Hero Group (NHG) have entered the fray for the assets of bankrupt One Aviation ahead of a planned sale to AML Global Eclipse, a U.S.-based subsidiary of international fuel provider AML Global. That auction is currently scheduled to happen tomorrow.

In a status hearing late last week before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, One Aviation counsel Chris Dickerson said MOA “already provided a deposit and…executed a purchase agreement that increased the consideration significantly” above AML's proposed $5.25 million price tag for assets related to the Eclipse 500 program.

NHG offered $750,000 more than that amount, though its deposit had not been received as of the hearing. According to Dickerson, the funds, which he said came from China, were due to be available in time for the hearing.

AML attorney Gary Kaplan also questioned the efficacy of MOA’s bid, noting a prior deposition revealed it “was one of the financing sources of the SE Falcon bid that failed,” and further stated One Aviation asked AML to continue as a backup bidder if the competing bids fell through.

Terming that “completely unacceptable,” Kaplan asserted any further delays pose “significant risk…to the value that our client has ascribed to [Eclipse]” and that AML reserved the right to pull its bid entirely.

RTCA Warns of 5G’s Effect on Radar Altimeters

An RTCA Special Committee has issued a report that raises concerns about the frequency spectrum assigned to 5G applications interfering with aircraft radar altimeters. According to the report, the frequency spectrum from 3.7– to 3.98-GHz, which the FCC has assigned to upcoming flexible 5G telecommunications applications, may “introduce harmful radio frequency (RF) interference to radar altimeters currently operating in the globally-allocated 4.2– to 4.4-GHz aeronautical band."

The task force was formed in April to address this issue. Next month, the FCC plans to auction licenses in the 3.7– to 4.2-GHz frequency band.

By evaluating radar altimeter performance in light of the “expected 5G emissions in the 3.7– to 3.98-GHz band,” the task force was able to test radar altimeters to determine their tolerance to the expected 5G interference signals. Other research included a risk assessment of how much this interference might happen and its impact on aviation safety.

According to the task force, “The results presented in this report reveal a major risk that 5G telecommunications systems in the 3.7– to 3.98-GHz band will cause harmful interference to radar altimeters on all types of civil aircraft—including commercial transport airplanes; business, regional, and general aviation airplanes; and both transport and general aviation helicopters.” The report further warned of “the possibility of catastrophic failures leading to multiple fatalities, in the absence of appropriate mitigations.”

King Aerospace To Expand in Oklahoma

Texas-based aviation MRO services provider King Aerospace will start construction early next year on a new 90,000-sq-ft hangar at its Oklahoma facility. Slated to open by mid-2022, the addition will represent a 45 percent increase to the company’s current 200,000-sq-ft of hangar space in the 2,900-acre Ardmore Industrial Airpark at Ardmore Municipal Airport, located midway between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.

King specializes in bizliner class aircraft such as the BBJ, and its FAA and EASA-certified repair station offers avionics, interiors, modifications, and paint. The larger hangar will allow it to accommodate multiple bizliners, including anything up to widebodies such as the Boeing 777, and presents the capability to perform green completions, which has long been a company goal.

“Covid-19 supply chain disruptions and final planning with the city of Ardmore pushed things back a bit, but general contract bid solicitation is underway, and we’re looking good to break ground by Q1 2021,” said executive v-p Ron Soret, who recently rejoined the company after nine years with Aeria Luxury Interiors.

Several recent additions to its management team have also spurred King to expand its headquarters space in Addison, including a centralized area for support staff, individual offices, and conference rooms.

New Jet Fuel Brokerage Launches in Switzerland

A new global aviation fuel broker has entered the market with the launch of Switzerland-based iFuel AG. With a focus on providing its business aviation, commercial, cargo, and military customers with the ability to source sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), as well as conventional jet fuel, the company—which has headquarters in Zug and offices in Vienna, Barcelona, London, Moscow, and Dubai—believes sustainable fuel should be the ultimate power source for any flight.

Led by a trio of industry veterans with nearly four decades of experience, iFuel works directly with more than 170 suppliers around the world to provide clients with competitive pricing wherever they require the company’s services. To help those customers reduce their carbon footprint, iFuel explained that it partners exclusively with fuel providers who believe in those same goals, eliminating the need for them to conduct their own sustainability research.

“Our mission is to provide our customers with the very best of service, support, advice, and facilitation,” said company founder and CEO Rinad El-Rabaa. “We are therefore in the process of developing an outstanding platform for the aviation industry,” he noted, adding iFuel’s innovative IT solutions will save work hours and ease operations for its users.

Duncan, Gulfstream Partner on Avance L5 STC

Through collaboration with Gulfstream Aerospace, MRO provider Duncan Aviation has developed a full-equipment STC for Gogo’s Avance L5 for the Gulfstream G200 and its Galaxy predecessor, Duncan’s ninth for the Wi-Fi system that operates on the Gogo Biz 4G network. The STC developed by Duncan’s engineering and certification services department covers the Wi-Fi certification, as well as equipment and antenna installation for the G200/Galaxy.

G200/Galaxy owners and operators can have the system installed at Duncan’s primary facilities in Lincoln, Nebraska; Battle Creek, Michigan; or Provo, Utah, at its 27 satellite locations, or through Gulfstream service centers. The STC is available through March 7, 2022.

Duncan said it is extending for a limited time the free-of-charge period for Gogo Text & Talk and Gogo Vision subscriptions to one year. Gogo Text & Talk allows crews and passengers to use their smartphones to call and text in the air, while Vision enables access to movies, television shows, magazines, and flight maps on those same devices.

Flygprestanda Offers New Aircraft Performance Solution

Sweden-based Flygprestanda has released iOS-based aircraft performance software for operators using standardized computerized aircraft performance (SCAP). The software will be used first by Hongkong Jets' fleet of six BBJs. Flygprestanda’s Guru2 SCAP iPad app is an alternative to OEMs’ iOS-based SCAP.

The software serves to calculate safe takeoffs and landing distances on a given runway under parameters such as runway length, wind direction, and temperature. “We have a working solution in place that allows us to provide any SCAP-based aircraft type on iOS, without the need of the Fortran source code,” said Flygprestanda sales and marketing manager Mattias Lindblad. “It’s done completely offline with no restriction to a fixed amount of airports—it works worldwide.”

Hongkong Jets director of flight operations Edwin Hogervorst said the Guru2 app has performed as promised and was “implemented smoothly” into its operations. “I believe that a reliable aircraft performance and mass and balance calculator is crucial for each flight as safety remains fundamental in our company,” Hogervorst said.

NATA Seeks Fire Protection Fueling Requirement Change

With the public comment window on the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) 407 revision to its standards for aircraft fuel servicing set to close today, NATA is urging industry members to support its Tentative Interim Amendment (TIA) to the national fire code adopted by most airports in the U.S.

The proposed change TIA 1539 seeks to remove the requirement for hundreds of general aviation airports and FBOs to retrofit their fuel farms and mobile refuelers with automatic shutdown systems. NATA’s proposed TIA removes the retroactive language in the current NFPA 407, and instead applies it to only new fuel farm/fuel truck installations. Without the change proposed by NATA, airports and FBOs would face bills of up to $10,000 per fuel farm loading rack and $2,500 to $3,500 per fuel truck, with all equipment required to be retrofitted by June 2021.

Stakeholders can send their thoughts on the matter to the NFPA and the 407 Technical Committee via email to tias_errata_fis@nfpa.org.

Last Call: Using Flight Data To Improve Safety Webinar

With fast-changing technology, safety mandates, and continued flight training, there is no doubt the aviation industry has become safer. Even so, flight safety continues to be a top priority and safety programs that advocate pilot performance evaluation are becoming a necessity for aircraft owners/operators. Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) is one of those programs. No longer limited to the commercial and military aviation sector, the business aviation community can now take advantage of FOQA flight data and analysis to improve pilot performance and safety. Join us on November 10th as AIN editor-in-chief Matt Thurber moderates this discussion with David Miner, Avidyne's general manager for business aviation, and Charlie Precourt, USAF Colonel (Ret.) and NBAA and EAA board member.