During his presentation on the opening day of the Bombardier Safety Standdown yesterday morning, Dr. Tony Kern, founding principal and CEO of Convergent Performance, challenged attendees to eliminate the culture of sexual harassment that discourages women from participating in aviation. Kern didn’t mince words and he explained that resolving this problem would quickly solve the business aviation worker shortage because women would feel comfortable joining the industry.
"Gentlemen, we have a problem, and that problem is we have an industry that preys on women,” he began. While some may say “it’s not that bad, it is that bad,” he added.
Kern cited a study released last year, “Breaking Barriers for Women in Aviation: Flight Plan for the Future,” published by the Women in Aviation Advisory Board. “I saw this chart,” he said, referring to a portion of the study, “and this cannot possibly be true; 71 percent have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, in aviation settings. Look at those numbers, I won’t read them to you, they’re just disgusting!
“Do you want to move safety forward? Stop eliminating half the people in the population from active consideration for coming into our industry. Stop having it be seen as a male-dominated industry. Well, it is right now but it wouldn’t be if we were just nicer. It’s not that hard.”
Following the official opening last week of Bombardier’s service center at Miami-Opa-Locka Executive Airport, Fontainebleau Aviation—one of the three FBOs on the field—announced it has been selected by the manufacturer as the facility’s exclusive ground-handling service provider.
Under the deal, Fontainebleau will provide towing and fueling services for the Canadian airframer's customers and has designated one of its tanker trucks solely for defueling aircraft before they enter the service center’s hangars.
“The decision to join in a partnership came naturally to both brands [as] we are both focused on client experience and delivering an exceptional product,” said Fontainebleau v-p Bobby Courtney. “It’s an absolute honor to be a part of the Bombardier experience.”
The announcement comes as Fontainebleau prepares to break ground on a $14 million construction project, the fifth expansion since its founding in 2011. To be completed in third-quarter 2023, it will add 48,000 sq ft of hangar space to the company’s existing 250,000 sq ft of aircraft storage and office capacity.
The success of safety in a business aviation organization starts with its people, presenters told attendees today at Bombardier Safety Standdown. Differences in compensation, cultures, and unintentional workplace messaging are some of the factors that can create a divide in an organization or department, leading to dissatisfaction and a breakdown in safety, Aviation Personnel International president and CEO Sheryl Barden and v-p Jennifer Pickerel explained.
For example, compensation trends in business aviation over the past seven years show that captains have seen a more than 30 percent increase, while schedulers have seen only a 14 percent pay bump over the same period. Pressures that women and other underrepresented groups in an organization feel are also “likely greater than what others are feeling,” Pickerel said.
To overcome these and other barriers, they encouraged leaders to stay engaged with their employees by understanding what they value, identifying cultural mismatches, and learning their aspirations and what motivates them.
Attendees also heard about cybersecurity and safety from Jeffrey Troy, president and CEO of the Aviation Information Sharing and Analysis Center. Troy explained that while the industry is undertaking efforts to address growing cybersecurity risks, there needs to be better collaboration and coordination between the industry and policymakers. “There are way too many cyber rules that are not harmonized,” he said.
Safran Helicopter Engines has signed a support-by-the-hour (SBH) contract with Saudi Arabia’s The Helicopter Company (THC) to support the Arrano and Arriel engines powering its Airbus H160, H125, and H145 fleets. THC operates a fleet of 30 helicopters offering a wide range of commercial services throughout the kingdom. SBH contracts include scheduled and unscheduled MRO coverage and account for 50 percent of Safran Helicopter Engines’s customer flying hours.
“This contract marks a new milestone in our partnership with The Helicopter Company,” said Safran Helicopter Engines support France managing director Frédéric Fourciangue. “THC is a most important provider of helicopter services, with a very strong growth curve. Safran Helicopter Engines will deploy resources locally to support this key actor and we are particularly proud to be its partner.”
Safran Helicopter Engines employs 5,900 people serving 2,500 customers in 155 countries and has produced more than 22,000 engines to date.
Delivering Reliable Connectivity at the Speed of Flight
With the ability to simultaneously monitor the performance of tens of thousands of air-to-ground connections, Gogo Business Aviation’s new Business Operations Center (formerly the Network Operations Center) is at the core of a more than 30-year commitment to delivering the best in-flight connectivity experience possible.
The three biggest hurdles facing business aircraft manufacturers right now are workforce issues, supply-chain pinch points, and regulatory challenges, according to GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce. Speaking recently at Corporate Jet Investor Miami, he noted that despite the success of the Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection Act—which helped OEMs preserve more than 31,000 jobs during the Covid pandemic—GAMA members are reporting being on average down 20 percent in terms of optimal engineering and factory-floor staff.
As for supply-chain issues, Bunce noted they are systemic and far-reaching. “What I don’t think people realize is it’s not only just raw materials,” he said, adding that value-added components such as extrusions and computer chips are also in short supply. “A lot of our companies are having to spend engineering resources instead of planning for future projects, actually redesigning boards to be able to use the chips that are out there,” he explained.
Having once embraced the lean “just-in-time” parts delivery approach to reduce inventory costs and storage, most manufacturers are now finding themselves having to again commit to long-term contracts with their suppliers to give them the confidence to increase staffing and invest in their facilities.
Lastly, Bunce expressed concern over the drain in experience at the FAA, with 40 percent of its current certification workforce having less than two years of experience.
Helicopter engine maintenance provider Optima Aero is opening a facility in Anglet, France, to enhance its ability to serve operators and OEMs in Europe and Africa. The 1,000-sq-m (10,800-sq-ft) center will house maintenance, component, refurbishment, certification, and distribution activities.
"This new facility, which will mainly support Airbus and Leonardo operators, will allow us to meet the growing demand for serviceable helicopter parts and engines,” said Optima Aero president Toby Gauld. “We will now be in a position to dismantle entire helicopters directly in Europe, thus reducing our carbon footprint related to transportation. Our team will also have the capability to certify helicopter parts."
Optima noted the facility’s location in the French Aerospace Valley facilitates collaboration with other industry organizations and access to specialized resources. Its team formerly located in Labenne, France, has moved to the new facility. Optima said the location will expand over the next two years to employ 20 technicians and commercial specialists.
Dubai, UAE-based trip support firm Hadid International Services has joined the governing board of the Middle East Business Aviation Association (MEBAA). “Hadid is a business aviation pioneer in the Middle East, and represents something about the region,” commercial director Issa Zuriqi told AIN. “While we were not a founding member, we always wanted to be a board member.”
MEBAA founding and executive chairman Ali Alnaqbi confirmed Hadid’s appointment. The association was established in 2006, and, although it was set up as early as 1981, Hadid did not become an active partner until 2008. Many employees have left to set up similar and competing concerns, but as the oldest Hadid remains the most venerable presence in the region’s flight-support sector. It provides international flight planning, ground support, air charter, executive aviation terminals, as well as travel and concierge, leveraging an international network and relationships with strategic partners and suppliers.
Hadid said it was joining an illustrious group of existing board members that include Airbus Corporate Jets, Boeing Business Jets, Bombardier, Dassault Aviation, Emirates-CAE Flight Training, ExecuJet Middle East, Gulfstream Aerospace, Jet Aviation Management AG, Jetex, Lufthansa Technik AG, Royal Jet, Saudia Private Aviation, and UAS International Trip Support. “This gives MEBAA a robust and growing platform that extends across the regional business aviation sector,” Zuriqi said.
Aviation industry icon Herbert H. Ward, 94, passed away at his home near Wichita on October 17. Ward worked in aviation for almost 70 years, starting his career at Beech Aircraft and Boeing in the late 1940s. In the early 1960s, he went to Learjet, where he worked his way up to production superintendent. After a 13-year tenure at Learjet, he began work at Air Research in Los Angeles to head up interior and completions sales.
He continued his career at Sun Stream in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as manager of completions, where he also started a new path in sales of VVIP interiors in light and midsize jets; Dee Howard in San Antonio, Texas, where he headed up the VVIP interior installation team; and Associated Air Center in Dallas, where he became the v-p of sales for VVIP widebody aircraft. Ward retired from Associated in 1997 but not long after joined GreenPoint Technologies as a consultant on Boeing BBJ completions.
In 2001, he started Completion Air (now West Star Aviation) in East Alton, Illinois, to do VVIP widebody completions. Then he jointly founded EAS Completions in Addison, Texas, where he and his team designed and installed VVIP interiors in three Boeing 737s for Thailand. He again retired in 2009 at 81 years old.
CALS—a senior-level and laser-focused peer-to-peer networking summit—will address the latest and most cutting-edge topics, strategies, and solutions in corporate aviation. The summit is attendee-centric and serves as an educational and social platform, connecting select corporate aviation professionals with colleagues, industry experts, and solution providers in a relaxed, informal environment. We invite U.S.-based flight department leaders, including directors of maintenance, to apply to attend this event as our guests, which will be hosted Nov. 29. to Dec. 1, 2022, in Bonita Springs, Florida. Seats are limited, so don’t wait to apply.
Model(s): Global Express, XRS, 5000, 5500, 6000, 6500
Published: November 4, 2022
Effective: November 18, 2022
Requires amending the aircraft flight manual with new limitations and prohibits dispatch under certain MMEL items to mitigate identified hazards due to “harmful” 5G C-band broadband interference when operating at airports where 5G is deployed as identified by notam. Bombardier has determined that 5G C-band broadband interference can result in unavailable or misleading radio altimeter information, adversely affecting the performance of the automatic flight control system.
Requires amending the aircraft flight manual with new limitations and prohibits dispatch under certain MMEL items to mitigate identified hazards due to 5G C-band broadband interference when operating at airports where 5G is deployed as identified by notam. Bombardier has determined that 5G C-band broadband interference can result in unavailable or misleading radio altimeter information, adversely affecting the performance of the automatic flight control system.
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