Signature Aviation has expanded its footprint at California business aviation hub Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) with the purchase of the Castle & Cooke Aviation FBO there.

Signature operated two FBOs at KVNY before the transaction, which was announced yesterday and includes rebranding the former Castle & Cooke facility as Signature VNY North. Originally designed as a private corporate complex, the facility has a 1,500-sq-ft passenger lounge, 21,000 sq ft of offices, and 4,236 sq ft of shop space. It also provides 117,360 sq ft of hangar space, which brings Signature to 483,000 sq ft of aircraft shelter at the Los Angeles-area gateway.

“Van Nuys is one of the most important business aviation markets in the world, and this acquisition strengthens our ability to serve guests in this critical gateway,” said Signature CEO Tony Lefebvre. “We’re excited to welcome the Castle & Cooke Van Nuys team to Signature and build on the outstanding reputation they’ve established.”

The transaction does not include Castle & Cooke’s remaining FBO at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu.

“Castle & Cooke Aviation has been proud to serve the Van Nuys community for many years, and that legacy has always been built on our people and the relationships they’ve created with our guests,” said Tony Marlow, Castle & Cooke’s president of aviation operations and business development.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report both lauds the FAA’s efforts to modernize the air traffic control system and criticizes the agency for moving too quickly without the support of a master schedule to track the thousands of projects involved in the upgrades.

The modernization program is embodied in the FAA’s Brand New Air Traffic Control System (BNATCS) program, which is initially funded through Congress’ appropriation of $12.5 billion. However, according to the GAO, the FAA will use most of that money to pay for Phase 1 of the BNATCS, which involves infrastructure fixes such as replacing copper wires with fiber-optic cables. Another $10.2 billion is needed for Phase 2 to pay for automation systems that will track aircraft and optimize traffic.

Specific recommendations from the GAO are that the “FAA prioritize (1) developing a reliable lifecycle cost estimate for BNATCS and (2) developing a detailed integrated master schedule for BNATCS Phase 1.”

These recommendations reflect that the FAA has provided only high-level estimates for Phase 1, according to the GAO, without any analysis to support those numbers and without an integrated master schedule. “Instead, FAA has 11,389 individual project schedules that are not integrated.” There are FAA plans to address these issues, the GAO noted, but “they did not have a timeframe for when [these] would be resolved.”

MRO provider Thornton Aviation upgraded a Bombardier Challenger 604’s flight deck with Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics, replacing the aircraft’s original CRT displays and adding capabilities such as LPV approaches. The company completed the work as part of a scheduled maintenance package.

The upgrade swaps the CRT displays with three 14.1-inch touchscreen LCDs featuring configurable window layouts. FANS and Link 2000 are available as options, along with synthetic vision and georeferenced navigation charts that support eyes-forward flight planning.

“While we strive to deliver every job on time and on budget, as promised, the team knocked it out of the park again by completing this project well ahead of schedule while meeting the budget,” said Thornton chief revenue officer Don Milum.

Thornton operates from Burbank (KBUR) and Van Nuys (KVNY) airports in Southern California. The company is a Part 145 repair station with FAA approval covering more than 60 aircraft types.

An NBC4/Telemundo 52 news helicopter crashed in a commercial parking lot near a self-storage facility in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth yesterday evening while covering a fatal Los Angeles Metro bus collision. Aerial photojournalist Eliana Moreno, pilot George Marciniw, and a bystander on the ground were killed in the accident involving the Airbus Helicopters AS350B2.

Shortly after 5 p.m. local time, the helicopter had been dispatched to cover a collision between a Metro bus and an SUV in northwest Los Angeles that killed two and left others in critical condition, according to the fire department and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass. Angel City Air operated the AStar, which was registered as N358TV and known on air as NewsChopper 4.

The helicopter was one of several aircraft covering the scene. Witnesses say they saw it swaying before losing altitude and crashing at approximately 6:57 p.m. local time.

Fire and police units nearby at the bus collision rushed to the wreckage and found it in flames, which firefighters extinguished, officials said. In addition to the three people killed at the scene, two others were reported hospitalized; their conditions have not yet been released.

Take a closer look at radome transmissivity testing at DAS Aviation. Quality Control Inspector Nathan Morris demonstrates how a Bombardier Challenger 300 radome is tested after repair to verify signal transmission and help ensure it performs as intended when returned to the aircraft.

Aircraft interiors specialist Enflite has obtained FAA technical standard order (TSO) approval for both a new coffee maker and a microwave oven for use on Part 25 aircraft. The authorizations cover Enflite coffee maker Model 32400 and microwave oven Model 87905 under TSO-C184.

Enflite said the addition of certified galley appliances boosts its integrated cabin portfolio, which ranges from galley appliances to cabin mechanisms, pocket door systems, tables, and equipment lifts.

The microwave was designed specifically for aerospace applications and uses aviation-grade materials. It provides a capacitive-touch interface and an internally mounted camera showing a live view of the cooking chamber. Meanwhile, the coffee maker was designed for ease of installation and operation, eliminating the need for aircraft plumbing connections. Features include a microprocessor-controlled brewing system, a nonpressurized water tank, a front-mounted fill port, a filter-pack-compatible brew basket, and a 54-ounce brewing capacity.

Enflite added that the products are in line with a broader trend of purpose-built cabin equipment designed to aerospace requirements rather than adapted from commercial off-the-shelf products.

“These certifications reflect Enflite’s commitment to investing in products that deliver value to aircraft operators while meeting the industry’s highest standards for safety and performance,” said Enflite CEO Kevin Kieper. “Achieving FAA TSO authorization for both the coffee maker and microwave demonstrates our ability to bring those solutions from concept through certification and into production.”

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) applauded yesterday’s passage by the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of a bill that could revamp and streamline the FAA’s aircraft type certification process.

The Aviation Innovation and Global Competitiveness Act (H.R. 7553) could bring clarity to what at times has been a protracted and nebulous process by requiring the FAA to publish expected time ranges for various certification activities; enhance the efficiency of the issue paper process for certification applicants and the FAA; and increase the transparency of the rules of the road for delegation activities.

“The Aviation Innovation and Global Competitiveness Act provides refinements to the FAA type certification process that can assist in bringing innovative technologies and new products more effectively into the global marketplace,” said GAMA president and CEO James Viola, who testified before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation in June on the challenges of innovation reaching the general aviation marketplace. “If implemented broadly for advanced air mobility as well as for other manufacturers who are innovating and developing safer and more efficient products, the legislation would begin to facilitate a future state of certification that will improve safety oversight and enhance aviation manufacturing leadership.”

The bill will now move to the House floor for full debate.

Sydney, Australia-based charter operator Navair can now fly into 13 New Zealand airports at any time under a new approval from the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority. Previously, Navair was restricted to four charter flights per year, with a minimum 28-day separation between flights.

Under its new Part 129 foreign air operator’s certificate approval, Navair can fly to airports in Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown, Christchurch, Hamilton, Napier, Gisborne, Tauranga, Rotorua, Palmerston North, Nelson, Dunedin, and Invercargill. Navair clients no longer need to book trips well in advance to meet the previous restrictions.

“For a long time, we were working around a hard limit of four flights into New Zealand a year,” said Navair CEO Rick Pegus. “It meant we were often planning trans-Tasman charters months in advance, rather than being able to book clients when they needed us on short notice. This certificate changes that completely. We can now fly into New Zealand as often as our clients need, across 13 aerodromes across the country. It’s a significant shift for the business, allowing us to offer the same flexibility on trans-Tasman routes that we’ve built our reputation on in Australia.”

Navair recently added Pilatus PC-24 twinjets to its fleet, and the company also provides charter brokerage services with many other aircraft types.

As operations to support communities devastated by severe flooding and landslides in Nepal transition from the rescue to relief phase, helicopters are continuing to play a critical role. Recent events have revealed a need for lessons to be learned about how rotorcraft are deployed in emergencies, as well as ongoing opportunities for the international aviation community to contribute to the country’s recovery needs, according to Abhinav Karki, former CEO of local operator Mustang Helicopter, who is now advising Nepal’s government on aviation reforms.

Nepal’s private helicopter operators have been supporting rescue and relief efforts alongside the Nepali Army. According to Karki, the experience so far has highlighted the importance of effective coordination among the various agencies involved in emergency aviation operations.

Air traffic control infrastructure is absent in the remote mountainous areas where flash floods have cost more than 1,000 lives, with several thousand more people still missing. “Pilots have been flying in very difficult terrain that has required a lot of coordination to fly VFR,” Karki told AIN.

Karki, a former Airbus executive, said that international aviation companies could still do more to support the relief and recovery efforts by providing equipment and expertise. He pointed to the need for more drones to be deployed for search and surveillance roles, and also for satellite imagery capability that would provide more sophisticated weather information around which missions could be planned.