Wheels Up yesterday afternoon closed a previously announced half-billion-dollar investment by Delta Air Lines, Certares Management, Knighthead Capital Management, and Cox Enterprises. The credit facility includes a $350 million term loan from Delta, CK Wheels, and Cox, a $100 million revolving credit facility from Delta, and a $50 million term loan that is subject to lender approval and expected shortly after closing.

In exchange, the lenders will receive common stock representing 80 percent of the company's outstanding equity at closing. After stockholder approval of an amendment to Wheels Up’s certificate of incorporation, the lenders will own 95 percent of the company’s outstanding equity.

“This investment represents both an important source of capital for Wheels Up to support our strategy for financial stability, future profitability, and long-term growth on behalf of our members and customers,” said George Mattson, who was appointed CEO of Wheels Up last week. Evoking the deeper relationship with Delta, he hinted at a “one-of-a-kind seamless connection between private and premium commercial travel.”

Additionally, Wheels Up created a new structure for its board of directors. Going forward, Delta Air Lines will appoint four directors, Certares and Knighthead each will appoint two directors, and Cox will appoint one director. One company executive will also join the board, and two independent directors are expected to remain from the previous board.

Pilots and air traffic controllers can minimize aviation incidents by working together in challenging situations, such as during a complicated taxi route, according to Alex Gertsen, a pilot and NBAA’s director of airports and ground infrastructure.

“It’s really important from the pilot perspective that we brief ourselves, that we look at the taxi route,” Gertsen told an audience of air traffic controllers during a September 19 panel discussion on surface safety at the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) Communicating for Safety conference in Las Vegas. “But also, as you’re looking at us moving around on the surface from the tower, your help is really important to make sure that we’re stopping at the right places and are following the right route,” he added.

Gertsen said general aviation pilots face unique challenges, including flying into a greater variety of airports, working longer hours, and sometimes serving as the sole crewmember. “Each day is different, so ultimately we’re relying on controllers to make sure that we’re set up for success,” he explained.

Meanwhile, panelists at the conference agreed that pilots and controllers could learn from each other by having more communication outside of their daily routines. Informal monthly meetings over coffee, pilot visits to control towers and centers, and controller visits to flight decks were among the ideas that came up.

In addition to developing the Smartwing active load-alleviation winglet system for Citation CJ twinjets, Tamarack Aerospace offers engineering services to other aviation clients. Growing demand to provide help for aviation technology startups is now prompting the company to expand its workforce, with an immediate need for three new hires. 

Tamarack has been issued more than 30 patents and received supplemental type certificates for the Smartwing technology from global regulators. Now it is extending the Smartwing system to other aircraft, with projects underway on the Airbus A320, de Havilland Q400, and King Air series.

“Our engineering business has tripled in the last three years and we need to hire more exceptional engineers to keep up with the growing demand,” said Tamarack chief engineer Nathan Cropper. “Our engineering team is very diverse in terms of experience and specialty, ranging from…rapid prototyping and 3D printing, electrical systems, which is the lifeblood of Tamarack’s products, flight-test engineers, and very specialized aerodynamic loads and flutter engineers.”

“We all see the innovations coming to market from eVTOL aircraft and hybrid technologies, and we’re reaching a point in the industry where those innovators are moving from concept to early flights with an eye on FAA certification and production readiness,” said Tamarack president Jacob Klinginsmith. “Offering engineering services to the industry allows us to have a tremendous team and talent that most product companies don’t have.”

FlightSafety International has added a new Embraer Praetor 500/600 full-flight simulator at its Orlando, Florida learning center. The Praetor simulator is already FAA level-D-qualified and available for training this month, with recurrent training slots available in October.

Another Praetor simulator will be placed at a FlightSafety facility in Europe, although the companies haven’t identified the location but said training there will begin by year-end 2024.

FlightSafety offers Praetor and Legacy 450/500 pilot training in Dallas and St. Louis, as well as Orlando. Maintenance training for the midsize jets is available at the company's Paris Le Bourget and St. Louis learning centers. Online ground school for certain pilot and maintenance courses is also available through FlightSafety's LiveLearning portal.

“Offering additional training capacity is important for supporting our customers,” said Carlos Naufel, president and CEO of Embraer Services and Support. “These two new full-flight simulators bring us even closer to Praetor family pilots and operators in the U.S. and Europe and will provide us with the opportunity to share our latest technological updates and best-in-class support.”

“FlightSafety is committed to addressing the increasing demand for Embraer Praetor training,” said Nate Speiser, executive v-p of FlightSafety sales and marketing. “As Embraer’s training partner, we are proud to announce consecutive simulator deployments in two regions to support the worldwide training demand for this quickly growing fleet.”

The city of McKinney, Texas, opened a new 17,000-sq-ft terminal at its municipal-run FBO on McKinney National Airport (KTKI), it announced today. According to city officials, the McKinney Air Center terminal is part of a larger effort to expand and modernize the airport and attract additional business.

“This FBO terminal will help us compete with other world-class facilities that are vying for the lucrative dollars generated by the many corporate fleets pouring into Collin County and the larger Dallas area,” said McKinney mayor George Fuller. “Facilities like this will continue to increase the airport’s value as an economic driver in our region.”

Featuring a modern, open design, the terminal includes amenities such as a conference room, pilot lounge, refreshment center, and a passenger waiting area. It accompanies investments the city has also made in hangars and runway expansions as part of a long-term master plan approved in 2018.

“The city of McKinney is committed to making McKinney National Airport a premier destination for corporate and general aviation,” said airport director Ken Carley. “With the opening of the new FBO terminal, the city is well on its way to achieving that goal.”

Duncan Aviation recently completed a multi-million-dollar interior and exterior refurbishment of a Dassault Falcon 900EX it considers one of its finest and most unique efforts to date. “This project was a massive undertaking,” explained Duncan Aviation sales manager Nate Klenke. “Nearly everything in the aircraft, from entry to aft, was new or required some level of modification.”

The aircraft owner, for whom Duncan has renovated multiple aircraft over the years, brought an “experienced eye” for design and style. For the interior, the owner provided 3D illustrations of seat designs that incorporated custom-quilted patterns, which Duncan’s in-house automated quilting machine reproduced.

A subtle color change on the seating visually separates each section of the cabin, flowing easily from one to the next and united by elements such as a foil-fused lower sidewall material, carved carpet, and stitching details.

The interior team installed new Duncan Aviation-designed passenger service unit overlay panels, teaming with their avionics technicians to install LED lighting. Cabin avionics upgrades also included audio/video or VPN connections with high-speed Gogo connectivity, as well as an Alto Aviation cabin management system.

Exterior modifications included a paint job featuring a pattern on the tail that produces the illusion of fading onto the aircraft fuselage and a pair of API blended winglets from Aviation Partners.

International charter, management, brokerage, and sales firm Global Jet is calling 2023 an “extraordinary phase” for the company with strategic growth across its operations.

On the charter front, Global Jet said it has added several large-cabin business jets year-to-date. Its management fleet also is growing with seven additions, including a Bombardier Global 7500, and four more anticipated to join shortly.

On the aircraft sales and brokerage side, Global Jet sold three business aircraft in the first quarter alone and secured listings on a Boeing BBJ; Dassault Falcon 7X, 2000LX, and 2000EX; and Pilatus PC-24. The company added it is expecting more in the near future “with a robust pipeline of projects for the coming months.”

In other areas, Global Jet has opened a commercial office in Dubai to meet the growth demand it has seen in the Middle East market. Thomas David was named head of business development in the region from the Dubai office. It also added Manuel Montero to its charter sales team in Spain and promoted Denis Mironov to charter sales manager in Geneva.

Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) will host its annual Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT) Safety Summit for Professional Pilots Worldwide on September 29. The free aviation safety event, to be broadcast via LinkedIn Live, will connect, share knowledge, and create meaningful dialog with professionals from all segments of aviation.

According to APS, loss of control in flight (LOC-I) represents one of the most pressing challenges in aviation safety. Thus, this year’s summit is dedicating a significant portion of its agenda to addressing this issue and is structured into four one-hour sessions tailored to specific aviation segments—airline, corporate/Part 135, general aviation/instructor, and safety management system (SMS) auditing. Each session has a panel of industry safety and training experts.

The airline track will focus on approaches to optimize UPRT to mitigate the LOC-I threat and will include presentations from Delta Air Lines, Global Airways, and APS.

Session two, the corporate/Part 135 track, provides a deeper look into theoretical knowledge with hands-on training, technical innovation, and collaboration. Sonnie Bates of Wyvern and current and former NBAA Safety Committee chairs will present.

The third session is tailored to general aviation pilots and instructors, with an emphasis on operational risk management. Master APS UPRT instructors will host this session. Session four’s SMS auditor panel will offer practical solutions to overcome the LOC-I risk, with presentations from several SMS pros.