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OCT. 24, 2013

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10 Piaggio Avanti IIs go to China’s SR Jet

by James Wynbrandt

MARK WAGNER

Piaggio Aero Industries, Italian manufacturer of the P.180 Avanti II twin turboprop, and ACEA (Beijing) Aviation Investment, exclusive distributor for the aircraft in Mainland China, signed a contract here at NBAA 2013 yesterday with SR Jet, a division of Beijing-based Sparkle Roll Investment Holdings, for the purchase of two P.180 Avanti IIs with options for an additional eight.

The turboprops will be

the gang’s all here There was no spare room at Henderson Airport’s sold-out static display for any more business aircraft at the 2013 NBAA convention. Next year’s meeting of NBAA faithful will be in Orlando, Florida, October 21-23.

customized for extended range mission capabilities and incorporate an additional tank with a 400-pound capacity, increasing the maximum fuel onboard from 2,826 to 3,226 pounds and extending the maximum range an additional 250-nm, to 1,720 nm with IFR reserves.

This will enable the extended range Avanti IIs to fly from Beijing to Hainan or Hanoi, or from Las Vegas to Jacksonville, Fla., Charlotte, N.C.,

Continued on page 54 u

JetSuite adds more CJ3s to support Wheels Up

by Charles Alcock

Nextant scores $202M order for 50 400XTis

by Chad Trautvetter Nextant Aerospace announced an order for up to 50 400XTis worth $202.5 million from Elkhart, Ind.-based aircraft charter firm Travel Management Company (TMC) yesterday at NBAA 2013.

The agreement is for the conversion of TMC’s entire Hawker 400XP fleet. Deliveries to TMC begin next year and run through 2019.

With this latest order, Nextant now has firm commitments to convert more than 100 Beechjet 400A/ XPs, which represents approximately 20 percent of the in-service fleet. By reaching this 20-percent level, “The market is approaching a tipping point where remanufacturing is now the accepted long-term solution for Continued on page 54 u

JetSuite has exercised options for 10 more Cessna Citation CJ3s to provide additional capacity for its new partnership with private flight membership program Wheels Up. In a deal confirmed here at the NBAA show, JetSuite agreed to take the first of the 10 additional aircraft on November 22, with one more to join its fleet every 90 days.

Yesterday JetSuite and Wheels Up forged a new partnership that will give reciprocal benefits to their customers.

In an agreement announced at the NBAA show in Las Vegas yesterday, Wheels Up members will have access to JetSuite’s fleet of Embraer Phenom 100 and Cessna Citation CJ3 aircraft, giving them

Continued on page 54 u

Attendance

Maintenance

Services

Airshows

International ops

Big numbers

Bombardier extends intervals

Stevens rolls out the welcome mat

Business aviation in Dubai

Nagoya Airport lures bizav traffic

As of the close of business yesterday, NBAA logged 25,267 attendees and 1,100 exhibitors. The static display at Henderson Executive Airport was sold out with 85 aircraft. In addition, the first-ever indoor static display featured 12 aircraft.

Operators of Challenger 605s and Learjet 40/45 series have seen some required maintenance intervals extended by as much as 50 percent. That’s good news for reliability and will lead to lower long-term operating costs. Page 10

Stevens Aviation’s five bases are making maintenance easier with the new “Buddy” and “Wizard” program, which helps owners and operators negotiate the challenging and complex aircraft maintenance process. Page 17

Business aviation is set to make a strong showing at next month’s Dubai Airshow, with a strong presence on the Dubai World Central/Al Maktoum Airport static display and 220 bizav-related companies exhibiting. Page 38

Officials from Japan’s Nagoya Airport visited the NBAA show here in Las Vegas to promote their airport as a destination for business aircraft from the U.S. Outside the congestion of Tokyo’s airspace, Nagoya is still centrally located. Page 20

E = Exceeding Expectations 2

▲

Learn More on Page 31

Alphabet solidarity on stage at Day Two General Session

by James Wynbrandt Hosted by NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen, the Second Day General Session here at NBAA 2013 brought together top executives from business and general aviation’s leading advocacy groups to discuss how to advance the needs of private aviation in a time of political gridlock and fiscal constraints.

“This industry is enormously heavily regulated by the federal government,” Bolen told attendees, “so the shutdown has a disproportionate impact on this industry.”

Panelists included Paula Derks, CEO of

the AEA; Mark Baker, new president and CEO of AOPA; Jack Pelton, chairman of the EAA; Pete Bunce, president and CEO of GAMA; Matt Zuccaro, president and CEO of HAI; Henry Ogrodzinski, president and CEO of the National Association of State Aviation Officials (Nasao); Tom Hendricks, president and CEO of NATA; and John McKenna, president and CEO of the Recreational Aviation Foundation.

Bunce noted that despite the political polarization in Congress, aviation advocacy groups won unanimous approval in both houses of Congress for a rewrite of

Part 23 regulations, aimed at reducing the cost and time required for aircraft certification. “Right now [Congress] is reconciling the language” of the two versions of the bill, Bunce said. He added that passage of the amendments is expected within the next two weeks.

Derks said the shutdown hamstrung certification of many avionics products. “We keep hearing from members that [FAA] inspectors say it will take up to six months to catch up after a 17-day shutdown.”

Ogrodzinski encouraged attendees to join the Alliance for Aviation Across America, a grassroots organization that has succeeded in drawing in a wide spectrum of groups that lobby for support of business aviation before a variety of federal agencies. “The Treasury Department wanted to know what the Alliance’s interest was in business aviation,” Ogrodzinski said. “We told them it’s in the national interest.” o

Falcon 5X unveiling opens supplier floodgate

by Bill Carey

Convention News

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the company said. The windshields and windows are designed with three plies of Herculite II chemically strengthened glass.

The transparency group of Nordam (Booth No. N2521) in Tulsa, Okla., will provide cabin windows for the Falcon 5X. A unique aspect of the 5X is its “zenith window,” business aviation’s first skylight, according to Vision Systems (Booth No. C9522), which is providing the skylight’s SPD-SmartGlass variable

light transmission window. The window’s SPD-SmartGlass technology was developed by Research Frontiers.

B/E Aerospace was chosen for several 5X products, including seating and a divan, plus cabin lighting and the vacuum waste system. The lighting is a full-spectrum wash light using LED technology with passenger control of color. o

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R. RANDALL PADFIELD

Dassault Aviation’s long-awaited unveiling of the Falcon 5X large-cabin, long-range business jet is being accompanied by a number of Falcon 5X supplier announcements.

French engine manufacturer Snecma (Booth No. N5506) revealed details of the flight-test program for its new 11,450pound thrust Silvercrest engine for the Falcon 5X. The program’s next major milestone calls for Snecma to fly its Gulfstream GII testbed fitted with the engine from Texas to obtain experimental certification for the Silvercrest, planned by the end of the year. It will then fly the aircraft to Istres in southern France to complete the engine flight-test program.

Thales (Booth No. N216) is displaying its “TopStart” electrical starter-generator and power conversion system, designed to start the Silvercrest turbofan and generate main electrical power. This is the first time that Dassault has chosen a brushless starter-generator for one of its aircraft, Thales said.

The TopStart shipset consists of two AC starter-generators for the main engines, one smaller AC starter-generator for the auxiliary power unit, three electronic regulators, one electronic starter converter and three transformer rectifier units.

Guy Lefebvre, Thales Avionics Electrical Systems president, said the system has been integrated on Snecma’s Gulfstream GII flying testbed.

Liebherr-Aerospace (Booth No. C11407) is supplying the air-management system, including air-conditioning and cabin pressure control systems, and Silvercrest engine bleed-air system, which includes high-pressure and high-temperature valves, a pre-cooler, high-pressure ducting and related sensors and controls.

PPG Aerospace (Booth No. N3926) is supplying uniquely shaped, lightweight glass windshields and side cockpit windows “that accentuate the cockpit’s aerodynamics and afford expansive visibility,”

NBAA

Falcon 5X takes center stage at Dassault’s NBAA breakfast After the unveiling of the Dassault Falcon 5X at an NBAA 2013 press briefing at Henderson Executive Airport on Monday, it came as no surprise that Dassault Falcon used its annual NBAA breakfast as a springboard to provide a nearly one-hour overview of the French OEM’s newest business jet.

Miles O’Brien (far right), an independent journalist, moderated the carefully planned presentation of the Falcon 5X among (l to r) Philippe Deleume, Dassault Falcon chief test pilot; Jim Hurley, vice president of Falcon sales; and Olivier Villa, senior vice president of civil aircraft. Photos and videos of the jet’s attributes and development enhanced the presentation.

Detailed information about the Falcon 5X can be found in the Tuesday edition of NBAA Convention News (page 76B) and on AINonline.com.

–R.R.P.

2 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

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Jet Aviation announces TEB facility upgrades

MARK WAGNER

by Curt Epstein

Daher-Socata brought this polished TBM 850 to display in the indoor static area of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The stunningly shiny single-engine turboprop features the new Elite reconfigurable “combi” interior.

TBM 850 Elite on show with new combi interior

by Mark Huber Daher-Socata (Booth No. C13006) is displaying a polished aluminum TBM 850 singleengine turboprop here at NBAA, in the indoor static display at the convention center. The aircraft is outfitted with the new Elite reconfigurable combi interior, with seating for up to six.

The TBM 850 Elite also now includes as standard the L-3 Avionics Trilogy ESI-2000

electronic standby instrument with internal battery. Other avionics available on the Elite include Garmin synthetic vision, electronic charts, Iridium satellite data receiver, GPS-linked ELT and flashing landing, taxi, and recognition lights.

Tarbes, France-based DaherSocata also is providing its extended maintenance program on the aircraft, which lowers

the cost of scheduled maintenance for five years or 1,000 hours. The standard inspection interval also has been increased from 100 to 200 hours, and CAMP maintenance tracking is used for the TBM’s maintenance program.

The company also announced a new, no-cost technical documentation app for the iPad that covers TBM 700 and 850 maintenance and flight documents.

The app includes a parts catalog, maintenance manual and pilot information manual, and in the aggregate represents more than 40,000 pages and is fully searchable. p

Jet Aviation (Booth No. N1932) has announced the completion of its ramp and hangar expansion at Teterboro just in time for February’s Super Bowl, which will take place practically next door to the airport. The FBO has increased its ramp space by 70,000 sq ft, adding parking space for an additional 20 to 25 aircraft depending on size.

The recent project also included renovations of a 20,000-sq-ft maintenance hangar. “We’ve made important improvements to our Teterboro location, and the extra ramp and hangar space gives us room to easily accommodate the influx of clients who will be in town for the Big Game,” said John Langevin, Jet Aviation’s vice president for North American FBO operations. “We are excited about this historical moment and we are looking forward to being the host facility for the first Super Bowl to take place in our region.”

In Houston, the company has added a newly-renovated 15,000sq-ft tenant hangar to its FBO at Houston Hobby Airport. The structure was fully painted and received a new roof. The accompanying shops and offices were

also refurbished with the addition of new restrooms, air-conditioners and sprinklers. According to the General Dynamics subsidiary, the addition will bring the location to 130,000 sq ft of hangar space and allow it house up to an additional 10 corporate jets. The location also features a 10,000-sq-ft drive-through canopy along with a 28,500-sq-ft terminal building.

Overseas, the company has extended its facilities at Berlin Tegel International Airport to include a new customer lounge and crew briefing offices at Tegel’s general aviation center. The expansion is in response to customer demand for full ground-handling services at Tegel, it said. The company opened its Berlin FBO in February to provide services at Schönefeld and Tegel airports. The new customer lounge and crew briefing offices at Tegel are in addition to Jet Aviation’s existing crew and passenger lounge and operations office at Schönefeld.

At Zurich, the services provider is relocating its terminal to an extension built onto the existing general aviation center where the FBO has been located for the past 30 years. o

Signature inks Canadian deal; gets ready for some football Signature Flight Support signed a deal yesterday that could see the service provider chain make as many as 38 new additions to its network. In a ceremony at its booth (No. N3505), the company announced an agreement with Imperial Oil of Canada to offer the option to all Canadian Esso-branded FBOs to become fully-licensed members of the Signature network, or to join the service provider’s Signature Select affiliate program.

As part of the agreement, Imperial Oil will continue to be the fuel provider and the locations will continue to carry their Esso fuel branding, in addition to any possible Signature badges. “It fits like a glove with our expansion strategy for Canada,” said Maria Sastre, Signature Flight Support’s president and CEO. “This agreement with Imperial Oil gives us a fast track and greater access to a great network that they have been working with for many years in Canada…whether they become a

select or a direct licensee or possibly in the future something else, it is a great door and window that just opened up for Signature in Canada.” Through its Signature Select program, affiliates are supported by the company’s global sales and marketing team and have access to Signature’s custom flight support programs and FBO management technology systems.

The BBA Aviation subsidiary also announced that its new FBO at Newark International Airport is set to open at the end of the month, after an 18-month construction project. The $11 million facility occupies approximately 11 acres at the airport. It features a 39,000-sq-ft hangar and an 11,200-sq-ft terminal featuring the new Signature prototype, with a newly designed customer-efficient traffic flow pattern through the building.

Built to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold standard, the terminal provides three lounges

MARIANO ROSALES

by Curt Epstein

Signature president and CEO Maria Sastre (left) and Imperial Oil aviation manager Marilyn Boston sign an agreement that could see the service provider significantly bolster its presence in Canada.

including a separate VIP area. “We are thrilled to be opening a new location for Signature in Newark,” Sastre told AIN, noting the company has had a presence on the airport for the past 45 years.

“We’re ahead of schedule, on budget and the team is ready to open,” she said.

The Newark facility is one of four

Signature FBOs in the New York area, along with White Plains, Teterboro and Morristown, that will be preparing for the onslaught of aviation traffic at the beginning of February for the Super Bowl contest. “We always committed that we would be Super Bowl-ready and we are certainly going to make that target,” she said. o

www.ainonline.com • October 24, 2013 • NBAA Convention News 3

MARK WAGNER

Besides the news of deliveries more than doubling in Q3 of this year, Gulfstream also announced here that its 103 year-to-date deliveries represent an 81-percent increase over those of the same time last year.

Gulfstream deliveries double in third quarter

by Chad Trautvetter Gulfstream Aerospace’s deliveries of completed aircraft more than doubled to 38 (32 largecabin and six midsize jets) in the third quarter versus 17 largecabin jets in the same period a year ago, parent company General Dynamics said during its quarterly investor conference

call yesterday morning. In the first nine months, Gulfstream (Booth No. N3932) has shipped 103 outfitted airplanes (87 large cabin, 16 midsize), a nearly 81-percent rise from the 57 aircraft (52 large cabin, five midsize) handed over to customers in the same period last year.

Third-quarter revenues at General Dynamics’s aerospace unit, which includes both Gulfstream and Jet Aviation, jumped 17.2 percent year-overyear to $2.152 billion, while profits soared 41.4 percent to $369 million. “This was a better than expected quarter for aerospace,” said General Dynamics chairman and CEO Phebe Novakovic.

“It was the highest-ever quarterly revenues to date for this division.” In the first nine months, aerospace revenue is up 18.5 percent year-over-year, to $5.983 billion, and profits climbed 35.4 percent, to $1.068 billion.

Though book-to-bill was only 0.6:1 in the third quarter, Novakovic said that Gulfstream sales year-to-date are up 10 percent year-over-year. “The third quarter started out strong for sales, but contracts took longer than expected to execute,” she noted, adding that customers have been spooked by the U.S. government flirting with “the abyss” of default. “What we need is stability from the government on the debt ceiling,” Novakovic said. “This squabble worries both domestic and international customers alike.”

Aerospace backlog (partly thanks to the shutdown effect) at the end of the third quarter eroded to $13.823 billion, compared with about $16 billion on Sept. 30, 2012. Gulfstream has a 15-month backlog for the G450 and G550, while backlogs for the new G280 and G650 are “quite healthy.” o

McMillin receives NBAA 2013 Gold Wing Award NBAA is all about promoting the reality of business aviation, its advantages for the companies that understand and avail themselves of it, and the complications of communicating the critical nature of its activities to the U.S. Congress and regulators. When a reporter from outside of aviation writes a story that helps NBAA in its mission, the organization is quick to recognize that individual with its prestigious Gold Wing Award for Journalism Excellence.

This year’s winner is Molly McMillin, a senior reporter with

the Wichita Eagle in Wichita, Kansas. McMillin wrote about the stress that the recession and Washington rhetoric has put on companies of all sizes that are trying to use business aviation to survive and compete in an unforgiving economy and global marketplace, where even a slight edge makes a difference. Entitled “Corporate Planes Give Business Owners an Edge,” it was published Dec. 13, 2012, and the award was given to McMillin at the annual press breakfast on the opening day of NBAA 2013. –A.L.

Wichita Eagle senior reporter Molly McMillin won the NBAA 2013 Gold Wing Award for her story on how business aviation gives companies an edge over the competition.

MARIANO ROSALES

Check your flight plans!

FAA suffixes are updated

clay Lacy’s nbAA cave Clay Lacy (center) is one of the constants in California business aviation and a regular attendee at NBAA gatherings. Yesterday a group gathered at the Clay Lacy Aviation booth to enjoy the camaraderie, including NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen (right). As usual, Clay was centerstage, along with his signature smile. What he won’t brag about is the Clay Lacy Foundation and the professional pilot scholarship that the foundation supports.

4 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

Just in time for departure from NBAA 2013, the FAA announced that effective today it is updating equipment suffixes for domestic flight plans to more accurately indicate the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) capabilities of aircraft. Henceforth, the /R, /Q, /E, /F, /J and /K suffixes will be replaced with new suffixes, according to the aircraft’s equipage for Rnav capability, GNSS capability and RVSM approval.

When filing a domestic flight plan, operators should determine equipment suffixes for their aircraft as follows: • Rnav capability with GNSS and with RVSM: /L • Rnav capability with GNSS and without RVSM: /G • Rnav capability without GNSS

and with RVSM: /Z • Rnav capability without GNSS and without RVSM: /I Operators should only use the new suffixes when they have Rnav capability, but do not require performance-based navigation (PBN) routing. Operators that desire PBN routing should file an ICAO-format flight plan including PBN information in Field 18, as per instructions.

For a complete list of changes to the equipment suffixes for domestic flight plans, operators should consult the FAA’s Aeronautical Information Manual insert page. –J.W.

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Flying Colours launches $3.4M expansion

by Kirby J. Harrison Canadian completion, refurbishment and MRO specialist Flying Colours (Booth No.

N6227) has broken ground on the first phase of a $3.39 million (U.S.), three-phase expansion

plan at its Peterborough, Ontario headquarters.

The new, 20,000-sq-ft hangar is being added to the existing three-hangar complex and is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2014. It will be equipped to handle refurbishment projects, avionics installations and upgrades, heavy maintenance and full interior

Flying Colours’s new 20,000-sq-ft hangar is part of a three-phase expansion program that represents an investment of $3.39 million.

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8 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

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green completion work.

The building will initially be used to increase the company’s refurbishment and maintenance capabilities for pre-owned largecabin aircraft, particularly those from Canadian OEM Bombardier’s Global and Challenger 870 product lines. It is anticipated that the additional space will also be used for a number of special mission programs, including the fulfillment of a multiple-aircraft contract for modifications to seven CRJ 700 and Challenger 870 airframes destined for delivery in Asia.

“This is a major step in the application of our future strategy,” said executive v-p Sean Gillespie. “We have quite simply run out of space to accommodate all the requests received.”

When all phases are complete, the total 65,000 sq ft of hangar space will enable Flying Colours to work on the Airbus ACJ and Boeing Business Jet BBJ families and executive variants of the CSeries airliner from Bombardier. The additional space will also incorporate an additional large-cabin hangar, increased shop space for maintenance and cabin outfitting workshops and a new downdraft paint facility.

Flying colors anticipates that the increased capability will require a bolstering of its workforce by 30 percent, adding 60 to 70 new jobs at the Peterborough location. The company has already begun recruitment activity.

When the final phase of expansion is completed at Peterborough, Flying Colours plans to explore options for expansion of its JetCorp Technical Services facility. Based in Chesterfield, Mo., it is already running a full workload through its shops.

Now rebranded as Flying Colours KSUS, the former JetCorp center won approved support facility status from Bombardier. It has also received its AS9100 certificate for quality and safety management and been appointed by Raisbeck Engineering as an authorized sales and installation center for the entire King Air modification product line. o

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news clips z Flight Display Systems’ Jet Jukebox a Success David Gray, CEO and founder of Flight Display Systems (Booth N3124), said here at NBAA 2013 that his company has delivered some 30 to 40 Jet Jukebox HD multimedia players with a wireless router to operators. “Our vision is all about wireless,” he said. “People don’t need Internet access all the time, but they do want to use their personal electronic devices.”

Jet Jukebox is basically a website inside the airplane with Wi-Fi access, so it is device agnostic, working with all iOS and Android devices. It streams movies, music and other content to up to eight devices and can store up to 100 movies. The Jet Jukebox system costs $29,600.

z Cessna Sells Two Mustangs for Chinese Charter Cessna Aircraft (Booth No. C8843) has sold two Citation Mustangs to the Yunnan Ruifeng General Aviation Company in China, for use in charter operations. Yunnan intends to operate the aircraft to very high altitude airports with elevations of approximately 13,000 feet. The aircraft will be delivered in December 2013 and next year. The deal is the first sale of a Citation Mustang to a Chinese charter operator. Yunnan already operates a Cessna Grand Caravan that it uses for sightseeing flights in southwest China.

z New NBAA Excise Tax Guide Now Available NBAA has released an updated version of its Federal Excise Taxes Guide: Details on Air Transportation and Fuel Taxes. Last published in 2005 as the NBAA Federal Excise Tax Handbook, the new guide includes areas that have seen changes–such as the application of FET on fractional aircraft ownership operations; IRS legal interpretations regarding aircraft service and pilot service agreements; and reimbursement under the “Schwab re-interpretation,” based upon the latest information from the IRS, and other sources.

Complex topics including percentage tax on domestic travel possession, domestic segment fees, head taxes on international transportation, command and control, available exemptions and charter broker obligations are broken down into plain language, and the book also outlines FET applicability on air cargo-only operations. “Both FAR Part 91 and 135 operators deal with federal excise taxes on a daily basis, making this guide a key resource for member companies,” said Scott O’Brien, the association’s senior manager of finance and policy. “NBAA is pleased to provide this significantly improved guide to our members, and the Association is grateful to the volunteers on NBAA’s tax committee who developed and reviewed this publication.” It is available to all NBAA members through download at www.nbaa.org/fet.

Bombardier extends maintenance intervals

by Amy Laboda Making a corporate jet work for an individual or a corporation is all about the math. And we all know that the purchase price of an aircraft is simply the price of entry. Bombardier (Booth No. N5731) announced at NBAA 2013 the launch of its Max maintenance program for the Challenger 605 and Learjet 40/45, designed to reduce direct maintenance costs to owners and operators and increase dispatch availability by extending required maintenance intervals by as much as 50 percent.

The program is expected to be available to 605 owners and operators in the second quarter of 2014. What will it cost them to participate?

“Nothing, no cost,” explained Eric Martel, president of Bombardier Customer Services. “It is not complicated. It doesn’t matter about warranty status. It doesn’t matter how many owners the aircraft has had. We will do this program at our cost on the Challenger 300/600 series because it increases the utility and reliability of the product.”

This program, as well as programs for the Challenger

New Engines In, BBJ heads out at BizJet International BizJet International announced here at NBAA 2013 that it has shipped its first BBJ from its Tulsa, Okla. facility to China’s Nanshan Group and has now taken delivery of its first Rolls-Royce Tay Mk6118C engines for midlife inspections.

“We are underway with achieving midlife inspections and correlating the test cell for the -8C,” said Criss Berry, vice president of engine services for the company. BizJet will deliver the completed engines to the customer in November.

As for the BBJ, it is the first, but not the last, to go to a Chinese customer. BizJet (Booth No. C10416) will begin a second BBJ project for a Chinese customer next month. The first aircraft is equipped with in-flight entertainment, cabin management and LiveTV and has full audio-on-demand capabilities It was outfitted in full VIP style with two lavatories and a large galley, plus aft seating for staff and crew. –A.L.

Ovation Select offers cabin control in the palm of the hand

MARK WAGNER

z FlightSafety Launches Web-based ADS-B Course FlightSafety International (Booth No. N1921) is preparing to offer a new web-based Automatic Dependent SurveillanceBroadcast (ADS-B) course as part of its eLearning programs.

The course will begin in November and is designed to develop pilot knowledge of the ADS-B system, review flight plan considerations, minimum equipment list requirements and human factors issues. The course will provide pilots with the necessary training to apply for FAA authorization to conduct ADS-B operations outside U.S. airspace in accordance with FAA Advisory Circular 90-114.

Once the course is completed, the pilot will be issued with a certificate of training that can be used to apply for an FAA letter of authorization, which may be required to use the ADS-B system on certain routes and airspace regions worldwide. ADS-B out will be required, for example, above FL290 in some airspace in Asia and Australia beginning in December. The U.S. ADS-B mandate begins Jan. 1, 2020.

FlightSafety offers other web-based training courses including international procedures recurrent, cold weather operations, CPDLC (controller pilot datalink communications), crew emergency, runway analysis and safety management systems.

604 and Learjet 40/45, are built on the success of the Challenger 300 Max program, which launched in July 2013 and is showing owners a direct maintenance cost reduction of as much as $24 per flight hour, over a 20-year period, based on an average annual usage of 500 flight hours.

“It’s a complicated process of gathering data and proving that the parts will hold up over time. It takes a lot of accurate data to substantiate that failure rates are low enough that we can extend intervals of maintenance. There is math behind it,” said Andy Nureddin, vice president of Bombardier Customer Services.

The Lear 40/45 Max program launched last week, but it requires purchase of a service bulletin for $70,000 to participate. That said, it has the potential to provide owners with the most cost savings over time. Bombardier expects operators to effect savings of more than $130 per flight hour over a 20-year period, again based on an average annual usage of 500 flight hours. Participants receive new maintenance documents that allow them to increase inspection intervals from 300 hours or 12 months and multiples of such, to 600 hours or 36 months.

“Bombardier has also produced a high-utilization maintenance program that optimizes the maintenance for operators who use the aircraft 1,000 hours or more per year,” said Nureddin. o

10 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

With Ovation Select, passengers control cabin environment and entertainment with their smart phone or tablet device.

Honeywell has further improved its Ovation Select cabin management system with a new feature that allows multiple entertainment and cabin comfort features to be controlled from a Samsung smartphone. The system can already be operated using an iPhone, iPad or other tablet devices. The control units allow flight attendants or passengers to scroll easily through moving map display options or to change cabin lighting and temperature settings.

Visitors to the company’s NBAA display (Booth No. N4100) can also see the latest audio visual-ondemand option for Ovation Select, which gives access to so-called “early window” movies released through a subscription service soon after release in theaters and before they are available in Blu-ray format.

–C.A.

At CAE, safe operations are our number one priority, as demonstrated by our excellent flight training. But we’re also serious about giving you the best experience possible. That’s why we offer convenient and enjoyable locations, unsurpassed service, and tailored programs and schedules that meet your needs. So work with the people who work with you. CAE. Elevate your training.

TrainWithCAE.com

©2013 CAE. All rights reserved.

Visit us at NBAA booth 3533. And enjoy service from our barista coffee bar and fresh-baked cookies.

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Emteq prospered in hard times

z Meridian Perfect for Bizav, Says Piper

by Rob Finfrock

Piper Aircraft launched a new initiative here at NBAA to promote its flagship Meridian single-engine turboprop as a business aircraft. The six-seat, $2.176 million M-Class Meridian features a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-42A 500 shp engine and Garmin G1000 glass panel avionics. Top cruise speed is 260 knots and maximum range is 1,000 nm.

“In the past few years we have noted that the number of Meridians flown by Part 91 operations has doubled as corporate flight departments move up to a turboprop, or convert to a single-engine Piper from a twin-engine turbine aircraft,” noted Drew McEwen, Piper vice president of sales and marketing.

Separately, Piper announced earlier this month that it had sold a Meridian to Airline Transport Professionals (ATP) for ab initio airline training. ATP operates more than 130 Piper piston engine aircraft and claims to have been the first school to integrate turbine aircraft flight experience into its ab initio airline pilot training.

z Amac Completes A319 VIP Interior Amac Aerospace of Basel, Switzerland announced on the eve of NBAA 2013 the completion and delivery of an Airbus A319 for a Middle Eastern client. Performed over a nine-month period, all engineering and completion work was performed in house.

“Amac Aerospace continues to perform both narrow- and widebody projects, resulting in high-end work produced inhouse, a proud accomplishment for our internal departments,” said Bernd Schramm, Amac Group COO. The A319’s VIP cabin includes a main lounge, dining area, private lounge, main bedroom and expansive private lavatory.

Interior appointments include high-end leathers, specially selected wood veneers and carved mother-of-pearl inlays, while the in-flight entertainment features interfaces for digital devices such as iPods and iPads throughout the cabin.

z Emteq Offers ‘eConnect Plus’ Discount Program Emteq (Booth No. C7012), of New Berlin, Wis., is introducing the eConnect Plus Program at this year’s NBAA show. The program provides equipment discounts and enhanced customer service incentives for eConnect aircraft connectivity installations on new platforms.

The eConnect system is a flexible and versatile cabin communication system offering EasyHD and connectivity solutions in as little as two to six weeks, according to Emteq.

Connectivity by eConnect is a wireless router that enables access to an aircraft’s satcom system throughout the cabin, with advanced business applications and software. EasyHD is an upgrade that integrates high definition and wireless capability.

Emteq is also featuring its eQuation line of cabin power products and Quasar II full-spectrum mood lighting system, introduced at last year’s NBAA convention.

Buoyed by strong demand for its forward-fit systems from OEM customers, aircraft lighting and electrical systems provider Emteq (Booth No. C7012) has weathered the global economic downturn better than many. In the past two years alone, the New Berlin, Wis.-based company has opened a new production facility in Montana, expanded its existing offices in Montreal and Brazil to be closer to its OEM clients, and established a European customer-service base in Switzerland.

Established in 1996, the company is also on track in 2013 to exceed $100 million in annual revenue for the first time in its relatively short history, according to Emteq president Jerry Jendusa. “We are fortunate to offer a diverse range of products to support new aircraft programs, as well as modernization of existing aircraft, he told AIN. “In particular, we’ve grown the availability of Emteq systems on various production offerings from Bombardier, Embraer and Gulfstream to name a few, thanks to our commitment to new product development and service enhancements.

“We are fortunate to be working on both aftermarket

and production programs,” he added. “If a segment happens to be down, chances are the other is on an upward trend.”

Emteq’s product line ranges from coaxial cables, electrical trays and avionics support kits to cabin comfort and connectivity solutions and power management systems. The company was also among the first to introduce LED lighting to aircraft cabins, an area that Jendusa says has comprised Emteq’s biggest growth-driver in recent years.

LED Lighting

“We also moved into LED exterior lighting in 2007 and expect that to add to our growth,” he added. “We are also growing in cabin connectivity and power products to compliment, enhance or add on to traditional cabin management and inflight entertainment systems, while also allowing for the use of personal electronic devices in business aircraft.”

Emteq has also seen its business from new production programs grow in recent years.

“Today our product breakdown runs approximately 55 percent forward-fit systems, [to] 45 percent aftermarket,” Jendusa noted. “We enter at the initial design phase and work with the OEM on joint-development

programs to better manage risk.

As we increase content on the OEM side, we expect that ratio to skew between 65 to 70 percent forward-fit in the next three to five years.”

Among the items Emteq will demonstrate at NBAA 2013 are two recent product offerings.

Introduced last year, the Quasar II Full Spectrum Mood Lighting System operates on 115 VAC and interfaces with other Emteq cabin systems to eliminate the need for a separate control unit.

“This level of connectivity reduces component count, and that saves weight while minimizing complexity,” Jendusa said.

“Along those lines, our newlyintroduced eConnect solution offers in-cabin Internet connectivity, satcom interface control and full [cabin management system] functionality in one box.

It’s a strong backbone, which also complements the full range of inflight entertainment solutions on the market.”

Jendusa termed the annual NBAA convention “a beautiful show” that allows Emteq to meet with members of its highly diverse customer base.

“Here we can introduce new products and speak with OEMs and owner/operators about new projects with the latest technologies,” he stated. o

First-time NBAA exhibitors Aviation Partners Group (APG) of Punta Gorda, Fla., and Oma Sud of Capua, Italy and Miami, are presenting here at NBAA 2013 the Oma Sud Skycar (Booth No. N409). Designed and developed in Italy, the five-place, all-metal piston twin-engine Skycar is both FAA and EASA certified.

Designed for missions ranging from executive transport to cargo hauling and patrol work, the aircraft is currently receiving enhancements including air-conditioning, composite threebladed propellers, electronic ignition and tuned exhaust system.

Both APG and Oma Sud bring strong aviation capabilities to their cooperative effort. Oma Sud has been producing components for Airbus, Boeing and Eurocopter, while APG has been providing avionics design and installations for both fixedwings and rotorcraft around the world since 2006. Completions and avionics installations on the Skycar are being performed by APG at its 15,000 sq ft MRO facility in Punta Gorda.

MARIANO ROSALES

z OMA SUD Skycar Makes NBAA Debut

learjet 85 nacelle unveiled Aircelle, a subsidiary of Safran, unveiled its Learjet 85 nacelle design here at NBAA. The nacelles will cover the new Bombardier Business Aircraft jet’s Pratt & Whitney PW307B turbofans. Celebrating the event are (l to r) Eric Pinard-Legry, Learjet nacelles program manager; Ralph Acs, vice president and general manager, Learjet.

Marie-Helene Pelletier, vice president of supply chain for Bombardier Aerospace; Martin Sion, Aircelle chairman and CEO; Jacqueline Epifanie, Bombardier Business Aircraft director of public relations and communications; and Peter Lengyel, president and CEO Safran USA.

12 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

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Embraer and Honda, that, while more expensive, are faster. The HondaJet tops out at 420 knots.

Cessna did not want to cede that niche to the competition and they also wanted a step-up product for Mustang owners.

Therefore in 2011, Cessna announced plans for the M2.

At first glance, the aircraft looks like a refreshed CJ1+, only with subtle winglets. The fuselage tube is the same and the overall appearance of the two aircraft have similarities. But under the skin, there is a lot new.

It begins with the new Williams FJ44-1AP-21 engines with full-authority digital engine controls that produce 1,965 pounds of thrust each (sea level, standard temperature) and have a 4,000-hour time between overhaul interval, or 10 to 14 years of average use. The more powerful engines allow the M2 to maintain maximum cruise speed through higher altitudes–all the way up to 39,000 feet.

With the new light M2, Cessna is targeting Citation Mustang owners who want to move up to something more capable, plus it allows Cessna to compete for buyers who are considering the Embraer Phenom 100 or Honda Aircraft HondaJet, which like the M2 is equipped with Garmin’s G3000 flight deck.

Citation M2 nears certification

More importantly, it provided a platform for Cessna to offer an entire family of aircraft based on the same diameter fuselage tube: the CJ2, CJ3 and now the CJ4. Collectively, more than 1,000 of those derivative aircraft have been sold through the beginning of this year. They offer more range, speed and cabin space than the original CJ. When it comes to maximizing a fuselage, Cessna has few equals.

by Mark Huber Cessna Aircraft is looking to beat back encroaching entrylevel light jet competition with its new M2. But can a nearly 25-year-old fuselage design do the trick? The market is about to find out. The new Citation M2, a refreshed version of the company’s smallest Model 525–the CitationJet–is nearing certification. A demonstration model is on display here at the Henderson Executive Airport static line.

At the beginning of October, Cessna vice president Brad Thress told AIN that the company is completing certification test flying on the new $4.395 million M2 and expected certification within “a few weeks.” On September 30 Garmin provided the Wichita airframer with the final data load for the aircraft’s new Intrinzic cockpit featuring the G3000 touchscreen glasspanel avionics system. Cessna needed a few days to conform the data load to the aircraft and then planned several final days of test flying before submitting final certification reports to the FAA for approval. Thress said that task, combined with any delaying impact from the federal government shutdown that began October 1, made it unlikely that the M2 would be certified in time for this year’s NBAA convention.

Thress said the company already had built six production M2s at its Independence, Kan. plant and that they were “all flying out very cleanly.” The M2 adds winglets, the Intrinzic/ Garmin avionics, a restyled cabin and cockpit and a pair of new Williams International FJ441AP-21 engines to the legacy CJ1+ airframe. Cessna said that production of the M2 is already

sold out into 2015, but declined to provide specifics on the number of orders it has received.

The M2 is designed as a stepup aircraft for current Citation Mustang owners as well as giving Cessna a contemporary product offering to compete with the Embraer Phenom 100 and the HondaJet. The Mustang is equipped with a Garmin G1000 flight deck, which means that upgrading to the M2’s G3000-based avionics should be a smooth process. The key difference between the two systems is the G3000’s touchscreen controllers, which make operating the avionics much simpler and more intuitive and eliminate the need for separate FMS controldisplay units.

Citation I Replacement

The first Cessna Model 525 CitationJet was delivered in 1993. The aircraft was a replacement for, and a vast improvement over, the Citation I it replaced. That aircraft had brought Cessna into the civilian jet age and systematically gutted the business turboprop market in the 1970s and 1980s.

Much of it was derived from the T-37A “Tweet” basic jet trainer Cessna had developed for the Air Force in the 1950s. But while the original Citation I sold well versus turboprops–nearly 700 were made between 1972 and 1985–it came under fire for its thirsty fuel burn versus relatively slow (357 knots) top speed that bled off quickly at higher altitudes, lack of cabin headroom and aesthetic challenges including stodgy styling and a bulbous nose.

The CitationJet was designed to correct these deficiencies. It

used part of the Citation I’s fuselage mated to a new nose and tail assembly, more aerodynamic wings, a pair of fuel efficient Williams FJ44 engines, new Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 glass-panel avionics and a redesigned cabin that provided better headroom from a trenched center aisle.

Cessna shaved more than 1,400 pounds from the airplane, down to a maximum takeoff weight of 10,400 pounds, and range increased from 1,329 nm to 1,500 nm. More importantly, top cruise speed increased to 380 knots. Yet the CitationJet retained the Citation I’s chief attribute, excellent short-field performance. Balanced field length required for takeoff was only 2,960 feet, enabling the aircraft to use airports just about anywhere. The aircraft sold incredibly well, with more than 700 CJs and updated CJ1 and CJ1+ versions delivered over the course of an 18-year production run.

Maximum Altitude FL410

The FJ44-1AP-21 is a 2.58:1 bypass, twin-spool design with three compression stages and three turbine stages and produces 1,965 pounds of takeoff thrust at sea level and is flatrated up to 72 degrees F (22 C).

According to information provided by Cessna, on ascent they burn 133 gallons per hour, and that declines during level cruise to 112 gallons per hour while pushing the jet to 400 knots or 460 mph. Fuel capacity is 494 gallons. Maximum range is 1,300 nm and payload with full fuel and one pilot is 500 pounds.

The useful load is 3,809 pounds.

Like all CJs and the Mustang, the M2 will be certified for single-pilot operations, and that pilot is getting a roomier and more ergonomic cockpit.

Citation Family

In 2003, Cessna unveiled an even smaller jet than the CJ: the Citation Mustang. That aircraft was aimed primarily at owner pilots flying turboprops and piston aircraft. Certification came three years later and, to date, more than 400 Mustangs have been delivered. It is one of Cessna’s most successful product launches of all time. That said, the Mustang embraced some of the historical deficiencies of that original Citation I so many years ago: with a top speed of 340 knots, it was slow compared to competing aircraft from

2014 Cessna M2 Specifications Price:

$4.395 million

Engines:

(2) Williams International FJ44-1AP-21, 1,965 pounds of thrust each

Avionics:

Cessna Intrinzic (Garmin G3000)

Pilots:

1-2

Passengers:

4-7

Restyled Cockpit

The M2’s restyled cockpit has more legroom and a shorter control pedestal for easier entry and egress to the pilot seats.

Cessna’s Thress said the new Garmin G3000 touchscreen avionics system will significantly improve the airplane’s reliability compared to its CJ1 progenitor with far longer mean times between unscheduled component removals. The avionics are designed to accommodate the newest and future air traffic control and navigation technology.

Standard features on the system include FMS with dual Waas-enabled GPS receivers, weather avoidance radar, terrain avoidance warning system

Height: 57 inches Passenger Cabin:

Width: 58 inches Length: 11 feet Baggage compartment: 46 cubic feet

Top cruise speed:

400 knots

Range:

1,300 nm

Fuel capacity:

494 U.S. gallons

Takeoff distance:

3,250 feet

Landing distance:

2,640 feet

Maximum altitude:

41,000 feet

Maximum takeoff weight:

10,700 pounds

Source: Cessna

14 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

Continued on page 16 u

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Citation M2 nears certification uContinued from page 14

(Taws-B), traffic collision and avoidance system (Tcas I), dual attitude heading reference system, dual air data computers, Jeppesen ChartView, Garmin SafeTaxi and digital audio system. Options

include Garmin synthetic-vision technology, Taws-A, SiriusXM satellite weather and radio, Tcas II, surface watch, cabin briefer, satphone and onboard Aircell Gogo Biz Wi-Fi. The digital, dual-channel Garmin autopilot is fully integrated with the avionics and offers Vnav descent profiles and automated takeoff/go-around The M2 is equipped with Cessna’s Intrinzic flight deck, based on Garmin’s G3000 system. Touchscreen controllers (center) are within easy reach.

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16 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

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procedures. The Intrinzic/G3000 system also can record and store maintenance data that can be reviewed on the cockpit multifunction display or downloaded via the Cessna Aircraft Recording System, which records useful data during the previous 100 flight hours in nonvolatile memory.

A variety of passenger cabin layouts and standard color/fabric schemes are available. The six standard color schemes include Pearl, Raffia, Mink, Citrus, Frost and Carbon. Passenger capacity is four to seven, if the copilot’s seat and belted potty are included. Otherwise, the M2 is a four- to five-passenger airplane.

The seats have been redesigned to be slightly more ergonomic and have inboard armrests that retract into the seat backs when not in use, creating a nice clean appearance in the cabin.

There is LED lighting throughout and a pair of 110VAC plugs. The overall cabin cross section is 57 inches tall (if you count the trenched center aisle) and 58 inches wide; length is 11 feet. Forty-six cubic feet of baggage space is distributed between an aft hold, rear cabin closet and small space in the nose and can collectively hold 725 pounds.

The standard configuration is a facing club-four arrangement with an optional single passenger, side-facing seat opposite the cabin entry door.

The aft lavatory features a flushing toilet with optional closing door. For connectivity, the cabin is equipped with the new Heads Up Technologies-based Clarity cabin management system for passenger communications and entertainment, the same system in the new Sovereign and Citation X and other new Citations that are under development.

The M2 maintains the CJ heritage of good short runway performance; required runway for takeoff is less than 3,300 feet. With new engines and avionics, it should offer respectable competition in its class. o

z Taughannock Holding Printer Giveaway Full-service aircraft management and charter provider Taughannock Aviation of Ithaca, N.Y., is showcasing its line of 02 and N2 intensifiers, fueling software solutions and mobile computing hardware at NBAA 2013 (Booth No. C9417).

Founded in 1980, the company is now one of the largest business aviation services providers in the Northeast, with offerings including business jet sales, FBO services and solutions, aircraft maintenance and repair and supply of ground support equipment, as well as aircraft management and charter.

To help ensure business aviation users get that message clearly, here at the convention Taughannock is giving away a Brother PocketJet mobile printer. Convention attendees are invited to stop at the company’s booth to learn more about its services, and enter the drawing for a chance to win a printer.

z Linking In with JSfirm Job Site Social marketing and business networking giant LinkedIn is now a part of aviation job distribution network specialist Jsfirm.com’s arsenal for helping aviation companies and aviation job seekers connect.

“When a job seeker finds a job on Jsfirm.com they can apply for it by importing their current LinkedIn profile and uploading their résumé directly to our cloud server,” explained Jsfirm.com manager Jeff Richards. “Hiring companies can find these job seekers by searching our résumé database and sending them job notifications directly through our server. The advantage to the company seeking employees is that we are specific to aviation and aerospace, and we cost less than what LinkedIn charges employers seeking new hires.”

And for the job seeker? “Jsfirm.com (Booth No. N421) has something LinkedIn does not: a real human at the end of a help line for job seekers who are struggling to build their resume. “We’ll help them,” said Richards.

z MEBA Moves to New Dubai Site At the sixth Middle East Business Aviation meeting in Dubai from December 8-10, 2014, prepare for some changes. The meeting is moving to a new home at Dubai World Central at Al Maktoum International Airport, located near Jebel Ali, Dubai, which is the same location as next month’s Dubai airshow (November 17-19).

Along with a new location, the Middle East Business Aviation Association (MEBAA), which hosts the event, is promoting the “Fly and Feed” initiative, in partnership with the World Food Programme. This initiative is designed to raise awareness of issues that concern the United Nations humanitarian agency, which organizes logistics, transportation and distribution of food in world emergencies.

“Fly and Feed is our way of contributing to the World Food Programme’s continuing efforts in fighting hunger across the globe,” said MEBAA founding chairman Ali Al Naqbi. More information about the program can be found at the MEBA show booth here (No. N2923).

Stevens rolling out new service initiatives

by Curt Epstein “Nose-to-tail” aircraft MRO ensure it was done to the customand completions specialist Ste- er’s satisfaction. After delivery, vens Aviation is here at NBAA customers can contact the staff at any time with questo announce several tions. A technical sales new service initiatives. representative will also A service provider for conduct maintenance Beechcraft, Bombartrend analysis on the dier, Cessna, Embraer, aircraft, informing Gulfstream, Piaggio the customer when and Pilatus, Stethe aircraft needs to vens provides services return for the next ranging from aircraft maintenance event. painting to engine Stevens was the overhauls at five loca- Neal McGrail, of Piaggio completions tions (Greenville and president Stevens Aviation provider that finished Greer, S.C.; Daythe aircraft ordered ton, Ohio; Nashville, Tenn.; and Denver, Colo.) It has by the now-defunct Avantair.

124 technicians network-wide, According to company president with nine of them having earned Neal McGrail, Stevens’s recently“FAA Technician of the Year” opened Piaggio service center in Greer, S.C. is now seeing those honors.

The company (Booth No. same aircraft return for required C7338, C10807) is introduc- maintenance to return them to ing a new premium mainte- airworthiness. nance program it calls “Buddy Gulfstream Fans Upgrade and Wizard,” which includes the assignment of a dedicated The company is currently in technical sales representative the final stages of the STC pro(buddy) and technician (wiz- cess for its Gulfstream GIV ard) who meet with the customer future air navigation system and describe the scope of work (Fans) upgrade, with equiprequired. They will then be in ment ready to be installed in a direct contact with the customer customer aircraft, according to while the aircraft is in the facility, Tom Grunbeck, the company’s on a weekly or even daily basis recently appointed v-p of sales depending on customer pref- and marketing. Stevens expects erence. Once the work is com- final approval in the second quarpleted, the pair will then sit down ter of 2014. with the customer and discuss On the Pilatus PC-12 plathow the work was completed to form, the company expects its MARIANO ROSALES

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voice and Internet STCs to be granted in January. “We can put different manufacturers’ equipment as part of our STC so you have an option of what equipment you can use,” said Grunbeck. “We are the only company that is going to be giving the operator this option.” Certification of a similar package for the King Air 200, 300, and 350 will be based on the data package for the PC-12 and should be ready next May. A voice and Internet package for the Learjet 60 has already been certified and is available to customers.

For the King Air series, the company has reached an agreement with Colorado’s Finnoff Aviation Products to sell and install the MT 5-blade propeller for the King Air 200. This will be followed by a similar offering for the King Air 90 and the 350.

The company also offers a coast-to-coast, full-AOG response service with a one-hour dispatch and has serviced aircraft as far away as Alaska, providing mobile maintenance as well as modification capability.

Here at the show, Stevens is offering two specials: free full-service interior detailing for any aircraft maintenance ordered before December 1 and scheduled before April 1, 2014; and, for customers ordering the Garmin G1000 flight deck for the King Air models 200, B200, 300 and 350, it will offer a “platinum options” package upgrade worth approximately $25,000, consisting of Garmin synthetic vision, GRC 10 wireless remote for the SiriusXM audio system and the Garmin ChartView option. o

NationAir (Booth No. N5311) announced at NBAA 2013 that it has created an aviation product liability division, to be lead by 15-year insurance veteran Jamie Benthusen. The company, founded in 1978, has pioneered specialized insurance programs, with clients in 30 countries worldwide.

“Our products liability division is part of our commitment to provide the full spectrum of risk management for our aftermarket aviation suppliers. It is a natural progression to extend our services through the supply chain,” said Jeffrey Bauer, president of NationAir. A NationAir product liability policy includes a claims advisor, complimentary contract review and certificate management service, and preferred rates from the company’s partners covering emergency response planning, legal counsel and crisis communications consulting.

MARK WAGNER

z NationAir Adds Product Liability Division

wheeling anD dealing Danny Maldonado, executive v-p of sales and marketing for Bell Helicopter unveiled the new Bell 429 variant featuring wheels rather than skids. Priced at $6.17 million (compared with $5.8 million for the skid version) the new Bell 429WLG is about five knots faster and a lot easier to maneuver on a ramp.

www.ainonline.com • October 24, 2013 • NBAA Convention News 17

RocketRoute penetrates U.S. flight-planning marketplace

by Amy Laboda and Ian Sheppard

Praise for the FAA

“The FAA, contrary to what people told me, were wonderfully organized and easy to work with, government shutdown and all,” explained Nitsche.

“The real key to our arrival in the North American market was finding the right partner,” continued Lyall. That was Ac-u-Kwik, which will deliver RocketRoute’s flight-planning services to business aviation operators throughout the continent, under the strategic alliance agreement announced at NBAA 2013.

“Both companies share a vision and passion to simplify flight planning and dispatch,” continued Lyall. RocketRoute (Booth No. C9430, N1216) includes everything dispatchers and pilots need in one quick, multi-modal app. It allows them to plan a flight based on weather, flight restrictions and aircraft capabilities. It can file the flight plan in a native ICAO format that is acceptable to the FAA as well, and provides an updated trip-kit to the pilot via phone app, tablet/EFB app, or computer browser. Best of all, subscribers have access to live help from RocketRoute dispatchers at any time during flight planning.

Pricing begins at $85 per year for flight departments (or individuals) with a single piston aircraft and rises to $950 for a flight department with a single turbinepowered aircraft.

During a pre-NBAA webinar the Guildford, UK-based company, gave a demonstration of the product, which it has recently enhanced to make it more useful for corporate flight departments, and

to incorporate charts for regions such as the U.S. and Brazil. One customer in particular had driven development for business aviation, said Nitsche. “We can now do full routing to alternates with airways routing,” he said, “and have added the NAT track system, so NAT track Notams will be added to the briefing pack.” There is also a new icing charts option, and a flight log that generates “full routings and fuel calculations on one sheet.”

Another enhancement is the addition of fields for crewmembers, including drop-downs for contact details and block

This screenshot shows RocketRoute in action on an iPad. Getting its start in Europe, the company is now zeroing in on the U.S. market.

First Fans-over-Iridium STC goes to Chicago Jet Group

by Matt Thurber Chicago Jet Group has received the first-ever FAA supplemental type certificate (STC) for a future air navigation system (Fans) 1/A+ and controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC) retrofit. The Fans/CPDLC system is installed in a Dassault Falcon 50 managed by Chicago Jet and also represents the first Fansover-Iridium retrofit for a business jet.

Fans capability will be required for flying the most efficient tracks across the North Atlantic, and this retrofit not only enables that capability but also meets the upcoming Eurocontrol Link 2000+ mandates.

These mandates kick in on Feb. 5, 2015.

Chicago Jet (Booth No. N921) worked closely with Universal Avionics (N6108), which provided its UniLink UL-801 communications management unit (CMU), flight management systems (FMS) and CVR-120A cockpit voice recorder for the retrofit. The CVR is required for recording datalink messages. An International Communications Group (ICG, N2329) NxtLink ICS-220A Iridium satcom

supplies a dedicated voice channel and also a datalink channel for Acars, Fans 1/ A+ messaging and CPDLC. The systems are interfaced with dual Universal UNS1Lw FMSs. LOA required

“I’m sitting on cloud nine right now,” said Mike Mitera, Chicago Jet Group director of operations. The STC for the Falcon 50 was a first and major step for Fans/CPDLC capability, he pointed out, but operators also need to obtain an FAA letter of authorization (LOA) to use the equipment in flight. Chicago Jet expected to receive its LOA prior to the NBAA show, although that might have been delayed by the government shutdown. By early October, Chicago Jet had already completed its second Falcon 50 Fans/CPDLC installation, this one on a customer airplane.

What is significant about the Chicago Jet STC is not only that it is the first Fans retrofit, but also that the STC is built on the Iridium satcom system.

MARK WAGNER

Any flight-planning product called RocketRoute ought to be quick, and company co-founders Kurt Lyall, Justin Coelho and Uwe Nitsche promise that their IFR flight planner can create even the most complicated international routings fast, all through the wonder of fresh software and cloud-based processing.

“Our cloud-based processing means that the pilot or dispatcher using RocketRoute can access it from any device or operating system, be it smartphone, tablet or computer,” Lyall said.

The program has been around since 2009 in Europe, racking up 35,000 users and processing more than 600,000 routes.

“We started with the most complicated airspace out there, Europe, which can, on any given day, have more than 30,000 flight restrictions for a pilot to sift through in order to plan a flight,” said Lyall, explaining why fine-tuning RocketRoute for the North American market was simpler than it looked. Recently, RocketRoute said it had reached an agreement with Skyguide in Switzerland to resell their approach charts through its interface, further enhancing its product for European operations.

times. These are all aimed at moving RocketRoute towards corporate flight department use, from starting out as a popular light aviation VFR/IFR planning tool (which was particularly useful during the 2012 London Olympics, when flight plans were required for all flights around the London area).

Nitsche added that “later this year we will add multiple performance information for each aircraft. Another feature he demonstrated on the webinar was the ability to easily request slots at airports, and quick links to allow Skype calls to be made. Finally, flight departments can customize their briefing packs and handling/slot requests to FBOs with their own logo and details.

“We’re seeing routes being generated around the world–Asia, Africa, the Middle East–and we are starting to see activity in the U.S. as well,” said Lyall. o

“Sitting on cloud nine,” over a new STC they partnered on (even before the champagne), are (l to r) MIke Mitera, director of operations for Chicago Jet Group; Paul DeHerrera, COO of Universal Avionics; and Scott Trainum, CEO of ICG. The STC for Fans/CPDLC-over-Iridium in a Falcon 50 is the first of its kind.

18 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

The Gulfstream G650 and Bombardier Globals are Fans-ready from the factory, but using Inmarsat satcom. Future STCs that Chicago Jet plans will also use the Universal UniLink and CVR and ICG NxtLink Iridium satcom.

Iridium makes sense for the Fans/ CPDLC application, Mitera explained, because the network offers true worldwide coverage and isn’t as affected by weather as Inmarsat satcom. “Inmarsat may be an option and they’ve done it that way for years because Iridium was not an option,” he explained. “But I think Iridium is the true solution for the long term; it has global worldwide coverage and costs way less than Inmarsat.”

Although Dassault and Gulfstream obtained exemptions for the LINK 2000+ mandate on legacy aircraft, this applies only to operations in Europe, Mitera explained.

“You still have to have this equipment to get from the U.S. to Europe,” he said.

“You’re going to be a second-class citizen if you don’t have this equipment, when everyone else is operating in this datalink airspace above 28,000 feet. You will probably be forced to fly lower altitudes or a longer path [like the Blue Spruce routes]. You’re going to have to explain to the owner why you’re stopping in Keflavik.”

Chicago Jet has already begun working on its next FANS-over-Iridium STC, which will be for the Falcon 900 series, and this is expected in the first quarter of 2014. The company is also working on a Gulfstream GIV STC. “We’ve got a few other airplanes that people have contacted us about,” Mitera said. “Bombardier has contacted me about the Challenger 604. I’ve got a stack of people to follow up with.”

A Chicago Jet affiliate, Kobev International, has set up a training program to teach pilots how to fly with Fans/CPDLC equipment and also to obtain the necessary LOA from the FAA. Mitera and Ann Heinke, who serves on industry committees that address datalink issues, formed Kobev, naming it after the intersection off the coast of Newfoundland where the North Atlantic tracks typically begin.

“Ann helped write the book on CPDLC and Fans,” Mitera said. o

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by Charles Alcock Last month’s agreement for Extant Components to provide product support for the Universal Avionics Systems Aero-M and Aero-I satellite communications products is the latest example of the company’s efforts to help OEMs more efficiently handle manufacturing and repairs for legacy or noncore electronics and avionics products. The support provided under the new licensing agreement will be handled by Extant’s Symetrics Industries subsidiary and will include unit repair and exchange services.

Universal Avionics (Booth

No. N6108) has sold approximately 800 of its Aero-M and Aero-I satcom products. Symetrics employs 150 technical and support personnel and has set up a dedicated customer service team to work with Aero-M and Aero-I operators.

Extant CEO Jim Gerwien explained to AIN that the Melbourne, Fla.-based group’s goal is to manage the obsolescence issues that frequently accompany older products and to sustain them until the manufacturer’s customers transition to newer equipment. “In a perfect world they [the manufacturers]

Jetnet survey quantifies bizav users’ dour outlook Less than half (49 percent) of owners and operators of business aircraft around the globe believe the business aviation industry is past its low point, according to the annual Jetnet iQ State of the Market Briefing presented at NBAA 2013 on Tuesday. That’s a slight drop from the 52 percent who said the industry was beyond its bottom in last year’s survey, according to Jetnet, the Ithaca, N.Y.-based market data provider.

Regionally, 54 percent of respondents in North America believe the worst is over, while in Latin America and the rest of the world, only 35 percent expressed such confidence.

Jetnet data analyst Rolland Vincent told briefing attendees that the company believes aircraft deliveries will show a decline this year over 2012 figures, which

was hardly a banner year itself.

“Three OEMs-Cessna, Hawker, and Gulfstream-[didn’t make] their numbers in 2012,” Vincent said. This year’s decline is due to “execution issues regarding certification of some new [aircraft] programs” rather than lack of demand, he said.

Jetnet surveyed 507 respondents from 46 countries who collectively operate 1,331 fixedwing turbine aircraft. Respondents’ locations and aircraft closely mirror those of the world fleet, according to Jetnet, and margin of error is +/- 4 percent.

Despite the dour outlook, Vincent noted that previous recoveries of business aviation following recessions required six years, which would indicate a turnaround in this market could be coming in as little as one year. –J.W.

would be able to just drop products for alternate models but often they don’t have a clear alternative and the issue they have is how do they tell customers that they are not going to support the old products. We provide a security blanket,” he said. “In the case of the Aero-M and Aero-I products, we become Universal in terms of support.

This is our core business so we tend to be more responsive, and it allows OEMs to work on their current products.”

Extant is also active in manufacturing obsolete components and parts. This has become critical to supporting some products because otherwise, in some cases, the necessary spares would simply not be available.

A fundamental problem for manufacturers in aviation is that they work to a long-cycle in which products can take a long time to get into production and then need to be supported for up to 50 years. But in the meantime, some of the electronic components for these products can become obsolete in just two or three years because the technology quickly moves on and becomes non-core to the suppliers.

With FAA repair station status and approval from EASA, Extant is able to support a wide variety of aircraft. According to Gerwien, business and general aviation is a priority area for the company because this sector does not tend to have the embedded support structure that is more common in the air transport sector, so operators need more help.

On September 30, Extant reached agreement to acquire the Carter Communications product line from the Esterline Technologies group’s Mason Electric Company. Symetrics will be taking over all manufacturing and product support for the Carter range of radio interfaces, switch and cable assemblies, adapters, microphones and pre-amps. o

Colt International unveils online flight-planning tool Colt International (Booth No. C8526), provider of trip support and aviation fuel services, unveiled its new online flight-planning (OFP) product Monday at the NBAA convention.

The OFP is a data- and graphics-rich tool that draws from Google Maps and Google Earth to provide flight details such as route, altitude and weather in 3-D. Graphical information is presented alongside key data, including regulatory requirements, fuel quotes and airport information.

West Sharpe, Colt International product manager, said the company’s aim is to empower pilots to use the system based on their needs. “There’s a lot of choices [in flight planning services]; it’s a mature market,” he said.

“One of the things we wanted to focus on is the key differentiators.”

One of those differentiators for OFP, Sharpe said, is an itinerary planner that factors in aircraft performance, airway structure and winds data “as you go” and generates a route. The planner considers operator-preferred “limiting factors” such as desired runway length, the availability of fuel, and whether an airport is equipped with an ILS. It generates an optimized route line that displays airports meeting the operator’s criteria, as well as airport data, Notams and weather enroute. The information can be flowed into a flight-plan filing form.

Access to OFP is available through a subscription on Colt International’s website.

–B.C.

20 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

Iacobucci displays newest jet seats Ferentino, Italy-based Iacobucci HF is displaying its cabin interior components here this week. The company (Booth No. N4916) has brought its line of customizable cabin seats, including its newest entrée: the VIP Jet Series Double Seat, which is expected to receive EASA and FAA certification by the end of the month.

The fully-convertible seats, which are also rotatable for fore and aft facing, have already been selected by Comlux America (in an all-electronic version) for installation on Hyundai’s corporate BBJ by the end of the year. The seats, which also include droppable arm-rests, feature a modular structure that can be tailored to specific customer needs. The seat passed the 16-g sled test on the first try, according to Riccardo Palmeri Lolli, the company’s director of marketing and communication.

“We had a deformation, which was far below the average,” he said.

“This showed that the seat is very well balanced and the structure is very well organized.”

CURT EPSTEIN

Obsolete components drive Extant’s business

Nagoya Airport at NBAA to attract bizav traffic

by Curt Epstein Representatives from Nagoya Airport are here at NBAA (Booth No. C11635) to discuss its convenient location within Japan and its suitability for business aviation travelers. Nagoya is one of the few airports in the country to be considered business-aviation specific, as the larger Central Japan International Airport was built nearby to handle the bulk of the area’s commercial traffic.

Nagoya has been designated as a “Special Zone to Create Asia’s No. 1 Aerospace Industrial Cluster” by the Japanese government, and the airport will be the site of final assembly, flight test and delivery for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, which will be Japan’s first indigenous airliner. Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Fuji Heavy Industries, which supply 35 percent of the parts product for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, also have factories in the area, which is home to Toyota as well.

For business aviation operations, Nagoya is removed from

the congestion of the Tokyo area yet, due to its central location, it is easily connected to the capital and to hubs such as Osaka and Kyoto by high-speed train.

The airport, which is open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., offers a dedicated customs, immigration and quarantine facility for international business arrivals, and ground handling is supplied by two FBOs: Nakanihon Air Service and Aero Asahi.

The business aviation terminal is centrally located, less than 300 feet from the ramp, and aircraft can taxi directly to their own parking spaces under their own power. “Nagoya Airport in Aichi Prefecture is, I think, the most convenient and most userfriendly business aircraft airport in Japan,” said Masaya Ueda, an executive director with the Aichi Prefectural government.

He noted that the landing permit approval process at Nagoya has recently been streamlined from a week to three days; a further decrease to 24 hours is pending. o

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Maintenance/Avionics Technicians Award Each year, the National Business Aviation Association presents awards to maintenance and avionics technicians with excellent safety records. The awards are offered to technicians who have been employed at least three years and have caused no aircraft accidents during their tenure. AIN interviewed Donald Hunt, who recently retired with an exemplary record from the flight department for restaurant operator Bloomin’ Brands.

Bloomin’ Brands

Tampa, Fla. Donald Hunt Maintenance Manager Donald Hunt recently retired after 19 years in his most recent position as maintenance manager for Bloomin’ Brands, which owns the Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s, Bonefish Grill, Roy’s and Flemings Steakhouse restaurants. Based in Tampa, Fla., the company operates two Dassault Falcon 50s.

Hunt told AIN that of all the different corporate aircraft he has worked on over his career the Falcon jet is his favorite. “They manufacture a great aircraft with the best support system in the business,” he said.

Hunt started as a jet mechanic in the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s, working on F-4s,

F-111As and F-9Js. He continued his career in aviation after the service, first with Page Airways in Rochester, N.Y., then he joined the Xerox flight department in 1971 in White Plains, N.Y. He said his safety record is due to the fact that he has been fortunate to have worked for companies that want to take care of their aircraft and people and do so by paying attention to safety, details, training and quality.

“My biggest break in my career,” he said, “was when I went to work for Xerox, whose flight department was managed by Dick Van Gemert, one of the icons in the aviation industry. He had high standards and the department was run very professionally.

My standards were set there.” After leaving Xerox, Hunt set up and ran the maintenance department for Manufacturers Hanover (a New York bank) for 12 years until the

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aviation department closed down. He then joined British Aerospace as a tech rep on the Hawker 125 series jets. This was followed by a job establishing and running the maintenance department for Mills Pride and, finally, Bloomin’ Brands.

As he looks back, Hunt feels that he has been blessed as business aviation has been a great career and good to him and his family, plus he had the opportunity to work for great companies and talented professionals. Making strong friendships and helping people over the years grow into their careers as flight and maintenance department managers was also

Don Hunt, right, receiving the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award from the FAA.

extremely rewarding.

In December 2012, Hunt was honored with the prestigious Charles Taylor Master Mechanic award from the FAA. He has served on NBAA Technical Committee and several years on the board of Westchester Aircraft Maintenance Association.–M.F.S.

Safe Flying Awards The NBAA Corporate Business Flying Safety Awards have been awarded to a number of member companies, the oldest of which, ExxonMobil, has flown 270,884 safe hours over the past 81 years. AIN spoke with James Johnson at top company ExxonMobil to find out more about its operations and its safety successes.

ExxonMobil

Dallas, Texas James Johnson Manager, Aviation Services 81 Years 270,884 Hours ExxonMobil has flown safely for 81 years, operating a great variety of aircraft starting with Beech Staggerwings and Douglas DC3s. Today, the 67-member flight department operates two Gulfstream 550s, one Gulfstream G650 and five Bombardier Challenger 300s.

James Johnson, who joined the company in 1991 and became manager of aviation services in 2007, told AIN that the excellent safety record is due to the company’s “strong safety culture throughout every affiliate, a very robust priority safety management system and the years of dedicated service from all of the current and past employees who have ensured

we accomplish our daily business in a safe manner where nobody gets hurt.” He said that ExxonMobil received its IS-BAO Phase II registration in 2012 and Phase III is scheduled for 2014.

Johnson said his own love of aviation started when he watched airplanes fly over his backyard. His parents took him to the local airport to see an airplane up close and “I was hooked from then on.”

He served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years.

“My last job in the military was with the 89th Military Airlift Wing, Washington D.C., working in the Presidential Pilots’ Office.”

“I have enjoyed my 22 years with ExxonMobil and the privilege to lead such an outstanding group of men and women. Their dedication in accomplishing our executive transportation mission have made my time as the department manager a distinct honor.” –M.F.S.

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20B NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

Company

Years

Hours

ExxonMobil

81

270,884

Cox Enterprises

69

56,277

Chevron U.S.A.

67

106,708

Owens Corning

67

98,476

SC Aviation

67

38,509

AK Steel

65

110,897

Koch Industries

65

121,146

Crow Executive Air

64

139,198

General Dynamics

64

67,145

NextEra Energy

64

82,397

Owens-Illinois

64

110,607

CSX Corporation Aviation Dept.

63

113,686

General Mills

63

119,642

3M Company

62

215,827

Duke Energy

61

270,210

NiSource

61

126,090

Spectra Energy

61

291,493

Citigroup Corporate Aviation

60

144,680

The Kroger Company

60

58,197

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Once upon a time, the vast majority of business jets were owned and operated in the U.S., but that’s changing. Residents of other countries represent an evergrowing segment of the market, and the business of buying and selling corporate jets is increasingly international. In fact, a majority of factory-new aircraft these days are delivered outside the U.S. As a result, for American buyers, the purchase of an aircraft on a foreign registry no longer constitutes an unusual event; on the contrary, it has become almost commonplace. Nevertheless, it’s often more expensive, and certainly more work, to import an aircraft from overseas than it is to buy one that is U.S.-based and -registered, so the underlying business deal has to be good enough to make it worthwhile for both buyer and seller.

If you’re an American who is contemplating the purchase of a foreign-registered aircraft, keep in mind that the country of registration is in many ways less important than where the airplane is based, maintained and used. Suppose you’re considering acquisition of a jet registered in notorious Corruptionland.

If the aircraft was based and maintained in Corruptionland, that country’s reputation may be a valid concern. On the other hand, if it was based in Switzerland, maintained by a world-class facility, spent most of its time flying back and forth to the U.S. and has logbooks in English instead of Corruptionese, the Corruptionland registration may be of little consequence.

Due Diligence

In sum, the level of due diligence required when purchasing a foreign aircraft is much greater. First, you should employ local counsel in the country of registration and/or where the aircraft is based to help uncover any liens and to make sure you obtain clear title. In Italy, for example, regulations require publication of advance notice of the sale to give lienholders a chance to collect. Local counsel may also be crucial in arranging the mechanics of closing. (For instance, such counsel may need to act as the closing agent.)

Second, you should determine where the aircraft regularly traveled. If it made frequent trips to company facilities in

India and Sweden, for example, you may want to order lien searches in those countries to avoid encountering undischarged liens the next time you fly there on the aircraft. Better yet, consider buying title insurance that covers all relevant jurisdictions.

Third, as with any aircraft, arrange for a thorough prepurchase evaluation– if possible, at a factory-authorized service center in the U.S. If necessary, have foreign-language maintenance logs and records translated into English.

Probably the most important player in importing an airplane into the U.S. is the designated airworthiness representative, or DAR. The DAR is a maintenance technician authorized by the FAA to provide aircraft with an airworthiness certificate from that agency. DARs are located all over the world. When purchasing the imported airplane, you register it in the U.S. by filing paperwork with the U.S. aircraft registry in Oklahoma. For the registration to be valid, you must satisfy FAA requirements, such as its tests for being a U.S. citizen.

Airworthiness Certificate

However, to fly the aircraft once it’s on U.S. registry you need something more: an airworthiness certificate. That’s where the DAR comes in. As part of the prepurchase evaluation, you should have a DAR review the aircraft to determine whether it satisfies requirements for an airworthiness certificate. The DAR may require an annual inspection to be accomplished as part of the process. You should also arrange for the DAR to be standing by to issue the certificate following closing.

Many buyers assume that obtaining an export certificate of airworthiness from the country of registration accomplishes the same thing. However, in my experience, DARs often regard the export certificate as an expensive irrelevancy; they still want to conduct their own review of the aircraft and its records to determine compliance with U.S. requirements.

Check with your DAR about whether an export certificate is necessary or helpful and whether the exporting country will require any other approvals or paperwork. In any event, the aircraft purchase

Continued on page 24 u

Business Jet Traveler: Making Sense of Private Aviation This article first appeared in the bimonthly Business Jet Traveler, whose 10th anniversary issue is available here at the show. Published by the same company that produces this magazine, as well as Aviation International News, BJT is edited for business jet owners and passengers. It offers unbiased reviews of new and used aircraft; advice about buying and selling jets; and information about taxes, laws, financing, safety and more. It also features articles about luxury autos, vacation destinations and other leisure pursuits, plus interviews with business jet travelers such as John Travolta and Sir Richard Branson. The current issue includes an exclusive interview with Penn & Teller and results of the magazine’s comprehensive survey of business aircraft users.

22 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

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Getting on solid ground with aircraft importing uContinued from page 22

agreement should be clear about whether buyer or seller is responsible for correcting discrepancies in order to obtain an airworthiness certificate.

Before the DAR actually signs the airworthiness certificate, the aircraft must be U.S.-registered, with foreign markings replaced by U.S. markings and transponders re-strapped to reflect U.S. registration. Essentially, the aircraft should be

in condition where it could take off five minutes after receiving the airworthiness certificate. This, in turn, requires that the airplane be de-registered from the foreign registry–at which point it becomes an immobile “aircraft without a country” until it receives a U.S. registration and airworthiness certificate.

For this reason, the seller is extremely unlikely to allow the aircraft to be deregistered until the purchase price and all required paperwork are placed in escrow along with irrevocable instructions to move forward with a closing as soon as de-registration is confirmed. The

situation is even more complex where an aircraft lienholder insists on being paid off before the aircraft is de-registered.

International transactions are subject to their own taxes and fees. For example, you can purchase an aircraft (and obtain U.S. registration and an airworthiness certificate) while it’s in the European Union without incurring the dreaded VAT (value-added tax), about 20 percent of the purchase price. But to avoid the tax, you generally have to export the aircraft promptly from the EU. When the jet comes back to the U.S., you’ll have to clear customs to import the aircraft

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into the U.S. None of this is either terribly complicated or expensive–unless you don’t do it right.

Demonstration Flight

The location of the aircraft at closing highlights an especially cumbersome feature of international aircraft transactions: the demonstration flight. Any business jet buyer should fly in an aircraft before committing to buy it.

Suppose the aircraft you’re acquiring is based in Milan and you’re in Dallas.

You and the seller might get lucky–maybe you have a trip to Italy or the aircraft has a trip to Texas–but, otherwise, the mountain has to come to Mohammad or vice versa. Few buyers are enthusiastic about spending the time to travel across the globe to fly in an aircraft, and few sellers are enthusiastic about sending their aircraft across the globe for a demo, even if the buyer agrees to pay some or all of the cost of doing so.

It may help to coordinate the demo flight with positioning the aircraft to the U.S. for the prepurchase inspection, but one way or another, long and expensive flights will be involved.

Buying an aircraft for import into the U.S. can be complex, expensive and timeconsuming, but with the help of professionals, it may result in acquiring the right aircraft. o Attorney Jeff Wieand is a senior vice president with Boston JetSearch and a member of NBAA’s Tax Committee.

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Following approval by EASA in May as a continuous airworthiness management organization (CAMO), Airbus Corporate Jet Centre has signed its first contract with an Asian customer.

This new contract allows the Airbus MRO division to conduct management of the continuous airworthiness services on the Airbus corporate jet, including aircraft configuration management; MMEL and operations and maintenance procedures development; maintenance planning, preparation and updates; service bulletin recommendation and airworthiness directive followup; work-package preparation for line maintenance; and hangar checks.

This pact is in addition to the client’s signature of a contract for the design and outfitting of a new ACJ319. Sylvain Mariat, head of Design Studio at Airbus Corporate Jet Centre, will lead that completion.

As a fully owned subsidiary of Airbus, Airbus Corporate Jet Centre is certified to perform Part 145 maintenance on the full Airbus corporate jet family under EASA approval, as well as approvals from Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and, recently, Russia.

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Safety Drives Our Training Technology We design and build simulators and other advanced training devices specifically to complement, support and reinforce safety in our training. They exactly replicate the flying characteristics of the aircraft represented and are qualified to the highest standards by aviation authorities worldwide.

Safety Extends to More Aircraft at More Locations We deliver unsurpassed training for the majority of business aircraft flying today on the world’s largest fleet of simulators located throughout our global network of Learning Centers. We continually invest in new programs and locations to meet current and future Customers’ requirements. FlightSafety. Our name is our mission.

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Vision Systems, Sunpartner design sun-powered dimmers Until recently, electrically dimmable aircraft windows were dependent on electrical current supplied through the aircraft grid. With new technology from French energy specialist Sunpartner and its recently acquired French partner Vision Systems (Booth No. C9922), that is about to change.

According to Ludovic Deblois, CEO and founder of Sunpartner Group, the company’s new Wysips Glass can transform any glass surface into a photovoltaic energy-generating solar panel producing enough energy to power the dimmable window itself without the need for an external power source.

The Wysips Glass currently captures 30 watts of energy per square meter, allowing visual transparency of the window from 70 to 90 percent.

The company anticipates the capacity to reach 50 watts per square meter in 2014, while maintaining the 70- to 90-percent transparency rating, and Deblois expects the transparency rating will reach 95 percent.

While the Wysips Window can potentially generate enough electricity to power not only itself, as well as other nearby devices, there would be a tradeoff in transparency.

Sunpartner’s partnership with Vision Systems expects to bring out a prototype solar photovoltaic-powered dimmable window this year. Transparency would range from 70 percent, above, to 90 percent.

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The first real application of Wysips Glass was as a power source for a cell phone. As for the weight, in a standard business jet window, the weight gain is approximately 3.5 ounces, which the company is working to reduce.

Aix-en-Provence-based Sunpartner and Vision Systems of Brignais expect to develop a prototype by the end of this year and a market-ready product should be available in mid-2015. –K.J.H.

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26 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

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Elliott Aviation has joined the Alliance program offered by Jet Support Services (JSSI). The program, which JSSI introduced last March, provides members with information on the company’s marketing programs and product and service updates, as well as industry and market data. As an Alliance member, Elliott (Booth No. C8143) will use Alliance’s web portal to request aircraftspecific quotes, track sales and monitor referral status of its clients.

“Becoming a JSSI Alliance member creates a great opportunity for our customers,” said Mike Saathoff, director of maintenance sales at Elliott Aviation.

“When a customer enrolls their aircraft on a JSSI program, they are covered by one of the best maintenance programs in the aviation industry, backed by JSSI’s world-class technical-service team.”

Elliott Aviation is a second-generation, family-owned company offering such services as aircraft sales, management, charter and maintenance, avionics installations and accessory repairs. It has facilities in Moline, Ill.; Des Moines, Iowa; and Minneapolis.

Founded in 1989, JSSI (Booth No. C7321) provides tools for managing the cost of operating and maintaining nearly all types of turbine-powered aircraft, including jets, turboprops and turbinepowered helicopters. The company serves customers globally and manages maintenance services through its infrastructure of certified technical advisors.

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FileSmart helps pilots to be ATC savvy

by Harry Weisberger The NBAA, in conjunction with the FAA, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), is highlighting a new education initiative for business aviation operators called FileSmart.

Jim McClay, an air traffic management specialist for NBAA’s Air Traffic Services (ATS) and one of FileSmart’s originators, said the program encourages pilots and flight departments to file their flight plans early, file accurately and assess the current status of the National Airspace System (NAS) before filing. These practices will help minimize delays, increase the overall efficiency of the NAS and will benefit both air traffic control and operators.

The initiative’s website–www. filesmart.com–was launched in June and augments NBAA’s ongoing commitment to promote best practices for operators. NBAA’s ATS personnel

briefed business aviation groups around the country about FileSmart during the summer.

NBAA ATS employees have been working with the FAA at the Air Traffic Control Systems Command Center colocated with the Potomac Tracon in Warrenton, Va., since 2001.

Originally known as the General Aviation Desk, the NBAA operation was renamed NBAA Air Traffic Services in 2011.

McClay joined NBAA in 2005 after working as an airline dispatcher and a Fortune 500 company scheduler.

McClay told AIN that FileSmart contains “information we have been trying to convey for a number of years, but it’s been an ongoing challenge to get people to pay attention. It’s nothing new.

FileSmart is just a new push to get this information out to the industry. We initially talked about the problem two years ago. It is basically this: a lot of folks don’t understand the

necessity of filing timely, complete flight plans.”

He said the target audience is those typically flying IFR at the flight levels in more complex aircraft, in and out of congested airspace and busy airports. “We want to get in front of the folks responsible for filing flight plans– usually the pilots but, to a lesser degree, dispatchers. The line pilots and flight department managers are our golden audience.”

FileSmart’s three main elements are: file early, file accurately and check the NAS status.

It encourages users to be aware of available resources that make the filing easier and more efficient for themselves and air traffic controllers: • File Early–Be sure the flight plan is in the FAA system as soon as possible, to help minimize delays.

• File Accurately–First, file for an appropriate time. “Many file for maybe 30 to 60 minutes prior to their actual departure time,” McClay explained. “There’s

NBAA’s FileSmart initiative advises pilots to check www.fly.faa.gov before filing flight plans to see if delays are causing problems in the National Airspace System.

nothing wrong with that per se, but it gives the FAA inaccurate information and throws ATC planning off. We generally discourage filing ‘direct.’ If you’re in a turboprop or jet in congested airspace, going to or from a high-density airport, you’re not going to get it.”

Also, use the correct format– the ICAO flight plan format– as often as possible, he advised.

“This gives ATC more information on installed equipment and

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30 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

crew qualifications.”

• Check the NAS–“Just like you check weather and notams, check where there are delays and congestion and the convective outlook for the day. There are various ways to do this on the www.fly.faa.gov website.” McClay said it’s like traffic alerts for surface commuters, which advise drivers about current conditions and delays.

“There’s a real cost/benefit aspect to this,” he added. o

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Sovereign interior subject to intense design process

by Matt Thurber The newest versions of Cessna’s Citation Sovereign and X may seem at first glance to embody relatively minor changes, but Cessna designers have put a lot of effort into upgrading the two popular models. The most overt changes are the switch to Cessna’s Intrinzic flight deck, based on a Garmin G5000 avionics suite with four touchscreen controllers, as well as powerplant upgrades, new winglets on the Sovereign and a longer fuselage on the X. But the interiors of the jets are the subject of intensive focus by Cessna’s design team, led by vice president of interior design and engineering Cynthia Halsey. AIN had an opportunity to interview Halsey about what was involved in the interior redesign on the Sovereign, which she pointed out involved both the cabin and cockpit as an integrated whole.

What was the goal for the interior design?

The goal was to look at the cabin as the whole inside of the airplane. The whole experience is the whole experience, it’s everything inside including the outside of the airplane. I and a couple of senior leaders addressed the team when they started.

We said that the goal is to have a cohesive look with the whole airplane. And ergonomics had to be first, but esthetics had to play a great balance with those ergonomics. We were very good at doing practical cockpits but now it was time to understand that everyone wants to have a great environment, whether it’s front or back.

What is new in the cockpit?

Our supplier-partner Garmin made it easy and exciting to incorporate integration that we hadn’t been able to incorporate before like the [touch-screen controllers] on the side, and being able to control the lights [with the touch screens].

The pilots don’t have to reach around anymore and hit a switch panel, it’s right there at their fingertips. The stainless accents throughout, the leather wrap [on the yoke], it’s a driving machine. And we wanted the pilot to feel like he was getting in a modern driving machine. And the [G5000] displays are so beautiful, it was a great canvas to work with.

Were the goals the same in the cabin?

Comfort was huge. We wanted to optimize the available space and rethink a lot of what customers’ expectations are and how they use the product.

One of the benefits of my job is I get to use our airplanes. I watch a lot and get great feedback from customers as well as internal. The table design was an outcome of watching everyone get in planes, whether it’s ours or someone else’s, and load their pockets and fill the cupholders up with keys and phones and then searching for how they charge their products.

So what could we do different? And it’s silly things like, pretend there’s no cupholders, what would you do? It’s funny how all of us designers get very entrenched in, “But we’ve always done it this way.” Now pretend you don’t have to design around this element. Some of it was that finite, that you had to sit there and say, “Okay, forget this stuff, what do you really want?” And the team did a phenomenal job. We’ve got quite a few patents out of the new design and very good feedback.

For example?

The cupholders, [which fold down from the side]. They actually work. That’s a design patent.

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The Sovereign cockpit was designed to be an integrated whole with the cabin and features Cessna’s Intrinzic flight deck (based on a Garmin G5000 system) and leather and stainless steel trim.

32 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

Continued on page 34 u

Innovation In Action

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uContinued from page 32

Blue sky thinking.

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Stop by booth N1121 or navigate to swissre.com/nbaa2013 to learn more.

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34 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

MATT THURBER

Is there a name for this innovation?

We call that whole area the ditty storage. In the military you had a ditty bag and you put everything in this ditty bag. I started noticing cars were providing space for stuff. Cupholders were no longer just two circles, they looked like a figure eight, they were broader. We kept talking about do we provide ditty storage for our customers, and we always would put it down low. Feedback was, “I don’t want to put it where I’m not going to see it. Because then I just go and lose it.”

The cupholders fold into the wall to make room for handy personal storage.

So, how do we make cupholders be more functional? That whole area grew into, how do we make that a personal space, a work space? Henceforth you have the USBs to charge your phone, iPad, everything is right there. I can put the [cupholder] flappers up, I can hold a drink, I can put my stuff there, it doesn’t fall all over the place. It’s a personal space.

You added more space by canting the seats in four degrees…

That was part of it. We don’t advertise it a lot because people don’t get it. They think I can’t ever put my feet straight. You can make it go straight and track up to the table. But if you sit down, I’m now oriented away from you, it’s a more comfortable position. We did a lot of studies, and most people didn’t notice it. Matter of fact, I’m hesitant to even talk about it although it is depicted on the floor plan. I lobbied to not even show it on the floor plan just to keep it as a minor trade secret because it does give you a feeling of more space.

The Citation Sovereign’s Clarity cabin management system features a fiber-optic backbone developed by Heads Up Technologies. Seats are canted inward slightly to give the cabin a more spacious feel.

In the cockpit there’s ditty storage for the pilots.

We tried to provide that for the cockpit as well. Everybody has mobile devices and there’s never a good place to put them.

Is this the first implementation of the Clarity cabin management system with its Heads Up Technologies fiber-optic backbone?

Yes. Everyone is experiencing incredibly rapid development as it relates to cabin electronics. By developing the fiber-optic backbone, we took a smart group and put them in a room and said, “If you were going to design electronics for the future cabin, knowing it’s moving lightning-fast, what would you start with?” They immediately said you need a fiber-optic backbone, something that’s scalable, that we can update via software, not hardware.

So [Heads Up] is a strong partner, but what will be interesting is you won’t always see it. It’s very visible in the Sovereign and the X, but wireless is where it’s going to be at, so applications will continue to enhance the passenger experience via wireless capabilities. In other words, you may not see mounted hardware. It will always have a fiber-optic backbone. And in the M2 it is wireless. When that certification is complete, some of those enhancements will roll back into the Sovereign and the X. That will allow this device to talk to any device in the airplane as well as the mounted screens that are in the Sovereign.

Instead of texting from your seat station, you could text from a smartphone to a seat?

Right. Or you can push content, browse the Internet. Some people want to be able to change the lights with their phone. It’s multimodal, having the ability to do things a lot of different ways is the way the industry is going.

So Heads Up Technologies is a big part of this backbone?

Heads Up was the supplier-partner that we chose to assist us with this product. You’ll see in all of our products that have Clarity–right now the Sovereign and the X–we’ll continue to update the GUI

Continued on page 36 u

MATT THURBER

Sovereign interior

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uContinued from page 34

[graphical user interface] and add features. That’s the great thing about software, we’re able to make enhancements.

The main thing is, it took a ton of weight out of the airplane. And it integrates with the ship’s systems, so we’re not carrying big black boxes like everyone else. We’re pulling information off the FMS. This leverages systems that are already on the airplane. You have a smart cockpit, now we have a smart airplane, a smart cabin.

What are other Clarity benefits?

One of the true benefits is that we’re using only 7 percent of the distributed capability of this system, it’s huge. Everybody can be doing stuff and we’re not even tapping into anywhere close to what the [system can do]. We ran a test for management and had movies running on eight different screens and it was using very little of the power. And the sound is just phenomenal.

Do you ever feel like you’re going to run out of design opportunities?

No, we’ve got a bunch more in our pocket. At the end of the day, an airplane will get you from A to B, and most airplanes will do that. So how do I make this experience more productive, more beneficial, more comforting, more relaxing for the passenger?

What is the relationship with Heads Up? We own the concept. One of the reasons that we chose them as supplier-partner is they have extensive experience in fiber-optics. They have a pretty weighty medical arm, they also do a lot of the Disney rides that are all fiber-optics. We sought a supplier-partner that had experience because we did not have experience in fiber-optics. Rob [Harshaw, Heads Up’s president and CEO] is, like [seat suppplier] Ipeco, a tremendous partner in that we sat down and said, “[We] have these things I can bring to the table, why go develop them when I already have them?” And we had our IP [intellectual property], and he has the ability to provide some of this to other OEMs.

What else is new on the Sovereign?

We significantly upgraded the finish materials. We kind of always felt the airplanes we’re a bit more utilitarian–I’m not saying that the Sovereigns of the past weren’t attractive, we would do very nice materials, but [for example] the leatherwrapped yoke. You might see that in a large transport airplane, but you wouldn’t see it in something like an M2. But you’re going to see that in all our airplanes now. From single engine up, it’s a tactile feel that says, “I’m quality.”

We went to a much higher grade of carpet. The materials have always been high-grade, just getting them to pass burn [testing] you have to use good stuff. But we took a holistic approach of what we wanted this airplane to be. Our customers have told us, whether I’m buying an M2 or a X, I have a certain expectation of quality.

And that quality flows everything down from the capabilities of the airplane, the cockpit, the amenities, the fit and finish, the comfort, the ergonomics and the materials.

Cessna’s new Citation Sovereign

We did a significant improvement to the cooling system in the Sovereign. The X was never a problem, it parts your hair, but the Sovereign needed some improvement; that was feedback we got from our technical advisory committee.

Where did the idea for the all-black instrument panel come from?

The Mustang was black.

The catalyst came from what logically made sense based on the bezels from the avionics providers. Some avionics providers do grey. Garmin does black. When that team got together and were brainstorming what the cockpit of the future should look like, they kept trying to shove a

3D image: www.3Dviz.com

36 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

MATT THURBER

Sovereign interior design process

square peg into a round hole: a black bezel and a military grey panel. It just didn’t look good.

It didn’t make those beautiful displays pop. So one of the renderings–and it was almost a blasphemous kind of expression–was just make the whole thing black. And it took off.

It gives a bigger feel. Like anything new, some people will grasp it sooner than others. We did studies, and customer acceptance is what’s most important.

It gives a great finished look, and makes all those cool trims really pop. It’s a good-looking cockpit.

Should we look for some of these features in the Citation X? It’s a philosophy that will touch all our products, regardless of size. o

“For FedEx, business aviation has been what the military would call a ‘force multiplier.’ ” FREDERICK W. SMITH Chairman and CEO FedEx Corporation

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Beechjet panel set for G5000 upgrade

by Matt Thurber With the announcement that Garmin plans to certify a G5000 flight deck in the Beechjet 400A and Hawker 400XP, Elliott Aviation is demonstrating the system in a mockup at its NBAA booth

(No. C8143). Elliott has already completed 100 King Air G1000 retrofits and sees the G5000 program as a way to allow Beechjet operators to keep flying their jets indefinitely.

Garmin expects to receive the Beechjet G5000 supplemental type certificate (STC) in 2015, and the base package (without options) should sell for about $450,000 to $500,000.

Garmin’s G5000 avionics system is slated for retrofit in the Beechjet 400A/Hawker 400XP.

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36B NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

The G5000 retrofit will replace the Beechjet’s original Rockwell Collins Pro Line 4 system. Mark Wilken, Elliott’s director of avionics sales, said, “It really does clean up the panel.”

The weight savings removes 200 to 250 pounds from the nose of the Beechjet, he added. “This airplane has always been a little nose heavy. Pilots would always keep some fuel in the fuselage [tank] to offset that.” The weight savings amounts to being able to carry an extra passenger.

In the cockpit, the most dramatic change is replacing the Rockwell Collins flight management systems with two Garmin touch-screen controllers, mounted in the same spot in the pedestal. Three 12-inch Garmin displays in landscape orientation deliver a lot more information compared to the Pro Line 4 portrait displays, and pilots can set up multiple panes and select what is displayed in each pane.

Engine instrumentation is incorporated in the G5000 displays, cleaning up the panel considerably. Some instruments are retained, however, including the fuel quantity, hydraulic pressure and pressurization system gauges. Under the center MFD is a Mid-Continent Instruments standby attitude module.

The base G5000 retrofit will include Garmin’s fully digital, dual-channel, fail-passive automatic flight control system, which provides coupled WAAS/ SBAS approaches, vertical navigation and flight-level change capability. Also included are Taws-B, Doppler weather radar and geo-referenced Garmin Flite­Charts and SafeTaxi charts.

Options include synthetic vision, ADS-B and Garmin traffic advisory system or Tcas I/II traffic solutions. RVSM is supported by the upgrade, too.

The G5000 for the Beechjet will be Garmin’s first retrofit package for the system, which is flying now in several jets that are due to be certified shortly, including the Learjet 70/75 and the new versions of the Cessna Sovereign and Citation X. o

New AgustaWestland models are moving well AgustaWestland’s family of new-generation, twin-engine, intermediate-to-medium size helicopters–the AW139, AW169 and AW189–garnered the major share of the news from Italy’s Finmeccanica here at NBAA 2013.

The Avincis Group recently signed an order for one AW139, two AW169s and two AW189s.

The AW139 and two AW169s will be used for emergency medical operations in Sicily. Meanwhile, Bond Aviation plans to operate the other two AW189s for offshore work in the North Sea, flying out of the UK. The Avincis order is part of a deal that could see the company buying up to 16 AgustaWestland helicopters. According to Martine Whittaker, Avincis director of fleet and engineering, “Every day lives and livelihoods depend on the missions we fly, and AgustaWestland is an important partner in our future growth.”

Separately, AgustaWestland announced that the fleet of AW139 helicopters operated

by Gulf Helicopters, based in

Doha, Qatar, had passed 40,000 flight hours. Gulf Helicopters operates 15 AW139s and has three more on order. It is also an AgustaWestland authorized service center for the AW139 and recently became an authorized training center, too.

“We warmly welcome Gulf Helicopters to our growing network of authorized training centers,” said John Ponsonby, senior vice president of global customer support and training for AgustaWestland. The training center operates an AW139 Level B full-flight simulator certified by the UK’s CAA. Mohamed Al Mohannadi, CEO of Gulf Helicopters, said, “It is indeed a natural progression for Gulf Helicopters Training Academy, which is an EASA Part 147 training organization, to become an authorized training center for an OEM. We are already providing training to third-party users and expect to attract more clients due to our excellent training services, experience and location.” o

New interior for Embraer’s Legacy 450 unveiled If you thought you’d already seen the cabin interior of the Embraer Legacy 450, think again as a new interior has been unveiled. What you will see at Embraer’s booth (No. N2532) here at NBAA 2013 is what Jay Beever, vice president of marketing and interior design, described as the result of “the relentless pursuit of ergonomics, craftsmanship, economics and detail. Decisions had been made to learn from all the previous mockups, to learn from all that money that was spent on production parts to see if they would work in the flying aircraft. So what we have today is the culmination of many years hard work, not just a design exercise, but a DNA set in the stone of package, innovation and craftsmanship.” The result is stunning and well worth a look.

–R.R.P.

Capturing top honors in this year’s AIN international FBO survey, TAG Farnborough, led by CEO Brandon O’Reilly, aims to keep improving.

strom direct launches exec placement firm “The success and growth of Strom Direct in direct placements has created an increasing demand for highlevel support and executive searches–and these require a different focus,” said Raymond Stebler, vice president of direct placement services for Strom (Booth No. C7733).

He was explaining why the company, which has been staffing contract personnel for aerospace and aviation since 1992, has decided to create an entirely new affiliate dedicated to executive searches.

Aerosearch Partners will focus on recruiting CEO, CFO, COO, vice president and director-level talent for business aviation and aerospace.

Company leadership includes Dave Drugman, vice president of executive search, and Raymond Stebler, who will retain his position leading Strom Direct, as well.

“Our division has access to all of the resources and more that 20 years of staffing experience,” said Drugman. –A.L.

MARIANO ROSALES

by R. Randall Padfield

APS introduces a new upset-recovery iPad app

by Mark Huber

Top-scoring TAG FBO building upscale offices

by Amy Laboda TAG Farnborough Airport (Booth No. C6726) has outlined some of its plans over the next decade, including new onsite facilities such as upscale office space, a dedicated customer entrance to the airport, additional passenger lounges and other enhancements, it announced here at NBAA 2013.

“We continue to identify better ways to serve our c­ustomers and employees,” said B ­randon O’Reilly, CEO of TAG Farnborough. “Our ongoing

investment shows our commitment to improve facilities at the airport, maintaining our position as the leading business aviation gateway to London,” he said.

The growth plans come on the heels of an award-winning year, where the FBO was voted International FBO of the Year in AIN’s international FBO survey for the seventh consecutive year.

The airport also received permission to perform maintenance work on a 24/7 basis. o

Aviation Performance Solutions (APS, Booth No. N527) has developed a new upset-prevention and recovery training application for the iPad. The app was developed by APS in cooperation with Netherlandsbased IDT, a technology company that serves flight training and research customers.

The app includes graphics, videos and animations. The 150page presentation is divided into eight modules complete with exam questions and case studies for actual accidents/incidents.

“This app provides the necessary academic foundation for the development of practical skills to prevent an airplane upset or, if necessary, to recover an airplane to controlled flight,” said Sunjoo Advani, president of IDT and chairman of the International Committee for Aviation Training in Extended Envelopes (Icatee), a group of 40 aviation organizations

dedicated to the global delivery of upset recovery training.

The new app is being displayed here at the Aviation Performance Solutions booth at NBAA. APS offers a variety of computer, simulated and actual upset recovery training and upset recovery instructor training in simulators and jet and piston-powered aircraft from bases in the Netherlands, Arizona, and Texas. APS says it is the only Part 141 flight school certified to deliver complete upset recovery, stall/spin and instrument recovery training courses and that each of its courses complies with the Airplane Upset Recovery Training Aid-Revision 2 and FAA Advisory Circular 120-109 for stall/ stick-pusher training. o

www.ainonline.com • October 24, 2013 • NBAA Convention News 37

Business jets will once again be a prominent part of the biennial Dubai Airshow when the 2013 event is staged at the new Dubai World Central site next month.

Universal introduces FMS Trainer iPad app

by Bill Carey

by Charles Alcock Business aviation is set to make a strong showing at next month’s Dubai Airshow, with the sector expected to account for as many as 50 of the 150 aircraft anticipated on the static display and around 220 of the exhibiting companies. In addition to all the main airframers, bizav service providers such as Jet Aviation, ExecuJet Aviation, Royal Jet and Jetex are booked to exhibit at the event.

According to data recently reported by the Middle East Business Aviation Association (MEBAA), the bizav market in the region is expected to be worth $1 billion annually by 2018. By 2020, the group projects that more than 1,375 business jets will be registered in Middle Eastern countries.

Dubai Airshow organizer Count On AIN For All The News From The Dubai Airshow Once again AIN will publish its award-winning Dubai Airshow News daily publications with editions appearing from November 17-19. All the news from the show will also be available online at www. ainonline.com and via the AIN Dubai Reports e-newsletters.

For alerts on all of these, follow us on Twitter @ainonline.

Exhibiting companies with news and information to share with AIN readers should contact AIN international shows editor Ian Sheppard at isheppard@ainonline.com as soon n as possible.

F&E Aerospace (Booth No. N2923) is pressing the reset button on the biennial event, staging the Middle East’s premier aerospace and defense gathering at a new purpose-built site at Dubai World Central. The show is to be permanently based in the new Aviation City zone at DWC, which is a vast new economic development hub built around the new Al Maktoum International Airport close to the Jebel Ali seaport.

At the November 17 to 21 gathering will be no fewer than 210 first-time exhibitors among the anticipated 1,000 exhibiting companies (a 7-percent increase on the 2011 show). As of last week, 1,017 exhibitor bookings had been confirmed with a few more booth spaces still available.

A growing number of these newcomers will be from Arabian Gulf states, reflecting the region’s rising stature as a center for aviation manufacturing and service activities. These will include MRO provider Saudi Aerospace Engineering and business aviation services group Alpha Star from Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s aviation tool supplier Franke Care Systems.

F&E is anticipating around 60,000 trade visitors, which would represent a 5-percent increase on the 2011 event. Among the business aircraft so far confirmed for the static display in Dubai are the following: an Airbus Corporate Jet; a Gulfstream G450, G550 and G650; Bombardier’s Challenger 605, Global 5000 and 6000; Dassault’s Falcon 2000LX and 7X; Embraer’s Legacy 650 and Lineage 1000; a Boeing Business

Jet; a Nextant 400XTi; and a Pilatus PC-12NG. Eurocopter will be showing the mockup of the new executive version of the EC175 helicopter, as well as the new EC145T2 and AS350B3, and Bell will display its 429 twin.

Another new feature of the Dubai Airshow is a new pavilion highlighting aviation’s role in humanitarian aid. Participants will include the UN World Food Programme and Care by Air, as well as a total of 15 companies and organizations involved in humanitarian missions, such as the UAE’s Rus Aviation, AgustaWestland, Lebanon’s Med Airways and Royal Air Maroc. Exhibitors and visitors will be given the opportunity to make donations to the World Food Programme, with which MEBAA itself has just forged a new partnership.

The new show site is almost twice the size of the old Airport Expo location at Dubai International Airport, at 645,000 sq m (almost 7 million sq ft). In addition to greatly improved road access and parking space, the new site offers several meeting and conference rooms. There is far more space for the static display and organizers have been able to extend the daily flying display to three hours, without the need for a break to allow for airline departures and arrivals.

According to Michele van Akelijen, F&E Aerospace’s Middle East managing director, the Dubai Airshow has worked hard to deliver maximum possible value to exhibitors while also improving the experience of trade visitors. “The biggest thing that exhibitors want is a return on their investment, and that means creating a platform for them to do business effectively and meet the right people, so we’ve been expanding our official delegation plans,” she told AIN. o

38 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

provides interactive training for Universal’s FMSs, including the current line of satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS)capable systems.

Universal Avionics and Duncan Aviation are displaying a Falcon 900B with the first EFI-890R cockpit retrofit upgrade, which replaces 25 older instruments. The aircraft is on static display at Henderson Executive Airport through Thursday. The avionics suite features five Universal EFI-890R 8.9-inch advanced flight displays, including engine interface units that replace analog gages.

Universal Avionics announced a formal partnership with MD Helicopters to design and build a “NextGen” flight deck for the MD Explorer helicopter. The companies signed a memorandum of understanding for the two-year program at the 2013 Heli-Expo conference. Universal is demonstrating the new integrated flight deck at its NBAA booth.

Also at NBAA, Univeral introduced the FlightAssure extended warranty program, which is available for purchase at any time during ownership of Universal Avionics equipment. o

MARIANO ROSALES

Bizav set for high profile at the Dubai Airshow

Universal Avionics (Booth No. N6108) is presenting the company’s new FMS control display unit (CDU) emulator iPad application for its FMS Trainer software at this year’s NBAA convention.

The new app supports “lifesized, touch-sensitive” emulation of the Tucson, Ariz.-based company’s four-inch CDU, fiveinch CDU and multifunctional CDU, providing operators with realistic training in flight management system (FMS) operations. It sends Universal’s FMS Trainer CDU display screen to the iPad, and key pushes from the simulated CDU are sent back to the FMS Trainer via a wireless network.

Previously, Universal’s customers would have to use a computer mouse to operate the FMS Trainer software. “Customers desiring a true hands-on training experience had to use expensive aircraft hardware,” said Robert LaBerge, Universal Avionics customer training manager. “The iPad app solves this issue beautifully, allowing customers to achieve a low-cost, realistic solution for hands-on FMS training.”

The FMS Trainer software

model customers New Jersey-based Toys and Models Corporation specializes in high-quality desktop models of aircraft. In business for more than three decades, the company also provides large-scale models for lobbies or trade show displays. Toys and Models specializes in high-volume projects. Corporate customers include: Boeing, Bombardier, Gulfstream, Hawker, Lockheed Martin, NASA and Northrop Grumman.

Spirit Avionics becomes Spirit Aeronautics Halloween is a celebration of trying on new personas, and in that mode Spirit Avionics (Booth No. C11248, N4408) of Columbus, Ohio, decided that NBAA 2013 was the place to announce its own rebranding campaign. “The idea with rebranding is to allow our full span of business offerings to receive equal name recognition,” said Tony Bailey, president of the new Spirit Aeronautics.

A new website, www.spiritaeronautics.com, and continued broadening of the company footprint in the global market

JFI Jets joins EPIC FBO network

are the next steps in the process of increasing the awareness of the company’s services, said Bailey. These services include aircraft management, aircraft sales and acquisition, parts sales, engineering, aircraft maintenance, avionics design and integration. “Spirit Aeronautics preserves the heart behind our name, which was adopted after our founder had an epiphany that it was going to take spirit and faith to make the company successful,” said Bailey.

–A.L.

Bell 412EPI boosted as SLS details emerge

by Mark Huber The Bell 412EPI will be cleared for more procedures at elevated helipads early next year, according to Bell Helicopter, which is launching an upgrade program next month to incorporate improvements to increase operational flexibility for CAT A Part B procedures. The program will cover the use of circular and rectangular elevated heliports and should be finished in time for initial deliveries of the 412EPI in the first quarter of 2014, said the company.

The 412EPI features Bell’s new BasiX Pro glass panel avionics that include high-resolution digital maps, electronic charts and approach plates, an ADS-B transponder and optional H-Taws and SiriusXM WX. The 412EPI also is equipped with new Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6T-9 Twin Pac engines that provide 15 percent more horsepower, along with the

BLR FastFin and strake system to improve aerodynamic efficiency.

Separately, Bell (Booth No. C9343) recently revealed more details of its new Short Light Single (SLS) helicopter, announced over the summer. Performance goals for the SLS include seating for five, a speed of 125 knots, a range of 360 to 420 nm, a useful load of 1,500 pounds and a ceiling of 11,000 feet. Engine power will come from a 504-shp Turbomeca Arrius 2R engine, and the helicopter will be equipped with Garmin G1000H glass panel avionics.

Initial certification will be pursued through Transport Canada, fueling speculation that the SLS will be manufactured at Bell Mirabel, Quebec. Bell expects first flight late next year. The company expects to accelerate development time and hold down costs by using common drive train architecture and parts with the Bell 206L4. o

JFI Jets (located here at the Epic Fuel stand, Booth No. C10807) has announced that its JFI JetCenter in Long Beach, Calif., has joined the Epic FBO Network. It has also become an Epic Aviation and UVair branded fuel reseller, and its customers can now earn Bravo Rewards and use the Epic card at Long Beach, said the company.

“We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Epic and UVair and the outstanding service that we can provide together to our customers,” said Robert Seidel, CEO of JFI Jets.

Epic’s network comprises nearly 300 fuel supply points in the U.S. and Canada, while the UVair FBO network represents more than a score of premium independent FBOs in the U.S. and Canada. With the UVair FBO network fuel brand in place, JFI said it can now offer customers using the Epic card and the UVair card preferred fuel pricing as well as the opportunity to earn Bravo Rewards, which are redeemable from more than 45 million reward options.

JFI, with additional facilities in Farmingdale, N.Y. and Moscow, also announced at the show that it has received the Argus Platinum rating, along with IS-BAO Stage 1 registration for its safety management system, using Argus’s combination audit program. “We are delighted to be one of only 96 private jet operators of the 2,106 in the U.S. charter industry to receive this significant rating,” said Seidel. “The rating is an important recognition of excellence in our operational practices and flight safety standards.”

JFI Jets also announced here in Las Vegas the addition of a West Virginia-based Hawker Premier 1A light jet to its charter fleet –J.W.

www.ainonline.com • October 24, 2013 • NBAA Convention News 39

Marc McGowen, senior v-p of business aviation is excited about StandardAero’s new aircraft brokerage division.

StandardAero adding new brokerage division

by R. Randall Padfield Russell Ford became CEO of StandardAero just before NBAA 2013 and he already has a firm grasp of the direction the independent provider of engine and airframe maintenance and other services needs to go. The Dubai Aerospace Enterpriseowned global company, with more than 3,800 employees and $1.6 billion in annual revenue, needs to continue to find new products and new solutions.

StandardAero’s strengths, Ford said at the company’s press conference here on Monday, are the broad-based knowledge of its employees, their passion about aviation, their focus on safety and the services and solutions that the company provides.

One of the new products is StandardAero’s recently established aircraft brokerage division. “Two things came together,” explained Marc McGowen, senior vice president of business aviation. “One is a strategic view of what we might do and the other is finding the right person for the job. So we hired Larry Dean, who has been in the charter business and in banking, lending money for aircraft acquisitions. Larry’s expertise has helped us get into this business.”

Ford added, “With flying hours down, parts not breaking and customers deferring maintenance, this is a perfect time to expand our business in products, services and geographically.”

StandardAero has seen bright spots. “2013 has been a benchmark year in avionics work for StandardAero,” McGowen said. “The avionics unit exceeded all sales

objectives for the year, with a record number of installations and STCs on a range of aircraft platforms. Partnerships with Honeywell and Rockwell Collins, including Primus Elite and Pro Line 4 to 21 upgrades, resulted in significant avionics growth. And in April, Aircell announced that StandardAero was its number-one dealer.

Earlier this year, Honeywell certified StandardAero as an authorized testing facility for the TFE731-50 engine, the latest engine certified by the U.S. company. StandardAero is the only facility, other than the OEM, that has TFE73150 test capability. To date, it has completed 10 major periodic inspections (MPIs) on the engine. The TFE731-50 powers the Hawker 900XP and there are more than 350 engines currently in service. o

NEWS NOTE It isn’t an easy task, stepping into the footprint of someone such as Gérard Dailloux– who served Dassault Aviation (Booth No. N6100) for nearly 30 years–but Frédéric Leboeuf, a pilot and 20-year veteran of the French Navy, is up for the challenge. Leboeuf, based at Dassault Aviation’s Saint-Cloud headquarters in Paris, France, will head the Falcon operational support department, which oversees all aspects of flight operations. The department assists owner-operators with their new aircraft deliveries and also trains pilots and audits training providers. Leboeuf will report to Olivier Villa, senior vice president civil aircraft. n

to handle our flights, saving clients money,” he said.

Randall Reed, CEO of Starbase, explained that the Deer Jet-owned aircraft are being imported to the U.S. from China and registered as U.S. aircraft.

Starbase has so far refurbished one Gulfstream G200, which is ready for conforming tests and awaiting registration paperwork before it can be flown for charter. “We hope to have that completed and have it on our line in November,” said Reed. The aircraft is 100 percent dry leased from Deer Jet. “We will co-brand the marketing, but Starbase will handle both the marketing and management of the N-registered Deer Jet aircraft,” he explained.

Xin told AIN that he expects to import six aircraft under the arrangement with Starbase, including a Gulfstream GIV and G550, within the next year. The aircraft will fly under Starbase’s

AMY LABODA

Chinese charter provider Deer Jet (Booth No. C10450) and D ­allas-based charter/management and maintenance provider Starbase signed a historic strategic alliance on October 22 during NBAA 2013. The alliance will allow Starbase (Booth No. C10450) to o ­ perate Deer Jetowned N-registered aircraft under Starbase’s charter certificate in the U.S. and around the world.

“The North American business jet charter market is the biggest in the world,” said Deer Jet chairman Xie Xin. “Strategically this is the best step for both Deer Jet and Starbase to grow. We’ve had requests from our Deer Jet clients in China to open this partnership with an American company to improve the service we can offer in the U.S.,” he continued. “For our Chinese clients it will cost much less to make a flight to the U.S. with this strategic alliance. We will ask Starbase

Xie Xin, chairman of Deer Jet, and Randall Reed, CEO of Dallas-based Starbase, shake hands after signing a strategic alliance for air charter.

charter certificate. Starbase has facilities in both Dallas and Singapore and could base Deer Jet N-registered aircraft at the latter location in the future, said Xin. Deer Jet is headquartered in Beijing and is a subsidiary of the Hainan Group, which owns Hainan Airlines. At the ABACE event in Shanghai in April this year, the company launched a “time share” program, the first of its kind in the fledgling Chinese market. –A.L. LEDs are all the rage in aircraft lighting, and this annunciator panel for the King Air C90 is a perfect example of the advantages of the technology. It is a drop-in replacement part for the legacy incandescent unit.

MARIANO ROSALES

MARIANO ROSALES

Deer Jet and Starbase sign strategic alliance

Luma unveils King Air C90 annunciator panel

by Bill Carey Luma Technologies (Booth No. C11947) has revealed a new LT-4545 LED annunciator panel for the Beechcraft King Air C90, the latest addition to its Lumatech line of LED annunciator panels for the King Air family.

The LT-4545, a drop-in replacement for the existing incandescent annunciators incorporated in the C90 glareshield, will be compatible with newer model C90A, C90GT, C90GTI and C90GTx models.

Luma Technologies president Bruce Maxwell said that

40 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

FAA supplemental type certification of the panel has been delayed by the recent U.S. government shutdown. The panel’s development is completed.

Luma Technologies will also provide a 4500-series annunciator panel for the new King Air-based G90XT unveiled by Nextant Aerospace on Monday.

The G90XT will be reengined with the GE H80 turboprop engine; its flight deck is based on the Garmin G1000 integrated avionics system.

The Lumatech line was

first installed on the Nextant 400XT/XTi, the remanufactured Beechjet 400A/Hawker 400XP. Luma further announced that it is developing a LED master caution system for those jets. As with new King Air light panels, the unit is intended as a drop-in alternative to the existing incandescent system. Maxwell said he expects the system will be certified by the FAA by next spring.

“Luma already provides similar systems on Nextant’s 400XTi and the [Beechcraft] Hawker 400 XPR, so it only makes sense to offer the same improvements to the existing fleet,” said Maxwell.

“The Nextant and [Beechcraft] variants added a few more channels and different form factors but the circuits are all the same.

Given that fact and how many of the other units we already have in the air, it should be a pretty smooth path to certification.”

Working units are on display at Luma’s booth and at Elliott Aviation’s exhibit (Booth No. C8143), which features a Beechjet cockpit mock-up fitted with the Garmin G5000 avionics suite, which is targeted for certification on the 400A/ Hawker 400XP in 2015. o

Pre-owned jet sales surprise

by Bryan A. Comstock Heading into the homestretch of 2013, the upbeat mood that ushered in the new year has been building into the summer step-climb that gets a catapult shot–courtesy of the NBAA convention–to finish out the year. Someone must have hit the “on” switch after Labor Day weekend in early September, bringing buyers back into the market en masse. While deals have abounded in all model segments for some time, the recent activity is a strong sign of buyer

This has to be considered the tightest market with only 12 for sale, down from nearly 20 in the first quarter, and only half of these carry “N” registration.

Not to be left out is the super-midsize category with the Bombardier Challenger 300 having the distinction of being one of the only jets with bragging rights to stable values in the latest Vref Aircraft Value Reference. Similar to the two models above, international appeal shows that nearly half of the

while overpriced offerings move the average-days-on-market needle higher.

Consider that the Premier I trades in the same range as the Cessna CitationJet, but with a gain of nearly 10 years on model type, greater speed and a roomier cabin for little more than a couple hundred dollars more per hour to operate.

Right now the Premier moves in the low to mid $1 million range and the successor model IA from about $1.6 million up

Consider the Challenger 604.

If it were a stock, some brokers would say that it’s oversold and represents one of the better market buys. While there isn’t a shortage, should the recent uptick continue or accelerate, some of the oversold models could snap back. In a recent conversation, one broker pointed out that a 10-yearold 604 would typically sell in a range of 70 to 80 percent of new pricing. Now they are selling at just 34 percent. He even suggested that Challenger 604 valuations have the potential of bouncing back 25 percent by next year’s fourth quarter.

The statement is bold given the fact that most have ceased

Cessna CJ3 Embraer Phenom 100

Two-Year Inventory Trends 2,700 2,650

2,600

2,581

2,650 2,600

2,550

2,550

OCT 2011

APRIL 2012

OCT 2012

OCTOBER 2012 - OCTOBER 2013

2,700

2,600

2,500

Bombardier Challenger 604

OCTOBER 2011 - OCTOBER 2012

2,581

2,500 OCT 2012

2,569

APRIL 2012

OCT 2013

Source JetNet

Gulfstream G550

confidence. From top to bottom aircraft are moving, and it’s no wonder considering how low prices have dropped. And while there is no shortage of decent buys, the landscape has changed for many model types.

At the entry level you see the Embraer Phenom 100 in far lower supply than year-ago levels, 27 then, 19 now, and only 11 of those are based in North America. The current supply represents about 6 percent of the total number in operation, making it a fairly tight market.

At the upper end and with fewer than 3 percent of the active fleet for sale is the Gulfstream G550.

current 24 available for sale are based somewhere other than the U.S. The supply in the U.S. is slightly above 5 percent and, like the G500, the Challenger 300’s fleet size would make any manufacturer beam ear-to-ear.

One model trading off the radar is the Beechcraft Premier I and IA. Subsequent to a series of accidents over a short timeframe, coupled with Hawker Beechcraft’s bankruptcy and exit from the jet market, there was an inventory build for the Premier and prices were shattered. At current price levels, buyers have decided the Premiers are a great value. Properly priced models move quickly,

to nearly $3 million for the latest and greatest. Questions surrounding parts availability and support clearly have created the opportunity and risk, and that’s why the IA sits at its inventory high of the year at 20 aircraft for sale, but only half are based in North America. The predecessor model has maintained its offerings at 11 over the past year, with just seven of those based in North America.

Another bright light in the light cabin arena is the Cessna CJ3. There are about as many of them available as the Premier IA, but with a fleet size nearly 250 larger the current supply of 22 translates to 5 percent availability. Here, too, the supply offered is divided between North America and the rest of the world.

Coming Down the Pike

These are just a few of the highlights–there are others and certainly more will be coming.

42 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

predicting when values would stop falling, having been convinced at several points during the last five years that market stabilization had taken hold. Any previous uptick proved to be nothing more than a dead-catbounce. However, looking back to 2007, one could easily argue that the market was overbought and so that lends credence to the oversold postulation.

Everyone wants to see the bloodletting end, even buyers.

Just think of how many thought they were buying at the bottom during the last few years.

Credit the wisdom of the same broker above, who quipped that no seller over the last five years has left any money on the table.

Of course if his thesis about a rebound unfolds he may have to adjust that statement.

While we’ve certainly been fooled before, many model types look poised for a comeback and may already be

inching in that direction, albeit slowly. There are 363 Challenger 604s in operation and less than one year ago about 70 were on the market! That’s nearly 20 percent of the 604 fleet. Since then, the market has been more ebb than flow and choices have been pared back to 47. While at 12-percent availability that may not cause sellers to do a victory sprint down the active runway, levels are getting closer to what’s considered a normal supply of 10 percent or lower. The telling sign of improvement is the linear march from 70 to 47.

Soft Markets

Another long-time industry counterpart said his observation was that any time there are more than 25 aircraft of a particular model type for sale, it’s a soft market. That was hard to argue with and seemed to have some credence and deserved further thought. So, with the following fine-tuning, I can accept that idea. I think if there are 25 aircraft of a certain model type for sale and if they are all located in the same country, I’ll agree that it’s a soft market.

With private aviation growing worldwide one has to consider where these aircraft are located.

Today fewer than half of the 47 604s are based in North America, placing the total number for sale below 25 and the percentage of North American-registered 604s a tick below 10 percent.

So, on both counts, the 604 continues to impress and now in what is historically the business jet sale quarter of the year, the choices have a high probability of contracting further.

In comparison to North America, Europe continues to offer a high percentage of year 2000 and newer aircraft– not more aircraft, but about twice the percentage, which means one thing: Europe is a great place to be buying aircraft right now. While that fact is not lost on buyers, many in North America tend to shop at home if inventory levels are plentiful and prices are sane, but there have been many opportunistic buyers that have shopped abroad and have reaped the rewards.

Right around this time five years ago the jet market got pushed up against the ropes and then knocked down, but like a prize fighter, it has regrouped, is fighting back and is ready for the next round. o Bryan Comstock is managing partner of business jet brokerage Jeteffect of Long Beach, Calif.

Who says they don’t make them like they used to?

Building on decades of proven reliability, the new Series 400 promises the same rugged design in a modernized platform for decades to come.

www.vikingair.com info@vikingair.com Toll Free: 1-800-663-8444

View the new Twin Otter Series 400 at Viking’s aircraft static display

Aviation law group helps clients save taxes

by Curt Epstein As most NBAA attendees will attest, the safe and legal operation of an aircraft is a complex task. With a seemingly endless list of agencies to answer to, it is all too easy for something to fall through the cracks.

Aviation law specialist Advocate Consulting Legal Group (Booth No. C9317) assists its clients in developing and implementing

entity structures and contractual arrangements to maximize tax savings, while complying with FAA, DOT and state regulatory requirements.

As the Naples, Fla.-based firm notes, it does not compete with a customer’s current advisors, but complements them in the development of an aircraft plan and in helping with its integration. “Our

Satcom1 appoints new CFO Satellite communication specialist Satcom1 appointed Henrik Zinck its new CFO. In that position he will develop the company’s finance and IT departments. Zinck has held management positions at several satellite and telecommunications companies, including VSAT, Emperion and CBB Mobil. He is based at the company’s Copenhagen headquarters.

“I believe that with Henrik’s deep knowledge and leadership skills we have the fundament in securing our high level of R&D activities for the future and to stay at the forefront when it comes to bringing advanced cockpit and cabin communication solutions to the global business aviation market,” said CEO Karina Bergstrøm Larsen.

Satcom1 provides office-in-the-sky services, software and consultancy for business aircraft that are equipped with satellite communications equipment.

–A.Y.

typical client is a small business that has other tax and accounting needs pertaining to their business. They’ve got payroll, they have inventory, we don’t take care of any of that,” said Jonathan Levy, the firm’s legal director. “[We work with] just aircraft, so we complement their existing advisors because aircraft is a complicated enough field that a specialist is called for.”

Advocate Consulting currently has approximately 1,600 clients and a staff of eight aviation attorneys and eight accountants who specialize in aviation taxes. “When a business acquires an aircraft, I think it should expect that it’s going to be hauling itself into an entire web of rules that apply to that aircraft, and we’re the specialist that can help them solve those problems,” Levy said.

Currently one of the biggest issues facing Advocate Consulting clients is the new aircraft personal-use rules that were released by the Treasury department last year. “The new rules require additional information about each passenger to be retained, whereas the old rules allowed information

about just the aircraft flight,” Levy told AIN. “We’ve developed online software that walks people through the process of keeping all the records that they need to keep and will perform the calculations that tell them the tax consequences of their aircraft usage.”

Another looming issue could come at the end of the year when the IRS’s bonus depreciation tax incentives on business aircraft purchases are set to expire. “We have seen a series of years where they were supposed to expire and then they got extended, but it’s always a nailbiter,” said Levy. “With Congress these days you never know what is going to come out at the end of the year.”

Given the current budget debates, Levy believes that this could be the year when the program finally comes to an end.

“It would mean that [before the end of 2013] is the best time to purchase a plane that they are going to use any time in the near future,” he noted. “There’s no reason to think that 2014 is going to as favorable a purchasing environment as 2013, from a tax perspective.”

Under the current 179 expensing election rules, a qualified business aircraft owner could have a deduction of up to half a million dollars off the top of the purchase price of the new or used aircraft. “That $500,000 is slated to go down to $25,000 next year, so the laws on the books right now are going to cut that expensing allowance by 95 percent,” he said.

Also in jeopardy is a special bonus depreciation incentive for buyers of qualified new aircraft, which allows 50 percent of the purchase price to be taken as a deduction in the first year, with the remainder depreciated according to the ordinary schedule. “We know that’s good this year, but we don’t know whether that will be around next year.

We don’t have much reason to think it will,” said Levy. “It’s a good reason to put your plane in service in 2013.” o

You are what matters most.

Your aircraft, your schedule, your customers.

With EMTEQ, you get what you need – When and where you need it.

We are dedicated to your success.

EXPECT MORE. Find out more at Booth C7012

emteq.com/nbaa

EMTEQ-AIN-NBAA-Dailies-OCT13.indd 3

44 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

9/25/13 9:18 AM

FlightSafety’s Vital 1100 adds customer-suggested detail

by Rob Finfrock FlightSafety International is here at NBAA 2013 displaying the latest step forward in its quest for truly realistic flight simulation: the Vital 1100 visual system (see it at Booth No. N1921).

Dan Myers, FlightSafety’s director of marketing for visual simulation systems, told AIN that development of the Vital 1100 came about following extensive feedback from FlightSafety customers. “We were able to provide a high-end, quality product in the previous Vital system, but customers would often suggest, ‘what if you did this?’ Our engineers ran with that,” said Myers.

As with previous FlightSafety visual

systems, Vital 1100 uses existing commercial off-the-shelf hardware platforms that allow the company to focus on optimizing its software to take advantage of ever-advancing technologies. “With the consumer side handling the hardware, that immediately allows us to dramatically increase capability in our system while focusing on what the customer sees outside the window,” Myers noted. “We’re able to transfer additional detail and content in our database, combined with physics-based simulations that add realism.” The latter includes detailed photorealistic surface imaging and lifelike rendering of weather phenomena encountered in flight.

11 Winners of Women in Corporate Aviation awards NBAA’s convention and exhibition is about networking, and no one knows how to network better than the women and men who are at the core of the non-profit Women in Corporate Aviation (WCA). Instead of holding down a booth, these generous individuals, with the support of the companies they work for, comb the halls as they work to create opportunities for those trying to break into the industry.

So, who are these women in corporate aviation? Some, such as Sheryl Barden, president of API, NBAA members know well, but others–such as board member Liz Clark, corporate pilot for Fred Smith at FedEx, or member Nancy Fullbright, corporate communications specialist for Gulfstream Aerospace, or WCA president Brenda Miles, product director-Team Sikorsky & Piaggio Aero for FlightSafety International–work more in the background. Nevertheless, they are responsible for increasing the awareness of corporate aviation, and the safety of aviation, on a day-to-day basis.

At its annual NBAA luncheon this year Women in Corporate Aviation presented 11 scholarship winners with training awards ranging from Cessna CJ3 initial flight training to corporate flight attendant training, to dispatcher license training and to aviation management–and more. The value of the training awards ranged from $1,000 to more than $22,000, and the 11 awards totaled almost $50,000.

Winners were: Johanna Ford, Aircare Facts training; Ana Ayala, CAE SimuFlite CJ3 flight training; Stephanie Cobb, Gulfstream Aerospace maintenance technology training; Allison Couch, Medaire inflight illness management training; Kristen Anderson, Susan Friedenberg corporate flight attendant training; Anna Sondelski, Norma Noe and Tamara Collins, Universal Weather and Aviation dispatcher license training; Carla Negri and Lisa Lewis, WCA aviation management scholarship; and Taylor Ratliff, WCA career scholarship.

Want to know more about how your company can contribute to next year’s scholarship campaign? Browse to www.wca-intl.org.

–A.L.

“We’ve been able to incorporate many physics-based aspects, such as atmospheric scattering. Sunlight and moonlight are scattered in different ways, depending on humidity, incident angle and altitude,” he added. “The Vital 1100 also recreates hail of various shapes and sizes, depending on atmospheric conditions, that also behave differently depending on prevailing conditions. When hail impacts a grounded surface like a fuselage, it may roll off that surface, melt or bounce away from it. Physics-based algorithms allow our sims to recreate that level of detail.”

Among the first applications for Vital 1100 will be two new simulators announced this week at NBAA 2013.

Early next year, a full-motion Bombardier Challenger 350 simulator will be installed at the company’s Columbus, Ohio training center, with a Challenger 605 simulator following later in the fall.

In addition to displaying Vital 1100 and its other simulator technologies at NBAA 2013, FlightSafety also announced its enhanced myFlightSafety Customer Portal, allowing Part 135 clients to manage their training documents, instructor and check airmen records online. That information may also be utilized by the company’s new online reservation system, allowing FlightSafety customers to schedule a training regimen based on these records.

“Over the past several years, we’ve

focused a lot of attention on improving the quality and efficiency of our training programs,” said FlightSafety spokesman Steve Phillips. “It obviously involves a lot of IT work to coordinate customers’ specific needs, including the regulations they are subject to, and tailor their training requirements accordingly. We want our customers to be able reserve their training at a specific time and center, online, much like buying an airline ticket.”

The company also announced its enhanced iPad app that provides FlightSafety clients with convenient access to pre-study and classroom course materials. The app, available for free, also includes practical information such as detailed Aircraft Walkaround Familiarization checklists highlighting key exterior aircraft components and their functions. “In addition to replacing heavy binders full of paper, any course notes taken on the iPad stay with you, even when the materials are updated,” Phillips noted, adding that all materials are fully optimized for interactive digital presentation, rather than merely being copied from existing documents.

“FlightSafety is a very accomplished manufacturer of visual systems and simulators, but above all else, our primary business is training,” Phillips concluded.

“Everything we do is to improve the quality of our training. That has been our focus for 62 years, and all new technologies that we introduce support that mission.” o

ForeFlight adds features, helps with branding

AMY LABODA

The board of directors of Women in Corporate Aviation gathered during their annual luncheon here at the NBAA convention. Part of the agenda in Las Vegas was awarding close to $50,000 in training scholarships to women trying to advance their careers in corporate aviation.

The latest display technology from FlightSafety International, Vital 1100, uses physics aspects such as “atmospheric scattering” to enhance realism in its visual displays. Light scatters differently under varying atmospheric conditions, and Vital 1100 adds that detail to the database matrix for even more accuracy.

ForeFlight (Booth No. N3404) announced enhancements to its popular ForeFlight Mobile iPad app and several collaborations with other aviation companies, all aimed at helping pilots to be more productive during flight planning and in the cockpit.

The ForeFlight Directory is a listing service that enables airport and aviation businesses to showcase themselves, informing users about their businesses by using text, artwork and photo galleries. Three plans are offered: basic, pro and featured. All plans include descriptions of services, live contact links and fuel prices. A pro listing adds logos and photos; and the featured listing provides additional branding and a spot in the featured section.

World Fuel Services (Booth No. C8509) has partnered with ForeFlight to enhance the branding of the former’s FBOs. All members of World Fuel Services network will have a special designation, with AirElite Diamond Service FBOs also indicated. World Fuel Service’s global network includes FBOs under the Phillips 66 and Ascent brands and AirElite service designation.

FlightAware (Booth No. C9836), the flight-tracking service, announced a capability that enables the delivery of expected route alerts to ForeFlight Mobile for aircraft with blocked tail numbers. This is designed for ForeFlight Mobile customers who also participate in FlightAware’s selective unblocking service.

ForeFlight Mobile’s flight-alert feature notifies pilots on their iPads or iPhones when ATC issues an expected route for an IFR flight plan. Tapping on the push notification or email link automatically loads an expected route into the moving map and updates flight plan information in ForeFlight Mobile.

“Having access to amended routes before getting into the cockpit is a huge benefit for pilots. Being able to offer that to operators of blocked tail numbers is a huge differentiator for both FlightAware and ForeFlight,” said Daniel Baker, FlightAware CEO. –R.R.P.

www.ainonline.com • October 24, 2013 • NBAA Convention News 45

Enstrom picks ‘Trilogy’ standby instruments

by Bill Carey L-3 Aviation Products (Booth No. N4505) announced at the NBAA Convention that Enstrom Helicopter has selected its Trilogy ESI-2000 electronic standby instrument as an option for the Enstrom 480B helicopter.

The Trilogy ESI-2000 provides attitude, altitude, airspeed and optional heading data on a 3.7-inch digital screen. It mirrors the layout of the Enstrom 480B’s primary display, facilitating a quick transition to back-up flight information in an emergency, while reducing weight and saving panel space, L-3 said.

The standby instrument is powered by a lithium-ion battery. “Favorable self-discharge characteristics allow the battery

to maintain a charge over long periods of disuse with little or no energy loss, while its excellent power-to-weight ratio provides high output with minimal added mass,” according to L-3.

“Following emergency use, the battery is recharged by the aircraft’s electrical system with no need for removal or inspection.” The ESI computer monitors battery maximum capacity and notifies the pilot when a replacement is needed.

The Trilogy ESI is also being offered by AgustaWestland on both the commercial and military variants of the AW119 helicopter.

Last year at NBAA 2012, L-3 introduced the GH-3900RSU electronic standby instrument

system with an ultra-thin, 4.2inch diagonal high-resolution DU-42 display and a separate remote sensor unit (RSU). The two-part system separates the display from the sensor array, allowing technicians to install the RSU away from the aircraft’s panel, including areas with limited space. The RSU houses rate/level sensors, air data transducers and optional accelerometers that deliver attitude, altitude, airspeed and navigation data to the display.

L-3 also reports that its FA5000 cockpit voice and data recorder has been selected by Bombardier for the Global 7000/8000 and Learjet 85. The solid-state FA5000 provides two hours of audio recording on all four channels and 25 hours minimum flight-data recording.

The NXT-600 and NXT800 ADS-B out-capable Mode S transponders are available as an upgrade. It will make aircraft compliant with upcoming ADS-B out mandates. o

Comlux delivers ACJ for HOS mission duty

by Charles Alcock Comlux Aviation Services has delivered an Airbus ACJ319 back to Malaysian operator Jet Premier One after completing heavy maintenance (including C4 and six-year checks) and a reworking of its VIP cabin.

The aircraft, which is operated on behalf of the Malaysian government for head-of-state transportation, has also been repainted externally and now features the national emblem.

The cabin refurbishment work involved Comlux having to get a new supplemental type certificate to establish that the equipment installed complied fully with an EASA airworthiness directives covering burn issues. The whole project was completed on schedule and to

agreed quality standards.

“The aircraft is really impeccable,” said Captain Norudin Abd. Majid. “I am particularly pleased with the upholstery and the finish on the wood work accomplished by Comlux craftsmen in the VIP cabin.

Despite challenges faced due to the complexity of the cabin rework, the overall project went extremely smoothly and the aircraft was delivered on time, reflecting Comlux’s spirit and commitment.”

Meanwhile, Indianapolis, Ind.-based Comlux Aviation Services has appointed Boyd Hunsaker as its new director of sales. The company is part of the Malta-based business aviation services group Comlux. o

Honeywell is highlighting upgrades available to its satcom products, flight management systems (FMS), cabin management systems (CMS) and cockpit displays at this year’s NBAA show.

The company has developed a modification that allows an operator with the “C” series Ovation Select CMS to upgrade the system to full HD video and audio, onboard music, Blu-ray and PlayStation capability. The modification will be offered through the Honeywell dealer network via a supplemental type certificate.

NBAA attendees can experience a fully functioning mock-up of the Ovation Select system at Honeywell’s booth (No. N4100).

The system is scalable and can be retrofited to any business jet.

The company reports that Ovation Select is flying on more than 40 aircraft, including a Dassault Falcon 900 that is available for viewing at the Honeywell exhibit at the Henderson Executive Airport static display.

Honeywell is featuring a refreshed “Epic 2.0” version of its Primus Epic integrated avionics system, which recently marked its tenth anniversary.

With the upgraded flight deck, operators will have access to Honeywell’s SmartView synthetic vision system, IntuVue 3-D digital weather radar, Waas LPV approaches and ADS-B

OUT functionality.

The upgraded flight deck will also feature a new data LAN management unit-wireless (DLMU-W) database loader, which reduces database upload times by up to 80 percent, allows “seamless” transfer of downloaded material to tablets and enables pilots to wirelessly transmit tablet-created flight plans into the Primus Epic system.

Honeywell is featuring a mockup of the upgraded Primus Epic flight deck at its booth.

Among other avionics upgrades, Honeywell will feature the new Falcon Elite II upgrade of its Primus 2000 cockpit for the Dassault Falcon 900C/EX. The upgrade includes Primus Elite displays with FMS 6.1 and Waas LPV. Upgrades to the Embraer Legacy 600 include Primus Elite displays that feature charts and maps, FMS 6.1 for LPV approaches and SmartLanding and SmartRunway safety enhancements.

Honeywell said it recently received TSO approvals for its cockpit display system/retrofit (CDS/R) software. The cockpit display upgrade features an “intuitive” display that increases situational awareness, increases reliability and reduces cost of aircraft ownership by removing cathode-ray tube monitors, according to Honeywell. –B.C.

MARIANO ROSALES

Honeywell upgrades satcom, FMS & CMS

maybe some of that flying talent will rub off?

NBAA attendees Ivan Henao and Juan Carlos Munez will go home with the photo op of their lives, posing with air show legend Sean D. Tucker. If you’d like your own souvenir of NBAA 2013, Tucker is signing posters and posing for photos at the Shell Aviation Booth (No. C8532)

Corporate Angel Network Nets $50,000 from Safe Flight Instrument Corporation Safe Flight Instrument Corporation (Booth No. N5515) announced at NBAA 2013 that it has donated $50,000 to the Corporate Angel Network (CAN), which arranges free flights in corporate aircraft for ambulatory cancer patients traveling for treatment.

White Plains, New York-based Safe Flight has had a long relationship with CAN, having flown the very first CAN patient, a 16-year-old, from his cancer treatment in New York City to his home in Detroit, Mich. more than 30 years ago. Since that flight CAN has arranged flights for more than 44,000 cancer patients through the help of more than 500 participating corporations and a team of six paid staff, plus a multitude of volunteers.

“We wouldn’t be able to help so many without the support of Safe Flight and other like-minded companies, along with the generosity of the business aviation community that provide empty seats on their aircraft for our patients,” said Peter Fleiss, executive director of CAN. “The patients we fly have a better prognosis as a direct result.”

Safe Flight is well known in business aviation for its sensors and controls, such as for stall warning, angle-ofattack, speed control, Scat (Speed Command of Attitude and Thrust) and AutoPower (autothrottles), and for its helicopter safety systems (for example for powerline detection).

–A.L.

46 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

MARIANO ROSALES

Avfuel president and CEO Craig Sincock (second from left) and Sheltair CEO Jerry Holland (center) joined with their respective teams to celebrate the FBO chain’s joining the Avfuel family.

Sheltair fuels with Avfuel, ready for Super Bowl

by Amy Laboda

street-front office space on Lee Wagner Boulevard. The FBO will have build-to-suit offices and hangars with 28-foot high doors, that can house aircraft as large as Gulfstream G650s.

The next phase of the project is expected to be underway in 2014, according to Sheltair. o

Lexavia’s latest EVS sensor available on Eclipse 550 Lexavia’s latest enhanced vision system (EVS), the LFS6000, is available as an option for the Eclipse 550 twin-engine jet, the company announced at the NBAA convention. The sensor is equipped on the first production Eclipse 550, at exhibit C10844.

Lexavia Integrated Systems (Booth No. C9238) of Gulf Breeze, Fla., claims the LFS6000 is the market’s lightest and most aerodynamically enhanced EVS sensor. Measuring 4.85 inches in length, 2.1 inches in width and 1.42 inches in height, the sensor and its housing were designed to be recessed in the Eclipse 550 airframe, which reduces both ice accretion and drag. “With one single point of installation, the structural impact to the aircraft is minimal,” said Bill Van Zwoll, Lexavia director of sensors and integrated products.

FAA supplemental type certification of the LFS6000 for the twinjet is expected as furloughed FAA personnel return to work.

The LFS6000 uses vanadium oxide long-wave infrared technology and provides 2X digital zoom, polarity control and image enhancement. The EVS system interfaces with the Eclipse 550’s Avio integrated flight management system to provide enhanced vision during darkness, smoke, bad weather and other limited-visibility conditions. Pilots can better identify terrain, structures, vehicles and other aircraft on and near runways. –B.C.

MIFFLIN-SCHMID DESIGN

FBO chain Sheltair has “This group here is a very projoined the Avfuel network, fessional group, a very thoughtannouncing the rebranding of ful group in how they do things, its 14 locations yesterday at the they have super people in the NBAA show. As the first indi- marketing area, great people in cation of the new relationship, operations, we’re really proud the company is displaying at to be associated with Sheltair,” the Avfuel booth (No. N5100). said Avfuel president CEO 105.1897_AIN_NBAA_254x165_Charter_254x165 09.10.13 15:42and Seite 1

Craig Sincock.

The addition adds to Avfuel’s line-up of more than 600 branded locations in the U.S. With Sheltair’s concentration of locations at New York Cityarea airports, including John F. Kennedy International and La Guardia, the partnership comes just in time for next February’s Super Bowl, to be held for the first time in the area. Those locations will hold special events, award bonus Avtrip points and offer discounts on handling fees for game-day travel.

“We are working with a good fueling company and we are very happy,” Sheltair CEO Jerry Holland told AIN. “I have known Craig for many years, and we have learned over these years that they know how to market, they know how to handle sales and they are a good team to work with, so we are looking forward to our relationship for the long term.”

Sheltair is also breaking out the ribbon-cutting scissors for

its facility at Fort Lauderdale International airport, as the company plans to open Phase 1 of its three-phase expansion this November. The project, which includes 134,806 sq ft of new hangar and office space on more than 11 acres on the west side of the airport, provides the only

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www.ainonline.com • October 24, 2013 • NBAA Convention News 47

Kaman offers its engineering skills for bizav

by Amy Laboda

BARRY AMBROSE

Kaman Aerospace Group (Booth No. N1529) is back in the exhibit hall at NBAA for the second time, working to educate attendees on the fact that the company is capable of much more than manufacturing military helicopters and bearings. It can build just about any metallic or composite structure or design and build the tools an OEM needs to build those structures.

“We reorganized this past year and formed the Aerosystems Group, run by President Jim Larwood,” Gary Tenison,

ramp it up The static display area at Henderson Airport is full to the bursting point for this year's NBAA meeting. That should bode well for the immediate future of business aviation, not only in North America, but worldwide, as well. The display area is a great opportunity for manufacturers to present their aircraft, and for potential buyers to get a close look at the merchandise–even kick a tire or two.

Air Capital Interiors opens doors in Wichita

by Curt Epstein

L Yo to ast ur Su D Ph bm ay ot it os !

Newly-launched cabin refurbishment specialist Air Capital Interiors is here at NBAA to announce that it is open for business. The company (which is displaying with its partner, aircraft detailing provider The Appearance Group, at Booth No. C6916) occupies 9,000 sq ft in a newly-renovated facility at Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita. While the company may be new, its principals have more than 40 years of industry experience.

“Our core customer will be those maintenance facilities that don’t have interior capability,” said company president Rodney Wilson. “The company really was born out of The Appearance Group’s customers asking them to do more and extend their service range.”

The company will offer complete cabin renewals including cabinetry refinishing and remanufacturing, upholstery, carpeting and paint and expects it will be

able to accommodate multiple projects simultaneously. It has just begun work on a Beechcraft King Air 200 and, Wilson told AIN, given enough lead time it will be able to provide interior refurbishment on any business aircraft all the way up to bizliners such as the BBJ or ACJ. The company also has the capability to design and manufacture complete cabin interior packages for aircraft development projects and prototyping. o

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Be a part of AIN’s award-winning coverage of NBAA 2013!

Enter our Social Media Photo Contest and get a chance to win an iPad mini, plus a shot at seeing your photo published on our social media channels.

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48 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

Best known for its military helicopters, such as this Navy Seasprite, Kaman Aerospace can leverage its experience to supply parts to business aircraft OEMs.

vice president of business development and marketing for Kaman, told AIN. The company also added a team of five regional sales associates, and according to Tenison, the reorganization is working.

“We do the Learjet 85 main exit and emergency exit doors for Bombardier, and recently won the root section of the fixed leading edge on the Bombardier 7000/8000,” he said. “And we are doing the Gulfstream G280 composite winglet and aileron.” Beyond that Kaman produces all the rotor systems for the MD 900 series helicopter and most of the Bell skin-to-core blades at its Bloomfield, Conn. facility. Its Everett, Wash. engineering facility won Boeing Supplier of the Year for 2013.

The Aerosystems group includes a Chihuahua, Mexico facility where metallics are handled, and a joint-venture composites facility in Goa, India, which allows the company to stay competitive on its pricing.

“We can create business jet structures, composites, metals and metal assembly and all the tooling capability an OEM needs,” said Tenison. “And this year, with the Aerosystems Group in place, we are much more cohesive internally and can engage the customer through a single voice. We really see the business jet market as a fantastic fit for our size and range of capabilities because Kaman has the engineering bandwidth to get the job done.” o

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Touch-screen controls to enhance Embraer E-Jets

by Matt Thurber As more interaction with computers and avionics centers on touch-screen control, avionics manufacturers have increasingly focused on touch interaction with their systems. Garmin (Booth No. C9843) has developed two pathways to touch control of avionics, with touch screens integrated into devices such as the panel-mounted GTN series navigators and with separate controllers that can be mounted conveniently within pilot reach. And Rockwell Collins (Booth No. C9806) is developing a version of Pro Line Fusion with touch screens.

Honeywell (Booth No. N4100) is also working on touch-screen controls, specifically on a system for the second-generation Embraer E-Jet flight deck. “We’ve been working with Embraer for a while,” said Larisa Parks, vice president of crew interface for Honeywell Aerospace. “And we have other customers where we will introduce this into their flight decks.”

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In developing touch-screen controls, Honeywell starts with the pilot experience, she explained, “and we define what is the optimal experience, where interacting using touch makes sense.” This includes functions that benefit from touch-screen control, such as manipulating and displaying charts and maps, graphical flight planning, FMS functions that would otherwise be accessed from a complex and button-festooned control display unit, radio tuning, APU operation and more.

On the Embraer E-Jet, the touchscreen controller will reside on the pedestal between the pilots. “It’s a comfortable place to do touch and interact with systems,” Parks said. Honeywell has proposed two touch-screen controllers for the E-Jet, one for each pilot. The center pedestal makes sense because pilots can quickly identify what’s necessary and interact with the avionics from that position. “Symbology can be built so you can see it out of corner of your eye,” she said.

What doesn’t make sense, at least for this class of aircraft, is a “touch-everywhere” cockpit, with touch control on panel-mounted avionics. “Touch-everywhere doesn’t enhance the pilot experience,” she said. “We don’t want it to be too far away; it will lead to inadvertent touch because of the lack of stabilization for the hand. We built a simulator where we spent thousands of hours with pilots working on touch applications for different aspects of the cockpit. We have high confidence [that we’ve developed] the right touch experience and right action for pilots.”

In Honeywell’s labs, research continues to refine the touch-screen environment, and researchers have found that many pilots would like to bring their experience with touch-screen devices like

smartphones and tablets into the cockpit.

“It’s not necessarily correlated to age,” Parks said. “In addition to hearing from pilots that touch is welcome in the cockpit because it’s very familiar, we also hear from OEM customers that they’d like to look at the opportunity to simplify the cockpit experience. Touch does that well in the right place for the right functions.”

The real opportunity for touch-screen controls, she explained, is to simplify the pilot’s interaction with the aircraft. This means moving from products with deep menu structures, which force pilots to memorize processes, she said, “to more of a graphical interface where we’re leveraging symbology and gestures.”

Human factors is important, Parks said, “how to leverage the strengths and eliminate perceived risks [of touch screens]. This involves evaluating the size of the touch targets on the screen, symbology and the right level of feedback.

“That’s where human factors expertise comes in,” she said, “so the pilot feels the right thing happening.”

As part of this research, Honeywell is investigating feedback mechanisms such as haptics, which generate a physical response to touch. Parks said that it is important for feedback to assure the user that the correct button was touched, and this doesn’t necessarily have to be a haptic response. Honeywell researchers also are testing different ways that fingers might be used, either bare or with fingernails or gloves. “We want to make sure the activation and feedback create a high level of confidence that the interaction has occurred as planned,” she said.

As touch-screen controls populate more aircraft, there is a key benefit beyond user friendliness. “We can take out quite a bit of weight by applying touch,” Parks concluded. o

NEWS NOTE Jet Aviation Singapore is constructing a new hangar at Seletar Aerospace Park slated to be completed in early February next year. The new 100,900-sq-ft structure will triple the size of the current facility, and it will have two floors providing 43,700 sq ft of space for shops and offices. The new facility will add 100,965 sq ft of apron area. The construction, which is alongside Jet Aviation Singapore’s current maintenance and FBO operation, will be unveiled at an opening celebration at the Singapore Airshow in February. “We are expanding our facilities in direct response to growing demand in the region for large, longrange business jets,” said Gary Dolski, vice president and general manager.

“The new hangar will accommodate up to five Gulfstream G650s or five Bombardier Global 7000s.” The company offers FBO services in Singapore at Seletar and Changi International airports and operates an MRO facility in Hong Kong. n

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by Kirby J. Harrison Following a successful showing at the Latin American Business Aviation Conference &

Exhibition (LABACE) in August, Líder Aviação is hosting an exhibit at the NBAA show

(Booth No. N536) and expanding its North American presence.

Líder is one of the largest aviation services providers in Brazil and during LABACE sold two Beechcraft Bonanza G36s for $760,000 each. Also at the show, Líder delivered the first Bonanza G36 to go into service in Brazil with the new modular interior.

A Beechcraft King Air 350i presents a sleeker image reflected in a propeller spinner reflection at the Líder Aviação exhibit at LABACE 2013 in São Paulo.

At the same time, the company closed a contract to allow construction to begin on a new 53,800-sq-ft hangar in Itanhaém, on the coast about 50 miles south of São Paulo.

According to Líder directorsuperintendent Junia Hermont, the new hangar represents a $10 million investment, and work should be completed by the end of March 2014.

A

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Eduardo Vaz, president of Líder Aviação, said the company had anticipated growth in business activity to continue following LABACE. “The airshow is an opportunity not only to enter into contracts, but also to initiate negotiations that end up as contracts in the coming months,” he explained.

In other news announced at LABACE and further promoted here at NBAA, Líder has become the exclusive representative of Canadian business jet manufacturer Bombardier.

The agreement, said Vaz, is the result of a long relationship between the two companies “and the excellence achieved

by Líder in all areas of aviation where it operates.”

Líder also represents U.S. manufacturer Beechcraft’s turboprop and single-engine piston line. The partnership with Beechcraft presents no conflict of business interest with the Bombardier representation as Beechcraft shut down its business jet production last spring as part of its emergence from bankruptcy.

Vaz noted that, in its 54 years of existence, Líder has sold more than 800 aircraft. “Líder was the first company to bring a Learjet to Brazil in 1968, [and] the same pioneering spirit and commitment demonstrated for over 50 years will be part of this new partnership with Bombardier,” he added.

Latin America is now home to a fleet of more than 1,000 Beechcraft airplanes, including 420 in Brazil alone. o

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KIRBY J. HARRISON

Líder Aviação brings Brazilian bizav to NBAA

10/1/13 10:10 AM

Liebherr has big role in Falcon 5X

by R. Randall Padfield products for business jets and helicopters include flight control and actuation systems, air management systems, cooling packs and landing gear.

More specifically, the company mentions components of the Learjet 85 flight control system, the nose gear for the Global Express and a humidification system for various business aircraft.

Dassault Aviation chose Liebherr-Aerospace to supply the airmanagement system for the new

Falcon 5X. Liebherr will design, develop, manufacture and service the system, as well as the cabin pressure control system and cabin distribution equipment.

For the Snecma (Safran) Silvercrest turbofan engine, which will power the Falcon 5X, Liebherr-Aerospace will supply the bleed-air system. This includes the high-pressure and high-temperature valves, a precooler, high-pressure ducting and related sensors and controls.

Recently, the company began

Liebherr-Aerospace. Both systems derive from the current systems already integrated in the Challenger 300.

Liebherr’s aerospace and transportation systems division employs more than 4,400 people.

Its aviation equipment production plants are located in Lindenberg, Germany; Toulouse, France; Guaratingueta, Brazil; and Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. o

MARIANO ROSALES

Liebherr-Aerospace (Booth No. C11407) may not be a household name in the U.S., but the company is a supplier of numerous components used in aircraft for most of the major aircraft and missile manufacturers in the world, and has been doing so for more than 50 years.

In a 58-page promotional magazine created specifically for NBAA 2013 visitors, the company lists 26 aviation customers, from Airbus to Thales.

Major Liebherr-Aerospace

final assembly of the valves and pre-cooler, which will be delivered to Snecma for the flying test bench. (Snecma is not among the customers on the list mentioned above, so make that 27 aerospace companies.)

The new Bombardier Challenger 350 will include the flap-actuator system and air-management system, both flight-critical, from

Hilton’s WingX now supported by Dac’s GDC64 Hilton Software, producer of the WingX Pro 7 flight planning and navigation app, announced at NBAA 2013 that Dac International’s GDC64 interface device will now support the app. The GDC64, certified for use on Part 25 aircraft, can deliver a wealth of information to WingX Pro 7, including navigation, systems and air data information that is available on the aircraft’s Arinc 429 databus. The GDC64 has won approval for installation in the Bombardier Learjet 60 and Dash 8.

Francisco Hernandez, general manager of Dac International, said the company has worked closely with Hilton Software over the past few months to achieve WingX Pro 7’s full compatibility with the GDC64.

“Consistent with our push into the airline and military markets and as a result of our close collaboration ASG-NBAA-ad-outlines.pdf 1 9/30/2013 10:55:12 AM with Dac International,” said Hilton Software founder Hilton Goldstein, “WingX Pro7 can now access and integrate the tremendous amount of data on the industry standard Arinc 429 bus.”

–J.W.

history repeating itself Twenty-eight years ago, Jerry King of King Aerospace proposed to his wife, Barbara, during the NBAA Convention in New Orleans. Last weekend, Jerry’s son Jarid popped the same question to his fiance, Jenna Hickey. (Longtime AIN readers may remember a youthful Jarid appearing in King Aerospace ads.) Jenna said yes to the proposal, and the couple plan to be married. A trained aviator and a 2013 graduate of Oklahoma State University, the younger King will continue to carry on the family values and business standards established by his father. 

www.ainonline.com • October 24, 2013 • NBAA Convention News 53

JetSuite adds CJ3s for Wheels Up uContinued from page 1

a light-jet alternative to the new company’s Beechcraft King Air 350i twin turboprops.

Wheels Up members will enjoy priority booking rights to the JetSuite aircraft and preferred pricing equivalent to that for JetSuite’s $50K SuiteKey Members. In return, JetSuite clients at the $100K SuiteKey level or above will be able to participate in the Wheels Down lifestyle and event service, which offers access to invitation-only events and networking opportunities.

The JetSuite aircraft will be available to Wheels Up (Booth No. C12749) members at fixed occupied hourly rates. The two companies will also collaborate to develop the latest mobile applications to post empty-leg availability for JetSuite flights and will also offer customized membership solutions.

JetSuite currently operates

six CJ3s. The refurbished aircraft feature a new cabin interior with Aircell Gogo Biz Wi-Fi service and an upgrade to Rockwell Collins ProLine 21 avionics to allow for over-water operations.

On Monday, Wheels Up took delivery of the first of up to 105 King Air 350i turboprops that it has ordered, and it is due to begin customer flights in November.

The flights will be operated by Gama Charters. In August, the New York City-based start-up placed firm orders for 35 of the aircraft, with options for up to 70 more.

Last month, Wheels Up forged a partnership with VistaJet to market the Europe-based private flight provider’s new services in the U.S. Under this deal, Wheels Up members will be able to book flights in VistaJet’s Bombardier Global aircraft.

JetSuite’s Phenom 100s seat four passengers and, according to Embraer, have the largest baggage compartment in the very light jet class. The Irvine, Calif.based company’s special-edition

Wheels Up and JetSuite have agreed to a partnership that will give reciprocal benefits to their customers. Pictured left to right are Wheels Up president and co-founder David Baxt, JetSuite CEO Alex Wilcox, JetSuite president and CFO Keith Rabin and Wheels Up CEO and founder Kenny Dichter.

MARIANO ROSALES

Outreach and education is a key component in growing the aerospace industry, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA) showed its commitment to the future by sponsoring an aviation education night for more than 400 students at Las Vegas Rancho High School during NBAA 2013.

Speakers at the event included Yoshiyuki Ishii, CEO and president of MHIA, along with Barrington Irving, founder of the nonprofit organization Experience Aviation and the first black pilot to fly around the world solo. The event is a part of a much larger initiative known as “Dream and Soar,” supporting Irving as he travels the country presenting his inspiring message to more than 12,000 students in the past five years.

“I want to show them that pursuing a career in aviation and science or technology can enable them to realize their dreams as I did,” said Irving.

The outreach event is one of many that MHIA supports in a variety of venues. Just this past summer the company hosted its biennial MU-2 owner’s meeting in Green Bay, Wis., just before EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh. The event drew dozens and included a tour of Lambeau Stadium and a mixer with Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis.).

MHIA was voted as provider of the best turboprop product support in AIN’s 2013 product support survey. The MU-2 product support program is administered through Turbine Aircraft Services in Addison, Texas. –A.L.

SR Jet’s president and executive director Xingzhuo Ji (left) likes what he sees when Giuliano Felton, Piaggio Aero’s deputy general manager and chief commercial officer, unveils a rendering of what SR Jet’s new Avanti IIs will look like.

10 Avanti IIs for China’s SR Jet uContinued from page 1

Cancun, Mexico or Toronto.

“Today’s agreement is a great achievement of the marketing efforts that Piaggio Aero and ACEA Aviation are devoting to the Chinese market for our P.180 Avanti II,” said Giuliano Felton, Piaggio Aero deputy general manager and chief commercial officer. “We are very proud of this new extended-range variant of our aircraft, which provides maximum flexibility for the Avanti II CJ3s accommodate six passengers with two aft-facing and four forward-facing leather seats (plus an optional seventh, sideways-facing seat).

“JetSuite has great synergy with Wheels Up, including top-notch customer service and industry-leading safety practices,” said Kenny Dichter, founder and CEO of Wheels Up. “This relationship with JetSuite enhances what Wheels Up provides our members by making access available to the most spacious, fuel-efficient jets, while maintaining the luxury and affordability of private air travel.”

“We are impressed with the Wheels Up membership model and look forward to working with Kenny Dichter and his team,” said JetSuite CEO Alex Wilcox. “This type of partnership will help JetSuite continue to be the nation’s fastest-growing private jet company. Wheels Up has a lot of buzz here at NBAA and within the market already. We look forward to enhancing our SuiteKey Member benefits with the Wheels Down perks.” o

54 NBAA Convention News • October 24, 2013 • www.ainonline.com

operators who are now able to fly longer missions with an unbeatable level of comfort and speed.”

No airframe modifications are required for installation of the additional fuel tank, which occupies only a portion of a closet in the lavatory, according to Piaggio. The first delivery of SR Jet’s Avanti IIs is scheduled for March 2014.

“The Piaggio P.180 is absolutely a unique twin-engine turboprop aircraft, with the core advantages of unmatched performance, unbeatable comfort and cost efficiency that is integral to SR Jet’s development of

China’s business aviation market,” said Xingzhuo Ji, president and executive director of SR Jet. “This unique aircraft differs from traditional turboprop aircraft, as this is the exclusive aircraft which has the cruising altitude, speed, climb performance and cabin comfort of a jet aircraft, but [has] the price and…the operating cost of a typical turboprop.”

Piaggio America president and CEO John Bingham told AIN that a U.S. customer has also ordered an extended-range Avanti II; the aircraft is “on the production line,” he said. o

MARK WAGNER

Mitsubishi takes Las Vegas young aviators under its wing

Here at NBAA, Nextant has a shining example of its 400XTi on display. The company announced a deal with Travel Management Company to remanufacture all 50 of its Hawker 400XPs, to the tune of as much as $202 million.

Nextant scores order for 400XTis uContinued from page 1

competitive performance and value,” noted Nextant president Sean McGeough.

“The TMC deal is more than just another endorsement of the Nextant 400XTi,” he added.

“It’s an acknowledgment by TMC that the 400XTi meets the demands of their operations while simultaneously helping them to expand their future business. The transition to the new 400XTi fleet also offers an

enhanced residual value relative to their current fleet.”

TMC chose the 400XTi because it “offers a 50-percent increase in range relative to our previous aircraft and a 30-percent reduction in operating cost,” according to TMC president Scott Wise. “This combination significantly increases our mission capability and allows us to meet the needs of a larger customer base. We’ve done our research and it’s clear that reequipping with the 400XTi will keep us ahead of the competition for years to come.” o

Fifty Years of Passion Generations of Falcons have one thing in common.

Each one advances the state of the art. Becoming more efcient.

More capable. More comfortable.

Always ahead of the curve, with innovations such as Digital Flight Control technology and ultra-efcient, ultra-capable wings—at both ends of the speed envelope.

We’re celebrating 50 years since the rst ight of the Mystère 20, but we’re hardly resting on our laurels.

The best is yet to come.

Find out why. Scan the code or visit falconjet.com/50-years