Category: BizJet

Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics will host a student career fair on Thursday, November 14, 2019 at its Myrtle Beach, SC campus located at 1038 Shine Avenue, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Representatives of Bombardier, GE Aviation, Lafayette Engine, Gulfstream Aerospace, Honda Aircraft, Piedmont Airlines and United Airlines will attend to discuss high demand careers in aviation maintenance.

“The event is open to both soon-to-be graduates and alumni,” said Peg Skalican, campus director of the Myrtle Beach Campus of the non-profit PIA. “That we continue to host events that typically involve such robust and enthusiastic support from the employment community is a strong indicator of sustained career demand.  It highlights the growing need for qualified aviation maintenance technicians.”

PIA administration and employers will be available to discuss issues trending in aviation maintenance career education, such as overcoming stigma for girls in trade careers, the merit of employer partnerships in training qualified workforce and recent comparisons benchmarking the salaries of graduates. Forbes ranked PIA the number one two-year trade school in the entire U.S., according to the school.

Thousands of dollars in scholarships will be awarded at WAI’s 31st Annual International Women in Aviation Conference, and the time to apply is now. To qualify for a scholarship, the applicant must be a current WAI member and submit the application by November 12, 2019.

More than 100 individual scholarships are available in areas ranging from aerospace to engineering, from maintenance to flight training. Many type ratings are available. As in past years, scholarships are not just for young people or students. A variety of scholarships are targeted for people in mid-career or even retirement.

“Scholarships change lives, boost careers, and open doors for our members,” says WAI Director of Communications Kelly Murphy.  “Scholarships are a major membership benefit, and we urge our members to take the opportunity to apply.”

Most scholarship applications may be completed online at wai.org/scholarships and can be submitted right up to November 12, 2019. Mailed applications must be signed and postmarked by that same date. Members can apply for up to three scholarships and an internship. The 2020 scholarships will be awarded during WAI’s conference, held next year in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, from March 5-7, 2020.  The 2020 conference represents the 31^st anniversary of WAI conferences.

New scholarships have been added in the past few weeks, so interested applicants are urged to check wai.org/scholarships for these new opportunities that now number 110 scholarships.

Tamarack Aerospace Group (Tamarack), inventor and manufacturer of Active Winglets, has announced that it has filed a Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization with the Eastern District of Washington. The filed Plan includes repayment of all creditors in full and, when approved, the Plan will allow Tamarack to emerge from bankruptcy.

Tamarack sought bankruptcy protection on June 1^st of this year when the timing for resolving Airworthiness Directives (ADs) became uncertain. The ADs had grounded the Active Winglet fleet of 91 aircraft after an erroneously reported incident on April 13, 2019.  The grounding was resolved and worldwide Active Winglet operations resumed as of July 10, 2019 following factual review by EASA, FAA, NTSB, and the UK AAIB.

“We continue to make significant progress in the reorganization, we have made a number of strategic changes to the business which has made us more resilient and we will emerge stronger and more viable than before,” says Jacob Klinginsmith, Tamarack president. “In July Tamarack received approval to accept a significant investment for ongoing operations; but the continued Active Winglet sales have allowed us to recover financially and ultimately to present a very strong plan of reorganization.  The Plan is testament to the financial health and viability of Tamarack, and we look for confirmation as early as end of the year.”

An October 31 hearing has been scheduled with the Eastern District of Washington to consider approval of the Disclosure Statement, related to the plan.

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. has dedicated a hangar, operations center and team of technicians specifically for midcabin aircraft at its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia, Illinois.

Other Gulfstream maintenance facilities will continue to support the company’s worldwide fleet of approximately 560 midcabin aircraft, Gulfstream hopes St. Louis will be an ideal destination for many midcabin operators because of its prime location and dedicated resources. About 70 percent of Gulfstream’s midcabin fleet is based in the U.S.

“We have designated Gulfstream St. Louis as a midcabin maintenance center of excellence,” said Derek Zimmerman, president, Gulfstream Customer Support. “The designation is our way of reinforcing our ongoing commitment to midcabin customers. The centrally located site has the personnel, skills, experience, knowledge, tooling, manuals and capacity to produce the quality and efficient work expected by our customers. It will truly be a one-stop MRO for our midcabin customers’ maintenance and refurbishment needs.”

Gulfstream Dallas remains the company’s facility for midcabin completions and provides maintenance for all Gulfstream aircraft. St. Louis’ enhancements come amid a series of Customer Support expansions: Gulfstream is accepting customers at new maintenance facilities in Appleton, Wisconsin, and Savannah, and will open new service centers in 2020 in Van Nuys, California; Palm Beach, Florida; and Farnborough, U.K.

Gulfstream St. Louis’ dedicated midcabin hangar comprises 70,348 square feet/6,536 square meters, which includes 30,000 sq ft/2,787 sq m of hangar space and nearly 20,000 sq ft/1,858 sq m of back shop space. The support space includes an operations center staffed by a cross-functional team of representatives from Planning, Materials and Service Center Operations responsible for optimizing a customer’s maintenance visit. In addition, the hangar will be the base for a Service Team Manager and team of technicians focused solely on maintenance, including airframe inspections and repair, avionics installations and upgrades and interior refurbishments for the company’s entire line of in-production and legacy midcabin aircraft: Gulfstream G280, Gulfstream G200, Gulfstream G150 and Gulfstream G100.

Gulfstream St. Louis’ refurbishment capabilities include full cabinet fabrication and finish, upholstery, composites and paint. Gulfstream added St. Louis, a former completions and maintenance facility for sister company Jet Aviation, to its service center network in September 2017. The site is a certified U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and European Aviation Safety Agency Part 145 repair station, which means its 420 employees can work on large-cabin and midcabin aircraft registered in the U.S. and European Union countries. In 2018, Gulfstream St. Louis had more than 340 aircraft visits. It has approximately 638,000 sq ft/59,272 sq m of hangar, shop and support space.

A Piper PA-28 crashed shortly after taking off from DeKalb-Peachtree Airport at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, October 30, 2019, according to Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) spokesperson Kathleen Bergen.

Fortunately, no one was at home at the time of the crash and all residents have been accounted for. However, two men, who were the only two onboard the aircraft, have died. The aircraft crashed into an area near Atlanta called Briarcliff. Six townhomes were found to be unsafe because of structural concerns. Pieces of the aircraft were found throughout the neighborhood.

Weather in Atlanta was cloudy and rainy at the time of the accident. NTSB is sending investigators.

Bombardier is launching a pair of Line Maintenance Stations at two locations – Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and Van Nuys Airport in California.

These new Line Maintenance Stations will initially offer unscheduled maintenance services to customers and build toward scheduled maintenance operations in the coming months. Both new locations will offer customers enhanced maintenance capabilities, including the addition of wheel and battery shops. Bombardier trained technicians supporting the new sites are certified for all Learjet, Challenger and Global series business jets, including Bombardier’s flagship Global 7500 aircraft.

“We are committed to ensuring our customers receive an exceptional experience and this expansion is an integral part of our overall mission to enhance OEM support for our operators throughout the U.S. and around the globe,” said Jean-Christophe Gallagher, vice-president and general manager, Customer Experience, Bombardier Business Aircraft. “These two new locations are part of an unprecedented acceleration of support offerings that includes new Mobile Response Trucks, aircraft and more technicians across our network.”

The introduction of the new Line Maintenance Stations in Teterboro and Van Nuys is the latest customer services announcement over the past several months. Bombardier says it is focused on enhancing the Bombardier customer service footprint in the U.S. and around the world. Some additional announcements include major service center expansions ongoing in both Miami Opa-Locka and Singapore, the development of a new Line Maintenance Station in Dubai with JETEX to enhance service capabilities in the Middle East, and a new agreement with respected Austrian-based interior manufacturer F/LIST for the establishment of an enhanced interior shop at the Biggin Hill Service Center. Bombardier says it will continue to show its ongoing commitment to providing the most comprehensive onsite, mobile and aircraft-on-ground resolution services in the industry.

The new Line Maintenance Stations in Teterboro and Van Nuys will also complement Bombardier Business Aircraft’s award-winning network of nine service centers and a total of 30 Customer Response Team mobile units around the globe, all equipped to support Bombardier Learjet, Challenger and Global business aircraft. This includes the recent addition of a dedicated Challenger 300 Mobile Response Team Aircraft based in Frankfurt, Germany.

The G700 heralds a new era for Gulfstream, building on the company’s decades-long investment in research and development and ensuing successes. The aircraft boasts the tallest, widest and longest cabin in the industry with leading range and speed capabilities. The G700 can fly 7,500 nautical miles/13,890 kilometers at Mach 0.85 or 6,400 nm/11,853 km at Mach 0.90.

Design Innovation

The all-new cabin on the G700 allows customers to extend their personal and professional lifestyle to their aircraft. With up to five living areas, the G700 offers an extra-large ultragalley with a passenger lounge or crew compartment; a six-place dining or conference room; and a master suite with shower. The Gulfstream Cabin Experience promotes and enhances wellness through 20 Gulfstream panoramic oval windows, the largest in the industry; the industry’s lowest cabin altitude, 100 percent fresh air and a whisper-quiet cabin.

“Gulfstream has a long tradition of listening to our customers, and the G700 cabin is the evolution of that collaboration,” said Burns. “Customers shared how much they value flexibility and comfort in the cabin, all without compromising the speed and range advantages they have come to expect from Gulfstream. The G700 delivers all that and more.”

The aircraft also offers a range of cabin amenities that revolutionize the benefits of business-jet travel, including the most advanced circadian lighting system in aviation. The Gulfstream-developed technology recreates sunrise and sunset through thousands of white and amber LEDs, gently coaxing passengers into their new time zone and greatly reducing the physical impact of traveling halfway around the world nonstop.

Safety And Performance

The G700 features the award-winning Symmetry Flight Deck and other new safety advancements. Along with active-control sidesticks and the industry’s most extensive use of touch-screen technology, the flight deck also comes standard with another Gulfstream award-winner, the Predictive Landing Performance System. The system gives pilots advanced warning of potential runway excursions so they can adjust approaches or go around. The G700 Symmetry Flight Deck also comes standard with Gulfstream’s Enhanced Flight Vision System and Synthetic Vision on dual head-up displays.

All-new, high-thrust Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 engines power the G700 and, along with newly designed Gulfstream winglets, ensure the aircraft achieves high performance capabilities with its larger cabin. The aircraft offers excellent takeoff and landing performance and can operate easily at weight-restricted, short-runway and high-altitude airports.

The ability to fly at faster speeds (Mach 0.90 versus Mach 0.80) gives customers more time, lower annual expenses for maintenance, parts and services, and shorter crew days for safer operations.

Program Maturity

In preparation for first flight, Gulfstream has already accomplished nearly 14,000 hours of lab testing in its integration- and cabin-test facilities, Systems Integration Bench and Iron Bird. The company has successfully completed ground vibration testing, engine runs, loads calibration and all structural testing required for first flight.

The G700 flight-test fleet will incorporate five traditional test aircraft and one fully outfitted production test aircraft. Manufacturing for all test aircraft is well underway.

Gulfstream anticipates G700 customer deliveries in 2022.