Category: BizJet

West Star Aviation Promotes COVID-19 Mitigation Steps for the Safety of Customers and Employees 

West Star Aviation is continuing to operate at all of its full service and satellite locations as an essential business in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company says it has instituted multi-level safety and mitigation procedures as a way to better protect employees, customers and their assets.

Like many companies, a portion of West Star’s staff are working remotely, but a large portion of in-house functions still require staff to be on site at all of the facilities. As such, West Star has instituted temperature checkpoints, to quickly assess both employees and customers entering all facilities. These staff members are working tirelessly to meet customer needs as always, but with proper social distancing protocols in place.

Most recently, West Star has implemented a temporary mandate that requires all customers and employees to wear protective masks that cover the nose and mouth when in West Star facilities. This step was taken in accordance with CDC, state and federal health recommendations as one of the most effective ways to help mitigate or avoid infection with the COVID-19 virus.

Additionally, while there are currently no FAA or OEM guidelines on the disinfection of aircraft, the dedicated detail teams at our full-service locations are disinfecting customer aircraft by hand, upon arrival and departure. As an added level of safety, the full-service facilities at ALN, GJT, CHA and PCD now have portable CURIS Decontamination Systems onsite for use on arrival and departure. These systems can be deployed effectively upon request if the customer desires an extra step in decontamination.  Concerns can be determined through pre-planning questionnaires and ample communication with West Star staff at the requested location.

As noted above, all West Star facilities are considered essential businesses and are open to serve customer needs, with these increased safety measures to protect both customers and employees alike. Safety measures and protocol will continue to be updated as deemed necessary and any additional details about the current situation will be provided on the website or contact West Star directly for further information.

“The safety of our employees, vendors and customers is always our main priority, so reinforcing our current requirements as well as adding additional levels of precautionary practices and disinfectant services is of critical importance to West Star Aviation. We feel confident that going above and beyond on these safety measures, West Star can continue to effectively and efficiently service our customers’ needs. Every ounce of preventive measure is worth it if we can become a part of the solution to this current situation,” stated Jim Rankin, CEO.

AVMATS Leader and Co-Founder Butch Giessman Dies

Arthur Giessman Obituary - Creve Coeur, Missouri | Legacy.comLongtime AVMATS leader and co-founder, Arthur “Butch” C. Giessman II, passed away on March 29, 2020. Giessman graduated from Parks College and worked as an A&P at Rockwell International moving through the ranks to service manager. In 1974, Giessman left Rockwell to help start the Technical Services Department at MidCoast Aviation, where he worked until 1982 when he left to run AVMATS full time. AVMATS was founded in 1978, and MidCoast was the first AVMATS customer. During the last 42 years, he grew AVMATS company while ensuring he maintaining a unique culture and family atmosphere.

Giessman was a supporter of the local and national aircraft maintenance organizations and was a founder and early president of the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA). He was an avid supporter of the A&P schools to include Parks College, Southwest Illinois College, Missouri Technical College, Gateway Tech, Spartan School of Aeronautics, and more.

He served on the boards of several local banks as well as charities, including Wings of Hope, Corporate America Supports You (CASY), and Military Spouse Corporate Career Network (MSCCN).

“With deep sadness, we announce the passing of our founder and leader, Butch. He coached, mentored, and inspired many of us while building a family in the company he called AVMATS,”  a company statement says. “While his presence will be sorely missed, his spirit will live on in everything he built and everyone he touched.”

In 1978, with the help of three friends and partners, Giessman founded Centurion Investments. The company established itself as a source for surplus aircraft parts under the name Aviation Material and Technical Support. “AVMATS was a pioneer in the concept of purchasing and dismantling airworthy and undamaged corporate aircraft to support the existing fleet. He grew this little home-start-up company into a family of people and businesses that continue the original goal of supporting aging business jets from tip to tail,” the company statement says.

 

CDC Publishes Coronavirus Guidelines for Aviation Maintenance Workers

What Aircraft Maintenance Workers Need to Know about COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2. Symptoms often include a fever, cough, or shortness of breath. Our understanding of how the virus spreads is evolving as we learn more about it, so check the CDC website for the latest information. The virus is thought to spread mainly from person to person:

  • Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
  • Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks.

Recent studies indicate that the virus can be spread by people before they develop symptoms or who never develop symptoms. It also may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes. However, this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads. Older adults and people of any age who have serious underlying medical conditions may be at higher risk for more serious complications from COVID-19.

As an aircraft maintenance worker, how can I protect myself?

As an aircraft maintenance worker, you could be exposed to COVID-19 in situations such as when you have close contact with someone with COVID-19 or when you touch surfaces while repairing aircraft interiors and lavatories that have been touched or handled by a person with COVID-19.

  • Limit close contact with others by maintaining a distance of at least 6 feet, when possible.
  • Practice routine cleaning and disinfection of frequently touched surfaces, following the directions on the cleaning product’s label.
  • Use gloves whenever you touch surfaces contaminated by body fluids.
  • Proper hand hygiene is an important infection control measure. Wash your hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol.
  • Key times to clean hands in general include:
    • Before, during, and after preparing food
    • Before eating food
    • After using the toilet
    • After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
  • Additional times to clean hands on the job include:
    • Before and after work shifts
    • Before and after work breaks
    • After touching frequently touched surfaces
    • After removing any personal protective equipment (PPE)
    • After performing maintenance tasks such as handling untreated human waste
  • Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.

Recommendations based on work tasks:

Interior Work:

  • Wear your normally required PPE, if applicable, when making repairs in the passenger cabin area.
  • Do not use compressed air or water sprays to clean surfaces contacted by passengers, as these techniques may aerosolize potentially infectious material.
  • If cleaning is required before you make repairs, first review CDC cleaning guidance for Airlines and Airline Crew: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and contact your employer for additional guidance.

Air Filter Replacement:

  • Wear your normally required PPE, if applicable.
  • Follow the manufacturer’s filter replacement schedule.
  • When replacing air filters (including HEPA filters):
    • Avoid hitting, dropping, or shaking the filter.
    • Do not use compressed air to clean a filter. This will keep materials in the filter from becoming airborne.
    • Dispose of the used filter and gloves in a sealed plastic bag.
    • Clean your hands when the task is finished.

Waste and Wastewater Handling:

  • Follow standard practices when performing work tasks that could expose you to untreated waste and wastewater. Untreated waste and wastewater colored blue (i.e., a deodorizing agent in some aircraft toilets) are not disinfected and have the potential to be infectious. Take these steps to protect yourself:
    • Avoid causing or creating a fine spray of untreated waste material.
    • Do not vent aircraft vacuum waste tanks inside hangars if the aircraft’s external venting system is not equipped with a filter to prevent the spread of germs from the waste. If you must vent the vacuum waste tanks inside a hangar, use a technique that exhausts the air outside the hangar.
    • Use employer-provided PPE when handling human waste or sewage:
      • Splash-proof face shield
      • Liquid-repellent coveralls
      • Waterproof gloves
      • Rubber boots
    • Remove PPE after use following your employers’ instructions, and immediately wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
What steps should my employer take?

Employers of aircraft maintenance workers should develop a COVID-19 health and safety plan to protect employees. This plan should be shared with you and your coworkers. Employers should:

  • Take steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 if an employee is sick. Actively encourage sick employees to stay home. Sick employees should not return to work until the criteria to discontinue home isolation are met, in consultation with healthcare providers and state and local health departments.
  • Provide information on whom to contact if employees become sick.
  • Implement flexible sick leave and supportive policies and practices. Consider drafting non-punitive emergency sick leave policies if sick leave is not offered to some or all employees.
  • Designate someone to be responsible for responding to COVID-19 concerns. Employees should know who this person is and how to contact them.
  • Provide employees with accurate information about COVID-19, its symptoms, how it spreads, and risk of exposure.
  • Provide training on proper handwashing practices and other routine infection control precautions. This will help reduce the spread of many diseases, including COVID-19.
  • Provide employees with appropriate PPE when necessary and provide training on using the PPE and ensuring it fits correctly.
  • Provide employees with access to soap, clean running water, and drying materials, or alcohol-based hand sanitizers containing at least 60% alcohol at their worksite.
  • Provide disposable disinfecting wipes so that commonly touched surfaces can be wiped down by employees as needed. Provide products to disinfect that meet EPA’s criteria for use against SARS-CoV-2external icon, diluted household bleach solutions, or alcohol solutions with at least 70% alcohol, and are appropriate for the surface. Provide employees training on manufacturer’s directions for use.
  • Provide tissues and no-touch disposal receptacles for employees to use.
  • Frequently clean workstations, such as areas within maintenance shops, employee break rooms, rest areas, and other common areas.
  • Place posters that encourage staying home when sick, cough and sneeze etiquette, and proper hand hygiene at the entrance to the workplace and in other workplace areas where employees are likely to see them.
  • Follow all applicable worker safety and health federal regulations and public health agency guidelines.

Where can I get more information?

Stay informed. Talk to your employer, supervisor, union representative, or airport personnel who are responsible for responding to COVID-19 concerns. See these sources for more information on reducing the risk of worker exposures to COVID-19:

Volunteer Network Facilitates Getting PPE to Healthcare Workers

GetUsPPE is the largest all-volunteer group working to get vital free PPE gear (masks, face shields) to healthcare workers during the COVID-19 crisis. If any company that uses this sort of equipment are able to donate, the group asks that they please reach out to coordinate donations. Hospitals need it today to carry them through until PPE is more widely available.

GetUsPPE is the biggest all-volunteer organization connecting those who can donate PPE to the hospitals that need this gear. WWW.GetUsPPE.org features a real-time map which shows the hospitals that need PPE and enables anyone with PPE they can donate to find the nearest place to direct it. It’s very simple and fast – the website shows the healthcare facility nearest by location and lists what they need. The listing shows simple drop-off instructions for the donation. “If an aviation maintenance business has masks or face shields they can spare, WWW.GetUsPPE.org enables them to donate it right away and, perhaps, save the life of a brave doctor, nurse or orderly,” says David Close who is among the volunteers coordinating the efforts.

Here is a link to their group, WWW.GetUsPPE.org. “Your readers can play an important role in protecting the healthcare workers who care for COVID-19 patients. It’s every hand – and mask, and faceshield – on deck and every minute matters,” says Close.

ACI Jet’s MRO Introduces Discounted Mobile Return-to-Service (mRTS) Offer for Global, Challenger & Citation Business Jets

In light of travel restrictions imposed by Federal and State agencies, California-based business jet maintenance provider, ACI Jet, has announced a new program for aircraft that have been sitting in extended ground time and require de-preservation, system servicing and operational checks, and other required maintenance prior to being approved for return to service.

Offer Details

The mobile Return to Service, or “mRTS,” program offers program participants a guaranteed labor rate reduction of 10% for inspections and maintenance required to return your aircraft to service after long-duration ground time. Travel discounts will be considered based on scheduling for customers within 250 miles of ACI Jet’s San Luis Obispo, California headquarters, including both the Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles Area. The program is expected to last through June of this year but may be extended based on the duration of travel restrictions.

Offer Enrollment

Enrollment in the mRTS program does not require a commitment to receive service. However, to be eligible to receive the labor discount and be considered for other travel discounts, enrollment is required. The offer is structured in order to address what the company anticipates will be a flood of inquiries for service in a short period of time, as travel restrictions are lifted. By enrolling in the program, ACI Jet’s AOG maintenance division can build a more effective and efficient maintenance schedule that provides services right where the aircraft are located.

“Knowing who needs which services, and when, and having the ability to coordinate not only our AOG team’s schedule, but to coordinate our clients’ schedules collectively, will help everyone get through what is anticipated to be a very busy time period,” stated Chris Seabrook, ACI Jet’s AOG and Mobile Maintenance manager.

“Global events and challenges such as what we find ourselves in now, with certainty, yield opportunities,” stated Dave Jensen, ACI Jet’s senior vice president of Aircraft Maintenance. “Through this program we aim to satisfy needs that some aircraft owners may not yet know that they have, given the unprecedented nature of this pandemic.”

More information and the mRTS enrollment form can be found at mro.acijet.com/mobile-return-to-service.

Duncan Aviation Makes Masks and Gowns for Front Line Workers Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

In late March, Duncan Aviation had begun social distancing at work to prevent potential spread of COVID-19 and began looking to acquire face masks for use by team members when they absolutely had to work together in close quarters, like an aircraft flight deck, for a short period of time. It became obvious that mask supplies were depleted and that health care workers and those working directly with the public in service roles didn’t have enough masks to meet their anticipated needs. Duncan Aviation’s interior and upholstery teams reached out to a local hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska, and asked for help in designing a mask, as well as advice on what the company could do to support hospitals during this time of need.

The hospital shared specifics and two different mask templates were created. Using the hospital’s instructions, Duncan Aviation digitized the designs for cutting with its automated fabric-cutting machine, which usually cuts leather, sheepskin and other durable materials for use in business aircraft. Depending on the width of the material used for the masks, Duncan Aviation can cut materials for up to 900 masks every hour. To date, the company has cut more than 15,000 masks.

Sewing the masks is a bit more time-consuming, the company says. Upholstery professionals with Duncan Aviation’s full-service facilities in Lincoln, Battle Creek, Michigan, and Provo, Utah, have been sewing masks, as have more than 300 volunteers from local churches, fabric stores and hobby groups in the communities Duncan Aviation calls home. The company has also cut and begun sewing hundreds of medical gowns for area health facilities.

“This all started with a team of employees who recognized a problem and had the means and desire to solve it,” says Aaron Hilkemann, president and CEO of Duncan Aviation. “It is indicative of the creativity, compassion and initiative found in our team members. And we are happy to help our communities in this manner. We feel it is the least we can do and appreciate the opportunity to show our concern and gratitude to those working on the front lines of this pandemic.”

Tornado Strikes Monroe, Louisiana Airport

The city of Monroe, Louisiana was hit by a tornado Sunday, April 12, 2020. Multiple planes and hangers were damaged and Monroe Regional Airport. The tornado path went through the airport damaging buildings as well as aircraft. Images taken Sunday morning show overturned aircraft.

Jamie Mayo, mayor of Monroe and Airport Director Ron Phillips tweeted that, “all flights at the Monroe Regional Airport are cancelled until further notice.” The airport was working on clearing the runways.

 

 

Aqueous Solutions’ COVID 19 Emergency Response Teams Deliver Decontamination and Disinfecting Services for Airports and Aviation Industry

To help aviation companies combat COVID-19 infections, Aqueous Solutions’ emergency decontamination and disinfecting service has stepped in to decontaminate more than 4.0 million square feet of terminal space and aircraft, including metro New York City area airports. With its unique electrostatic fogging and spraying, using environmentally-sound cleaning and disinfectants solutions, the Aqueous service kills 99.9% of germs and viruses over large spaces for charter aircraft, airport equipment, FBOs and hangar space, helping to protect both the employees and passengers against COVID-19.

Approved by the CDC and FDA for use against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, Aqueous Solutions’ COVID-19 emergency contamination service cleans and disinfects aircraft and airport locations. Through a combination of electro static sprayers atomizers creating a fine mist so it can coat the air and all surfaces in the aircraft or equipment, including the ceiling, seats, trays, floors, lavatories, crew rest areas, and galleys. It sanitizes hard and soft surfaces without exposing workers and team members to any harsh chemicals or harmful residue.

Aqueous Solutions is a service company with a decade of experience at JFK airport in cleaning and disinfecting. Notable projects include disinfection work for a major overnight shipping company, where Aqueous Solutions sanitized more than two million square feet of terminal and office space nationwide.

“Unlike the many newly-minted vendors entering this space, we have more than a decade of experience in environmental cleanups and we use a high-quality CDC-approved product that is highly effective and safe,” said Eric Bliss, cofounder of Aqueous Solutions. “Our disinfectant and technique sanitize the surfaces and equipment, enabling travelers and aviation staffers to safely travel and work with less worry about COVID-19 infection.”

Aqueous’ COVID-19 virus response team provides 24/7 emergency services including deep cleaning and disinfecting of aircraft, ULD’s (Unit Load Devices), machinery, terminals, offices and other vehicles, including buses and trains. Its disinfection solution meets the EPA’s rigorous guidelines for safety.

 

Avotek Textbooks Free Through RedShelf and VitalSource

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools have been forced to move to online teaching indefinitely. This has led to obstacles for students and instructors. Avotek sats their goal is “to help every student and instructor succeed inside and outside of the classroom.”

To that end, Avotek announced all of their textbooks will be free through RedShelf and VitalSource until at least May 25th. Users can access up to seven free books through those providers. Click on either of the links provided below, follow the instructions, and enjoy your free Avotek textbooks.

VitalSource: https://get.vitalsource.com/vitalsource-helps?hsCtaTracking=58829aa1-bf95-46b2-ae31-c9a155729e77%7C396b3e1d-a8cb-43d2-8d27-3eec6ae3a281

RedShelf: https://www.about.redshelf.com/redshelfresponds

“We refuse to let COVID-19 stand in the way of your education,” the company says. “Be safe, social distance, wash your hands, and keep learning!”

 

Increased Threat of Microbial Contamination for Grounded Aircraft

Conidia Bioscience this week “celebrated” 20 years of support for aviation this week, although it didn’t seem like a normal celebration in these times of lock-down, says the company. Conidia manufactures the FUELSTAT Microbial Contamination fuel test kits, a product that allows operators and MROs to test the fuel in their tanks within 15 minutes and help protect against corrosion and blockages caused by microbial growth in fuel tanks, both in the wing and in storage. “This is a serious issue and there is strong guidance from IATA, JIG, ASTM and the aircraft OEMs to support this testing,” says Tim Canfield, marketing manager.

With most of the world fleet of aircraft grounded this issue is compounded, with more regular testing required. We are seeing huge demand for these test kits from airlines and MROs across the globe. We normally supply well over 100,000 of these test kits every year. Some of the issues are new and we are working with all parties to understand the potential problems and share best practice with all operators. The information we are collating is growing daily,” Canfield says.

Microbial contamination should be carefully monitored, and OEM guidelines should be followed as to the frequency of testing, remedial action and mitigation of risk at this time with grounded aircraft. One issue reported is that the fuel in tanks is not subject to the normal turbulence of daily flights and the regular refuelling that mixes and spreads any potential contamination.

“One operator in the Middle East reported to us a novel and simple solution they have employed to try and avoid this issue at little cost,” says Canfield.”They tow the aircraft around the apron as often as possible to agitate the fuel in the tanks and this also helps in rotating the tires to prevent flat spots, as well as other knock-on benefits.”

The company says they are working on an information portal to share best practice and guidance for microbial testing, soon to be published on www.conidia.com. More general information on microbial contamination issues and testing is already available on their website and they say they will keep providing updates as soon as practical.