Newsdesk – General Aviation

Dornier Gets Repeat Orders:

The very first operators of Dornier’s new generation commuter, the 18-seat 228-200, AS Norving of Norway, has placed a follow-up order for an additional 228. Dornier now have firm sales of 29 aircraft with a further 51 options and have sold two aircraft to Japan’s large domestics, TOA, for evaluation in the commuter role. If successful this airline alone could buy up to two dozen aircraft to form the basis of a Japanese hub and spoke system. One of the most challenging sales has come from Air Botswana who will use their aircraft typically in temperatures of 40 degrees plus using 1000 m gravel runways at elevations of 3000 feet or more.

Chieftain Completes First Decade of Service:

Piper’s Chieftain has now entered its second decade of commuter operation. The very first Chieftain is still in RPT service in Alaska while a large percentage of the fleet has exceeded 10,000 flight hours and some aircraft have reached the 15,000-hour mark. A total of more than 2000 Chieftains have been built from a PA-31 family of 4000 aircraft There are about 120 PA-31 aircraft currently on the Australian Register.

1000th Squirrel Produced:

It has taken Aerospatiale only five years to reach production of the 1000th Squirrel light helicopter as against 12 years for the Alouette II, the aircraft it was designed to replace. Squirrel order book now exceeds 1600 and there are currently 24 on the local Register. Meanwhile, Aerospatiale are confident that Squirrel production will exceed 5000 units by 1990.

Commuter Statistics:

Statistics just released by DofA show that for 1981, Sydney was Australia’s busiest commuter airport with more than twice as many aircraft movements than the second busiest port, Brisbane, Belmont-Sydney was the busiest route, followed by Newcastle (WLM)-Sydney, Cudal-Sydney and West Maitland-Sydney. Palm lsland-Townsville was ranked fifth. Compared to 1980, the statistics show that movements increased by 8.6% and the number of passengers carried increased by 17.2%. Of course, some of this growth is due to commuter operators taking over routes previously flown by airlines. Unfortunately, surveys show that over recent months commuter services have suffered severely from the drought and the poor economic conditions.

Aerial Agriculture Down:

Statistics just published show that aerial agriculture has not been spared from the downturn so badly affecting general aviation. The number of hectares treated fell by 30 per cent for the September half year 1982 compared to the same period for 1981 whilst hours flown was down by 17.5 per cent for the same period Worst hit was NSW where hours flown decreased by 33 per cent and 41 per cent less hectares were treated. WA was next worse with hours flown down 25 per cent and area treated down 36 per cent. There were slight increases in hours flown in Vic/Tas and Old whilst SA/NT was down 20 per cent in area treated and hours flown. Aerial agriculture operators are obviously hoping that recent rains foreshadow a better season.

LPG Trials in Light Aircraft Continues:

The evaluation of LPG as an alternative to avgas (or mogas) in GA aircraft continues with more than 200 hours having been flown to date aboard the Reims Aviation (France) Aerospatiale Socata Tobago and Rallye 180 aircraft. In both cases, the standard fuel tanks have been retained and the LPG cylinders are mounted in place of the rear seats Overall consumption is down by around 10% Reims qualifies this by stating that LPG is roughly half as expensive as avgas so, therefore, the cost savings are in the region of 50% per operating hour Reims are also reporting much cleaner combustion which is hoped will extend TBOs eventually while hydrocarbon emissions from the aircraft exhaust are extremely low. Tests are continuing.

TNT Enter Air Charter Field:

TNT have entered the air charter market with the launch in August of their new TNT Air Charter division. Specifically, the group will act as brokers for companies wishing to hire aircraft for a specific purpose. The plan is that this will save the company a lot of time, ensure a safer mode of transport and will centralise all accounting and specialist booking arrangements with the one company – TNT. While this should boost hours flown by current charter operators, who will become clients of TNT, it is also thought that it may reduce the already thin margin that all charter operators currently work on Certainly the new group will invigorate the market to some extent through their extensive connection with more than 10,000 companies, though the long term effect will provide interesting commentary.

New Corporate Jet Service Available:

Australian Jet Charter is achieving good weekly utilisation with their Falcon 10, VH-MEI. The big benefit for AJC is that the aircraft costs only $17 million complete with extensive refurbishment and can therefore charter out for around $1450 per flight hour The Falcon 10 is equipped with a complete food and beverage service, video facilities and can operate over transcontinental ranges carrying up to six passengers and their baggage. AJC can be contacted on (02) 233 1813.

Hughes 530 Nearing Certification:

Hughes Helicopter are expecting FAA Certification of their new Model 530 as this issue goes to press. The 530 is a higher performance version of the 500 and features a single 650 shp Allison 250-C30 turboshaft allowing the aircraft to perform at maximum gross weights in hot and high conditions Hughes have had a very good year culminating with the sale of an additional 20 500MD Defender helicopters to South Korea This will bring the South Korean armed forces Hughes fleet to more than 200 aircraft Hughes in fact are now so critically short of production space, owing largely to the US Army’s AH-64 Apache programme, that they are looking at sublicensing another manufacturer to produce the piston-engined Hughes 300 model.

New Long Life Oil:

AMS/Oil of the USA is testing a new synthetic-based engine oil suitable for use in GA piston-engined aircraft that will last the life of an average TBO Company officials are hoping to be able to extend the oil change intervals of a typical piston-engined aircraft from the current 25 to 100 hours to 1500 to 2000 hours. The FA A and the University of Illinois have already completed extensive testing of the new synthetic oil which also reduces oil consumption by between 20 and 40 per cent and prevents rust and corrosion in engines that are idle for long periods of time. FAA Certification of the new oil is expected this October.

1982/83 a Lean Year for GA Sales Both Here and Abroad:

The previous financial year has been one of the worst ever for sales of new GA aircraft. According to GADA, Rex Aviation leads the field with total sales of 29 aircraft valued at $5.4 million; this does not take into account their strong Aerospatiale helo division which managed to dispatch six aircraft valued at $2.7 million Second in sales performance was Ansett General Aviation which sold 21 Piper aircraft valued at $4.7 million. Third place was the province of Hawker Pacific with the sales of seven Beechcrafts and one Britten Norman Islander Hawker’s best seller was the evergreen Baron58 with three sold, Cessna sales led with seven Skylanes while Piper’s most numerous seller was the Navajo twin. The only jet to be sold was a Cessna Citation II by Rex. For the financial year GADA members sold a total of 61 units for a combined value of $15,447,000. Second-hand sales regained strength while in the year ahead most people wanting a specifically new aircraft will have to await delivery due to the inevitable rundown in stock by all major distributors.

GA sales this calendar year to date are running at almost 50% below those of 1982 The US-based General Aviation Manufacturers Association has released figures that show a 44.8% decline in deliveries for the first six months of this year as against the same period in 1982. GAMA originally forecast total 1983 sales of 4400 aircraft but based on the disappointing half-year performance to date has revised this to 3000 units with a value of $1.5 billion. The only US GA manufacturer on the upper is Gulfstream Aerospace who is still enjoying strong international sales for their inherited Commander range and the established GIII corporate jet. Gates LearJet deliveries for the first six months dropped from 55 aircraft in 1982 to 17. Gates production is now down to only three units per month Cessna delivered only 26 Citation Jets as against 67 last year while Canadair has delivered 15 Challengers as against 22 for the same period last year. Sates of non-US types such as the Falcons, BAe 125-700 and IAI Westwind have also suffered though all three manufacturers will soon be introducing new models which it is hoped will stimulate the market. White pure jets suffered the worst sales decline turboprops weren’t far behind with only 142 delivered as against 283 in 1982. In the piston-engined twin category, 225 deliveries constituted a drop of49%while single-engine pistons aircraft states totalled 907 as against 1567 for the same period last year.

Despite the appalling sales performance it is generally felt that the worst 1s over Particularly in North America the economy is looking towards recovery and a trimmer GA manufacturing base than was evident during the halcyon days of the seventies, All local distributors felt that the present financial year would be better than the 1982 /83 year and that enhanced GA activity would go hand in hand with a resurgence in the overall domestic economy.

Robinson Becoming Standard Training Helicopter:

The Robinson R22 is rapidly becoming the standard helicopter training aircraft in the USA. There are presently more than 300 R22s in the training rote and it is estimated that this year some three-quarters of all civil rotary-wing flying training hours will be logged in R22s Annual utilisation is up to 1200 hours per annum. Locally there are 20 Robinsons on the Register while Heliflite, the Australian distributor, has just imported the first two of the ‘A’ models The Alpha model features a more powerful 160hp motor, some minor tail rotor changes and is able to operate at a higher gross weight.

Piper Benefit From USAF Aero Club Award:

Nowadays it seems that one of the biggest customers of US GA manufacturers is the armed services. Cessna and Gulfstream have both recently won vital contracts with the USAF and now it is Piper’s turn with the sale of 16 Warriors to the European Command of USAF for use in their official services aeroclub programme. This follows a similar purchase of seven Warriors by Indiana-based Purdue University in July.

Commuter Airlines Expanding Rapidly in US:

Since deregulation in 1978, and despite the ravages of recession, the commuter industry in the USA has grown solidly with relatively few failures amongst the 245 current operators. Commuter in the USA though is a little different to the use of the word in Australia. Australians term commuter, or third level, operations as typically the domain of the Bandeirante, Chieftain, Twin Otter or 402. Past twenty seats and you are really a second-level airline. Stateside, a commuter operator runs everything from light piston twins up to and including Dash 7s and F27s.

As a result of deregulation the major first level jet carriers virtually abandoned hundreds of small and marginal centres to concentrate on the high-density trunk routes and city pairs. Nowadays the trend is for the majors to tie up with the commuter community to operate a hub and spoke system with a number of small operators feeding regional passengers into a major port for on-carriage to primary destinations. This is now happening in Australia and in the long term can only be of assistance to both the small and large carriers alike. East West Airlines’ association with East Coast Airlines is a typical example, along with Kendall Airlines and Ansett.

American commuter figures are impressive by any standard. There are currently 245 such operators flying 1573 aircraft which for 1982 flew 2.2 million hours. Sixty per cent of the aircraft fleet comprises aircraft of 40 seats or more. US regionals this year are projected to uplift 21 million passengers as against 18.5 million in 1982. There are roughly 800 airports served by regionals, of which more than 500 are served solely by a regional or commuter operator which is often providing an air service to a community that has never had such a service before.

Secondary Airports Lose Business:

After peaking at 93,000 movements during January-March 1979, movements on Bankstown Airport have fallen to slightly more than 64,000 in the same period for 1983, a reduction of approximately 31 per cent. Moorabbin has fared even worse with the number of movements decreasing by approximately 38 per cent from nearly 98,000 in the first three months of 1979 to just over 60,000 in 1983. If the remainder of 1983 continues at this rate, the number of movements will be the lowest at each airport since 1972. In addition, at each of these airports, the number of parked aircraft has fallen by approximately 25 per cent.

Tobago Goes Aerobatic:

Socata’s sweet-looking Tobago is now available in an aerobatic model. Designated TB11, the slightly beefed-up Tobago can perform a wide range of aerobatic manoeuvres including the Cuban eight, climbing split S, loop, barrel roll, wingovers etc. The TB11 comes complete with six-point safety harnesses, a Christen oil bypass system and a roof window. The first TB11 will arrive in Australia early in 1984 and will be marketed in Australia by Flight Safety of Bankstown.

Mojave Receives FAA Type Certificate:

FAA certification of the Mojave, Piper’s new large, cabin-class, pressurised twin, was approved on June 9. Introduced last November, the seven-seat Mojave, powered by two reliable, 350-horsepower Lycoming (L)T10-540-V2AD engines, flies at 234 knots at 75 per cent cruise power and is capable of a maximum speed of 242 knots. The turbocharged Lycomings, each intercooled, are direct-drive, counter-rotating engines. The useful load on the Mojave, which comes equipped with a full IFR avionics package and autopilot, is more than 2200 pounds, including nearly 700 pounds of baggage-carrying capability in the nose, wing locker and aft cabin compartments. The Mojave provides excellent mission profile flexibility with a range of more than 1300 nautical miles. Passengers will travel in optimum comfort regardless of the distance or altitude. A 5.0 psi pressurisation system provides a comfortable 9100-foot cabin at 25,000 feet.

Albury Control Tower:

Since the commissioning of this facility, the General Aviation Association has received many complaints about unwarranted delays in operations at Albury. The Association has therefore continued its opposition to the proposed proliferation of control towers as proposed by the Department and now has reason to believe that support for its position may also come from airlines involved in operating to and from these ports.