Newsdesk – General Aviation

Bizjet Boom:

American business jet operator Executive Jet Aviation (EJA) is planning to order at least 50 corporate jets to fill the needs of its innovative NetJets shared ownership scheme.

A kind of ‘timeshare’ arrangement, NetJets allows a company to purchase a quarter share in for example a Hawker (BAe) 1000 jet for $US3. 2m. The part owner then commits to a five year, index linked management contract with EJA and pays an hourly fee to use the aircraft or another of the same type. EJA currently has seven Hawker 1000s in its fleet with another half dozen expected by the end of the year.

EJA also operates 24 Cessna Citation SIIs on behalf of about 120 owners and itself owns two Gulfstreams and a Falcon. The new order for between 50 and 75 jets is likely to be for the Citation SII. EJA guarantees to have a Citation available for an owner anywhere in the USA within four hours and a Hawker 1000 within six hours.

 Turbine Sales Boost GA:

The US General Aviation Manufacturers Asso- U-01 ciation has released its industry’s results for 1993 and these show that turboprops and corporate jets were the main contributors to a record $US2. 1bn in sales.

This represents a 16% increase over 1992, while the total number of aircraft delivered also rose to 954, up 1. 4%. Of these, turbine aircraft accounted for 407 units worth $US2. 06bn, or 96% of the to- tal. Turboprop deliveries were 209 units and jets 198, both well up on the previous year. Exports were responsible for 40% of overall sales, a 7% improvement.

Piston engine aircraft shipments dropped to a record low of 547 units in 1993, comprising 508 singles and just 39 twins. Continuing product liability concerns are still blamed for this poor showing, although the industry is displaying some optimism that reforms in that area might now finally be possible if they can get past the powerful and self interested Trial Lawyers Assn in Congress.

Of the manufacturers, Beech delivered the most aircraft (305) comprising 120 piston singles, 34 piston twins, 133 turboprops and 18 jets. Cessna was next best with 173 (57 turboprops and 116 jets), claiming 60% of the light and mid size bizjet market.

Other delivery totals include Piper 98 (nearly all single engine pistons), Commander 114B (23), Learjet (38), Gulfstream (26), Maule (70) and Mooney (64).

Flying Schools Clinch Asian Contracts

There has been some good news for local flying training schools recently with the British Aerospace-Ansett Flying College at Tamworth winning a contract to train Chinese pilots and the Australian Aviation College at Parafield gaining a contract from Cathay Pacific.

The BAe-Ansett college will train an initial 16 pilots from ab initio to commercial pilots licence standard on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC). When the students have completed their 40 week course they will return to China for advanced training. They will arrive in Australia next May.

The group will be the first Chinese student pilots trained in Australia and represent a potentially huge market as due to its rapidly growing aviation sector, China has been forced to look overseas thanks to a lack of its own training facilities. The college won the contract in competition with several others around the world.

The Australian Aviation College contract is also a first, with Cathay Pacific also looking at bringing its students to Australia for the first time. Most of the airline’s recent training has been conducted at the BAe college at Prestwick, Scotland, although four of its flight engineers have been retrained as commercial pilots at Tamworth.

AAC will provide ab initio training for the Cathay Pacific cadets with the first of them due to arrive later this year.

Skywest Sues Coastwatch:

Skywest, the present Coastwatch contract operator, is suing the Commonwealth over cost overruns incurred in providing the service as specified by Customs.

Skywest originally listed a compensation figure of $US9. 59m when they originated the claim in 1991 though most recently this has varied between $A4. 4m and $47. 8m. The claim largely revolves around the operation of the three IAI Seascan jets and additional tasks required by Customs that Skywest claims was not specifically a part of the original tender. The case continues though it is not expected to be finalised till later this year.

Meanwhile, it does not appear that the recent upheavals within Customs will delay the timing of the second generation Coastwatch contract to any great extent (refer p24 Dec 93 AA). At presstime the field of principal runners (versus the plethora of wishful thinkers that these sort of multi million dollar contracts seem to attract) was narrowed down to four with incumbents Skywest felt to be leading the pack with National Jet, Lloyd Aviation and Flight Refuelling from the UK close behind.

A number of other players are being actively courted by the various airframe/ systems manufacturers and combinations of operators working in concert with at specific manufacturer may well emerge as a major threat as the project matures. Unfortunately, the Coastwatch tender is so technically vague in places that it is difficult to reflect upon which specific aircraft types would be most applicable for the numerous roles required.

Customs has also wisely placed a requirement for an $11. 5m bond to be is DORNIER sedistar sued as a guarantee of performance thereby eliminating many of the ‘wood ducks’ (as one industry source very accurately described them) that tend to aspire to responsibilities far beyond their capabilities, a ‘la the Amann Aviation fiasco of the latter eighties.

If Skywest retains the contract it will keep its three Seascans and possibly import a further two, will retain the Nomads and most of the Shrikes and might also look at a small single engined STOL aircraft such as a Maule for some inshore VFR type work.

Cfs Sold:

Long-established Moorabbin flying training operator, the Civil Flying School has been sold to another Moorabbin resident, the Australian College of Aviation.

ACA has no plans to alter CFS’s general mode of operations and it will continue to operate under its established name and provide flying training up to commercial licence standard. Until the recent sale, CFS was part of the B S Stillwell Automotive Group which was established in the 1960s by champion racing driver and pilot, ‘Bib’ Stillwell. Stillwell later took a senior management position at Learjet.

 NZ Accidents Up:

The number of civil aviation accidents in New Zealand rose to 99 in 1993.

Of those, 68 were fixed wing accidents, the second highest in the last nine years. The worst year was 1990, in which 71 accidents were recorded. Of the 68 fixed wing accidents in 1993, five resulted in fatalities and a total of 13 deaths.

Helicopter accidents rose from 22 in 1992 to 28 last year, five of them fatal resulting in seven deaths. Only one helicopter fatality was recorded in 1992. Glider accidents were down last year to three with no deaths, a substantial improvement over the 13 non fatal accidents which occurred in 1992.