February 4, 2010

Flight Options Pilots Finally Have a Tentative Contract

By Chad Trautvetter

International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 1108, the union for Flight Options’ 500 pilots, this week announced that it reached a tentative agreement for a first contract last Thursday with the Cleveland-based fractional provider. The agreement comes some four years after the union came on the property and, if ratified, will end years of sometimes acrimonious negotiations. The relationship betw more

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Shady Behavior Places Gulf Helo Operators On Alert

By Mark Huber

Suspicious activity over the last two weeks reported near critical infrastructure and helicopter bases serving the Gulf of Mexico’s oil and gas industry has prompted law enforcement agencies to issue a fresh security alert. On Monday, the Louisiana State Analytical and Fusion Exchange (LA-Safe) issued a notice to all Gulf operators titled “Suspicious Activity: Helicopter Leasing Facilities,” more

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Eastham Complaint Alleges Runaway Premier 1A Trim

By Matt Thurber

Eastham Aviation, a Houston owner of a Hawker Beechcraft Premier 1A, filed a complaint against Hawker Beechcraft on January 19, asking for the manufacturer to take back the jet because of three alleged and irreparable instances of runaway rudder trim. Eastham purchased the jet in 2006. The alleged runaway rudder trim incidents occurred in November and December 2009, and twice Hawker Beechcraft tec more

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Conforming HondaJet First Flight Moved to Mid-year

By Matt Thurber

The first conforming HondaJet is now scheduled to fly in the middle of this year, according to a Honda Aircraft spokesman, “with the exact date to be determined.” Honda Aircraft previously had pegged the first conforming HondaJet flight for early this year. “We already have implemented Honda’s production-level quality standards in our build process for the conforming aircraft,” he said, more

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Central Europe Bizav Community Gets Its Own Voice

By Charles Alcock

The new Central Europe Private Aviation Association (Cepa) will hold its inaugural conference in the Czech capital Prague on April 22 and 23. The group has been formed to represent and coordinate the interests of business aviation companies in new European Union states, including the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia. “There is this invisible bo more

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Safety Board Rules on Colgan Q400 Crash

By Curt Epstein

The NTSB has ruled that last February’s crash of a Colgan Air Q400 on the outskirts of Buffalo, N.Y., was due to the captain’s inappropriate actions in response to the activation of the stick shaker. Its report, released at a press conference yesterday, said the pilot pulled back on the control colum more

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