Recently in Business and GA Category

Hi Stefan here.

FlairJet recently took delivery of its Phenom 100 which took off from Orlando. I was lucky enough to be invited to travel on the first UK 'G' registered Embraer Phenom 100 (G-SRBN).

We touched down at its new home at London Oxford Airport,  at 15.28 (GMT) on 29 October. At the controls were Oxford-based FlairJet CEO and Capt David Fletcher and Capt Graham Rose.

We were met by the FlairJet team at the Oxfordjet FBO with champagne at the ready. I might have had more than my fair share.

The journey back began from Orlando where FlairJet attended the 62nd NBAA show and picked up the aircraft.

Last minute changes meant we needed to fly from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale in the Phenom 100, then from Miami to Sao Paulo by a scheduled TAM flight. 

FlairJet formally accepted the aircraft from Embraer in Sao Jose dos Campos following the certification of airworthiness issued by the UK CAA. The delivery was completed in two stages with the Phenom 100 originally leaving Embraer's Brazilian facility for delivery to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

See the rest of our route  below and click on the images of me.

 

It was truly a Phenom-enal journey(!) and although it wasn't the most direct route, it meant I got acquainted with FlairJet and its new aircraft.

Capt Fletcher said: "The aircraft handled brilliantly. It was a joy to fly, especially the spectacular approaches into the Caribbean, the Dutch Antilles of St Maarten and the fjords of Narsarsuaq, Greenland."

Total 'delivery' flying mileage was 7,730nm. Capt Fletcher, former pilot on Monarch Airlines' Airbus A320, compared flying the two aircraft: "In many ways, the Phenom is similar to the A320 with its intelligent flight management system and ease of operation, but it is much more fun to fly."

• Flightglobal Business & General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield reports on the Phenom 100 delivery to FlairJet...  

NBAA show was renamed in 1997 from the Corporation Aircraft Owners Association as it had always been known since its formation in 1947. Flight reported that the new name was said to reflect the safety, efficiency and acceptance of business aviation.

In 1947 it had 19 member companies, 50 years later it had 4,700, and according to the NBAA website it has in excess of 8,000 members.

Here are a few entries I found in the archive...

1971 - NBAA Convention guide

1978 - The Great St Louis Meeting

1988 - Breaking records

1993 - Making history

1997 - Dallas hosts No. 50

1999 - Millennium fever

 

Private jet broker and management company JetSuite welcomed its first customer, aircraft designer Burt Rutan aboard the first commercial Phenom 100 flight in California yesterday.

Aurora Flight Sciences' unmanned aircraft SunLight Eagle flew on 12 May. The solar-powered, 34.7m (114ft) wingspan, 75kg (165lb) UAV became airborne at New Mexico State University's Physical Science Laboratory Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Test Center at Las Cruces airport.

Continue reading...

A colleague and I thought this looked similar to the Gossamer Condor? What do you think?

For more on the Gossamer Condor and the Kremer Prize in Flight's PDF archive

The pilot of a single-engine Cessna was able to walk away after its crash landing was cushioned by a bunch of portable toilets near Tacoma, Washington:

You could say it was a bit of a crappy landing (I thank you!!)

How could a pilot allow this to happen? Or was it unavoidable?

A pilot friend who flies a Jodel in his spare time showed me this footage of a Tipsy Nipper light aircraft performing a spin that went wrong.

The pilot of the Tipsy Nipper, known as Youtube user goncstube, planned to perform a normal erect spin to the right, "but", he says: "for various unintentional reasons the spin went flat, up until that point I had never flat spun an aircraft.

"I eventualy mananged to get the aircraft into a normal erect spin from which I was able to recover."

 

 

"After coming to rest inverted I waited 20mins for the rescue services to come and right the aircraft so I was able to exit via the outward opening canopy.

"The aircraft rotated 26 times total, I was extremely dissorientated after the recovery to straight and level flight, and was unable to read the instruments."

It seems to be a pretty dangerous stunt and he's lucky to get out alive.

Do you have a similar experience to share?

How easy is it for a spin to go wrong?

 

It has been over 30 years since Flight International operated its own editorial aircraft and despite the scores of pilots employed with the magazine, no serving member of the editorial team has ever fully owned or operated their own aircraft. These two deficiencies have been corrected in a timely fashion, to coincide with the 100th year of the magazine.

Flight's Senior Technical Artist Joe Picarella is proud to introduce you to his Piper L-4B "Grasshopper" - G-FINT.

The aircraft in full profile:

G-FINT (Piper serial number 9444) was the 92nd of 980 L4Bs built specifically for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and received into service on the 18th August 1942 as serial number 43-583. While aircraft from either side of 9444 on the production line would find themselves in combat zones around he world, 9444 would serve with several US Army ground force units in the United States until 1946.

Postwar she went through the 4168th Air Material Command (AMC) - South Plains Field TX, 3136th AMC - Tinker Field Dallas TX, 32nd Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Base Unit and Air Defence Command - Hensley Field Dallas TX, 3565th Basic Training Wing (Air Training Command) and 3565th Aircraft Observer Training Wing - James Connally AFB TX and finally to the CAP at Love Field TX.

A cold Monday morning in deepest darkest December is not often something to savour, but this morning's train ride in was brightened up considerably by reading a story of bravery and determination from the Metro Newspaper.

The story was about the 25 year old Jessica Cox, who is the first pilot to fly with just her feet after a genetic defect meant that she was born with no arms. Not only did she have that to deal with, she also had a fear of flying.

According to the Metro article, Jessica said that "I've been terrified and fascinated of flying for as long as I can remember.'

Her story has certainly lightened up my day

Biplane Clips Cow - Watch more Animal Videos

(Note: You see the cow about 55 seconds into the video)

For all you animal lovers out there, the above video is probably worth giving a miss. The uploader definitely saw the funny side:

A cow winds up on the receiving end of this plane. Guess the pilot had a major beef with her.

If anyone knows the aircraft that is being flown please let us know!