The first of four Grumman Mallard amphibious aircraft owned by Chalks Ocean Airways could be airborne by the end of the first quarter 2008, after a lengthy programme to overhaul the aircraft.
Chalks was forced to ground its seaplane fleet following the 19 December 2005 break-up of a 1947-manufacturered Grumman G-73T Turbo Mallard shortly after take-off from Florida's Miami Beach en route to Bimini in the Bahamas, with the loss of all on board.
In May of this year the US National Transportation Safety Board released its final report on the crash, citing faulty maintenance and inadequate Federal Aviation Administration oversight as likely causes.
Since the accident, Chalks has been working to rebuild the aircraft. "We have a good feeling that we'll probably have the first airplane flying in the next four to five months with a brand-new centre section. We built our own [centre section]. We do the engineering, with FAA supervision of course," says Chalks general manager Roger Nair.
The overhaul programme has taken longer than expected. Chalks had hoped to resume scheduled seaplane operations by February 2007. Acknowledging the delay, Nair says: "The first one is always the difficult one." The FAA could not be reached for comment.
Nair remains confident that Chalks will "always have seaplanes on" its certificate, although the company "probably will be a bigger land plane operation than just seaplane operator". Some significant works remains to attain that goal, however.
Following the crash, the carrier's commuter authority was suspended by regulators. And last month the Department of Transportation issued an order officially revoking the authority "for reason of dormancy".
The regulator says Chalks is free to reapply, but adds that the carrier "should ensure that it is fully prepared to prosecute its application, as we do not intend to accept a partial or incomplete application, which wastes valuable resources of all concerned".
Plans are in place to reapply for commuter authority "down the road", says Nair. Chalks' immediate focus, however, is to resume operations within and from Florida to the Bahamas with its standing Part 298 licence to provide on-demand air taxi operations.
The carrier offered services under a wet-lease with Big Sky Airlines from February until 3 September, but ceased as demand diminished. "We stopped the wet-lease and we probably will be starting again on 15 November with another Part 121 operator [that flies] Saab or Beechcraft aircraft," says Nair.
Source: Flight International
