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uPFROnT 5 Leading edge
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8 On the fly
News and opinion
14 waypoint
Getting the message
16 Alternate approach
Lights, camera, action!
18 At the gate
Winning the game
20 45˚42� north The storyteller
BACk 54 A look back
Making waves
55 mRO directory 72 marketplace 78 On final
A recipe for disaster
From top: dave O’Malley makes his mark. P. 20. the uav invasion. P. 34
Montreal's Bombardier aerospace is a key participant in the MacH initiative. P. 40
FEATuRES 22 SEARChIng FOR ThE STARS
Wings’ survey identifies top Canadian FBOs By ROB SeaMaN
27 SOund COuRSE OF ACTIOn
BizAv’s best convene to discuss Canada’s future role By Matt NIcHOllS
34 ThE wILd nEw FROnTIER
UAVs will change the aviation landscape By Paul dIxON
40 RACIng TOwARd ThE FuTuRE
Quebec’s MACH program will accelerate growth By BRIaN duNN
47 IdEnTIFyIng ThE PROBLEm
Degraded human behaviour is a serious hazard By davId OlSeN
50 ThE SkILL QuOTIEnT
Money isn’t threatening MRO competitiveness By davId caRR
coVeR PHoTo: isTock
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September/October 2011 | wings
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Its passengers can sIt down and stand up. Its competItors can sIt down and shut up. this is no time for false modesty. our competition can’t stand the stand-up cabin of the citation XLs+. understandably, it puts them on the defensive. the XLs+ cabin is the largest and most comfortable of any light jet, with true stand-up height throughout the cabin. But more impressively, it gives a team of nine passengers the room to think and do business. oh, and then there’s the performance. that makes the competition upset, too. the XLs+ takes off from shorter runways while carrying more fuel – and it flies farther, with a full-fuel range of nearly 1,900 nautical miles. It’s another jet that does everything, from the aircraft company that makes those kinds of jets.
Learn more abouT The jeT ThaT deLivers, Time afTer Time. 877-410-8650 | wings.Cessna.Com
The Citation XLS+
LEADING
EDGE
| By Matt Nicholls
webster stars take a bow Canada’s top amateur pilots aim at new horizons
F
PHoTo: MaTT nicHolls
or Kevin Aalders, capturing the 2011 Webster Memorial Trophy as Canada’s top amateur pilot is more than simply the culmination of a wonderful journey. It’s a testament to the fact good things really do happen if you believe in your dreams and do whatever it takes to make them happen. Aalders’ accomplishment, and that of the other regional winners, serves notice to cynical members of aviation’s upper establishment who curse the arrival of the selfabsorbed Gen-X/Gen-Y youth movement. Just how keen are these kids? After talking at length with most of them, I can report great news: there really are members of this generation with the right skills – and, more importantly, the right attitudes – to add value to any aviation organization. “It’s wild, I really don’t know what to say,” the calm, introspective 29-year-old told Wings shortly after capturing the coveted award. “It’s great, because I’ve really worked hard to get here.” The 2011 Webster trophy ceremony, which took place Aug. 20 at the Delta Quebec Hotel in Quebec City, was the culmination of a fantastic week of competition and learning for the nine regional finalists. This year’s contingent was selected from a pool of 105 applicants, the largest in the competition’s history. The event was hosted by Grondair in St. Frederic, Que. Aalders, who currently flies out of Edmonton’s Centennial Flying Club, beat out eight regional finalists for the honour. Justin Mailman, regional finalist from the Atlantic region flying out of the Moncton Flight Centre, captured the Eunice Carter Memorial trophy as runner-up. Other regional finalists included: • British Columbia: Michael Wieclawek, Pacific Flying Club (Delta, B.C.);
5 www.wingsMagazine.coM
• Saskatchewan: Lindsay Bowers, Regina Flying Club; • Manitoba: Cody Neill, Harv’s Air;
circles. It was established in 1932 by the late Dr. J.C. Webster of Shediac, N.B., who wished to perpetuate the memory of his son, John. John Webster lost his life in an aircraft accident in St. Hubert, Que., while practising to represent Canada in an aerobatic flying competition – The TransCanada Air Pageant. It’s wonderful to see a growing list of aviation firms and organizations are strongly supporting the event, which is sponsored by Air Canada – Flight Operations. For Aalders, the path to a career in aviation wasn’t immediately obvious. His first passion was mechanical engineering, and that became career No. 1. But following a trip to Victoria in 2007 and watching float planes land in Victoria Harbour, he knew he wanted to pursue aviation as a career. In truth, though, the fascination with flight had always been there. “I love tinkering with engines, I love taking stuff apart and seeing how it works,” he says. “One day, my Mom found me with a piece of siding running down our septic tank hill trying to catch air with it. But it wasn’t like I wanted to fly airplanes, I was just fascinated by what machines could do – and what humans could do with them.” So, now, after years of hard work, armed with his private and commercial pilot’s licences, a third of the way through his instructor rating – and a 2011 Webster Trophy to boot – Aalders is ready to soar. The first stop – teaching others the wonders of flight. “Even before I was a finalist, Centennial has wanted me to come on board . . . and if the economy holds, I’ll take it. Ideally, I’d fly anything and everything. But I don’t think there’s enough years in one’s life to do it.” Forging a path with a calculated, logical approach, appreciating all the stops along the way. It’s a very mature outlook, one you’d expect from Canada’s top amateur pilot. Wings congratulates Aalders, and all the regional winners, on their tremendous achievements. | w
Ideally, I’d fly anything and everything. But I don’t think there’s enough years in one’s life to do it. • Western Ontario: Matthew Duplan, Waterloo-Wellington Flying Club; • Central Ontario: Oliver Darroch, Spectrum Airways; • Eastern Ontario: Joshua Shea, Ottawa Flying Club; • Quebec: Mathieu Beaumier, Lachute Aviation. The John C. Webster Memorial Trophy Competition is fast becoming a highly sought after award in Canadian aviation
TOP dATA BuRSTS… in this issue 1. 100: number of new jobs at Bombardier's Downsview plant (pg. 18) 2. Skyservice Toronto is 25 years young (pg. 24). 3. The Cu-170 heron has a service ceiling of 27,000 feet (pg. 34). 4. 36,947: number of employees in the canadian aerospace industry (pg. 40). 5. Canada will have 1.4 million fewer skilled workers by 2016 (pg. 50).
Your feedback is always welcome. Please contact me at mnicholls@annexweb.com. September/October 2011 | wings
5
Vol. 52, Issue 5 EdITOR
Matt nicholls mnicholls@annexweb.com 416-725-5637 PROduCTIOn ARTIST
krista Misener FLIghT dECk
Ray canon, David carr, Paul Dixon, Brian Dunn, Frederick k. larkin, neil MacDonald, James Marasa, carroll Mccormick, Mike Minnich, David olsen, Peter Pigott, Dr. Tarek sardana, Rob seaman, Blair watson
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CAREERS In AVIATIOn Visit our new Careers in Aviation website to learn more about job forecasts and career overviews, and to access a listing of universities, colleges, and private training centres and programs. www.careersinaviation.ca www.wingsMagazine.coM
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InduSTRy nEwS OPERATORS PEOPLE EVEnTS CALEndAR BOOk REVIEw
InduSTRy nEwS
ThIn yuL FOR QATAR AIRwAyS A hungry Qatar Airways kicked off thriceweekly service between Doha and Montreal in the late spring wanting more. The last of the so-called Gulf super-connectors to enter Canada, Qatar Airways wants to launch daily service to Montreal and two other Canadian cities, likely Toronto and Vancouver. Akbar Al Baker, the airline’s outspoken CEO, wasted little time accusing Air Canada of erecting protectionist barriers ahead of his airline’s Canadian ambitions. Similar demands by neighbouring Emirates and Etihad Airways, both serving Toronto, sparked a diplomatic row between Ottawa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year that insiders hope will be patched up now that Prime Minister Stephen Harper appears anxious to put a more outward-looking face on his government with respect to global trade. Qatar Airways, a private company with 50 per cent state equity, has a strong bargaining chip by withholding a potential
order for Montreal-based Bombardier’s CSeries airliner. Linking commercial aircraft orders to political ambition is nothing new. China recently suggested that a plan by the European Union to regulate the carbon emissions of all airlines flying out of European airports beginning in 2012 could damage future orders for Airbus. It’s a thinly veiled threat that keeps politicians in Paris up at night while bureaucrats in Brussels, who have never had to make payroll, sleep soundly. Al Baker insists there is no connection between the two, telling the Montreal Gazette, “we don’t mix commercial issues with issues that have got something to do with the government.” A widely anticipated order for the CSeries by Qatar Airways in 2010 was hobbled by a disagreement over performance guarantees for the Pratt & Whitney PW1524G engine. Those concerns have since been resolved. The clock is ticking. Al Baker promised to revisit Canadian landing rights a year from now. Bombardier would prefer not to wait that long.
BOmBARdIER BITES BACk After racking up impressive sales for the A320 NEO, John Leahy, Airbus’ salesman extraordinaire may be forgiven for advising Bombardier to “cut its losses” and cancel the CSeries, adding that he has never
Gary Scott, former president, Bombardier commercial aircraft (sitting left), signs a letter of intent with Korean air senior vice-president Walter cho for up to 30 cSeries. also pictured standing from the left, christian Paradis, minister, Industry canada, and Guy Hachey, president and cOO, Bombardier aerospace.
witnessed an aircraft launch go so poorly. Clearly the American-born Leahy is a poor student of history. Fellow American Gary Scott, Bombardier’s soon-to-be-retired president of commercial aircraft and a former Boeing executive, fired back with a quick lesson reminding Leahy, “he should go back at his own A320 program because [CSeries] orders were where his was at this phase of development.” Scott could have gone back further. The fate of the Boeing 737 hung on a thread with an order for only 10 aircraft from Lufthansa. Likewise, Airbus’ North American breakthrough depended on the then state-owned airplane maker reimbursing bankrupt Eastern Airlines for empty seats on the A300.
FLyIng COLOuRS FLyIng hIgh
Qatar airlines wants to launch daily service to Montreal, vancouver and toronto. 8
wings | September/October 2011
North American mid-size business jets are helping to fuel growth at Flying Colours, as owners make refurbishment investments postponed by the recent economic downturn. “Our customer base is truly global, but the major spikes in these refurbishments have come from existing or new North American customers,” says Sean Gillespie, director of completion sales and management. The Peterborough, Ont.-based completion and maintenance shop is currently working on 10 mid-size jet projects with another four complete projects in the pipeline. The demand is greatest for www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTos: QaTaR aiRwaYs (BoTToM leFT); BoMBaRDieR (ToP RigHT)
8 9 10 10 13
refurbished Challenger 300, 604, Falcon 900 and Hawker 800 models. Following the current trend in refurbishments, the scope of many orders includes incorporating upgrades and modifictions to entertainment systems as well as installation of Wi-Fi and phone connectivity. Flying Colours recently set the recently EBACE Show in Geneva abuzz with the quality of its unique stone flooring products, and has recently completed a stone flooring installation for a Bombardier Global 5000.
AC/uA ChALLEngE COmPETITIOn BuREAu
PHoTo: cessna (ToP RigHT); BoMBaRDieR (BoTToM)
Air Canada and United Airlines are joining a growing list of businesses challenging decisions by Canada’s Competition Bureau. The bureau has attempted to block a joint venture between the two Star Alliance partners that would result in closer scheduling, marketing and sales support on certain transborder routes. Bureau head Melanie Aitken ruled that the venture would increase fares, reduce service and discourage new entrants on routes where the two airlines already have a strong competitive advantage. Air Canada is arguing the bureau’s logic is “fundamentally flawed,” impedes the airline’s ability to compete and is counter to Canada’s transport policies to increase crossborder services. Air Canada has put the joint venture on hold, while Aitken may want to consider adding a copy of the
(l-R) Steve Kent, cessna regional sales manager; anna Pangrazzi, sales manager, leggat aviation (cessna dealer); edward Pasquale, standards officer and professor, School of aviation, Seneca college; lynne McMullen, chair, School of aviation and Flight technology, Seneca college; Scott ernest, cessna president and ceO; david agnew, president, Seneca college; Michael Gomm, cessna manager, fleet sales; Mark Patterson, cessna director, domestic Propeller aircraft Sales.
Canada/U.S. Open Skies agreement to her bedtime reading.
CSERIES CRACkS RuSSIAn mARkET Russia’s Ilyushin Finance Co (IFC) has signed a letter of intent for three Bombardier CSeries CS100 and seven larger CS300 aircraft. IFC, which is partially owned by the Russian government’s United Aircraft Corp., also has options for the further 10 CSeries aircraft. If the orders and options are converted into deliveries, the contract is worth an estimated $1.9 billion and represents a major breakthrough into one of air transport’s fastest growing markets. Founded in 1999, IFC primarily leases Russianbuilt aircraft to airlines in the Russian Federation and Commonwealth of Independent States. The finance compay currently has more than 100 long-haul and
medium-sized aircraft on lease. The CSeries is scheduled to make its first test flight in late 2012, with first deliveries a year later. IFC is expected to take delivery of its first aircraft in 2015.
OPERATORS
FOuR nEw CESSnAS FOR SEnECA COLLEgE Toronto’s Seneca College has purchased four new 172 Skyhawk aircraft for the Seneca School of Aviation and Flight Technology. It boosts the fleet to 14 aircraft including eight earlier model 172s. The new aircraft will be delivered later this year. Seneca has been an international leader in aviation education for four decades, having graduated more than 1,000 pilots. Seneca offers the only aviation flight technology-based degree program in Canada, which includes an integrated
Russia's Ilyushin Finance co (IFc) has signed a letter of intent for three Bombardier cSeries cS100 and seven cS300 aircraft. www.wingsMagazine.coM
September/October 2011 | wings
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ON THE
FLY
EVEnTS CALEndAR SEPTEmBER 2011 Elsie MacGill Northern Lights Award sept. 29 Unionville, ont. www.northernlightsaward.ca
OCTOBER 2011 Airport Management Conference of Ontario (AMCO) Convention and Tradeshow oct. 2-4 Brantford, ont. www.amco.on.ca International Winter Operations Conference oct. 5-6 Montreal, Que. www.winterops.ca NBAA 64th Annual Meeting and Convention oct. 10–12 las Vegas, nev. www.nbaa.org Canadian Council for Aviation and Aerospace (CCAA) Forum & AGM oct. 19-21 winnipeg, Man. www.avaerocouncil.ca www.camc.ca
airline transport pilot program. Seneca’s four-year Bachelor of Aviation Technology prepares pilots for the global aviation industry through a rigorous technologybased curriculum and hands-on training with current industry technology. “The CRM-equipped Skyhawks are specifically designed for the type of training done at Seneca,” said Mark Patterson, Cessna director, U.S. Propeller Sales. The Skyhawk is more effective as a training platform with the addition of the CRM training seat, a single, forward-facing seat positioned aft and centre of the pilot and co-pilot seats.
(OMNR) for many years, and expanding that relationship to include a rotary-wing contract with Superior Helicopters illustrates the value of a diversified capability base to meet the needs of our fire sevices clients. DAFS will now provide airborne detection, bird-dog and suppression transport services, and enhanced detection capabilities.”
FIRE REBRAnd FOR hICkS & LAwREnCE
The global aerospace industry was shocked to learn of the passing of James Hoblyn, Bombardier’s president of customer services and specialized and amphibious aircraft, who died suddenly on July 3, at age 46. A graduate of the University of Waterloo in his native England, with an MBA from the London Business School, Mr. Hoblyn joined Bombardier in 1998 as vice-president for strategy planning and business development for the business aircraft division. Throughout his career, Hoblyn took on a series of high-profile and increasingly complex portfolios at Bombardier. In October 2006, he was appointed senior vice-president, customer experiences for Bombardier business aircraft, with a clear mandate to significantly
Hicks & Lawrence Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Discovery Air Inc., is rebranding its airborne fire management business as Discovery Air Fire Services (DAFS). DAFS is also integrating Hawkeye Infrared Services assets into its suite of specialized fire management services. “The rebranding of DAFS reflects the fact we are able to deliver a full range of airborne fire management solutions to customers,” said Dave Jennings, president and CEO of Discovery Air Inc. “Our Hicks & Lawrence subsidiary has been a prime supplier of fixed-wing services to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
PEOPLE
REmEmBERIng JAmES hOBLyn
SecureTech oct. 25-26 ottawa, ont. www.securetechcanada.ca Ontario AME Symposium oct. 26-28 Mississauga, ont. www.ame-ont.com
nOVEmBER 2011
For a complete list of events, please visit www.wingsmagazine.com and click on events in the community section. Bombardier's James Hoblyn passed away suddenly this summer at the age of 46. 10 wings | September/October 2011
www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTo: BoMBaRDieR
Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) Annual Meeting and Tradeshow nov. 13-15 Montreal, Que. www.atac.ca/en/events/agm
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improve customer satisfaction and loyalty among Learjet, Challenger and Global aircraft owners and operators. Respected and well liked throughout the industry, Hoblyn travelled extensively to connect with customers. He brought the same commitment to the organization, using his passion for social media to launch the James Exchange, an internal blog to spark inter-employee discussion. Bombardier described the news as “devastating” and held a minute of silence on July 7. Hoblyn is survived by his wife Josée and their three daughters.
TAyLOR TO RECEIVE TOP hOnOuR Roberta Taylor of Victoria, B.C. will be honoured with the Elsie MacGill Northern Lights Award at a recognition dinner in Unionville, Ont. on Sept. 29. The award celebrates the outstanding achieve-ments of Canadian women in aviation and
and operated an airline, served as an air search-and-rescue pilot and fire patrol pilot in the Canadian Rockies, and was a test pilot for the family aircraft business in Cranbrook, B.C. A former Chatelaine Magazine Woman of the Year, Taylor is now a senior instructor in the faculty of human and social development at the University of Victoria. For information on the Northern Lights annual gala dinner and award ceremony, contact Joy Parker-Blackwood at 416-877-2083, or go to the website, www.northernlightsaward.ca. Roberta taylor has blazed an impressive trail in the aerospace industry.
aerospace, and is named in honour of Elizabeth “Elsie” MacGill, the world’s first female aircraft designer and a pioneer in Canadian airplane production. Like MacGill before her, Taylor has blazed her own unique trail starting as a commercial bush pilot in northern Ontario more than 40 years ago. She has owned
nEw dIRECTOR FOR nAVTECh Navtech Inc., a global supplier of flight operations software and tools for the commercial aviation industry has named William Rathert as senior director, sales operations, to help direct and manage the Waterloo, Ont.-based company’s planned
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SETTING THE STANDARD OF CUSTOMER SERVICE 12 wings | September/October 2011
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PHoTo: elsie Macgill noRTHeRn ligHTs awaRD
Visit us at NBAA booth N6234
growth in North and South America. Rathert comes to Navtech from Texasbased Sabre Airline Solutions, where he was sales director, selling integrated operations solutions to airline clients throughout the Americas. A former fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force, Rathert has also clocked more than 6,700 flight hours as a Boeing 73 captain. He holds a bachelor of science degree in history and is a popular speaker and frequent writer on strategies for airports to build new revenue streams. More than 350 airlines and aviation services organizations use Navtech products.
BOOk REVIEw
nEw PuBLICATIOn gEAREd TO mROs Author and aircraft maintenance engineer (AME) James (Jamie) Dors wants aircraft maintenance employees to get
the most out of their skillsets – and companies to get optimum value out of those same employees. It’s precisely why he put pen to paper to write Maintenance: Analytical and Strategic Trouble Shooting in Aircraft, a new publication aimed at the MRO industry. The book describes a process for efficient and effective troubleshooting of aircraft systems that has many benefits for aircraft maintenance technicians, aircraft operators and maintenance organizations. Operators and maintenance providers are seeking ways to reduce high operating costs and increase the reliability of their fleets. The aviation industry has also experienced a noticeable decline in the pool of skilled technicians as well as the quality of these skilled technicians. (See “The Skill Quotient,” page 50.) Dors holds a Canadian aircraft engineer license as well as an FAA A&P licence and has been in the aircraft maintenance field since the mid-1980s in
a variety of roles, on both the corporate and the commuter side. The book was released by Maintenance Synergies and is available at www.maintenancesynergies.com.
WAAS Gets Them There Avionics upgrades for reliable deliveries to the jobsite
PHoTo: JaMes DoRs
Mine and rig operations don’t depend on the weather. Transporting staff and hot-shot parts to the jobsite shouldn’t either. WAAS Flight Management Systems enable precision-like LPV approach procedures with lower minima that get them on-site, on time, every time. Contact your Authorized Universal Avionics dealer to learn more about FMS trade-in credits, and visit us at NBAA booth C12222.
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September/October 2011 13 | wings 8/17/11 3:23 PM
WAYPOINT By Rob Seaman |
driving the message home An attitude adjustment would help entry-level workers
I
14 wings | September/October 2011
less-than-ideal
first
job,
A post-secondary education is here’s some sage advice. Remember it’s a small invaluable, but it’s theoretical dustry – so always give 100 knowledge – it must be suppleper cent and be professional mented by real-life experience. at all times. Second, recogHow do I formulate this opinion? It’s based on direct experience and sharing conversations with industry colleagues. In my world, I have been searching for FBO professionals for a couple of employers. The search has turned up viable candidates but it has also shown many fresh grads are not prepared to work for the starting salaries being offered. As one college educator and industry colleague stated, “it’s taking a while for them to realize that a ‘Director of ’ title will not be added to their name right away. Soon after, though, many start to realize what roles they can fill and an entry-level job becomes a little more realistic.” Associations like the Canadian Council for Aviation & Aerospace (CCAA) and the Air Transportation Association of Canada (ATAC) have long recognized these issues. These organizations are producing studies that highlight the future of this industry and the potential for human resource shortages. For those who are willing to venture into the aviation ranks and take their
nize that any job you take is useful experience and can earn you a worthwhile reference. Finally, realize every bit of experience gained makes you more employable and professional. Understanding these simple principles will make your journey infinitely more fruitful in the end. As they say in the theatre, “There are no small roles.” And don’t forget about my hero, Preston Tucker. He started as an office boy with Cadillac and found that roller skates helped him get around the floor to do his job faster. He learned more that way. This same ingenuity and spirit helped him grow, develop skills and become more successful. Although he never made millions in the car industry, he did influence change – and still does today. When evaluating your employment goal, ask yourself this: what’s the true value proposition of your career? I think you’ll find it all depends on how you measure success. | w Rob Seaman is a Wings writer and columnist. www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTo: RoB seaMan
have some interesting “stuff ” on my desk. Some of these mementos have marked special occasions while others are presentations or gifts I am proud to display. But there’s one object that makes those who see it wonder about its relevance: a 1/18-scale model of a 1948 Tucker automobile. Why the model of a car that never went beyond initial production? The car was designed and built in the post-Second World War era by Preston Tucker. Tucker was a visionary and go-getter. He threw himself into every job and was not afraid to tackle impossible things. His 1948 Tucker Torpedo (as it was first called) introduced a number of revolutionary concepts in efficiency and safety that have been implemented into today’s automobiles. And if you believe the urban legend, the “Big Three” ganged up to use influence and politics to kill the Tucker. To Tucker’s credit, all but two of the cars produced are still thought to be on the road today (or close to it). They are highly collectable and represent a significant part of automotive development. The man and the car represent things I have always held in high regard – dedication, commitment and pride in a job well done. The Tucker reminds me of what can be achieved when you really try. Thinking about what’s possible when hard work and ingenuity converge makes me wonder about where the aviation industry is headed – and I’m concerned. This industry is about to experience a shortage of qualified workers, and not just pilots, but engineers, avionics specialists, FBO personnel and more. It’s not because of a lack of jobs; it’s because people are unwilling to take these jobs. I’m specifically talking about entry-level or junior positions where younger employees must apply themselves to work their way up the ranks – like we all used to. This concept seems preposterous to some young people today. Many entering the aviation field seem to feel a post-secondary degree is all that’s needed to ensure success. Yes, a post-secondary education is valuable, but it’s theoretical knowledge – it must be supplemented by real-life experience. Highpaying jobs, perks – they must be earned, not handed out right out of the gate.
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APPROACH By David Carr |
Runway lights, camera . . . action! Pan Am revs up on CTV; CBC gets Arctic blast
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16 wings | September/October 2011
Omni Film, the independent Vancouver film maker producing the series is also responsible for the popular Ice Pilots NWT, which has been renewed for a third season and is broadcast in nine countries including the United States on the National Geographic Channel. Little is known about Arctic Air other than it is set in Yellowknife and the central character is a renegade owner and pilot. Early graphics to sell the series to CBC and others hold few clues. One poster shows a pilot standing below an airborne Curtiss C-46 Commando, with a second image substituting the Curtiss for a Boeing 767. An unlikely aircraft for a north-based airline, but this is television. Expect Buffalo Airways, the airline that delivers the thrills on Ice Pilots, its colourful president and founder “Buffalo” Joe McBryan and a dog’s breakfast of vintage pre-Second World War aircraft including the Curtiss, DC-3 and DC-4 tankers, to provide inspiration for storylines. Can a ragtag northern airline beat out an international giant in the ratings? It is unlikely given the budget for Pan Am and the marketing power of ABC/CTV. But for aviation enthusiasts in Canada at least, a dogfight is forming on network television. | w
Pan Am is the kind of highprofile account the fictional Sterling Cooper Agency would have chased after. is more Wisteria Lane than Pennsylvania Avenue in this globetrotting romp. Certainly little is left to the imagination with the tagline: “They do it all . . . and they do it at 30,000 feet.” On these flights, expect the wait for the lavatories to be a long one. Sony Pictures, the producers of Pan Am, have taken their cues from Mad Men the AMC drama about New York advertising executives also set in the early 1960s. Like Mad Men, the photography and dedication to detail is outstanding, including ramp scenes where jets and props mingle, and air-to-air shots of a company DC-8. Pan Am’s original jet order was split between the 707 and DC-8, with the Douglas aircraft edging out its rival. It was a shortlived victory. Pan Am switched to an allBoeing fleet in 1969. Pan Am is the kind of high-profile account the fictional Sterling Cooper Agency would have chased after. Mad Men typically weave real companies and classic ad campaigns into its plot lines. Perhaps licensing fees were too high. Sony purchased licence rights to the Pan Am name and logo from Pan Am Systems, a New Hampshire-based railway that bought the airline brand in 1998. Arctic Air’s pedigree is closer to home.
David Carr is a Wings writer and columnist. www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTo: cTV
ore than 20 years after bankruptcy, Pan American World Airways is returning to the air. This time as a steamy primetime drama on ABC and CTV, showcasing the glamour and intrigue of stewardesses and pilots at the dawn of the jet age. CBC is also taking a chance on highflying drama with Arctic Air, a show about a maverick airline in Canada’s north that will take off in January. While documentary-style programs such as A&E’s Airline, BBC’s Airport and History Television’s Ice Pilots NWT have all enjoyed success on the small screen, airline drama on network television has had a rougher ride. In 1970, NBC tried to cash in on the success of the movie Airport with San Francisco International Airport, a drama with Lloyd Bridges stepping into the Burt Lancaster role. The show was grounded after six episodes. Bridges would be better remembered as the addicted air traffic controller in Airplane, a spoof on earlier airline disaster pictures. LAX premiered in 2005, was a critical and ratings bust and had its wings clipped after 13 episodes. Airline comedies have fared better. Wings, a show about two brothers who own a one-aircraft puddle jumper at a sleepy two airline airport in Nantucket, Mass., had an impressive eight-season run on NBC in the 1990s, although the cast and storylines could have been set at a rundown bus terminal in St. Louis, something NBC did with the John Laroquette Show. Recently, BBC ordered a second season of Come Fly with Me, a popular sendup of the Airline and Airport television franchises. Can Pan Am and Arctic Air be successful out of the gate? Both programs have a rich vein of story ideas to tap into. For Arctic Air it is Canada’s vast boom and bust north. Pan Am owns the rest of the world, the famous Pan Am style and a smoking soundtrack that includes hits such as Nat King Cole’s Around the World and Sinatra’s Come Fly with Me (which pictured Ol’ Blue Eyes in front of a TWA Constellation when the record was released in 1958). ABC likes to pump up the show’s The West Wing-type street credentials, but there
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AT THE
GATE
By Brian Dunn |
winning the regional game Bombardier looks to capitalize on Q400 and CRJ series
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18 wings | September/October 2011
serious contender for the 460 aircraft order placed by American Airlines which is being split between Airbus and Boeing. “American didn’t really have much of a requirement for an aircraft of that size,” Aboulafia offers. “What’s more important for the CSeries’ future is whether they will get any orders from Delta Airlines, which should be announced by the end of the year.” In July, RBC Dominion Securities downgraded Bombardier over growing concerns the company faces the challenge of successfully getting the CSeries off the ground while finding new customers for the aircraft. Bombardier intends to make in-flight connectivity standard on the CSeries because passengers have come to expect such a solution, the company says. Although Bombardier believes the future of in-flight entertainment is in connecting passengers’ own personal electronic devices, it plans to make embedded in-flight entertainment systems available in its CSeries catalogue. Bombardier, meanwhile, has already selected Panasonic to provide the baseline cabin management system for the CSeries. An optional feature will allow airlines to display flight information such as gate and connection information without investing in a full in-flight entertainment system. | w
It’s a good product and should be doing much better when you look at how well the ATR is doing. In July, Transport Canada issued an Airworthiness Directive to Q400 operators to immediately inspect their aircraft “for cracked barrel nuts found at the front spar locations of the wing to fuselage attachment joints.” It added that “failure of the barrel nuts could compromise the structural integrity of the wing to fuselage attachments.” Bombardier earlier announced some 100 jobs at its Downsview plant in Toronto where assembly of the Q400 will be affected due to reduced orders. “We’re trying to find work for them in other areas of our operations,” says Bombardier spokesperson Haley Dunne. As for the CRJ, Aboulafia doesn’t see much future for the aircraft. “They’re losing market share in a shrinking market and I think that’s one of the reasons why Bombardier decided to launch the CSeries.” He also pointed out that Embraer’s E-Jets have a better resale value than the CRJ. Naturally, Bombardier has a different take on its CRJ. “The regional market is more challenging now, but we still have faith in the aircraft,” says Dunne. “It is still the most popular regional jet on the market, with over 1,600 of them in service.” In terms of the CSeries, it was never a
Brian Dunn is a Wings writer and columnist. www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTo: BoMBaRDieR
or the first half of 2011, Bombardier Aerospace badly trailed its main rivals in regional aircraft orders, which could potentially result in a reduction of aircraft production. From January through June, Europe’s ATR received orders for 88 of its 42-seat and 72-seat turboprops, while Embraer had buyers for 62 of its 70- to 122-seat EJets. By comparison, Bombardier checked in with only seven orders for its 65- to 88seat CRJ and just two Q400 turboprops. The one spot of good news is that orders for Bombardier’s 110- to 145-seat CSeries are starting to pick up steam after a slow start. Analyst Cameron Doerksen of National Bank Financial in Montreal agrees there’s been a bit of a lull for the Q400 compared to ATR, which has done quite well, but thinks it’s more of a timing issue rather than a lack of demand for the Q400. “I think it’s a short-term issue and orders should pick up later in the year, as I still believe there’s a lot of interest in the Q400. It’s aimed at a different market than the ATR. It’s more of a jet replacement aircraft compared to the ATR.” As for the Bombardier CRJ, Doerksen sees it as a niche product with more demand for the CRJ1000 coming from outside North America, while the CRJ900 is more suited for North American airlines. “They have an order backlog for a couple of years, but Bombardier will need more demand to maintain current production rates after that. Some contracts (between major airlines and their regional carriers) are due for renewal which could result in potential new orders.” Analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va., can’t figure out why orders for the Q400 are so low. “It’s a good product and should be doing much better when you look at how well the ATR is doing.” One possible explanation is that the Q400 is a bigger and more costly aircraft and consumes more fuel than the ATR, which may not appeal to a lot of customers at current oil prices, especially in developing countries. Then there are the problems the Q400 has had with its landing gear. “There have been some serious concerns about their aftersales product support which could affect their reputation,” suggests Aboulafia.
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45˚42�
NORTH By Peter Pigott |
The aviator turned storyteller Ottawa’s Dave O’Malley following in a legend’s footsteps
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20 wings | September/October 2011
I am him and what do I see, feel, smell and hear. Then I ask around to the Spitfire pilots – what would you do? I like to paint pictures.” O’Malley was speaking about probably the most poignant story he has ever written. Called “All Things Never Done: The Last Day of David Rouleau’s Life,” it was about an Ottawa boy who attended Lisgar Collegiate, played hockey on the frozen canal and trained at nearby St. Eugene. On July 3, 1942, the last day of his life, Rouleau flew a Spitfire off the deck of an aircraft carrier to reinforce Malta. The Germans were waiting for him and the 24-year-old was shot down. His story, O’Malley would write, “is extraordinary in its ordinariness. He was not an ace nor a braggart or a self-promoter. His was one of many, many thousands of stories never told. He is the Royal Canadian Air Force of the Second World War.” Capt. Johns, who died in 1968, wrote he had created Biggles to demonstrate the best of the human spirit and the futility of war. He has a worthy heir to that ambition – Dave O’Malley of Ottawa. | w
I had no desire to draw fruit or crockery, just Spitfires, ships, steam engines, cars. illustrating a manual on how to insulate a home. He did this in cartoon style and that led to the formation of the company he now owns. What about his wonderfully nostalgic stories for the Vintage Wings website? “In this world,” he says, “most of the things you love to do, you have to do for free. I got involved early on in the West Carleton Air Show (which became the National Capital Air Show) and designed the poster for it. I did this for 17 years and was the president of the air show association for seven of them. In doing that, I decided to produce a newsletter – and that’s when I discovered that writing is more exciting than graphic design.” While he still gets great pleasure out of graphic design, O’Malley says it is writing that gives more. “I write visually – I visualize a scene the way I would have felt it. So, if I’m doing a story like a Spitfire pilot taking off from an aircraft carrier bound for Malta, I stop for a minute and imagine
Peter Pigott is a Wings writer and columnist. www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTo: PeTeR HanDleY
or aviation-mad boys in the 1950s anywhere in the British Commonwealth, Capt. W.E. Johns ruled supreme. The author of the “Biggles” novels, Johns wrote of a hero who, aided by chums, constantly saved the world by using aircraft – fighting the Boche, criminal masterminds, the Japanese and later Communists in exotic locales like the Gobi desert, African veldt and Pacific atolls. Dated by modern standards, Johns’s 169 books – often illustrated by the author himself – were serialized in magazines, on the radio and television. Biggles became the inspiration for thousands of boys to join the air force or airlines – or draw and write about them. Ottawa is fortunate to have its very own Capt. Johns: Dave O’Malley. Unlike Johns’ writing, most of O’Malley’s work is non-fictional and appears only on the Vintage Wings website www. vintagewings.ca, but the two writers are kindred spirits. “The very first time I saw an aeroplane it terrified me,” remembers Dave O’Malley. “It was on a family picnic at Rockcliffe in 1958 when Harvards came in very low and I remember hiding behind my mother and crying.” O’Malley soon got over the fear and accompanied his dad to the annual Air Force Day at Rockcliffe. “Air Force Day then was unlike what we have today,” he says. “Our own Air Force was immense then – all kinds of helicopters, naval patrol bombers, fighters – it was magnificent!” O’Malley admits that he doesn’t remember the days his two children were born on or the sequence that led up to those events but he can recall in precise detail every single minute of those air shows. “I can still see the giant Argus sweeping across with the bomb bay doors open flanked by Sabres, a Starfighter ripping across the field, the helicopters doing a square dance, a Hercules with rocketassisted takeoff – all the acts. It all made a huge impact on me so that through grade school I took art lessons. I had no desire to draw fruit or crockery, just Spitfires, ships, steam engines, cars – I am absolutely addicted to machines.” A Carleton University-trained architect, O’Malley never got to practise in his field because, even before graduation, he was
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rofessionalism, impeccable customer service and attention to detail. They’re all key elements in the successful makeup of a credible fixed-based operation (FBO), but is there something else that sets one FBO apart from its
22 wings | September/October 2011
competition? Are there other qualities that push one operation over the top and keep customers coming back? Who shines brightest in the Canadian FBO space? The desire to answer these questions and discover the crème de la crème of Canadian FBOs was the driving force
behind the creation of Wings magazine’s first Canadian FBO survey. And it makes perfect sense – after all, it’s not like this information is readily at hand. For years, Canadian aviation service and support circles have lacked a unique review and customer-focused analysis of the FBO support
services provided in this country. The domestic picture has by and large been an add-on to other U.S.-based surveys and has lacked the homegrown overview many feel is applicable, justified and needed. This report presents a solution – Canadian data gleaned from an online survey www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTo: sTaRlink/signaTURe MonTReal
wIngS’ SuRVEy IdEnTIFIES TOP CAnAdIAn FBOs By ROB SEAmAn
Modelling its customer service training program after a five-star hotel has helped Montreal’s Starlink/Signature FBO deliver an impeccable level of service.
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conducted on the Wings website from June 27 to July 31. The methodology was straightforward: survey participants were asked to nominate up to five FBOs of their choice and rank them on predetermined categories provided by the editors. The survey did not prompt participants as to which FBOs they could select – the decision was exclusively based on personal selection and recognition. Accordingly, all FBOs in the country, regardless of size or location, had equal opportunity for recognition. www.wingsMagazine.coM
The survey asked for a rating of the selected FBO based upon eight service and amenity criteria – examples being customer service, line service, hangarage, amenities and even GSE quality. Participants rated their chosen FBO on a scale of one through 10 on such attributes. The survey also asked, by prompted question, for a chosen or preferred fuel supplier and charge card. Finally, participants were asked to indicate how important pricing and customer service are in their choice of FBO.
Final end scores were tallied to see how the selected FBOs rated overall for their markets. A winner was selected from region to region across the country – and one overall winner was determined based on the total votes cast and related scores. The results provide credible third-party ratings of how domestic FBOs and their related support services rank in the minds of clients. Some 40 FBOs were named and rated in the report, showing customers do remember their service experience and feel loyal enough to comment when asked. The winners in the respective categories include: • Best FBO in Canada: Starlink/Signature YUL • Best FBO in Western Canada (B.C., Alta., Y.T, N.W.T.): Million Air YVR • Best FBO in Central Canada (Sask., Man., Nunavut): Kelly Western Jet Centre YWG • Best FBO in Ontario: Skyservice YYZ • Best FBO in Quebec: Starlink/Signature YUL • Best FBO in Atlantic Canada (N.B., N.L., N.S., P.E.I): Shell Aerocentre YYT • Most Preferred Fuel: Esso • Most Preferred Fuel/ Charge Card: AvCard Some of the most revealing data relates to fuel price and customer service as components driving FBO choice. Many on the FBO side would argue these are the top two factors in determining their operation’s ultimate success or failure. And although certainly critical, survey results suggest they aren’t stand-alone factors. To wit, only 44 per cent of respondents indicated customer service is the top consideration in choosing an FBO, whereas only 24 per cent indicated price was the most important factor. The reason? In the end, it’s a combination of elements that help the best rise to the top.
Tools of the trade Scoring with customers on multiple levels isn’t an easy proposition, but it’s precisely what a top FBO must do to keep clients coming back. An impeccable service-oriented approach is paramount, says Brenda Libby, vice-president sales and marketing with Starlink Aviation/Signature. Libby says the company’s Signature proprietary customer service training program, “Service with a Leading Edge,” was developed in collaboration with a prominent five-star hotel. It covers all aspects of delivering world-class service. “This program, combined with hard work on the part of our employees and management team, along with our desire to be the safest, most progressive business aviation provider in the world,” is instrumental in providing the type of environment clients have come to expect, she says. Enhanced training and a commitment to top employees are the backbone of Vancouver’s Million Air operations, says general manager Ron Forbes. “Million Air University provides training many times throughout the year to everyone across the network,” says Forbes. “Million Air maintains a ‘People First’ philosophy which makes providing both initial and ongoing training to Million Air employees a top priority.” The result, Forbes says, is a high level of commitment to safety clients have come to expect – and they get it on every visit. Brand consistency is equally important, Forbes adds. “In this economy, price can be a driving factor for the customer selecting an FBO, but I still believe service is the only way to keep that customer coming back. We also know that when a customer visits any Million Air FBO anywhere in the country they will get the same great experience. We all share in this responsibility.” In the Central Canada region, president Gordon Peters of Winnipeg-based Kelly Western Jet Centre says it helps to have employees on board who have been with the September/October 2011 | wings 23
organization for a significant period of time. Employee buyin to a strong corporate culture always rubs off on the client. “Our leadership team and a number of other employees are long-term members of our team and they recognize and participate fully in a strong customer service orientation,” Peters says. “We have also become an independent fuel dealer, which allows KWJC to serve our customers in other ways that we couldn’t as a branded dealer. Our employees have embraced the current model and have taken ownership of the customers they serve and bring significant value with the services.” While top-notch customer service is a key component of the FBO experience, many top organizations are attentive to other essentials. At Kelly Western Jet Centre, Peters notes many customers today are looking for a facility that is environmentally conscious. “We have made some green improvements to our facilities including improving all of our lighting systems and offering parking lot plug in, which
saves as much as 60 per cent on power consumption.” At Starlink/Signature in Montreal, a recent 30,000 square foot addition to the hangar has increased the total facility space to 88,000 square feet, and it is now a 24/7, 365-day-a-year operation. The operations department has also been reorganized in an effort to offer more cohesive, seamless service to clients. Staying technologically ahead of the curve is also critical, notes Libby. For example, the company launched an iPhone app at last year’s National Business Aviation Association show in Atlanta and will soon be launching the BlackBerry and Android versions. This covers the three major platforms in an effort to reach clients globally, allowing them to connect, access and utilize the Signature network from anywhere. In some ways, major world events can also help keep operations clicking on all cylinders. Such is the case at Million Air in Vancouver, where Forbes feels his team is still running off the “high” created by their
creating a relaxing, peaceful environment for pilots and other clients helps an FBO stand out.
one of the top winners employees to more in this year’s FBo report than 500 across canada is celebrating another and deployed worldsignificant milestone: wide, skyservice gets skyservice Toronto is 25 top marks in customer years young. satisfaction surveys and skyservice ceo and operational audits. The founder Russ Payson company implemented developed his FBo conTransport canadacept in a school paper he approved sMs in 2003, penned many years ago has been awarded the and has translated his vi- Skyservice toronto was tops in the Ontario region. coveted Platinum ratsion into a benchmark for ing by the aviation Rethe business aviation industry focused on service excellence. search group/Us (aRg/Us), and is the first non-U.s.-based “when we started skyservice, we had a goal of bringing operation to successfully complete the air charter safety world-class service to the canadian market – we saw the Foundation (acsF) audit. it will be is-Bao certified shortly. opportunity to make our business unique in a growing and skyservice’s client list for the FBos and management developing industry,” he says. “our first fixed-base opera- companies includes many top-ranked canadian and intertion in Montreal was the beginning of that realization, with national companies, international airlines and royal and Toronto added in 1994, and most recently calgary. The key state visitors. Having busy FBos and managing approxito skyservice’s success is the team of top industry special- mately 60 aircraft encompassing more than 20 types in the ists with a passion for absolute customer service above and demanding roles of private, charter and air ambulance beyond what is expected. around the world, 24/7 gives them unique challenges but a From a modest beginning with 15 Montreal-based passion for safety, service and efficiency. 24 wings | September/October 2011
www.wingsMagazine.coM
ToP PHoTo: skYseRVice MonTReal, BoTToM PHoTo: skYseRVice ToRonTo
Cause for celebration
ensuring all members of the staff communicate the brand message is paramount to an FBO’s ultimate success.
PHoTo: sTaRlink/signaTURe MonTReal
participation in the Winter Olympics. “As you know, the Olympic Games took a lot of resources to create a ‘temporary’ operation capable of handling a large increase in traffic. We felt we owed it to our customers arriving at the Games to have the Olympic experience begin the minute they pulled onto our ramp. In a way, we brought Vancouver’s front door to the airport and we created an amazing environment.” The Million Air brand in Canada is poised to expand its footprint in the West with the addition of a new Calgary location late this year. Says Forbes: “We share many customers who travel between our two cities so it was only natural for us to expand to Calgary.”
house of cards The first Wings FBO survey also analyzed the various cards customers use to charge services and fuels of preference. FBOs today need to accept a variety of cards and charge services to remain competitive and responsive. All the various service providers have assorted programs and rates associated www.wingsMagazine.coM
with each card. For this part of the report, the prominent card/charge service providers were listed and survey participants were asked to indicate which they had used – in order of preference. Top honours went to the AvCard. Other results in order of preference: 2. Multiservice 3. Colt and Visa (tie) 4. Amex 5. MasterCard and UVAir (tie) 6. Airworld 7. Air BP 8. AvFuel 9. Ascend Brand preference was another consideration highlighted in the report. As this was a survey of national FBO interests, key multi-fuel providers were listed and participants ranked them according to preference. As noted above, Esso was the preferred fuel brand across Canada. One story angle worth watching in the coming months is the recent announcement by Exxon/Mobile – which owns a significant portion of Imperial Oil (Esso) – regarding its planned exit from general aviation fuels in the U.S. and the dissolving of
its network of AVITAT-branded FBOs globally. The first part of this announcement will have little effect on Canada; however, the dissolving of the AVITAT network likely will have a significant effect. Even the Canadian AVITAT sites apparently have no clear vision of what their future looks like. As for the rest of the Esso network in this country, although it appears it will be business as usual, there is understandably apprehension. Needless to say, there could be a new fuel leader at the top of next year’s report. Other top fuel brands in Canada: 2. Shell 3. Air BP 4. Petro T
The value proposition To some, there’s a real question as to the value of third-party surveys, but establishing some benchmarks in the industry based on hard data is always worthwhile. Says Starlink/Signature’s Libby: “We all strive to bring added value to our clients. It’s especially gratifying for our frontline personnel, our line service technicians, customer
service representatives and managers, who take enormous pride in their jobs and deliver personalized service to every client who visits our facility.” Ron Forbes agrees, saying it’s a tool to confirm that you are achieving your corporate goals. “It’s very important to know how our customers really feel about what we are doing as an FBO and as a chain,” he says. “It’s important to have a way of gauging if all that hard work is paying off, if our message is getting through to the customer. It’s also important for our staff to get recognition especially when they work as hard as they do to give customers a little more than what they expect.” Peters sums it all up: “It is always an advantage to let our potential customers know what our existing customers feel.” Editor’s note: On the strength of Wings’ inaugural FBO survey, we plan to present an annual rundown of top Canadian facilities. If you have feedback on how to improve this report, please contact mnicholls@annexweb.com. Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s survey. | w September/October 2011 | wings 25
MAKE YOUR PLANS & BE THERE WHEN THE WORLD OF BUSINESS AVIATION RETURNS TO THE WEST COAST!
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cBaa president/ceO Sam Barone (left) explains ongoing changes with the POc process as MBe Jet’s ceO Marc Bombenon (middle) and chartright air Group president adam Keller look on.
SOuND COuRSE OF ACTION BIzAV’S BEST COnVEnE TO dISCuSS ThE CAnAdIAn InduSTRy'S FuTuRE ROLE
I
PHoTo: alison De gRooT
By mATT nIChOLLS
t was a week to celebrate royalty in Calgary in early July but newlyweds Kate and William weren’t the only ones under the microscope. Ten high-profile leaders of Canada’s BizAv community – including CBAA president/CEO Sam Barone – took centre stage prior to the Canadian Business Aviation Association’s annual conference to participate in Wings first annual industry roundtable. (see, “The Group of 10,” pg. 32) The invitation-only event July 5 featured lively discussion on a wide range of topics ranging from the effects of a stagnant economy to the challenges of dealing with Transport Canada following the federal government’s decision to take back the Private Operator’s Certificate process earlier this year. The ongoing importance of training, retaining top employees, safety and how to deal with the impending skill shortage in aviation were just a few of the other topics covered in the two-hour gathering. When the proceedings wrapped up after two efficient hours of discussion the challenges remained but solutions and strategies to conquer tough issues had germinated. In this exclusive report, www.wingsMagazine.coM
our esteemed panel discusses current economic realities, the effects of the POC changes on the market and the task of enhancing BizAv’s role across the country. For more coverage of the event via our special video series, go to www.wingsmagazine.com.
Economic realities: The BizAv perspective A volatile economy has had a marked impact on all sectors of Canadian aviation and the BizAv community has had its own unique challenges. And while some organizations haven’t felt a huge impact, for others, it’s been a juggling act. So, how have those on our esteemed panel coped and is there a positive outlook on the horizon? Just how important is BizAv in driving the economy in Canada? Does the BizAv community have an inferiority complex? As a trained economist who closely follows current market conditions and their ramifications on his association’s members, CBAA president/CEO Sam Barone was anxious to get the ball rolling. “I think when we talk about volatility in the way our business models are shaping up, when we take a look at the traditional way our businesses have been undertaken, there once September/October 2011 | wings 27
Finding constructive solutions when working with transport canada was just one of the key topics for our 10 esteemed panel members.
28 wings | September/October 2011
“FOR uS, tHe aIRcRaFt IS aN IMPORtaNt tOOl . . . It allOWS uS tO Get tO cuStOMeRS QuIcKly aNd eFFIcIeNtly.” – Jamie Vins, president/CEO, Vins Plastics Ltd.
Service for the Alberta government. Madden, the chair of the CBAA’s board of directors, maintains that his flight department “is more of a communications tool.” Politicians need to get out to constituents throughout the year in good times or bad, so a volatile economy has little effect on the bottom line. In fact, tough times might mean an increase in activity. “I would say when things are bad, it’s a little bit busier than www.wingsMagazine.coM
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was a pattern – now we are in a down cycle or now it’s an up cycle,” Barone said. “That criteria of economic thinking doesn’t exist anymore. Now, there’s continuous volatility, continuous upheaval, variables are more difficult to manage. And while we have some strong fundamentals in Canada, in terms of good interest rates and good economic management coming from government, we’re not isolated in this world – we are co-dependent on other economies. “The other thing is change happens more rapidly from a perspective of not only technology, but political events – they take on a bigger meaning in terms of how we do business. So, while things are relatively stable in Canada, we have situations in the Middle East, we have volatile fuel prices, we have volatile economic conditions in the European community which all impact our core businesses in terms of the way we see business aviation.” The volatile economy has also created a changing dynamic in terms of opportunities for the Canadian BizAv community, Barone added. In the past, North American markets garnered the initial focus, but emerging opportunities in Latin America, the Middle East, China, India and Russia are altering the way companies do business. The question becomes how do you manage in such an environment? “It’s something far more complex than what we’ve seen in the past,” Barone said. “It requires different management skills, especially in aviation because aviation is the bellwether barometer of how the economy is going. So, the real opportunity for business aviation right now is definitely shifting from traditional markets.” BC Campbell, VP of flight operations with Skyservice Business Aviation in Dorval, Que. concurred, noting that BizAv is an industry that doesn’t have huge business cycles in the first place. The biggest concerns are maintaining a high level of service and safety standards while watching costs. “And I think the regulatory framework is a big challenge for everyone,” he said. “But by and large, it is fairly consistent but always under pressure – you can’t take anything for granted.” For government operations it’s pretty much business as usual notes Rob Madden, director of flight operations, Air Transport
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normal because we have three million shareholders in the province of Alberta and they (politicians) use the aircraft to get around and dispel stories – or create new ones,” he said. “Politicians need to get out and everyone wants them at their chicken dinners.” It’s a very different story for small business owners such as Jamie Vins who have definitely felt the pinch. The president/CEO of Bradford, Ont.-based Vins Plastic Ltd., is constantly seeking ways to cut costs without sacrificing service or safety. Vins heads up the family-owned producer of high-performance flexible packaging, celebrating it 35th anniversary this year. The company operates a single-engine Piper Meridian – an aircraft Vins maintains is critical to the success of the firm. As chief pilot, head of maintenance and pretty much in control of all flight ops, Vins has been taxed to the max keeping costs in check and service levels high. So, is owning an aircraft justified in a tight economy – is it a cost-effective tool? “It’s a problem we face with clients because there’s a stigma attached to it,” Vins said. Business aircraft ownership even caught the eye of U.S. President Barack Obama, who, in June, vilified BizAv and its owners south of the border, questioning its value – even though it’s very much an economic enabler, driving business. “The question (for clients) becomes, are we paying too much for this product when he can show up in a private aircraft? Of course, they’re not realizing the aircraft is in fact a tool used to support the business. For us, the aircraft is an important tool . . . it allows us to get to our customers quickly and efficiently and still maintain that connection with our manufacturing facility.” The stigma of affluence, lack of value and frivolity is very much a Canadian problem, noted Miguel Mendes, president of Mississauga, Ont.-based Image Air Charter. Mendes said it’s a problem Canadian business owners shouldn’t have to face, especially when the aircraft is an essential tool for an operation’s ultimate success. “I think it’s very much the Canadian conservatism issue,” Mendes said, “because in the States, you hear them saying all the time that the company is doing great, they just bought a private jet (and it’s not a problem). But in Canada, the reaction is, ‘Whoa, that company is spending way too much money (especially in a downturn). They just bought their own private jet.’ Of course, they bought it for the same reasons that you are describing, Jamie, but there’s a stigma attached to the purchase.” Marc Bombenon understands the stereotype associated with business jet owners – and in spite of a slowdown in the marketplace, he was adamant now is the best time to promote BizAv’s value. It’s a great opportunity for the CBAA to lead the charge. “I think this is clearly an area that this industry has to work hard to educate and identify,” said Bombenon, president/CEO of Calgary-based fractional ownership firm MBE Jets. “Jamie and Don (panelist Don Lockard, general manager of National Socket Screw Mfg. Ltd.) are avant-garde. They use corporate jets for their businesses and they understand the value of doing that – and we have to get the corporate world to understand the value as well.” Barone concurred, adding that changing the perception of the BizAv community in the eyes of the federal government is a major challenge. He used the example of how the feds quickly legislated Air Canada service workers back to work in June after a few days on strike, noting that the airline was too valuable, as an economic enabler, to be out of commission. “I was on the phone with the minister of transport and I told them, ‘We, too are an economic enabler’ because our members are the top 500 corporations in this country who operate aircraft. And not only that, we make it happen and create a lot of wealth and jobs . . . No, we’re not as flashy as Americans. But we are there conducting business, we’re just quieter about it. We have to educate people that we are doing business – and creating jobs in aerospace not only directly but indirectly at Pratt & Whitney, airports and so on.” www.wingsMagazine.coM
“tHe ReGulatORy FRaMeWORK IS FaIRly cONSISteNt But alWayS uNdeR PReSSuRe – yOu caN’t taKe aNytHING FOR GRaNted.” – BC Campbell, VP flight operations, Skyservice Business Aviation
POC process: shifting perspectives Dealing with economic realities and the prospects of highlighting BizAv’s relevance notwithstanding, the most significant issue influencing operators today is the fallout from the federal government’s decision to take back the Private Operator Certificate program from the CBAA. Since the change came into effect April 1, the CBAA’s role has understandably changed, moving instead from managing the issuing of operator certificates to concentrating on its role as an industry trade association. It’s a significant change for the CBAA and operators, one that has led to plenty of animosity and questions about the government’s intentions, its ability to handle the transition, its inconsistent approach when dealing with audits and regulations, and the future ramifications for the Canadian BizAv community. Barone, and other members of the CBAA team – many of whom were at the table – have spent hours working on behalf of members and individual business operators to smooth out the kinks – and help the government deal with the onerous task ahead. A frustrated but diplomatic Barone presented his best glass-halffull synopsis of the situation. “From the CBAA’s point of view, things were fixed. But as of March 2010 when TC decided to take the POC back, there were opportunities and challenges,” he said. “We at once were a trade association, we also had to do a lot of regulatory activity. So, in a lot of ways, it has made our role of an association more clear. We can get back to our core business of being a trade association and voice more clearly without conflicts of interests in our messaging. “However, at the same time, the challenge is we have to manage this change back to TC on behalf of our members. To say that TC was prepared when they made this decision is a complete falsehood. This was a political decision and I want to be fair to the officials that we work with on a daily basis because officials implement political decisions in Ottawa.” September/October 2011 | wings 29
Barone explained that TC faces huge organizational challenges in bringing back the POC because, once they divested of the program eight years ago (and entrusted it with the CBAA), they lost the organizational capacity to manage the program. The CBAA is trying to extract clarity from the understaffed POC team at TC to give BizAv owners the fixed variables they need to manage their operations properly. “That is a key success factor in ensuring safety,” Barone added. “We’re in a fiscal constraint era now so TC is not going to get more resources; they’re going to get fewer. Our members have to adapt to that. It’s translating to aircraft being on the ground, and delays on getting things done.” Lockard said much of the challenge in working with TC centres around a communications breakdown – an inability to speak the same language. Lockard recently went through an “unofficial” two-hour audit with a TC inspector only to spend much of the time communicating what he actually uses his aircraft for. “Nice fellow, but ‘who are you?’ was his question to me. Two hours later, I was still explaining to him what I do, where I fly . . . it wasn’t a technical audit but it was trying to give them a sense of where we allocate our resources, and who do we need to look at. Are you an oil rig flier or are you a flat bed flier? That’s not right.” Mendes concurred adding that the regulatory framework does not reflect the needs of business aviation operators – and there’s an inconsistency in enforcing it. Said Mendes: “I’ve found they’re making rules and regulations they don’t really understand . . . they don’t understand what business aviation is even about. We had a pretty high-up person at TC tell us ‘why don’t you fly commercial?’ Then he starts asking us, what the differences are. He’s the one running the ops inspections in Toronto.” Starlink Aviation president/CEO Glen Lynch argued that current economic realities are intrinsically linked to the situation with the POC. The Canadian economy came through the recent downturn fairly well compared to other parts of the world, he said, but following the Big Three debacle in the U.S. in 2009, the public relations disaster for BizAv has been difficult to shake. Add in the unorganized transition of the POC, and it’s created a perfect storm that’s been difficult to overcome. 30 wings | September/October 2011
“The answer to the question, ‘where is the POC program at right now?’ is that there is no program,” said Lynch. “The question that is important to BizAv is, ‘what is this going to mean for the economy of our industry?’ At the moment, it’s too early to put any empirical data behind it, but what we’re seeing is more interest on the aircraft management side – not because individual business owners want to have their aircraft managed, or not because they want to operate them commercially, but at the moment, it’s the only way to get an airplane in the air.” Parked aircraft are not helping companies stay economically viable – and it’s a fundamental issue the CBAA is taking steps to correct,” said Barone. “One of the things we’ve done as an association is bump up our staff to deal with these growing issues,” he said. “We now have the second former head of civil aviation Canada on as an advisor to us; the first was Art Laflamme and now Merlin Preuss so it’s not for a lack of expertise in telling them what we need to do. We go in there and we give them solutions; we draft things for them to look at. “I don’t purport to be a civil aviation expert, but we now have the second former head of civil aviation of TC on staff, we have the former superintendent of business aviation who has now joined CBAA. TC is actually coming to us at times to guide them through the process.” Finding solutions to the POC situation will not be easy, but Barone is confident they can be found. More funding, consultation, increased pressure on politicians to identify the problem and highlighting the important role BizAv plays in fueling the country’s economic engine – it will all help. Can it happen? Of course – or as Bombenon joked, the POC process and National Long Gun Registry may one day be forever linked in the same sentence due to gross mismanagement. “What we want is more consultation and more input in the process – and that hasn’t been clear either,” Barone said. “So, it’s quite the frustrating challenge we are facing. But even against all of this, we are making progress I think we do have a collaborative relationship with them, I just think they don’t have the capacity to do it all at once and that’s creating a challenge.” www.wingsMagazine.coM
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Rob Madden, director of flight operations for the government of alberta’s air transport Service (left), discusses his vision of the canadian Bizav market with the cBaa’s andrew Oestreich.
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ThE gROuP OF 10 Jamie Vins Role: President/CEO, Vins Plastics Ltd. Location: Bradford, Ont. Fleet: Vins flies and operates a singleengine turbine Piper Meridian. He has had the aircraft for six years. Details: Vins Plastics is a family-owned business that has been in operation for the past 35 years. It specializes in the production of high-performance flexible packaging.
Don Lockard Role: General Manager, National Socket Screw Mfg. Ltd. Location: Beamsville, Ont. Fleet: He has been flying in the business for 32 years, currently using a Citation Mustang Details: National Socket Screw Mfg. Ltd is a second-generation family business established in 1951. It specializes in the production of threaded rod and related components for the commercial, industrial and institutional construction markets.
Miguel Mendes Role: President, Image Air Charter Location: Mississauga, Ont. Fleet: The company flies 17 turboprop, light and medium aircraft from a Piper Meridian to a Challenger 850. Details: He started Image Air Charter 12 years ago, offering 17 aircraft all for charter. The company offers specialized knowledge and support in many aspects of aircraft ownership and operation.
Glen Lynch Role: President/CEO, Starlink Aviation Location: Dorval, Que. Fleet: Starlink owns five aircraft in commuter operations/corporate shuttles; balance of aircraft (18 in total) are midsized jets, Falcon 2000s, Lear 60s, and Hawker Beechcraft. Details: The company has been in business since 1982 with 120 employees running five main business lines. The operation includes a Hawker Beechcraft service 32 wings | September/October 2011
www.wingsMagazine.coM
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BC Campbell Role: Vice President, Flight Operations, Skyservice Business Aviation Location: Dorval, Que. Fleet: Skyservice operate 58 aircraft; 55 flying, three for sale, two for maintenance. Details: The company has three fixedbased operations (FBOs) in Montreal, Toronto and Calgary, including an air ambulance division. Celebrating 25th anniversary (see, “Cause for Celebration,” page 24)
Marc Bombenon Role: Pilot/CEO MBE Jets Location: Calgary, Alta. Fleet: The company owns a Hawker Beechcraft Premier 1A; a Hawker 4000; a Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350i; and a Bell 206 B-3 Jet Ranger. MBE also has a Hawker Beechcraft 200 on order. Details: MBEJets is a private fractional ownership company expanding to Winnipeg, Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. Adam Keller Role: President, Chartright Air Group
Location: Mississauga, Ont. Fleet: Chartright operates 27 aircraft (three for sale) including Citation Mustangs, Lear 45s, Hawker 800s, Challenger 300s, a Gulfstream 200 and a Boeing MD87. It also manages two helicopters: AgustaWestland 119 Koala and AgustaWestland 109 Grand. Details: For 20 years, Chartright Air has provided aircraft management and charter services to a variety of clients. Head office is located at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, with subsidiary bases in Vancouver and Chatham, Ont. | w
MBe Jets’ ceO Marc Bombenon (middle) says the players in the canadian Bizav market are often far too passive in promoting the valuable contributions the industry makes to the canadian economy.
centre, an Embraer service centre and Signature flight support. Rob Madden Role: Director of Flight Operations, Air Transport Service, Government of Alberta (Rob also is chair of the board of directors for the CBAA) Location: Edmonton, Alta. Fleet: The service operates four aircraft based in Edmonton: a Dash 8, a King Air 350 and two King Air 200s. Details: It provides air transportation to the province’s ministers, executive council and department staff. Also works with the RCMP for their emergency response team. Andrew Oestreich Role: VP, marketing and communications, CBAA Location: Ottawa, Ont. Details: The Canadian Business Aviation Association (CBAA) is a non-profit association formed in 1961 as Canada’s voice for business aviation. Sam Barone Role: President/CEO, CBAA Location: Ottawa, Ont. Details: Since its inception, the CBAA has assumed an increasing leadership role in its advocacy for Canadian business aviation interests. www.wingsMagazine.coM
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THE WILD NEW FRONTIER uAVs wILL ChAngE ThE AVIATIOn LAndSCAPE
d
rone, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) or even Pilot-Optional. What’s in a name? It’s the future calling, where the second century of powered flight promises to be as innovative and exciting as the first hundred years. The market for UAVs outside the military is limited at present, but the future seems as big as the sky itself. Once the stuff of science fiction and futurists, a host of aerial vehicles are poised to fly higher and faster or even lower and slower, without a human presence in the cockpit, or even a cockpit. From mini-flyers that barely cover the palm of your hand to solar-powered flyers at stratospheric heights, unmanned aviation is a bit of a wild frontier for aerospace. Unlike conventional aircraft, UAVs can exceed the operational parameters of crewed missions, such as dangerous lowlevel operations and extended missions where human fatigue becomes a crucial factor in decision making and information gathering. As airframe designs, control systems, and onboard sensors become more reliable, smaller, lighter, longerlasting, safer, and cheaper, the economic advantages of UAVs will become more attractive to civilian operators. Even before powered flight, military forces were using tethered balloons and kites to carry observers high enough to see beyond the established battle lines and determine the enemy’s strengths. The first crude UAVs appeared shortly after the First World War, employed as target drones. As the Canadian Forces completes its mission in Afghanistan, Col. Gordon Reid, A3 Aviation Patrol and Transport at 1 Canadian Air Division reports that the Canadian army has “fallen in love” with UAVs that the CF deployed in Afghanistan. The CF deployed the CU-161 Sperwer in 2003. The rail-launched, truck-mounted Sperwer proved to have a steep operational learning curve, but it provided an invaluable education to the CF and filled the gap 34 wings | September/October 2011
Gunner eric Green (left) and Bombardier carl Hethrington load the cu-161 Sperwer onto their 10-ton truck after its flight west of Kandahar.
until the next generation of UAVs could be fully assessed. While the world’s attention was focused on Predators and their lethal cousin, the Grim Reaper, Canadians focused on UAVs that were specific to the needs of the mission in Afghanistan. The Sperwers were replaced by Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Cu-170 Herons, leased from McDonald, Dettwiler and Associates of Richmond, B.C. The Heron, with a service ceiling of 27,000 ft. and reported endurance in excess of 40 hours, was able to provide what Col. Reid describes as “persistent
and constant surveillance” across the entire Canadian area of responsibility operating on a 24/7 basis. At the tactical level, ground troops had small UAVs such as the Scan Eagle and Skylark. The Scan Eagle, pneumatically launched from a small trailer, has a range of up to 100 kilometres and an endurance of up to 20 hours. The Scan Eagle can provide reconnaissance capabilities to larger military units across a wide battlefront. The Skylark is designed to be carried in a backpack and assembled in the field as needed. Hand-launched, the electrically www.wingsMagazine.coM
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By PAuL dIxOn
for operating any given system. Following a long-standing tradition, Canada currently has personnel serving with Australian and American military units employing UAVs in order to better bridge the gap between today and the day when the CF acquires its next generation of UAVs. The CF is looking ahead with an eye to integrating UAVs with existing platforms, as “force multipliers” in military jargon, or as Col. Reid says, “much as a helicopter complements a warship, the UAV can greatly expand the effective coverage area if it is paired with a helicopter or a longrange aircraft such as the CP-140 Aurora. The UAV can monitor patterns of activity for extended periods across a broad area.” The helicopter or patrol aircraft can be used much more effectively for investigating contacts made by the UAV.
Crowe says. The work has been subdivided into three sub-groups concentrating on: People (pilot, operator and maintenance training, competencies and licensing); Product (registration, flight authority and airworthiness); and Operations and Access to Airspace. These sub-groups are currently meeting and have divided the exercise into four phases: • Phase 1 - UAS below 25 kilograms and operated within visual line of sight • Phase 2 – UAS below 25 kilograms operated beyond visual line of sight • Phase 3 – All operations of UAS between 25 and 150 kilograms • Phase 4 – All UAS operations in Canadian airspace (file and fly) The working groups are expected to present a set of proposed regulations for
“tHe uav caN GReatly exPaNd tHe eFFectIve cOveRaGe aRea IF It IS PaIRed WItH a HelIcOPteR OR a lONG-RaNGe aIRcRaFt.” “(UAVs) can be used for military purposes such as enforcing the naval blockade of Libya, anti-piracy patrols or extending current domestic programs such as assisting the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in monitoring foreign fish boats and monitoring drift nets,” he says.
Conquering the obstacles
powered craft has a range of five to 10 kilometres and can stay aloft for up to two hours. Operated from a control system the size of a laptop computer, the Skylark allows troops in the most forward positions to literally look around corners and determine what is behind buildings, walls and other obstructions without exposing themselves to ambush. Col. Reid says the CF is likely a year or two away from making a decision as to when the next generation of UAVs will be employed. The CF is looking at a number of systems, from the simplest to the highflying long-range models. There are other considerations dependent on the decisions, such as the personnel requirements www.wingsMagazine.coM
While the military use of UAVs expands exponentially, civilian aviation has two major obstacles to overcome. First, there has to be a level of safety equivalent to manned aircraft. UAVs will have to be able to “see” and avoid other aircraft, before there will be operations in regulated airspace. Then there’s the matter of having a viable business plan – matching the aircraft to the job. Unmanned Systems Canada is a national not-for-profit organization that represents the Canadian unmanned vehicle systems community: aviation (UAS), ground vehicles (UGV) and underwater (UUV). Formed in 2009 from the merger of two groups, USC has grown from a handful of members to more than 50 corporate members. USC executive director Wayne Crowe explains that Transport Canada has commissioned a working group of all interested stakeholders to develop the regulations necessary to integrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into Canadian airspace. “This is a controversial issue of great importance to our membership; accordingly, Unmanned Systems Canada is well represented – the working group charged with developing the regulations is co-chaired by Transport Canada and Unmanned Systems Canada and many of our members have positions in the actual working group,”
the initial phase to the Transport Canada advisory committee by the spring of 2012 and that all phases would be addressed within six years. Formal UAS air regulations will be issued following government approval. However, it is anticipated that the results of the deliberations and recommendations will be reflected in internal guidelines for special flight authorizations on an ongoing basis as they are accepted. If everything goes as planned, Crowe says “by the time the proposed regulations become law they will have already become everyday practice.” In terms of research and development, USC sponsors a student competition to promote Canadian expertise and experience in unmanned systems technologies at the university and college levels. The 2011 competition attracted 18 teams from Canadian schools, up from four in 2007 and 10 in 2009. The theme of this year’s competition was support to forest fire fighting, with a parallel competition that included two unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). The ground vehicles were to patrol a designated firebreak and when an event occurred that triggered their sensors, the UGV was to report to the UAS overhead. The UAS would then investigate with its sensors and stream information back to the base station. The winner of both phases of the UAS competition was the team from Université de Sherbrooke. USC has also been researching Canada’s role in Arctic monitoring and assessment with a view to assisting in the implementation of unmanned vehicles in meeting Canada’s international Arctic obligations. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) is an international September/October 2011 | wings 35
organization that reports to the Arctic Council. It is actively supported by the eight Arctic countries, responding to governmental requests for information on the Arctic. Unmanned Systems Canada is a member of the AMAP UAS Expert Group. It was established at the request of the Arctic Council in response to needs voiced by the scientific community for access to gather important environmental and climate data using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Mark Aruja, USC’s communications director describes it as “working with the scientists to understand what they want to achieve and what technology they can use . . . a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft can’t fly 100 feet above the ground for hundreds of kilometres in the high Arctic.”
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Gunner Sheldon davis of 2 Royal canadian Horse artillery (2 RcHa) recovers a Skylark mini uav at the canadian Forward Operating Base (FOB) at Sperwan Ghar, afghanistan.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security started using a fleet of six Predator UAVs last year to patrol the entire U.S.Mexico border. Earlier this year, Predators started flying the Canada-U.S. border across the prairies. In a demonstration of potential uses of the technology, sensors on several Predators were used to gather information on wildfires burning close to the border between Arizona and New
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Mexico earlier this year. The data was streamed in real-time to firefighting authorities. At the 2010 Aerial Firefighting Conference in Richmond, B.C. representatives of Lockheed Martin extolled the virtues of the Predator as an informationgathering tool for wildland firefighters. The problem is under current airspace regulations, the Predator cannot be operated over any populated areas, making it applicable in about one per cent of the potential market. At the same conference, Kathe Rich of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks talked about her experience the previous year using a Scan Eagle UAV to support the Bureau of Land Management and the Alaska Fire Service. When dense and widespread smoke made manned flights too dangerous, the UAV was deployed over several massive fires, using its infrared sensors to track the progression of the fires and identify hot spots. Rich described the missions as “nothing fancy, just a matter of identifying where the actual fire is and being able to tell if the fire had crossed a river.” For this special mission, the university needed to obtain an emergency certificate of authority from the FAA to fly in civil air space. While the Scan Eagle was in the air, no other aircraft were permitted.
the cu-170 Heron uav is a one-ton aircraft that can conduct operations in excess of 24 hours with altitudes of up to 10,000 metres.
In Canada, law enforcement has taken the low road, so to speak. In 2007, Const. Mark Sharpe of the Kenora Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) put his experience with radio-controlled aircraft to work with his day job as a forensic identification officer, by testing and operating small radio-controlled UAVs
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equipped with digital cameras for crime scene photography. Today, the OPP has UAVs at six detachments around Ontario, both the X-6 manufactured by Draganfly Systems of Saskatoon and the Scout, manufactured by Aeryon Labs of Waterloo, Ont. At about $30,000 each, the small UAVs are cost-effective to operate. Since
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November 2010, the OPP has operated them under a Special Flight Operations Certificate covering all of Ontario that permits flight over urban areas.
A cost-cutting alternative? Operating aircraft without human crew is attractive in a number of ways. In the hostile environment that the military often operates in, it reduces the potential for death or injury to personnel while performing a mission. Reid notes that in many environments UAVs, especially the smaller, less costly models, are seen as being expendable within the context of the mission. In the civilian world, some see the potential elimination of pilots as a cost-cutting measure. Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx, sent ripples across aviation circles in February 2009 when he raised the issue of UAVs in an interview with Wired magazine. Specifically, Smith said he would like to switch all of FedEx’s fleet (currently about 688 aircraft) to UAVs, but acknowledged this would not be possible until the FAA brings in new regulations. In a “back to the future” moment, the airship or blimp may return as a pilot-optional “heavylifter” or “ultralifter” as a result of a program initiated by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In 2006, DARPA announced a project that would see a program to 38 wings | September/October 2011
develop and evaluate a “very large airlift vehicle,” capable of carrying 500 tons a distance of 12,000 nautical miles in less than seven days. While the DARPA project has yet to see the light of day, several companies are promising delivery in the near future of hybrid airships that have lifting capacity in the range of 20 tons. Heavier than air, hybrids combine the lifting power of helium with conventional motive power, with the result being an extra-large STOL aircraft. At the other end of the scale, students from Boston University’s Mechanical Engineering Intelligent Mechatronics Lab are engaged in a study of bats in an effort to observe the bats’ fundamental control laws of flying behaviour in order to achieve better autonomous UAV flight. The students built their own UAV (known as the Batcopter) out of chrome towel racks from Home Depot and fibreglass kite rods, powered by AXI model motors. Equipped with a digital camera and tracked by FLIR from the ground, the mini-copter was flown through swarms of millions of bats that inhabit the remote region of Texas southwest of San Antonio. While successful flights have been made, the project is still underway and no conclusions have been published. From the world of science fiction, a press release issued by the University of Southampton, England, in July states
“engineers at the University of Southampton have designed and flown the world’s first ‘printed’ aircraft, which could revolutionize the economics of aircraft design.” The release goes on to say, “the SULSA (Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft) plane is an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) whose entire structure has been printed, including wings, integral control surfaces and access hatches. It was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser-sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building up the item layer by layer. No fasteners were used and all equipment was attached using ‘snap fit’ techniques so the entire aircraft can be put together without tools in minutes.” Powered by an electric motor, the aircraft has a wingspan of two metres and is capable of speeds up to 100 kilometres per hour. The university is initiating a post-graduate program in September 2011 covering the design, manufacture and operation of robotic vehicles. If, as Mark Aruja of Unmanned Systems Canada, says, “we are only at the Sopwith Camel stage of UAV development,” then it will be very interesting to see if regulation and design can meet the needs of the marketplace in years to come. Either way, one thing is for certain: our skies are likely going to get very crowded – and UAVs will have a significant impact on many operations. | w www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTo: MasTeR cPl. RoBeRT BoTTRill, cF coMBaT caMeRa
the Heron, uav leased through Macdonald dettwiler and associates ltd. (Mda), prior to launch at Kandahar airfield, afghanistan.
Montreal’s Bombardier aerospace, the nation’s leading manufacturer of business and commercial jets, is one of the key participants in the MacH initiative.
QuEBEC’S mACh PROgRAm wILL ACCELERATE gROwTh
A
By BRIAn dunn éro Montréal is an organization that brings together all the major decision makers in Quebec’s aerospace sector, including manufacturers, educational and research institutions, associations and unions. It recently launched MACH, a program to improve the competitiveness of the province’s aerospace industry supply chain, backed by a $4 million grant from the Quebec government to kick-start the initiative. The program is also getting funding from the private sector. To wit, Aluminerie Alouette of Sept-îles, is kicking in $1.5 million over five years, as several of 40 wings | September/October 2011
aluminum’s properties, such as its light weight and malleability, make it a preferred material for many uses in the aerospace industry. MACH is being launched at a time when employment in Quebec’s aerospace sector declined 8.1 per cent between 2009/10, according to l’Institut de la statistique du Québec. The number of jobs in the sector dropped to 20,601 from 22,422 in the previous year. By comparison, aerospace jobs throughout Canada declined 6.4 per cent to 36,947 employees. One bright spot is Bombardier Aerospace. At the beginning of the year, Bombardier, the largest Canadian employer in the sector, had 30,300 people on its payroll worldwide, 4.8 per cent more than a year earlier. The company has also hired a few hundred engineers in the Montreal area in the past few months to work on the CSeries commercial aircraft for the 110-150-seat market that will
be built at its Mirabel plant north of the city. The decline in the aerospace market is nothing new. Since 2001, the average annual drop in the sector is 2.1 per cent in Quebec and three per cent Canada-wide. By comparison, the decline in the U.S. is only 0.7 per cent. Exports declined 15.5 per cent last year in Quebec to $6.68 billion and are down 9.7 per cent across Canada to $11.2 billion. U.S. exports were off 13 per cent to $83.9 billion. “Quebec’s aerospace industry has been mobilizing to stay competitive and maintain its global position and has decided to quickly address the supply chain challenges,” says Gilles Labbé, chairman of both Aéro Montreal and Héroux-Devtek. “Stemming from the work by Aéro Montréal’s Supply Chain Working Group, the MACH initiative is the result of joint discussions among members of the cluster and intends to be a unifying process to support the long-term strategic growth of www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTo: BoMBaRDieR
RACING TOWARD T
eight OeMs are participating in the first phase of the MacH initiative, including Sonaca Montréal.
PHoTo: sonaca MonTRéal
THE FuTuRE the sector,” explains Philippe Hoste, president of the Aéro Montréal Supply Chain Development Working Group and CEO of Sonaca Montréal. The working group identified five priority areas that MACH wants to address, namely branding and promotion, innovation, supply chain development, human resources and national security and defence. The MACH initiative is aimed at strengthening the individual links in the supply chain, namely subcontractors, to accelerate its overall performance. The entire program consists of a $15 million public-private collaboration over five years involving 70 suppliers, with 20 taking part this year as selected by the eight OEMs taking part in the program as mentors. In addition to offering financial support, the MACH program will also provide a framework for excellence by offering methodologies, tools, and training www.wingsMagazine.coM
programs to increase their capabilities in 15 business processes. The 20 participating small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME), or subcontractors, will be paired with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) clients, after which they’ll receive a certificate between the lowest level MACH 1 up to MACH 5 that will offer both increased market visibility and more business opportunities. “Every year, the suppliers are re-evaluated and are given a list of consultants or training courses they can take to improve their performance. The success of the program will be based on the ability of the suppliers moving up the scale to MACH 5,” explains Suzanne Benoît, CEO of Aéro Montréal. Eight OEMs are participating in the first phase of the MACH program. They consist of la crème de la crème of Quebec’s aerospace sector, namely Bombardier Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney Canada, CAE,
Bell Helicopter Textron Canada, HérouxDevtek, L-3 Communications MAS, Sonaca Montréal and Mecachrome. “Large OEMs like Bombardier don’t want to deal with thousands of suppliers. Instead they want to deal with fewer subcontractors and give them larger work packages,” says Benoît. “Many SMEs feel threatened that they’ll miss out on contracts because they don’t have the resources or knowledge to compete. MACH wants to get them involved in joint ventures and improve their competitiveness and knowhow so they don’t get left behind.” And because the aerospace industry is global, with many large OEMs subcontracting work in different countries, local SMEs often don’t know the players from other countries that they should be dealing with. By being involved in MACH it is hoped they’ll get to know whom they should approach for work, adds Benoît. September/October 2011 | wings 41
the MacH initiative will help support long-term growth in the sector, says Philippe Hoste, ceO of Sonaca Montréal.
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Another objective of MACH is to develop strategies and projects to close the quality gap in Quebec’s supply chain to make it a world-class supply chain. The program allows suppliers and OEMs to evaluate and identify performance gaps. As a result, it provides suppliers with the necessary data to determine which course of action is most suited for improving their position within the supply chain. The framework prioritizes three areas of focus for improved competitiveness: excellence in leadership, excellence in operations, and excellence in planning and developing the workforce.
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What’s in it for the OEMs that give their free time to the program participants? “Instead of sourcing worldwide to deal with the best suppliers, OEMs would prefer to deal with local suppliers if they can improve their competitiveness and abilities,” suggests Benoît. “Because salaries are higher here, local companies have to be more innovative to compete.” She cites Pratt & Whitney Canada’s Mirabel plant, which is the most advanced Pratt & Whitney operation in the world in terms of robotics, and thereby relies less on manpower. “The big threat is coming from lowcost countries, because a lot of OEMs are not dealing with local suppliers with their higher salaries. That’s why they have to be able to deliver quality products on time and to do that, they need to improve their human resources. “The final assembly of the CSeries will be done at Mirabel. That’s where we can compete with value-added engineering and design. It’s a highly specialized
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workforce and that’s where we have to keep our edge,” Benoît says.
Fostering the global perspective In addition to MACH, Aéro Montréal is busy fostering global partnerships. At the Paris Air Show in June, it signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Aerospace & Defence Research Collaboratory led by Arizona State University to foster stronger exchanges between Quebec and Arizona aerospace and defence industries. Under the agreement, both parties promise to exchange information about the possibilities of taking part in local and international projects and programs: exchange information about training, conferences, seminars or co-operation days; invite each other to their respective events; jointly organize economic missions or broker meetings for the members of both clusters; and to define possibilities of research projects for members of both organizations. Benoît says it will provide significant benefits to Quebec’s aerospace industry. “We share similar objectives and strongly believe in the potential for dialogue on mutual challenges. Quebec’s aerospace industry has been mobilizing to stay competitive and maintain its global position. Such an agreement will certainly help our
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companies here in Quebec.” Aéro Montréal has established a network of clusters by signing similar agreements with North West of England Aerospace Alliance, Aerospace Valley; World Competitiveness Cluster of Midi-Pyrénées & Aquitaine, France; Skywin Wallonia, Belgium; BavAIRia and “Hamburg – The place for aviation” Germany; Distretto Aerospaziale Pugliese, Italy; and with Aviation Valley, Poland.
around the world. It will also feature an exhibit of aerospace technologies and B2B meetings to provide participants with an overview of advanced technologies and business opportunities. The most ambitious project Aéro Montréal is involved in, a first in Canada, is the Greener Aircraft Catalyst Project, whose objective is to develop a greener aircraft equipped with intelligent systems, less costly to build and more effective. By in-
MORe SuStaINaBle aIRPlaNeS WIll alSO Be a Key tO cOMPetItIveNeSS IN tHe FIeld OF avIatION. And in December, Aéro Montréal is organizing the Aerospace Innovation Forum 2011, the third forum it has organized dedicated to aerospace innovation. The event, which attracted 450 participants last year from around the world, will address topics of interest to Quebec, Canadian and international aerospace industry stakeholders, university representatives, research centres, policy makers, students and specialized journalists. The forum will include conferences and workshops on best practices and current and future strategies of leading and upcoming aerospace clusters from
corporating several new technologies, the aircraft will be lighter, more efficient, quieter and produce less carbon. For the industry, more sustainable airplanes will also be a key to competitiveness in the field of aviation. In 10 or 15 years, aircraft with a reduced environmental footprint will have a clear competitive advantage over others, especially in a context where there are more and more players, according to Benoît. “To maintain our advantage in Quebec, we must start developing, beginning right now, the technologies needed to design and manufacture such aircraft,” Benoît says.
Quebec’s Héroux-devtek is committed to creating the landing gear of the future.
The project is designed to allow the entire aerospace industry to participate in the quest for sustainable development and stand out from the competition. Within three or four years, the initiative will allow partners to participate in specific projects and to bid on major programs around the world. The project has a private-public budget of $150 million over four years, funded 53 per cent by industry and 47 per cent by the Quebec government. By comparison, the EU has a similar project called the Clean Sky Initiative with a budget of $2.3 billion over a similar period, Benoît says.
Don’t miss ccaa’s event of the year! The 20th CCAA Forum & AGM in Winnipeg, MB October 19 to 21, 2011 Radisson Hotel Winnipeg Downtown The CCAA Forum & AGM continues to be one of the foremost events for the Canadian aviation and aerospace industry. The goals of the Forum are to provide industry professionals with the opportunity to examine current trends and best practices, and for CCAA to consult with industry on its projects and priorities. In addition, popular social events such as the Welcome Reception and the Awards Banquet & Gala Evening are perfect occasions for delegates to socialize in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The Forum is preceded by CCAA and industry meetings beginning on Monday, October 17. In addition, preForum training workshops will be offered on Wednesday, October 19. It is both valuable and productive to hold these meetings and workshops before the Forum because they bring many stakeholders together to exchange ideas about the work and direction of CCAA and the industry.
Sponsorship is essential to the success of the Forum. To discuss corporate sponsorship opportunities, please contact Gail Vent, Director, Membership Services at 1-800-448-9715, ext. 223 or at gvent@avaerocouncil.ca.
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44 wings | September/October 2011
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PHoTo: HéRoUx-DeVTek
For more information about Forum presentations and workshops, please check the web site at http://www.avaerocouncil.ca/index.php/en/events/2011-forum-a-agm.
“This type of research is the Death Valley for OEMs, because it’s very expensive and very risky. The fact that the government is participating levels the playing field a bit,” she says. The project is divided into five different components of the aerospace industry. They are: Aircraft Fuselage Structures in Composite Materials, headed by Bombardier and Bell Helicopter Textron; Fuel Efficient Engine led by Pratt & Whitney Canada; Integrated Avionics for Cockpit Applications overseen by Esterline CMC Electronics; Integrated Avionics for Critical Systems headed by Thales Canada; and Landing Gear of the Future led by Héroux-Devtek. “The noise you hear when a plane lands is from the landing gear, not the engines,” Benoît points out. “So this will be a very interesting challenge.” It would be safe to say the entire aerospace industry faces a very interesting challenge to maintain its competitive edge. And with some of the biggest names in the business headquartered in Quebec, they won’t lack inexperience. | w
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aMOs work in a hazardous environment and are just as much – or more – at risk from Human Factor conditions as the flight crew.
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEm
undERSTAndIng ThE humAn FACTOR
T
PHoTo: ccaa
By dAVId OLSEn
he human element is the most flexible, valuable and adaptable part of the aviation system. Such is the description found in CAP 716 created by the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority – the governing body that ensures civil aviation standards are set and achieved. And so if this statement is indeed accurate, it begs the question of www.wingsMagazine.coM
why, statistically, have three out of every four accidents resulted from degraded or below optimum human performance? Degraded performance can occur anywhere – on the ground or in the air, by anyone involved in the aviation system. This is the Human Factors (HF) variable, a key element in aviation safety defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as being “about people
in their working and living environments and their relationship with equipment, procedures and the environment. Just as importantly it is about their relationships with other people.” Transport Canada (TC) did valuable work on human performance in 1999, introducing HF requirements in CARs for AMOs, airport personnel and Flight Service Specialists (FSS). Transport Canada was very specific about HF training for AMOs; not surprising, since Dr. Bill Johnson, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for HF in Aircraft Maintenance Systems, confirmed that approximately 80 per cent of maintenance mistakes involve human errors. TC mandated two days of initial HF training for AMOs (Airworthiness Directive B058 4th Ed 2005) but this was subsequently cancelled, a decision QualaTech-Aero Consulting president Keith Green maintains has caused the HF program to stagnate or degrade. QualaTech is an international consultancy group based in Canada that has presented many HF training courses since 2002. “Some aviation managements are not getting the big picture, in which HF and SMS are key tools to prevent error and financial loss,” says Green. Many view HF training as a cost rather than an investment, he adds. Gail Vent shares a similar perspective. The training director of the Canadian Council for Aviation and Aerospace (CCAA) reminds us that the CCAA recognized the importance of HF in the late ’90s, and developed a national two-day human factors certificate course that is TC compliant and includes all aspects of HF and safety management. Vent describes the CCAA’s Human Factors and Safety Management Program as “providing the aviation industry with the information, tools, and training to implement continuing long-term safety programs and procedures which develop and maintain effective human-centered safety management skills and programs.” More than 3,500 people have taken the HF course since 2003 whereas the Human Performance in Aviation Maintenance online training has, since 2004, been taken by more than 5,300 people. Australian safety researcher Allan Hobbs confirms that QualaTech and CCAA’s concerns are well founded. Says Hobbs: “AMOs work in a hazardous environment that requires physical strength, meticulous attention to detail [and they] may work deep in some confined inner space in extremes of heat and cold and at night.” In today’s stressful world, management and regulators must consider the outcome of employees who may be under marital stress, living in highcost areas, are having trouble paying a mortgage, and are sleeping badly as a result. All September/October 2011 | wings 47
of these situations may be distracting them at work, resulting in a lack of teamwork compounded by a lack of knowledge and training. The end result may be a wide-body jet plunging earthward with 300 people facing oblivion.
There are few true "accidents" The only true accident is the one that cannot be foreseen, but “accident” is used daily in aviation when it is obvious that most so-called accidents are not true accidents at all. Most are attributed to human error or degraded performance. This demonstrates that we are quick to pass judgment on where and how in the aviation system human failure occurs and have not mastered the art of getting to the “why.” People affected may also suspect that “human error” may be a convenient way of passing blame down to scapegoats at a lower level or those who are dead. For example, after the widely reported case of the air traffic controller falling asleep on the night shift at Washington National Airport on March 23, U.S. FAA administrator Randy Babbitt replied: “As a former airline pilot, I am personally outraged this controller did not meet his responsibility to help land these two airplanes.” A U.S. Republican congressman demanded that the FAA “make an example” of the hapless controller. Stirring words indeed, followed by the suspension of the controller and enforced resignation of the head of U.S. Air Traffic Control. Given that Babbitt immediately increased nighttime staffing levels and ordered a major system review, cynics might ask why he didn’t initiate these measures sooner and discover why controllers fall asleep. They might also ask why controllers, as reported, take naps while on shift.
Human Factor elements are felt at every level of the aviation spectrum – from air traffic controllers to aMes. Here, an on-the-job controller trainee in Gander, Nfld., learns his craft.
While the FAA has been in the news, NAV CANADA has consistently addressed HF with a robust program directed by John David, VP Safety and Quality. David stresses that Human Factors is one of 16 Safety Management Policies forming the core of NAV CANADA’s Safety Management System (SMS). The Policy integrates HF into all activities affecting provision of air navigation services. “The objective,” says David, “is to include HF in the safety and risk management policies, practices and procedures, and to systematically apply HF in management activity, including the planning, design, development, deployment, operation and maintenance 48 wings | September/October 2011
Human Factor elements such as distractions at work or poor sleeping habits can seriously affect job performance – and hinder the safety environment. aMOs are particularly at risk.
associated with NAV CANADA services.” “HF underpins all elements of the company SMS,” David says. “For example, we use it to investigate aviation incidents, to understand the reason why the event occurred, focusing on identifying
organization, local workplace conditions, or changes in the operating environment that may have played a role.” Controllers and FSS are introduced to the basic HF concepts early in training, and annual recurrent training contains HF topics, such www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTos: (ToP) naV canaDa, (BoTToM) aiR canaDa
tHe eNd ReSult May Be a WIde-BOdy Jet PluNGING eaRtHWaRd WItH 300 PeOPle FacING OBlIvION.
The Colgan crash bears scrutiny in terms of the “dirty dozen.” The NTSB report illustrates that as many as nine were involved and this was only at the flight crew level. Those factors were interacting and some must also have been in-play at other levels in the company organization. If crew members lack knowledge or are under stress – and fatigued – who else may have caused that situation? What human factors were affecting them?
aPPROxIMately 80 PeR ceNt OF MaINteNaNce MIStaKeS INvOlve HuMaN eRRORS.
John david, vP, Safety and Quality, at Nav caNada, says driving home the Human Factor principles to upper management at various organizations remains a top priority.
as Just Culture, Threat and Error Management, Fatigue Management, and, most recently, the Human Factors of Automation in Air Traffic Management. It also provides the view from the pilot’s world through an overview of HF and Automation in the Cockpit.
PHoTo: naV canaDa
under the microscope The HF issue of fatigue captured public interest after the high-profile Feb. 12, 2009, Colgan Air crash at Buffalo. Media coverage in the U.S. and Canada pointed to pilot fatigue. But fatigue, while deadly, is just one of the widely recognized “dirty dozen” human factors. Furthermore, HF affects everyone in aviation – flight crew, maintenance engineers, designers, airport staff and AT controllers – throughout the system. It can even include passengers – for example, the intoxicated passenger who caused the fatal crash of a floatplane on the B.C. coast in 2010. The November/December 2010 issue of Wings also www.wingsMagazine.coM
highlighted the case of the fatal crash of the MK Airlines Boeing 747 at Halifax in 2004, in which crew fatigue was cited as a major causal factor. Taking the total HF view, however, there was more to it than just fatigue. In this and other incidents, the question remains: why are people fatigued and what were the other HF pressures? The answer can be found in an analysis of the Pandora’s Box of human factors (the “dirty dozen”) and how they interact. The “dirty dozen”: • Lack of Communication • Lack of Knowledge • Lack of Teamwork • Lack of Resources • Lack of Assertiveness • Lack of Awareness • Complacency • Distraction • Fatigue • Pressure • Stress • Norms
This problem is by no means new, but after an accident, authorities continue to close the stable door after the horse has bolted. The U.S. National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) chair praised the FAA administrator for initiating regulatory changes in response to the Colgan Air crash and regulators worldwide often propose changes after a problem has killed people. We are transfixed by the “how and what” but are not proactive enough about the “why.” So, how do we learn from these events? Often it seems, it’s too little, too late – as grieving relatives complain. There are certain eerie similarities between the Colgan Air crash and the loss of Air France 447 over the South Atlantic in 2009. In particular, both aircraft stalled, and, in neither case did the pilot(s) level the attitude – the planes remained nose up with high angles of attack. These incidents have generated a huge debate about pilot training, flight deck automation and stall recovery techniques for new-generation aircraft. At the Flight Safety Foundation safety seminar in Milan last November, FAA HF specialist Dr. Kathy Abbott presented evidence of “disharmony between crews and their automated aircraft.” Unfortunately, as with fatigue, the aviation industry has perhaps had a historical tendency to underestimate the effect of the “dirty dozen” and overestimate the human capability to cope with them. So, it remains to be seen if anyone will act on the “disharmony.” And in case we think we have fixed the problems, consider this: since 2000, some 9,000 people have been killed in more than 340 global airline accidents. And industry observers are concerned that safety improvement has stagnated. | w This is the first of a two-part series in Wings dedicated to Human Factors and safety concerns. Part 2 examines the HF effect on the flight crew. September/October 2011 | wings 49
THE SkILL QuOTIEN mOnEy ISn’T ThREATEnIng mRO COmPETITIVEnESS
A
By dAVId CARR
50 wings | September/October 2011
larger aerospace players such as Bombardier aerospace have a steady pipeline of skilled workers to keep production moving.
may prompt a similar rethink. “That can only take you so far,” says Les Aalders, executive vice-president of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada. “At some point these people are going to have to retire and it is going to be a wave crashing against the bow.” Currently the greatest demand and greatest shortages are for avionics technicians and qualified machinists. Adding to the frustration is the skills imbalance in the Canadian labour force. In 2011, Canada had a shortage of 560,000 skilled workers versus a surplus of 88,000 unskilled workers. By 2016, an already yawning gap is expected to widen to a
shortage of 1.4 million skilled workers versus a surplus of over half a million unskilled workers. As the retirement clock keeps ticking down the number of students enrolling in aviation maintenance programs is not keeping pace with the 5.2 per cent compound annual growth rate in MRO forecast by Oliver Wyman. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that those who graduate will follow the string onto the floor of an airline, MRO or original equipment manufacturer (OEM). In 2009, 100 per cent of British Columbia Institute of Technology aviation graduates bypassed aviation entirely to work on Vancouver’s Skytrain light www.wingsMagazine.coM
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viation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) is on a rebound. Oliver Wyman, a global management consultancy, estimates that between 2010 and 2014 the MRO market will grow worldwide from roughly $41.5 billion to just over $50 billion, sparked by a post-recession bounce, tightening capacity among larger MROs and a significant increase in the outsourcing of engine overhaul, which represents a 35 per cent slice of all aircraft maintenance. Over that same period, Canada, the United States and Europe are expected to experience a combined dip in global market share from 62 per cent to 57 per cent as price sensitive basic maintenance shifts to lower wage countries, and MROs in emerging markets in Asia, South America and the Middle East continue to post strong growth. According to AeroStrategy, a global aviation consultancy, the fastestgrowing region for MRO is the Middle East at approximately 12 per cent. Interestingly, it is an evaporating talent pool rather than a soaring loonie that threatens Canadian MRO, especially as new-generation aircraft drive growing demand for the types of skills that have traditionally given Canadian shops an advantage. At a recent industry consultation put on by the Canadian Aviation Council for Aviation and Aerospace (CCAA, formerly the Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council), attracting and retaining people with the right skills was the top issue among MRO operators. “A strong dollar is a concern but we can overcome that,” Robert Donald, executive director of the CCAA, points out. “But it doesn’t matter where the dollar is if you don’t have the right people.” By 2017, 40 per cent of the Canadian labour force will be over 55 years of age and considering retirement, including the more than 80,000 aviation maintenance engineers (AME). Perhaps Canadian MRO dodged a bullet during the recent downturn as demand weakened and the monetary meltdown caused older AMEs to postpone retirement. The current economic crisis and the elimination of mandatory retirement in provinces such as British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan
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rail transit system. Graduates from similar programs across the country are finding higher-paying jobs in the oil patch, bus companies or the ups and downs of elevator repair. CCAA’s Donald argues that the upcoming skills shortage is going to be markedly different from the shortages of the past. “There is a pipeline effect. Larger players like Air Canada, Bombardier and Aveos [formerly Air Canada Technical Services] had a steady pipeline to the skills they needed leaving smaller operations to struggle. This shortage is going to flow up the pipeline and it is going to hit everybody.” Aalders agrees. “We are already starting to see individual examples of that.” Bombardier Aerospace is hiring 1,500 www.wingsMagazine.coM
Setting the standard STANDARDAERO IS CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF ExCELLENCE
new engineers and trades people, and had to send a recruiting team to the United Kingdom and France. One position took two years to fill. Ironically, it is the cluster of heavyhitters like Bombardier (the third largest civil aircraft manufacturer), Pratt & Whitney Canada (the largest supplier of engines for regional and business aircraft and helicopters) and CAE (a world leader in simulation and modeling) that will have the greatest need. The knock on effect of this cluster is huge says Aalders. “These companies are generating work in Canada to maintain their products.” The picture is not all gloom. Some MROs such as StandardAero are not waiting for recruits to walk through the hangar door. The Winnipeg-based MRO
Dubai’s $15 billion road map into aerospace manufacturing and aviation services runs through canada. launched in 2006 by the emirate government, Dubai aerospace enterprise’s (Dae) early focus was to be on new airport development and management, especially in china and india. one year later, Dae made a $1.9 billion acquisition into north america, buying winnipeg-based standardaero and arizona-based landmark aviation from the carlyle group, a global asset management company. celebrating 100 years, standardaero was an early pioneer in third-party aero engine maintenance and repair. in 1911, two years after John Mccurdy first flew the silver Dart over Baddeck Bay, nova scotia, charles Pearce and william Bickell founded standard Machine works, specializing in car, truck and tractor engine repair. in 1936, the company expanded into aircraft engines, beginning with the rebuilding of a British armstrong siddeley cheetah piston engine that would power training aircraft in the second world war. standardaero has changed hands several times over the decades and head office has strayed a bit from its winnipeg roots. Dae consolidated its north american operations under the standardaero banner. Headquartered in Temple, ariz., the entity is one of the world’s largest independent providers of MRo services, which include engine and airframe repair and overhaul, engine component repair, engineering services, interior completions and paint for the business, airline and military sectors. in 2010, the Reuters news agency reported that Dae had retained the services of Deutsche Bank to advise on the sale of standardaero after the company had received interest from several potential buyers. standardaero quickly denied the story, although Dubai’s state-owned enterprises continue to cope with a $100 billion debt pile and merger and acquisition within global MRo is expected to ramp up after three years of little activity. whatever the outcome, standardaero’s winnipeg operation continues to jump from strength to strength. later this year, the company will cut the ribbon on a $50-million engine testing plant in partnership with ge canada. September/October 2011 | wings 51
has been twisting the spanner on aero engines for almost as long as Canadians have been piloting airplanes (see, “Setting the Standard,” page 51) is playing a larger role in the education system, working with the Manitoba government and local schools to identify the skills to service larger fleets of increasingly more complex airframes, engines and avionics. Next-generation aircraft, carbon composites and more complex systems will also rekindle an interest in aviation. But Canada also needs to do a better job of attracting foreign AMEs and fast-tracking accreditation. The number of foreign trained AMEs contributing to the unskilled shortage by driving cabs and sweeping floors is not as severe as with other professions, but they do exist and in increasing numbers. There is also a concern that federal budget cuts might compromise Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s ability to help the MRO industry solve the skills puzzle. A simple straight-line analysis points to at least 32,000 Canadian AMEs (40 per cent of supply) set to retire over the next 10 years. For the most part, the Canadian MRO industry has been lucky. Despite an enormous talent bank, offshore operators have been slow to poach Canadian AMEs
Standardaero is working with the Manitoba government and local schools to ensure the pipeline of skilled workers remains strong.
the same way they do pilots, and foreign students who have trained here are just as likely to stay. But Canada is not the only country confronting a tightening MRO labour market, a situation that makes foreign AMEs more difficult to attract and Canadian AMEs more vulnerable to lure.
It is entirely possible that a sharp increase in jet fuel prices and a depressed market could knock the fragile recovery off course and push the bottom of the skills shortage into the future. But that is a dangerous assumption that few MROs should base their calculations on. | w
Air Transport Association of Canada
77th Annual General Meeting and Tradeshow ATAC, founded in 1934, is Canada’s national trade association for commercial aviation and flight training industries as well as aviation industry suppliers. For further information: Debbie Simpson, Tradeshow Coordinator Phone: 613-233-7727 ext. 312 E-mail: tradeshow@atac.ca
November 13 -15, 2011 Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel Montreal, QC
Check out ATAC’s website at www.atac.ca. For information on membership and benefits call 613-233-7727 ext. 311 or e-mail membership@atac.ca 52 wings | September/October 2011
www.wingsMagazine.coM
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Don’t miss out on Tradeshow 2011
VP Flight Operations and VP Quebec and Atlantic | Fatigue vs. Human Performance Sleep loss studies show that extended wakefulness degrades performance. Approximately 8 hours of sleep time in every 24 hours adequately sustains human activity. Studies indicate that fatigue is the final common pathway integrating the interacting effects of sleep/wake history (time awake, sleep loss), circadian rhythm (time of day), and workload (time on task, task intensity, and task complexity). There is an enduring trait like individual differences in response to all three factors. To propose effective regulations for the aviation industry a Civil Aviation Regulatory Advisory Council Technical Committee Working Group was formed in June 2010. The Working Group is to base its work primarily on scientific data that is defensible and readily available. The US and EC have all engaged in this process. For a global 24 hours diversified industry the task is formidable and no group has yet been able to reach consensus. There is no one size fits all solution. For information visit www.atac.ca. To express your views contact bboucher@atac.ca.
Brian Whitehead
VP Technical Operations | Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) In July, Canada and the European Union exchanged diplomatic notes, bringing the long awaited Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) between the two governments into force. The supporting Maintenance Annexe Guide (MAG) is currently being finalized and should be in effect soon, replacing the present Maintenance Implementation Procedures (MIP). The new procedures will allow Transport Canada to assess Canadian AMO’s compliance with European requirements, and vice versa, which should simplify the issuance of approvals under the BASA. For further information contact bwhitehead@atac.ca.
Michael Skrobica
VP Industry Monetary Affairs and VP Ontario and British Columbia U.S. Department of Transport Rules on Consumer Rights Effective August 23, 2011 the U.S. Department of Transport put into place rules for the treatment of Air Passengers under the following categories: • Contingency plan for lengthy tarmac delays • Tarmac delay reporting • Customer service plans • Response to consumer problems • Flight status changue notification
• Oversales • Post purchase price increases • Full fare advertising • Baggage and other fees • Choice-of-forum-provisions
ATAC has commented on the proposed rules and was pleased to see two of its recommendations adopted by the U.S. Department of Transport. For further information contact mikes@atac.ca.
Wayne Gouveia
VP Commercial General Aviation and VP Prairies and Northern Training of International Pilots in Canada Threatened? Imminent changes are on the horizon for the issuance of Student Study Permits for international students interested in pilot training in Canada. International pilots trained in Canada by flight training schools is on the rise currently representing over 38% of all commercial pilots. New proposed rules will have an adverse affect on all flight training schools working with foreign students. The work that Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) and ATAC has conducted to expand foreign markets to Canadian flight training could be in jeopardy. How will this work? Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) issues Student Study Permits and is looking for a way to validate flight schools. DFAIT has agreed to help identify quality flight schools under their “Education Brand” process with inputs from the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC). The Imagine Education Brand is currently focused only on publicly funded aviation programs. ATAC will continue to work on raising the visibility of privately funded flight schools for recognition by DFAIT. According to CIC proposal, Student Study Permits of the future will only be issued to FTUs that are recognized by the Federal Government’s (DFAIT) Imagine Education Canada Branding exercise. ATAC has been invited to make a presentation on behalf of its FTU members at the next Federal Provincial Consultative Committee on Education related to International Activities hosted by CMEC this fall in Ottawa. ATAC will ensure that the message is clear, that FTUs are developing quality systems and are held accountable by the regulator to maintain their operating certificates. For further information please contact wgouveia@atac.ca.
Message froM aTaC Ceo . . .
Bill Boucher
ATAC is happy to begin this valuable cooperation with WINGS as it will alluow us to publish an ATAC page in every issue of Canada’s leading aviation magazine. We will be reporting to industry stakeholders, ATAC members, and all other commercial aviation enthusiasts on many of the important strategic issues ATAC is tackling in order to improve the environment our industry struggles to thrive in. As ATAC President and CEO, I will be commenting on some of the majuor political and economic current events impacting our industry. The ATAC Vice-Presidents, all very knowledgeable subject experts, will in turn inform you on the most critical issues they are working on. We welcome your feedback on these articles. We also invite you to visit our website at www.atac.ca or follow us on Twitter - @ atac_canada. ATAC, founded in 1934, is Canada’s national trade association for commercial aviation and flight training industries as well as aviation industry suppliers. For further information contact jmckenna@atac.ca.
John McKenna President and CEO
700 – 255 Albert Street Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6A9 Phone: (613) 233-7727 Fax: (613) 230-8648 Website: www.atac.ca
A LOOK
BACk
COnTInuIng TO mAkE wAVES
Consolidated Catalina flying boat a valued military aircraft | By Raymond Canon
The inhabitants of Canso, N.S., must have felt flattered to see their name attached to such a versatile aircraft. had been built here, an impressive number for any kind of aircraft but especially for an amphibian. In retrospect, the inhabitants of Canso, N.S., must have felt flattered to see their name attached to such a versatile aircraft. The military version of the Canso
QuICk FACTS… about the Canso PBY-5A Role: Flying boat Manufacturer: Consolidated Aircraft First flight: 1933 Introduced: 1936 Primary users: U.S. Navy, U.S. Armed Forces, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force Number built: 4,051 (estimated) Cruise speed: 187 km/h (116 mph) Top speed: 286.5 km/h (178 mph) Engines: 2 x Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp – 1,200 hp each Empty weight: 9,464 kg (20,864 lbs.) Height: 19.51 m (63 ft., 11 in.) Height: 6.09 m (20 ft.) Crew: Up to 8 Wingspan: 30.9 m (101 ft. 8 in.) Empty weight: 9,464 kg (20,864 lbs.) Armament, military version: One machine gun forward, two machine guns in each of two mid-turrets
54 wings | September/October 2011
frequently flew with an armament of five machine guns – one in a turret in the nose and two each in turrets on each side of the midfusilage. It was these two turrets that gave the aircraft its unique appearance. The same turrets could also be used as lookouts when the aircraft was on patrol. The Canadian government opted to produce the PBY-5A version of the Catalina – a true amphibian that operated on both land and water. During the war years, Canadian pilot Flight Lieut. David Hornell made the most of his Canso, earning a Victoria Cross for attacking and destroying a U-boat (U-1224) in 1944. Unfortunately, the plane was so badly damaged that Hornell and his crew spent 20 hours in a dingy before being rescued. Even at that, he died shortly afterwards.
Postwar success
Unlike many military aircraft, the Canso’s career did not come to a close when the War ended in 1945. Both the military and the private sector continued using the aircraft in a variety of roles. Buffalo Airways’ Curtis Dyson thinks highly of the versatile aircraft. The Yellowknife, N.W.T.-based company has carried out waterbombing missions since the mid-1990s on aircraft it purchased from the Newfoundand and Saskatchewan governments; one of which was recently sold to a buyer in British Columbia who plans to convert it for passenger service. Dyson says the Canso presents no major problems, although it can, he believes, be a bit heavy on the controls. Whether it’s used for waterbombing missions, military uses, or passenger service, one thing is clear – the Canso, like the DC-3, certainly has longevity built into it. | w www.wingsMagazine.coM
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he twin-engined Consolidated Catalina flying boat has made a splash on the world stage for seven-plus decades – and it’s still going strong. With Canada’s vast number of lakes and open water, the Consolidated Catalina quickly became a commercial success following its launch in the early 1930s. But this versatile aircraft really came into its own when military flying boats became popular during World War II. When the War began, the British focused their attention on the development of another flying boat, the Short Sunderland four-engined aircraft. This flying boat patrol bomber was introduced in 1938 and developed for the Royal Air Force by the Short Brothers. The U.S., meanwhile, was determined to employ a smaller aircraft with considerable range for ocean flights – and the twin-engined Consolidated Catalina fit the bill. While the Americans were not involved in as many international conflicts as the British during the latter stages of the 1930s, the U.S. Air Force needed an amphibian to cover wide stretches of the Pacific, where the U.S. had bases – specifically Hawaii, Midway, Guam and the Wake Islands. The Catalina made its first flight in this region in 1933. At approximately the same time, the Canadian government decided to replace its few and aging Supermarine Stranraers with the Catalina. Three Canadian aircraft factories produced the Canso as it was called in this country – Boeing Aircraft of Canada, Canadian Vickers and Canadair. Before production was phased out, some 800
avialta helicopter maintenance ltd
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airborne energy SolutionS ltd.
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canadian helicopterS limited
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cavalier aviation ltd
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1A 27018 SH633 Villeneuve Airport, Sturgeon County, AB t8t 0e3 tel: 780-460-1800 Fax: 780-458-7311 Website: www.avialta.com e-mail: avialta@avialta.com Personnel: Rob Wood, President; Paul Horvatis, Sales Manager; Jared Doell, DOM Broker.
P.O. Box 1229 Hangar #1 Whitecourt Airport Whitecourt, AB t7S 1P1 tel: 780-778-3080 Fax: 780-778-6652 Website: www.airbornesolutions.com Personnel: Jim Wood, DOM. Darren Sanders, Chief engineer, Allen Smith, Production Manager. Bill Purdon, Avionics Manager. Parts Inquiries to purchasing@airbornesolutions.com
Hangar 40, 12021-121 Street, edmonton, AB t5L 4H7 tel: 780-429-6900 Fax: 780-429-6917 Website: www.canadianhelicopters.com e-mail: beaton@canadianhelicopters.com Personnel: Bryan eaton, General Manager, third Party Maintenance Services
408B Otter Bay, Springbank Airport, Calgary, AB t3z 3S6 tel: 403-288-5160 Fax: 403-286-2478 Website: www.cavalieraviation.com e-mail: cavavn@telus.net Personnel: Peter Verhesen, President; Brad Hvenegaurd, Production Manager
condor aircraFt acceSSorieS Hangar 5, 620 A Mctavish Rd Ne Calgary, AB t2e 7G6 tel: 403-250-3032 Fax: 403-291-9439 Web: www.condorac.com e-mail: viki@condorac.com Personnel: John O’Regan, President Victoria Reeves, Operations Manager
Flyrite acceSSory overhaulS ltd.
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madonna helicopterS ltd
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propworKS propeller SyStemS (alberta) inc.
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9608 - 51 Avenue, edmonton, AB t6e 5A6 tel: 780-439-6020 Fax: 780-439-6106 e-mail: flyrite@incentre.net Personnel: Peter C. Jenkins, President/Director of Maintenance
RR#2 Airdrie, AB t4B 2A4 tel: 403-948-0968 Fax: 403-948-4338 e-mail: rgoble@madheli.com Personnel: Rob Goble, President
15357-114 Avenue, edmonton, AB t5M 3S9 tel: 780-457-1910 Fax: 780-457-1939 Website: www.propworks.ca e-mail: propworks@telus.net Personnel: Mike Wagner, Manager; Cliff Arntson, Assistant Manager; Lorne Gray, Sales Manager
QF avionicS center ltd.
PO Box 27126, Red Deer, AB t4N 6X8 tel: 403-886-4306 Fax: 403-886-4244 Website: www.qfavionics.com e-mail: bob@qfavionics.com Personnel: Bob Marryat, President
nt s me Custom Avionic installs, R 44 servo overhauls, parts sales, troubleshooting, dealer list, David Clark, NAt, RHC, technisonic communication, Aircraft Spruce Canada.
Contracted Maintenance Support Services on-site and off-site
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Garmin Avionics Distributor/Installation Centre
Cavalier Aviation is Calgary’s leader in service and parts sales for owner flown aircraft. We are Canada’s only Cessna turbo Prop authorized service centre.
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Box 26 site 5 RR2, Airdie, AB t4B 2A4 tel: 403-948-7306 Fax: 403-948-7346 Website: www.erwinaero.com e-mail: info@erwinaero.com Personnel: Clarke erwin - President, David Kelly - DOM/PRM Prebuy inspections, import and export COFA’s.
Avialta is a Bell Helicopter CSF specializing in helicopter leasing and aircraft refurbishments including component overhauls/ part sales/ avionics/ sheet metal repairs and interior completions
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ALBERTA
Acc ess Avi ories o ni Airf cs ram Com es po Hot site R ep Sec Insp tion air ec t Inst ion S er v rum Inte ents ices rior Pai s ntin Rec g ip Tur Overh bin a ul Oth e Over er S h e r v a ul ices
mro directory
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Located at the Airdie Airport. Airdie, AB, Canada.
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Overhaul and repair of electrical components. Factory trained. Specializing in starter-generator overhauls - Goodrich (Lucas), Skurka (APC), thales (Auxilec), Bendix and Geneva StA for Arriel engines. Also Dynamic Air fans, RCCOs, CPVRs, AMO 90-97.
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Pre buy inspections, import and export COFAs
Located at the Airdrie Airport, Airdrie, AB, Canada
Propeller overhaul, repair and sales. Governor overhaul, NDt
Avionics repair, installation and recertification
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rocKy mountain aircraFt
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129 Maclaurin Aircraft 129 Maclaurin Drive, Calgary, AB t3z 3S4 toll Free: 800-661-1130 tel: 403-288-3305 Fax: 403-247-6846 Web: www.rockymountainaircraft.ca e-mail: rocky@pathcom.ca Personnel: George Stevenson, General manager Mel Cornelius, Director of Maintenance Andy Cook, Stores
StauFFer aero diviSion oF heritage aero ltd. 103, 5655 – 10th Street, Ne Calgary, AB t2e 8W7 tel: 403-274-3636 Fax: 403-274-3684 Web: www.staufferaero.ca e-mail: tc@staufferaero.ca Personnel: tim Morrison
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ALBERTA
Acc ess Avi ories o ni Airf cs ram Com es po Hot site R ep Sec Insp tion air ec t i Inst on S er v rum Inte ents ices rior Pai s ntin Rec g ip Tur Overh bin a ul Oth e Over er S h e r v a ul ices
maintenance, repair & overhaul directory
DARt engineering
Specializing in maintenance, overhaul, sales and leasing of de Havilland twin Otter Aircraft. Also perform avionics work on all pressurized/ unpressurized aircraft to 12500 MtOW.
DARt engineering
AMO for reciprocating engine overhaul and repair. Selected accessory overhaul and repair. Oil cooler flush and a pressure test.
BRITISH COLUMBIA aero-Smith heli Service
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1020 Virginia Rd, P.O Box 128, Coombs, BC V0R 1M0 tel: 250-954-0668 Fax: 250-954-0667 Website: www.aerosmithheli.com e-mail: info@aerosmithheli.com Personnel: Hugh Andrews, President; Wendy Mctarggart, Administration; Lani Parr-Pearson, Parts Manager.
caScade aeroSpace inc.
1337 townline Road, Abbotsford, BC V2t 6e1 tel: 604-850-7372 Website: www.cascadeaerospace.com e-mail: info@cascadeaerospace.com
dbc marine SaFety SyStemS
101-3760 Jacombs Road, Richmond, BC V6V 1Y6 tel: 604-278-3221 Fax: 604-278-7812 Website: www.dbcmarine.com e-mail: keith.burke@zmp-zodiac.com Personnel: Keith Burke (PRM), Service Manager; Bobby Kirkley, Inspector
Component overhaul, exchanges, parts sales, aircraft refinishing, aircraft leasing
Program management, fleet management, engineering services and full integrated logistics support (ILS) for commercial and military transport aircraft
Fire bottle overhaul, life raft and life vest inspection and sales
heli-one
Heli-One provides comprehensive, helicopter support to customers around the world. Our service offerings include engine and component repair and overhaul, inspections and modifications, completions, avionics, integrated logisticssupport and more. With major facilities in British Columbia (Canada), Stravanger (Norway), Adelaide (Australia) and Fort Collins USA, we have nearly 500 000 square feet of facilities to serve our worldwide customer base.
4300 80th St Delta, BC V4K 3N3 toll Free: 604-952-7700 tel: 604-952-7700 Fax: 604-952-8000 Website: www.heli-one.com
Kelowna FlightcraFt ltd.
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5655 Airport Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1S1 tel: 250-491-5500 Fax: 250-765-1489 Website: www.flightcraft.ca
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oKanagan aero engine (1999) ltd.
Maintenance and modification
Broker; Customers from around the world come to Kelowna Flightcraft for maintenance and modification work. We pride ourselves on reliable, on time service. We have the experience and the flexibility to meet our customer’s needs, whatever the challenge. Kelowna Flightcraft Ltd provides a wide range of modifications and repair series on 727, 737, 757, 767 and DC-10 aircrafts. Our series include avionics, major structure repair and upgrades, “C” checks, winglet installations, paint and cargo and air tanker conversions. Our main vases in Kelowna, BC and Hamilton, ON have 500,000 square feet of hangar and shop space ith the capacity to accommodate aircrafts as large as DC-10s. We are an ISO 90102008 quality assurance certified company with tC approved AM16-82 and eASA approval 145-7040
Level III, MPI, LPI.
Custom overhaul and/or exchange of Continental and Lycoming (including geared and vertical) engines. Overhaul and exchange of engine-related accessories.
#1 - 5550 Aerospace Drive, Kelowna, BC V1V 1S1 tel: 250-765-9718 Fax: 250-765-8322 e-mail: okaero@shaw.ca Personnel: Fred Haasdyk, President; Dan Fedun, Shop Manager
pro aero engineS inc.
2965 Airport Road, Kamloops, BC V2B 7W8 tel: 250-376-6226 Fax: 250-376-1995 Website: www.proaeroengines.com e-mail: sales@proaeroengines.com Personnel: Warren Cook, Sales Manager; Ray Sarton, Chief Inspector; Corey Anderson, Production Manager
Approved hydrostatic test facility
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NDt tCM Crankshaft Ut Inspection, MPI and LPI CGSB Level ll, parts sales and machining
viKing air limited
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1959 de Havilland Way, Sidney, BC V8L 5V5 tel: 250-656-7227 Fax: 250-655-9581 Website: www.vikingair.com e-mail: info@vikingair.com Personnel: Robert Mauracher, VP Business Development & General Manager MRO; Carmine Antonacci, Operations Manager MRO
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BRITISH COLUMBIA
Acc ess Avi ories o ni Airf cs ram Com es po Hot site R ep Sec Insp tion air ec t Inst ion S er v rum Inte ents ices rior s Pai ntin Rec g ip Tur Overh bin a ul Oth e Over er S h e r v a ul ices
maintenance, repair & overhaul directory
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Viking is the OeM for the legacy de Havilland aircraft, DHC-1 through DHC-7 and specializes in the complete overhaul and maintenance of de Havilland aircraft.
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Comments: Providing composite repairs to components such as radomes, prop spinners, elevators, ailerons, flaps, engine nacelles, flight controls, cargo, passengers, floors, cowls, fairings and helicopter rotor blades.
MANITOBA advanced compoSite StructureS
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45 Muir Road Winnipeg, MB R2X 2X7 tel: 204-982-6565 Fax: 204-982-6555 Web: www.acs-composites.com e-mail: acs@acs-composites.com Personnel: James Annig – President Bruce Annig –PRM Brenda Schmidt – Customer Support Glen Frye – Production
aero recip (canada) ltd.
540 Marjorie Street, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0S9 tel: 204-788-4765 Fax: 204-786-2775 Website: www.gregorashaviation.com e-mail: info@aerorecip.com Personnel: Alvin Gregorash, President and General Manager; Dave Wakeman, Sales Manager
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aerotech herman nelSon international inc
Overhaul and repair of Continental, Lycoming, Pratt & Whitney radial engines and related accessories, oil coolers and cylinders.
Aero Recip is the largest piston engine overhaul shop in Canada. Located in the centre of North America, with 31800 square feet and the largest core-pool in teh country, quick turnaround is the standard.
Portable heaters and parts
the golden standard for portable heat, with over 30 years’ experience providing heating solutions for remote, commercial, and personal customers.
Distributor for Lycoming Superior Air Parts, Kelly Aerospace, tempest, APS, Skytronics, Lamar, Barry & Phillips Oil as well as General Aviation Products. experimental ngines and Arcotherm Portable Space Heaters.
When it comes to aviation parts, we’ve got what you need or we’ll find it, when you need it most. Our 15,000 sq.ft. warehouse is full of new, overhauled, and used/serviceable parts ready to ship: Alternators, carb kits, carburetors, controllers, cylinders, crankcases, crankshafts, exhaust pipes, fuel pump kits, gears, hose kits, magnetos, piece parts, prop governors, starters, starter adapters, voltage regulators, wastegates, oil, filters, batteries, tires, break pads and discs.
Consulting AMO 175-91
Western Canada’s factory authrorized propeller facility for Hatzell, McCauley & Mt propellers. Maintenance, repair, & overhaul of propellers, governors and accessories.
technical and engineering support, avionics and structural modifications, NDt, Avionics R&O
IMP Aerospace, along with its avionics, components, and machining divisions, provides military and civilian engineering and maintenance services in ISO 9001 certified facilities. IMP Aerospace is an approved maintenance organization (AMO); transport Canada delegated design approval organization (DAO); Accredited technical organization (AtO); A Sikorsky licensed Sea King/S-61 modification and maintenance support provider, and a Lockheed Martin Authorized P-3 service centre.
100 eagle Drive, Winnipeg, MB R2R 1V5 tel: 1-800-486-4328 Fax: 1-204-694-1612 Website: www.hermannelson.com e-mail: robin@hermannelson.com Personnel: Robin Frend, Account Manager; Peter Marykuca, Sales Manager; Joe Frend, VP, GM
airpartS networK ltd.
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canadian propeller ltd.
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560 Marjorie Street, MB R3H 0S9 tel: 1-204-772-0800 Fax: 204-772-0600 Website: www.gregorashaviation.com e-mail: info@airpartsnetwork.com Personnel: tracey Gregorash, General Manager; Colin Chura, Sales Manager.
462 Brooklyn Street, Winnipeg, MB R3J 1M7 Fax: 204-888-4696 Website: www.canadianpropeller.com e-mail: info@canadianpropeller.com Personnel: Maurice Wills, President & AMe
imp aeroSpace
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PO Box 970, enfield, NS B2t 1L5 tel: 902-873-2250 Fax: 902-873-2249 Website: www.impgroup.com e-mail: carl.kumpic@impaerospace.com Personnel: Carl F. Kumpic, VP International Marketing; David Gossen, President
propworKS propeller SyStemS inc
525 Madison Street, Winnipeg, MB R3H 0L6 tel: 204-837-4961 Fax: 204-779-3085 Website: www.propworks.ca e-mail: propwork@mts.net Personnel: Jim Ross, Manager; Mike Hudec, Assistant Manager
Quality aircraFt interiorS
Box 1561, Portage la Prairie, MB R1N 3P1 tel: 204-252-2599 Fax: 204-252-3103 Website: www.qualityaircraftinteriors.com e-mail: qai@qualityaircraftinteriors.com Personnel: Noel Smith, General Manager
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Repair/overhaul of composite components such as radomes, flight controls, cowlings, fairings, elevators, ailerons, panels, doors and flooring.
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Approved facility providing quality workmanship using certified leather, fabric, vinyl, carpet and foam. AMO #67-00.
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33 Allen Dyne Road, Winnipeg, MB R3H 1A1 toll Free: 1-800-204-4105 tel: 204-318-7605 Fax: 204-272-1253 Website: www.standardaero.com e-mail: john.steagall@standardaero.com Personnel: 4,000 employees worldwide
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Standard aero ltd.
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MANITOBA
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maintenance, repair & overhaul directory
StandardAero is one of the world’s largest independent providers of services including engine and airframe repair and overhaul, engine component repair, engineering services, interior completions and paint applications. StandardAero serves a diverse array of customers in business and general aviation, airline, military, energy and VIP completions markets. StandardAero provides a global service network of 12 primary facilities in the U.S., Canada, europe, Singapore and Australia, along with an additional 14 regionally located service and support locations.
ONTARIO aeroteK manuFacturing ltd
Aerospace processing: anodizing electroplating, paint Sole Canadian provider of ion vapour deposition of aluminum, your environmentally friendly solution to cadmium plating.
baSler turbo converSionS llc.
turbine DC3 Conversion to Bt-67
1449 Hopkins Street, Whitby, ON L1N 2C2 tel: 905-666-3400 Fax: 905-666-3413 Website: www.aerotekmfg.com e-mail: vlo@aerotekmfg.com Personnel: Vera Lo
3385 Scanlon Drive, Ottawa, ON K0A 2W0 tel: 519-372-3302 Website: www.aerocanada.com e-mail: sales@aerocanada.com Personnel: Bernie Scobie, General Mgr.
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Flying colourS corp.
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goderich aircraFt inc
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400 Maple Grove Rd., Ottawa, ON K2V 1B8 tel: 1-800-600-9759 Website: www.emsaviation.com e-mail: stayconnected@emsaviation.com Personnel: Jean Menard, Director Commercial Sales Areo
2450 Derry Rd. e., Hangar 2, Mississauga, ON L5S 1B2 tel: 905-676-1540 Fax: 905-676-0977 Website: www.fieldav.com e-mail: busdev@fieldav.com Personnel: Dave Jensen, VP Business Division; Chris Cooper-Supper, VP Marketing; Brian Love, VP Operations; Christophe Chollet, Director of Sales
901 Airport Rd., Peterborough, ON K9J 6X6 tel: 705-742-4688 Fax: 705-742-8861 Website: www.flyingcolourscorp.com e-mail: info@flyingcolourscorp.com Personnel: tony Barrett, Vice President of Completions; Sean Gillespie, Director of Sales; eric Gillespie, Sales Manager; Glenn Williams, DOM
403 Canada Ave. Huron Park, ON N0M 1Y0 tel: 519-228-6706 Fax: 519-228-6724 Web: www.goderichaircraft.com e-mail: Andy@goderichaircraft.com Personnel: Andy Orr – VP of Sales, Kim Kohnert – Completion Sales, Blaine Field –President.
hope aero propeller & componentS inc.
2283 Anson Drive, Mississauga, ON L5S 1G6 tel: 905-677-8747 Fax: 905-677-5935 Website: www.hopeaero.ca e-mail: propellers@hopeaero.ca Personnel: terry Hope, President; Michael Hope, Vice-President; Jasper Megelink, PRM; Dana Ladd, Sales; Gabe Marcucci, Quality Manager
Supplier of connectivity and in-cabin infrastructure
Parts manufacturing, aircraft modification and conversion for special mission applications, StC and Kit Sales Broker
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eMS Aviation enables worldwide internet connectivity and in-flight entertainment, satellite based messaging and tracking, rugged data management and storage, and data record and replay
Bombardier Green Completions.
Specializing in interior completions and conversions.
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transport Canada, FAA, eASA and GCAA approved.
transport Canada and eASA approved. CGSB certified NDt inspectors. Registered with the Canadian Controlled Goods Program. Sales and overhaul of propellers, governors, wheels and brakes. exchange propellers and governors are available. Hartzell distributor, McCauley, Dowty and Mt Propeller service centre. Hamilton Sundstrand, Sensenich, Hoffmann and PzL propellers. Sales, service and calibration of Honeywell zing (formerly Chadwich) Dynamic Balance equipment. Sales of J.Chadwick Scratch Depth Measurement Digital Optical Micrometers.
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laKe central air ServiceS muSKoKa airport
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Manufacturing - Design and manufacture survey modification.
mX aeroSpace ServiceS inc.
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RR #1, Gravenhurst, ON P1P 1R1 tel: 705-687-4343 Fax: 705-687-8983 Website: www.lakecentral.com e-mail: lakecent@muskoka.com Personnel: elton townsend, President & GM.
2450 Derry Road east Hangar 9 Bay C, Mississauga, ON L5S1B2 tel: 905-405-1446 Fax: 905-405-9919 Website: www.mxaerospace.com e-mail: jruth@mxaerospace.com Personnel: Bob Scott, president Jim Ruth - Director of Maintenance, Lance Sudbury - D.O.G.A., Sabrina Goncalves - Director of corporate systems
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pilatuS centre oF canada
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220 Hunt Club, Ottawa, ON K1V 1C1 tel: 613-737-2933 Fax: 613-737-0253 Website: www.ottawaaviationservice.com e-mail: info@ottawaaviationservices.com
2039 Derek Burney Dr. thunder Bay, ON P7K 0A1 tel: 807-475-5353 Fax: 807-475-5405 Website: www.pilatuscanada.com e-mail: info@pilatuscanada.com
Quantum aviation ltd.
Ottawa Convention Centre, Ottawa, Canada | 10.26.11 - 10.27.11
TRADESHOW
2450 Derry Road east HGR9 Mississauga, ON L5S 1B2 tel: 905-405-0743 Fax: 905-405-0761 Website: www.quantumaviation.ca e-mail: carlos@quatumaviation.ca
Pilot Static and transponder testing. Structures – Sheet metal, Batteries.
me LBPIA: Landmark FBO
New this year – Propeller Overhaul, Fuel Nozzle testing and Hose Shop.
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ONTARIO
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Box 536, Goderich, ON N7A 4G7 tel: 519-524-2165 Fax: 519-524-8421 Website: www.skyharbour.com e-mail: sandy@skyharbour.com Personnel: Sandy Wellman, President; Melissa Coleman, Sales
tulmar SaFety SyStemS inc.
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1123 Cameron Street, Hawkesbury, ON K6A 2B8 tel: 613-632-1282 Fax: 613-632-2030 Website: www.tulmar.com e-mail: ggroulx@tulmar.com Personnel: Guy Groulx, R&O Manager
nts me
ONTARIO SKy harbour aircraFt
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Acc ess Avi ories oni Airf cs ram Co m e s po Hot site R ep Sec Insp tion air ect i Inst on S er v rum Inte ents ices rior Pai s ntin Re c g ip Tur Overh bin aul Oth e Over er S h erv aul ices
maintenance, repair & overhaul directory
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Life Support equipment, Life Jackets, Life Rafts, Survival Kits, Seat Belts AMO 67-92Canadian Distributor and Authorized Repair station for AMSAFe, eAM and Winslow LifeRaft Company.
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pRINCE EdwARd ISLANd 3 pointS machining and aeroSpace
91 Watts Ave Charlottetown, Pe C1e 2B7 tel: 902-628-8846 Fax: 902-628-8838 Website: www.3pts.com e-mail: dmcdonald@3pointsaviation.com Personnel: Dan McDonald President, eric Richard Director of Sales, Stephanie Barrett Inside Sales.
Multi-Axis Machining and Parts manufacture, NDt, Heat treatment and Surface treatment. Repair and overhaul for pneumatic, hydraulic components, including full machining capabilities.
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98 Columbus St., Pointe Claire, QC H9R 4K4 tel: 514-630-7777 Fax: 514-630-9999 Website: www.caspaerospace.com e-mail: lmfo@caspaerospace.com
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Aircraft Safety Systems
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Casp Aerospace Inc Specializes in the repair and overhaul of aircraft safety equipment, such as fire extinguisher oxygen bottles, masks and regulators, pneumatic inflation systems.
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sPecial aDVeRTising secTion 21/07/2011 10:27:24 AM
eXecaire
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10225 Ryan Avenue, Dorval, QC H9P 1A2 tel: 514-636-7070 Fax: 514-636-8543 Website: www.execaire.com e-mail: acftmtcesales@execaire.com
heathair international (1991) inc.
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heli-inter inc
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l-3 communicationS maS
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6500 Chemin De La Savane, Sr-Hubert, QC J3Y 8Y9 tel: 450-468-3431 Fax: 450-468-5497 Website: www.heli-inter.com e-mail: info@heli-inter.com
10000 Helen Bristol Mirabel, QC J7N 1H3 tel: 450-476-4000 Fax: 450-476-4467 Website: www.l-3com.com/mas e-mail: info-marketing@l-3com.com Personnel: Ricahrd Bastien, VP Business Development. Sylvain Bedard, President.
prairie Flying Service (1992) ltd 200-2540 Airport Road, Regina, SK S4W 1A3 tel: 306-569-3700 Fax: 306-569-3211 Website: www.PrairieFlying.com e-mail: laurie @prairieflying.com
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nt s me 170 Aircraft Management-Aircraft Maintenance-NDt-Charter SalesInternational Flight Planning-Avionics-Part Sales-Live Maintenance
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Non-Destructive service company
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681 Lepine Avenue, Dorval, QC H9P 1G3 tel: 514-636-1000 Fax: 514-636-0031 e-mail: daheath@heathair.com Personnel: Derek Heath, President; David Heath, PRM; Gordon todd, Inspector
Com
qUEBEC
Acc ess Avi ories o ni Airf cs ram Com es po Hot site R ep Sec Insp tion air ec t Inst ion S er v rum Inte ents ices rior s Pai ntin Rec g ip Tur Overh bin a ul Oth e Over er S h e r v a ul ices
maintenance, repair & overhaul directory
Bell service centre, Schweiser service centre, Avionic approved shop
transport Canada AMO 32-98
L-3 MAS is among Canada’s leading providers of aircraft life-cycle extension, aircraft in-service support services and aerostructures to government and commercial customers. L-3 MAS is also providing extensive fleet management, engineering, maintenance, components, repair and overhaul, technical and robotic shot peening.
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USA aar corp
Kelly aeroSpace
2900 Selma Hwy., Montgomery, AL 36108 tel: 334-386-5400 Fax: 344-386-5410 Website: www.kellyaerospace.com e-mail: bcahalive@kellyaerospace.com
Shipit aog
4309 Lindberg Drive Addison, tX 75001 tel: 972-267-1940 Website: www.shipitaogllc.com e-mail: sales@shipitaogllc.com Personnel: George Miller CeO, Ray Royco COO, Karen Winterrowd, CFI, Phil Anders Sales, Steve Reno QA, Lindsay Jordon Client Advocate.
AAR is a leading provider of products and services to the worldwide commercial aviation and government/defense industries. AAR supports national defense priorities, nation building initiatives and humanitarian relief efforts. AAR specializes in the design and manufacture of products and assemblies for OeM customers around the world. AAR offers a full range of maintenance and engineering services that keep our customers’ aircraft flying safely.”
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140 Sparkman Dr, Huntsville, AL 35805-1916 tel: 256-830-7303 Fax: 256-830-7062 Website: www.aarcorp.com e-mail: steve.peckham@aarcorp.com
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A leading subsystem supplier to general aviation OeM & aftermarket customers
Manufactures new and refurbished starters, alternators, electrical systems, mags, fuel systems, and various other electrical components for GA aircraft.
Distributor for Unitron Lecktro, Custom Comfort Solutions CCS and Jetcraft Avionics.
Based in Addison, tX, ShipIt AOG is a rapidly growing international distributor of business aircraft parts, ground support equipment, specialized tooling and technical services and maintains a complete library of technical documentation on site. the company supports major aircraft manufacturers, such as Bombardier Challenger 601, 605 and 303, Global express, Learjet, Gulfstream, Raytheon Hawker 700 and 800 and Falcon jets. true to its name, ShipIt AOG prides itself on prompt and efficient service through instant availability of spare parts and ground-support equipment.
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#139
News Brief The official publication of the Canadian Business Aviation Association
Vins Plastics: A Canadian and Business Aviation Success Story
R
unning a successful Canadian family-owned business in a globally competitive environment takes smarts, dedication and planning. Vins Plastics, a family-owned second generation business in Bradford, Ontario, has one more advantage: its own corporate aircraft. Vins specializes in providing sophisticated flexible packaging materials to a wide range of clients,
including to the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and explosives sectors. “We have considerable competition in Mexico, the EU and Asia” said Jamie Vins, company CEO and CBAA board member. “We have to be very efficient and do things better and faster. Our quality has to be superior, and we have to accomplish more with fewer employees, and that means a heavy investment in technology, processes, equipment and
BUSINESS AVIATION WORKS FOR CANADA, AND VINS PLASTICS IS AN OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE OF HOW AND WHY BUSINESS AVIATION MATTERS IN EVERY REGION OF THE COUNTRY.
computerization. In order to serve our customers and seek out technical advantages, we use our own aircraft.” Vins’ Piper Malibu Meridian single-engine turbine is the third in a line of company aircraft. Each aircraft has progressed with better speed and range, allowing Vins to expand its ability to serve customers, and allow managers to return back to their HQ in good time. “Our managers are an investment in the company
that we don’t want to waste. They are our advantage, and if they’re stuck in an airport, it does nothing for our business.” The flexibility of having an aircraft gives Vins an enviable level of control over its business environment – and even over the environment itself. “If you don’t like the Continued on page 3
CEO’s | CORNER CBAA LAUNCHES ADVOCACY CAMPAIGN
Transport’s handling of the Business Aviation Certification and Oversight program (also known as the Private Operators Certificate or POC program) has been a deep disappointment for our industry and a lost opportunity for our country’s economic recovery – if the issues are not resolved, the effect could ripple through the entire economy, stifling jobs and economic opportunity at the very instant that we may be heading into another global recession. For the past 18 months, CBAA has been trying to avoid this exact scenario. We took a rational and reasonable approach to the transfer of responsibility, negotiating in good faith with Transport Canada. www.cbaa.ca
We have had endless meetings, where we have provided detailed information, alerted them to critical issues and proposed meaningful solutions. Too much has fallen on deaf ears. The reality is that Canadian business aviation’s safety record has been outstanding, and overregulation is both unnecessary and unrealistic, and delays in certification can cause irreparable harm. There are planes that should be flying, serving businesses and creating wealth and jobs, but have been grounded since mid-April, waiting for TC certification. I have heard disturbing reports from members across Canada; some are taking desperate measures to get planes in
the air – registering aircraft under AOCs rather than POCs or even registering aircraft in the United States or overseas. Transport Canada’s best efforts are nowhere good enough. We – the association and industry leaders together – have to to step up and drive the agenda. We can no longer wait in the hope that Transport will do the right thing. It is our time, and our obligation, to lead. This September, CBAA will launch an advocacy campaign, a full-court press to raise awareness of the importance of business aviation and to pressure government to act decisively, to build a regulatory framework and deliver a level of service that allows the business
Sam Barone, President and CEO
aviation sector to do what it does best: lever employment and economic opportunity in every region of the country. We will fight this battle on three strategic fronts: political, public and regulatory. We will make government fully and publicly accountable, by having members raise political pressure on the home Continued on page 3
CBAA | News Brief
1
Call to Action: Get Involved in CBAA’s Advocacy Campaign
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55 Metcalfe St., Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6L5 Tel: (613) 236-5611 • Fax: (613) 236-2361 E-mail: info@cbaa.ca • Website: www.cbaa-acaa.ca President and Chief Executive Officer ,Sam ext. 238 Barone, • sbarone@cbaa.ca ext. 238 • sbarone@cbaa.ca Executive Assistant ,Aime ext. 228, O’Connor, aoconnor@cbaa.ca ext. 228, aoconnor@cbaa.ca Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs Merlin , 613-656-0505, Preuss , 613-656-0505, mpreuss@cbaa.ca mpreuss@cbaa.ca
CBAA/NBAA Cross-Border Issues Conference 2011
4
Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs, ,John ext. 226, McNamara, jmcnamara@cbaa.ca ext. 226, jmcnamara@cbaa.ca Vice-president, Marketing and Communications ,Andrew ext. 236Oestreich, • aoestreich@cbaa.ca ext. 236 • aoestreich@cbaa.ca Membership and Communications Services, ,Rachel ext. 221, Duchesneau, rduchesneau@cbaa.ca ext. 221, rduchesneau@cbaa.ca Finance, ,Barb ext. 222, VanDoorn, bvandoorn@cbaa.ca ext. 222, bvandoorn@cbaa.ca
CBAA Scores Major Win on CBSA PAX Loads Maximum at Pearson
Board of Directors – Executive Committee
5
Chair • Rob Madden Director/Flight Operations Province of Alberta, Air Transportation Services Vice-Chair • Frank Burke Operations Manager/Chief Pilot Tidnish Holdings Limited Secretary • Dave Anderson Vice-president, Anderson Air Treasurer • Jean Menard VP Commercial and Transport Sales EMS Technologies Board Members-at-Large
Calendar of Events
5
Gary • VP,& Marketing & Sales Support; • VP, Banks Marketing Sales Support; John Hopkinson & Assoc. Ltd. Rod Barnard • Flight Department Manager /Chief Pilot Flight Department Manager /Chief Pilot Kal Aviation Group Gordon • Regional Berturelli Marketing • Regional ManagerMarketing Manager FlightSafety International BC ViceCampbell President,• Flight Vice President, OperationsFlight Operations Skyservice Business Aviation Inc.”
New CBAA Members
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Leonard • Director/Chief Giacomelli Pilot• Director/Chief Pilot Scotiabank Hall • Maintenance •David Maintenance Manager Manager Irving Air Services Inc. Scott GM YVR/BD Canada • GM Harrold YVR/BD •Canada & Pacific USA,& Pacific USA, Landmark Aviation YVR Adam Keller • President; Chartright Air Inc. Chartright Air Inc. Andrew Wilson Litigation Counsel• Litigation Counsel Cavanagh Williams Conway Baxter LLP
2011 Looks to the ‘Next 50 Years’ as the Voice of Business Aviation
Jaime CEO, Vins Plastics Limited • CEO,Vins Vins •Plastics Limited
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Joe Zigrossi • President and CEO; Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers Vice-presidents ,Airports The Aviation • RobAdvantage Seaman, The Inc. Aviation Advantage Inc. Airworthiness •, • François Assigned Faust, Engineer; Assigned Engineer; Skyservice Business Aviation Inc. Aviation Medicine and Human Factors • Dr. Randy Knipping ,Maintenance Chief of Maintenance; • David Hall, Chief of Maintenance; Irving Oil Transport Ltd.
CBAA 2011 Golf Sponsors
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,Operations Vice-president • BCFlight Campbell, Vice-president Flight Operations; Skyservice Business Aviation Inc. ,Projects VP, Marketing • Gary&Banks, Sales Support; VP, Marketing & Sales Support; John Hopkinson & Assoc. Ltd. Training • Doug Ware, Manager; FlightSafety Canada Ltd.
CBAA 2011 Sponsorship
2 CBAA | News Brief
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To represent and promote the Canadian business aviation community globally, advocating safety, security, and efficiency
Vins Plastics... Continued from page 1
weather, it’s your choice to fly, not the carriers’. We won’t get stuck in an airport for days waiting for a flight – we simply wouldn’t go.” Even if the weather is fair, there are many other reasons to board their own plane “We can go to Montreal, continue to Quebec City and return to Toronto for the evening, and be able to deal with issues that happened during the day. Try to do that with Pearson – it takes us an hour to get to the airport, and then deal with security, get on the plane – and that’s just to go to one destination. It’s even worse if you have to go through a hub.” Jamie, a pilot of 30 years standing, handles all the flight operations and logistics himself, and acknowledged that it takes a lot of work. “Each flight starts a couple of days out,” he explained. Yet, it is time well invested. With the Meridian at the ready, Vins can provide a superior level of service and a clear advantage over its competitors, building a partnership with its clients that cannot be accomplished by phone or Internet alone. Clients are beginning to realize that seemingly low-cost, but distant suppliers can be very expensive in the long run. Vins relies on proximity and responsiveness to solve problems while they are still small and easy to fix. “If there’s an issue, I can be there dealing with it face to face and walking the client through the process, looking at the equipment and making sure everything is correct. We build value and trust, and that leads to long-term relationships with our customers.” With commercial pressures to launch products more quickly and a variable product demand, Vins’ customers rely on the company to help them respond to their own marketplace needs. “I’ve seen clients whose product was listed in Loblaw’s Insiders Report have their demand double or triple overnight,” Vins said. “If they can’t get the packaging, they could lose that valuable shelf-space. We make sure that we partner with our customers and provide them with the packagwww.cbaa.ca
Above: Vins Plastics, Bradford, Ontario Right: Jamie and his plane
ing material quickly.” The Meridian also allows Vins to acquire important business intel – a distinct advantage in a competitive market. “We can get into a trade show, check out the competition or fly in for a site inspection to talk to a hands-on operator and be out again quickly. We can accomplish in hours what would take days if we had to fly commercial.” Vins’ success in the marketplace is bolstered by the advantage of a community-based, local workforce. Flying out of Buttonville, it does not need to be tethered to Toronto Pearson, and has been able to integrate itself within the Bradford community. It is a relationship that has been a great success both for Bradford and Vins. “We located to Bradford because we couldn’t get the space we needed in our home town of Newmarket,” said Vins. “Bradford was a farming community looking to diversify its economy from its agricultural and food packaging base. My father George started the business with 4,500 square feet and today we’re operating out of 80,000.” Over the years, Vins has become a powerful economic enabler, providing long-term employment and business opportunity for the town of some 25,000. As Bradford works to further diversify and create more opportunities to generate wealth, Vins Plastics stands out as a success story and example that other companies can follow. An added benefit to both the
community and to Vins is the ready source of labour. “We have 75 employees and no trouble attracting very high-quality staff. Because we don’t have to locate to an area like Mississauga to be near a commercial airport, our employees are only 10 minutes away from work – not an hour and a half. Unlike some other companies, our employees can live
CEO’s | CORNER Continued from page 1
front by writing to their MPs and ensuring that their elected officials have to answer to their needs. We will contact the media for interviews and stories that ensure that the business aviation perspective is heard and understood. Finally, we will use this momentum to go back to the Minister of Transport and his officials to resolve our issues once and for all. CBAA is creating an Advocacy Toolkit to make it quick and simple for members to lead the charge and contact their MPs with targeted and effective messages. The CBAA will provide everything that members need to get
and work in the same community. That makes for less stress, lower costs and a happier, more productive workforce.” Enhancing the quality of life for everyone in Bradford is an important part of Vins’ commitment to its community and managers and employees alike are active participants in the life of Bradford, including supporting a number of historical and cultural programs and initiatives. Vins Plastics is an exceptional example of corporate and community leadership. That leadership now extends to the CBAA, with Jamie as an active member of the board, providing a key perspective from the point of view of single aircraft operators. Jamie’s commitment to bettering the business aviation operating environment for small operators will help ensure that their needs, and their importance to their communities, will be heard. Vins Plastics clearly demonstrates that a family-owned business can maintain its competitive edge in a corporate environment and make a real and positive contribution to the quality of life in a small community, because of the key advantages a corporate aircraft provides.
involved: links to MPs constituency addresses, a template letter that can be easily customized to include their local perspective; a facts and figures sheet; key messages that can be shared with local media and community groups and more. The Advocacy Campaign is not without risk, but is absolutely necessary. The key to success will be the groundswell from our members – working together, we have the power to shift the discussion and raise pressure on elected officials and on Transport Canada. For details on the campaign and information on how to get involved, please see the article “Call to Action: Get Involved in CBAA’s Advocacy Campaign.”
CBAA | News Brief
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Call to Action: Get Involved in CBAA’s Advocacy Campaign
T
his September, CBAA launches a major advocacy campaign to pressure the government to resolve critical issues arising from its lack of leadership and poor management of the Business Aviation Certification Program. The campaign will be waged on three fronts: political, public and regulatory, and we are calling on every member to get involved. The tight time frame will force action sooner rather than later. We cannot wait. We have to act together – and act now – or suffer potentially devastating consequences: grounded planes waiting on certification, and Canadian operators
forced to the U.S. or even overseas to register their aircraft. The impact would affect the sustainability of the entire business aviation community, from operators to manufacturers to suppliers, and rip through local economies, depressing business and job opportunities, especially for small and medium businesses. We are creating a number of tools and resources for members to build a grass-roots movement to support and reinforce our efforts in Ottawa. Our aim is to change the rules of the game, putting our issues at the top of the government agenda, educating the public and politicians and dispelling the myths around business aviation.
CBAA MEMBERS WATCH FOR A SPECIAL E-MAIL BULLETIN CONNECTING YOU DIRECTLY TO THE ADVOCACY TOOLKIT. NON-MEMBERS PLEASE CONTACT RACHEL DUCHESNEAU rduchesneau@cbaa.ca FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO BECOME INVOLVED. THE POLITICAL CAMPAIGN
CBAA members are critical partners in this phase of the campaign, which is designed to get local MPs to exert grass-roots political pressure on the Minister and Transport
Canada in a way that cannot be ignored. We will be calling on every member to write to their MPs, talk to other community leader and get their support, by clearly laying out the importance of business aviation to local economies and the real and present danger of continuing down Transport Canada’s path. CBAA will give members every tool they need to wage this campaign. As of Sept. 6, members can access a special section on CBAA’s new website that will include templates for MP letters, key messages and talking points, contact lists for MPs and influencers, and more.
CBAA/NBAA Cross-Border Issues Conference 2011
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n addition to sharing the longest border in the world, at over 5,500 miles, Canada and the United States are also top trading partners. With this close geographic and economic relationship, many business aircraft operators from both countries conduct frequent cross border flights. CBAA and NBAA have jointly developed a seminar to address the common challenges faced by operators transporting passengers across the border to conduct business in both countries. This interactive seminar will bring together industry leading experts on cross-border issues including government officials,
4 CBAA | News Brief
aviation attorneys and international service providers. Representatives from agencies such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Canada Border Services Agency have been invited to participate. Attendees of this CBAA/ NBAA Cross-Border Issues Conference will learn how to: • Understand the economic and regulatory issues that pertain to cross-border flights; • Utilize trusted traveller programs in Canada, such as CANPASS, and comply with U.S. Advance
Passenger Information System requirements; • Apply industry developed best practices for working with air charter brokers to arrange flights; • Understand cabotage restrictions and their impact on flights within the U.S. and Canada; • Develop best practices for clearing Customs in the U.S. and Canada based on feedback from regulators in both countries. This Conference is intended for: flight department personnel, aircraft owners and operators, aviation professionals, attorneys,
schedulers, dispatchers and others who have an interest in cross-border flight operations. Both members and non-members of CBAA and NBAA are invited and encouraged to attend. The CBAA/NBAA CrossBorder Issues Conference will take place Dec. 8-9 in Mississauga, Toronto at the Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel & Suites. Visit www.cbaa-acaa.ca or www. nbaa.org to register today! REGISTRATION FEES CBAA and NBAA members: $ 425 Non-members: $ 625
To represent and promote the Canadian business aviation community globally, advocating safety, security, and efficiency
CALENDAR | OF EVENTS September 23, Winnipeg
Central Chapter Meeting Shell Aerocenter Winnipeg Info: www.cbaa-acaa.ca
CBAA Scores Major Win on CBSA PAX Loads Maximum at Pearson
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e are pleased to announce that effective immediately, the Canadian Boarder Services Agency (CBSA) at Toronto Pearson International Airport will clear private aircraft with loads of up to 30 passengers. The previous maximum was 15. This has been an issue for operators north and south of the border and will be welcome news for many CBAA members who are clients of Canada’s busiest airport. CBAA and CBSA meet on a
September 29, Vancouver
Pacific Chapter Meeting Landmark Aviation Contact: sharrold@landmark.com Other Dates of Interest October 10-13, Las Vegas, NV
NBAA 2011 Info: http://www.nbaa.org/events/amc/2011/ October 26-29, Saskatoon, SK
Saskatchewan Aviation Council Meeting Contact: jim.thompson@gov.sk.ca December 8-9, Toronto
regular basis to identify issues and discuss the impact of CBSA’s procedures, plans and priorities on business aviation. As a result of our discussions, CBAA has learned that the Agency is reviewing its operations with a goal to modernizing programs. This will result in a change to private operators’ reporting requirements. Details will be provided as soon as they are made available, and CBAA will continue to track these changes on behalf of its members.
CBAA/NBAA Cross Border Issues Conference Info: http://www.cbaa-acaa.ca/communications/calendarevents/industry-events/cbaa-nbaa-cross-border-issuesconference
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Executive Flight Centre is a diverse aviation service provider that specializes in all aspects of the aviation service sector, catering to the needs of airport users. We offer aviation fuel, full service Fixed Base Operations, airport management, ground handling services, fueling equipment and parts all the while providing exceptional service with experienced and knowledgeable employees.
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Don Orr Aviation Services
With nearly 40 years of experience in numerous facets of the aviation industry, Don Orr Aviation Services has a vast background and is able to provide contract assistance and consulting services on a variety of diverse aviation fields. These include: • Remote and gravel runway operations, • Passenger, Cargo and Combi operations – both in Canada and internationally, • Implementing Safety Management Systems and Quality Assurance programs at Canadian AOC and POC holders, • Aircraft evaluations for financial institutions, • Safety and regulatory audits (domestic and foreign), • Compilation and implementation of Operating Manuals for air carriers and aerodromes, • Assisting in the development of, and certification of aircraft modifications including: Class “B” and “C” main deck cargo compartments, • Obtaining Transport Canada exemptions to regulatory requirements.
CBAA | News Brief
5
2011 Looks to the ‘Next 50 Years’ as the Voice of Business Aviation
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element of the CBAA, inside and out. We’ve rebuilt our value proposition to produce results based on leadership, support and solutions that save our members time, money and political capital. This change is reflected in CBAA’s new brand: a new corporate logo, a new, more useful website, and a new strategy in how we represent, and profile, our sector.” Sam was joined on the podium by Ed Bolen, President and CEO of NBAA, who shared two key messages with the audience: the importance of the BA sector to the North American economy, and the commitment to working with CBAA to resolve cross-border issues. “I am not preaching to the choir, I am preaching to missionaries – we’ve got a great story to tell,” he said. “We are an essential industry; we are an important industry. Working together, working cross border, we can do that.” CBAA and NBAA’s close working relationship includes ongoing iscollaboration on shared is sues, as well as the second Cross-Border Issues Conference, to be held later this year in Toronto, Dec. 8 and 9. CBAA 2011 also encouraged members’ to share their input and guidance, with an open Operators Forum, which algala event. lowed senior staff to ry sa er iv n A 50th An d the CBA hear the views and concerns of uests atten g 1 1 0 2 A CBA “But it is not the members in an informal and frank only issue we are tackling, and the session, and with the first Indusconvention was an excellent venue try Roundtable, held by WINGS to share our plans and vision for the Magazine and CBAA. “These sessions have given us invaluable infuture.” In his President’s Address, Sam sight into what our real job is,” Sam detailed the steps that the associa- explained, “and I am grateful both tion has taken to ensure its contin- to WINGS Magazine, and our opued relevance to business aviation. erators for their support and input.” Both Transport Canada and “We have retooled virtually every BAA’s 50th Anniversary celebration, CBAA 2011, held in Calgary July 6 and 7 was the place to be for everyone involved in Canada’s business aviation community. “The CBAA convention and trade show is known as a place where relationships are built and business gets done,” said Sam Barone, CBAA President and CEO. “This year, it was also about turning the page and looking ahead to our future.” The successful trade show was complemented by a series of plenary sessions and presentations that laid out the association’s direction, and explained how CBAA has strengthened its ability to represent business aviation and build membership, adding a new emphasis on single-plane operators. “The transfer of POC to Transport Canada has, and continues to be a major focus for CBAA, and we continue to push TC for answers and for a program that works for our industry.” said Sam.
6 CBAA | News Brief
CBAA Chair, Rob Madden, CBAA President and CEO, Sam Barone, NBAA President and CEO, Ed Bolen, and Skyservice Business Aviation Facility Manager, Jill Timmins, open the CBAA trade show floor in Calgary, Alta.
Nav Canada provided updates on soon become little more than an their activities. Martin Eley, Direc- afterthought tacked on to other forms of aviation and other regula regulator General, Civil Aviation, TC, was centre stage, reporting on what has and has not yet been done on POC. The session pro-vided another opportunity to identify the gaps in the transiEd Bolen tion, and their Associat , President and CEO of th ion (NBAA e Natio serious nature. at CBAA 2011 in ) in the Discovery Hawknal Business Aviation Calgary, Alta One on stat ic display . Transport Canada’s unsatisfying responses regarding POC as well as a num- tory regimes. And we and our cusber of other issues looming on the tomers would be the losers.” The CBAA 2011 satisfaction horizon reaffirmed the importance of having a united front and strong survey demonstrated that CBAA’s annual conventions are valuable to association, going forward. CBAA’s Chairman, Rob Mad- both members and non-member den, summed it up. “My strongest with over 61.8% of attendees and message for you today is this is an exhibitors indicating that they had association we must continue to made contacts at the events that support. CBAA membership is would lead to sales. Look for more informano longer a requirement for POC – but it is an absolute necessity if tion on the Canadian Business business aviation is to thrive in this Aviation Convention and Excountry. I believe that without the hibition (CBACE) in Toronto, CBAA, business aviation would Ontario soon.
To represent and promote the Canadian business aviation community globally, advocating safety, security, and efficiency
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CBAA | News Brief
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CBAA 2011 is Canada’s premier event for Canadian Business Aviation, and this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Business Aviation Association (CBAA).
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A recipe for disaster Do nothing and hope you get lucky
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areas at the end of runways or install other engineered systems and structures to safely stop planes that overrun. Look, this doesn’t need to be a problem. Already, TC is proposing that runways be made compliant with the International Civil Aviation Organization standard of a 90 m RESA beyond the 60 m runway end strip (for a total of 150 m). Going further, a move toward the ICAOrecommended 300 m standard hasn’t been ruled out. Those changes are still a ways off, but here is the key: just because they aren’t yet mandatory, doesn’t mean they’re not good ideas. Do we need to revisit the specter of Air France Flight 358, hurtling off the runway at 80 knots? What about the hundreds of near-misses on runways across Canada? How long until someone – or some people – find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time? If we’re lucky, no one will be hurt when that happens. But why rely on luck? Why not take action today, especially when we’re all working toward the same goal? We already know what the dangers are, so let’s make our nation’s transportation system as safe as it can be. Instead of waiting until next time. | w
Do we need to revisit the spectre of Air France Flight 358, hurtling off the runway at 80 knots? urged airports to lengthen the runway end safety areas (RESAs) or install other engineered arresting systems/structures. Over a year later, we’re still waiting. Placing all the blame on the regulator, though, is too simplistic. Transport Canada is not the only one with a role to play. That’s why we’re appealing to you, the change agents. You fly Canada’s planes. You run Canada’s airports, direct the air traffic, and you help millions of people arrive safely at their destinations. You are in the perfect position, not only to see where the very real problems lie – but what can be done to fix them. Waiting for regulations? That won’t help make things safer today. And by not making things safer today. . .well, that sounds an awful lot like an excuse to pass the buck. Here, then, is the kind of action we’d like to see. The Board is concerned that incursions and the risk of collisions will remain until better defenses are put in place. Canada’s airports need enhanced collision-warning systems. As for landing accidents and runway overruns, solutions are equally wellknown. Pilots need to calculate if sufficient landing distance is available and receive timely information about runway surface conditions, particularly during bad weather. And airports need to lengthen the safety
Kathy Fox has been extensively involved in aviation for more than 40 years, as a pilot, flight instructor, pilot examiner and airtraffic controller. She has been a member of the Transportation Safety Board since 2007. www.wingsMagazine.coM
PHoTo: TRansPoRTaTion saFeTY BoaRD (TsB)
jumbo airliner makes its final approach into a busy metropolitan airport during a heavy thunderstorm. The passengers are nervous, visibility is poor, and by the time the wheels touch down, over a third of the rain-slicked runway has already vanished. Worse, the brief space remaining is disappearing at a frightening rate. Fiction or reality? Think of Air France Flight 358 landing at Toronto’s Pearson Airport in August 2005. Two questions make that scenario even more frightening: What if we knew in advance how to prevent this? What if we did nothing? At the Transportation Safety Board, investigating accidents is part of our job. When something goes wrong – on our waterways, along our railroads or pipelines, or in our skies – we find out what happened, why, and hopefully how to prevent it in the future. But our work doesn’t stop with the completion of an investigation or the publication of a report. Our mandate is to improve transportation safety, not just report on it – and that means speaking up if a risk still remains, and pushing for change when not enough has been done. To that end, we released our safety Watchlist in March 2010, highlighting nine key safety issues posing the greatest risk to Canadians. But what was first envisioned as a “blueprint for change” is starting to look like a blueprint for finding roadblocks. Sure, gains have been made – in some areas, dramatically. Marine ferry operators. Railway companies. Not only have concrete steps been taken in these areas, but more changes are on the horizon. In fact, since its release, the momentum generated by the Watchlist has allowed us to reassess seven of our recommendations with the TSB’s highest grade of “Fully Satisfactory.” But what about the millions of Canadians who take commercial passenger flights each year? Have we done enough? Sadly, no. In March 2010, the TSB warned the public about the dangers of runway incursions at Canadian airports. We stated clearly that the ongoing risk of aircraft collisions with vehicles or other aircraft on the ground was too high, and we pushed for better warning systems. We also singled out the danger of landing accidents and overruns, and we
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