Page 18 - Volume 20 Number 7

NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION • focus
operations. About half of SMO’s existing business comes from training operations based on the field, although the airport’s landing fees incentivize student pilots to fly to other area airports to practice.
That shutdown places a financial strain on remaining aviation businesses at SMO, including the company’s former maintenance provider, Bill’s Air Center. Andres Gonzalez purchased Bill’s in February 2014, one month before city officials refused to renew the business’s long- term lease; since then, rent has been paid month-to-month.
“It was clear that the city didn’t like [SMO] and basically wanted us to go away,” Gonzalez
By helping single pilot operators keep track of their location, fuel burn, weather and traffic conditions, and more, flight management systems (FMS) are a particularly valuable tool in modern cockpits. However, systems differences between different FMS manufacturers and models of FMS may also make managing these systems an unwelcome challenge at an inopportune time.
“If you’re so overly focused on how to do the FMS, it takes away a lot of your time from flying the airplane and managing it,” pilot Long Nguyen said in a recent episode of NBAA’s Flight Plan podcast.
said of the long-term leasing issues. “The city’s attitude is unfortunate, because in a couple of years I’ll likely be able to expand. It’s clear the city will do anything within its power to limit us.”
Although Gonzalez said he expects the field’s remaining flight schools to buy up Justice’s fleet, minimizing his losses in the near future, he and other business owners on the field are extremely concerned by the precedent set by the city’s actions.
Despite his difficulties, however, Gonzalez is optimistic about SMO’s future. “I believe the airport is going to be here for a very long time, but the question is how the city might further restrict our operations,” he added.
Although Nguyen regularly flies a Cessna Citation CJ3, he is occasionally required to fly a CJ2. The aircraft are similar to one another, and they share a common (CE525) type rating. However, Nguyen admits he sometimes has difficulties when transitioning between the two, as each aircraft has an FMS from a different manufacturer. Not only do the user interfaces between the two systems look completely different; each also has a distinct operating logic behind it.
“It’s always stressful because I don’t fly [the CJ2] enough to stay really familiar with its FMS,” he added. “Whenever I have to go fly single pilot in it, I have to have the current pilot give me a familiarization to the box, [and] let me go sit down inside the airplane and go over how to program it.” Nguyen also recorded one of his previous CJ2 flights specifically so he could review FMS operation prior to stepping inside the cockpit.
That level of preparation is key to operating safely with an unfamiliar FMS, said NBAA Safety Committee member Jay White. “Assess yourself, and how familiar am I [with the specific FMS,]”
Flight Management Systems Can Help, Or Challenge Single-Pilot Operators
16 • TWIN & TURBINE JULY 2016