Avionics News September 2016 - 61

Lorne Cole (left), founder and managing director; and
Travis Stephens, avionics manager, are pictured in one
of the company's Learjet 45s.

With less than 200 business jets registered in Australia, local
operators were aware of the implementation, and for a couple
of years it was possible to get an exemption for flying the most
popular routings. All of that made it reasonably easy for an
operator to schedule a shop visit for the upgrade.
"The problem we had was that the OEMs were not able to
provide the service bulletin or guidance until late in the piece,"
Cole said. "To illustrate that fact, our Citation 10 completed its
service bulletin compliance for ADS-B only just at the end of
April this year."

program, given the high value of the equipment fitted in the airplane. The HAPP program offered us the assurance of predictable avionics maintenance costs across that fleet."
Honeywell's Avionics Protection Plan provides JetCity with
set costs for avionics repairs. Each plan goes with each specific
airplane, increasing its resale value, which was important as
JetCity planned equipment upgrades and expansion. HAPP isn't
only for Learjets. Its flexible, scalable nature means that other
JetCity aircraft, including its Gulfstream IV and Citation 10,
both equipped with Honeywell avionics, also had HAPPs customized to them.
Leading with ADS-B
Speaking of upgrades, JetCity, which services around 350
aircraft a year through its MRO and FBO businesses, was key
to helping Australia's business aircraft fleet meet the government mandate for ADS-B, which came into effect in 2013 (full
compliance was required by early this year).
"As a small country, aviation wise, we would have been better off to be following some of the larger countries where the
OEMs reside," Cole explained. "When you are the first country
in the world to implement this technology, it isn't unreasonable
to see the OEMs say, hey, you are only a small percentage of
our market, so we aren't going to take an engineering team off
their projects to develop new service bulletins and new products, patches just for you, when there are still four years until
the rest of the world signs on."

Ahead of the curve
Being ahead of the worldwide implementation curve for
ADS-B put Cole and Stephens and their crew of technicians on
the leading edge, and because of that, they found themselves
actually aiding OEMs with the STC process for ADS-B. One
of the OEMs JetCity worked closely with was Honeywell
Aerospace.
It was a synergy of purpose and timing that led the two companies to the close relationship they have today. JetCity needed
ADS-B and a rapid-response parts and technology stream for
its two maintenance operations, and Honeywell Aerospace was
pushing into the Asia Pacific region.
"The Honeywell representatives were here for an air show,
so they came down for a shop visit and we got talking,"
Stephens said. "We started to discuss the possibility of formalizing a partnership and becoming a dealer. We put a business
case forward."
A natural fit
Stephens explained to Honeywell that as a 24/7 operation
built at two airports, JetCity had the ability to react better than
most to an AOG situation. "If someone needs us, we will
answer the phone, weekends, holidays - does not matter," he
said. "If an airplane needs a part, we will get it straight away -
so we put a strong case through to Honeywell."
As he tells it, the negotiations took about 12 months of back
and forth before the company obtained its Honeywell dealership status in December 2015.
For Honeywell, it was a coup. JetCity joins more than 40
other dealerships the company has recruited in the Asia-Pacific
region, capable of servicing the more than 850 business aircraft
registered in the region (that does not include the military and
heads-of-state aircraft also equipped with Honeywell avionics residing in the region). The staff at JetCity understands
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avionics news

september

2016

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