With a top speed of 400 knots (Avanti II/Evo), these airplanes cruise as much as 100 knots faster than traditional turboprops. @piaggiodriver, it's ok to be proud of working at a company but avantair treats its employees horribly. Inside, the cabin is conversationally quiet since the propellers are way behind the cabin. Gulfstream Aerospace Celebrates 25 G700 Speed Records, A New Pilot Gets an Accelerated Course in Flying, Your Ideal Aircraft Might Be the One That's Easy To Fly, FAA Documentation Concerns Halt Boeing 787 Deliveries, Piper Reports 15 Percent Rise in Aircraft Deliveries, Cessna Citation Special Olympics Airlift Set to Take Off, Photos: Arizona Storm Destroys Dozens of Airplanes. CLEARWATER, Fla. October 25, 2012 Avantair, Inc. (OTCBB: AAIR), today announced the company is continuing to stand down operations and engaging top aviation experts to help complete a thorough examination of its fleet of nearly 60 Piaggio Avanti aircraft, and a comprehensive review of records and supporting maintenance documentation. Both flights continued to their destinations without further incident. The front office of the Avanti Evo is the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21. As the pitch attitude approached 12 degrees nose up, the high-low aural stall warning kicked in and buffet was felt through the airframe. With fully reversionary flat-screen displays with a host of safety utilities, including TCAS, TAWS, satellite weather and more, the avionics suite is top-notch, and Piaggio Aero has been working with Rockwell Collins since the introduction of the Avanti II to add upgrades as they became available. The idea behind the Avanti has always been remarkably simple and completely outside the turboprop box. Anyone interested in the truth can re-read Piaggio drivers 4 part post. The forward wings are designed to stall first to assist in lowering the nose at the stall, and the ventral fins also add pitch down moment. The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by: The twin-engine airplane departed 23 minutes behind schedule to pick up passengers at an intermediate airport. Access to the cabin is straightforward, the upper two-thirds of the door on the port side, just behind the flight deck, opens toward the nose of the aircraft, and a gust lock keeps it flush to the side of the fuselage. But it was not his fault that it. Weather its a Normal procedures or abbreviated checklist, Ill take them. So it was no surprise that my first impressions were of relatively high control forces with noticeable system friction in both pitch and roll with, at low speed, a low geared pitch trim. Piaggio will also increase the Evo's maximum zero fuel weight (MZFW) to 10,200 pounds, up from 9,800 pounds. He said the airplane was slightly right of the runway centerline and that there was a right crosswind. source: Think of the Avanti II as a jet with props and youll be close to the mark, though in many respects, its not an easy mental shift to make. The P180s have a lot of maintenance issues because they are flown to airliner annual times when the planes were only made for a few hundred hours a year with private owners. Its a hard transition for a pilot coming back to PT6s after having flown modern fadec turbofans from Williams and, yes, from Pratt & Whitney. I HOPE they make it but I'm already making plans for other options. Now it will be impossible, since I cant even book my last few trips of the year, because I have no idea if we will be flying. Now I find out this has been an issue for several days but they have not sent out any communications to the owners mentioning this issue, nor is it mentioned on their website. Yes, the Captain was terminated and we lost a good pilot. "Piaggio gets confirmation of Avanti speed records". AINonline. Aviation International News. Archived from the original on 5 September 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2017. ^ Aboulafia, Richard. Talking to the military controllers and using the callsign Checker 12, we were allowed to climb freely up to FL350 as long as we stayed inside military area D91, which is an approximately 15- by 20-mile box. Being a turboprop, however, it uses a fraction of the fuel jets would use. http://www.avantair.com/filings.html. WebThe hydraulically retractable tricycle-type landing gear on the Piaggio Avanti II helps the aircraft to operate from smaller airfields as well with a min take off distance of 869 meters So to say that all is negative is wildly incorrect. Wingspan / 46 ft 1 in As with many airfields in this part of the world, terrain is a complicating factor. There is a lot owners don't know and it is shocking. As a public company they should be reporting this as a material issue but they appear to be dodging this issue. Bill, I appreciate the info and your honest evaluation. It's been 4-18 at most. While I flew, Villi checked the Airplane Flight Manual and the performance graphs corroborated these figures to within a couple of knots at ISA +5. I turned due south and climbed toward the military training area. I picked up the Avantair share as a resale through a vendor and paid a lot less then what it would have cost to buy it directly from the company, so at least I'm invested at a much lower number. The use of alloys instead of composites was a purposeful choice for Piaggio Aero, which certified the airplane more than 20 years ago at a time when there were few successful composite models and sheet metal seemed to augur a shorter approval program than plastics did. I am under a recent lease agreement. At FL380, you can expect 380 KTAS on 600 pounds per hour in an Avanti II. Discretion being the better part of valor, I extended the gear early and reduced speed to deploy the flaps, intending to stabilize nice and early so I could concentrate on flying as accurately as possible. Taxiing feels conventional, though its accomplished using an electrically actuated, hydraulically powered nosewheel steering system. Could it happen to anyone else? Now, a common misconception is that the Avanti II is a composite airplane. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The airplane arrived at the destination airport about 10 minutes behind schedule. Villi selected the Rockwell Collins RTA-800 weather radar on his nav display via the display control panel down the side of the PFD, to monitor a cell just inland. I was told my aircraft was on extended maintenance (whatever that meant, now I know). Villi and I then headed to Genoa for some instrument approaches. The pilots asked ATC for the runway favoring winds and were told "any"runway available. I followed the start procedure with one eye as I did this and observed Villi checking the power lever at idle, switching on the fuel pump, and setting the start switch to start. At 13 percent Ng, he moved the condition lever to ground idle with the starter switch shut off at 40 percent Ng and the power lever to flight idle. But, I'm sure that you could have done much better. My friend, the Captain, requested the FO remain with the passengers, who continued their verbal tirade as the Captain DID complete a postflight, although abbreviated under duress. Had this been a 121 flight, the Captain could have had the passengers detained for interfering with a flight crew and stomping out on the supposedly "secured" ramp, but this isn't 121. Comments since yesterday, Oct. 25, seem oblivious to the safety of flight issues. The seat is raised or lowered with a lever outboard to provide a view that should just about look down onto the top of the glareshield. With over 25 years of trading, AvBuyer is the primary marketplace for new and pre-owned turboprops, plus you can read AvBuyer magazine and our online actionable intelligence resources which offer insight, market data and analysis from pilots. Operationally this company is in big trouble. This airframe, T7-ASG, SN3007 was the first Avanti to be produced at the new manufacturing facility in Villanova DAlbenga, one year after production was moved from Genoa. The Avanti feels very stable and is easy to maintain altitude in while hand-flying compared with other airplanes in and around its class. A CEO and board that has taekn this company into a downward spiralouot of business in 3 monthsnice stock price!! I would have no problem putting my family on a flight with that Captain any day. Here is the sentence: The effect is a view that changes substantially as you point the nose up or down in various phases of flight. One smart thing I did do was I bought my share as a resale thru a vendor and paid a whole lot less then I would have if I bought straight from Avantair. It has delivered nearly 200. I'm not saying that maintenance or pilots did not make mistakes, but it helps to know the entire story before a rush to judgement. The airplane is nicely stable on final. Taking back control as we lined up, Villi held the brakes using the top of the toe pedals, advanced the power levers to 97.6 percent, and we accelerated briskly to 120 knots. I know both crews involved in the Flint, MI and the elevator incident. How do I get out of my lease and is there an opportunity for owners to get together to take action? Thanks for point that out. If anyone has any insight please share it. While canard configurations like the Beechcraft Starship were gaining a lot of attention back then, the exotic Avanti begged to be even more different with its three-lifting-surface arrangement versus the canards tail-forward setup. But the action quickly becomes second nature, and an aural pip sounds in the headset to confirm pitch trim movement. Please note that not all records are available electronically. A lot of the airplane have recurring maintenance problems that just get put off until something really breaks and the airplane is grounded. The Avanti takes that formula and pushes it to the design edge, achieving that performance with a great deal less power than in comparable jet products and with the best cabin in the class by a long shot. While its fleet was grounded, Avantair outsourced trips to third-party charter operators or, in some instances, told customers it was unable to conduct their flights, a spokesman told AIN. A flight credit has very little value unless and until we fly again. First, the gear came down below 180 knots, then mid- and finally full-stage flaps and we were nicely stabilized at 500 feet. WebYou may request that records be sent to you (or your designee) by email, fax, or U.S. mail. Pilots are being pushed to the extreme limits of duty time and rest and general morale simply could not be lower company-wide. He descended to 1,000 feet to position for a visual arrival to Runway 10 with a touch-and-go. With our new processes and procedures, Avantair will satisfy the heightened requirements governing the largest aircraft types in our industry. Pilot Report: Piaggio Avanti Evo - Aviation International If materials were a conservative approach, configuration was not. My friend, the Captain, requested the FO remain with the passengers, who continued their verbal tirade as the Captain DID complete a postflight, although abbreviated under duress. Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association Find it free on the store, Powerplants / (2) 850-shp Pratt & Whitney Piaggios appearance at the Singapore Airshow in February lifted hopes somewhat that the design can survive. Bleed air would have been nice, but by the time it had traveled the distance from the engines, its not clear that it would have been very hot anymore, and the bleed air used to heat the wing leading edges robs the turboprops of a great deal of power to begin with. If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can. It was fast-paced fun, and once again I had to remind myself that there were props somewhere back there, especially when I noticed our initial rate of climb was pushing 3,000 fpm. But this time no airplanes will return to service until next week, if ever. 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