- Spain is the latest European Union country to place an order for De Havilland Canada’s DHC-515 Firefighter water bomber. The announcement follows one made last month by Greece, Croatia and Portugal who together placed orders for 11 of the aerial tankers. Production of the aircraft is currently underway in Western Canada.
- The avgas supply across Canada appears to have stabilized, with no publicly available satisfactory explanation as to the cause of the two- to three-week-long shortage.
- In its most recent Aviation Safety Letter, Transport Canada reminds aircraft owners and operators that the use of automobile gas (MOGAS) in aircraft is prohibited unless the owner has obtained an STC for that particular aircraft and engine. This is mainly due to the harm that the alcohol now omnipresent in MOGAS can do to an engine. Click here for more information.
- The United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority is upping its surveillance of Canadian UK Third-Country Operator (UK TCO) holders – essentially Canadian aviation operators to the U.K., in the wake of the devastating ICAO safety audit performed last year. According to feedback from one such operator, they received a letter from the CAA saying, “We are writing to notify your organisation that as a result of the outcome following the recent ICAO USOAP audit of Transport Canada in 2023, the UK CAA Air Safety Unit has decided to increase the level of oversight extended to Canadian ‘UK TCO’ holders to intervals of no more than 12 months until ICAO’s findings are satisfactorily addressed.”
- In preparation for the arrival of Lockheed Martin CF-35A Lightning aircraft, which will replace the 40+-year old fleet on CF-18s, the Department of National Defence (DND) has announced the start of construction of a Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) facility at CFB Bagotville in Quebec to support NORAD operations. A 7,400 m2/80,000 sq. ft. hangar will be built, surrounded by a 17,000 m2/183,000 sq. ft. compound. Cost is estimated at $120 million with completion by 2027.
Notable in the DND’s press release was the use of CF-35, instead of its previous practice of using F-35. The name change was not unexpected.