The Five Pound Bag

The old adage is that you can’t fit ten pounds in a five pound bag. An aircraft more often than not, becomes that ten pound vessel. Oh it can hold it all right, but something’s gotta give. In most cases its range and performance, in some aircraft it is a lack of storage. Crew closets hold service items, baggage areas hold galley supplies and cabinets burst at the seams.

 

 

Most operators planning a completion don’t come to the table prepared with list detailing all of the items required. This should include the weights of items like galley supplies, china etc. Although they are not part of the actual weight and balance and considered loose equipment, they affect the cabinet’s structure. Over weight items will require cabinets and drawers to be stressed to hold additional weight with double slides and robust panels.

The galley and table service are the two biggest culprits. Cabin crews need to carry everything and the kitchen sink. I once inventoried a G-IV’s galley to find 72 cans of soda, 16 bottles of wine and eighty pounds of China and Silver. That’s one passenger, in total the galley held 540 pound of stock. Half of that would have provided first class service to a cabin of eight.

 

 

Plan for the seventy –fifth percentile flight, not that one time you may need it all. When you do, use fly-away boxes to hold the additional items. When heading to remote regions, then stock the baggage with extra water and wine. Plan you service when working with the center. A salad bowl can double as a cereal bowl and a beard plate can double as a dessert plate.

When designing your layout, ask the completion center to provide adequate space and account for the weight of each storage area. Then use the plans of each storage area as an inventory check list when preparing the aircraft. This will prevent overloading that leads to broken latches, slides that bind, and doors and drawers that break. Most of all, it might mean not off-loading that additional passenger, making range or using every foot of that tight landing.

Define the Mission

We don’t actually read the instructions anymore. We remove it from the box, plug it in and figure it as we go along. The decision was made to buy a jet based on what or how? Getting from point A to point B? How big the hangar is? Home much the decision maker can afford? It’s hard to tell, but was it based on a mission? Maybe it was.

The mission is often over looked. And at this critical juncture, the success of the completions outcome or entry-in-to-service or the overall satisfaction of ownership can hang in the balance. Often it’s a city pair that will determine the purchase. When the large cabin class race began some fifteen years ago it was Tokyo to New York or about 5000 miles that set the bench mark.

But there are many other decisions to consider. Planning for that one long range flight taken a few times a year, may mean more aircraft than you need. Is the aircraft weight or required field length adequate for the cities you visit on a regular basis. I have found that most pilots have all the figured out. Where they fall short isn’t with the size or range or avionics at all. The success of the aircraft can be measured on other intangibles or even creature comforts. There are so many that don’t get mentioned because at that critical moment of decision making who thinks of seats, galleys and lavatories.

Most often it is the back of the cabin that takes the proverbial “jump seat” in the decision making process. When defining the mission take the time to think about these areas. After all, they are VIP aircraft for the most part and cabin service should be studied. It should not be overkill, but be adequate amenities to provide the finest service without compromise.

No Time Like Now

 

At the suggestion of a long time business aviation colleague, the recommendation was to share thirty years of knowledge in the arena of business jet interior completions. As my first posting, millions of ideas float through my head on what to share with you. I would like this blog to be an educational source of information for flight operations faced with the daunting task of a major completion or refurbishment.

Having worked for major OEM’s, Fortune 500 companies and HNWI, it always amazed me how various operations came about their decisions. This crap shoot sometimes works out fine and others crashed and burned.  

When I started in the industry, building of interiors consisted of skilled cabinet makers, marine plywood, a tape measure, wood screws and a sketch. There are still GII’s in operation today with components built from these prehistoric materials. They would build a galley and then a draftsman would draw it up, a process known as reverse engineering. Today, craftsmen give way to engineers using sophisticated computers with 3D CATIA software creating pages of drawings to be constructed from. Aerospace grade composite materials, CNC milling machines and regulatory constrictions have changed the completion industry drastically over the last decade.

Over time this blog will be dedicated to practical and useful information on how to plan, execute and manage you next completion project. Most importantly it will help you communicate better with the owner or decision maker of the aircraft to insure success and ultimate satisfaction. 

Thanks for reading,

David Salkovitz