by CJP CEO Rob Balzano
I’d like to start by saying “hello” to everyone and a heartfelt “thank you” for entrusting me to lead this first-class organization. I am incredibly humbled and enthusiastic about the opportunity and look forward to many great years of continued success.
CJP, both the Association and Safety and Education Foundation, would not be at the caliber they are today without the selfless dedication and passion of those who came before me, those who have served on the boards and committees, those who currently serve, and of course our ardent members and steadfast partners. A special thank you to David Miller for his many years of magnificent support to CJP and his tremendous leadership as Interim CEO.
The first few weeks in the seat have been busy, but extremely rewarding. During my first 90 days, I am focused on orientation – learning as much as possible about our organization, how we operate, what our members need, and what our partners value. I have connected with every board member, and our key partners, and have begun reaching out to our members and all partners. Over the coming months, I will continue to prioritize getting to know all of you and our stakeholders while assessing our day-to-day operations to align effectively and efficiently with CJP’s vision and mission.
In January, I attended my first board meeting at the JW Marriott in San Antonio – the same location where our 2025 Annual Convention will be held. It was an absolute pleasure getting to meet most of our board members and we had a great few days of discussing CJP business. We were also able to tour the convention facilities and were impressed by the size and accommodations.
I also attended our Winter Regional event in Deer Valley, UT. Wow! What a phenomenal experience it was to spend several days in an intimate setting getting to know our members and Platinum Partners. We even had 2 members and their families fly in from Australia! Each day began with an awesome safety briefing and discussions on winter operations, Safe to Land ™ 2.0, and circling procedures and techniques, led by our very own Charlie Precourt.
Our partners in attendance were Textron, Textron Aviation, Collins Aerospace, and Tamarack. They provided some great updates to the group. Here are the highlights:
Textron Aviation: Briefing by Brad White, SVP of Global Parts Distribution
- Provided an overview of the company’s current status and highlighted key insights gathered from customer feedback as his team’s primary focus.
- In providing a market update, Brad presented key indicators of market stability, namely a substantial increase in the backlog for Textron Aviation, sustained levels of flight activity surpassing pre-pandemic levels and a continued record-low supply of pre-owned Citations under 10 years old.
- The company is diligently working on several highly anticipated upgrades, including the M2 Gen2 avionics and autothrottles, the CJ3 Gen2 and the new Citation Ascend.
- Interior upgrades and avionics remain highly sought-after aftermarket enhancements.
- The team is on track to complete the relocation process to the newly expanded parts warehouse in the near future. This space will facilitate an increased parts inventory to support the needs of both current and future models.
- The Parts team is actively prioritizing e-commerce improvements, regional part inventory and exploring additional enhancements based on customer feedback.
Collins Aerospace: Steve Adolphs, B&RA Transformation & Aftermarket Programs
- Collins has initiated a new Pilots Advisory Group. Click here to join!
- Pro Line 21 Upgrade developments are wrapping up and moving into the certification phase.
- Pending approval timelines by the FAA, STC approvals for CJ1+, CJ2+, CJ3, CJ4, & XLS+ will begin in H2 2024.
- Features submitted for cert approval include CPDLC, FMS V4.2, IFIS V6.0 (lightning, winds aloft, satellite shots, TFRs), FOQA data transfer, lower-cost CVR, privacy ICAO address, and SATCOM (CJ3, CJ4, & XLS+ only).
- Additional options enabled: Turbulence detection WXR, graphical charts, Dual FMS & GPS, HF w/SELCAL, TCAS II, ADS-B In Weather, additional FOQA capabilities.
- 5G deployment’s challenges to the aviation industry are real. 5G signals affect your Radar Altimeter, which provides data to multiple systems (EICAS, FMS, TAWS, EGPWS, TCAS, etc.)
- Mitigation can be performed by upgrading to an ALT-1000+ or ALT-4000+. These are upgrades for your existing ALT-55, ALT-1000, or ALT-4000. The filtering is internal, so no splicing is needed to your existing wiring.
Tamarack Aerospace: Nick Guida, Founder & CEO
- Tamarack’s technology endorsed by the Department of Defense as Tamarack Aerospace Group awarded USAF contract for the design and testing of their Active Winglet for the C-17.
- Announced signed agreement in place for the design, development, testing, and FAA/EASA STC Certification for Citation Mustangs.
- Nick also shared his own remarkable long range transatlantic flight in a Tamarack Winglet equipped CJ3. Flying non-stop from Shannon, Ireland to Gander, Newfoundland. Halfway through the flight, Nick had so much fuel onboard that he requested to land in Bangor, ME (with normal minimums) – but was denied the request.
I look forward to serving you all and continuing to make CJP the best owner-pilot association in the world! Please reach out to me or any CJP staff with any questions, concerns, or recommendations you have.
Fly Safe and Check 6!