Professional Pilot, March 2016

it Still it took some time to organize the visit to Wichita of an ARB team later CAA headed by Dennis Murrin The Brits required a number of minor changes in the construction of the Lear They insisted on rerouting some hydraulic lines in the fuselage for safety in case on an uncontained failure of one of our General Electric CJ 610 engines I tried to explain that in more than 1 million hours of operation the CJ 610 never had an uncontained failure To which Dennis answered But they could have one tomorrow Finally to celebrate the award of the British Type Certificate for the Learjet our new sales activity in the UK CSE Aviation hosted a dinner at the plush Inn on the Park Hotel in London At the celebration were UK Civil Aviation Director of Safety Dr Walter Tye and Head of the UK ARB Team Dennis Murrin representing CSE Aviation were President Rex Smith and Sales Manager Lord Waterpark and from Learjet in attendance were President Harry Combs General Manager Mike Conlin Chief Engineer Don Grommesh and VP Intl Sales Alex Kvassay At the conclusion Dr Tye made the following statement It was not unusual for companies who had any strength left after CAA certification to croak a few hoarse kind words but it is most unusual for a president of a company and his senior executives to travel half way across the world to celebrate the occasion Because of the delays in British certification CSE could no longer operate a US registered Learjet in the UK and were forced to resell their Learjet 35 demonstrator in the US My initial doubts were also confirmed as few Learjets were sold in the UK Alex Kvassay 89 recently made a farewell trip to his native Budapest Hungary with side trips to the Greek Islands and Istanbul Turkey where he lived before immigrating to the US in 1948 thrown in In more than 60 years of international travel first for business and later for pleasure Kvassay has made more than 600 oceanic crossings PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2016 47 The famed Sopwith Camel saw considerable action during World War I Amazingly FAA certification was accepted without any questions in most countries in the world Exceptions were countries like England France and Australia all of which had their own aircraft industries and civil aviation departments Since there were few new aircraft to certify in their home countries they made a business out of finding fault in FAA certified business aircraft But others like Switzerland accepted an FAA Airworthiness Certificates which were needed for all exported aircraft and required only a copy of the flight manual and parts catalog on all new models Knowing Harrys great love for aviation history he authored the book Kill Devil Hill about the Wright Brothers we decided to cash in on this One of our companions in this effort was Tom Sopwith Jr son of Sir Thomas Sopwith Sr of World War I fame with his Sopwith Camel Tom arranged that his father invite Harry to dinner at his home and during the course of the meal ask Harry why the Learjet was not certified in the UK We are not sure if Sopwith Sr had any idea what a Learjet was Next morning Harry practically attacked me Ace why dont you have our aircraft certified in the UK he asked My answer was factual Because you did not approve the cost of this Harry curtly commanded Go ahead and do To commemorate British certification of the Learjet a dinner was held in London Among the attendees were pictured here left to right Lord Caryl Waterpark sales manager for UK Learjet distributor CSE Learjet President Harry Combs and British CAA Dir of Safety Dr Walter Tye Legendary British aviator Sir Thomas Sopwith Sr asked Learjet President Harry Combs why the Learjet wasnt certified in the UK The very next day Combs approved moving ahead with the Learjets British certification process Thomas Sopwith Jr in cahoots with Learjets Alex Kvassay arranged a dinner for his father to meet Learjet president Harry Combs seeking to launch the certification effort of the Learjet in the UK