Undaunted by the prospect of a program full of shake, rattle and roll, FCS’COO Thomas Wede and Training Manager Markus Buensen, began a new chapter in FCS’ pilot training and accepted the challenge of getting turned upside down by the experts at Ultimate High in Goodwood, UK.

After the successful handover of FCS’ former calibration aircraft D-CFMD to ACAM-FCS on July 23, 2020, now operating under the role-fitting registration of T7-CAL, the first customer in South East Asia contracted the new player in the market to provide Flight Inspection Services.

In the light of FCS’ established stakeholder structure, our activities have traditionally been focussed on central Europe. An increase in customer inquiries from outside Europe, along with changes on the horizon for our core market, led FCS to re-visit the concept of expanding its international footprint without affecting the service levels provided to its core customers. To resolve this potential conflict of goals, FCS entered new territory in April 2020 by establishing up a strategic alliance with Asian Corporate Aviation Management ACAM Pte. Ltd. from Singapore. Trading as ACAM-FCS, this new strategic alliance will address the needs of the international Flight Inspection and Flight Validation market.

In Wednesday, May 27, 2020, FCS successfully demonstrated its new NavAidDrone at Munich International Airport. The demonstration provided the opportunity to evaluate and validate the operational concept of the drone within the challenging environment of an international airport. This was the starting point for a change process, with the aim to replace the current ground-based Glideslope measurements, completed with an antenna on a telescopic mast, with a more flexible, sophisticated and versatile tool – the NavAidDrone.

In the period May 17 to May 21, 2020, a tasking from Säve Flygplatsdrift AB took FCS, together with their partner REGA Swiss Air Ambulance, to Sweden. The mission was the Flight Validation of 6 new helicopter Instrument Approach Procedures to 5 hospitals and a helicopter base in southern Sweden.

In the course of a routine fleet renewal program, FCS Flight Calibration Services GmbH inducted its new flight inspection aircraft, D-CFMF into the fleet at the turn of 2019/2020. In order to maintain fleet commonality, the new aircraft is again a Textron Beechcraft KingAir B350, equipped with a state-of-the-art Automatic Flight Inspections System (AFIS) from Aerodata AG. Both aircraft and FIS feature a number of innovations, which translate into added benefit in terms of a more comprehensive calibration service for our customers. With this significant investment, FCS reconfirms its standing as one of the leading providers of Flight Inspection and Flight Validation services worldwide.