01 NOV 2007 _______________________________________ *Eclipse Aviation Receives FAA Approval For FOQA Program *Police raid Mitsubishi Heavy factory over fighter jet crash *Man arrested for carrying concealed weapon on airplane *EU could blacklist Orenburg Airlines - Russian aviation chief *Serious questions about ADS-B NPRM arise *************************************** Eclipse Aviation Receives FAA Approval For FOQA Program Airline-Type Program Approved For General Aviation Eclipse Aviation announced this week it received approval of its Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA - pronounced foh-qwah) program from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Eclipse is the only aircraft manufacturer to receive FAA approval for a FOQA program that includes flight data monitoring capability consistent with the advanced programs used by commercial airline (Part 121) operations. Until now, FOQA was implemented only within resource-rich commercial airlines, and was largely unheard of in the general aviation and small corporate-fleet world. Eclipse's FOQA program brings that standard to GA, and is largely enabled by the next-generation integrated avionics and data collection systems designed for and incorporated in the Eclipse 500 very light jet. "At Eclipse, challenging general aviation norms and going beyond what's expected is a daily imperative," said Vern Raburn, president and CEO of Eclipse Aviation. "This FAA-approved FOQA program reflects our commitment to live up to these ideals by introducing a world-class flight operation strategy to general aviation that will deliver airline-quality safety to our customers. FOQA is a perfect addition to our progressive safety management system (SMS), which gives us the tools to proactively ensure the highest level of safety across all Eclipse 500 operations." FOQA, used by most major airlines around the world, employs sophisticated software to capture and analyze recorded flight data. The information gathered by this system is used to identify, assess and correct high-risk operating conditions before they cause an accident. FOQA programs are frequently cited as contributing to the impressive safety record of US airlines over the past decade. FOQA initiatives have been used to identify and improve everything from deficiencies in pilot training programs, manuals and processes, to aircraft design issues and hazardous air traffic control procedures. Eclipse Safety Management System (SMS) Consistent with the internationally-endorsed SMS philosophy, Eclipse has built a SMS that does not treat aviation safety risk management as the responsibility of a reactive independent group, but rather as an all-encompassing proactive safety culture. Instead of waiting for hazards to be identified through accidents, Eclipse's SMS creates a process and culture for pinpointing risks so they can be managed in advance of an incident or accident. FOQA is central to this process, using objective flight data and powerful software that allows Eclipse to understand what is actually happening with the Eclipse 500 in the field. Eclipse is currently developing a complementary program, called the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP), which will provide insight into why events are happening. Through ASAP, Eclipse 500 pilots will voluntarily identify and report on issues encountered while operating their aircraft. This system will correlate this subjective information with objective FOQA data, creating a comprehensive awareness of hazards and risks never before achieved by an aircraft manufacturer. FOQA is the cornerstone for identifying, assessing and analyzing flight-related hazards within the Eclipse 500 fleet. A key enabler of this technology is the Eclipse 500's highly-integrated avionics design, Avio NG, which allows Eclipse to capture virtually everything that happens when an aircraft is operated. Once this data is collected, it is processed by sophisticated software created by Austin Digital, Inc., an industry leader in airline FOQA analysis systems. This software uses complex algorithms to continuously churn through thousands of hours of flight data, while highlighting and reporting abnormal events and trends across the fleet. This enables Eclipse to investigate and determine root causes, develop strategies to mitigate risks, and implement corrective actions. Finally, the FOQA system provides a mechanism to monitor and adjust the effectiveness of corrective actions, thus closing the loop on the process to ensure optimal operational safety. "FOQA programs are not new, but are today considered state-of-the-art in the airline industry," said Eclipse Aviation's Manager of Flight Safety Chris Solan. "Our program is revolutionary because as a general aircraft manufacturer we are essentially taking on the role and responsibilities of a sophisticated airline, aggregating large amounts of data so systemic trends can be easily identified. When this trend data is combined with our Eclipse 500 aircraft design knowledge, pilot and maintenance training program oversight, aircraft manual and procedure authorship and tight-knit FAA working relationship -- we can bring a tremendous improvement in safety to our customers, particularly individual or small-fleet operators." aero-news.net ************** Police raid Mitsubishi Heavy factory over fighter jet crash TOKYO (AFP) — Japanese police on Thursday searched a factory of major industrial maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries over the crash of a fighter jet as a company executive apologised for the accident. The Japanese F-2 fighter jet burst into flames just after takeoff at Nagoya airport in central Japan on Wednesday although its two pilots managed to escape with relatively minor injuries. "Eight personnel from the prefectural police came over. The search is going on" at the Komaki Minami factory, which was in charge of maintenance of the jet, a Mitsubishi Heavy spokesman said. It is not yet certain whether a human error or mechanical trouble caused the accident but Mitsubishi Heavy offered an apology for causing concern among local residents. "We deeply apologise for causing worries and nuisance to the people concerned," Mitsubishi Heavy managing director Nobuo Toda said, bowing as he met with Aichi prefectural governor Masaaki Kanda. The Nagoya airport is located in Aichi prefecture, an industrial hub which is also home to auto giant Toyota Motor Corp. Police said they were probing the case but declined to disclose further details. Local media said they were searching the factory on suspicion of professional negligence. The plane was about to start its first test flight since it was docked for regular check-ups. It nosedived immediately after takeoff at the airport, which is also used by the Japanese air force, and glided on its tail over the runway before swerving off into the grass, television footage showed. The fire on the plane, estimated to be worth 12 billion yen (100 million dollars), was put out in half an hour. Resembling the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F-2 has been the mainstay of officially pacifist Japan's air force since 2000. ************** Man arrested for carrying concealed weapon on airplane Albany – Federal authorities have announced that a San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico man was arrested Tuesday in Albany and charged with carrying a concealed weapon on an aircraft in violation of federal law. According to the federal complaint filed against him, William Contreras Ramos, 20, boarded Delta flight 932 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and landed around 1:30 p.m. at JFK Airport. He was also a ticketed passenger on Delta flight 6044 from JFK Airport to Albany International Airport, scheduled to depart at approximately 6:45 p.m. While the flight from JFK to Albany was in the air, the New York City Port Authority Police called the Albany County Sheriff's Office to report that a Latino man approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall weighing approximately 180 pounds wearing a dark hat and a gray t-shirt with red and white lettering on the back boarded the flight after bypassing security. When the flight landed at Albany International Airport in Colonie, law enforcement officials were waiting and found Ramos, who matched the description given by the airport worker. The defendant admitted that he went outside the airport to smoke, noticed he was running late and that he did not have his boarding pass, and then went through a door opened by a man and ran to the gate where he boarded the flight with a friend he was traveling with. A search of the defendant's bag, which he carried on the plane and was therefore accessible to him during the flight, revealed a folded straight razor with a blade of approximately four-and-one-half inches wrapped in a shirt. Ramos was held for future court appearance. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in federal prison. http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20071101-13.html ***************** EU could blacklist Orenburg Airlines - Russian aviation chief MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) - The European Union could blacklist Russia's Orenburg Airlines, which specializes in charter flights to Europe, due to complaints about its aircraft, Yevgeny Bachurin, the head of the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia), told reporters. "The airline is one of the top-five in the EU's rankings by complaints. The situation is fairly serious. The question is whether the airline will be entered on the EU's black lists, and we hope to resolve this issue in Brussels on November 6," Bachurin said. Bachurin also said that his agency was severely restricting charter flights over the winter period by three airlines - VIM-Avia, Krasnoyarsk Airlines (RTS: AVKA) and Orenburg Airlines. "We had a pretty good season in the summer, with around 970 of 24,000 flights delayed. These three Russian airlines were the leaders in terms of delays," Bachurin said. ****************** Serious questions about ADS-B NPRM arise While the FAA in early October released its Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) covering future mandatory carriage of ADS-B avionics, serious questions have already been raised about it. Generally, it was expected that the NPRM would cover the whole spectrum of ADS-B applications and would provide clear guidance to corporate operators anxious to benefit from the system’s full capabilities. Instead, the document focuses on the system’s “lower end” application, where the aircraft would appear only on ATC radars and on the cockpit displays of other, better equipped, airplanes. Concerns have also been expressed about equipage costs versus benefits; the length of the transition to more advanced applications; the true ownership, control and certification of the system; and its overall security once operational. The NPRM covers the performance requirements for ADS-B out installations, with Jan. 1, 2020, to be the start date for mandatory carriage of that class of equipment. ADS-B out is similar to, but does not replace, today’s transponders, which will still be required. Instead of the current units’ responses to ATC secondary surveillance radar (SSR) interrogations, ADS-B signals are independently transmitted once per second omnidirectionally by the onboard avionics, normally via upper and lower antennas. SSR and ADS-B signals are displayed in a similar fashion on air traffic controllers’ screens, but the ADS-B positions, derived from the required GPS/WAAS, are more accurate than those of SSR, particularly at increasing ranges from the radar. But like SSR, ADS-B out provides pilots with few, if any, direct benefits, other than in areas such as the Gulf of Mexico, which lacks significant SSR coverage. The proposed rule would require ADS-B out equipage after 2020 in all aircraft operating in Class A, B and C airspace over the 48 contiguous states, plus Class E airspace above 10,000 feet msl. Carriage would also be mandatory up to 10,000 feet within 30 nm of FAA-specified busy airports. ADS-B out would also be required in Class E airspace out to 12 nm from the coastline over the Gulf of Mexico, at or above 3,000 feet. Above FL240, the equipment must use the international 1090 MHz Extended Squitter (ES) datalink, while below FL240, operators may use 1090ES or the general aviation 978 MHz Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) link. ADS-B ground stations will translate signals received in either format and retransmit them in the other, to ensure commonality. ADS-B is often portrayed as a system in which all aircraft would have a cockpit display of traffic information (CDTI) showing the identifiers, flight paths, altitudes and intent (climbing, descending or remaining level) of all traffic of interest plus, in some installations, weather and other flight data. ADS-B out does not provide these benefits. Such information is available only with the more advanced–and more costly–ADS-B in variant, sometimes called “full ADS-B,” which the NPRM does not cover, other than to point out that some of its specific attributes are still being investigated. No mandatory ADS-B in date has been set, other than it will be beyond 2020. The NPRM provides no cost estimates for ADS-B in. The FAA does, however, encourage operators to voluntarily equip with ADS-B in units. It points out that this would be beneficial in providing full traffic situational awareness–for example, in displaying the locations of ADS-B out aircraft–and it would be especially useful for UAT users, who could then receive the system’s weather and AIS broadcasts. (Weather and AIS are not available to 1090ES users because of the frequency’s bandwidth limitations.) The FAA also suggests that some operators could opt to install both 1090ES and UAT systems. The NPRM includes a review of future benefits of ADS-B out and in and, unquestionably, the system potentially offers significant benefits to all users. Some might be less evident, such as the increased positional accuracy that could eventually lead to closer separations and increased airspace capacity, while others, such as enhanced situational awareness of proximate traffic and cockpit weather data, are obvious advantages. Farther ahead are more advanced ADS-B in applications such as surface traffic awareness of taxiing aircraft and ADS-B-equipped vehicles, as well as enhanced visual approaches, where a CDTI would maintain “visual” contact with other traffic in low-visibility conditions. Eventually, the system is intended to support true airborne conflict resolution. The FAA’s Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), which assessed the FAA program shortly before the NPRM was issued, reviewed these and other applications extensively. (See story on page 78.) The ARC also discussed equipage incentives that it believes are essential to implementation. Concerns about Implementation Given the apparent limited benefits versus the costs of ADS-B out, many operators are understandably cautious about early equipment investments. Many pilots AIN interviewed said, “It’s obviously good for the controllers, but it does little for me.” Others felt that in the ensuing 13 years before mandatory compliance, technology advances would lower equipment prices and, possibly, could make units purchased before then obsolete. Predictably, some pilots were skeptical about whether the FAA would follow through with its ADS-B plan. “I remember MLS,” said one. One industry observer cautioned that the avionics specifications in the NPRM could change with time, possibly requiring equipment upgrades. This might occur should there be a changeover from GPS/WAAS to GPS/Galileo, for example. Conversely, one pilot posted this response on the Web site set up for the 90-day NPRM comment period, “The 2020 mandate is not aggressive enough and will not support the benefits provided by the NextGen ATC system in a timely manner. [A deadline of] 2015 would provide the National Airspace System with greater benefits in a far more timely fashion. What’s more, the proposal does not cover ADS-B in, which is vital to the successful implementation of NextGen and securing its full benefit. ADS-B in must be addressed, within the 2020 time frame.” Following mid-October testimony to the House Aviation Committee by the FAA and other interested parties, several Congressmen questioned the ownership and control of the nationwide ADS-B infrastructure. This will be designed, built, installed and then owned, operated and maintained exclusively by ITT and its several private company team members, with the FAA paying an annual subscription fee for the service. The agency will be responsible only for monitoring its performance quality. While the FAA testified that the contract included a large number of checks and balances, informed sources report that the legislators might not have been entirely convinced. Security Concerns Raised Another concerned group was the Professional Airways Systems Specialists (Pass), composed of FAA ATC equipment engineers and technicians, which testified that changes in FAA regulations shortly before the award of the ITT contract actually prohibit them from inspecting and certifying the ADS-B ground stations, a move they described as unprecedented in the history of the NAS. DOT Inspector General Calvin Scovel detailed several risk areas and stated that the program will require “an extraordinary level of oversight” to assess the potential security vulnerabilities of using ADS-B for managing air traffic. Noting that FAA documents identified “several specific concerns,” Scovel said, “We believe a full discussion of ADS-B security and potential vulnerabilities is inappropriate in an open forum.” He added, “The FAA needs to continue to work with the intelligence community and the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security” on these issues. Honeywell raised this question in its presentation at an FAA ADS-B Industry Day in August 2006. An ICAO specialist panel echoed the sentiment more recently. However, AIN understands that before the IG’s Congressional testimony, the importance of system security might have been downplayed within the agency. ADS-B is clearly a system with great potential, and will be the critical foundation for NextGen. But important issues must be resolved before it achieves full operational readiness. The NPRM is available at www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/rulemaking/recently_published/media/29305.p df. The DOT IG testimony is available at www.oig.dot.gov/StreamFile?file=/data/pdfdocs/ADS-B_Testimony.pdf. http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/serious-questions-abo ut-ads-b-nprm-arise/?no_cache=1&cHash=8ce5e2e8a7 ******************* Curt Lewis, PE, CSP WEB: www.fsinfo.org