07 DEC 2009 _______________________________________ *Plane from Minn. with flap problem lands in Mich. *Bird risk to jets a 'flashing beacon' *Regulators Order Engine Fixes on Airbus Wide-Body Planes *JetBlue Flight Returns to Rochester Airport Due to Engine Problems *Long Overdue, Boeing Dreamliner Taxis Toward Its First Test Flight *ALPA Renews Support for SMS in Canada *FAA proposes $4 million civil penalty for Spitfire Aviation Services *FAA Seeking Bids For $7B Of NextGen Contracts *FAA highlights snow, slush and ice problems for CRJ700s and CRJ900s **************************************** Plane from Minn. with flap problem lands in Mich. CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A Northwest Airlines regional jet with unresponsive wing flaps has landed safely at Gerald R. Ford International Airport. Airport spokesman Bruce Schedlbauer tells The Grand Rapids Press that the plane from Minneapolis carrying 47 people landed Saturday morning. Schedlbauer said flaps on the plane apparently wouldn't deploy. The plane had been scheduled to land in Grand Rapids. The landing occurred a day after a reported hydraulic problem forced a United Airlines regional jet to return to the airport in Kent County's Cascade Township. That jet with 39 passengers landed safely Friday afternoon. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-emergencylanding-,0,3004524.sto ry *************** Bird risk to jets a 'flashing beacon' By Alan Levin, USA TODAY Several spectacular collisions between aircraft and birds in recent months are stark evidence that last January's water landing of a US Airways jet that hit geese is far from unique and that the hazards may be increasing, according to federal records and aviation safety experts. The Commercial Aviation Safety Team, a government-industry aviation safety group, on Friday for the first time elevated birds to its list of priority issues at the urging of the Federal Aviation Administration and Agriculture Department. In an incident jarringly similar to the collision with birds that is now dubbed the "Miracle on the Hudson," large birds damaged both engines on a Frontier Airlines Airbus A319 that had taken off from Kansas City on Nov. 14. One engine sputtered out, but the other engine maintained power after the birds hit its exterior, missing the critical fan blades by inches, according to a preliminary accident report by the National Transportation Safety Board. None of the 130 people aboard was hurt after an emergency landing. Also last month, a bird blasted a hole through the windshield of a cargo plane over Arizona and another gouged an 18-inch tear in the side of a Delta Air Lines jet near Phoenix. Birds also have been involved in several helicopter accidents this year, including a crash in Louisiana that killed eight people headed to an oil platform. "This is a big flashing beacon," says Carla Dove, head of the Smithsonian Institution's bird identification lab. The lab's load of cases assisting federal accident investigators has soared this year. "It's time to wake up." "I don't think we can dismiss what happened to (US Airways Flight) 1549 as some freak event that is unlikely to happen again," says Richard Dolbeer, a retired Agriculture Department wildlife biologist who has studied bird hazards for decades. "These incidents that we've seen recently are proof of that. It's something we need to be concerned about." Since January's Hudson River accident, the FAA has improved reporting of bird strikes and is writing tough new requirements for how airports should combat birds and other wildlife, says Kate Lang, FAA's acting associate administrator for airports. Airlines believe that the risks from birds are relatively small, but it deserves more attention because other hazards have been addressed, says Basil Barimo, vice president for safety at the Air Transport Association, the trade group for large airlines. Bird experts contend that the FAA and the industry have not moved quickly enough. There needs to be a massive effort to create new technology, such as radars that track birds, and to study other ways to reduce risk, they say. "The time to act is now," says Russ DeFusco, former chief of the Air Force's effort to reduce bird hazards. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-12-06-bird-strike_N.htm *************** Regulators Order Engine Fixes on Airbus Wide-Body Planes By ANDY PASZTOR European aviation-safety regulators, concerned about the hazards of ice building up inside fuel systems and potentially shutting off engines during long flights, have issued mandatory safety directives to replace certain parts on hundreds of wide-body Airbus aircraft. The fix ordered earlier this week mandates that Airbus A330 and Airbus A340 jetliners equipped with Rolls-Royce PLC engines have their oil-cooler devices swapped out for a new design that isn't susceptible to such blockages. The work must be completed by January 2011. The move has been anticipated for months by airlines and international air-safety safety experts. It follows similar orders issued previously by U,S, and European regulators for replacement of engine oil-cooler devices on Boeing 777 aircraft powered by a related family of Rolls-Royce engines. The problems and the solutions affecting all of the different aircraft models are similar. Airbus earlier this year signaled it was looking to follow Boeing's lead in developing and installing modified oil-coolers less prone to ice buildup during long, high-altitude flights over water or polar regions. In its directive, the European Aviation Safety Agency said it was taking action based on a May 2009 Airbus incident and the January 2008 crash of a British Airways PLC Boeing 777 on approach to London's Heathrow International Airport. After investigating these events, the agency said it determined that "ice can accumulate on the walls of the fuel pipes" on planes, it may then "be released downstream when fuel demand is increased" and eventually it can collect on the front face of the oil-cooler and starve the engines of fuel. No one was killed in the Heathrow accident, but it shook up the aviation industry and prompted extensive laboratory work and analysis by Boeing, British crash investigators and others. The May 2009 Airbus incident involved a brief engine malfunction on a Roll-Royce powered Etihad Airways A330 aircraft. That incident "indicated the potential susceptibility to ice blockage for Airbus aircraft" with Rolls-Royce engines and certain types of fuel systems, according to European regulators. Ice-induced shutdowns covered by the latest regulations are extremely rare, with less than a handful of events recorded over many millions of flights. That's one reason neither U.S. nor European safety officials have ordered faster replacement of the suspect devices. The oil-cooler devices are heat exchangers, designed to cool oil circulating from the engine and heat up fuel before it is burned. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704342404574576651942837442.ht ml?mod=googlenews_wsj ************** JetBlue Flight Returns to Rochester Airport Due to Engine Problems Gates, N.Y. -- A JetBlue flight heading from the Greater Rochester International Airport to New York City had to turn around and make an emergency landing in Rochester. Airport Director Dave Damelio said the pilot thought one of the engines was vibrating. He turned the plane around after 15 minutes and safely landed back in Rochester. The passengers on board were later flown out to JFK on another plane. http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/JetBlue-Flight-Returns-to-Rochester-A irport-Due/0QSFrzoBiEO4Uly0xet31A.cspx **************** Long Overdue, Boeing Dreamliner Taxis Toward Its First Test Flight SEATTLE-After more than two years of delays, Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner could make its first test flight as early as next week. But once the jet takes off from its factory in Everett, Wash., the company faces another high-stakes test: From the moment the Dreamliner is airborne through roughly the next 12 months, Boeing will race the clock to test the new aircraft in high altitudes, subzero temperatures, desert heat and emergency scenarios. .Even a small slip risks further delaying the certification the Dreamliner needs from the Federal Aviation Administration before Boeing can deliver the long-overdue aircraft to customers. Boeing plans to deliver the first Dreamliner to All Nippon Airways Co. in the fourth quarter of next year. Originally, Boeing hoped to deliver the first jet in May of last year. To keep the testing on track, Boeing has converted a warren of cubicles on the fifth floor of an office building into a command center where the company will monitor what essentially will be a miniairline of test-flight planes. With a sweeping view of the tarmac at Boeing Field, in south Seattle, the Test Operations Center will be the heart of an effort that eventually will have six Dreamliners in testing around the globe. The 25 to 50 people at the center, depending on need, will coordinate the jets' schedules and deal with logistical or maintenance problems that might crop up during test flights. The testing is especially thorny because of the Dreamliner's cutting-edge design. Built mostly from composite materials instead of the typical aluminum, the jet has been advertised as lighter and more fuel-efficient than its predecessors. But there is still much that isn't known about composites and how they react to the extreme stresses that come in flight. Engineers in May discovered unexpected damage to the composite material where the wing meets the body, one in a series of setbacks to the Dreamliner. As Boeing engineers spent the subsequent six months repairing the problem, they also dealt with other, smaller issues that cropped up, which Boeing officials have described as routine for aircraft development. Problems elsewhere in Boeing's commercial-aircraft division have increased pressure on the Test Operations Center. The first test flight of Boeing's 747-8, a revamped version of its iconic 747 jumbo that primarily will be used as a freighter, also has been delayed, likely until mid-January. The Seattle operations center will coordinate the Dreamliner and 747-8 programs simultaneously. The test programs come as Boeing is culling its test-flight staff by as many as 300 people through layoffs, part of a plan announced in January to reduce the number of jobs at the commercial-aircraft division by 4,500. The Chicago-based company posted a $1.56 billion third-quarter loss, socked in large measure by setbacks in commercial-aircraft operations. A Boeing spokeswoman said the test-flight programs will be unaffected by the layoffs. Boeing officials visited operations centers at Southwest Airlines Co., AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and McChord Air Force base in Tacoma, Wash., to see how other operations centers are structured, says John Fennell, a Boeing official. The idea, he says, is not only to fix problems that test flight crews might encounter from the Arctic Circle to the Southern California desert, but also to enable quick fixes to bureaucratic snafus. The new center marks an effort to streamline what sometimes had been scattered management of test-flight operations for Boeing's various models in development. Even seemingly simple matters like getting deicing trucks or placing safety screens around jet engines used to be a complicated process involving layers of approval. "In the past," says Janet Muel ler, a Boeing engineer who oversees development and management of the center, "whoever shouted the loudest got things done first." Now those issues can be solved with a phone call from the operations center or a face-to-face conversation between technicians sitting side-by-side. "We have an operations center that is a central point of contact for information, problem resolution and communication," Ms. Mueller says. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704825504574579940848189448.ht ml?mod=googlenews_wsj **************** ALPA Renews Support for SMS in Canada Union Claims Process Solves Undefined Problems ALPA released a letter this week supporting Canada's use of SMS as a tool to enhance safety in all transportation industries. Transport Canada has implemented regulations requiring all Canadian aviation companies to have SMS in place. The FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking earlier this year for implementing SMS on top of existing regulations. As reported by ANN previously, the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) opposed the plan, calling it "unrealistic" and calling for "an integrated approach to upgrade the current regulations" instead. ALPA continues to praise SMS in the letter, calling it an additional line of defense in preventing incidents by allowing airlines "to identify and mitigate safety risks that have not been anticipated by the regulators." The letter was quick to point out that Canadian regulators still provide additional oversight and regulatory compliance checks in addition to the reviewing SMS programs. "ALPA has worked closely with Transport Canada to advance SMS as a safer way of doing business," Capt. John Prater, ALPA's president said. "We will continue to do all we can to move this important aviation safety program forward in Canada." FMI www.alpa.org aero-news.net *************** FAA proposes $4 million civil penalty for Spitfire Aviation Services The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a $4 million civil penalty for Spitfire Aviation Services, LLC, of Fayetteville, Ark., for numerous violations of the Federal Aviation Regulations. The alleged violations include conducting at least 798 passenger-carrying revenue flights between November 2005 and October 2007, even though Spitfire held no air carrier certificate or the appropriate operations specifications required under federal regulations for charter operators. Inspectors also found that 262 of those flights were conducted by a pilot who did not hold an Air Transport Pilot Certificate with the appropriate type rating for the aircraft being flown. Spitfire had no FAA-approved pilot training and testing program in place, nor the approved maintenance program or drug testing and alcohol misuse prevention programs required by the government. During its investigation, the FAA determined that Spitfire operated three aircraft, including a Cessna 550 Citation II, a Beechcraft 200 and a Beechcraft 36 Bonanza, on charter flights primarily in the central and southern United States. The FAA became aware of the violations through a complaint from a competitor. During the time it was operating in violation of regulations, Spitfire experienced a crash that destroyed the Beech 36 and resulted in the death of the pilot. The three passengers on that flight survived the accident. Spitfire Aviation Services has 30 days from the receipt of the civil penalty letter to respond to the FAA. (FAA) (aviation-safety.net) ************** FAA Seeking Bids For $7B Of NextGen Contracts WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday it is seeking bids from companies interested in competing in a record $7 billion of contracts for research, development and engineering support for NextGen, a modernized U.S. air-traffic-control system. The FAA said it will award as many as five separate contracts with a combined $7 billion value, the largest in the agency's history. The contracts will be doled out to teams of companies, with up to three performing research and development work and two handling systems-engineering work. Five-year contracts for the NextGen work will be awarded in the summer of 2010, with subsequent options for two- and three-year renewals, the FAA said. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091204-713265.html **************** FAA highlights snow, slush and ice problems for CRJ700s and CRJ900s The FAA has finalized an airworthiness directive (AD) that requires Bombardier CRJ700 and CRJ900-series regional jet operators to update aircraft flight manuals for cold weather operations related to frost, snow, slush and ice and the wings and leading edges of the aircraft. First proposed in May, the directive applies to 336 aircraft on the US-registry. Operators will have two weeks from 8 January, the effective date of the AD, to update the flight manuals with cold weather procedures developed by Transport Canada. The FAA notes that frost, snow, slush or ice on the wing leading edges and upper wing surfaces "may change the stall speeds, stall characteristics and the protection provided by the stall protection system, which could result in reduced controllability of the aircraft". Source: Air Transport Intelligence news *************** Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC