Flight Safety Information September 14, 2011 - No. 190 In This Issue Embry-Riddle's Aerospace Engineering Program...Named Best in Nation for 12th...Straight Year Taiwan 'grounds F-5 fighter jets' after crash Boeing 747-8 Receives ICAO 'Heavy' Designation for Separation New York woman charged with false bomb threat to airline FCC halts LightSquared rollout pending "targeted" GPS interference tests Helicopter Accident (Eurocopter AS 350B3) - France Father Of TSA Disowns Child China lacks civil helicopters for rescue operations Brazil to scale up production of jatropha-derived aviation fuel Bill strips back pay for furloughed FAA workers NEWS RELEASE Embry-Riddle's Aerospace Engineering Program Named Best in Nation for 12th Straight Year Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., Sept. 13, 2011 - For the 12th year in a row, the "Best Colleges" guidebook published by U.S. News & World Report ranks Embry-Riddle's undergraduate aerospace engineering program #1 in the nation and has named Embry-Riddle to the top tier of universities granting mainly bachelor's and master's degrees. Highlights of the rankings of more than 1,400 accredited four-year schools in the United States are available today at www.usnews.com/colleges and the 2012 "Best Colleges" guidebook will appear on newsstands Sept. 20. In the specialty category of "Best Undergraduate Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering Programs at Schools Whose Highest Degree is a Bachelor's or Master's," Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach, Fla., campus took first place and the University's Prescott, Ariz., campus was #3. Additionally, in the broader category of "Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs at Schools Whose Highest Degree is a Bachelor's or Master's," Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach campus is ranked #11 and the Prescott campus has continued its steady climb, reaching #16 this year. "We are very proud of our College of Engineering," said Embry-Riddle President John P. Johnson. "This makes the 12th consecutive year that they have received the U.S. News & World Report ranking as the best undergraduate program in the nation. We feel that this is a positive reflection on the quality of our faculty and their commitment to both excellence in the classroom and knowledge discovery." Embry-Riddle offers bachelor's degrees in aerospace engineering, civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, engineering physics, mechanical engineering, and software engineering; master's degrees in aerospace engineering, computer and electrical engineering, engineering physics, mechanical engineering, and software engineering; and a doctoral degree in engineering physics. The pool of eligible schools for the "Best in Undergraduate Engineering" rankings is based on accreditation by ABET Inc., which evaluates college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology. The rankings are based on the judgments of engineering deans and senior faculty, who rate each program they are familiar with. A few engineering schools with small doctoral programs are placed in the bachelor's and master's category. Also of note, this year's "Best Colleges" guide named Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach campus #11 in the category of "Best Regional Universities (South)," a ranking of 121 institutions that grant primarily bachelor's and master's degrees. This is the 10th straight year that Embry-Riddle has placed among the top 25 schools in this category. Therankings for the "Best Regional Universities (South)" category are based on reputation (25%), graduation and retention rates (25%), faculty resources (20%), student selectivity (15%), financial resources (10%), and alumni giving rate (5%). Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 150 locations in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu. Back to Top Taiwan 'grounds F-5 fighter jets' after crash Taiwan wants the US to sell it fighters so it can upgrade its ageing F-5 air fleet Continue reading the main story (BBC) Taiwan's air force is reported to have grounded its ageing F-5 fighters after two of them crashed during a training flight on Tuesday. The jets disappeared off radar shortly after taking off from an air base in Hualien, eastern Taiwan. The remains of three pilots have been recovered from the mountain crash site. The military said it was investigating the accident but one official said it underlined Taiwan's need to purchase a more modern air fleet. The aircraft - one RF-5 surveillance plane and a two-seater F-5F trainer - took off at 19:39 (11:39 GMT) and disappeared from radar 13 minutes later, the defence ministry said. "We were fishing at the seaside when suddenly airplanes flew over our heads, and a moment later we heard a loud bang and the whole mountain was set on fire," one witness told the Taipei Times. "The explosion was very loud." Wreckage from the planes was later found in the mountains and on a highway. US deal sought Huang Jong-Chyi, of the air force's Maintenance Command, told Taiwan's CNA news agency that the F-5 fleet had been grounded pending the results of the investigation. The F-5 fleet is more than 35 years old and Taiwan is currently seeking to buy new aircraft to upgrade its air force. It wants the US to sell it 66 F-16 C/D fighter jets, but China - which says Taiwan is part of its territory - has warned Washington not to proceed with the deal. The US is due to make a decision by October, but some media reports suggest it will reject Taiwan's request. Both sides say no decision has been made. Defence ministry spokesman David Lo told AFP news agency he hoped the sale would go ahead as soon as possible. "This type of jet has served the air force for more than 35 years. We really don't want our pilots to fly them risking their lives," he said. Back to Top Boeing 747-8 Receives ICAO 'Heavy' Designation for Separation Ruling means newest 747 can operate under same separation distance as 747-400 EVERETT, Wash., Sept. 13, 2011 -- /PRNewswire/ -- The new Boeing (NYSE: BA) 747-8 will be able to operate at the same separation distances as the 747-400, according to a ruling from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO, a United Nations agency tasked with codifying principles and techniques for international air navigation, sent a letter to all member nations recently saying that a team of wake experts had examined flight test and simulation data, and that it determined that the 747-8 should remain in the same class as its predecessor and retain the same separation distances. A special ICAO team of experts in the field of wake vortices from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL), the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the manufacturer "examined flight test and simulation data and established safety case arguments for approach, landing, departure, climb/descent and cruise operations of the Boeing 747-8 relative to other aircraft," the ICAO letter said. "The safety case supports the assertion that the Boeing 747-8 is safely categorized as HEAVY. Consequently, the wake turbulence separation minima specified ... for HEAVY aircraft should be applied." Receiving "heavy" designation and the same separation criteria as the 747-400 is an important accomplishment for the 747-8 program, said Todd Zarfos, vice president, engineering, 747 program. "We promised our customers that the 747-8 would be able to operate in the same markets and routes they use for the 747-400," he said. "We did extensive testing to show that even though the 747-8 is longer, heavier and has a bigger wingspan than the 747-400, it does not create greater wake vortex effects. That means that airports will be able to operate more efficiently and not have to slow down operations to accommodate this airplane. Combined with its lower noise footprint, the 747-8 will be a great addition to the world's airport operations." The 747-8 Freighter will give cargo operators the lowest operating costs and best economics of any freighter airplane while providing enhanced environmental performance. It is 250 feet, 2 inches (76.3 m) long, which is 18 feet and 4 inches (5.6 m) longer than the 747-400 Freighter. The 747-8 Intercontinental will have the lowest seat-mile cost of any large commercial jetliner, with double-digit improvements in fuel economy and carbon emissions per passenger, while generating 30 percent smaller noise footprint than the 747-400. SOURCE Boeing Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/13/3907541/boeing-747-8-receives-icao- heavy.html#ixzz1Xw1G51Fr Back to Top New York woman charged with false bomb threat to airline NEW YORK, Sept 13 (Reuters) - A New York woman called in a phony bomb threat to the Tucson airport in order to keep her mother and brother from flying on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Tuesday. Mary Purcell, 37, was arrested by FBI officers at her home in Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island, Monday night without incident, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Purcell, who is charged with making a false bomb threat, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. According to a complaint unsealed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court, Tucson Airport Authority Police received two telephone calls on the morning of Sept. 10 from an anonymous woman who said she overheard her boyfriend and other individuals talking about a threat to Southwest Airlines Flight 2475, which was scheduled to depart at 11 a.m. that morning for Albequerque, New Mexico. Tucson airport officials immediately called in bomb-squad technicians and informed the FBI about the threat, according to the complaint. All luggage was removed from the aircraft and officers, assisted by K-9 units, swept the plane and luggage for a bomb. All of the passengers were double-screened, and officers elevated the security level for the entire airport, the complaint said. No explosive devices were found in the plane or on the passengers or their luggage, according to the complaint. Despite the delay, the flight left 15 minutes after its scheduled departure time, according to a spokesman for Southwest Airlines. No passengers were re-routed, the airline said. FEAR OF FLYING An FBI investigation traced the phone calls to a landline in Long Island registered to Margaret Meyer, who was scheduled to fly out of Tucson on Flight 2475 with her son, William Meyer. When agents visited Meyer's house, they found Purcell, Meyer's daughter, who said she had made the calls to figure out why the flight had been delayed. In a second interview with FBI agents later that day, Purcell admitted to calling the airport and making the threat, according to a sworn statement from Special Agent James Lopez. Purcell explained that she had fabricated the story in order to keep her mother and brother from flying so close to the Sept. 11 anniversary. It was not immediately clear whether Purcell had retained an attorney. She is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Long Island federal court. The case is U.S. v. Purcell, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, no. 11-913. Back to Top FCC halts LightSquared rollout pending "targeted" GPS interference tests Nascent broadband provider LightSquared's plans to roll out a satellite-terrestrial network adjacent to the GPS band next year have been halted by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). "Following extensive comments received as a result of the technical working group process required by the [26 January conditional approval for the network], the FCC, in consultation with National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), has determined that additional targeted testing is needed to ensure that any potential commercial terrestrial services offered by LightSquared will not cause harmful interference to GPS operations," the FCC writes in a 13 September public notice. The order follows months of government and industry testing of the baseline LightSquared network, which called for rebroadcasting L-band satellite signals at high power via 40,000 transmission towers on the ground. The FCC gave LightSquared a conditional approval for the system in January, pending a satisfactory outcome of interference trials. After initial testing showed that interference from prototype ground-based transmitters would cripple aviation and variety of other GPS receivers, LightSquared in June revised its plan to operate in a portion of its assigned band farther from GPS, with reduced power and other changes designed to minimize the impacts. Industry and government agencies, including the US military, NASA and others, remained concerned that the modified plan could pose harmful interference, and had asked the FCC for more testing. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news Back to Top Helicopter Accident (Eurocopter AS 350B3) - France Date: 14-SEP-2011 Time: 10:00 LT Type: Eurocopter AS 350B3 Ecureuil Operator: Chamonix Mont-Blanc Hélicoptères - CMBH Registration: F-HFBI C/n / msn: 4824 Fatalities: Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Vallorcine - France Phase: Take off Nature: Calibration/Inspection Departure airport: Destination airport: Narrative: The helicopter hit the cable of a gondola lift while performing an inspection flight. It crashed immediately and caught fire. All 4 on board died. Sources: http://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2011/09/14/un-helicoptere-s- ecrase?image=2E69956C-2B91-4855-AEB8-C22C35720AC4#galery www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Father Of TSA Disowns Child Mica Calls His Brainchild 'Fiasco,' Advocates Dismantling In the wake of 9/11, there was an outcry for the US Congress to "do something." That's never a very good environment for creating laws that stand the test of time, and Representative John Mica, a Florida Republican, seems to wish he could get a mulligan on the creation of the Transportation Security Administration. Mica, one of the authors of legislation that created TSA, tells Townhall.com he's disappointed at the bureaucracy and waste in the agency, and says it should have a maximum of 5,000 employees and focus on intelligence and monitoring threats. But despite the fact that TSA has grown to more than ten times that size, has a $9 billion annual budget, and is generally acknowledged to have a negative impact on the economy of the nation, that's not Mica's biggest gripe. It's much more basic than that. "They've failed to actually detect any threat in 10 years. Everything they have done has been reactive. They take shoes off because of Richard Reid, passengers are patted down because of the diaper bomber, and you can't pack liquids because the British uncovered a plot using liquids. It's an agency that is always one step out of step." Mica says he wants screening privatized, and that such a move could save taxpayers 40% of what they're spending now. What is it that makes even veteran politicians think their new bureaucracy will turn out differently from every other bureacracy? FMI: www.tsa.gov Back to Top China lacks civil helicopters for rescue operations TIANJIN - China needs to spend at least 30 billion yuan within 15 years to establish the world's largest helicopter rescue system to cover its vast territory and serve its 1.3 billion population, experts said Wednesday at a helicopter forum. China needs to set up at least 850 helicopter rescue bases with more than 1,000 helicopters to cover its 9.6-million-sq-km territory, said Chen Ping, deputy director- general of the emergency rescue promotion center under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, while attending the ongoing China Helicopter Development Forum. Chen said that general aviation operations, especially helicopters, are necessary for everyday life in medical rescues and disaster relief efforts, and the helicopter emergency rescue system is needed to reduce casualties and asset losses. Military helicopters were used for the relief work in the aftermath of the Wenchuan and Yushu earthquakes, as well as during the severe droughts in southwest China in recent years, Chen said, but added that a civil helicopter fleet, specifically for rescue efforts, is still lacking. Wang Xia, director-general of the general aviation committee, China Air Transport Association, said China has only 160 registered civil helicopters, a number less than even the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. "Compared with those of others countries that have similar land areas, the number is too small," Wang said. Russia has 3,000 civil helicopters, Canada 1,000, and there are 10,000 in the United States, she said. Wang said the flight operations of general aviation companies in China lack time slots at airports for takeoffs and landings due to the rapid development of the country's commercial air industry. "China has a long way to go to develop its aviation rescue system," she said. The forum is being held on the eve of the first China Helicopter Exposition, which is scheduled from Thursday to Sunday in the northern port city of Tianjin. The expo is organized by the Administrative Committee of Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone, the Administrative Committee of the Airport Economic Area of Tianjin, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China Helicopter Co., and France Advanced Business Events Group. More than 200 companies from over 20 countries and regions are confirmed to attend. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-09/14/content_13687964.htm Back to Top Brazil to scale up production of jatropha-derived aviation fuel California-based bioenergy company SG Biofuels (SGB) has joined forces with a group including Airbus and Brazilian carrier TAM to push forward the production of jet fuel derived from the jatropha crop. The eventual aim of the consortium is to establish 30,351Ha (75,000 acres) of jatropha plantations in the central-west region of Brazil, and to convert the oil derived from the crops into biokerosene for use by local airlines. The fields will be planted with SGB's JMax hybrid seeds, which the company claims result in higher yield crops which are easier to harvest. SGB will work alongside local companies Bioventures Brasil and Rio Pardo Bioenergia to select and test the highest yielding hybrids for the plantations, which will be located on underused pastureland. "Jatropha has proven to be the most cost-effective and sustainable feedstock for renewable jet fuel, but the challenge lies in scaling production to meet the demand," said Airbus head of new energies Paul Nash. "SGB's ability to adapt hybrid varieties of jatropha specifically for the growing conditions in central-west Brazil is a significant step in generating the much-needed supply." The consortium is being led by Brazilian biofuel specialist Jetbio and also includes aviation fuel supplier Air BP and the Inter-American Development Bank. TAM, which aims to use the fuel produced by the consortium, has already conducted a demonstration flight using biofuel derived from locally-grown jatropha. In November, the carrier operated a 45min flight using a CFM International CFM56-5B-powered Airbus A320, running on a 50/50 blend of jatropha biofuel and traditional kerosene. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/09/14/362018/brazil-to-scale-up-production- of-jatropha-derived-aviation.html Back to Top Bill strips back pay for furloughed FAA workers Federal Aviation Administration employees who were furloughed for two weeks this summer would not receive back pay under draft legislation circulating on Capitol Hill. The most recent version of legislation extending the FAA's spending authority past Sept. 16 does not include a provision authorizing retroactive pay for thousands of employees who were furloughed when the agency's funding expired July 23 after Congress failed to come to an agreement. An earlier stopgap bill included a provision reimbursing those furloughed employees. The bill was modified over the weekend reportedly due to concerns from the Senate. The deal now under consideration would combine extensions of funding authority for the FAA through Jan. 31, 2012, and surface transportation programs through March 31, 2012. The spending authority for surface transportation programs expires on Sept. 30. House FAA stopgap includes back pay provisions 09/09/11 Obama calls for extension of transportation funding 08/31/11 Bill would authorize back pay for furloughed workers 08/09/11 GOP lawmaker will introduce back pay bill for FAA workers 08/08/11 Officials press Congress on FAA funding 08/01/11 The new version of the legislation would provide FAA with about $2 million in spending authority for the portion of fiscal 2012 ending before Feb. 1, 2012. The earlier iteration of the bill allocated $1.5 million for the part of fiscal 2012 ending before Jan. 1, 2012. Congress must authorize back pay for federal employees furloughed during a government shutdown. Essential employees who remained on the job during the partial FAA shutdown will receive retroactive pay for the time they worked, as per usual shutdown protocol. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0911/091211kl1.htm Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC