Flight Safety Information May 3, 2012 - No. 089 In This Issue American F-15 fighter jet crashes in Middle East Helicopter Crashes in Phoenix Neighborhood; 2 Hurt Shedding Light on Automation's Dark Side FAA issues warning to passenger who filmed bird strike Lodi man booked for pointing laser at CHP airplane (California) PRISM CERTIFICATION CONSULTANTS May/June FAA Safety Briefing Now Available Yoga for jets: why planemakers prefer bent wingtips Boeing concept jet could be Prius of the skies "A Practical Approach to Safety Management Systems" Course American F-15 fighter jet crashes in Middle East DUBAI (AP) - The U.S. Air Force says one of its F-15E fighter jets has crashed on a routine training mission in the Middle East. Both crew members ejected safely. The Air Force says the crash happened late Thursday morning in southwest Asia, a broad term that includes the Persian Gulf region. It says rescuers made their way to the scene of the crash, and the cause of the accident is being investigated. Air Force officials could not immediately be reached for further comment. Back to Top Helicopter Crashes in Phoenix Neighborhood; 2 Hurt (AP) A small helicopter crashed into a residential neighborhood Wednesday, knocking off part of a home's roof before settling in a tree just feet from another house. Two men were on board when the aircraft went down, the fire department said. They appeared to be in stable condition when they were taken to a nearby hospital. There was no fire and no injuries on the ground. Neighbor Scott Chapin said he heard the helicopter hitting his neighbor's house and ran outside, where he saw the wreckage sticking up. He said that he initially thought it was a tree trimmer's boom or a piece of construction machinery that had hit power lines above the home. "But then that didn't make any sense, because the rotor was still going around making an incredibly weird noise, a very ear-deafening noise," Chapin said. "So I knew it was something else, but it did not dawn on me that it was a helicopter because that's such a rare thing to happen in the middle of a Wednesday." The helicopter appeared to fall almost vertically onto the roof, then slid off and landed in the tree, Chapin said. One of the two men on board was helped to the street by bystanders, Chapin said. He didn't see the second man. "He was conscious, but totally stunned, or really knocked around, shell-shocked," Chapin said. "I can only imagine he must have had a heck of an impact. He got his bones rattled for sure." The copter crashed in an east Phoenix neighborhood about four miles north of Sky Harbor International Airport. All that could be seen from the street was a red tail boom sticking into the air. The helicopter smashed into the roof of one home, causing substantial damage, and also damaged the next home's air conditioning units. Utility crews made repairs after the crash. The helicopter was a Hughes 269C, a small two-seater commonly used for personal and ranch use and for pilot training. The aircraft was registered to Canyon State Aero in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert. The company's website says it specializes in pilot training. Calls and emails to the company weren't immediately returned. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the accident. Back to Top Shedding Light on Automation's Dark Side Debris from the missing Air France A330-200 recovered from the Atlantic Ocean arrives at the port of Recife, Brazil on June 14, 2009. Like many pilots, Bill Voss is concerned about the extent to which automation has changed the role of the professional pilot today. But as president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, Voss is also better placed than most to do something about the problems he perceives. The losses of the Air France A330 and Colgan Q400 in 2009 cast doubt on the core stick- and-rudder skills of pilots flying modern commercial aircraft, some of them extremely automated. "We keep trying to pretend this snuck up on us but it had all the stealth of a freight train," notes Voss. "Of course this was happening, and everyone knew it. But no one really talked about it until the Air France A330 crashed into the Atlantic. Now we've had that event, we have to have a serious conversation about stick-and-rudder skills." In one sense there are signs of progress already, notably at Emirates Airline, which has inserted two days of manual simulator flying into its pilots' recurrency training. "This is an extraordinarily bold and expensive move-two days of sim is a big hunk of money-and other airlines are altering their automation policies to make sure there is more hands-on time," says Voss. "But at the end of the day you still have the fundamental problem that the system is moving ever further away from one where pilots can fly the airplane." Regulators expect operations in RVSM airspace to be flown on the autopilot, which takes away hands-on cruise flight from pilots in most parts of the world. "Add to that RNP or GNS procedures off the ground; continuous-descent approaches in the terminal area, which take you pretty much all the way down to final, flown coupled because they're containment-based PBN apps; and we're clearly going to a future where we can no longer pretend that the automation is there to help the pilot," continues Voss. "The pilot is there as a backup to the automation. Those are two fundamentally different concepts, and they're going to require us to fundamentally revisit our training." Voss regards hand flying as something that is relatively easy to recover, like riding a bike, "but what's not easy is finding a way to keep pilots genuinely engaged in the operation of the aircraft so they know what's happening next. You can't monitor an automation system or step in to back it up by sitting there passively and just observing it; you have to have a clear idea of what's supposed to happen next in the flight. If the pilots do have to intervene, they don't necessarily have in their mind the combination of attitude and power setting necessary to sustain the aircraft for the next few minutes until things settle down. These are things that go beyond raw flying skills that we have to find a way to put back into pilots' heads." The FSF is involved more in redefining recurrency training than ab initio, and the foundation is working on pulling together some of the many efforts currently under way. "But this is not a training problem," Voss emphasizes. "The problem is that the operation of commercial aircraft has fundamentally changed. What you do every day when you fly 200 days a year has changed, and changing the curriculum of what you do two days a year during training is not going to fix it. You have to look at the entire system and find a way to reinforce the right behaviors 200 days a year, not just two. Those are the challenges we really have to strap on. It's a fundamental change, and it's time the world comes to grips with it." http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/blogs/ain-blog-shedding-light-automations- dark-side Back to Top FAA issues warning to passenger who filmed bird strike FAA scolds passenger for iPad on plane Bird Strike Video Leaked Delta Flight 1063 Emergency Landing Washington (CNN) -- A Delta Air Lines passenger who admitted using an electronic device last month to videotape a bird strike minutes after takeoff has been warned by the Federal Aviation Administration to follow the rules or face a penalty the next time. The plane bound for Los Angeles made an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on April 19 after encountering an engine problem the pilot said was caused by a bird strike, an incident caught on camera by Grant Cardone. The FAA investigated and sent Cardone a letter after the story received widespread media attention. The video shows a flock of birds hitting the right engine, causing it to shut down. "We have given consideration to all of the facts. In lieu of legal enforcement action (a civil penalty), we are issuing this letter which will be made a matter of record for a period of two years, after which, the record will be expunged," James Giles, FAA supervisory principal operations inspector, wrote in a letter to Cardone. The FAA requires that portable electronic devices be turned off during critical phases of flight. Officials say the rule is meant to prevent interference with the aircraft's navigation and communication systems. "Let me just say, I don't think I'm above the law or anybody should be," Cardone told CNN's Soledad O'Brien on Wednesday. Cardone says he's flown thousands of flights and millions of miles. "To think that a device, a telephone or this iPad can take down a plane is ridiculous, because figure 90% of all people in America now have an iPhone on them," Cardone said. "Nineteen percent of all people have a tablet of some sort. If only 10% of passengers on that plane had their device in the on position, thousands of planes would fall out of the sky every day." The FAA points out that Delta follows regulations when flight attendants say, "for safety reasons, mobile phones and other electronic devices must be turned off and stowed until you are notified by your crew." The FAA told Cardone, "Your failure to comply during a critical phase of flight and an aircraft emergency could have affected the safe outcome of the flight." The plane made a safe landing, and there were no injuries. "If truly these devices, phones, iPads are that dangerous, the FAA has a responsibility to ban them from planes, Cardone said."If these electronics are dangerous to the American public, ban them from the planes today." Back to Top Lodi man booked for pointing laser at CHP airplane (California) A Lodi man was arrested for allegedly shining a laser at a California Highway Patrol airplane. While flying near Lodi about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, the crew in the CHP plane noticed a green laser piercing the sky and hitting their aircraft. Using imaging equipment onboard the plane, the officers traced the laser to a home on Forrest Avenue in Lodi. Lodi police immediately responded to the home at the behest of the CHP crew. There, they arrested Charles Brill, 52, on suspicion of willfully and maliciously discharging a laser at an aircraft. A Lodi police press release noted that the CHP officers told them that airlines routinely fly over the city - and that there have been previous reports of similar use of a laser. Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2012/05/lodi-man-booked-for- pointing-laser-at-chp-airplane.html#storylink=cpy Back to Top Back to Top Back to Top Yoga for jets: why planemakers prefer bent wingtips CHICAGO/PARIS (Reuters) - There are, so the industry saying goes, only three secrets in the commercial airplane business: the selling price, the production cost and the shape of the wing. Boeing and Airbus are testing that proverb to the limits as they squeeze improvements out of the wings of their most popular jets to make them more aerodynamic -- hunting down extra pennies per gallon of fuel savings for ultra-thrifty airlines. Boeing (BA.N) on Wednesday trumpeted its latest achievement in aerodynamics as it battles Airbus -- wingtip to wingtip -- for the lion's share of a $2 trillion market for narrowbody Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 models over the next two decades. The U.S. planemaker says its eye-catching new open-jawed wingtip design will allow its future Boeing 737 MAX to use 1.5 percent less fuel. That's on top of already-targeted savings of 10-12 percent compared to the current 737 . The design, with the wing split at the end and angled both upwards and downwards, will become a familiar sight in airports from 2017 when the $95 million 737 MAX is due to enter service. The device, known as a winglet, is the latest example of contortions in wing design to improve efficiency and updates the upward-slanting wingtip already familiar to many 737 passengers. Airbus last week assembled the first A320 fitted with its own version of the bent-back wingtip design, dubbed Sharklets, which will enter service in the final quarter of this year. "A lot of work has been done and it's quite clear that no one approach has emerged that would be considered the best standard approach," said Hans Weber, president of technology management consultancy Tecop International. Boeing and Airbus are using the wing enhancements as key selling points for their latest revamped models, with tens of billions of dollars of sales for both firms at stake each year. Their research is as jealously guarded as the price discounts they offer to airlines and the cost of churning out their cash-cow narrowbody jets at the rate of over one a day. Until now Airbus has used a smaller boomerang-shaped device called a wingtip fence on the A320 to combat the whirling currents or vortices that build up at the wingtip, causing drag. Boeing says its new forked design would save some $160,000 a year for a typical airline flying on the longer 737 MAX routes. Airbus played down the change. "This kind of split tip device was amongst the options we studied for the A320 family and we decided to advance with our Sharklet design", a spokeswoman for the European EADS (EAD.PA) subsidiary said. INSIDE THE BOX Boeing unveiled the spiky wingtip design on the 60th anniversary of the birth of commercial passenger jet service with the introduction of the De Havilland Comet on May 2, 1952. Six decades on, planemakers are still looking for the elusive perfect wing for commercial transport because the most economic solution is in reality a compromise for each model. A long slender wing tends to provide more lift but is heavier. A short stubby wing is lighter but less efficient. Throughout much of the jet era it was considered uneconomical to take the fight against drag to the extreme edge of the wing for what would at best be an incremental improvement. But the 1973 oil shock prompted NASA-led research that led to the first winglets and recent record oil prices have made the 500-mph aerial racetrack at the wingtip a big business. Airbus is locked in a legal dispute with Boeing's partner in its previous generation of winglets, Aviation Partners Inc, which claims Airbus infringed its patent and demands royalties. Airbus rejects the claims and describes them as a hindrance. The industry is investing in such tweaks because the forces that make the rest of the wing work cause problems at the tip. "The air that goes over the wing has to accelerate because it's bent out of the way," Weber said. "The air under the wing basically goes flat and doesn't change very much." It is the difference between speeds, and therefore pressure, over and under the wing that causes lift. Near the tip, the two air currents clash, creating drag that erodes fuel efficiency. Curved winglets blunt the transition between air flows. Experts note that while winglets cut drag, they also add weight which eats into the fuel savings. "Nothing in life is for free," Weber said. "It does reduce the drag, but at a cost." That's not all. Designers face a further serious headache. The 737 and A320 must fit into the box provided for aircraft of their category at airport parking stands. Gates for the larger categories are scarcer and more expensive. For most operators losing the current status would add significant costs. Their aircraft pour in and out of airports feeding hubs or serving low-cost markets several times a day. With existing winglets, the 737 wingspan is close to the 36-meter limit for airplanes of its class. Breaking out of the so-called 'C' category could be a commercial disaster, both for the airline and its jetmaker, which would quickly lose its business. Wing experts therefore have been called on by both leading manufacturers to put their aircraft on a yoga course and come up with ways of increasing the wingspan through various contortions in the shape of the wingtip without breaching the size limits. Boeing says its design keeps the all-important 'C' category. Larger jets face the same problem, with Boeing pondering how to give its 777 wide-body a performance boost without pushing it into a costly superjumbo category by over- extending the wing. In the past, engineers have even considered putting folding wings on the stately 777 like a 1960s carrier-based attack plane, but abandoned the idea because the hydraulics needed to fold and lock them would pile on maintenance risk and weight. Back to Top Boeing concept jet could be Prius of the skies Commercial jets of the future may have high-span wings and be powered by hybrid- electric engines. In 2050, flying commercial may still mean crammed overhead bins and crummy food, but the engine could be powered by liquefied natural gas or electricity, according to an ongoing study on the future of flight. Such planes might also be constructed with lighter materials, sport high-span truss- based wings, and be routed with improved air-traffic control systems, according to Marty Bradley, a technical fellow with Boeing Research and Technology who is the leading the NASA-funded study. "We're not really betting on any one of those [technologies] in particular, but we are identifying some future possibilities and then trying to make sure that the technology is developed far enough along so that they can be ready if they make sense at the time," he told me Wednesday. An energy-efficient commercial jet powered by a hybrid-electric engine similar to those in cars such as the Toyota Prius, Chevy Volt, and Nissan Leaf is among the more compelling possibilities identified to date, Bradley noted. SUGAR Volt: Boeing's Hybrid Electric Aircraft Such a plane, dubbed the Sugar Volt, would plug in at the airport to recharge batteries, for example, in the same way Leaf owners recharge in their garages. Conventional fuel would likely help it get off the ground. Once airborne, electricity would supply at least some of the power to the engines. Batteries - the source of the electricity - are "the biggest challenge in making this concept work," Bradley said. They are heavy compared to conventional fuel and likely will be for the foreseeable future. Weight - how much of it planes have to carry - directly impacts how much energy they need, of course. That's part of the reason, for example, that you get charged extra for heavy baggage. "There is a penalty for carrying heavy batteries," Bradley said. "But if you have a really efficient airplane, that penalty is reduced. So, in the study, we make the propulsion system more efficient, we make the aerodynamics more efficient, we make the airplane lighter." This engineering work, in turn, could translate to a plane that requires 50 percent less energy to fly than today's commercial jets. And that means the battery only needs to be about half as big. A similarly designed plane could also be powered by liquefied natural gas, Bradley and his colleagues have found in the course of the SUGAR study, which stands for Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research. Challenges for liquefied natural gas are primarily the fuel tanks on the airplane and re- fueling infrastructure at the airport, Bradley noted. "Once you inject it into a jet engine, it actually burns really well," he said. The advantages to using liquefied natural gas include what may be low cost due to abundance and its lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional jet fuel. Whether or when any of these technologies are in commercial jets in the future depends on what the future looks like - the availability of natural gas or biofuels, for example, or whether there are limits on greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. "We're not quite sure what future we're going to have," Bradley said. "So, we're in the business of getting different technology opportunities for the future." http://www.futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/technology/futureoftech/boeing-concept-jet- could-be-prius-skies-748753 Back to Top Beyond Risk Management Ltd. in conjunction withCurt Lewis & Associates LLC are pleased to host "A Practical Approach to Safety Management Systems" a course designed for the aviation industry. With the ICAO recommendations and standards for the introduction of Safety Management Systems throughout the world - you can get ahead of the curve and save time and money by learning the potential pitfalls and challenges associated to its implementation. The Canadian large aircraft aviation industry has experienced many of the same challenges likely to be faced by others. To better prepare you and your organization to meet these challenges we are pleased to bring to you the Canadian 705 experience with regulated Safety Management Systems adapted to your needs. Dates - June 18 & 19, 2012 (Monday and Tuesday), SEATS ARE LIMITED - to ensure good discussion and time to question in a workshop environment class size is intentionally intimate. Register now to avoid disappointment. Important Details - This course covers the ICAO standards and the Canadian requirements and experience. The content is global in nature enabling participants from other nations and industries to find the material both useful and beneficial. For Canadian attendees this course fulfills the requirements for CASO training (non 705 operators.) Schedule Day One (Monday) 0730 - 0800 hrs. Registration & continental breakfast 0800 - 1200 hrs. Session #1 1200 - 1245 hrs. Lunch 1245 - 1700 hrs. Session#2 Day Two (Tuesday) 0730 - 0800 hrs. Continental breakfast 0800 - 1200 hrs. Session #3 1200 - 1245 hrs. Lunch 1245 - 1630 hrs. Session #4 1630 - 1700 hrs. Closing remarks and Presentation of certificates Overview - Improve safety performance by applying the fundamentals of SMS within your organization. Get past the barriers of independent departments to an integrated system. This two-day course gives you the comprehensive understanding of SMS and the tools to assist you in preparing for change in your organization. Who should attend - Any individuals who will be actively involved in the organization's Safety Management System (safety program). Individuals with previous experience and those with no knowledge in safety management will find this course useful for the formation or expansion of safety programs within their organizations. What you get - Participants will receive a consolidated reference binder of class material as well as an electronic version of the material which will provide guidance for setting up a system within their organization. Upon successful completion of the course a certificate will be issued. Subjects that will be reviewed are: * Safety and security * What Safety Management Systems is (definitions) * Corporate culture - The push for change (an overview of the proposed FAA Safety Management Systems, current ICAO and Transport Canada requirements) * Risk Assessment techniques * Data collection and processing * Front line involvement and committee process * Incident Reporting * Incident/Accident investigation techniques and process * Trend Analysis * Response to events and emergencies * Safety promotion * Implementing change (and the obstacles to change) * Documentation process. Location & Logistics - Calgary, Alberts, Canada. Tea/coffee/juice/water will be provided in the classroom at all times, continental breakfast and lunch on both days is included. Cost - $1,195.00 per person Canadian Funds SPECIAL OFFER: When you register three people from one organization they may bring a 4th person as our guest to this session! (Save $1,195.00!) for any given session the fourth attendee is our guest! DISCOUNTS: Option 1 - When attending the following CAP - Corrective Action Plan Course (June 20, 2012) and this course there is a special discount - the two courses for $1,600.00 a $345.00 savings! To receive this discount enter the code "CAP2012" when registering for the Safety Management Course, then register for the Corrective Action Plan Course and enter the discount code "SMS2012." Option 2 - When attending the following Quality Assurance and Auditing Course (June 21 & 22, 2012) and this course there is a special discount - the two courses for $2,000.00 a $390.00 savings! To receive this discount enter the code "QA2012" when registering for the Safety Management Course, then register for the Quality Assurance course and enter the discount code "SMS2012." Option 3 - BEST SAVINGS - When attending both the Corrective Action Plan Course & the Quality Assurance and Auditing Course (all three courses, five days) there is a bonus discount - the three courses for $2,500.00 a $540.00 savings! To receive this discount enter the code "ALL2012" when registering for the each of the courses. *all costs shown are exclusive of GST* Hosted by Beyond Risk Management Ltd. -Seating Restricted for better workshop discussion- -Registration is limited - Register now- Register on line at: http://www.regonline.ca/SMSYYCJune2012 For further information or questions: email - Brendan@beyondriskmgmt.com Or call: Brendan Kapuscinski 403-804-9745 Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP, FRAeS, FISASI CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC