Flight Safety Information April 2, 2013 - No. 068 In This Issue ACSF Aspires to Part 121 Safety ANA to put pilots through Dreamliner resumption training PROS IOSA Audit Experts The World's Biggest Jet Engine Is Brawnier Than Alan Shepard's Orbital UAE carriers have 330 aircraft. ACSF Aspires to Part 121 Safety The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) began its annual safety symposium with an attention-grabbing slide. It shows the accident rates for U.S. Part 121 airlines and all Part 135 operations for the years 2007-2011. The accident rate for all Part 135 operations is 0.60 per 100,000 flight hours, approximately four times worse than the airlines' 0.159 per 100,000 flight hours. But the figure for ACSF-registered operators is 0.256 per 100,000 flights, less than half the rate for non-ACSF operators. The ACSF's goal is to achieve a safety record as good as or better than that for Part 121. The foundation's mission is to enable on-demand charter operators and fractional program managers to achieve the highest levels of safety in the aviation industry. Companies that adhere to a higher standard are proven to be more successful at managing risk in day-to-day operations, and have better safety records than the air charter industry at large. In the slide, the ACSF compared the accident rate of its audit- registered operators with that of all other Part 135 operators. The theme for this year's symposium was, "Safety Is an Investment: It Pays Dividends," which drew more than 120 representatives from the on-demand air charter and fractional aircraft ownership community, as well as various aviation industry experts. "We are extremely pleased with the response from symposium attendees," said ACSF president Bryan Burns. "The attendees were awed by the quality, depth and range of information presented that they could use in their daily operations. The best part was the interaction between the attendees and presenters." ACSF chairman Dennis Keith added that attendees benefitted from hearing from chief safety officers, FAA officials, industry experts and an associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia Darden Graduate School. "We are pleased that the ACSF continues to gain momentum and the validity of the foundation's mission to raise the level of safety within air charter and fractional ownership operations continues to be confirmed through operator and industry participation in ACSF activities." Mandated Cuts Will Not Affect Safety With sequestration on everyone's mind, John Duncan, FAA deputy director of the Flight Standards Service, told attendees that the mandated cuts are expected to be a significant issue for the FAA going forward. He said the agency has had to find places where cuts could be achieved without compromising safety. "We had to look at cuts in a number of areas," Duncan told the group. "We had to look at cuts in contracting...we are cutting probably three-quarters of our contract budget right now." In addition to attrition of employees, who will not be replaced, he said the FAA will have to furlough all employees-including administrators-for one day per two- week pay period. Duncan said there are close to 100 applications in the certification queue, and that number clearly will grow. However, the primary focus of the FAA's attention is on and will continue to be on operational safety. "So we will continue to do the surveillance and oversight that we need to do because that's where we are primarily obligated," he explained. "The things that are going to slow down are certifications." Keynote speaker Robert Carraway of the Darden School discussed how safety cultures are shaped and formed, not only by how we interact with one another, but also by the countless decisions, big and small, that we make every day, both individually and in groups. "We consciously seek to align these decisions with important organizational norms and initiatives, but research has shown that our individual decision-making processes are fraught with traps, particularly when we over-rely on experience and intuition," he said. "Safety is probably a given in your profession," Carraway acknowledged, "but somehow you have to keep your eye on the safety ball." In devising a plan to enhance your safety culture, ask yourself: What could change peoples' minds about the relative importance of safety and what can we do about it? Chris MacWhorter, senior technical advisor to the director of FAA Flight Standards, told the group that compliance alone is not enough. "You have to convince management to spend money outside compliance," he said. "Not all compliance is going to mitigate all at-risk behavior." Before his current assignment, MacWhorter managed a collection of voluntary safety programs, including the Advanced Qualification Program (AQP), the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP), the Flight Operational Quality Assurance Program (FOQA), the Voluntary Disclosure Reporting Program (VDRP), the Internal Evaluation Program (IEP) and the Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA). http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/aviation-international-news/2013-04-02/acsf- aspires-part-121-safety Back to Top ANA to put pilots through Dreamliner resumption training: sources Four All Nippon Airways' (ANA) Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner planes are seen behind another ANA plane at Haneda airport in Tokyo January 29, 2013. TOKYO (Reuters) - All Nippon Airways, the biggest customer for Boeing Co's grounded 787 Dreamliner, will put its pilots through training to resume flights in June, sources told Reuters, after Boeing completed more than half of its tests to get its new battery system certified. The Japanese carrier, known as ANA, is also likely to use the Dreamliner initially for cargo flights once the new battery system is installed, to reassure the public about safety before restarting passenger flights, one of the sources said. Regulators grounded all 50 Dreamliners in use by airlines worldwide in mid-January after lithium-ion batteries overheated on two separate aircraft, on a Japan Airlines jet parked at Boston's Logan airport and on an ANA flight in Japan. ANA operates 17 of the carbon- composite jets and has canceled more than 3,600 flights through the end of May. Anticipating regulatory clearance, ANA will put its roughly 200 Dreamliner pilots through flight resumption simulator training so that they will be ready to fly the jets again in June, the sources with knowledge of ANA's operations said. Since the Dreamliner was grounded, the pilots have been undergoing simulator training every month, but their next training will be specifically for flight resumption, the sources said. The training will start around mid-April, one of the sources said. "The company is making as many assumptions as it can and is preparing based on them. In order to resume flights from June, it needs all 200 of the pilots ready to be flying by then," a source said. The sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Without having found what caused the battery incidents in January, Boeing last month unveiled a new battery system and predicted the 787 could be back in the air within weeks, which drew skepticism from some experts and regulators. ANA said last week that it was including Dreamliner jets in its June flight schedules. "It's not that we have decided to resume flights, but rather that we have not decided on cancelling flights," spokesman Ryosei Nomura told Reuters. He added that he had not heard anything about the flight resumption simulator training. BOEING TESTS Boeing is conducting ground and flight tests to check the new lithium-ion battery system that it plans to install in the Dreamliner jets. The results will be submitted to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which will decide whether to certify the fix. "More than half of the testing is complete with the remaining ground and flight tests set to occur within the next several days," Marc Birtel, a spokesman for Boeing, told Reuters by email. Boeing is planning to conduct one more test flight, and the data collected from the flight will be submitted to the FAA. Once the FAA certifies the fix, Boeing will have its engineers install the new battery system in the grounded jets. "Our baseline plan is to deliver the new battery systems in roughly the same order as initial deliveries," Birtel said. ANA, as the launch customer, will be the first to have its jets fixed. It is still unclear how long the FAA will take to approve Boeing's battery fix. After the FAA's certification, Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau is likely to certify the fix around the same time. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the Dreamliner's battery trouble, is conducting a two-day forum on April 11-12 to examine the design and performance of lithium-ion batteries in transportation, as well as a separate hearing on April 23-24 on the 787 battery. The NTSB is likely to make non-binding recommendations to the FAA at the end of an investigation. The two agencies work closely together. CARGO FLIGHTS A few dozen Boeing engineers are already in Japan so that they can start work on the battery fix as soon as approval is received, the sources said. ANA estimates it may take a month to install the new battery system for its 787 fleet. Once the new systems are installed, ANA is likely to bring the Dreamliner back into the air first by flying a domestic cargo route between Tokyo and Naha, in the southern islands of Okinawa, one of the sources said. "By making a track record, the company wants to provide a sense of security to passengers. What it is concerned about is whether passengers will fly the Dreamliner like they did before," the source said. ANA spokesman Nomura said that initially flying the Dreamliner to carry cargo was among the carrier's options. Before the grounding, ANA used the Dreamliner about twice a week to carry cargo between Tokyo and Naha. "We will probably conduct test flights before carrying passengers onboard. Some, though not all, of the pilots will have to fly in order to keep their pilot's qualifications," Nomura said. He declined to comment on details of the possible test flights. Other airlines have so far kept the Dreamliner out of their flight schedules. United Continental Holdings has removed its six Dreamliner aircraft from its flying plans through June 5. Poland's LOT, which has received two of the jets, said it does not plan to fly its Dreamliners until late October. The president of Japan Airlines, which owns seven Dreamliner jets, said last month that he was not thinking of exactly when flights would resume. Back to Top Back to Top The World's Biggest Jet Engine Is Brawnier Than Alan Shepard's Orbital The Wright Flyer took off in 1903 powered by a measly 12 horsepower straight-four. Little did Orville and Wilbur know that just 110 years later, their pokey engines would eventually lead to a power plant with more horsepower than The Titanic and Shepard's Mercury-Redstone 3-combined. The GE90 series of aero engines from GE Aviation are now built exclusively for Boeing's latest models of 777 aircraft. The GE90 technology originally grew out of NASA's Energy Efficient Engine in the 1970s and first debuted in 1995 aboard a British Airway's 777. The first three models, boasted outputs between 74,000 to 115,000 lbf of thrust. Since 1995 the GE90 series has improved upon that performance with a pair of larger models, the -110B1 and -115B variants, that can blow with more than 125,000 lbf of thrust. These supersized variants are now built exclusively for Boeings newest and largest 777 models-the 777-200LR, 777-300ER, and 777-200F. The largest variant is the GE90-115B. Measuring 216 inches long and 135 inches wide with a 128-inch-diameter fan, the -115B weighs a stout 18,260 pounds. Surprisingly, despite the -115B's size, it is also the most efficient wide-body engine in service today. It utilizes a 10-stage air compressor, driven by the engine's two-stage turbine to generate a 23:1 pressure ratio turbocharger. The engine's construction is just as impressive as its performance. The GE90 is built from a new ceramic matrix composite material that can withstand far higher operating temperatures (up to 2,400 degrees F) than other similarly sized engines, which saves as much as 10 percent more fuel per long-haul flight than even earlier GE90 models. In addition to being the biggest engine in the world and the most efficient in its class, the GE90-115B is also the most powerful jet engine on the face of the planet. During bench testing at GE's Peebles, Ohio facility in 2002, the -115B demolished the previous record with an unholy 127,900 pounds-5,000lbf nhigher than the previous record-and it wasn't even trying. Engineers were simply running an hour-long triple-redline torture test that just so happened to meet GWR criteria. And that's not even the only world record it holds. The GE90-115B also powered the longest commercial flight in history-a globe-spanning 22 hour, 42 minute jaunt in 1995 from Hong Kong to London-the long way. That's over the Pacific, across the continental US, and then spanning the Atlantic to arrive at Heathrow. I sure hope the in-flight movie was better than Madea's Latest Adventure. http://gizmodo.com/5991212/the-worlds-biggest-jet-engine-is-brawnier-than-alan- shepards-orbital-rocket Back to Top UAE carriers have 330 aircraft Emirates remains largest national airline with a fleet of 195 jets The UAE's five national carriers operated 330 aircraft at the end of 2012 and Dubai- based Emirates maintained its position as the country's largest airline, controlling195 passenger jets, according to local airline data. In 2012, the five companies received 53 new planes as part of previous orders within ongoing expansions prompted by a steady growth in airport activity in the second largest Arab economy, the figures showed. At the end of 2012, Emirates controlled more than half the total aircraft operated by the five carriers, with its fleet peaking at 195 Airbuses and Boeings operating more than 1,800 flights a week, showed the figures published by Emirat Alyoum daily. "Last year, Emirates received 33 new aircraft, maintaining its position as one of the world's fastest growing airlines," the Arabic language newspaper said. Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways emerged as the second largest airline in the UAE, with a fleet of 72 aircraft, which handled a record high of 10.3 million passengers last year compared with around 8.4 million passengers in 2011. Etihad received seven new Airbus and Boeing aircraft in 2012, allowing it to push ahead with plans to expand its global flight network. The report showed Sharjah-based Air Arabia has 32 passenger planes, including six new Airbuses received last year as part of a deal signed in 2007 for the purchase of 44 aircraft. Six more jets are expected to be delivered this year. FlyDubai operates 28 aircraft, including seven new planes received in 2012, while RAK Airways of Ras Al khaimah operated three aircraft at the end of the year and is planning to boost its fleet within overall expansion plans. http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/uae-carriers-have-330-aircraft-2013-04- 02-1.501004 Curt Lewis