Flight Safety Information August 29, 2013 - No. 179 In This Issue Plane crashes at Redhill Aerodrome Helicopter crashes for science at NASA Langley This just doesn't fly: Some airline pilots barely make living wage Pilots: Five German airports not safe enough Think ARGUS PROS Veteran's Story: Pilot 'Nomad' wowed instructors NTSB Communications Course Plane crashes at Redhill Aerodrome A PLANE has crashed at Redhill Aerodrome this afternoon. The crash happened shortly before 12.30pm on Wednesday at the aerodrome in Kings Mill Lane, South Nutfield. The microlight aircraft crashed nose-first into the turf. Aerodrome manager Phil Wright said: "It had just taken off and had some sort of issue, we don't know what and unfortunately has crashed on the Western boundary of the airfield." A witness at the scene, who saw the incident, said the plane was doing circuits - where an aircraft takes off comes in to land and takes straight off again - when it appeared to stall and "plummeted" to earth. The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) was called in immediately to launch an investigation. An AAIB spokesman said: "We can confirm that a team has been deployed to the aerodrome. An investigation has been launched so we can't give out any more information." Fire crews from Reigate, Godstone and Dorking, plus a water carrier from Godstone and the environmental protection unit from Dorking were scrambled to the scene at 12.28pm. All flights to the airfield were diverted to Headcorn in Kent. Simon Cole who runs the Redhill Training Academy at the aerodrome said: "I saw two ambulances driving about towards the bottom of the aerodrome and there were police and the fire brigade. As I was coming out there was lots of police cars and I had to weave through them. I thought they were on a training exercise at first but then I looked and saw all the blue flashing lights." Resident Jan Cook, of Kings Mill Lane, Redhill, said that she was in the garden with her husband, Bert, and heard a "dull thud", looked up but did not see anything. Mrs Cook said: "I thought it can't be a vehicle as it did not sound like that. "Moments later an ambulance, two fire engines and a police car went past the house with their sirens blaring. "Later, the ambulance returned in the direction of the hospital with the siren on so we knew something serious must have happened." http://www.surreymirror.co.uk/UPDATE-Plane-crashes-Redhill-Aerodrome/story- 19717931-detail/story.html#axzz2dMQ3P8JT Back to Top Helicopter crashes for science at NASA Langley HAMPTON- Suspended by cables, the helicopter fuselage swung lazily in the air before breaking free and hitting the ground with a hard thud. Just like that, it was over. But the work was only beginning Wednesday at NASA-Langley Research Center, the scene for one of the most ambitious and complex drop tests in the center's history, one that seemed deceptively simple. Researchers wanted to evaluate different safety systems - seats, restraints and other equipment - in the context of a survivable crash. So they suspended a CH-46 Sea Knight fuselage from NASA-Langley's mammoth gantry, packed it full of measuring equipment and let it drop. The Navy, Army and Federal Aviation Administration contributed to the high-profile test. Dozens of NASA-Langley employees ventured from their offices in a sweltering afternoon to witness a helicopter smacking the ground at 30 mph. "I think it's the most ambitious test we've done in terms of the instrumentation and in terms of the video coverage we have on board," said Martin Annett, NASA-Langley's lead engineer for the test. It was a different sort of test for the gantry, formally known as the Landing and Impact Research Facility. Generations ago, it allowed the first Apollo astronauts to learn to land on the moon. It was known back then as the Lunar Landing Research Facility. After that, it became an aircraft crash test site, and NASA recently added a large pool to test the Orion Space capsule mock-ups in water landings. Although Wednesday's test lasted only a few seconds, it will take days to analyze data gathered at 10,000 samples per second. Researchers packed the fuselage with 13 crash test dummies and almost 40 cameras. They hope the findings will help improve future aircraft, whether military or civilian. Designers of safety systems always face a balancing act, wanting to safely restrain someone without hampering movement. As aircraft become more sophisticated, safety systems must maintain pace. "The whole idea of crash worthiness is to increase the speeds that you can survive an impact," said Annett. "As things are built, they go faster and you can move up the capabilities of an air frame for crash worthiness." The Navy's interest in Wednesday's event extended to "virtually every aspect" of the test, said Lindley Bark, a crash safety engineer from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. Bark said the CH-46 is being phased out in many places, so tests like this could benefit future Navy aircraft. In some cases, they might settle on a restraint or seat that can be incorporated sooner. In other cases, the changes might have to be worked into a future design. Another crash test of a similar helicopter is planned for next year. At first blush, Annett said he didn't see any real surprises. He was a bit curious as to how the fuselage would land. "I didn't know if it was going to plow in, or bounce or come to a rest," he said. When it struck the ground and skipped just a bit, "I was like, 'OK. That's good.'" http://www.dailypress.com/news/science/dp-nws-langley-helicopter-crash- 20130828,0,6468664.story Back to Top This just doesn't fly: Some airline pilots barely make living wage You really have to love what you do, or be exceedingly patient, to consider becoming a regional airline pilot. Aviation consultant Kit Darby says regional airline co-pilots and pilots, in the lower ranks at least, don't make a living wage. In fact, the mechanic at your local gas station, or even the taxi driver who drives along the streets of your town, sometimes taking trips of a longer duration than regional flights, may be pulling down more cash per hour than the bottom rungs of first officers, i.e. co-pilots, at regional airlines. Most view their service on regional airlines as an apprenticeship or stepping-stone to a big payday at mainline airlines. The exception is the top ranks of the regional airline pilots, where captains with 15 years' experience can earn $100,000 to $110,000 per year, Darby says. Co-pilots may earn less than $20 per hour flying turboprops for Mesa Airlines, and pilots with 10 years' experience make a little more than $73 per hour, on average, at U.S. regional airlines. At the top ranks, a Republic Airlines pilot could make $119 per hour, and the maximum at the upper tier of regional pilots is just more than $100, on average. Here are some of the hourly wage ranges for co-pilots and pilots, with varying levels of flying experience, at regional airlines: Saddled with debts from college and pilot training costs, regional airline pilots often endure an intense flight schedule of short hops from Atlanta to Macon, Ga., or from Phoenix to Flagstaff, Ariz., and get paid on an hourly basis. A portrait of these hourly pay scales becomes even more pathetic when you consider that regional airline pilots, who are paid only from the time the airline leaves the gate to the time it arrives at the destination, only are on the clock on average about 21.5 hours per week. For a first-year co-pilot at Republic Airlines, for example, that translates into gross weekly pay of a mere $495 per week. For a pilot with 10 years' experience at SkyWest, the weekly gross paycheck might be around $1,312. But, then you have to consider that these wages don't nearly reflect the hours that regional airline co-pilots and pilots have to put into the job. Although they may only be on the clock 21.5 hours per week or 85 hours per month," pilots typically are away from base, and from their families, about 240 to 300 hours per month (or about 60 to 75 hours a week)," according to the Airline Pilots Association. For the lowest paid pilot on Mesa Airlines, this imbalance works out to $8.50 an hour for a 60-hour work week. "They have a minimum pay for time on duty at some airlines, like one hour of pay minimum for every two hours on duty, and one hour of pay for every 4-5 hours away from home," Darby says. "These rules are often not in effect at the smaller airlines, and are alway guaranteed by the larger major airlines' union contracts." But there is cachet to being a pilot or first officer at a regional airline despite the strains of the job, and for most, the skimpy paychecks. There is a lot of passion there. "It is sort of like a paid sport for people who love it," Darby says. If it isn't all about passion, then it revolves around moving up the ranks and getting a pilot job at a big airline. Consider these co-pilot and pilot salaries at major airlines, as compiled by Future & Active Pilot Advisors: The average annual salary at the major airlines above at the most senior levels is just less than $200,000 annually. Meanwile, the senior-most pilots at Delta, who fly B747s and B777s, earn around $245,000. Working for 35 years and rising up the seniority ranks as a pilot at a major airline can mean career net pay and benefits of about $10 million, Darby says. It's a great gig, if you can get it. And, many regional pilots labor for years in the trenches trying to get there. Safety Darby says that the relatively paltry salaries paid to first officers and some pilots at regional airlines have not led, though, to a meaningful safety gap between the regional and mainline airlines despite the fact that regional pilots have to perform so many more takeoffs and landings than their network airline counterparts. After all, Darby says, despite the low pay of the first officers, there's always an experienced pilot in the cockpit. The pilot has just as much invested in a safe flight as the passengers, Darby says, adding, "The pilot is at the front of the aircraft, and he's (or she's) highly motivated." In the aftermath of the 2009 crash of Colgan Air flight 3407, which was flying as Continental Express and saw the death of 50 people, co-pilots starting this month were required to complete at least 1,500 hours of pilot training to fly commercially in order to obtain an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate. And, that's up from the previous requirement of 250 hours of flight experience to obtain a commercial pilot certificate. The NTSB report on the crash of Colgan Air flight 3407 found that inadequate pilot training and fatigue were secondary causes of the crash. The more stringent requirements mean that regional airlines are scurrying to fill co-pilot and pilot positions - and the shortage comes precisely as major airlines, including Delta and United, are engaged in their first rounds of pilot hirings in several years. In June, however, there were some job trims - not just for pilots - at regional airlines as mainline-airline partners cut back on their services in reaction to a spike in fuel prices. But pilots at regional and mainline airlines are in demand. There will be a lot of pressure on these regional pilots' salaries, especially as they have to pay to add seven times the previous number of hours required in order to qualify for an ATP certificate. http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/just-doesnt-fly-some-airline-pilots-barely-make-living- wage-8C11022539 Back to Top Pilots: Five German airports not safe enough Five of Germany's 29 main airports have "serious safety defects", the country's pilot union said on Wednesday. Among the worst offenders were Weeze, near the Dutch border, and Memmingen near Munich. Pilots' union Cockpit toured the country's airports checking to see if operations were up to scratch, Die Welt newspaper reported. They said that five airports - Weeze, Memmingen, Lübeck, Zweibrücken, and Friedrichshafen did not meet their safety standards. The union's complaints include a lack of pathways to taxi airplanes and poor approach lighting for pilots coming in to land. While Cockpit's definition of "serious safety defects" is stricter than general international standards, the union said "a rich industrial country like Germany should not align itself with international minimal limits," but rather set its own criteria. The union was known among airports, said Die Welt, for being particularly strict in its judgement. Lübeck airport released a statement saying it was not possible to fulfil all of Cockpit's criteria. Friedrichshafen called the inspections arbitrary, while Memmingen, in southern Bavaria, disputed the fact that not having enough taxi pathways was a safety issue. Yet Cockpit found no faults with Berlin Schönefeld, Düsseldorf, Leipzig/Halle, Munich, or Stuttgart. A few issues were flagged up in Erfurt, Frankfurt/Hahn, Frankfurt/Main, Karlsruhe/Baden Baden, Cologne/Bonn, Westerland and Nuremberg. http://www.thelocal.de/national/20130829-51641.html Back to Top Back to Top Veteran's Story: Pilot 'Nomad' wowed instructors In 1965, the U.S. Navy graduated its last class of student aviators who didn't own the sheepskin of a college degree. One class member was 19-year-old Jim Lawrence. With the last name of Lawrence, his fellow cadets connected Lawrence with the World War I British nomad T.E. Lawrence, "Lawrence of Arabia." Consequently, Jim's lifelong call sign: NOMAD. Jim Lawrence was born and raised in Jackson, Miss. He recalled, "I fell in love with aviation at a young age. When I was 6 years old, my father would drop me off at the local airport to watch airplanes take off and land all day long." By age 9, Lawrence was working at the airport, washing and cleaning airplanes. He soloed on his 16th birthday. While still in high school, Lawrence would fly to the Beechcraft plant in Wichita, Kan., and ferry new aircraft within the continental United States. Still a junior in high school, Lawrence joined the Marine Reserves. During his first semester at Florida State University, Lawrence was accepted by the Navy for Marine aviation. Hence, Jim Lawrence became Nomad. Nomad admitted, "I had 40 hours in a T-34 before Pensacola, but I didn't tell my flight instructors." On the day of his initial training flight, Nomad was asked if he had any questions. He replied, "No, sir." On the tarmac his instructor asked if he wanted to start and taxi the Mentor. Nomad replied, "Yes, sir." Asked if he wanted to attempt takeoff, again Nomad said, "Yes, sir." Asked if he wanted to attempt a landing and perform a couple of touch and goes, Nomad said, "Yes, sir." From the back seat the instructor muttered, "damn," then fell silent for the balance of the flight. Back on the tarmac, Nomad was beaming a cocky smile as he scrambled from the Mentor. The discomfited instructor asked grumpily, "Have you flown previously?'' Nomad said, "Well, I, uh......." The instructor blared, "We have a war going on and we need pilots!" Nomad soloed the next day. Out of 722 students he was No. 1, a Top Gun. With the full approval of a three-star admiral, Nomad was placed in the "Jet Pipeline" and sent to VT-7 at McCain Field in Meridian, Miss. At 19, Jim "Nomad'' Lawrence was training to become a fighter jockey. At Meridian, Nomad mastered the T28 North American Buckeye with very little effort, then returned to Pensacola for a decisive phase of training: landing on an aircraft carrier. Nomad recalled, "Our carrier was the USS Lexington from World War II. She'd been modified with an angle deck and was waiting for us in the Gulf of Mexico. Up-close the Lexington is a huge ship, but approaching in a jet for your first carrier landing, she looked like a pencil. You're behind the controls of the jet, thinking, 'Holy cow! I'm supposed to land on that?'" Nomad's narrative of his first carrier landing goes like this: "Carrier pilots don't stall their planes to land; they actually fly into the deck. The second you hit the deck, you firewall the throttle (shove to full speed) in case you missed the hook; that way, you have the power for a go-around. "Carrier pilots are continuously making changes for a landing, adjusting for wind and the proper glide path. Then I got the word, 'Drop your hook,' and I'm going, 'Holy Cow! I'm 19 years old and landing on an aircraft carrier!'" "I caught the third wire, but there was no time to gloat, because my buddy was 20 seconds behind me, so I had to follow my instructions from the deck crew. "You see, the catapult's steam pressure is predicated on the weight of your aircraft. Since you know the weight of your plane, the next thing to know is your fuel level, then calculate the proper weight. "My weight was OK, so I'm hooked up to the shuttle. And I'm going, 'Holy cow! I'm being catapulted off a real aircraft carrier!'" "So I'm watching the Cat Officer on the front of the ship. He signals me to rev full power; I throttle up, glance at the Cat Officer and offer the traditional salute, basically saying, 'Let's do this.' "I shove my head into the headrest, and then experience one of the coolest feelings in the world; just before launch, the airplane actually squats from the tension. I hold onto the handle, and then whoooosh; I go from 0 to 140 in 1.9 seconds. Let me describe the sensation: absolutely exhilarating! Nomad flew advanced jets in Kingsville, Texas. With the Vietnam War in serious escalation, training was cut from 20 to 15 weeks. Earning his wings, Nomad served on the USS Independence in the Mediterranean before receiving orders for Vietnam. Assigned to a hotbed of North Vietnamese activity south of Da Nang at Chu Lai, Nomad controlled the stick of an A-4 Skyhawk to give close air support to leathernecks on the ground. http://www.rockdalenews.com/section/1/article/16740/ Back to Top NTSB Communications Course National Transportation Safety Board Washington, D.C. Public Affairs: 202-314- 6100 Direct: 202-314-6219 Title Managing Communications Following an Aircraft Accident or Incident Co-sponsor Airports Council International - North America (ACI-NA) Description The course will teach participants what to expect in the days immediately following an aviation accident or incident and how they can prepare for their role with the media. ID Code PA302 Dates, Tuition and Fee October 24-25, 2013 $1034 early registration, by September 24, 2013 $1084 late registration, between September 25 and 12:00 pm (noon) ET on October 23, 2013 $100 processing fee will be added to tuitions for all offline applications. A tuition invoice can be ordered for a $25 processing fee. Note: payment must be made at time of registration. Times Oct. 24: 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Oct. 25: 8:30 am - 3:00 pm Location NTSB Training Center * 45065 Riverside Parkway * Ashburn, Virginia 20147 Status OPEN. Applications are now being accepted. Apply to Attend October 24-25, 2013 CEUs 1.3 Overview * How the National Transportation Safety Board organizes an accident site and what can be expected in the days after an aviation disaster from the NTSB, FAA, other federal agencies, airline, airport, media and local community * Strategies for airline and airport staff to proactively manage the communication process throughout the on-scene phase of the investigation * How the NTSB public affairs officers coordinate press conferences and release of accident information and what information the spokespersons from the airport and airline will be responsible to provide to the media * Making provisions for and communicating with family members of those involved in the accident * Questions and requests likely encountered from the airlines, airport staff, family members, disaster relief agencies, local officials and others > Comments from course participants > See the 219 organizations from 28 countries that have sent staff to attend this course Performance Results Upon completion of this course the participant will be able to: * Be better prepared to respond to a major aviation disaster involving a flight departing from or destined for participant's airport * Demonstrate greater confidence in fielding on-scene questions about the many aspects of the investigation and its participants, including what types of specific information may be requested * Identify the appropriate Public Affairs roles for the various organizations involved in an accident investigation. * Be more productive in the first few hours after an aviation disaster by understanding which tasks are most important and why * Perform job responsibilities more professionally and with greater confidence given the knowledge and tools to manage the airport communications aspect of a major aviation disaster Who May Attend This course is targeted to who, in the event of an aviation disaster, will need to provide a steady flow of accurate information to media outlets and/or other airport, federal or local authorities. Accommodations Area hotels and restaurants Airports Washington Dulles International (IAD): 10 miles Washington Ronald Reagan National (DCA): 30 miles Baltimore/Washington International (BWI): 60 miles More Information Email TrainingCenter@ntsb.gov or call (571) 223-3900 Courses, forums and symposia are added to the schedule throughout the year. Subscribe to the e-newsletter to learn about upcoming events and new programs: http://www.ntsb.gov/trainingcenter/list/list_mw020207.htm Back to Top Flight Safety Information - Searchable Database Click Here! Keyword Searchable Curt Lewis