Flight Safety Information December 13, 2013 - No. 255 In This Issue The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has grounded another six planes belonging to regional airline (Australia) Changes in Earth's Magnetic Field Leads to Renamed Oakland Airport Runways Midlands Air Ambulance grounded over Glasgow crash safety fears PNG plane crash: report blames loss of engine power for crash, killing Australian pilot Arizona University prepares pilots to fly unmanned aircraft FCC Considers Allowing In-Flight Cell Phone Calls Think ARGUS PROS Scorpion's first flight a milestone for Textron's tactical jet American Airlines orders regional jets worth $4B Airbus China plant delivers 153 A320 aircraft The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has grounded another six planes belonging to regional airline Brindabella over maintenance concerns (Australia) The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has grounded another six planes belonging to a regional airline due to concerns about lax maintenance. The Canberra-based Brindabella Airlines is not allowed to use the aircraft until a maintenance review is carried out. It follows CASA's decision to ground four planes last month after it discovered the airline had not performed mandatory engine inspections. The Authority has examined the fleet and said it has identified additional inspection and maintenance overruns, which has led to the additional six aircraft being grounded. In a statement, CASA said the latest order will ensure any outstanding issues will be addressed on all of Brindabella's aircraft. The airline operates flights to a number of regional centres in NSW including Orange, Mudgee, Tamworth and Newcastle. Passengers have told the ABC they are sick of the poor service. Moree resident Richard Estens said it feel's like customers have been abandoned by the airline. "You know, I'm angry. Nobody rings up or apologises," he said. "I think I got a text from Brindabella about four hours after I got home. They'll delay and they'll put you on a flight two days later and say look we got you on a flight tomorrow but what good is that when you have arranged meetings?" http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/20302339/the-civil-aviation-safety-authority-has-grounded- another-six-planes-belonging-to-regional-airline-brindabella-over-maintenance-concerns/ Back to Top Changes in Earth's Magnetic Field Leads to Renamed Oakland Airport Runways Part of the flight navigation map of the central Bay Area. Some aspects of working in this complex airspace are surprisingly simple. The Metropolitan Oakland International Airport has a distinguished record in the annals of flight, from Amelia Earhart to the pioneering exploits of Lester Maitland and Albert Hegenberger, all of whom have Oakland streets named for them. Starting in the late 1920s, pilots at OAK launched and landed their planes on Runway 27, now part of the airport's North Field. Passenger jets landed on mighty Runway 29, almost two miles long. But this October, that changed. Runway 27 was forced by the authorities to become Runway 28, Runway 29 became Runway 30, and a long tradition was ruptured-or was it? Airport runway numbers are not arbitrary, like street names. They actually designate the runway's direction. The system is simple: take your magnetic compass direction (in degrees from zero to 360), round off to the nearest 10 and drop the zero. Pilots can see the runway's designation right on their own aircraft compasses. Magnetic navigation is the most conservative, failproof method there is because the magnetic field is generated by the planet itself. When satellites fail, the ground is shrouded in fog or snow, windshields are smeared, the stars and moon are obscured and worse, the compass is constant...sort of. The Earth's magnetic field arises from its own substance as the huge body of molten iron in its core stirs with the Earth's rotation and the moon's steadying hand. Electrical currents in the iron generate magnetic fields that struggle against the stirring, acting like a natural turbine and powering the magnetism that draws our compass needles to attention. This sounds busy, and it is. The geomagnetic poles, north and south, are always wandering and must be closely monitored by a network of observatories to keep navigation accurate. That's how the authorities knew when to change Runways 27 and 29 to 28 and 30. The difference between magnetic north and true north is important to serious off-road travelers: hikers, wilderness explorers, sailors and airline pilots. The early aeronauts were exceptionally dependent on their compasses, like Earhart and the other heroes of the Oakland airfield. Imagine lifting off from Oakland, turning left and heading out over the open Pacific at a hundred miles an hour to fly to Hawaii, all by yourself. I don't know about you, but it makes me shiver. But as they flew, the magnetic field kept them steadily on course, even though the field itself is unsteady in the longer term. Maitland plaque This plaque is in front of the Business Jet Center on Earhart Road, next to Runway 27-I mean, 28. Now put yourself in the mindset of geologic time: a thousand years is like a moment, a million years like a minute. At that speed, the magnetic poles and their motions turn into a flicker, a blur, a cloud of activity centered at the true north pole. The magnetic field is steady again. Geologists use the iron-bearing minerals of rocks to determine the magnetic poles of the deep past. They take a lot of samples and average out the measurements, arriving at a paleo-magnetic pole. That might seem like a lot of work, and it is, but it has taught us an amazing thing. Young rocks-just a few million years old, you understand-point to a paleopole that's the same as today's. But in older rocks, as we go back in time the paleopole steadily veers away from north. The very continents themselves are moving around, as surely as airliners. Once this fact was accepted, in the 1950s, we were moved inexorably to the modern theory of plate tectonics, and geologists had one more thing to give them that faraway look. http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2013/12/12/oakland-airport-runways-renamed-after- changes-in-earths-magnetic-field/ Back to Top Midlands Air Ambulance grounded over Glasgow crash safety fears Service - which regularly flies life-saving missions to Coventry and Warwickshire - uses same type of helicopter which crashed into Clutha Vaults pub last month An air ambulance which uses the same type of helicopter as the one which crashed into a Glasgow pub has grounded its aircraft over safety fears. The Midlands Air Ambulance which operates a total of three Eurocopter EC135s from bases in Staffordshire and Worcestershire, regularly flies life-saving missions to Coventry and Warwickshire. Last night one of the aircraft was cleared for flight. The Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance uses a different chopper. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said there was "no evidence of major mechanical disruption of either engine" of the Police Scotland EC135 which crashed into The Clutha pub on November 29, killing nine people. But Bond Air Services, which supplies EC135s across the UK, found a fuel gauge fault on the North West Air Ambulance yesterday. In a statement, Bond said: "During normal operations yesterday, one of our EC135 fleet has experienced an indication defect that requires further technical investigation. "Therefore as a precautionary measure we have temporarily suspended service operations whilst we undertake detailed diagnosis." A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "As a service we still have access to two air ambulance - those operated by Warwickshire and Northampton Air Ambulance and Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance so we have no concerns about patients being put at risk by this situation. "In addition, the crews that would have been flying today will respond on land vehicles as they would if the weather had stopped the helicopters flying." The National Police Air Service (NPAS) operates EC135s from bases in Birmingham, Husbands Bosworth in Leicestershire and Halfpenny Green in Staffordshire, but has no plans to ground its aircraft. Chief Supt Ian Whitehouse, of the NPAS, said: "Our decision on whether or not to suspend operations or ground any NPAS aircraft is based on advice issued by the Civil Aviation Authority - the UK's aviation regulator and original equipment manufacturers. "There is currently no notice in place from the CAA or the original equipment manufacturers to ground any aircraft and so we have not done so. "If such a notice is put in place then we would immediately consider it. "In light of the issue identified by Bond, as a precautionary measure, we are increasing fuel levels on all NPAS EC135 aircraft and increasing the minimum level of fuel which pilots are allowed to operate on." http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/midlands-air-ambulance- grounded-over-6401709 Back to Top PNG plane crash: report blames loss of engine power for crash, killing Australian pilot Adam Reid (Papua New Guinea) Air safety authorities in Papua New Guinea have released a preliminary report into a plane crash that killed an Australian trainee pilot last month. Victorian man Adam Reid, 38, and two passengers were killed when a Tropicair Cessna Grand Caravan crashed in Gulf Province. The Accident Investigation Commission's preliminary report says two minutes into the flight from Kamusi to Purari there was a loud pop then a complete loss of engine power. The pilot made a forced landing at a disused and bumpy airstrip but could not bring the plane to a stop, and it crashed into a river. He was able to get out of the cockpit and help the surviving passengers to the riverbank. The report says the pilot had more than 2,000 flying hours, 800 of which were in the Cessna. It says initial investigations of the engine revealed substantial internal damage. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-13/loss-of-engine-power-blamed-for-deadly-png- crash/5156334 Back to Top Arizona University prepares pilots to fly unmanned aircraft PRESCOTT, AZ (CBS5) -Aviation schools say there could soon be an increased demand for pilots, but not necessarily the kind who will fly you and your family to New York. We're talking about pilots for unmanned aircraft, or drones. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is one of only three universities in the country offering a program in UAS (unmanned aircraft systems). And the university is seeing more and more interest every year. "We started in the early days with about five or 10 students. And that quickly mushroomed, and we're a student body of under 2,000, so 40 out of 2,000 is a significant portion of our student body," said ERAU Chancellor Dr. Frank Ayers. The future is looking bright for the program. "We see the program probably continuing to grow 10 or 15, 20 students a year, to a size of 200 or 300 students," Ayers said. Currently, Embry-Riddle Prescott only offers a minor in UAS, but it could be offered as a major in the future. "If it comes together as a major, it still needs to have the disciplines of engineering, aviation, of security, business, and intelligence all combined together," said Ayers. Students tell us that flying an unmanned aircraft carries a whole different set of challenges. "Unmanned is a lot about the systems integration and making it autonomous and then actually getting it in the air flying by itself, hopefully operating on its own for the most part," said student Nick Harris. In addition to military use, future unmanned aircraft are expected to be used in police, fire, search-and-rescue, and agriculture. "It's kind of an extension of the automation that we already put into aircraft. But unmanned is going to make a big jump once we can work the safety issues out, and I think most of our business is going to be in that area," added professor Dr. Thomas Gally. The university also features a lab where manned and unmanned aircraft are flown simultaneously, the only one of its type in the country. "We're able to incorporate, and kind of simulate unmanned systems in the national airspace system," said student Zachary Beard. Embry-Riddle added that on Thursday, a professor and student left for the Philippines with an unmanned aircraft that will aid in aerial mapping following last month's devastating typhoon. In addition to Embry-Riddle, the University of North Dakota and Kansas State University are the only institutions offering either a major or minor in UAS. http://www.kpho.com/story/24209721/arizona-university-prepares-pilots-to-fly- unmanned-aircraft Back to Top FCC Considers Allowing In-Flight Cell Phone Calls WASHINGTON - With a 3-2 vote, the FCC has officially moved forward with plans to consider the possibilities of allowing cell-phone calls during flights. The vote is a departure from the FCC's current rules which currently ban using cell phones to make in-flight calls. The vote has stirred a lot of controversy among passengers and politicians. Pennsylvania 9th District Rep. Bill Shuster (R) responded to the FCC's vote by introducing a bill that would uphold the ban on in-flight cell phone calls, while allowing for texting and other uses. "These airplanes are confined and they're noisy already," said Shuster in an interview with CNN. "To have dozens of phone calls while in flight, it's annoying to the traveling public and I think it's unnecessary." According to the most recent Quinnipiac University poll done on the subject, 59% of American travelers say they don't want cell phone calls to be allowed on flights, while 39% are okay with allowing the rule to be changed. Thursday's FCC vote is not the final say on the matter, it simply opens the doors to discuss the possibilities of changing the existing rules. http://www.wearecentralpa.com/story/fcc-considers-allowing-in-flight-cell-phone- calls/d/story/GGu8MPJGzEyCI4_HKWSRDA Back to Top Back to Top Scorpion's first flight a milestone for Textron's tactical jet The Scorpion flew for the first time Thursday morning. The Scorpion flew for the first time Thursday morning. A Citation Sovereign flew as its chase plane. The first prototype of the new Scorpion military jet comes in for a landing after its first- ever test flight on Thursday. The jet was developed by Textron AirLand, LLC, a joint venture between Textron Inc. and AirLand Enterprises. Textron AirLand engineering test pilot Dan Hinson couldn't quit smiling Thursday afternoon. Neither could others working on the Scorpion intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance strike aircraft under development at a Cessna facility in east Wichita. Hinson, a former Navy pilot, and co-pilot David Sitz successfully flew the Scorpion for the first time on what was a beautiful Thursday morning. "It was fantastic," Hinson said after the flight. "It leapt off the ground." The flight marks one of the fastest developments of a U.S.-built tactical jet, Textron said. The project progressed from an initial design to first flight in less than 24 months. "To go from paper ... to flying the airplane the first time is just a feeling of pride," Hinson said. "It's a great team." The twin-engine composite jet took off from McConnell Air Force Base at 9:05 a.m. to the south. After firing up the left engine and then the right engine, "off we went," Hinson said. The Scorpion headed west toward Kingman and flew over Cheney Reservoir before returning to McConnell. It landed at 10:30 a.m. "I just greased her on," Hinson said. "It had no tendency to float. It was nice and graceful on the runway." Hinson and Sitz conducted a range of flight handling maneuvers during the flight. "The airplane is very light, very nimble," Hinson said. "You're flying with your fingertips." The plane met all expectations. In fact, "the performance was better than we expected," Hinson said. The flight is a major milestone, Scott Donnelly, CEO of Textron, Cessna's parent company, said in a statement. "When the design phase began less than two years ago, we were confident that we would deliver a uniquely affordable versatile tactical aircraft by taking advantage of commercial aviation technologies and best practices. Today's flight met all expectations, and keeps us on track toward certification and production." On the first flight, the pilots kept the speed to no more than 200 knots and the altitude to between 10,000 and 15,000 feet. The plane showed impressive stability and responsiveness, closely matching all of the predicted parameters for the flight's maneuvers. In the days leading up to the flight, Hinson went through all the steps of the first flight in a Scorpion simulator. The airplane flew like the simulator, he said. That validates the analysis and wind tunnel testing that went before the flight. Hinson, whose call sign is Shaka, has more than 5,000 flight hours in 79 different types of aircraft. He spent 23 years with the Navy, where he flew F-18s and served as commander of the Strike Fighter Weapons School Pacific in California. After retiring in 2008, he joined Beechcraft Corp. He joined Cessna in May 2012. On his second day at Cessna, he was offered the job with the Scorpion project. "I couldn't say no," Hinson said with a smile. He's worked closely with the design teams. "I know this airplane better than I've known any airplane," Hinson said. It's the first time he's taken an all-new airplane up for its first flight. "It's incredibly exciting," Hinson said. "I'm so proud of the team here for what they've done." The Scorpion prototype will now undergo a post-flight inspection before the next flight. Hinson plans to take the plane back up for its second and third flights next week. For Dale Tutt, chief engineer on the project, the first flight offered a great sense of accomplishment. At the beginning of the project, people told Tutt that it was insane to expect to take on the project in such a short amount of time. "They said it couldn't be done in less than four or five years," Tutt said. It feels good to prove that it could be done. Textron announced the Scorpion in September as a demonstration plane designed to accommodate the budget restraints of shifting mission requirements of the U.S. Department of Defense and allies abroad. The plane's twin turbofan engines generate 8,000 pounds of thrust, which allows it to transition easily between low speed and high subsonic speed for a diverse set of missions, such as irregular warfare, border patrol, maritime surveillance, emergency relief, counter-narcotics and air defense operations, Textron said. The Scorpion has a cruising speed of up to 517 mph, a ferry range of 2,400 nautical miles, an internal payload of up to 3,000 pounds and wing-mounted precision munitions. http://www.kansas.com/2013/12/12/3175403/scorpions-first-flight-is- milestone.html#storylink=cpy Back to Top American Airlines orders regional jets worth $4B American Airlines Group Inc said on Thursday it ordered 90 regional jets from Embraer SA and Bombardier Inc in deals worth about $4 billion as it upgrades to a more efficient fleet to cuts fuel and maintenance costs in the long run. The new carrier, formed when AMR Corp and US Airways completed their merger this week, is buying 60 Embraer E175 planes valued at $2.5 billion, and 30 Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen planes worth about $1.42 billion. American has options for an additional 40 Bombardier jets and another 90 Embraer planes. If all of the options are exercised, the total deal value could top $9 billion. Shares of Brazil's Embraer were up 1.2 percent, while Canada's Bombardier was about flat in Toronto trading. American Airlines fell 1 percent to $25.75 in Nasdaq trading. After the American announcement, Embraer said it expected a "good year" for commercial jet sales in 2014, with Eastern Europe and Russia among the most promising regions for new business. Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva, Embraer's head of commercial aviation, said he expects commercial jet deliveries in the coming years to be in line with or even better than in 2013. This year was an especially strong year as the company secured more than 300 firm orders for its regional E-Jets. "We have the challenge of delivering the planes (sold this year). We've really filled up our production line for the coming years," Silva said in a telephone interview. Embraer's next-generation investments and aggressive sales efforts have helped it dominate the market this year for regional jets that seat about 75 passengers, while Bombardier has bet the future of its civil aviation unit on the larger CSeries. The Bombardier order was the Canadian manufacturer's biggest deal with a major airline since one from Delta Air Lines Inc a year ago. The Bombardier CRJ900 has a range of 1,048 to 1,515 nautical miles, while the Embraer E175 has a range of up to 2,000 nautical miles, according to the websites of the manufacturers. American's new regional jet orders come on top of hundreds of other airplanes that the carrier plans to add over the next few years as part of a major fleet upgrade. The company is taking delivery of at least 59 new planes this year, including the Boeing widebody 777-300ER, narrowbody Boeing 737-800 as well as the Airbus A319 and A321. American also expects to take delivery of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner late next year. American is "going to go from having one of the oldest fleets to one of the relatively newest," said George Hamlin, an aviation consultant in Fairfax, Virginia. "It's a game of leapfrog." The carrier said the 76-seat regional jets it ordered will replace smaller 50-seat aircraft that are being retired. The Bombardier CRJ900s, which will be delivered starting in the second quarter of 2014, will be operated by regional carrier PSA Airlines, a unit of US Airways. American said it will decide which of its regional carriers will operate the Embraer planes at a later time. Deliveries will begin in 2015. American Airlines Group Chief Executive Doug Parker, former CEO of US Airways, said earlier this week that American and US Airways didn't anticipate placing additional sizeable jet orders for mainline operations in the near future. "We have enough aircraft on order," Parker told Reuters in an interview from Dallas on Tuesday. US Airways and American must operate separately until they obtain a single operating certificate from the U.S. government. An agreement with its pilots union, reached while American was restructuring in bankruptcy, gives the carrier flexibility to order large regional jets and to contract with regional airline partners. Earlier this year, American unveiled an updated look for its planes as well as a new logo - the first overhaul of the exterior in more than 40 years. The planes are a silver mica color, and the tail has red, white and blue stripes. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-american-air-jet-order- 20131212,0,4946327.story Back to Top Airbus China plant delivers 153 A320 aircraft TIANJIN, Dec. 13 -- The Airbus assembly plant in China's northern port city of Tianjin has delivered 153 A320 aircraft since it began operation in 2008, according to an Airbus press briefing on Thursday. "The Tianjin plant delivered 37 A320 aircraft last year. The production efficiency has improved this year with one aircraft being delivered every week," said Andreas Ockel, general manager of Airbus (Tianjin) Final Assembly Company, Ltd. Airbus delivered 588 aircraft from January to October of this year. Among them, 125 were delivered to the Chinese market and 37 were assembled in the Tianjin plant, he said. The Tianjin plant is expected to deliver 46 A320 aircraft in 2013, he said. The Tianjin plant will push forward the assembly of A330 aircraft in 2014, which will be a new focus of Airbus's business in China in the next decade, said Rafael Gonzalez-Ripoll, Airbus China Chief Operating Officer. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/8484293.html Curt Lewis