Flight Safety Information August 18, 2014 - No. 169 In This Issue FAA letter may keep aviation startups like AirPooler grounded The unfriendly skies: U.K. jet takes off near tornado? New radar system gives pilots extra detail on approaching storms United Jumbo Jet's Hull Punctured in July Airport Mishap PRISM TO HELP PREPARE FOR E-IOSA ISASI 2014 - Annual Seminar, October 13-16, 2014 Upcoming Events FAA letter may keep aviation startups like AirPooler grounded Cambridge-based AirPooler isn't exactly "Uber for private planes." But it is a way for private pilots to offer extra seats on their trips to people who'd like to tag along and share some of the expenses. (I wrote about the startup's launch in April, and in June it won entrance to the MassChallenge entrepreneurial program.) Trouble is, the Federal Aviation Administration doesn't seem to love the notion. AirPooler's attorney had asked the FAA for a clarification of the rules: could passengers on private flights with non-commercial pilots chip in for part of the expenses, on a pro rata basis? AirPooler's plan was to calculate the maximum shared cost allowed for each flight, bill the passenger, and pocket a small transaction fee before handing the rest of the money to the pilot. Co-founder and CEO Steve Lewis tells me that some pilots participating in AirPooler's beta test earlier this year "had gotten phone messages from FAA regional [officials], saying that you may be violating FAA rules, and that worried other pilots." That's why the company had requested additional information about the FAA's stance on the matter. Unfortunately, while AirPooler tried to argue that chipping in on expenses isn't quite the same thing as buying a ticket on Delta or chartering a private jet, the FAA disagreed. "By posting specific flights to the AirPooler website," the FAA wrote in a letter to the company, a private pilot would be advertising a trip - something that they need a special air carrier certificate to do. Essentially, it's kosher to invite an old college friend on a trip to Bar Harbor and ask her to share the expenses, but using a site like AirPooler to promote that you're going on the trip and invite just anyone along to defray the costs isn't. Lewis called the FAA decision "confusing, because it seems to rely critically on language lifted from a draft version of a 1963 regulation, that the agency itself rejected in the final rule it adopted the following year." In a statement he circulated earlier this evening, he said it means that "private pilots with empty seats will not be able to use services like AirPooler to list flights they are intending to take and share the costs with passengers, unless they obtain a government certificate to operate as an air carrier - a prohibitively stringent requirement for private pilots." Lewis says that more than 800 pilots have registered to use AirPooler in Boston, San Francisco, and San Diego, the three cities that the company has focused on so far. When we spoke tonight, he said he hoped to meet with the FAA later this month to "have an opportunity to put our views forth to them. Whether it will result in a change of mind, I really couldn't speculate. But we're certainly going to try." But Lewis also said that the startup may adjust its offering and business model in response to the ruling. "What we've discovered is that there's tremendous demand out there among pilots, and we think demand is pretty good with the general public," he says. The decision seems likely to also affect FlyteNow, a startup founded by Northeastern University students that has been participating in the Y Combinator accelerator program this summer in Silicon Valley. http://betaboston.com/innovation-economy/2014/08/14/faa-letter-may-keep-aviation- startups-like-airpooler-grounded/ Back to Top The unfriendly skies: U.K. jet takes off near tornado? Today's viral weather photo is of a jet in East Midlands, England, taking off Thursday as a tornado or funnel cloud spins in the background. A funnel cloud is a tornado that doesn't touch the ground. Since the bottom of the cloud can't be seen, we can't be sure if it was indeed a tornado. East Midlands Airport, from which the Ryanair jet took off, is near Nottingham. For more about tornadoes in England, check out the Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO), a private organization that tracks twisters. According to TORRO, about 33 tornadoes occur each year in the U.K. Britain has been besieged with wild weather the past few days, including the remnants of Bertha last weekend. Thursday, rain described as "biblical" fell in and around London, leading to flash floods: http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/08/15/tornado-funnel-cloud-england- plane/14108541/ Back to Top New radar system gives pilots extra detail on approaching storms Flying into Dallas/Fort Worth Airport or Dallas Love Field can be challenging for pilots in the spring and summer, when thunderstorms can pop up in minutes. A 3-D Look for Pilots But Honeywell's IntuVue 3-D radar system, which the company showed off at Love Field on Wednesday, makes it easier for pilots to avoid the thunderheads and land safely. "We can show them there is weather below the aircraft so if he's going to descend he knows ahead of time if there is weather on his flight path," said Greg Schauder, Honeywell's director of product marketing. The system, which has been available in commercial aircraft since 2006, was recently upgraded to let pilots know where there is lightning and hail inside the storm systems. And instead of showing pilots a two-dimensional rendering, pilots can see a 3-D image of storms as far ahead as 320 nautical miles and anywhere from 0 to 60,000 feet in altitude. Since the radar system continually updates automatically, pilots no longer need to manually tilt the radar to find storms that may form suddenly. Passengers are also more likely to have a smoother ride even when there is bad weather, said Honeywell's test pilot, Markus Johnson. "They will get where they're going without as many delays or diversions around bad weather because the pilots will be able to find the best route the most efficient way," Johnson said after demonstrating the radar system on a flight that maneuvered around storms in the Gulf. All of the new Boeing 737 aircraft being acquired by Southwest Airlines has the Honeywell system installed. The airline has partnered with Honeywell to test new features of the radar system. "When we added the new hail features and put them on their system, Southwest worked with us to evaluate it," Schauder said. The system is standard on all of Airbus' double-decker A380 aircraft. Emirates Airline and Qantas Airways will both begin flying the A380 into DFW later this fall. It also will be standard on the A350, which is still in development. American Airlines has that aircraft on order. While the system can be retrofitted onto older aircraft, Schauder said it is expensive and most airlines choose to have it installed when they order a plane. Once the system is in the plane, Honeywell is able to upgrade the software to add features like lightning and hail detection. It is working on a new feature to detect ice crystals at 30,000 feet that sometimes cause engine problems for commercial aircraft. Schauder said the company hopes to have the new upgrade available in 2017. "We are trying to take the work load off the pilot to make it a safer flight and a more efficient flight," Schauder said. http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/08/15/6045436/new-radar-system-gives- pilots.html#storylink=cpy Back to Top United Jumbo Jet's Hull Punctured in July Airport Mishap A United Airlines Boeing 747 aircraft taxis past another 747 on a ramp near the gates A United Airlines (UAL) jumbo jet's hull was punctured in a Chicago airport collision with another plane in July, four people familiar with the matter said, grounding the Boeing Co. (BA) 747 for weeks of repairs. No one was aboard. The parked 747, one of only 24 jumbos at the carrier, was sliced open by the wing of a wide-body United jet that was being towed, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. A spokeswoman, Christen David, said the accident occurred July 28 near an O'Hare Airport maintenance hangar, while declining to elaborate. Incidents like this one are rare, and are tracked closely by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The agency will monitor the fixes to the 747 to ensure that they meet U.S. standards, said a person familiar with the agency's operations. "Usually tow accidents are a broken tow bar piercing the skin, not aircraft-to-aircraft violence," said Robert Mann, a former American Airlines executive who is now an aviation consultant based in Port Washington, New York. A message left for comment about the accident with the FAA wasn't immediately returned. United's Chicago-based parent, United Continental Holdings Inc., hasn't publicized the collision, which occurred away from the terminals at the second-busiest U.S. airport. Charter Flights The 747 involved in the collision is ordinarily operated by United on charter flights, and repairs by Boeing are still under way, David said. The other jet was a Boeing 777, a wide-body model used on long-haul international routes. The 747 suffered damage to its radome, which houses radio antenna equipment in the nose, as well as a punctured pressure bulkhead, one person said. The fixes will cost almost $4 million, another person said. The bulkhead is crucial because it seals the front of the plane from the atmosphere, ensuring proper air pressure at high altitudes. Faulty repairs to a bulkhead at the rear of a Japan Airlines Co. (9201) 747 were blamed for a 1985 crash that killed 520 people, according to the Aviation Safety Network website. "Replacing a pressure bulkhead would be a major repair, pretty expensive," with a bill running into the millions of dollars, Mann said in a telephone interview. While rare, ground accidents with significant damage do occur. In 2003, a single-aisle Airbus A319 owned by Northwest Airlines plowed into one of the carrier's Boeing 757s at a gate at New York's LaGuardia Airport. The A319, which was being taxied by mechanics, also struck a concrete jetway support, shearing off its nose gear. Wing Damage About 20 feet (6 meters) of the 777's wing required repairs, two people said. The 777 is the world's biggest twin-engine jetliner. The 777 has been fixed and returned to commercial service, David, the spokeswoman, said in a phone interview. United substituted other aircraft for the long-haul jet, and was able to avoid disrupting the flight schedule, David said. The 18-year-old 747, which stands out for its all-blue tail and white fuselage emblazoned with "United Charter," is the airline's only jumbo dedicated to ferrying troops under a U.S. military contract, two of the people said. United's David declined to identify any charter customers for the plane. The airline is using other jets to fulfill its charter flights while the jumbo is being repaired, she said. Even as some carriers retire older, less-efficient four-engine jets that face expensive maintenance work, United's decision to fix the 747 was probably made easier because the plane flies for the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, Mann said. Participating airlines are paid for their costs, including fuel, and a profit margin. "I could see why they'd want to keep doing it," Mann said. "It has a predictable value, much more so than the commercial scheduled business." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-15/united-jumbo-jet-s-hull-punctured-in- july-airport-mishap.html Back to Top Back to Top Back to Top Upcoming Events: ACI-NA Annual Conference and Exhibition Atlanta, GA September 7 - 10, 2014 http://annual.aci-na.org/ IFA - Maintaining Airworthiness Standards and Investing in the Most Important Asset 'The Human Element' 17 - 18 September, 2014 Emirates Eng Facility, Dubai www.ifairworthy.com ISASI 2014 - Annual Seminar October 13-16, 2014 Adelaide, Australia www.isasi.org IASS 2014 Abu Dhabi, UAE November 11-13, 2014 http://flightsafety.org/meeting/iass-2014 ERAU UAS FUNDAMENTALS COURSE December 9 - 11, 2014 ERAU Daytona Beach Campus, FL www.daytonabeach.erau.edu/uas Curt Lewis