Flight Safety Information November 3, 2014 - No. 223 In This Issue Virgin Galactic Investigation Focuses On Descent System Wanted: 500,000 pilots for China aviation gold rush Ready for pilots to fly your airliner by voice commands? New US General Seeks China Air Safety Dialogue FAA loosens safety regs for air ambulances PRISM TO HELP PREPARE FOR E-IOSA Upcoming Events Virgin Galactic Investigation Focuses On Descent System MOJAVE, Calif., Nov 2 (Reuters) - The investigation into last week's crash of the Virgin Galactic spaceship has determined that the "feathering" function to help the craft descend had deployed early, the head of National Transportation Safety Board said on Sunday. The investigators recovered the spaceship's fuel tanks and engine intact, indicating there was no explosion, acting NTSB chairman Christopher Hart said at a press conference in Mojave, California, near the site of the crash. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/02/virgin-galactic-investigation_n_6091722.html Back to Top Wanted: 500,000 pilots for China aviation gold rush While uncertainties remain for what will be a brand new industry, firms are betting they can make money and trainee pilots are convinced they can land dream jobs. BEIJING: China's national civil aviation authority says the country will need to train about half a million civilian pilots by 2035, up from just a few thousand now, as wannabe flyers chase dreams of landing lucrative jobs at new air service operators. The aviation boom comes as China allows private planes to fly below 1,000 metres from next year without military approval, seeking to boost its transport infrastructure. Commercial airlines aren't affected, but more than 200 new firms have applied for general aviation operating licences, while China's high-rollers are also eager for permits to fly their own planes. The civil aviation authority's own training unit can only handle up to 100 students a year. With the rest of China's 12 or so existing pilot schools bursting at the seams, foreign players are joining local firms in laying the groundwork for new courses that can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars per trainee. "The first batch of students we enrolled in 2010 were mostly business owners interested in getting a private license," said Sun Fengwei, deputy chief of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's (CAAC) pilot school. "But now more and more young people also want to learn flying so that they can get a job at general aviation companies." While uncertainties remain for what will be a brand new industry, firms are betting they can make money and trainee pilots are convinced they can land dream jobs. Among them is Zong Rui, a 28-year-old former soldier in the People's Liberation Army from Shandong province in east China, attending a pilot school in Tianjin, an hour's drive from Beijing. "The salary is good for a general aviation pilot," Zong told Reuters by telephone, preparing for a training session. Even without a job lined up, Zong is certain money he borrowed to learn how to fly will pay off: "I can easily pay back the 500,000 yuan ($81,750) tuition in two years, once I get a job." OPEN SKIES By the end of the year, industry executives expect Beijing to issue detailed guidelines on how it will implement plans unveiled in 2010 to open up airspace below 1,000 metres in 2015, expanding the open skies to airspace below 3,000 metres by 2020. Global makers of small planes, like Cessna Aircraft Company , Pilatus Aircraft Ltd or Piaggio Aero Industries SpA, have long had their sights on China's burgeoning general aviation market. Now they're being joined by air service providers like Tasmania-based Rotor-Lift Aviation, which has helped train pilots in Hong Kong, Malaysia and other Asian countries. "I came here for opportunities," said Peter McKenzie, Rotor-Lift training manager. McKenzie has been in talks to establish a training programme for Chinese general aviation pilots in Australia as well as a joint venture. Taking training outside China is an option also favored by China's biggest aircraft maker, Aviation Industry Corporation of China, which has invested in a flying school in South Africa. Other foreign players include Spain's Indra Sistemas , the first foreign company certified by CAAC to implement a full flight simulator for helicopters in China. Canada's CAE Inc also operates a partly-owned flight training center in south China. While the majority of new trainee pilots set their sights on a license as a means to a career, for some among China's more affluent classes it's a key to a flamboyant new hobby. For Li Zheng, 33-year-old owner of an advertising company, driving a fancy car isn't that exciting anymore: He has set his sights on flying his own plane. "I love sports, especially those with a challenge, like flying," said Li, a former hot air balloon racer, speaking just before a training flight. Li's ultimate goal: buying an airplane to fly with his wife, who recently joined Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways as a flight attendant. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/wanted-500000-pilots-for-china-aviation-gold- rush/articleshow/45019586.cms Back to Top Ready for pilots to fly your airliner by voice commands? Engineers developing cockpit system to control airliners with voice commands Cedar Rapids, Iowa (CNN) -- My hand grips the airplane control stick as I brace myself in the cockpit. Spread out in front of me is a breathtaking landscape stretching hundreds of miles. I've never flown a plane in my life. But now, I'm about to steer -- using my voice. "Turn left, heading 0-6-0," I command, feeling a little like an airline pilot. A female mechanical voice repeats back: "Turn left, heading 0-6-0." To confirm, I press a tiny red button on the cockpit control stick. Suddenly the horizon in front of me banks sharply to the right. Well, no, I'm not actually flying a real plane. I'm operating a machine that simulates how airline pilots will fly in the future. The friendly engineers here at Rockwell Collins' Advanced Technology Center in Iowa are letting me play with their new pilot voice recognition technology. Its Advanced Technology Center helps Rockwell Collins develop sophisticated cockpit technology for pilots of the future. Hey, do these folks know they've let a kid run loose in an avgeek candy store? This is sophisticated stuff. In fact, the Pentagon uses speech recognition systems aboard its top-shelf fighter jet, the F-35. Maybe someday your airliner pilot will do the same. Engineer Geoff Shapiro, who's showing me how the simulator works, hopes this technology can save airline pilots crucial seconds after they receive commands from controllers. "A complicated command from air traffic control can take pilots up to 30 seconds to actually turn all the knobs, hit all the buttons and make that change actually occur," Shapiro says. The speech recognition system cuts that time to eight seconds, he says, giving pilots 22 more seconds to "spend keeping their eyes out looking to see where the traffic is, looking to see where the weather is, keeping the airplane safe." Before this voice recognition system executes a command, a pilot double-checks its work. That means no voice command is ever executed until the pilot confirms the command is correct. The pilot does that by pressing the control stick's little red button. Would passengers be comfortable with airline pilots steering via voice commands? Would they feel safe? "I'm gonna have to think about that idea," a fellow passenger tells me later at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. "I can't tell you how many times my phone misspells my voice dictation. I think I'd feel more comfortable if the pilot just flew the regular way." Boeing 777 airliner pilot Keith Wolzinger doesn't think voice recognition steering is all that necessary. "I'm a bit skeptical," he tells me. With two pilots in the cockpit, responding to controller commands doesn't take a lot of time, Wolzinger says. "I'd communicate with air traffic control and I'd just ask my first officer to make the turn." In the simulator, Shapiro lets me test the technology while I "fly" over a simulated Mount Rainier in Washington state. I wonder, does it respond to whispers? I whisper a command into the headset. The voice repeats back my command perfectly. I push the little red button. The plane turns. Interactive airport maps displayed in the cockpit would help commercial airline pilots avoid getting on the wrong runway or colliding with other aircraft. What about screw-ups? What if a pilot accidentally speaks into the headset and says something random? I say, "Let's go out to dinner in Los Angeles!" Does the voice system freak out? Nope. "Say again," she says. It didn't understand, because the system only recognizes legitimate, preprogrammed commands. What about accents? Does it understand Southern American twang? I give it my best -- followed by English with a French-ish twist. Yep, it understands. Would voice recognition ever replace the traditional yoke and stick that pilots use to steer? "I think you're always going to need some type of manual control of the aircraft," says Shapiro. Of course Rockwell Collins doesn't call this the Advanced Technology Center for nothing. The stuff in here won't see the commercial market for at least a decade -- if ever. So steering by voice has a long way to go before it even gets close to entering the flight deck of your airliner. In these rooms, Rockwell Collins has been designing cockpit systems for business jet makers and airliner manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus for decades. It also creates technology for military aircraft all around the world. Suddenly, as we walk down a hallway, I see a pair of glossy black fighter pilot helmets being rolled on a cart. "What are these?" I ask. A helmet developed by Rockwell Collins for Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets allows pilots to "see" through the cockpit like "X-ray vision." Turns out they're the next generation of pilot helmets with built-in visual displays: the StrikeEye. Imagine a fighter pilot helmet that projects a data-rich visual display in front of the pilot's eyes. That kind of system could help pilots have a better visual sense of everything around them: buildings, landscape and other aircraft. This helmet creates a virtual 360-degree 3-D view that allows pilots to "see" THROUGH the aircraft itself and scan the horizon and the ground below. StrikeEye is nearly identical to helmets Rockwell Collins provides to Lockheed Martin for U.S. military pilots of the F-35. In fact, a lot of new cockpit technology coming in the next 25 years includes jaw-dropping video-game-like graphics and 3-D displays. Synthetic Vision allows pilots to "see" through clouds by displaying a virtual landscape created with GPS and a data base of super-accurate maps. Here's another example: We all know that blinding rain, snow or clouds result in countless flight delays or cancellations every year. But what if pilots could fly through blinding weather with the help of a real-time video display of the landscape that looks like the real thing? The technology exists. Shapiro shows me what the industry calls "synthetic vision" and "enhanced vision" technology. This sort of thing is already available aboard some business jets. Synthetic vision uses GPS and super-detailed maps to "see" through clouds by creating a virtual reality view of the landscape ahead, displayed on a small screen in front of the pilot. Enhanced vision uses infrared sensors that work like "X-ray vision" through bad weather. If airlines embraced these kinds of systems, it could significantly reduce delays and cancellations, manufacturers say. That might lead to lower fares and happier travelers who get where they want to go, when they need to get there. Another emerging cockpit technology: touch-screen steering. We already control navigation systems in our cars with touch screens. Eventually, airline pilots may be able to steer with them. With the touch of a console display screen, pilots could execute precise turns and changes in speed. A Rockwell Collins engineer demonstrates a system that allows pilots to change direction, speed and altitude with a touchscreen. Touch-screen steering, voice recognition, synthetic vision, Shapiro says, all point toward a future when airliners will be flown by one pilot instead of two. Shapiro says the industry is looking at the possibility of reducing typical airline flight crews to one pilot in the cockpit and one support person on the ground. The support person would likely be ready at any time to help the pilot if anything goes wrong. But that's many years down the road, if ever. Is the industry moving toward a day when airliners will fly themselves? In other words, will human airline pilots be obsolete someday? "I certainly think that wešre moving toward pilotless airliners," Shapiro says. The technology already exists, he points out -- look at the rapid development of large, unmanned drones, for example. But the public would be slow to accept the technology and to have faith in it, Shapiro says. Overall, "itšs going to take, I think, quite a long time before all those pieces come together." http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/31/travel/future-of-travel-cockpit-technology/ Back to Top New US General Seeks China Air Safety Dialogue BEIJING - The U.S. Air Force's new commander in the Pacific said Saturday she's hoping to continue talks with China on avoiding dangerous encounters in the air that have added to regional tensions. Gen. Lori Robinson said she anticipates a speaking engagement at China's biggest air show later this month will allow her to renew dialogue on the issue. "The dialogue is beginning. I think that's very, very good for the region," Robinson said in a telephone interview from Hawaii. Concerns over risky aerial engagements were spotlighted after a Chinese fighter jet came within 9 meters (30 feet) of a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon plane over the South China Sea in August. That revived memories of a 2001 collision between aircraft from the two countries that killed a Chinese jet fighter pilot and forced a heavily damaged U.S. surveillance plane to land at a Chinese base. Tensions were also raised last year after China declared an air-defense identification zone over disputed islands in the East China Sea. The U.S., Japan and others have refused to recognize the move because the area encompassed by the zone includes territory controlled by Japan. The ongoing feud over control of the islands has sparked fears of a collision or shoot-down, with Japan saying it has boosted jet scramblings by almost 30 percent in response to approaches by Chinese planes. Robinson said the U.S. wants all parties to adhere to internationally recognized norms for safety in flight similar to rules followed by the U.S. and former Soviet Union during the Cold War. While not ruling out the possibility of future encounters like the one in August, she said it was vital that Beijing and Washington work toward an understanding. "I never say never. What I will say is that what's important is that we do start the dialogue," Robinson said. Robinson is the U.S. military's first female four-star combat commander and the first woman to head the Pacific Air Forces. While most commanders have been pilots by training, Robinson's speciality is air battle management. Her area of command encompasses 259 million square kilometers (100 million square miles), ranging from the U.S. West Coast to the east coast of Africa and from the Arctic to the Antarctic. While Saturday's interview dwelt mainly on the challenge from China's growing military assertiveness, U.S. officials say Russia has also been stepping up air patrols around Japan and South Korea and traveling as far as the California coast and U.S. territory of Guam. --- Online: http://www.pacaf.af.mil/ http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-general-seeks-china-air-safety-dialogue-26618705 Back to Top FAA loosens safety regs for air ambulances Ambulance helicopter pilots will be given more discretion to fly in bad weather conditions under new rules from the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA is moving forward with new approach and departure regulations that will allow pilots of helicopter air ambulances to make judgment calls when deciding whether to depart in bad weather conditions. The new rules will allow these pilots to depart, even if current weather reports are not available for the area, as long as they have a ceiling of visibility from the helicopter, the agency said. "The rule permits the pilot in command of a helicopter air ambulance to assess the weather at a departure point where current weather observations are not available and allows the pilot to depart if the observed ceiling and visibility is greater than certain weather minimums," the agency wrote in the Federal Register. The rules would only apply to helicopter air ambulances. The FAA is affirming a rule that it published earlier this year. It will go into effect on April 22, 2015. http://thehill.com/regulation/222434-faa-loosening-safety-procedures-for-helicopter-air-ambulances Back to Top Back to Top Upcoming Events: IASS 2014 Abu Dhabi, UAE November 11-13, 2014 http://flightsafety.org/meeting/iass-2014 ERAU SMS Seminars Daytona Beach, FL Nov. 17-18 & 19-21, 2014 www.erau.edu/sms ICAEA-ANAC-CIPE Aviation English Workshop. Buenos Aires, Argentina. International Civil Aviation English Association Workshop, hosted by Argentina ANAC and CIPE. "Skills and competencies needed in aviation communications: The Latin American Challenge." Open to anyone interested in aviation English. Nov. 20-21, 2014. www.icaea.aero 2014 Global FOD Prevention Conference Birds, Bolts, Budgets - Tracking the Dangers of Foreign Objects and What We Can Do About It Reagan National Airport 2 December 2014 www.stopfod.com ERAU UAS FUNDAMENTALS COURSE December 9 - 11, 2014 ERAU Daytona Beach Campus, FL www.daytonabeach.erau.edu/uas Event: "The Future of Regulation of SMS and QA" Symposium. Keynote: Mr. Martin Eley, Director General Transport Canada. Location: Coronado Resort Hotel @ Disney World, Orlando Florida. Date: Jan 4-6, 2015 info: http://www.dtiatlanta.com/symposium.html A3IR CON 2015 January 16-17, 2015 Phoenix, AZ http://commons.erau.edu/aircon/2015/ Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) NTSB Training Center, Ashburn, VA March 10-11, 2015 www.acsf.aero/symposium FAA Helicopter Safety Effort three-day safety forum April 21-23, 2015 Hurst, Texas eugene.trainor@faa.gov www.faahelisafety.org IS-BAO Workshop Information and Registration 12 - 13 Nov. 2014 Omaha, Nebraska USA 18 - 19 Nov. 2014 Houston, TX USA 2 - 3 Dec. 2014 Orlando, FL USA 6 - 7 Dec. 2014 Dubai, UAE 13 - 14 Jan. 2015 Baltimore, MD USA https://www.regonline.com/CalendarNET/EventCalendar.aspx?EventID=1592658&view=Month Curt Lewis