Flight Safety Information November 24, 2014 - No. 238 In This Issue Corporate jet skids off runway, ends up in Sugar Land creek Lufthansa Turns An Airbus A340 Into 'Ebola Jet' For Evacuating Infected Personnel Indian women pilots soar past global average Drones Sighted by Pilots Landing at JFK Airport in New York City Show New Risks Would Air Travel Be Safer Without Pilots? PRISM TO HELP PREPARE FOR E-IOSA FAA unlikely to upgrade India's air safety rating soon Aircraft lessors' concerns bubble up over antenna blisters AIRCON3 - Pre-Conference Workshop GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Upcoming Events Corporate jet skids off runway, ends up in Sugar Land creek The pilot landed the plane but could not stop in time. Two pilots of a small corporate jet walked away after their plane skidded off the runway and ended up in a creek. The aircraft, an Embrarer Phenom, landed at Sugar Land Regional Airport at 10:13 a.m, but then had trouble stopping, according to spokesperson Patricia Pollicoff. As the runway was ending, Pollicoff said the pilot attempted to make a U-turn to keep the plane on the pavement. But it slid tail-end first off the runway and into nearby Oyster Creek. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the incident. Local pilots immediately had their own questions about what happened, like why the plane landed with a tailwind given the wet runway conditions. "We always try to land into the wind," said pilot Mark Lasch. "The fact that he landed with the wind, you need much more braking distance because you're coming in much hotter, much faster, so I'm sure that had something to do with it," Lasch said. It isn't the first Embraer corporate jet to skid off a rain-soaked runway. Another aircraft slid into the grass at the end of a Conroe Regional Airport runway in September. Sources close to the investigation told KHOU 11 News that investigators will be looking into the braking ability of these types of aircraft in light of the two incidents. Pilot instructor Eric Newman said wet runways are always a concern for aircraft with wheel-braking systems, rather than reverse-engine thrusters. "Usually on a wet runway we like to multiply the distance by two to make sure we have enough runway to land," Newman said. "If the book says it's going to take 2500 feet to stop we'll say we're going to need 5,000 feet to stop on a wet runway," Newman said. Pollicoff said the pilot and co-pilot walked away after the landing with no injuries. According to FlightAware, the aircraft was coming from Hobby Airport and landed in Sugarland reportedly to pick up a passenger. As of press time, the Embraer Phenom jet was still stuck in the creek, with no word on how long it would take to pull out and haul away. The owner, a firm out of Utah, will have to pay for the removal according to an FAA spokesperson. http://www.khou.com/story/news/local/2014/11/21/small-jet-crashes-into-creek-during-landing- attempt/19344785/ Back to Top Lufthansa Turns An Airbus A340 Into 'Ebola Jet' For Evacuating Infected Personnel Lufthansa A340-300 A Lufthansa Airbus A340-300 taking off from Munich airport Ingrid Friedl / Lufthansa Lufthansa, the biggest airline in Europe by passengers carried, is converting one of its airplanes into an "Ebola jet," whose mission will be ferrying health personnel to treatment facilities in the West. According to German magazine Der Spiegel, Lufthansa will turn one of its Airbus A340 long-range planes into a medical evacuation transport, featuring three "isolation cells" that will ensure patients can be transported safely. The Ebola epidemic is concentrated in West Africa. The hemorrhagic fever has infected more than 14,000 people since March in Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization, making this the biggest outbreak on record. More than 5,000 have died, according to WHO data. At least 20 cases have been treated in Europe and the U.S. Three were Germans: One recovered, one is in treatment, and one died. Beginning Monday until the end of November, experts from Lufthansa Technik, the company's aircraft maintenance arm, and doctors from the Robert Koch Institut -- the German equivalent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- will oversee the conversion of the four-engine airliner, which was requested by the federal government. Der Spiegel said, without specifying sources, the project had been in the works under great secrecy since September when the Foreign Ministry began mulling the idea of having a dedicated transport plane for infected German Ebola volunteers. The only other options available to transport Ebola patients are currently two U.S. jets, the magazine said. Last August, Der Spiegel wrote that the German Defense Ministry had been forced to admit the country lacked the means to quickly and safely transport to a hospital in the West any of its military personnel employed in the fight against Ebola who may get infected. A twin-aisle jet carrying about 280 passengers when in normal service, the airplane, an A340-300 model, was chosen because of its long range, allowing it to reach most of the world without fuel stops. The plane would also be available for citizens of other nations. An unspecified German firm will build three sterile, hermetically sealed containers, 4-by-4 meters (13 feet by 13 feet), that will be installed in place of passenger seats. To avoid contamination of the main cabin, the isolation chambers will have their own ventilation system. The flight crew will be composed of volunteers. LH A340 seat map The interior configuration of a Lufthansa Airbus A340 series 300 jet. Lufthansa According to the weekly magazine, the particular airplane chosen bears the identifier D-AIGZ in the German aviation registry. Aviation fleet tracker Airfleets says the airplane was built in 2000 and bears the name of Villingen-Schwenningen, a picturesque town in Germany's Black Forest region. Der Spiegel did not specify whether Lufthansa will receive payment from the German government or any other government for the use of the plane, nor whether it will be compensated for the loss of revenue while the jet is unable to fly passengers. Requests to the airline for clarification on payment, and whether the plane would go back into commercial service at some point, had not been answered at the time of publication. http://www.ibtimes.com/lufthansa-turns-airbus-a340-ebola-jet-evacuating-infected-personnel-1725674 Back to Top Indian women pilots soar past global average According to DGCA, almost 600 of the 5,050 pilots in Indian airlines are women. NEW DELHI: Ground realities may be harsh for women in India, but they're still determined to conquer the skies. Almost 600 of the 5,050 pilots in Indian airlines are women, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). At 11.6%, this is way above the 3% global average estimated by the International Society of Women Airline Pilots. India is also seeing a steady rise in women pilots annually. The last five years saw 4,267 commercial pilots' licences being issued, of which 628 or 14.7% went to women. One of the reasons why women pilots fare better in India than in other countries is the strong family support system they have here. "Women who go on overseas flights have to spend days away from home. In India, women have their mothers or mothers-in-law to take care of the kids and that ensures they can go on long flights too," says a woman pilot. Women pilots and crew members in an Air India flight. A direct outcome of this trend is that Indian carriers are employing more women pilots. The Jet Group, for instance, had 152 women pilots in October 2011; today it has 194 - the highest in India. "There has been steady growth of about 10% year on year in the number of women pilots joining the airline," says a Jet official referring to Jet Airways and JetLite. The official adds that 30.5% of their 13,674 employees are women. At IndiGo, 11% of pilots are women. "That number is definitely growing. Of the pilots that joined from April 2014, 16.5% are women," says an IndiGo official. Overall, 43% of the airline's 8,200-strong workforce is women. SpiceJet and GoAir also reported that the number of women pilots is on the rise. The merged Air India-Indian Airlines has the second largest number of women pilots at 171, and often has an all-women crew operating its longest non-stop flights to the US. A company source says they fall short of the highest number because they haven't hired new pilots in a while. DGCA data shows that even the crisis years of Indian aviation - 2010 to present - a higher percentage of women opted to train for commercial pilot licences. The number of licences issued in 2010 was 1,292 which fell to 858, 691 and 643 over the next three years. Even so, the percentage of women acquiring the licences from 2010 to 2013 went up from 14.8% to 16.4%. Harpreet AD Singh, the first woman pilot to be selected by erstwhile Air India in 1988, says airlines saw a surge in women applying to fly in the mid-1980s and 2005 onwards, when private low-cost airlines took off. The Jet Group has 194 women pilots - the highest in India. (TOI file photo) "The erstwhile Indian Airlines was the first here to hire women pilots in the early 1980s. Captain Sadamani Deshmukh became the first woman commander then (of a Fokker Friendship) and this became a big thing that time," says Singh. "Then in 1988, I was chosen by erstwhile AI as the first woman pilot." Singh, who is now an executive director with AI and president of Indian Women Pilot Association, claims that while the global average of woman pilots has always been 2-3%, India has been at over 10%. "We hope for a time when we no longer have to celebrate an all-women crew - engineer, cabin crew and pilots - on board. It should be a common occurrence," says an IndiGo official. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indian-women-pilots-soar-past-global- average/articleshow/45253431.cms Back to Top Drones Sighted by Pilots Landing at JFK Airport in New York City Show New Risks One Drone Came Within 5 to 10 Feet of a Jetliner's Wing Drone sightings this week by airline pilots flying into New York's JKF International Airport pose high aviation risks. WSJ's Andrew Tangel and Simon Constable discuss. Photo: Getty A string of drone sightings this week by airline pilots flying into John F. Kennedy International Airport highlights aviation risks posed by the increasingly popular unmanned aircraft. In the most worrisome of the cases, a drone came within 5 to 10 feet of the left wing of a Delta Air Lines flight Sunday evening, said an official briefed on the matter. The drones were seen Sunday and Wednesday as the aircraft moved over Long Island, an aviation official said. Nassau County police sent up a helicopter to search but didn't find any drones, a spokeswoman said. None of the commercial pilots involved in the incidents reported taking evasive action, and each of the flights landed safely, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The drone incidents near JFK, which officials said the FBI and FAA were investigating, highlight what federal officials and pilots see as an emerging aviation threat from the proliferation of commercially available unmanned aircraft. The international arrivals terminal at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES On Thursday, the FAA said it also was investigating a report from a helicopter pilot that he saw two unmanned aircraft flying at an altitude of about 500 feet near the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, 4 miles west of La Guardia Airport. The FAA prohibits drones from flying above 400 feet. If users want to fly a drone within 5 miles of an airport, the FAA requires the pilot to first alert the airport or air traffic control. Aviation experts say a drone could pose a risk to a large passenger aircraft if sucked into one of its engines, particularly while the aircraft is taking off or landing. Most drones are small, however, and likely wouldn't bring down a large jet by simply striking its fuselage, they say. The FAA allows recreational use of drones but effectively bans their commercial use in the U.S. until the agency completes rules for the devices, expected in the next several years. Still, entrepreneurs are increasingly employing drones in businesses such as farming, filmmaking and construction, without notice from the FAA. The devices have gained in popularity as technology advances have made them smaller, cheaper, more powerful and easier to fly. A voluntary-reporting database maintained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shows a recent uptick in drone sightings by pilots, including about a dozen such reports over the past year, not including the incidents at JFK this week. "I almost had a midair collision with a drone flying at the same altitude. I didn't see it until it was few feet from my aircraft," a helicopter pilot wrote in a June report. The first of the recent drone incidents in New York City involved a Delta-operated Boeing 737 coming from San Diego. Moments later, the crew of Virgin Atlantic Airways Flight 9, a Boeing 747 en route from London, saw an unmanned aircraft flying between 2,000 and 3,000 feet over Nassau County on Long Island, about 10 miles from JFK, officials said. Around that time, air-traffic controllers told pilots of "a balloon, maybe a drone" at about 2,000 feet, according to a recording of radio communications provided by FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. The incident Wednesday involved a JetBlue Airways flight, an Airbus 320 from Savannah, Ga., officials said. Its pilot reported seeing an unmanned aircraft when the jetliner was about 2 miles from one of JFK's runways about 1:50 p.m. Wednesday. It wasn't clear whether the incidents near JFK involved multiple drones. A Delta spokeswoman declined to comment. A JetBlue spokeswoman said the airline is cooperating with federal authorities. Virgin Atlantic didn't respond to a request for comment. Manned aircraft normally should be at least 1,000 feet apart vertically and several miles apart laterally. Michael Drobac, executive director of the Small UAV Coalition, a drone advocacy group, denounced any user flying a drone so high and so close to a major airport. "We need to ferret out bad actors and that's going to be something that is incumbent on the entire industry to take on," he said. Earlier this year, the FAA said an American Airlines Group Inc. pilot reported a near-collision with a drone at about 2,300 feet while approaching Tallahassee, Fla. The FBI last year said it was investigating a report that an Alitalia aircraft came within 200 feet of a drone while about 3 miles from JFK. http://online.wsj.com/articles/fbi-probes-drones-sighted-by-pilots-landing-at-jfk-airport-in-new-york-city- 1416511819 Back to Top Would Air Travel Be Safer Without Pilots? Steve Jurvetson Thinks So Lufthansa pilots preparing for takeoff Steve Jurvetson likes big ideas. The venture capital investor placed early, bold bets on electric cars (Tesla Motors) and space exploration (SpaceX). He speaks publicly every chance he gets on how the world will be transformed sooner than we think by advances like robotics and driverless vehicles. Commercial air travel has been on his mind lately, and Jurvetson, a partner at Menlo Park, Calif.-based Draper Fisher Jurvetson, has an idea that may seem even more shocking than self-driving cars-he thinks pilots should be taken out of airplanes. We talked with him this week. Here's an edited version of the conversation. You're known as a guy who invests in pretty bold projects, yet earlier in your career you were an R&D engineer at Hewlett-Packard, which doesn't sound like the sexiest job in the world. As a geek, I take umbrage at the notion that chips are not sexy. But yes, robots, drones, satellites and self-driving cars are the kinds of things that excite me. Around 1999-2000, consumer tech was big, but I didn't want to do another e-retailer, B2B sort of investment. So I did shift to the things that are not normally in the venture capital crosshairs. The deals you're most associated with are long-term, capital-intensive projects, but you're in a business that emphasizes returns, the quicker the better. Steve Jurvetson DFJ If there isn't a business logic to get to marketability, the chance of an idea's importance in the world is very low. The revenue model can be very ambiguous at the get-go, but as long as it will be iterating with customers at some point it will be near impossible not to get revenue. I do like passion-based, change- the-world type ideas. Other businesses print money more quickly, and you get that sugar buzz, but to me profit is not the primary goal. Elon Musk (founder of Tesla and SpaceX), for example, wants to colonize Mars. That's a big goal, but he knows he'll never get to Mars if it doesn't work in a variety of ways for a variety of different players along the way. In the back of his mind, he knows you can't get there from here if it's not profitable. But what I love is that profit is not the primary goal. You're a vocal supporter of Google GOOGL +0.39%'s work with driverless cars. Have you ridden in one? Two or three times. Once it was on a closed track, and another time it was on 101 in Sunnyvale. There was someone else in the car just in case, but after a while you forget it's driving. Beyond self-driving cars, I think all airplanes should go pilotless. Get the pilots out of there. Even better, have no cockpit at all, and turn it into a nice lounge with a bar. Why give people the illusion of control with a steering wheel? Take the wheel out. If you cut the pilot out, immediately the plane can no longer be used as a weapon of terror or be steered into a building. You would undergo a fingerprint scan to get on the plane. Everyone would know there is video surveillance on board. You couldn't affect the actual operation of the plane. It would be a really stupid place to try to kill 200 or 300 people. But a plane could be hacked. That could be a threat, absolutely. It's a different categorical type of threat in that it requires obviously sophisticated computing skills. Compare that to using a primitive weapon, like bringing box cutters on a plane and training some people and bringing down a big part of the global economy. I would say that a lot of the groups resisting progress and science are not at the forefront of that sophisticated type of threat. But if someone had the capacity to telematically control these kinds of systems, think how difficult it would be to remotely take over all the different layers of control and do something purposeful. If they had that skill they could be causing a lot of havoc right now-think of the grid, the major utility dams, all kinds of public infrastructure that could be brought down if someone had those kinds of hacking skills. Planes wouldn't be the target. It comes down to how much people really trust tech, right? It's human nature to want another human in charge, even if statistically it's not as safe. The closer you are to technology, the more you trust it. What I don't know is how you would assure people. Planes are mostly already flown on autopilot already. But in terms of a transition, you can do it the way Google has done it-have it be self-flying but have someone there just in case of emergency. But how many years of data would be needed? When you look at airplane crashes, it's not equipment failure. It's human error. I would absolutely, for example, trust my kids, today, to a Google self-driving car than to my parents, who are in their 70s and who drive them now. That scares me to no end. And yet for whatever reason they are allowed to drive. By the way, I brought this idea of pilotless planes to the TSA, and they said, "Have you not heard of the pilots union?" http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/11/21/would-air-travel-be-safer-without-pilots-steve-jurvetson- thinks-so/ Back to Top Back to Top FAA unlikely to upgrade India's air safety rating soon Stand will disappoint Indian govt, could affect plans of both existing and new Indian airlines The FAA downgraded India's safety ranking in January to Category II, finding regulatory oversight to be inadequate in a December audit in a move that blocked Air India and Jet Airways from expanding to US cities or collaborating with US airlines. US aviation safety regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said it is unlikely to upgrade India's air safety ratings in a hurry, a stand that will disappoint the Indian government, which was expecting a quick resolution of the crisis, and could affect the plans of both existing and new Indian airlines. FAA downgraded India's safety ranking in January to Category II, finding regulatory oversight to be inadequate in a December audit in a move that blocked Air India Ltd and Jet Airways (India) Ltd from expanding to US cities or collaborating with US airlines. A team from FAA is visiting India between 8 and 12 December and a Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said a decision on a possible upgrade would be taken by January. "We will have the results by January," added a person who declined to be identified. "We are very well prepared." FAA spokeswoman Alison Duquette struck a more cautious note and said the reversal of the downgrade could take much more time. "The Federal Aviation Administration will begin a reassessment of India's civil aviation authority in December, which may take several months, " Duquette said in an email from Washington. DGCA was called upon by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to make a presentation to a safety board in Europe. "That has, however, been cancelled as we have impressed upon the improvements that we have brought in," the DGCA official said, requesting anonymity. "We sent a team to EASA recently, which has made a detailed presentation to them. They are satisfied." EASA and FAA work closely together, the official said, and hinted that FAA would communicate its findings on the work done by DGCA to the European safety agency. That means the FAA audit, if it doesn't go well, could cause EASA to consider auditing any of the Indian airlines that fly into European airspace and blacklisting them if found not up to the mark in terms of air safety. "The FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency share the common goal of ensuring the highest aviation standards," Duquette said. Ilias Maragakis, spokesperson for EASA, did not respond to an email seeking comment sent last week. While downgrading India, FAA had cited a lack of trained DGCA officials, the absence of documented procedures for inducting new types of aircraft, and a shortage of flight inspectors to monitor India's growing number of airlines. Consulting firm Wicks Group Pllc, which employs retired FAA officials, is helping DGCA in streamlining its process even as it keeps FAA informed of the progress. One of the changes has been the creation of a new flights standards directorate within DGCA as required by FAA. A second DGCA official, who also asked not to be identified, seemed to think this has only complicated matters by creating "another power centre". This person said that the new directorate is behind the delay in granting Vistara's licence. Vistara, the airline of Tata-SIA Airlines Ltd, and AirAsia India were both expecting to be able to fly to the US once the government relaxes the current requirement that only airlines with five years of domestic track record and at least 20 aircraft would be allowed to fly overseas routes. Aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju said on 10 November, while announcing a draft civil aviation policy, that he believes the rule doesn't make sense and should go. Vistara said it hoped the audit is cleared soon. "We are hopeful that India will soon restore its Category I status," a Vistara spokesperson said in an email. AirAsia India declined to comment. An air safety expert said DGCA has made superficial changes. "One of the main concerns of FAA was the flight standards directorate and its ability to carry out genuine surveillance audits. Replacing seconded flight operations inspectors with superannuated ones, who underwent a training that normally takes a year in less than a month, is not likely to convince anyone that DGCA is genuine in its efforts," said Mohan Ranganathan, an air safety analyst and former member of the government-appointed Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council. Air India has about 21 weekly flights between India and the US, and Jet Airways seven, while other Indian airlines fly mostly to South-East and West Asia. "We are hopeful we will get back," aviation minister Raju said. The draft aviation policy does not mention ways to strengthen DGCA and its workforce, the key reason India was downgraded and clubbed with Ghana, Indonesia, Uruguay and Zimbabwe. http://www.livemint.com/Politics/bYoFTgW6JrsT9wyIrwkd0O/FAA-unlikely-to-upgrade-Indias-air-safety- rating-soon.html?utm_source=copy Back to Top Aircraft lessors' concerns bubble up over antenna blisters Aircraft lessors are growing increasingly concerned about how the equipage of satellite-supported broadband connectivity and live television systems will impact the value of their aircraft, and are imposing some stringent requirements concerning the condition in which airline clients must return these assets. In order to offer Ku- or Ka-band satellite-based airborne connectivity, and Ku-supported TV, significant structural changes are made to the aircraft, most especially atop the fuselage where the large antenna sits beneath the radome. These structural changes result in increased maintenance requirements as the aircraft ages, and obviously a weight penalty that equates to increased fuel costs. "This is viewed very dimly and devalues the airplane to the next operator so the amount lessors can achieve would be reduced. That's why some lessors are prepared to demand that airlines either return aircraft to their original state before being returned, or pay the lessor to have this work done," reveals a source with knowledge of the situation. "Certainly airlines have been blocked from putting systems on leased aircraft, unless they're willing to pay [at the end of the lease]." A leasing insider adds, "Inflight entertainment and connectivity is awesome for an airline but it's generally not well transferred from one lessee to another and what ends up happening is, the next owner wants a different system. Lessors are becoming more onerous on lessees; they want to make sure they know PMA (part manufacturer approval) parts. They worry about everything, especially big lessors." As of February 2014, there were a total 7,000 in-service passenger jet aircraft with operating lessors or about 38% of the total fleet, a figure that could grow to as much as 50% in under 10 years, according to Flightglobal's Ascend database. Because only an estimated 6% of the non-US fleet is equipped with inflight connectivity, the impact on aircraft values "has not been such a big issue", notes Stephan Krastev, senior vice president of aerospace & aviation investment banking at global consultancy Seabury Group, which has advised on over $100 billion in new or renegotiated aircraft orders. However, it is fair to assume that, as lessors own more of the world fleet, their demands pertaining to IFE and connectivity will grow louder as well, he suggests. "What we're hearing is that people are thinking - what would be the cost to rip the system off the aircraft once they need to be re-leased? Lessors are not attributing any specific value to the system itself. In fact, it sounds like these systems are actually more of a deterrent at this point because they cause additional work around the aircraft to the next lessee, and I think the appraiser is thinking about it the same way. That thinking will probably change once you have prevalence of a certain system in the marketplace, which will only be achieved if a certain system becomes dominant. And to be dominant you have to be linefit offerable [with airframers]. Panasonic Avionics...has linefit offerability. Gogo and others like Global Eagle are in the process with technical service agreements [TSAs] in place. It remains to be seen what happens next year when presumably both [Gogo and Global Eagle] systems are linefit offerable. But the fact that there is no commonality means [lessors] see this as more of a nuisance than anything." Aviation industry consultant Bob Mann agrees with Krastev's assessment. "I think from a lessor standpoint obviously they want everything vanilla, and returned to original spec. The present situation is a concern because you have a very fragmented, multi-type install situation and we haven't seen anyone bring one back to original spec yet to the best of my knowledge. "Can that even be done properly? Remember what Southwest had to do with the crown of its 737s [unrelated to connectivity]; there was a period where the lap-joints on the crown of the fuselage were judged to be defective at manufacture, and they saw the fuselage rupture. That was determined to be a manufacturing defect and they had to look at a whole series of aircraft at that time. It was very extensive, more extensive than a satellite refit. But any time you introduce the potential of stress risers in a structure like that - and that's a point where you punch something into original material and it's at a stress rise point - you magnify the possibility that at some point in time you'll have cracks propagating." Peter Lemme chairs the Airlines Electronic Engineering Committee (AEEC)'s Ku/Ka band subcommittee, which develops standards for installing large antenna systems on aircraft. He tells RGN: "It is fair to observe that once you install a substantial suite of equipment with multiple penetrations through the fuselage and with the strength to brace against thousand of pounds of force, you can't just go back. You can take the antenna off, but you will have to put cover plates over any penetrations, and likely a lot of the weight in the underlying structure may remain." The process of removing Ku or Ka-band antenna systems and returning an aircraft to its original form is not necessarily an easy task, "especially if you've got something like an Airbus A320, where the upper fuselage skin is a very large length of skin so you have to repair 25ft of upper fuselage", notes a source. Additionally, when connectivity providers tout that they can retrofit a satellite system to aircraft within mere days, "that's how you do it; the quickest and easiest way", without much consideration to the aftermarket value of the aircraft. Though we were directed to this video of Ku connectivity being installed on a Southwest Boeing 737 as an example of how equipage impacts the airframe (so many holes), the fact is that "for someone like Southwest that flies aircraft cradle to grave, it doesn't really matter. But if you're a leasing company and want to sell an airplane at some point in its life, it's an issue." While connectivity providers adhere to variations of AEEC's ARINC 791 standard - and the industry has for the most part "tried to follow the spirit of ARINC 791 for inside equipment", it hasn't necessarily followed the standard for "the connectors, the pin assignments, the mounting flanges or size and shape of the boxes", notes Lemme. "In summary, the service providers and the airlines made a decision to keep installing non-compliant provisions. Is it any surprise that is creating a difficulty later in the life cycle?" Closer adherence to established standards by providers would effectively make it "more seamless" to transfer the aircraft, notes Seabury's Krastev. "I imagine that there will be a natural selection towards certain systems. When you have three [Ku connectivity systems] there will be variances, but when this becomes an established linefit offerable product, that may change. This could potentially change how lessors move aircraft from lessee to lessee." Aircraft lessors are also paying attention to whether connectivity installs impact safety in any way. The upper fuselage of certain aircraft with many cycles are "of structural interest" to regulators as they are known to have problems, "so if you add antennas on top of that, you have to comply with a whole new inspection regime. As long as you've got the right maintenance regime, all of these things [safety issues] are containable. But they add burden and cost to the airplane on the maintenance schedule, and require work that normally wouldn't be required," says a source. Even so, "very qualified organizations" are working hard to adhere to the regulatory process, stresses Lemme. "It surely is possible for shoddy design and shoddy workmanship and no quality control. But that is not the norm." See how inflight connectivity systems are installed on Southwest and United aircraft in the videos below. Top photo credited to JetBlue Airways. Above right photo credited to NYC Aviation TV. http://www.runwaygirlnetwork.com/2014/11/23/aircraft-lessors-concerns-bubble-up-over-antenna- blisters/ Back to Top Pre-Conference Workshop: Thursday, January 15th: Investigations in support of Safety Management Systems (SMS): The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines SMS as "A systematic approach to managing safety, including the necessary organizational structures, accountabilities, policies and procedures." Most Civil Aviation Authorities support the implementation of SMS in aviation training organizations and service providers. Many also include the provisions for a Safety Manager within those safety programs. This workshop will investigate the attributes of a supportive Safety Culture along with the competencies and skill-sets required of the Safety Manager to appropriately collect, analyze and take actions on safety information. The outcomes of this workshop will be assembled and distributed to participants in order for their consideration for inclusion into existing and future aviation programs and curricula. Workshop Leaders: Stewart Schreckengast, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Aviation Department, University of South Australia & Douglas Drury, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Aviation Department, University of South Australia are hosting. Free conference add on- but space is limited. Sponsored by the Robertson Safety Institute Registration Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Dear fellow pilots: By way of introduction, my name is Adrian Aliyuddin and I am currently pursuing my Masters of Science in Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and as part of my final assignment I need to conduct a research paper. I have chosen the topic of the interaction between airline pilots and ground- based operational control personnel from the airline, commonly known by several different titles such as, Operations Controller, Flight Dispatchers, Network Controllers or Duty Controllers. These personnel have the capability of sending messages to aircraft in flight and having pilots react to them. The topic of interest is the influence these ground-based personnel have on the decision-making of the pilots. In order to gather the data on this topic, I have set up a short survey in order to solicit feedback from the target audience. The survey should not take much more than 10 minutes to complete and only requires the participant to answer a number of questions in the survey. None of the survey questions are framed in a manner that could identify the participant and the data from this survey will be kept confidentially. There is also no obligation for you to complete this survey. The target audience is airline pilots who work in organizations that have the capability for messages from their ground-based personnel to reach the aircraft while in flight. If you meet the criteria of the target audience, you can access the survey using this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6CTH5WN I would like to thank you in advance for taking the time out to fill up this survey. Back to Top Upcoming Events: 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 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