Flight Safety Information July 7, 2015 - No. 132 In This Issue Southwest flight returns to Phoenix airport after blown tire ASIANA AIRLINES HIT WITH LAWSUIT ON ANNIVERSARY OF CRASH Pilots union Balpa challenges Sumburgh crash black box ruling 2 Pilots Killed in Russian Military Jet Crash Russia Grounds Entire Su-24 Fleet Of Fighter Jets After Deadly Crash Oxygen masks deploy on Delhi-Leh Jet flight, plane grounded Turkish Airlines Jet Makes Emergency Landing in Delhi After Bomb Threat Charlotte airplane evacuated after security threat Rabbits are chewing up wires under parked cars PROS 2015 TRAINING Jet Demand Cools as Airbus-Boeing Orders Fall 41% From 2014 Pace Gulfstream finds its flight path with spacious business jets BEFORE RADIOS, PILOTS NAVIGATED BY GIANT CONCRETE ARROWS How India's women pilots are breaking the gender barrier to soar high Upcoming Events JOBS AVAILABLE (New Positions) Southwest flight returns to Phoenix airport after blown tire A Southwest flight returned to Phoenix Sky Harbor shortly after takeoff Monday evening because one of the plane's main landing tires was blown, according to Southwest Airlines. Southwest flight 211, which was headed toward San Francisco, departed Phoenix Sky Harbor around 8:40 p.m. and returned shortly after, the airline said. There were no reported injuries and after a safe landing, passengers unloaded the plane using stairs rolled up to the craft and were transported away from the plane by bus. Southwest said all 143 costumers will be accommodated on a new aircraft. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2015/07/07/phoenix-southwest-flight-returns-blown- tire-sky-harbor-airport/29803031/ Back to Top ASIANA AIRLINES HIT WITH LAWSUIT ON ANNIVERSARY OF CRASH In this July 6, 2013, aerial file photo, the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 lies on the ground after it crashed at the San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Monday marks the second anniversary of a deadly plane crash at San Francisco International Airport as the airline faces a new class action lawsuit. The suit just filed against South Korea-based Asiana Airlines involves 53 passengers. Two years ago, flight 214 that originated in Seoul, crashed into the sea wall at SFO while trying to land. Three teenage girls died and 187 people were hurt, including Zhang Jin from Shanghai, China. She and her husband sat down with ABC7 News for an exclusive interview after her surgeries for bleeding in the brain and a fractured ankle. Zhang is back at work, but she needs monthly therapy and counseling. She is still too afraid to fly. They have received no money from Asiana beyond the initial assistance. The airline is refusing to have foreign citizens' cases heard here in the U.S., where the compensation is much higher. Investigators have since blamed the crash on pilot error. http://abc7news.com/travel/asiana-airlines-hit-with-lawsuit-on-anniversary-of-crash/831296/ Back to Top Pilots union Balpa challenges Sumburgh crash black box ruling Helicopter wreckage being salvaged A ruling that investigators should hand over the black box from a North Sea helicopter crash to Scotland's top law officer is being challenged. The cockpit voice recorder from the accident off Shetland in 2013, in which four people died, was recovered by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch. A judge ruled it was in the public interest and the interests of justice to make it available. The British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) said it had lodged an appeal. The union's general secretary, Jim McAuslan, said: "The 2013 Super Puma accident was tragic, and it is vital the AAIB gets to the root cause and has access to whatever data it needs. "However, providing the data to the prosecutor and the police in parallel to the AAIB's investigation cuts across everything pilots and the broader flight safety community stand for. "We cannot stand by while the court allows that to happen without pursuing other legal avenues to highlight our concerns and question whether it is the correct approach." 'Duty to investigate' A Crown Office spokesman said: "Following a helicopter crash off Sumburgh on 23 August 2013 in which four people died, Crown Office began an investigation into the cause of the deaths. "The Crown has a duty to investigate all sudden, suspicious and unexplained deaths. "The investigation is ongoing and the families of those who died will continue to be updated in relation to any significant developments." Prosecutors have been trying to establish whether anybody could be held criminally responsible for the crash. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has the right to initial access to the cockpit voice recorder but it routinely chooses not to hand over the material to other bodies - in this case the Crown prosecutors. Rare move The BBC Scotland news website revealed last year an order was being sought by Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC at the Court of Session to access the data. It was a rare legal move. Lord Jones said he was satisfied that disclosing the data would have no adverse impact on current or future crash investigations - but that it could only be disclosed to the Crown Office and Police Scotland. A total of 18 people were on board when the Super Puma crashed on its approach to Sumburgh. Helicopter passengers Sarah Darnley from Elgin, Gary McCrossan, from Inverness, Duncan Munro, from Bishop Auckland, and George Allison, from Winchester, lost their lives. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-33425676 Back to Top 2 Pilots Killed in Russian Military Jet Crash MOSCOW - Two pilots of a Russian military aircraft were killed Monday when their jet crashed during a training mission in the far east of the country, the defence ministry said, the latest in a string of accidents involving military planes. "The aircraft suffered a crash during take-off in a planned training flight near the Khurba aerodrome. The two pilots were killed," the ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies. The wreckage of the Sukhoi Su-24 jet created a 20-meter-wide crater, state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reported, but no casualties or property damage were recorded. The defence ministry dispatched an investigation team to the scene to probe the causes of the plane's demise, TASS reported. Officials did not offer any explanations for the crash and could not be reached for further comment on the incident. The commander of the Russian Air Force declared a moratorium on flights of Sukhoi fighter jets until the reasons behind the latest crash were uncovered, Russian media reported. The incident is Russia's fifth military plane accident in the last month and the second crash in the last few days, raising questions about the safety of Russian military aircraft. On Friday, the pilot of a Mikoyan MiG-29 jet fighter that crashed in the Krasnodar region managed to eject himself from the cockpit. A faulty engine in thought to have caused the incident. The Sukhoi Su-24 dates to the Soviet era but is still used by the Russian air force. The last deadly crash involving a Sukhoi Su-24 fighter jet occurred in February on the outskirts of the southern Russian city of Volgograd, TASS reported. http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/international/europe/2015/07/06/2-pilots-killed-russian- military-jet-crash/29780629/ Back to Top Russia Grounds Entire Su-24 Fleet Of Fighter Jets After Deadly Crash Near Sea Of Japan A Russian Sukhoi jet fighter Su-24 takes part in a joint anti-terror military drill dubbed "Peace Mission- 2009" in the Taonan tactical training base of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Jilin Province July 23, 2009. An Su-24 crashed Monday in the far eastern part of Russia. Reuters/China Daily The entire Russian fleet of the SU-24 supersonic fighter jets was grounded Monday after one of the aircraft crashed while taking off killing both pilots on board, reported Tass, a Kremlin-backed Russian news site. The crash, which occurred in the far east Russian region of Khabarovsk near the Sea of Japan, was one of five high-profile Russian air force incidents in less than a month, prompting concerns that Russia's military is being grossly overstretched as it continues to showcase its military might across Europe. "Today at 14:35 Moscow Time the Sukhoi Su-24M plane crashed during the takeoff in the area of the Khurba airport (Khabarovsk territory) while performing a scheduled training flight. According to a report from the scene, both pilots died," the ministry said. "The flights have been suspended before the causes of the crash are established." While Russia continues to fly aircraft across Europe's international airspace, antagonizing the governments of northern European and Baltic countries, it has had to deal with the knock-on effect of its increased obligations. In the first week of June, a MiG-29 multirole fighter jet and a Su-34 fighter jet crashed on the same day in different parts of the country. A Tupolev bomber crashed four days later while taking off in Siberia, killing one and injuring another, and prompting the Kremlin to ground the entire fleet for safety reasons. A prominent Russian military expert told Newsweek last month that the increased obligations of the Russia air force were likely to blame for the spate of incidents. "This could be an interesting sign of the overstretching of Russian armed capabilities, because the maintenance template for these vehicles does not take into account the much higher operational tempo they have been operating under lately," said Igor Sutyagin. "The Bear [Tupolev] bombers, for example, are designed for a single strike on missions, not for extended training flights," he added. The grounding of the Su-24 fleet is likely to have a serious effect on Russian aviation capabilities. As of 2011, the Kremlin was flying around 400 of the aircraft, one of the most flown in the air force. It's not yet known what countries that Russia has sold the aircraft to will do. Algeria, which crashed a Su-24 in 2014 has around 38. Iran, Syria and Ukraine also all have sizable fleets of the aircraft. http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-grounds-entire-su-24-fleet-fighter-jets-after-deadly-crash-near-sea-japan- 1996897 Back to Top Oxygen masks deploy on Delhi-Leh Jet flight, plane grounded The aircraft, with 114 passengers and seven crew members, landed safely in Leh. The Boeing 737 was later grounded there. The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) is probing the incident. NEW DELHI: An alleged case of pilot error led to a close shave for 123 people on board Jet Airways' Delhi- Leh flight on Tuesday morning. The aircraft cabin reportedly started de-pressurizing while flight 9W 2368 was landing in Leh and that led to the oxygen masks being deployed. The aircraft, with 114 passengers and seven crew members, landed safely in Leh. The Boeing 737 was later grounded there. The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) is probing the incident. A Jet spokesperson said: "Oxygen masks were automatically deployed during landing on-board Jet Airways flight 9W 2368 from Delhi to Leh. The aircraft had a normal landing and guests were deplaned without any incident.Jet Airways is operating a relief flight to Leh to fly guests booked on the return flight. We are investigating the circumstances that led to this event. The aircraft has been grounded at Leh. We have dispatched an engineering team along with spares for rectification of the aircraft." This is incidentally the second case of Leh landing landing being currently probed by DGCA. On June 26, two flights each of Air India and GoAir allegedly landed there in poor visibility while a Jet flight from Delhi to Leh the same day came back to the capital for the same reason. The regulator is probing whether AI and Go violated passenger safety norms while going ahead to land in poor visibility. Now, it is probing Jet's landing on Tuesday. Even before that Leh was in the limelight when three passengers were offloaded from an AI flight on June 24 to accommodate as many VVIPs. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Oxygen-masks-deploy-on-Delhi-Leh-Jet-flight-plane- grounded/articleshow/47970321.cms Back to Top Turkish Airlines Jet Makes Emergency Landing in Delhi After Bomb Threat Message on mirror in bathroom of plane said there was a bomb in the cargo hold A Turkish Airlines aircraft took off on March 16, 2013 from Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey. A Turkish Airlines passenger jet made an emergency landing in Delhi on Tuesday. NEW DELHI-A Turkish Airlines passenger jet Tuesday made an emergency landing at Delhi's international airport following a bomb threat, an airport spokesman said. The aircraft was over Indian airspace on a scheduled flight from Bangkok to Istanbul when the crew discovered a message on a mirror in the bathroom, which said that there was a bomb in the cargo hold, and requested an emergency landing, the spokesman said. The plane was carrying 134 passengers, Turkish Airlines said in a statement. It did not say how many crew members were on board. The Airbus 330 aircraft landed safely at the Indira Gandhi International Airport and was immediately taken to an isolation bay where it is being checked for any explosives, the airport spokesman said. The plane was evacuated on landing, the airport spokesman said. "There is no information so far about any explosives on the aircraft," the spokesman said. Bomb disposal and dog squad teams were thoroughly examining the aircraft and a final decision on the fate of the aircraft would be given only after checks were complete, said a spokesman for India's Central Industrial Security Force, which provides security at the airport in Delhi. Turkish Airlines confirmed in a statement that its TK0065 flight from Bangkok to Istanbul was diverted to Delhi following "a possible bomb threat on board." "All of our passengers and cabin crew have been evacuated safely and taken to the terminal building," the statement said. The statement said safety checks were taking place and once they were complete, the plane would continue its journey to Istanbul. The carrier has made at least four emergency landings due to bomb scares since late March, diverting two flights back to Istanbul while one plane landed in Copenhagen and another in Casablanca. No explosives were found in any of the instances, which involved flights to Tokyo, São Paulo, New York and Basel, Switzerland. The interrupted flights that didn't return to Turkey continued to their final destinations after security checks. http://www.wsj.com/articles/turkish-airlines-jet-makes-emergency-landing-in-delhi-after-bomb-threat- 1436264828 Back to Top Charlotte airplane evacuated after security threat An American Airlines passenger plane traveling from Charlotte to Minneapolis had to make an emergency landing at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Monday. Details are still unfolding. From the Observer: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police evacuated 178 passengers from the plane, an American Airlines spokesperson wrote in an email. By 11 p.m., the plane had not left the airport but officials were working to "get passengers on their way." By Monday night, the airline was still trying to determine if it would be able to transport passengers to their destinations on the same plane, or alternative aircraft. Some media outlets reported that police sent dogs on the plane while ordering passengers to leave their phones and belongings behind. http://charlotte.suntimes.com/clt-news/7/93/117827/emergency-landing Back to Top Rabbits are chewing up wires under parked cars Cars parked at the Denver International Airport are under siege by a bunch of furry menaces. According to USA Today, one airport pilot was stranded at the airport when rabbits chewed through his transmission cables, resulting in a over $400 bill. In the past rabbits from the surrounding prairie lands have hopped into the parking lot and chewed up wiring under cars, sometimes causing thousands of dollars in damage. In prior years, the U.S. Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services in Denver has removed around 100 rabbits every month from the area. Some believe the rabbits are seeking shelter under the cars for warmth. The airport is has tried solutions like adding additional fencing and perches for hawks. http://time.com/3946760/rabbits-denver-airport/ Back to Top Back to Top Jet Demand Cools as Airbus-Boeing Orders Fall 41% From 2014 Pace 787 airplanes are manufactured at the Boeing Co. facility in Washington on June 1, 2015. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg First-half order tallies for Airbus Group SE and Boeing Co. showed a 41 percent drop from 2014, reflecting the slowdown in jet demand after airlines and lessors spent recent years gorging on new planes. The totals reported Monday gave an initial look at sales that included purchases at last month's Paris Air Show, the industry's biggest annual event. Between them, the planemakers booked 629 firm orders, down from 1,048 in the first six months of 2014. The comparison was even more striking because last year's count didn't include results from the Farnborough Air Show, which alternates with the Paris forum. Boeing and Airbus, the world's two biggest planemakers, saw backlogs reach records at the end of 2014 as buyers sought relief from rising jet-fuel prices by adding new, more-efficient models. Airbus and Boeing went to this year's Paris show without new models such as the re-engined jets or updated wide-bodies that were stars at recent events. While they announced more than $100 billion in deals in Paris, most of the purchases weren't firm orders. Airbus's commercial plane division booked orders for 135 planes last month, bringing the year's tally of net orders through June 30 to 348 planes, compared with 281 for Boeing Co., according to figures from the companies' websites. Airbus delivered 304 planes so far this year versus 381 for Boeing. Airbus's lead for the six months rests on the success of its A320neo single-aisle aircraft with new engines, which was announced more than six months ahead of Boeing's 737 Max model. The European planemaker has garnered about 60 percent of the market with the neo, to about 40 percent for the Max. Boeing has done better on larger, costlier wide-body jets. The Chicago-based planemaker's order intake in that category was 78 planes; Airbus trailed with 58. Toulouse, France-based Airbus sold 290 narrow-body jets to Boeing's 203. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-06/jet-demand-cools-as-airbus-boeing-orders-fall-41- from-2014-pace Back to Top Gulfstream finds its flight path with spacious business jets Even when the workers who build Gulfstream's G650 business jet are on a break, it is easy to see that the world's longest-range business jet is in demand. Every corner of the assembly building, on the edge of the historic port city of Savannah, is filled with components for new aircraft. Fuselages in various states of construction are jammed in nose to tail. Outside, aircraft wait to be fitted with luxurious interiors before heading off to start shuttling the world's business and political elite between continents. The G650, introduced in 2012, is the most obvious illustration of how Gulfstream, part of General Dynamics, the military contractor, is benefiting from the resilient demand from the world's wealthiest flyers for the most capable private aircraft. Demand for large jets - which accounted for 117 of the 150 aircraft that Gulfstream delivered last year - continued to grow throughout the economic downturn, fuelled by new demand from China and other emerging markets. Orders for the smaller aircraft popular with US and European companies for shorter trips slumped. FirstFT is our new essential daily email briefing of the best stories from across the web Gulfstream's focus on the large, high-value end of the market looks set to turn it soon into the world's largest business jet manufacturer by revenues. Gulfstream produced $6.98bn of General Dynamics' $8.65bn aerospace revenue last year, up 9 per cent on the year before, and aerospace operating profit margins were 18.6 per cent. The list price for each G650ER - an extended range version that can travel 7,500 nautical miles without refuelling - is $66.5m. By contrast, Canada's Bombardier, which reported $7.2bn in business jet revenues and was far less profitable, has been forced to cut back. In January, it put development of a new, smaller jet - the Learjet 85 - on hold, citing poor market conditions. In May, it cut back production of its flagship products, the Global 5000 and Global 6000 long-range jets. France's Dassault Aviation, the only other competitor in the large-cabin business jet market, generated revenues from business jets of €2.68bn in 2014. Scott Neal, Gulfstream's head of sales and marketing, says Gulfstream stood out for its willingness to invest throughout the economic downturn. "Even though economic conditions changed, we continued to invest in our product line," he says. The challenge for Gulfstream is to maintain that strong position as it shifts its focus towards developing two new, shorter-range aircraft - the G500 and G600 - designed to fly, like the G650, at 0.9 times the speed of sound. Their list prices are $43.5m and $54.5m, respectively. "The feedback that we've heard from the customers is that they really liked the speed capability of the 650; they liked the technology of the 650," says Steve Cass, Gulfstream's head of technical marketing and communications. "So they wanted to see that type of technology but put into an airplane that didn't fly as far and didn't cost as much." One of the key reasons for Gulfstream's strong market position relates less to what it has done than to what Bombardier has not done, according to Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at the Virginia-based Teal Group. While customers have been operating the G650 since 2012 and the G650ER since 2014, Bombardier's competing products - the Global 7000 and 8000 - have not yet had even their first test flight. Both aircraft are due to match the G650's speed, while the Global 8000 is projected to have a longer, 7,900 nautical mile range. A Gulfstream G550 jet comes in to land behind a Bombardier CRJ900 jet ahead of the Farnborough Airshow 2012 in southern England July 7, 2012. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor (BRITAIN - Tags: TRANSPORT BUSINESS)©Reuters Bombardier has instead been focused on its C Series commercial jet, which has so far cost $5.4bn to develop, faced severe delays and won only modest orders. Since Dassault's Falcon 8x, its longest-range aircraft, has a range of only 6,450 nautical miles, Gulfstream has had the top end of the market to itself. "It's going to be another few years before Bombardier finally can respond," Mr Aboulafia says. "The G650 is bringing in a lot of money and earning Gulfstream a lot of market share." Dassault looks unlikely to tackle Gulfstream head-on in its effort to provide customers with ever faster, ever longer-range aircraft. Olivier Villa, Dassault's senior vice-president, says that many customers own only one or two jets and will prize efficiency over extreme high performance. He adds that one loyal customer with facilities in the US told him that high speed was less valuable to him than having a jet versatile enough to land on short runways near his company's remote facilities. "What we try to do is a real business jet, meaning that you can be efficient and fly long-range but that you can also land where others cannot," Mr Villa says. "We believe it's our strength and strategy for the future." Gulfstream's future, meanwhile, is being worked out in a series of buildings a short drive from the G650 production site, where technicians sit staring at screens amid rigs set up to mimic the flight deck of the future G500 or the G600. They are working on innovations such as a single, interconnected data system that will replace traditional wires and make the aircraft lighter. "The goal with that is we want to deliver the most mature product from the very first one to our customer base to meet or exceed their expectations," says Scott Evans, one of Gulfstream's senior test pilots. Yet, whatever the new aircraft's technical niceties, the most important fact about the G500 and G600 may be simply that they are so close to coming into service, according to Mr Aboulafia. The G500's first flight was in May and deliveries to customers are due in 2018. The G600 is expected to run around a year behind. According to Mr Aboulafia, Gulfstream's current advantages show that it has grasped two longstanding principles of the business jet market. "One is: seize the high end," he says. "Two is: don't let your product line get old." Breaking the sound barrier: jet makers assess the need for speed When Gulfstream announced that its G650 would fly at a maximum speed of Mach 0.925, Cessna, the previous holder of the record for fastest business jet, acted fast. It brought out a new, lighter version of its medium-size but high-speed Citation. This Citation X+ was capable of Mach 0.935, nearly the speed of sound. The question for business jet makers is whether they should push on from these high sub-sonic - or trans- sonic - speeds to tackle the multiple technical and regulatory challenges of returning civilians to supersonic flight. While Aerion, a small US company, has been trying for many years to raise funding for a supersonic business jet, there have been no civilian supersonic aircraft since the Concorde retired in 2003. It is a question to which both Gulfstream and Dassault Aviation say they have devoted significant attention. Supersonic flight imposes very different strains on aircraft from sub-sonic travel, produces unpleasant sonic booms when the aircraft crosses the sound barrier and consumes far more fuel than normal flight. Olivier Villa, senior vice-president of Dassault Aviation, says there might be demand for shuttles by jet- sharing services using supersonic aircraft on the busiest, most popular routes. But his company cooled on the idea of producing such an aircraft after realising that it would have to be so big that it would be able to use only large, international airports, rather than the smaller, specialist airfields that business jet users generally prefer. "For our average customer, who owns one or two aircraft and needs to be able to use it for everyday work, that's a very expensive and inefficient solution," Mr Villa says. Gulfstream, meanwhile, says that it is "monitoring" developments in the field. It is particularly concerned that US regulations currently ban any civilian supersonic flights over land in the US, because of the risk of sonic booms. Gulfstream has nevertheless looked at aircraft designs that would change the character of sonic booms, making them less abrupt. "If it reaches a technological readiness that makes sense, it's in the considerations next time," says Scott Evans, one of Gulfstream's senior test pilots. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ca329a12-214e-11e5-aa5a-398b2169cf79.html#axzz3fCzhBNUr Back to Top BEFORE RADIOS, PILOTS NAVIGATED BY GIANT CONCRETE ARROWS The remnants of Transcontinental Air Mail Route Beacon 37A, which was located atop a bluff in St. George, Utah. (Photo: Dppowell/Wikipedia) Across the United States, from Los Angeles to New York, lies a network of mostly forgotten infrastructure, a system that was obsolete before it was ever finished-forgotten relics from the early days of powered flight. The early 20th century was an era of American history where Manifest Destiny seemed, well, manifest. The West had been won, and the cities blossomed. But with innovation came change and obsolescence. Trains became the prime movers of not only people and goods, but also the mail. The Pony Express proved the value of a trans-continental postal system in the United States, but the service was quickly usurped-the completion of the telegraph lines from East to West in 1861 saw it go out of business after just 18 months. Our modern style of mail delivery, air mail, debuted less than eight years after powered flight. In 1903, the Wright brothers launched their Flyer at Kitty Hawk in 1903. On February 17, 1911, Fred Wiseman, an amateur pilot, carried three letters from Petaluma, California, to Santa Rosa, California, 18 miles away. The very next day, Henri Pequet delivered 6,500 letters from Allahabad, in northern India, to the city of Naini, located around eight miles away. A letter that traveled on the 1911 flight from Allahabad. (Photo: Public domain on Wikipedia) In 1914, the first long-distance airmail delivery was achieved. Between July 16th and 18th, Maurice Guillaux carried mail 584 miles, from Melbourne to Sydney. But it wasn't until 1918 that the east coast of the US got limited aerial postal deliveries. Two years later, the nation's transcontinental air mail route, stretching from New York to San Francisco, was flown for the first time. Air travel and aviation in general was a difficult affair during the early twentieth century. Before the development of radio navigation, the primary method of flying across the United States was to travel along the rail routes, or "following the iron compass," as they called it at the time. As the railways usually connected population centers, they became the easiest way to navigate between cities and towns. But there needed to be other options. Part of the solution was to establish concrete arrows, painted a brilliant yellow and embedded alongside 50-foot-high lighthouses (referred to in the aviation community as beacons) that shone out a route of light across the continental United States. Measuring up to 70 feet long, the arrows pointed in the direction of the next beacon-and-arrow, and were visible from a distance of 10 miles up. An airway beacon in St. Paul, Minnesota, built in 1929. (Photo: McGhiever on Wikipedia) Before the beacons were put in place the mail-planes would land, and transfer their deliveries onto trains to travel overnight-reminiscent of the horse-and-rider swaps on the Pony Express. The beacons solved the problems associated with flying at night, but poor weather often led to the grounding of fleets and the mail being slowed. The beacons were, however, a huge step forward from the original approach: building huge bonfires next to airfields. ("Fatal accidents were routine" in those low-visibility times, notes the Federal Aviation Administration.) With the development of radio navigation, the arrows and beacons started to become obsolete for the more sophisticated companies in the industry. At the same time, there was an explosion of private aircraft owners. The equipment needed for radio navigation was often out of the price range of these flyers, and also the airfields where they were landing. Most pilots did not know how to use radio navigation in that era, anyway. U.S. Post Office Department map of the First Transcontinental Air Mail Route. (Image: The Cooper Collection of Aero Postal History) The arrow-and-beacon system proved incredibly popular with pilots, because not much could go wrong with giant concrete arrows on the ground. According to the Assistant Postmaster-General of the time, as quoted in the December 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics, there was a plan to build a similar system over the Atlantic. Yet, during the Second World War, the majority of the infrastructure was torn up, to stop the beacons from being used to provide directions to enemy bomber pilots. The metal used to build the towers was then redirected toward the war effort. The concrete arrows, and some of the towers and sheds, still stand today. The state of Montana actually continues to use the system to help pilots navigate the rugged peaks of the region, as mountainous terrain can interfere with more sophisticated technological systems. Around nineteen of them are still in use. Here's a handy map of some of the surviving locations of these nearly-obsolete stone aviation arrowheads. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/before-radios-pilots-navigated-by-giant-concrete-arrows Back to Top How India's women pilots are breaking the gender barrier to soar high Harpreet Singh Dey said, families are willing to back girls who want to pursue the profession even regardless of whether they're married or not MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: Up in the air, Indian women are increasingly in charge. For a country that can't ensure a woman's safety or her basic rights on the ground, the recruitment record of India's airlines presents a contrast. As a result, the next time you take a flight in India, the chances of the pilot being a woman are much higher than anywhere else in the world. India currently has 5,100 pilots, of which 600, or 11.7 per cent , are women, according to ministry of civil aviation data. There are a total 130,000 pilots in the world, of which 4,000, or about 3 per cent , are women, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots. "This is definitely one trend which flies in the face of global opinion of India as a regressive place for women," said Harpreet Singh Dey, president of the Indian Women Pilots' Association. She's also the first female pilot to operate an international flight by a local carrier, Air India, in 1988. Families are willing to back girls who want to pursue the profession even regardless of whether they're married or not, she said. "Flying schools are churning out a higher number of women pilots every year. There are many families who are supportive of a woman's career choice as a pilot even after marriage. There are also many women who would happily remain single to follow their passion," Dey said. How India's women pilots are breaking the gender barrier to soar high Of the 1,100 pilot licences issued in India in 2014, about 170 were to women, an increase of 5 per cent from the year earlier. The number of female pilots in SpiceJet is 15 per cent of the total, said chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor, up from 11-12 per cent two years ago. "It is a gradual growth. I think it mirrors the increasing numbers of women in the professional workforce as old ways of thinking change," he said. "Parents are also likely more supportive, employers are more gender neutral." Jet AirwaysBSE 7.44 % has a pilot force that's 14 per cent women, compared with 12.5 per cent two years ago, said a spokesperson. Between January 2013 and May 2015, 42 female pilots joined the airline, around 15 per cent of the total pilot intake in that period. At IndiGo airlines, 168, or 11 per cent of its 1,448 pilots, are women. According to a media report last year, British Airways has about 3,500 pilots, of which 200, or 5 per cent , are women. Opportunities for women in the Indian airline industry, once restricted to cabin crew and ground staff, have expanded in only the last few years. On Nov 26, 1985, Indian Airlines operated a historic flight with all women crew with Nivedita Bhasin and Saudamini Deshmukh at the cockpit. The F27 took the route Calcutta to Agartala/Guwahati/Dimapur/Guwahati. But opportunities were rare. Dey recalls that conditions during her training period weren't always optimal. "I was in Hisar, Haryana, and here were no women's hostels," she said. "I had to share with men. In my later years I often slept with a knife under my pillow to be safe." The times have changed dramatically since then, Dey said. Airlines now have special contract clauses designed specially for women pilots. "In the field of 24/7 work, mothers here get to choose a Sunday or Saturday off to spend with their kids," said Bavicca Bharathi, a pilot and line training captain with IndiGo. Bharathi holds records for being India's youngest pilot licence holder at 18 in 2007 and also its youngest commander three years later. "We also have flexible contracts providing a variety of options such as 40 hours of flying per month or two weeks off for two weeks of flying. We also have a creche at the training centre for new mothers." She said however that long breaks are a problem as certifications tend to lapse. "Even after a break of 30 days, 'recency' checks are required to get back," she said. After maternity leave of a year or so, women would have to undertake ground classes and simulator checks all over again. To be sure, the Indian airline industry actively seeks to broaden employment opportunities for women. Every year on International Women's Day, March 8, Air India operates a flight on which all operational aspects-ground handling, engineering, technical support, even the breathalyzer tests for pilots--are handled by women. At IndiGo, 44 per cent of the total workforce and a third of its leadership constitutes women. That ratio is even more balanced at India's newest carrier. "At Vistara, we have a healthy gender ratio of around 50:50 and have observed that women employees play a key role in creating a competitive edge for the business," said S Varadarajan, head of human resources and corporate affairs at the carrier, a joint venture between the Tata group and Singapore Airlines that started flying in January. To be sure, its women pilot share is lower but Vistara expects this to improve. "We already have more than 5 per cent women pilots," Varadarajan said. "We foresee more women aspirants joining us going forward and welcome them." http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/how-indias-women-pilots- are-breaking-the-gender-barrier-to-soar-high/articleshow/47952673.cms Back to Top Upcoming Events: IS-BAO Auditing July 8, 2015 Alexandria, VA USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659136 EAA AirVenture Schedule July 19-26, 2015 Oshkosh, WI http://www.eaa.org/en/airventure/eaa-airventure-schedule-of-events Infrastructure and Safety Summit Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service July 20-24, 2015 McAllen, Texas http://TEEX.org/itsi Fundamentals of IS-BAO July 21, 2015 Orlando, FL USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659145 IS-BAO Auditing July 22, 2015 Orlando, FL USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659149 Fundamentals of IS-BAO August 19, 2015 Madrid, Spain https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659089 IS-BAO Auditing August 20, 2015 Madrid, Spain https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1659096 Safety Management Systems Training & Workshop Course offered by ATC Vantage Inc. Tampa, FL August 6-7, 2015 www.atcvantage.com/training Aircraft Fire Hazards, Protection & Investigation Course 9-11 Sept. 2015 Hotel Ibis Nanterre La Defense (near Paris) France http://blazetech.com/resources/pro_services/FireCourse-France_2015.pdf Regulatory Affairs Training Course September 15 & 16 Fort Worth, TX http://jdasolutions.aero/services/regulatory-affairs.php Suspected Unapproved Parts (SUPS) Training Course September 15 & 16 Fort Worth, TX http://jdasolutions.aero/ Back to Top JOBS AVAILABLE: Engineering & Operations Manager Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), https://jobs-alpa.icims.com/jobs/1192/manager%2c-engineering-%26-operations/job Curt Lewis