Flight Safety Information August 11, 2015 - No. 157 In This Issue U.S. military jet crashes in southern Germany The Man Who Solved the Mystery of Flight 901 Canada exempts small airlines from pilot fatigue rules after lobbying Secret study: Air controllers suffer from chronic fatigue Malaysia Airlines flight MH17: Australian flight safety experts to test crash theory Air India demotes safety chief over duty lapse Pilot seriously injured in experimental plane crash at Brooksville airport (Florida) Why the U.S. Airline Pilot Shortage Is So Hard to Solve Storm-battered American plane gets hail of a fix at D/FW Do funny airline safety videos do more harm than good? PROS 2015 TRAINING Scaled Composites and Microsoft Close to Completing World's Largest Airplane Pilatus supplies Royal Jordanian Air Force with nine aircraft OSU wins $6 million grant for unmanned aircraft to improve weather forecasting It's a ship... It's a plane... It's China's first amphibious aircraft The most beautiful plane never flown is just weeks from its maiden flight GRADUATE RESEARCH REQUEST RESEARCH REQUEST ISASI 2015, Germany, August 24 - 27, 2015 Upcoming Events JOBS AVAILABLE (New Positions) U.S. military jet crashes in southern Germany A U.S. fighter jet (F-16) crashed in a Bavarian forest in southern Germany on Tuesday but the pilot managed to eject and suffered only light injuries, police said. Authorities sealed off the crash site near Engelmannsreuth in northern Bavaria and firefighters were trying to extinguish flames in the jet wreckage, a regional police spokeswoman said. The reason for the crash remains unclear. Local news portal nordbayern.de quoted a police official in nearby Pegnitz as saying the jet had taken off from the Grafenwoehr military training ground and subsequently crashed during a maneuver. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/11/us-germany-usa-jet-crash- idUSKCN0QG0ZL20150811 ************** Date: 11-AUG-2015 Time: 09:30 a.m. Type: General Dynamics F-16 Owner/operator: USAF Registration: C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Engelsmannreuth, Bavaria - Germany Phase: En route Nature: Military Departure airport: Destination airport: Narrative: The F-16 crashed in a forest after a mechanical failure of the plane. The pilot ejected safely and sustained only minor injuries. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top The Man Who Solved the Mystery of Flight 901 Gordon Vette's research helped explain one of history's worst air disasters. A recovery crew on the site of the 1979 Mt. Erebus crash. By Christine Negroni Alwin Gordon Vette, a New Zealander pilot whose independent analysis of an airplane crash in Antarctica helped to identify an important hazard in Arctic flying, died Sunday at a hospital in Auckland after a long illness. He was 82. Captain Vette was the subject of two movies and the recipient of numerous honors for heroics carried out while flying DC-10s for Air New Zealand. But he was also the subject of controversy when his work became part of an investigation into the 1979 Mt. Erebus disaster that challenged the official government explanation for the crash and accused Air New Zealand of a cover-up campaign. Air New Zealand Flight 901 was a one-day sightseeing flyover of Antarctica. It slammed into Mt. Erebus on a clear day in November 1979, killing all 257 people onboard. After an official government report blamed pilot error, a Royal Commission inquiry to review that conclusion found that Air New Zealand had altered the routing on the flight, taking it over high terrain without notifying the pilots, who had been briefed that the flight would be flying over ocean and west of Mt. Erebus. While the government investigation said the pilots had been flying too low and in limited visibility, Vette challenged the finding. To have done what the chief investigator claimed, there would have to be an "unlikely level of simultaneous incompetence on behalf of all the crew members" Vette told a local newspaper. Photos developed from the passengers' cameras found in the wreckage showed that the weather over Antarctica had been clear moments before the crash, launching Vette on a search to find out why none of the men on the flight deck saw or tried to avoid the mountain as the plane approached it descending through 2,500 feet. Vette discovered that in certain conditions, the powerful effect of "whiteout" eliminated visual borders, and that pilots might not see obstacles as big as mountains directly in front of them. Vette's alternative explanation was considered credible, and was incorporated into the commission's final report, which was officially accepted by the government in 1999. Vette's theory of sector whiteout, where visibility is affected in just one direction, is now an accepted factor in arctic flying. In 1983 he wrote the book Impact Erebus discussing the theory in full. Vette received the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007. Less than a year before the Flight 901 disaster, he had established himself as a hero when, while in command of an Air New Zealand flight from Fiji to Auckland, he heard a distress call from a small Cessna pilot who was lost enroute to the Pacific island of Norfolk. Although he had a planeload of passengers, Vette sought their permission, then diverted his flight and set about looking for the small plane using a series of logical navigational steps. He located the plane and directed it to land just as the Cessna piloted by American Jay Prochnow was running out of fuel. The event is the subject of the movie Mercy Mission and the book, Emergency! Crisis on the Flight Deck. Vette is survived by his wife Charmaine and three children, one of whom is an airline pilot for Cathay Pacific. Christine Negroni's book Lost and Confounded: Investigating the World's Most Mysterious Air Crashes from the Hawaii Clipper to Malaysia 370, which is due out next year from Penguin Books, includes a section on Flight 901. http://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/man-who-solved-mystery-flight-901- 180956222/#7g1xLMmjXug533tl.99 Back to Top Canada exempts small airlines from pilot fatigue rules after lobbying Aug 10 Canada's transportation regulator has made smaller carriers exempt for now from long-delayed rules on pilot fatigue, handing a partial victory to the airline industry after intense lobbying, and frustrating a major pilots' union. In a filing with the federal register, Canada Gazette, on Saturday, Transport Canada said it plans to cap duty time at nine to 13 hours depending on when shifts start, down from 14 hours, among other scheduling limits. But it restricted the changes to bigger airlines, in contrast with a September draft that would have applied to the whole industry. It pledged to issue rules for the smaller carriers soon, but gave no further details. With a federal election scheduled for October, it is not clear what will happen to the plan, in the works since 2010, which was meant to bring Canada in line with international safety standards. "We should be talking about implementation right now," said Dan Adamus, president of the Air Line Pilots Association's Canadian board. "We are extremely, extremely disappointed." Transport Canada said it determined that the new rules would have more of an impact on smaller operators: "The introduction of the proposed changes in two phases would give smaller carriers more time to make the operational changes needed to meet the requirements." John McKenna, president of the Air Transport Association of Canada, was pleased with what he sees as a change of course from Transport Canada. He said the draft proposal had been too heavily influenced by pilots' unions. McKenna, whose members include most Canadian airlines, but not top carriers Air Canada or WestJet Airlines Ltd , said his group lobbied Transport Minister Lisa Raitt after the draft was published, saying new rules could raise operating costs by up to 30 percent. "They were kind of surprised to hear that and backed off a little bit, but the minister wanted to do something so she came up with a revised (proposal)," he said. Pilots in Canada can be scheduled to work for 14 hours, which is longer than in other jurisdictions like the United States, Australia, the European Union and India. There, limits range from 9 to 13 hours depending on when a shift starts. Major airlines typically have stricter limits on flight time than what Transport Canada requires. Air Canada said its practices "far exceed" the rules. But many smaller operators serving remote communities as well as mines and other industrial sites do not. Documents obtained by Reuters under Canada's freedom of information law show staff asked late last year for more time to look at alternative schemes proposed by the industry. A briefing note circulated internally in November and December said those proposals were "not supported by fatigue science or necessarily aligned with international standards", but still requested more time to "work with industry" and potentially tweak the rules. The Gazette said commuter airlines, air taxis and operators that use aircraft to do aerial work like mapping and sightseeing would get their own rules "as soon as possible as part of a future regulatory proposal." McKenna said he expects those rules will be "more realistic" than those in the draft. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/10/canada-airlines-fatigue- idUSL1N10L11320150810 Back to Top Secret study: Air controllers suffer from chronic fatigue An airplane flies past the air traffic control tower Monday at Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport. For more than three years, the government has kept secret a study it requested that found air traffic controllers' work schedules often lead to chronic fatigue, making them less alert and endangering the safety of the national air traffic system, according to a report on the study obtained by The Associated Press. | WASHINGTON - Air traffic controllers' work schedules often lead to chronic fatigue, making them less alert and endangering the safety of the national air traffic system, according to a study the government has kept secret for nearly four years. Federal Aviation Administration officials have declined to furnish a copy of the report despite repeated requests and a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press. However, the AP was able to obtain a draft of the final report dated Dec. 1, 2011. The impetus for the study was a recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board to the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to revise controller schedules to provide rest periods that are long enough "to obtain sufficient restorative sleep." The study found that nearly 2 in 10 controllers had committed significant errors in the previous year - such as bringing planes too close together - and over half attributed the errors to fatigue. A third of controllers said they perceived fatigue to be a "high" or "extreme" safety risk. Greater than 6 in 10 controllers indicated that in the previous year they had fallen asleep or experienced a lapse of attention while driving to or from midnight shifts, which typically begin about 10 p.m. and end around 6 a.m. Overall, controllers whose activity was closely monitored by scientists averaged 5.8 hours of sleep per day over the course of a work week. They averaged only 3.1 hours before midnight shifts and 5.4 hours before early morning shifts. The most tiring schedules required controllers to work five straight midnight shifts, or to work six days a week several weeks in a row, often with at least one midnight shift per week. The human body's circadian rhythms make sleeping during daylight hours before a midnight shift especially difficult. The study is composed of a survey of 3,268 controllers about their work schedules and sleep habits, and a field study that monitored the sleep and the mental alertness of more than 200 controllers at 30 air traffic facilities. NASA produced the study at the FAA's request. J.D. Harrington, a NASA spokesman, also declined to release the study, saying in an email that since the FAA requested it, "they own the rights to decide its release." NASA gave the scientists who conducted the study an award for the project's excellence in 2013. In the field study, researchers concentrated on controllers who worked a schedule known as the "rattler" in which controllers squeeze five eight-hour shifts into four 24-hour periods by cutting the turnaround time between shifts to as little as eight hours. Some controllers like the schedule because it gives them a 3-day weekend. Controllers participating in the study wore a wrist device that recorded when they were asleep. They also kept logs of their sleep, and were administered alertness tests several times per work shift. Schedules worked by 76 percent of controllers in the field study led to chronic fatigue, creating pressure to fall asleep. "Even with 8 to 10 hours of recovery sleep, alertness may not recover to the full rested baseline level, but may be reset at a lower level of function," the report said. "Chronic fatigue may be considered to pose a significant risk to controller alertness, and hence to the safety of the ATC (air traffic control) system," the study concluded, especially when combined with little stimulation during periods of low air traffic and the human body's natural pressure to sleep during certain times of the day. The 270-page study makes 17 recommendations to the FAA, including that the agency discontinue mandatory six-day schedules "as soon as possible." At the time, about 4 percent of controllers were being assigned "a six-day constant schedule," the study said, but the share of controllers who had actually worked a six-day schedule in their previous work week was 15 percent. More than 30 percent of controllers who worked the six-day schedules said they had committed a significant error in the previous year. Three years later, controllers at several air traffic facilities told the AP that six-day work weeks are still common. FAA officials didn't reply to questions from the AP about steps the agency has taken to reduce controller fatigue and the prevalence of six-day work weeks. FAA officials also refused to share the report with researchers from the National Academies, which advises Congress on science issues. The study was completed several months after a series of incidents involving controllers falling asleep on the job embarrassed FAA officials and led to the resignation of the head of the agency's air traffic organization. In one incident in 2011, two airliners landed at Washington's Reagan National Airport late at night without assistance from the airport's control tower where the lone controller on duty had fallen asleep. After the incidents, the FAA and the controllers' union announced several changes to address fatigue, including requirements that there be at least two controllers on duty after midnight and that controllers be provided at least nine hours between shifts to rest. But the transportation safety board told the FAA in 2013: "We are concerned that, given the realities of the time required for an employee to commute home and back to work, and to attend to personal and family needs, a nine-hour break may not allow enough time for an employee to obtain eight continuous hours of sleep." The board's recommendations were prompted by a 2006 accident in which a regional airliner crashed while taking off from a runway that was too short in Lexington, Ky. Forty-nine of the 50 people on board were killed. The air traffic controller who cleared the plane for takeoff didn't notice it turn onto the wrong runway. The controller had worked all night and had had only two hours sleep in the previous 24 hours. http://www.tdtnews.com/news/article_ffbb8c80-3fe3-11e5-9590-370ab391a9c8.html Back to Top Malaysia Airlines flight MH17: Australian flight safety experts to test crash theory Australian Federal Police officers and their Dutch counterparts collect human remains from the MH17 crash site in the self proclaimed Donetsk Republic, Ukraine on 2 August, 2014. London: Australian flight safety experts will examine a reconstruction of part of the MH17 plane to test their theory on why it crashed. The experts have joined colleagues from five nations in the Netherlands to discuss their report on last year's MH17 disaster. The two-day meeting, which began on Monday, is intended to hash out their final conclusions after a two-month review of a draft report. As well as discussing the progress of the investigation they will visit air force base Gilze-Rijen to view the reconstruction of a part of the aircraft. However, the meeting may also feature heated argument, as Russia has flagged it is unhappy with the draft report's conclusion that blames Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's east. The experts from Australia, Malaysia, Ukraine, Russia, the US and UK will discuss two draft reports on the crash: one on its cause, and another that assesses whether the plane should have been assigned its given flight path. The Dutch Safety Board, which is co-ordinating the investigation, sent the draft reports to those countries' flight safety boards in June, with sixty days assigned for them to respond. The final report is due in October, however some details have leaked. In July, CNN said the draft report pointed to pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine having shot down the plane using a BUK missile launched from a village under their control. According to CNN's source, the report also criticises Malaysia Airlines for continuing to fly over the war zone without properly warning its pilots of the danger. However, a Russian aviation official has said the draft report "raises more questions than it gives answers". Oleg Storchevoi, a deputy chief of Rosaviatsiya (the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency) was quoted by Russian news agencies saying they had complaints regarding both the technical data and the arguments in the report. "The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has already sent its disagreements and comments to the Netherlands," Mr Storchevoi said. "They obviously cannot publish these and they can't be published until the final report comes out." Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crashed in Donetsk Region on July 17, 2014, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members aboard - including 39 people who called Australia home. http://www.smh.com.au/world/mh17-report-australian-flight-safety-experts-to-test-crash- theory-20150810-giw3cm.html Back to Top Air India demotes safety chief over duty lapse About a week after the aviation safety regulator asked Air India (AI) to sack its air safety chief, the national carrier issued marching orders on Saturday. According to an office order issued by the chairman and managing director, Rohit Nandan on August 7, Captain AS Soman, the former executive director of air safety would now operate as a normal pilot. "In pursuance of DGCA order issued on July 31, Capt. As Soman, executive director ceases to be chief of flight safety with immediate effect till further orders," read the order a copy of which is available with HT. With the sacking, the senior pilot would stop enjoying the dispensation of flying for only 10 hours in a month, the order added. Air India pilots are supposed to operate flights up to 80 hours in a month. The AI spokesperson did not respond to HT's calls and an email sent on the matter. On July 31, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had asked AI to relieve the senior pilot from the key position after the department headed by him had botched evidence crucial for a safety probe. The DGCA had rapped the senior AI executive for failing to preserve crucial flight monitoring data. According to DGCA rules, it is compulsory for all airlines to preserve digital flight data recording (DFDR) of each flight for six months for safety purposes. But when the regulator's office sought the DFDR for a Bangalore-Hyderabad flight (AI 513) operated on June 28, the airline failed to submit the records. The DGCA had sought the records following a complaint by retired Indian Air Force flight test engineer who was travelling on board the flight. Wing Commander, Venkatramana Mantha had complained that passengers on board the flight had a narrow escape as the pilot made a hard landing with a thud. According to his complaint to the DGCA no injury was reported, as the aircraft was half empty. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/air-india-demotes-safety-chief-over-duty- lapse/article1-1378519.aspx Back to Top Pilot seriously injured in experimental plane crash at Brooksville airport (Florida) Hernando County Fire Rescue responded to a reported plane crash in a wooded area of the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport Monday morning. (PHOTO/Hernando County Fire Rescue) A pilot was seriously injured in an experimental plane crash at Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport Monday morning. Falk Nicolaus, 63, was injured when the plane crashed at 10:37 a.m. in a wooded area near the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport. Officials said that when Hernando County Fire Rescue responded to the scene, they found Nicolaus standing near the burning wreckage. He was taken by air to Tampa General Hospital with serious injuries. Crews quickly extinguished the plane and wooded area without further incident. The Federal Aviation Authority has been contacted for further investigation. http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/ *************** Date: 10-AUG-2015 Time: 10:37 Type: Evans Volksplane VP-1 Owner/operator: Private Registration: N9288 C/n / msn: 42010 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport (KBKV), Brooksville, FL - United States of America Phase: Unknown Nature: Unknown Departure airport: Destination airport: Narrative: The aircraft, an experimental Wright built VP-1, impacted wooded airport terrain at Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport (KBKV), Brooksville, Florida, and was consumed by the post-impact fire. The sole pilot onboard the airplane received serious injuries. www.aviation-safety.net Back to Top Why the U.S. Airline Pilot Shortage Is So Hard to Solve Regional airline pilots are playing a giant game of chicken with their employers. The growing shortage of qualified airline pilots continues to claim victims in the U.S. regional airline industry. Some regional airlines, such as SkyWest (NASDAQ:SKYW), still seem to be unaffected. But at its largest rival -- Republic Airways (NASDAQ:RJET) -- profit has plummeted due to the pilot shortage and a related labor dispute with its pilot union. As a result, Republic stock has lost nearly three-quarters of its value so far in 2015. RJET Chart REPUBLIC AIRWAYS YTD STOCK PERFORMANCE, DATA BY YCHARTS Unfortunately, the pilot shortage and the slew of labor disputes in the regional airline industry could get a lot worse before they get better. A variety of industry forces are combining to encourage stalemate rather than compromise. Pilot shortage looms The U.S. faces a potentially significant pilot shortage in the coming years. The military is training fewer pilots than it has in years. Meanwhile, the cost of civilian pilot training has skyrocketed due to new regulations governing commercial airline pilots. Previously, co-pilots merely needed a commercial pilot certificate, which required 250 hours of flying time. Now, they need an Airline Transport Pilot certificate, which requires 1,500 hours of flying experience (or at least 1,000 hours if they have a bachelor's degree with an aviation major). At the same time, the U.S. airline industry faces a huge wave of pilot retirements as pilots who entered the industry in the 1980s following deregulation reach the mandatory retirement age of 65. Nearly 18,000 mainline pilots are expected to retire between 2013 and 2022, with the number of annual retirements increasing throughout that period. Pilots are suddenly in demand For most of the decade following 9/11, numerous pilots were on furlough from major airlines as the U.S. airline industry shrank. That labor oversupply has dramatically turned around in the past few years. Now, the combination of a growing wave of pilot retirements and stricter pilot training rules means that qualified pilots are in high demand. Mainline carriers are mostly insulated from this issue so far. Since they fly relatively large planes, they can spread pilot labor costs over more passengers. As a result, mainline carriers can pay more than regional airlines, allowing them to reliably poach experienced pilots from the regional industry. This means that regional airlines are seeing high attrition rates as their pilots move to mainline jobs with better pay and more advancement opportunities. At the same time, the new "1,500 hour rule" has made it vastly more difficult to find replacements. Low pay is a problem with no easy solution Raising pilot pay in the regional airline industry seems like an obvious solution to the pilot shortage. Higher pay would encourage more people to enroll in flight school, despite the high cost, while also convincing qualified pilots who are working outside the airline industry to return. However, there are two big barriers in the way of giving regional airline pilots a big raise. The first is that regional airlines like Republic Airways and SkyWest have lots of long-term contracts with the legacy carriers locked in already. Unless they can convince their legacy carrier partners to amend these contracts, the regional airlines won't be able to meaningfully grow revenue per pilot to support higher pay. These long-term contracts have been very helpful for regional airlines in the past, insulating them from swings in demand and oil prices. Now, they have become a burden, preventing them from taking a share of the vast increase in industry profitability. The second problem is that to the extent that regional airlines can afford to raise pilot pay, if the pilots are unionized, they need to agree to the increase. This has created a "chicken" scenario, where regional airline pilots are turning down significant raises in the hopes of getting an even bigger payday. For example, Republic Airways has offered to increase its entry-level pilot pay by 74%, while providing smaller increases higher on the pay scale. This proposal would have given first-year pilots a living wage -- but it was rejected by the union. (The union has also sued Republic for offering new pilots big bonuses to join the company.) REPUBLIC AIRWAYS HAS TRIED TO RAISE ITS PILOTS' PAY, BUT THE PILOTS WANT MORE. PHOTO: REPUBLIC AIRWAYS Meanwhile, the union's best offer would have added $1 billion to Republic's costs over the next three years. Increasing pilot pay by that amount would virtually guarantee bankruptcy for Republic Airways. In short, the growing pilot shortage has encouraged the union to take a hardline stance. Since most pilots would be able to find new jobs -- possibly with better pay -- if Republic goes out of business, they have shown a willingness to drive the company under rather than compromise. Is there any way out? Traditionally, the big airlines have used regional carriers like Republic Airways as a pilot pipeline. The regional carriers would hire pilots with relatively little flying experience and train them. It was almost an apprenticeship, and so pilots tolerated the low starting wages because it offered entry into a good career path. Today, the 1,500 hour rule means that pilots need to have more flying experience before they join a regional airline. (Much of the experience is often irrelevant, though, coming in single-engine planes.) This has driven up training costs, making the low starting wages more of a problem -- even though experienced mainline pilots are still paid very well. SkyWest is better positioned than Republic Airways to confront this challenge, as many of the company's pilots are not unionized. On that side of the business, SkyWest can raise wages as the market demands in order to meet its pilot recruitment needs. Nevertheless, the growing pilot shortage will eventually impact every regional airline. Based on the prevailing contracts in the industry, regional airlines likely won't be able to recruit the pilots they need while remaining profitable. The only question is whether the legacy carriers choose to proactively pay regional airlines more to keep them afloat, or if they wait for the pilot shortage to reach crisis proportions before they act. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/08/10/why-the-us-airline-pilot-shortage-is-so- hard-to-so.aspx Back to Top Storm-battered American plane gets hail of a fix at D/FW When company officials learned that one of American Airlines Inc.'s nearly new Boeing 787s had been caught in a vicious hailstorm July 27, fears arose that it would be grounded for a long time. But American now expects to have the hail-damaged Boeing 787 repaired and back in service by the end of next week, less than four weeks after the Chinese storm pummeled the 3- month-old airplane with ice and sent it back to Beijing. When it does take to the air again, the jet will have a number of new and repaired parts, including some made of carbon-fiber composite materials that make up much of the airplane's exterior. During a visit to the hail-dinged airplane Monday morning in American's hangar at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, managers helping oversee the repairs talked about what has been involved during the work. One key point: The composite fuselage, one of the things that separate the Boeing 787 from most other airplanes, had no apparent damage. The radome, the nose cone that protects the radar and other avionics on the airplane's front tip, was hammered in the July 27 hailstorm that hit the airplane shortly after it left Beijing on its scheduled flight to D/FW. Mechanics in Beijing replaced the nose cone with a spare radome. They also covered some small punctures on the wing's underside with speed tape, a strong, thin aluminum tape. "It was pretty easy," Kevin Mosblech, 787 line maintenance manager for American, said in discussing the work done in Beijing. "After we did the hail, the heavy landing, the heavy turbulence and the engine inspections, then basically we had to change the radome, changed some of the navigational lights and then built a blank-off plate for one of the landing lights that we didn't have a cover for at the time. American pilots flew the airplane Aug. 2 to Tokyo's Narita International Airport, where workers replaced the side windshields. Those windshields' outer panes had cracked on their front edges and bottoms, but the inner panes were not damaged. "The integrity of the window was maintained throughout," Mosblech said. American pilots ferried the airplane back to Dallas/Fort Worth on Aug. 3, kicking off major inspections and work. The damage to the aircraft apparently occurred when ice that had built up on the damaged radome slid off and hit the side windshields and the leading edge of the wings, with both composite and aluminum parts, received dings. Ice also passed through the two engines and exited as a "snow cone," officials said. The ice then hit the leading edges of horizontal and vertical stabilizers on the airplane's tail, causing more dents. While the ice sliding off was responsible for cracking the two side windshields, the forward windshields, left and right, received no damage. "We're speculating that when the radome collapsed, it built up ice and thick chunks slapped" at the windshield, Mosblech said. Since the airplane left Narita and arrived at D/FW, mechanics there have removed 44 panels and shipped them to the composite shop at American's Tulsa maintenance base for repairs and repainting. Some panels have already arrived back at D/FW and are being reinstalled. Some curved aluminum pieces that form the wing's leading edge are also being replaced. As of Monday morning, the airplane was missing various panels on its wings, horizontal and vertical stabilizers and where those sections merge with the fuselage. Daryl Marquardt, American's director of aircraft overhaul, who is overseeing the work, said engineer Mary Batto, who flew to Beijing and accompanied the airplane to Tokyo, gave the OK for the airplane to fly back to D/FW. But once the airplane got to the D/FW hangar, crews gave it another nose-to-tail inspection. "We inspected all the rest of the airplane again to make sure everything's documented, everything's looked at. We knew we had several panels we had to work on. These are the composite leading edge panels that most of them are under the wing, under the leading edge [of the wing] between the engines. They took most of the damage," Marquardt said. "When the ice came off, it hit the windshields and hit the engines, and then part of it came to the underneath side of the wings, and that's where we started taking panels off and sending them to our composite repair center in Tulsa," he said. While the Boeing 787 has received a lot of attention for the large portion of its surfaces made up of carbon-fiber composites, Marquardt noted that the Boeing 777 - American's biggest airplane - has composite panels on its wings on many of the same surfaces as the Boeing 787. "We've had a lot of experience since we've had the [777] airplane, since 1999. It's made the same way," Marquardt said. "But with that quantity, the Tulsa composite repair center is much better equipped to do that many at one time. They can sit them in their machines and cook them all at once, where we'd have to do them individually. So it's a much quicker turn time to send them up there," he said. Hail is a constant concern for airplanes and airlines. When a sudden hailstorm battered D/FW Airport in 2002, American had more than 100 aircraft damaged, 40 of which required considerable work. On Friday, a Delta Air Lines Inc. flight from Boston to Salt Lake City had to make an emergency landing in Denver after a hailstorm smashed its radome and cracked the front windshields. American officials were anxious to see if the Boeing 787's composite fuselage was dented; they were pleased to see no damage. "Had that been an aluminum airplane, I believe we would have seen a lot more pea-sized dents throughout the airplane," said Frank Milillo, managing director of aircraft overhaul and modification. http://www.dallasnews.com/business/airline-industry/20150810-storm-battered-american- plane-gets-hail-of-a-fix-at-dfw.ece Back to Top Do funny airline safety videos do more harm than good? We all love a funny safety video, as do airlines. They draw media attention and give frequent travelers a bit of variety in the pre-flight routine. A recent parody by the comedy performance Funny or Die (slightly NSFW) calls to attention whether humorous safety presentations actually do more harm than good. It's always fun to laugh, and laughter leads to more attention. But, does it lead to more comprehension? The Funny or Die video focuses on a crew member that cracks constant jokes during the safety demonstration, but brings to light the issue of whether passengers actually recall the information that is being relayed. Sean M. posted a related article on Ben Schlappig's popular blog One Mile at a Time. He says: "Humour is great when it comes to engaging the regular flyers who otherwise would tune out the safety demos. But, humour actually tends to confuse those folks who are infrequent or inexperienced flyers and actually want to know more about safety on board." Still, jaded flyers seem more likely to pay attention to a safety video that draws their interest.Safety videos have certainly earned their attention in the media, but here are several laughable favorites that have not gotten the public attention they deserve: The Philippine Airlines' safety video features a rather animated actor who is caught off guard as flight attendants perform the safety parameters for him. Condor Airlines safety video is a bag of laughs with actors impersonating Paris Hilton (who tries to stuff her dog in the overhead bin), Elvis Presley, and even the queen of England. EVA Air uses a cartoon body builder to demonstrate some of the safety guidelines while on a constant quest to flirt with his seatmate. In China, kids take to the aisles to demonstrate the safety procedures for Shenzhen Airlines. Hainan Airlines released a new safety video based upon the popular cartoon program, Calabash Brothers. This comes after the airline launched a safety video based on Chinese opera. This is one you've got to see to believe. And like any movie, there are always the amusing outtakes like these from Air New Zealand. And these bloopers from Delta Air Lines. http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/weird/2015/08/07/do-funny-airline-safety-videos-do- more-harm-than-good/31275687/ Back to Top Back to Top Scaled Composites and Microsoft Close to Completing World's Largest Airplane Scaled Composites has confirmed that its Stratolaunch Carrier Aircraft, the world's biggest plane, will begin testing next year. The concept of the plane is product of combined innovation from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites. The plane is currently under construction at Mojave Air and Spaceport in California, and will eventually have a wingspan of 385 feet. Initially, the system was intended to just deliver satellites weighing up to about 13,500lbs (6,124 kg) into orbits between 112 miles and 1,243 miles above Earth. However, instead of just satellites, the Stratolaunch airplane could launch a Dream Chaser spaceship carrying a satellite. The Stratolauncher will climb to 30,000 feet and launch a rocket at high altitude, avoiding the huge fuel costs of launching from Earth. The Dream Chaser will then go into orbit and deliver a satellite. The idea is for the Stratolaunch Carrier is to act as a giant air pad in the sky, allowing payloads to reach space faster and at a lower cost than existing technologies. "It could provide a highly responsive capability with the potential to reach a variety of LEO [low Earth orbit] destinations and return astronauts or payloads to a U.S. runway within 24 hours," said Chuck Beames, president of Allen's Vulcan Aerospace. "Stratolaunch's ability to launch from variable locations will enable satellites and humans to be efficiently inserted into their most optimal orbit at a time of the customer's choosing." The first launch of the space launch vehicle is likely to take place in 2018. There are currently several launch sites under consideration, including ones at the Kennedy Space Center, Wallops Island and Vandenberg AFB. Scaled Composites president Kevin Mickey says the company has so far built "roughly 200,000lbs of composite structure" for the vehicle so far. It will be powered by six 747-class engines during its first flight in 2016 and will weigh 1.2 million pounds. http://compositesmanufacturingmagazine.com/2015/08/scaled-composites-and-microsoft- close-to-completing-worlds-largest-airplane/ Back to Top Pilatus supplies Royal Jordanian Air Force with nine aircraft The contract provides Jordan with nine PC-9 M training aircraft in January 2017. Pilatus Aircraft Ltd is supplying nine of its PC-9 M training aircraft to the Royal Jordanian Air Force from January 2017, the company announced. "We are very pleased to welcome the Royal Jordanian Air Force as a new member of the Pilatus family," said Oscar J. Schwenk, chairman of the Board of Directors at Pilatus. "I am equally happy that Pilatus won the deal against several other international competitors and that, in the final round, the Royal Jordanian Air Force chose our PC-9 M over all other aircraft." The PC-9 is a single engine turboprop with a maximum speed of 368 miles per hour and a range of 955 miles. More than 250 variants of the aircraft have been produced by the Swiss company since 1985. The contract with Jordan provides for a simulator, training equipment and a comprehensive logistics support package but no details as to the value of the deal was provided. Pilatus said negotiations for the plane took place over a seven-year period. http://www.albawaba.com/business/pilatus-supplies-royal-jordanian-air-force-nine-aircraft- 729152 Back to Top OSU wins $6 million grant for unmanned aircraft to improve weather forecasting The four-year, $6 million grant is for developing an unmanned aircraft system. STILLWATER - The National Science Foundation has awarded Oklahoma State University and three partner universities $6 million to develop an integrated unmanned aircraft system to improve weather forecasting through the study of atmospheric physics. The four-year grant will support the collaboration of researchers from OSU and the universities of Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kentucky. The project's goal is the development of small, affordable unmanned systems to be used by government and university scientists and private companies to expand the understanding of atmospheric conditions and improve weather forecasting. "Use of unmanned aircraft will eventually be a common tool in both meteorology and atmospheric physics, but there is a lot of research that needs to be accomplished first in technical, operational and regulatory areas for that to happen," Jamey Jacob, the project's principal investigator, said in a news release. http://www.tulsaworld.com/communities/stillwater/osu-wins-million-grant-for-unmanned- aircraft-to-improve-weather/article_6c69804b-03f9-5b5b-8c4c-bc621f7cba18.html Back to Top It's a ship... It's a plane... It's China's first amphibious aircraft China's first domestically developed amphibious aircraft, the AG600, is likely to make its debut in the first half of 2016. "The assembly of the aircraft, AG600, is still ongoing and is expected to finish by the end of 2015. In the first half of 2016, the plane could make its debut," Hu Zhian, Vice President of the Aviation Industry General Aircraft Company, which is in charge of the aircraft's production, told CCTV. CCTV's Wu Lei reports: The aircraft is being build in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai and is expected to play a key role in forest fire control and maritime search and rescue. Work on the aircraft began last month by the Aviation Industry General Aircraft Company. It's powered by four turboprop engines and will be the world's largest amphibious aircraft in maximum takeoff weight and flight range. "To extinguish forest fires, it can take on 12 metric tons of water from a lake or sea within 20 seconds to pour on the fire. The aircraft can carry 50 people on a maritime search and rescue mission. It will have an operational range of above 4,000 kilometers," Hu added. Once completed, the AG600, which is one of the three big plane projects approved by the State Council, is likely to be the world's largest amphibious aircraft, in terms of the maximum takeoff weight and flight range. Over the years, the global amphibious aircraft market has been dominated by Russia, France and Canada, and China is hoping that the AG600 will give it an edge in the market. Hu says that they have already received 17 orders from domestic buyers and many foreign buyers have also shown interest in the aircraft. http://www.cctv-america.com/2015/08/10/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-chinas-first-amphibious- aircraft#ixzz3iVT14rOr Back to Top The most beautiful plane never flown is just weeks from its maiden flight The year was 1939. Ettore Bugatti - one of the most interesting and innovative individuals involved with the auto industry's formative years - was furiously working on his company's only aircraft. But this wasn't just any aircraft: like his cars, Bugatti's 100P was a technological marvel, featuring two engines driving concentric propellers in opposite directions. Air intakes gracefully integrated into the plane's V-tail would keep those engines cool, while unusual forward-swept wings would give the 100P a striking profile in flight. Ettore was hoping that by racing this beautiful machine - and winning - he'd burnish his brand. But World War II soon gripped Paris, and Bugatti was forced to scuttle the project. The only 100P ever made never flew and was left to rot for a half century before eventually being restored to non-flying condition (it rests today on display in the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin). Bugatti 100P Fast forward to 2013, when a team led by former Air Force pilot Scott Wilson launched a Kickstarter project to create an airworthy 100P from scratch. At that time, construction was nearly complete, but Wilson needed more money to finish the project. "Reve Bleu" - Blue Dream - eventually raised a little over $62,000, and today, the new aircraft is nearly ready to take to the skies for the first time. In recent days, the 100P has run its engines and performed taxi tests, and it looks amazing on the ground. It'll look even better from above. There's no word on exactly when that first flight will be, but some backers are going to have access to a live stream of it; in the meantime, you can see a video of it on the tarmac over on the Kickstarter project page. http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/8/9118119/bugatti-100p-reve-blue-kickstarter-first-flight Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH REQUEST Aircraft Maintenance Technician Decision-Making Purpose of Project My name is Robert Norcross. I am a doctoral student at Northcentral University in Arizona. I am conducting a research study about aircraft maintenance technician decision-making processes when aircraft repair information is not in the aircraft maintenance repair manuals. Focus group sessions will be held to gain your valuable experience, views, and opinions on nine questions pertaining to the research topic. Your views on the questions are important to me and I invite you to participate. The focus group sessions should last between 30 and 60 minutes and held at a date and time convenient for you. The focus group sessions will use www.gotomeeting.com and a conference call phone number. You are eligible to participate in this research if you: 1. 1. Are older than 18 years of age. 2. 2. Hold a Federal Aviation Administration issued Airframe and Power Plant certificate. 3. 3. Issued the Airframe and Power Plant certificate on or before 1 January 2010. 4. 4. A resident of the United States. Risks: There are minimal risks in this study. Some possible risks include: discomfort sharing views about the proposed research questions, other participants knowing your identity. To decrease the impact of these risks: you can refuse to answer any question, stop participating at any time, or request to answer the questions with a phone call to the researcher. Benefits: If you decide to participate, there is no direct benefits/compensation to you. The potential benefits to others are improved efficiency and less time and money spent reworking aircraft discrepancies. If you are interested in participating please contact me, Robert Norcross at R.Norcross4749@email.ncu.edu or 757-281-9289. Back to Top RESEARCH REQUEST Volunteers needed to take a survey for research: Who is conducting this research? Alex Chaparro, PhD (Alex.Chaparro@wichita.edu), & Brady Patzer (bspatzer@wichita.edu) of Wichita State University What are we studying? This study is examining the causes of failures to follow procedure in aircraft maintenance to identify potential strategies to mitigate their impact and rate of occurrence. Why participate? Participating in this study will be an opportunity to provide input on actionable methods for handling failures to follow procedure. This study could improve the efficiency and safety of aviation maintenance work. Who is eligible? We are interested in surveying mechanics, supervisors, and inspectors that currently work with part 121 aircraft, who have either failed to follow procedure in the past, or have seen other personnel fail to follow procedure for any reason. Your responses will be held confidential. How do I participate? If you are interested, please navigate to the following website to complete the survey: https://wichitastate.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_7P5Iije0oWJNfgN The entire survey will take approximately 20-30 minutes. Back to Top ISASI 2015, Germany, August 24 - 27, 2015 "Independence does not mean isolation". The International Society of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI) will hold their 46th annual seminar at the Kongress am Park, Augsburg, Germany, from August 24 - 27, 2015. For all current information including the link to the registration and hotel pages please go to www.esasi.eu/isasi-2015 Note: Cut off dates for hotel reservations are June 23rd for the Dorint & July 23rd for the Ibis & the Intercity For questions regarding Sponsorship please contact Ron Schleede - ronschleede@aol.com or Steve Hull - steve.hull@rtiforensics.com Exhibitors should contact Steve Hull or Ann Schull - isasi@erols.com Back to Top Upcoming Events: 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 Fundamentals of IS-BAO August 25, 2015 Denver, CO USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1737105 IS-BAO Auditing August 26, 2015 Denver, CO USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1737126 Fundamentals of IS-BAO (En Espaņol) August 25, 2015 Monterrey, Mexico https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1736215 IS-BAO Auditing (En Espaņol) August 26, 2015 Monterrey, Mexico https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1736218 Fundamentals of IS-BAO September 15, 2015 St. Louis, Missouri USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1660854 IS-BAO Auditing September 16, 2015 St. Louis, Missouri USA https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1660878 Fundamentals of IS-BAO August 30, 2015 Casablanca, Morocco https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1725994 IS-BAO Auditing August 31, 2015 Casablanca, Morocco https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=1725997 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 AViCON - Aviation Insurance Conference September 10th and 11th, 2015 Stevensville, MD 21666 http://www.rtiforensics.com/news-events/avicon 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/ Safeskies 2015 Aviation Safety Conference 22 to 24 September 2015 Realm Hotel, Canberra www.SafeskiesAustralia.org 2015 International Air Safety Summit (IASS) Flight Safety Foundation November 2-4, 2015 Miami Beach, Florida http://flightsafety.org/meeting/iass-2015 'DTI QA & SMS Workshops are Back in Town!' (Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Melbourne FL, and YOUR town just contact us) www.dtitraining.com Back to Top JOBS AVAILABLE: Assistant Director, Flight Standards NetJets http://www.netjets.com/careers, requisition #843 Maintenance Program Developer NetJets http://www.netjets.com/careers requisition #926 Director, Aviation Safety NetJets www.netjets.com/careers Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS) Program Advisor Virgin Australia http://careers.virginaustralia.com/cw/en/job/496246/fatigue-risk-management-systems- frms-program-advisor Head of Safety Qantas http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airlines/job-search-current-vacancies/global/en Safety Specialist Netjets www.netjets.com/careers Business Aviation Regional Sales Manager ARGUS International, Inc. https://home2.eease.adp.com/recruit/?id=18211162 Manager Airline Safety Cathay Pacific http://www.cathaypacific.com/careers Airline Safety Manager - SMS (ASM-SMS) Cathay Pacific http://www.cathaypacific.com/careers Curt Lewis