Flight Safety Information - October 14, 2021 No. 207 In This Issue : Incident: Eurowings A320 at Corfu on Oct 10th 2021, bird strike : Incident: Ryanair B738 near Tenerife on Oct 11th 2021, engine trouble after flying through volcanic ashes : Boeing 737-8AS (WL) - Bird Strike (U.K.) : Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk -Ditching (Philippines) : American Eagle Jet Returns To Logan Airport After Bird Strike : Fact check: Delta debunks rumor that vaccinated pilot died mid-flight : Argus Unveils Highest Safety Rating with Platinum Elite : Single-Pilot Program Trains Solo Jet Pilots, And Boosts Insurability : ANA Pilots Can Now Fly Both Airbus A380 & A320 : Qantas scrambles to retrain pilots as it plots path out of pandemic : After a record gun haul this year, TSA identifies 10 airports with most firearms seized : Pakistan Airlines suspends Afghan operations citing Taliban interference : NBAA Honors Aviation Safety Advocate Robert Sumwalt with Silk Scarf Award at NBAA-BACE : Searching for Solutions to Alaska’s High Rate of Deadly Air Crashes : United Airlines flies first commercial jet on sustainable fuel from IAH : Fugro achieves new UK CAA accreditation as approved helideck monitoring systems : New Air Force Trainer Jet Program Supports ‘Reforge’ Concept : China set to send 3 astronauts on longest crewed mission yet : Boeing's next Starliner test flight moves to first half of 2022 : OmniSMS - Maximize your SMS Investment : PhD - Graduate Research Survey Request (1) Incident: Eurowings A320 at Corfu on Oct 10th 2021, bird strike A Eurowings Airbus A320-200, registration D-AEWI performing flight EW-9613 from Corfu (Greece) to Dusseldorf (Germany), was climbing out of Corfu's runway 16 when the crew stopped the climb at 2000 feet reporting a bird strike into the right hand engine (CFM56). The aircraft positioned for an approach to runway 16 and landed safely about 8 minutes after departure and taxied to the apron. A ground observer reported on Oct 13th 2021 the aircraft is still on the apron in Corfu with the right engine cowlings opened. The aircraft is still on the ground in Corfu about 72 hours after landing back. http://avherald.com/h?article=4ee9ec55&opt=0 Incident: Ryanair B738 near Tenerife on Oct 11th 2021, engine trouble after flying through volcanic ashes A Ryanair Boeing 737-800, registration EI-ENP performing flight FR-8179 from Tenerife South,CI (Spain) to Brussels Charleroi (Belgium), was climbing through about 6000 feet out of Tenerife's runway 07 when the crew turned right to avoid an ash cloud initially continuing the climb. Over the Island of Gran Canaria the aircraft turned back onto course to the north. Climbing through FL220 the crew stopped the climb however and decided to declare emergency and return to Tenerife due to problems with both engines. The aircraft entered a hold at FL120 in the clear south of Fuerteventura Island and subsequently landed safely on Tenerife South's runway 07 about 2 hours after departure. Passengers reported a lot of emergency services were awaiting the aircraft. Apparently both engines had ingested ashes of the volcano Cumbre Vieja on La Palma Island about 75nm northwest of Tenerife South Airport. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration EI-EGD reached Charleroi with a delay of 6.5 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Tenerife about 42 hours after landing back. http://avherald.com/h?article=4ee9dfe1&opt=0 Boeing 737-8AS (WL) - Bird Strike (U.K.) Date: 13-OCT-2021 Time: 06:55 UTC Type: Boeing 737-8AS (WL) Owner/operator: Ryanair Registration: EI-EKR MSN: 38503/3202 Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Unknown Location: near Manchester - United Kingdom Phase: Take off Nature: Passenger - Scheduled Departure airport: Manchester International Airport (MAN/EGCC) Destination airport: Lanzarote Airport (ACE/GCRR) Narrative: Ryanair flight FR2131, a Boeing 737-8AS, suffered a bird strike on departure from Manchester Airport, U.K. The flight crew stopped the climb at 3000 feet and entered a holding pattern north of Liverpool before safely diverting to Liverpool Airport, where it landed about one our after takeoff from Manchester. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/268510 Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk -Ditching (Philippines) Date: 14-OCT-2021 Time: Type: Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk Owner/operator: Royal Australian Navy Registration: MSN: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Philippine Sea - Philippines Phase: En route Nature: Military Departure airport: HMAS Brisbane Destination airport: Narrative: An MH-60R Seahawk helicopter ditched in the Philippine Sea during a routine flight. There were three crew members on board who were rescued approximately 20 minutes later with minor injuries. The aircraft was based on HMAS Brisbane, a Hobart-class air warfare destroyer operated by the Royal Australian Navy. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/268515 American Eagle Jet Returns To Logan Airport After Bird Strike BOSTON (CBS) – A plane on its way to Washington, D.C., from Boston was forced to return to Logan Airport when it hit a bird. The American Eagle flight operated by Republic Airways landed safely just after 7 p.m. Wednesday, moments after taking off. Flight 4696 landed without incident and returned to the gate where maintenance crews inspected the plane. There were 76 passengers and four crewmembers onboard the Embraer ERJ-175. There are no reported injuries. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating. https://boston.cbslocal.com/2021/10/13/logan-airport-bird-strike/ Fact check: Delta debunks rumor that vaccinated pilot died mid-flight The claim: A vaccinated Delta pilot died mid-flight After Southwest canceled thousands of flights over the weekend, social media users spread a false rumor that the delays were due to a pilot protest over the company's vaccine mandate. Now, one of the airline's competitors has become a target of misinformation. "Sources: VAXXED Delta Pilot DIES IN-FLIGHT, Emergency Landing Required," reads text in a video posted Oct. 12 on Instagram. The clip, viewed more than 1,800 times in a day, comes from an Oct. 11 episode of the conservative "Stew Peters Show." In it, a self-described "new right political pundit" named Jane Ruby cited "three separate whistleblowers" to support the Delta pilot claim. "A pilot died in flight within the last, I'd say, 10 days, according to these sources," she said during the video, which racked up more than 340,000 views on Rumble within two days. "The flight had to make an emergency landing. We are now learning this is an LAX-based captain." Ruby, who has falsely claimed the COVID-19 vaccines are magnetic, made it seem like the shot was to blame for the pilot's death. But the tale doesn't hold water. Fact check:Video of Dr. Anthony Fauci saying he wouldn't get COVID-19 test is outdated Delta told USA TODAY the rumor is baseless, and the Federal Aviation Administration said there's no evidence the incident described in the video occurred. The coronavirus vaccines do not cause death. USA TODAY reached out to Peters, Ruby and the Instagram user who shared her claim for comment. Delta says no pilot died As other independent fact-checking outlets have noted, there is no evidence a vaccinated Delta pilot recently died mid-flight. The airline says this didn't happen. “Delta is aware of reports suggesting one of the airline’s pilots passed away from vaccine complications while operating a flight, resulting in an emergency landing," Morgan Durrant, a spokesperson for Delta, told USA TODAY in an email. "All of these allegations are false." A Delta Air Lines plane lands near a COVID-19 testing sign at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on August 25, 2021. Maria Njoku, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said in an email the agency "has found no evidence such an event occurred." USA TODAY could find no media reports or other evidence to substantiate Ruby's claim. All three coronavirus vaccines authorized in the U.S. have been found to be safe and effective at preventing serious COVID-19 cases. The shots do not cause death, as USA TODAY has previously reported. "Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website. "A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records, has not established a causal link to COVID-19 vaccines." Our rating: False Based on our research, we rate the claim that a vaccinated Delta pilot died mid-flight FALSE. The airline says this didn't happen, and the FAA said it hasn't seen any evidence the incident occurred. The coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective at preventing severe COVID-19 cases – they do not cause death. Our fact-check sources: • USA TODAY, Oct. 10, Southwest Airlines flight woes continue: 1,000 Sunday cancellations … and counting • USA TODAY, Oct. 11, Fact check: Southwest Airlines, union deny rumor that pilot sickout caused flight delays • USA TODAY, June 21, Fact check: COVID-19 vaccines aren't magnetic • Maria Njoku, Oct. 13, Email exchange with USA TODAY • Morgan Durrant, Oct. 13, Email exchange with USA TODAY • Lead Stories, Oct. 12, Fact Check: A 'VAXXED' Delta Pilot Did NOT Die In-Flight Requiring An Emergency Landing • USA TODAY, June 28, Fact check: Vaccine Adverse Reporting System isn't proof of COVID-19 vaccine deaths • USA TODAY, April 30, Fact check: COVID-19 vaccines don’t cause death, won’t decimate world’s population • USA TODAY, April 13, Comparing the COVID-19 vaccines • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accessed Oct. 13, Selected Adverse Events Reported after COVID-19 Vaccination • PolitiFact, Oct. 13, No, a vaccinated Delta pilot didn’t die mid-flight and force an emergency landing https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/10/13/fact-check-vaccinated-delta-pilot-didnt-die-mid-flight/8436344002/ Argus Unveils Highest Safety Rating with Platinum Elite Argus International (Booth 1127) has rolled out what will be its highest safety rating of Part 135 operations called Platinum Elite, which instead of the traditional two-year audit is a real-time operational safety performance monitoring program. The audit company said Platinum Elite provides timely visibility to significant changes in an operator's safety management system (SMS) and connects operator SMS conformance to real-time operational safety performance. The audit program was developed over six years with the assistance of charter operator Jet Linx, which provided input and data to Argus during Platinum Elite’s development cycle. Omaha, Nebraska-based Jet Linx also becomes the first Part 135 operator to achieve a Platinum Elite rating. On Wednesday, Argus announced two additional operators to achieve Platinum Elite: Alerion Aviation and N-Jet. “Since our initial partnership with Argus in 2007 as one of the first private aviation operators to receive an Argus Platinum rating, we have been steadfast in our commitment to elevate safety in our industry,” said Jet Linx president and CEO Jamie Walker. “Now, as the first operator to receive Platinum Elite status, we are excited to usher in a new standard of safety in private aviation and in transparency to the private aviation consumer.” https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2021-10-13/argus-unveils-highest-safety-rating-platinum-elite Single-Pilot Program Trains Solo Jet Pilots, And Boosts Insurability Single-pilots of light jets can now combine a rigorous training program with preferential insurance coverage. Single pilots of jets now have a new opportunity to experience a rigorous training regimen that dovetails with preferred consideration for insurance. Training provider CAE is partnering with Starr Insurance Companies in a program designed to both ensure a high level of safety and simultaneously increase insurability for both owner-pilots and commercial operators moving up to jets. CAE’s program consists of an 18-month mentorship training cycle using scenario-based simulator training, the company’s Flight Training Data Monitoring with CAE Rise, in-aircraft mentoring and Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT). The mentoring sessions for participants involve classroom sessions in simulators as well as live aircraft training based on mentoring sessions with “specially trained and highly experienced instructors,” according to CAE. Nick Leontidis, CAE’s Group president of Civil Aviation Training Solutions, outlined the impetus for the program: “Insurance rates continue to rise and are sometimes unattainable for operators of single-pilot aircraft who don’t have the experience of career pilots.” Kyle Sparks, senior vice president and chief underwriting officer of Starr Aviation, echoed Leontidis’ concern: “Aircraft owner pilots of single-pilot jet aircraft are a particularly difficult class to insure. CAE’s rigorous professional flight training regimen will help owner-pilots fly safer. And the extensive flight behavior data we’ll get from the program will ensure more accurate insurance underwriting. This initiative will help many of these owners secure the insurance coverage they need for their expensive aircraft.” https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/single-pilot-program-trains-solo-jet-pilots-and-boosts-insurability/ ANA Pilots Can Now Fly Both Airbus A380 & A320 While this doesn’t impact passengers much, as an avgeek I find this to be an awesome development. In this post: Airline pilots are rated on specific aircraft All Nippon Airways introduces mixed fleet flying for pilots Bottom line Airline pilots are rated on specific aircraft Generally speaking, airline pilots are type rated on specific jets, meaning that they’re trained to fly specific aircraft. That makes sense, because being a pilot is a highly technical job, and requires a lot of training and expertise. Not only do planes handle differently, but pilots are trained for every possible emergency scenario on a particular plane. Pilots are trained on specific aircraft types That being said, in some cases there’s a common type rating between planes, meaning that pilots can often fly multiple types of aircraft: At most airlines, pilots can fly any variant of a particular type of aircraft; in other words, a pilot might fly the Airbus A320 family of aircraft, and that include the A319, A320, A321, A321neo, A321LR, etc. When there’s enough cockpit commonality, pilots can sometimes also fly otherwise different types of jets; for example, the 757 and 767 can have a common type rating, as can the A330 and A350 Well, Airbus has just taken it to the next level when it comes to common type ratings. All Nippon Airways introduces mixed fleet flying for pilots Pilots at All Nippon Airways (ANA) will soon engage in mixed fleet flying (MFF) for the Airbus A380 and A320. This follows approval for the plan by Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB). ANA will be the first airline in the world to introduce mixed fleet flying between the A380 and A320. In other words, a pilot might fly an Airbus A380 one day, and then the next day might fly an Airbus A320. While flying between fleet types isn’t unheard of (as I explained above), the A380 and A320 are very different planes. The maximum takeoff weight of the A380 is nearly 10x as much as that of the A320. Wow! The benefits to airlines here are huge: This allows a lot more efficient scheduling, since you have a larger pool of pilots who can fly either plane, rather than just one plane; that means you need fewer reserve pilots, hours can more easily be optimized, etc. This is especially valuable at the moment, when ANA has grounded much of its A380 fleet, meaning those pilots don’t have a lot of flying, and for that matter are struggling to stay “current” on their rating; they can now start flying the A320 In theory this also allows airlines to better match capacity to demand last minute; in other words, if a flight isn’t very full then a smaller plane could be substituted with the same pilots, though I doubt that will be happening much between the A380 and A320 😉 All Nippon Airways Airbus A380 I do wonder how this works in terms of pilot pay. At many airlines, pay scales differ based on how big of a plane you’re flying, and then seniority plays into which plane you fly. With mixed fleet flying, will pilots get paid more when flying an A380 than an A320, or will there just be a consistent price somewhere in the middle? Bottom line Thanks to new approval from Japan’s Civil Aviation Bureau, All Nippon Airways pilots will be able to fly both the A380 and A320. While the concept of a common type rating between planes is normal, I don’t think we’ve ever seen this big of a contrast between “common” planes in commercial aviation, as the A380 has a maximum takeoff weight almost 10x as high as that of the A320. This improvement will make pilot scheduling more efficient, and should save the airline a bit of money. Maybe not as much as Airbus’ plan to reduce pilot staffing on the A350, but then again, this shouldn’t be as controversial either. https://onemileatatime.com/news/ana-pilots-fly-airbus-a380-a320/ Qantas scrambles to retrain pilots as it plots path out of pandemic Now on the cusp of having come through the aviation industry’s most damaging black swan moment, Qantas is facing a staffing hangover - having to retrain at least 200 pilots to ready itself for flying. This follows 238 pilot redundancies during COVID - an exercise that one industry player estimated had cost it between $60 million to $70 million. With borders set to open in the near future Qantas (and probably Virgin also) is faced with a mad scramble to have appropriate staff to fly. And the retraining exercise is exacerbated by the arcane pecking order system that governs pilot placements. When one pilot goes, the vacancy he or she creates needs to be offered to the next most senior pilot, regardless of whether that person is trained for that particular aircraft. The industry jargon for this exercise is referred to as the movement in ‘fleets and seats’ - ie a different aircraft and a change in seniority. This causes a ripple effect among the pilot cohort that requires a significant retraining exercise. Not only has COVID had its effect on staffing cockpits, the retirement of Qantas’ 747 aircraft has also triggered the need to retrain those pilots. Moreover, there’s the issue of replenishing the cabin crew, with many flight attendants having left the aviation industry. This raises questions about whether Qantas boss Alan Joyce was too quick on the draw when he accepted redundancies of more than 230 pilots, as COVID grounded the aviation sector globally. There is an argument that it would have been cheaper for Qantas to hold on to pilots rather than pay them redundancy, and with the value of hindsight, that might have been a more cost-effective plan. The shedding of roughly a third of Qantas’ workforce came at a time when group revenue had fallen to a trickle, forcing it to raise equity and bolster its debt facilities as it lost billions of dollars. In the 2021 financial year, Qantas lost $1.73 billion representing a slight improvement on the previous year’s loss of $1.96 billion. While Australian airlines now have some visibility on when some domestic borders will open and an expectation that select international routes will open from November and December, there’s no real clarity on whether the initial rush of expected demand before Christmas will extend into next year. The extent to which holidaymakers are comfortable enough to travel overseas next year is questionable. Some analysts have estimated pre-COVID international travel will not return until 2023 or even 2024. Additionally, overseas business travel is expected to be sluggish through 2022. This will require Qantas to remain quite fluid on bringing mothballed aircraft and their crews back into service. The aviation landscape in Australia has also changed significantly since COVID hit in early 2020. Virgin having been placed into administration has been re-birthed with new owners and a more mid-market skew. It has also abandoned its budget carrier Tigerair, leaving that segment to Jetstar alone. The regional airline REX has also expanded its wings to take on some Australian major capital city routes. It also markets itself as a mid-market carrier and as such provides more competition with Virgin. The latest entrant, Bonza, which only unveiled a rough sketch of its plans this week is pitching at the very budget end of the spectrum. It hasn’t announced which routes it will contest but appears to be targeting tourist destinations rather than capital city markets. While Qantas share price dipped on the announcement of Bonza it fully recovered on Wednesday as shareholders discounted it as a competitive threat. https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/qantas-scrambles-to-retrain-pilots-as-it-plots-path-out-of-pandemic-20211013-p58zpx.html After a record gun haul this year, TSA identifies 10 airports with most firearms seized The discoveries are rare but up sharply, the agency said Transportation Security Administration agents have caught 4,495 firearms at security checkpoints so far this year, marking a 20-year record. The discoveries are rare but up sharply, the agency said. So far in 2021, officers have found 11 guns in carry-on bags for every 1 million passengers screened, the TSA said. When the previous annual record of 4,432 guns was set in 2019, the rate was 5 firearms per million passengers screened. It’s unclear whether passengers are more clueless or reckless, officials say, or precisely what is driving the increase. A decade ago, agents found 1,320 guns on passengers, according to TSA. Agency officials didn’t point to changes by officers themselves to the explain the increase. “We believe that more people are carrying guns with them,” TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. “The most common excuse is that they claim that they forgot that they had their gun with them.” Twenty years after 9/11 attacks, Congress now looks at the future of DHS and TSA TSA Administrator David Pekoske called the number of nabbed guns alarming. They “introduce an unnecessary risk at checkpoints, have no place in the passenger cabin of an airplane, and represent a very costly mistake for the passengers,” Pekoske said, pointing to escalating penalties for repeat offenders and loaded guns. Agents caught guns at 248 airports, according to the TSA. The 10 airports with the highest tallies are as follows: • Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (391) • Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (232) • George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston (168) • Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (147) • Nashville International Airport (115) • Denver International Airport (107) • Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (107) • Salt Lake City International Airport (90) • Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (90) • Dallas Love Field (88) https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2021/10/13/tsa-record-guns/ Pakistan Airlines suspends Afghan operations citing Taliban interference ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) suspended flights to the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Thursday after what it called heavy handed interference by Taliban authorities, including arbitrary rule changes and intimidation of staff. The suspension took place as the Taliban government ordered the airline, the only international company operating regularly out of Kabul, to cut ticket prices to levels seen before the fall of the Western-backed Afghan government in August. "We are suspending our flight operations to Kabul from today because of the heavy handedness of the authorities," a spokesman said. Earlier, the Taliban warned PIA and Afghan carrier Kam Air that their Afghan operations risked being blocked unless they agreed to cut ticket prices, which have spiralled to levels out of reach for most Afghans. With most airlines no longer flying to Afghanistan, tickets for flights to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, have been selling for as much as $2,500 on PIA, according to travel agents in Kabul, compared with $120-$150 before. The Afghan transport ministry said in a statement prices on the route should "be adjusted to correspond with the conditions of a ticket before the victory of the Islamic Emirate" or the flights would be stopped. It urged passengers and others to report any violations. Flights between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been severely limited since Kabul airport was reopened last month in the wake of the chaotic evacuation of more than 100,000 Westerners and vulnerable Afghans following the Taliban victory. PIA, which runs chartered flights to Kabul rather than regular commercial services, said it had maintained the flights on "humanitarian grounds" and faced insurance premiums of as much as $400,000 per flight. "The insurance premiums on these flights are so high that it is simply impossible to operate scheduled flights to Kabul, as it is still considered a war zone by aircraft insurance companies and lessors," the company said in a statement. No comment was immediately available from Kam Air. PIA said that ever since the new Taliban government was formed, its staff in Kabul had faced last-minute changes in regulations and flight permissions and "highly intimidating behaviour" from Taliban commanders. It said its country representative had been held at gunpoint for hours at one point and was only freed after the Pakistan embassy in Kabul intervened. With a mounting economic crisis adding to worries about Afghanistan's future under the Taliban, there has been heavy demand for flights out, made worse by repeated problems at land border crossings into Pakistan. The main passport office in Kabul has been besieged by people trying to get travel documents since it reopened this month. The flights have also been used by international officials and aid workers travelling to Kabul. https://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-airline-suspends-afghan-operations-100832868.html NBAA Honors Aviation Safety Advocate Robert Sumwalt with Silk Scarf Award at NBAA-BACE In recognition of his lifelong commitment to aviation safety, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) honored Robert Sumwalt, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), with the association’s Silk Scarf Award at NBAA’s Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) in Las Vegas. Sumwalt served as a board member at the NTSB from 2006-2021 and was nominated by President Donald Trump in 2017 to serve as the 14th chairman of the NTSB. Before joining the board, Sumwalt was a pilot for 32 years and has accumulated more than 14,000 flight hours, including more than two decades flying for commercial airlines, as well as business aviation. “Throughout his extensive career, Robert has been a fierce advocate for improving safety across all modes of transportation,” said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. “Business aviation has benefitted tremendously from his work, and I am honored to bestow NBAA’s Silk Scarf Award to Robert in appreciation of his contributions to our industry and to aviation safety worldwide.” Sumwalt, a former member of the NBAA Safety Committee, has written extensively on aviation safety matters, publishing more than 100 articles on transportation safety and aircraft accident investigation and co-authoring the book Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports. He also served as a consultant to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) for eight years. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Aeronautical Science (with distinction) from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), with concentrations in aviation/aerospace safety systems and human factors aviation systems. Sumwalt also received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of South Carolina, and an honorary doctorate from ERAU. He is the recipient of the Flight Safety Foundation Laura Taber Barbour Air Safety Award and the Flight Safety Foundation – Boeing Lifetime Achievement Award and is an inductee into the South Carolina Aviation Hall of Fame. About the Silk Scarf Award In an effort to honor outstanding business aviation community members and inspire future aviators, the NBAA Silk Scarf Award is given to individuals for special contributions to the business aviation community during their careers. https://www.aviationpros.com/aircraft/business-general-aviation/press-release/21242262/national-business-aviation-association-nbaa-nbaa-honors-aviation-safety-advocate-robert-sumwalt-with-silk-scarf-award-at-nbaabace Searching for Solutions to Alaska’s High Rate of Deadly Air Crashes Our investigation revealed that Alaska has a growing share of the country’s deadly crashes from small commercial flights. Here’s what experts say could be done to improve aviation safety in the state. More than five decades ago, a flight carrying Doug Groothuis’ father crashed while taking off from the northernmost community in Alaska. Labor leader Harold Groothuis was killed, as were the plane’s pilot and five other passengers. Doug Groothuis, who was 11 at the time, remembers being in his bedroom that November 1968 night and watching Walter Cronkite mention his father by name in a CBS Evening News report on the fatal accident in Barrow, now known as Utqiagvik. Groothuis’ mother went back to work and raised him in Anchorage, far away from relatives in California and New York. Sometimes Groothuis, an only child, wonders what his life would have been like if his father hadn’t died. “Most Alaskans, Alaskan boys, love to hunt and fish, and they can fire guns and cut up fish and cut up moose and go trapping and all these things. I was kind of on that road with my dad because he was a great outdoorsman,” Groothuis said. “But when he died, there was nobody to take over to help me learn how to do those Alaska-specific kinds of things.” Doug Groothuis, whose father, Harold Groothuis, died in a plane crash in the northernmost community in Alaska. Credit:Brian Adams for ProPublica Crashes involving small commercial aircraft, like the one that carried Groothuis’ father, have long drawn the attention of federal officials. Though decades have passed, these accidents persist at high rates. In June, KUCB and ProPublica reported that Alaska makes up a growing share of the country’s fatalities from crashes involving commuter, air taxi and charter flights. As deaths in crashes involving these operators have plummeted nationwide, Alaska’s share of fatalities in such crashes has increased from 26% in the early 2000s to 42% since 2016, our analysis showed. Many experts told us that the Federal Aviation Administration hadn’t done enough to improve aviation safety in the state. The FAA oversees air travel in the country and carries much of the responsibility for making Alaskan air travel safer. We spoke with experts in government, regulation and aviation safety, as well as Alaska flight operators, to ask what could be done to improve Alaska aviation. They offered a range of solutions: bolstering weather information for aviators, expanding the use of collision avoidance technology, and providing more opportunities for pilots to use technology for flying through poor weather. Below are details on their recommendations. A Need for Better Weather Information Alaska is bigger in area than Texas, California and Montana combined, but it is the nation’s most sparsely populated state. More than 80% of communities cannot be accessed by the road system. Planes are essential to everyday life, but flying conditions in Alaska are more challenging than almost anywhere else. Weather conditions change rapidly. In general, pilots are guided in flight by one of two ways: when the weather is clear — without clouds or storms — pilots can rely on their vision to spot other airplanes and terrain they want to avoid. But at higher elevations or in bad weather, electronic instruments and controls in the cockpit are vital; a pilot cannot fly without them. In Alaska, instrument flight is hampered by two obstacles: inadequate access to weather information and a lack of FAA-approved approaches that pilots could use to fly with instruments into and out of many of the state’s airports. The equipment necessary to monitor weather patterns and relay them to pilots isn’t as robust as in the lower 48, and there are places where there isn’t any weather information available. In these areas, flying with instruments isn’t permitted at the low altitudes where most smaller planes fly, leaving pilots reliant on what they see out of their cockpits or grounded when the weather is bad. When weather conditions deteriorate rapidly, pilots flying without instruments can become disoriented, lose track of where they are and crash. Between 2010 and 2020, there were at least six fatal commercial crashes in Alaska in which investigators listed weather as a cause or factor, according to data from the National Transportation Safety Board. (The federal agency, which investigates transportation accidents, was founded a year before the crash that killed Groothuis’ father.) Over the years, the FAA has worked to increase access to weather information, through both weather cameras and systems that transmit automated broadcasts to pilots. The FAA is also currently testing a new technology that can provide weather bulletins plus video of the current weather directly to pilots' mobile devices or through flight service stations. These new systems cost about half as much as the older stations because they are easier to set up and their sites take up less space on the ground. Some pilots say they are equally as effective if not more so. Despite that, the FAA does not currently provide sufficient weather information for many villages. Only half of Alaska’s publicly owned airports have the FAA-approved weather reporting necessary for instrument flight. Some operators are tired of waiting for the FAA. “We have spent a ton of money putting in advanced avionics in all of our aircraft — glass cockpits and everything — that make everything safer,” said Dan Knesek, vice president of operations at Grant Aviation, an airline that serves the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Bristol Bay and the Aleutian Islands. “We would love to be able to operate to the majority of our villages under instrument flight rules, which is a much safer and controlled environment. But we cannot.” Scott Van Valin is the co-owner and director of operations for Island Air Express, a small commuter air carrier offering scheduled service between Ketchikan and Prince of Wales Island, as well as charter service. Van Valin said Island Air Express installed its own weather station at El Capitan Lodge on Prince of Wales Island, something the FAA has approved under a program that allows operators to create their own company weather programs. It cost Island Air Express about $90,000 and Van Valin said it took about six months for the FAA to sign off on the routes his company developed to fly into and out of the city of Klawock. The route, known as an approach, was specifically tailored to their aircraft to let them fly with instruments at lower altitudes than typically allowed. Island Air Express is currently working to build up to 18 instrument approaches across southeast Alaska; Van Valin hopes they will be finished in the next year. The FAA acknowledges in an interim report from its new Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative that “many if not most” small commercial aircraft are not equipped to fly using instruments and that Alaska’s mountainous terrain and weather “underscore the need for reliable infrastructure” that supports both instrument flight at low altitudes and flights where pilots go by what they can see out the window. In a written statement, the FAA added that for the last two decades improving Alaska aviation safety through expanded flight tracking and increased access to real-time weather information has been one of the agency's top priorities. Technology Can Prevent Collisions, but It’s Not Always Used Collision avoidance technology can alert pilots to the presence of other aircraft flying nearby. Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast systems, or ADS-B, and their associated ground infrastructure were hailed as a marked improvement over traditional radar systems when they launched in the 1990s. A joint industry and FAA research project called Capstone equipped 388 aircraft in southeast Alaska and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in the western part of the state with ADS-B systems between 1999 and 2006. The project found crash rates in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta decreased after the planes were equipped with the technology. That led the FAA to introduce rules in January 2020 to mandate the use of ADS-B for nearly all of the lower 48. But the rule only applies to most controlled airspace, which the agency defines in a way that excludes most of Hawaii and Alaska. Many planes in Alaska are not equipped with ADS-B, in part because it is only required at very high altitudes and around the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage. And even for planes that are equipped, there is limited ground station coverage: under half the state at 3,000 feet above ground level is covered and even less than that at lower altitudes, although the FAA says the stations cover most popular flight paths. Ground stations provide weather and traffic information to planes; planes with the proper equipment can also see each other’s location without ground stations. “There are black holes in the state,” said Knesek, of Grant Aviation. “We move aircraft around all the time between bases, and I see it all the time. I see in the Aleutian chain, when they drop below a certain altitude, we do not see them on ADS-B anymore.” Four aviation groups wrote to the FAA and Alaska’s congressional delegation in October 2019 asking for additional ground stations. “Filling these gaps should also encourage more aviation businesses and aircraft owners who fly in Alaska to equip, as they will obtain the benefits in the areas they operate.” The NTSB, on the other hand, believes use of ADS-B should be mandatory in more areas. The agency investigates accidents and makes safety recommendations, although it has no authority to enact them. In its final report on a May 2019 midair collision in Ketchikan, where six people were killed and 10 were injured, the NTSB included recommendations that ADS-B be required for all aircraft in high-traffic air tour areas, like Ketchikan. The FAA would not say if it plans to expand the areas in Alaska where ADS-B is mandated. In a written statement, the FAA said it has worked with the Alaska aviation industry to provide enhanced coverage. For now, the agency said, it is focused on encouraging operators to voluntarily equip themselves with the technology. Not all pilots want ADS-B in their aircraft. On pilot Facebook groups, some have raised concerns that it would function as a surveillance tool “used by big brother to watch you, and potentially violate you,” according to one pilot. Jens Hennig, vice president of operations at the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and a member of several FAA rule-making committees, said he doesn’t understand why that stops people from using the technology. “The FAA will not be conducting enforcement actions unless you’re out there doing something that is questionable, illegal or against the rules,” Hennig said. “And based on their resources these days you pretty much have to be out there doing something pretty egregious for the FAA to go after you.” Another reason some pilots say they aren’t interested in ADS-B is the cost, which would likely be borne by operators or plane owners. Garmin sells full ADS-B devices — which transmit a plane’s location and show where other aircraft are — for $5,395; it has partial units, for $1,795, that broadcast an aircraft’s location to other ADS-B systems and ground stations. Mandating Additional Safety Plans a Priority for Some, Not for Others The NTSB’s latest Most Wanted List, which highlights the safety board’s highest priority recommendations, includes two aviation-related measures. One would mandate commercial operators that carry passengers to have a formal safety management system. For example, prior to a flight, an operator might fill out a risk assessment form, recording information on such items as the weather conditions, a pilot’s emotional state and the weight of the aircraft. Then, another person could review the form and determine whether it is safe to fly under those conditions. Since 2015, the FAA has required large commercial airliners such as United, American, and Delta to use these safety systems. But the FAA does not require them for smaller commercial operators, many of which operate in Alaska. Some experts say they should be required. A week before the NTSB declared that safety plans were a top priority, Richard McSpadden, senior vice president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a national nonprofit aviation group, wrote a letter to then-NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt opposing the effort. He wrote that when the plans are “thrust upon operations without regard to the size, and type of operation,” they “can be a deceiving facade, expensive and time-consuming to develop with no real impact on operations.” The NTSB said the safety management system mandate would look very different for a large airline like Southwest than it would for a single-pilot operation. Across the board, though, it requires operators to write down what they are doing to manage risk. Matt Atkinson, the co-owner of Northern Alaska Tour Company, Warbelow’s Air Ventures and Wright Air Service, said his companies, which together have nearly 40 planes, are currently developing safety management programs, even though they are not required to do so. He said the companies, which conduct flights around Fairbanks and the North Slope, are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their programs up and running, with a staff member dedicated to the effort. But Atkinson said the systems might be challenging for smaller operators, who already do many of these safety checks in their heads. “I think that for smaller operators, the concepts that are trying to be conveyed by SMS are quite difficult to capture — at a single pilot or a very small pilot operation — because they're just so ingrained, you know,” Atkinson said. For a company his size, he said, SMS does make sense in order to “capture some things that are going to make us safer and catch or capture a trend and prevent something from happening.” The FAA is expected to announce a proposed rule regarding these safety systems in September 2022, though the agency wouldn’t say what it would cover. Another top NTSB recommendation would require commercial operators to install devices on their planes to collect data about their flights, and then analyze it. Flight data monitoring programs are separate systems meant to identify anomalies in past flying. Experts say the insights from analyzing this data can help prevent accidents. In Alaska, Atkinson says some operators already do limited flight data monitoring by paying for satellite tracking of their planes. “There Is a Place for the Law” To this day, Doug Groothuis, who splits his time between Colorado and Alaska, has never flown on a small plane. Recently, a friend — who is a pilot — invited him on a flight, but Groothuis declined the offer because it would have been purely for enjoyment. For him, the risk of injury or death is too high unless the trip were part of his livelihood or to help others. “Maybe I’m not a very good Alaskan, because I don’t really like risks a whole lot, at least risk to life and limb, you know,” Groothuis said. “I’m not a big hunter or mountain climber or anything like that.” Even as a self-proclaimed political conservative, Groothuis hopes for serious discussion of what possibilities exist for better aviation safety in Alaska and that elected officials will look at, if applicable, appropriate legislation. “Alaskans have this real independent streak. And that can be good. Be self-reliant. Not want to sponge off other people. Be hardy. Live off the land. That’s all terrific, but we’re still part of a state and a nation,” Groothuis said. “There is a place for the law to try to minimize unnecessary injury and fatalities.” https://www.propublica.org/article/searching-for-solutions-to-alaskas-high-rate-of-deadly-air-crashes United Airlines flies first commercial jet on sustainable fuel from IAH United Airlines test flight with 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel takes off from IAH in Houston on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. The airline is hoping to have its whole fleet be sustainable in 2050. Chicago-based United Airlines on Wednesday launched a test flight of a commercial aircraft on 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel in Houston. A Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft circled George Bush Intercontinental Airport for an hour and a half, flying on one engine of the sustainable fuel and a second engine filled with traditional jet fuel to compare the performance and demonstrate that there were no operational issues with the alternative fuel. The 737 aircraft, which seats up to 150, had only two United Airlines pilots on board for the test flight, director of flight testing Ryan Smith and chief test pilot Ty Loutzemheiser. The test flight went smoothly, said Smith, who has 37 years of experience as a pilot. “It went great,” Smith said. “The SAF operated in the airplane exactly as we expected, matching the performance of the jet fuel going into the left engine.” United will be the first commercial airline to operate a 100 percent drop-in SAF flight, in partnership with Chicago-based Boeing, Virent of Madison, Wis., and Marathon Petroleum of Houston, CFM/GE Aviation of Cincinnati and World Energy of Boston, the carrier said. Drop-in SAF meets current petroleum-based jet fuel requirements and can be substituted for jet fuel without any modifications to engines and airframes. The 737 Max 8 is the same aircraft that will be used when the first passenger flight using SAF takes flight, likely by year-end, from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. Passengers will experience no difference with the change to SAF, Smith said. “From the flight deck, we didn’t notice anything in terms of any different vibrations,” Smith said. “There was no smoke or smell. It felt just like being on a regular 737.” The move to SAF is part of United’s goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 100 percent by 2050, without relying on traditional carbon offsets. It also meets increased customer demand and government requirements for cleaner energy to reduce global warming. In the U.S., President Joe Biden in April pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030, in a push by the administration to aggressively combat climate change. The airline industry was decimated by the pandemic. International travel isn’t expected to rebound quickly because of lower vaccination rates in many parts of the globe and the resurgence of the coronavirus through the delta variant. Globally, jet fuel demand is expected to reach 5.8 million barrels per day in 2021, about 30 percent more than during 2020, the EIA said. Before the pandemic, some 7.5 million barrels of jet fuel were consumed daily around the world. But domestic U.S. travel for United has nearly reached pre-pandemic levels. The carrier said it will operate 3,500 daily flights in December, the most since the start of the pandemic. This figure represents 91 percent of the carrier’s capacity compared with December 2019, according to United. The new 737 Max 8, which joined the carrier’s domestic fleet on July 16, is the first of 270 jets scheduled to be delivered to United by 2025. Moreover, the carrier in July said it will buy 100 ES-19 aircraft from the Sweden-based electric aircraft startup Heart Aerospace. The ES-19, a 19-seat electric airplane that could hit the market as early as 2026, has the potential to fly up to 250 miles. By using electric motors instead of jet engines, and batteries instead of jet fuel, Heart’s ES-19 aircraft will have zero operational emissions. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/United-Airlines-flies-first-commercial-jet-on-16531101.php Fugro achieves new UK CAA accreditation as approved helideck monitoring systems provider Fugro has become one of the first companies to secure accreditation from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Helideck Certification Agency (HCA) as an approved supplier of helideck monitoring systems (HMS) conforming to the new 2021 UK CAA standards. The new standards were issued in November 2020 and apply to all offshore floating assets operating in European waters which have helidecks, and to floating assets overseas where UK-registered helicopters operate (excluding Norway, where Norwegian standards apply). The process to achieve this accreditation started in 2015 when the CAA awarded Fugro the contract to develop HMS software conforming to the CAA’s new specifications and trial the prototype HMS on an offshore floating asset, for which Fugro partnered with Ithaca Energy. The final product, which has been improved and refined over the last 5 years, is an optimised helideck monitoring system that improves the safety of helicopter operations on floating assets. Fugro’s complete helideck monitoring solution includes all hardware, software, remote and on-site support, and Geo-data analysis to allow helideck operators to update their systems to the new standards efficiently and cost-effectively. Commenting on the offshore trial, Will Richmond, Captain FPSO and Alba FSU Asset Director at Ithaca Energy, said: “Health and safety is our priority so we’re pleased to have been able to work closely with Fugro to assist in improving the safety and reliability of offshore helideck operations and meet the UK CAA’s high standards.” Alex Webb, Project Manager at Fugro, said: “As one of the first companies in the world to achieve accreditation to the new CAA HMS standards, the applied depth of knowledge and experience of our team will save helideck operators time in updating their systems and provide a robust HMS tailored to harsh offshore environments.” For more information Michael Quinnell m.quinnell@fugro.com Caption: Fugro has become one of the first approved providers of helideck monitoring systems conforming to the new 2021 UK CAA standards (CAP437-certified offshore helideck upgraded by Fugro shown) About Fugro Fugro is the world’s leading Geo-data specialist, collecting and analysing comprehensive information about the Earth and the structures built upon it. Adopting an integrated approach that incorporates acquisition and analysis of Geo-data and related advice, Fugro provides solutions. With expertise in site characterisation and asset integrity, clients are supported in the safe, sustainable and efficient design, construction and operation of their assets throughout the full life cycle. Employing approximately 9000 talented people in 61 countries, Fugro serves clients around the globe, predominantly in the energy and infrastructure industries, both offshore and onshore. In 2020, revenue amounted to EUR 1.4 billion. Fugro is listed on Euronext Amsterdam. www.fugro.com New Air Force Trainer Jet Program Supports ‘Reforge’ Concept The Air Force’s just-announced program to buy a new jet trainer is meant to support the “Reforge” overhaul of the fighter training enterprise put forward by Air Combat Command last year, but the program is in its earliest stage, and no timing for acquiring the airplane has been set, according to ACC. “The platform desired is one that will meet the Initial Tactical Training platform requirements within the Reforge [concept of operations],” an ACC spokesperson said. Additionally, USAF is considering the option for it to be “an Adversary Air platform and [have] potential for growth/adaptation as a tactical surrogate.” Air Force officials said a “tactical surrogate” could teach switchology and procedures to F-16 or F-35 pilots, for example, in a new aircraft in which the displays, possibly the controls, and the performance could be modified to simulate those fighters. The ACC spokesperson said the timing of setting a program to acquire the new aircraft will depend in part on the responses received to the request for information published Oct. 12, and no potential in-service date is yet available. Service officials have suggested the Boeing/Saab T-7A Red Hawk could, like the T-38, fulfill both the advanced undergraduate pilot training as well as lead-in fighter training and aggressor sparring-partner roles, but the Air Force is exploring competition before settling on a particular type. The service is “not limiting the aperture to any one platform” and is open to “any and all vendors that can meet the desired design,” the ACC spokesperson said. The team of Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries would likely be considered a contender for the program, as they competed strongly for the Air Force’s advanced trainer competition with their jointly developed T-50A. Air Combat Command is also looking at leasing T-50s, or a similar jet, to develop the Reforge concept while the T-7A completes development and ramps up production in a project known as the RFX. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson could not immediately comment on the company’s plans to respond to USAF’s new request for information. ACC put forward Reforge—short for “Rebuilding the Forge”—last year as the command’s planned overhaul of the fighter pilot training enterprise. It would consolidate some phases of pilot training and shift some instruction, previously done at receiving fighter training units, back to the undergraduate pilot phase. The goal is to accelerate the time needed to “grow” a flight lead—a fighter pilot who is qualified to lead a two-ship formation—by up to 18 months and free up some frontline fighters now held for training back to combat status. The Reforge concept was suggested in part by the T-7A’s advanced capabilities. The jet will be able to simulate, onboard, many of the visuals and procedures a pilot would experience in a frontline fighter. Air Education and Training Command has said it does not plan to operate the T-7A as it did the T-38, given that it can do more with the T-7A. The Air Force is not yet sure if the 351 T-7As on order will be enough to make Reforge work; it has options for at least 100 more. Neither ACC nor AETC have discussed whether they will develop a similar program for bomber pilots. The capabilities the Air Force said it’s looking for in the new Advanced Tactical Trainer echo those of the T-7A, although the Boeing airplane does not yet have external hardpoints, which USAF said it wants to be able to carry training rounds, data pods, electronic warfare gear, and extra fuel. The jet does have the simulation and playback capabilities ACC wants, and a ground simulator for the T-7A already exists; it could be modified to support new missions. The Reforge concept reduces the time needed to mature newly minted pilots in part by eliminating some of the change-of-station transitions they would otherwise have to make, each incurring lengthy out-of-cockpit delays and loss of momentum in training. Drafts of the concept suggested that transitioning from instruction in the T-7A to a fighter-like variant of it would further smooth out those delays and accelerate training, because of the similarity of the aircraft. The RFI said the Air Force wants at least 100 new jets in the Advanced Tactical Trainer role and may buy further lots of 50 aircraft, up to 200. https://www.airforcemag.com/new-air-force-trainer-jet-supports-reforge-concept/ China set to send 3 astronauts on longest crewed mission yet BEIJING (AP) — China is preparing to send three astronauts to live on its space station for six months — a new milestone for a program that has advanced rapidly in recent years. It will be China's longest crewed space mission and set a record for the most time spent in space by Chinese astronauts. The Shenzhou-13 spaceship is expected to be launched into space on a Long March-2F rocket early Saturday morning from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China. The first crew who served a 90-day mission aboard the main Tianhe core module of the space station returned in mid-September. The new crew has two veterans of space travel. Pilot Zhai Zhigang, 55, performed China’s first spacewalk. Wang Yaping, 41, and the only woman on the mission, carried out experiments and led a science class in real-time while traveling on one of China’s earlier experimental space stations. Ye Guangfu, 41, will be traveling into space for the first time. The mission is expected to continue the work of the initial crew, who conducted two spacewalks, deployed a 10-meter (33-foot) mechanical arm, and held a video call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China Manned Space Agency Deputy Director Lin Xiqiang said the rocket was fueled and ready to fly. “All systems conducting the Shenzhou-13 mission have undergone a comprehensive rehearsal. The flight crew is in good condition and our pre-launch preparations are in order," Lin said at a Thursday briefing. The crew's scheduled activities include up to three spacewalks to install equipment in preparation for expanding the station, verifying living conditions in the module and conducting experiments in space medicine and other areas, Lin said. China’s military, which runs the space program, has released few details but says it will send multiple crews to the station over the next two years to make it fully functional. Shenzhou-13 will be the fifth mission, including trips without crews to deliver supplies. When completed with the addition of two more modules — named Mengtian and Wentian — the station will weigh about 66 tons, a fraction of the size of the International Space Station, which launched its first module in 1998 and will weigh around 450 tons when completed. Lin said the two additional modules would be sent before the end of next year during the stay of the yet-to-be-named Shenzhou-14 crew. China was excluded from the International Space Station largely due to U.S. objections over the Chinese program’s secretive nature and close military ties. It made plans to build its own space stations in the early 1990s and had two experimental modules before starting on the permanent station. U.S. law requires congressional approval for contact between the American and Chinese space programs, but China is cooperating with space experts from countries including France, Sweden, Russia and Italy. Lin said China was expanding such cooperation, with Ye Guangfu having undergone training with the European Space Agency in 2016, and European astronauts participating in China's sea survival training in 2017. “We welcome astronauts from other countries entering our space station and conducting international cooperation," Lin said. “We believe that after the station enters the operation and utilization phase, more foreign astronauts will visit our station.” China has launched seven crewed missions with a total of 14 astronauts aboard since 2003, when it became only the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to put a person in space on its own. Two Chinese astronauts have flown twice. Along with its crewed missions, China has expanded its work on lunar and Mars exploration, including placing a rover on the little-explored far side of the Moon and returning lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s. China this year also landed its Tianwen-1 space probe on Mars, whose accompanying Zhurong rover has been exploring for evidence of life on the red planet. Other programs call for collecting soil from an asteroid and bring back additional lunar samples. China has also expressed an aspiration to land people on the moon and possibly build a scientific base there, although no timeline has been proposed for such projects. A highly secretive space plane is also reportedly under development. https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-set-send-3-astronauts-080535675.html Boeing's next Starliner test flight moves to first half of 2022 Those murmurs of lengthy delays for Boeing's next Starliner test flight turned out to be true. Space.com reports Boeing and NASA are now targeting an Orbital Flight Test-2 launch sometime in the first half of 2022. Engineers have narrowed down the likely causes of the oxidizer isolation valve problem that forced the team to scrap the August 2021 launch, but it remains a "complex issue" that requires a "methodical approach" to solve, according to Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich. Boeing has several possible solutions in the works, ranging from small tweaks to the existing crew capsule through to modifying a capsule still in production. The exact launch timing hinges on both the readiness of the hardware itself as well as the rocket manifest and access to the International Space Station. While this does suggest Starliner is moving forward, the delay further hurts Boeing's chances to compete with SpaceX in crewed capsule missions. SpaceX has already sent two crewed missions to the ISS, and it may have sent two more by the time the Starliner OFT-2 mission lifts off — Elon Musk's outfit will be a seasoned veteran before Boeing is cleared for its first occupied Starliner flight. It could be a long while before the two companies are taking turns ferrying people to orbit. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/boeing-starliner-test-flight-delayed-2022-164715835.html UAS Panel: Routine Operations in Controlled Airspace RTCA invites you to attend a virtual panel discussion on October 20 at 1pm ET. Panelists from Reliable Robotics, ICAO, FAA, and Thales join moderator Brandon Suarez from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., Co-Chair of RTCA Special Committee-228. Did you know that the FAA has already endorsed a set of standards that enable Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Uncrewed Aircraft (UA) operations in Controlled Airspace? One of the objectives of RTCA SC-228 has been to develop MASPS and MOPS to enable safe and efficient UAS operations in the National Airspace System. Most recently, SC-228 published DO-304A to lay out a new set of Use Cases that have been proposed by different segments of industry and the standardization work that will enable them. This webinar provides the industry with an update on the upcoming work of SC-228 that has applicability not just to UAS, but also Advanced Air Mobility and legacy NAS users such as General Aviation and Business Aviation. REGISTER Free: https://bit.ly/3al293X PhD - Graduate Research Survey Request (1) Calling All Pilots (and Non-Pilots) My name is Kurt Reesman and I am an Adult Education Ph.D. candidate teaching in the Department of Aviation at Auburn University. I invite you to participate in my research study entitled Training the Emerging Pilot Workforce: Does Generation and Gender Influence Curriculum Development? With your help, I will learn more about the following three questions: 1. Do non-pilots and pilots have different learning styles or preferences? 2. Do pilots in the Baby Boomer, Generation X, Generation Y (Millennials), and Generation Z generations have learning styles or preferences that differ from each other? 3. Do male pilots and female pilots have different learning styles or preferences? You may participate if you are 18 years or older. I am asking that you take 5-10 minutes of your time to complete an anonymous, on-line survey that asks you to provide basic demographic information and then answer 44 questions that only have 2 possible answers each. These questions are from the Felder and Solomon Index of Learning Styles questionnaire. If you are interested and eligible to participate, click the link below to begin the survey. If you would like to know more information, or have any questions about this study, you can send an email to Kurt Reesman at klr0051@auburn.edu or my advisor, Dr. James Witte at witteje@auburn.edu. Thank you for your consideration, Kurt Reesman, Lt Col, USAF (retired) Ph.D. Candidate / Lecturer Department of Aviation Auburn University Survey Link: https://auburn.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_88HSBAVREFUHLE1 Curt Lewis