Flight Safety Information - November 1, 2022 No. 211 In This Issue : Incident: American A321 at Los Angeles on Oct 28th 2022, flight control problems : Incident: Cargolux B748 at Los Angeles on Oct 30th 2022, wheel well fire indication : Incident: LATAM Cargo B763 at New York on Oct 29th 2022, gear problem : Air Force’s unvaccinated instructor pilots allowed to resume flying : PILOTS’ 737 MAX SUIT TOSSED OUT : United Airlines Flight Bound For São Paulo Turns Back Midair After Protestors Block Highway to Airport : Recovery of air safety rating now a binational priority for US and Mexico : P-FOQA Offers Lower-cost Safety Analysis : Mark Zuckerberg's private jet made 28 trips in just 2 months, emitting 17 times more carbon than the average American does in a year, report says : Interest in private jet flights to Hong Kong takes off after axing of hotel quarantine, return of mega events : SpaceX may send Starship on its first orbital flight in December : NASA plans its second human moon landing on Artemis 4 after all: Report : Research Study: Professional Pilot Occupational Risk(s) Survey : GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Incident: American A321 at Los Angeles on Oct 28th 2022, flight control problems An American Airlines Airbus A321-200, registration N117AN performing flight AA-184 from Los Angeles,CA to New York JFK,NY (USA), was climbing out of Los Angeles' runway 25R when the crew stopped the climb at FL190. The aircraft subsequently returned to Los Angeles for a safe landing on runway 25L about 40 minutes after departure. A replacement A321-200 registration N110AN reached New York with a delay of about 3.5 hours. A passenger reported the captain announced flight control problems as reason for the return to Los Angeles. https://avherald.com/h?article=5005fb8d&opt=0 Incident: Cargolux B748 at Los Angeles on Oct 30th 2022, wheel well fire indication A Cargolux Boeing 747-8 freighter, registration LX-VCH performing flight CV-4327 from Los Angeles,CA (USA) to Luxembourg (Luxembourg) with 3 crew, was climbing out of Los Angeles' runway 25L when the crew reported a wheel well fire indication and stopped the climb at 5000 feet. Subsequently the crew advised the indication had extinguished and requested to climb to 8000 feet to dump fuel. After climbing to 8000 feet the crew advised they needed to immediately land on runway 07L, the fire indication had re-occurred. The aircraft landed on runway 07L about 25 minutes after departure, emergency services reported everything appeared normal on the aircraft, no fire visible. The crew requested to shut the engines down on the runway and the emergency services to check their wheels/brake, they had done an overweight landing. The aircraft subsequently taxied to the apron. The aircraft remained on the ground for about 15 hours, then departed again to Luxembourg landing there. The aircraft is still on the ground in Luxembourg about 8 hours after landing in Luxembourg. https://avherald.com/h?article=5005f81f&opt=0 Incident: LATAM Cargo B763 at New York on Oct 29th 2022, gear problem A LATAM Cargo Boeing 767-300 freighter, registration N532LA performing flight L7-2516 from Zaragoza,SP (Spain) to New York JFK,NY (USA) with 4 crew on board, was on final approach to JFK's runway 04R when the crew initiated a go around reporting problems with the landing gear and requested vectors while troubleshooting. The aircraft was vectored near JFK at 2000 feet, the crew subsequently reported they could not lower the right hand landing gear and declared emergency, ATC offered runway 31L being the longest runway available. Emergency Services observing the aircraft on final approach to runway 31L reported the right hand gear appeared to be in the down and locked position. The aircraft touched down safely and rolled out coming to a stop at the end of the runway but needed to be towed off the runway. About 5 hours after landing the aircraft was towed off the runway. The aircraft is still on the ground in New York about 34 hours after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=5005f056&opt=0 Air Force’s unvaccinated instructor pilots allowed to resume flying The Air Force is allowing unvaccinated instructor pilots to return to the air after barring them from flight this summer, the service confirmed Oct. 28. Maj. Gen. Phillip Stewart, the head of 19th Air Force, said Oct. 25 that it is “in the best interest of the Air Force” for instructors to resume their regular in-flight duties until further notice, according to a memo obtained by Air Force Times. Nineteenth Air Force is a subunit of Air Education and Training Command that oversees the pilot training pipeline. Its restriction lasted just over two months. Aryn Lockhart, a spokesperson for the organization, said the move would bolster military readiness but did not offer further details. Stewart plans to revisit his decision once an ongoing class-action lawsuit challenging the vaccine mandate is resolved. The case, Hunter Doster, et al v. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, is heading toward a trial in U.S. District Court in Ohio. In July, a federal judge issued an injunction that stops the Air Force from punishing or separating anyone who filed a request to be exempted from the vaccine mandate on religious grounds. The Air Force had kicked out more than 830 airmen and guardians who refused vaccination as of July 11, the last time it updated that number. As of July 12, the Air Force had denied about 6,800 initial religious waiver requests and 3,600 appeals, and has not ruled on nearly 3,500 more cases. In contrast, 135 airmen and guardians had secured religious exemptions. The service had approved more than 1,000 medical and administrative exemptions as of Oct. 18. About 10,000 airmen and guardians are part of the class-action suit that argues the military is unfairly forcing people to receive a vaccine, which they object to on religious grounds, or lose their job. The group includes anyone in the active duty Air Force and Space Force, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, U.S. Air Force Academy and Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps who have asked for a religious exemption to the vaccine since Sept. 1, 2021, showed a sincere religious belief opposing the jab, and whose requests were denied or are not yet settled. Stewart noted that the injunction didn’t reverse his decision to stop instructors from flying. Still, he said, he felt it would be better to get pilots back in the air while the lawsuit is in limbo. While instructors can return to doing their jobs as usual, training for unvaccinated students will remain on hold. “In order to maximize readiness, training will be prioritized for student pilots who have received the vaccine,” Lockhart said. Service spokespeople have repeatedly told Air Force Times — both before and after the Aug. 19 order to ground unvaccinated instructors — that vaccine refusal hasn’t slowed pilot training. Air Education and Training Command hasn’t answered how many new pilots it graduated in fiscal 2022, which ended Sept. 30. The service typically aims to train around 1,500 new pilots annually but has fallen short in recent years. Nearly 12,000 airmen and Space Force guardians across the active duty force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve remain unvaccinated against COVID-19. They comprise 2.4% of about 497,000 total uniformed Air Force and Space Force members. The Air Force has declined to answer repeated requests for the number of unvaccinated instructor pilots. Most service members who refuse the shots say they oppose any connection to fetal cell lines or tissues that were derived from aborted fetuses years ago. Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA products used cells replicated from a fetus aborted in the 1970s to make sure the vaccines worked in human cells. The fetal cells were not used to produce either vaccine. Johnson & Johnson uses cells replicated from a fetus aborted in 1985 to produce its vaccine, but those cells are filtered out from the final product. Other vaccines that claim not to have remote ties to abortion practices, like India-made Covaxin and another made by the American company Novavax, are available now as well. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to encourage Americans to get fully vaccinated with one of the four vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. “COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States are effective at protecting people from getting seriously ill, being hospitalized and dying,” the CDC says. “As with other vaccine-preventable diseases, you are protected best from COVID-19 when you stay up to date with the recommended vaccinations, including … boosters.” More than 1 million Americans have died from coronavirus since the global pandemic began in December 2019. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2022/10/31/air-forces-unvaccinated-instructor-pilots-allowed-to-resume-flying/ PILOTS’ 737 MAX SUIT TOSSED OUT A Pilot’s 737 MAX suit has been tossed out after an Illinois federal judge said Monday that pilots have overreached both in their bid to recover damages for their purportedly diminished careers by claiming Boeing duped the international aviation community about the 737 Max jets, and in their repeat attempt to have the judge recuse himself from the case. As this is a complex case we have chosen to reprint the Law360 press statement in full and with no editing…… U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger dismantled the pilots’ consolidated proposed class action alleging their careers were sidelined when The Boeing Co.’s 737 Max jets were grounded globally for 20 months after two deadly crashes, saying it was a textbook case of how a theory of liability can stretch the chain of causation too far. Separately on Monday, Judge Seeger also flatly rejected the pilots’ second bid to have him recuse himself from the case, calling their suggestion that he couldn’t remain impartial just because he used to work for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Kirkland & Ellis LLP “way off base.” “Plaintiffs allege that Boeing designed a defective plane, which led to crashes, which led governments and airlines to ground the Max fleet, which led to a loss of job opportunities, which led to a loss of income for the pilots,” Judge Seeger said in a blistering 53-page ruling granting Boeing’s motion to dismiss. “Typically, damages do not ‘go beyond the first step.’ But here, plaintiffs put forward a theory with a hop, a skip, and a jump, and then some. Liability is a bridge too far.” The group of international pilots — who have accused Boeing of strict product liability, negligence, fraudulent concealment and fraudulent misrepresentation — were certified or type-rated to fly 737 Max jets. They alleged that they were left with diminished careers and lost income after regulators grounded the 737 Max following the October 2018 crash of Lion Air Flight 610 in the Java Sea that killed 189 people and the March 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 that killed 157 people. Judge Seeger ripped the pilots for “attempting to capitalize on two plane crashes experienced by other people.” “Unlike the poor people on those planes, plaintiffs had everything, and they lost nothing,” the judge said. “Stretching causation to cover people who weren’t on the planes would expand the boundaries of liability much too far. It is foreseeable that a defective plane might not fly. And it is natural to think that a defective design might cause accidents. But when you think about a defective plane, and the problems that could ensue, lost income by people who don’t crash probably isn’t at the top of the list.” Judge Seeger also said the pilots’ all-consuming and seemingly endless theory of liability would wreak havoc on the litigation landscape, saying that “sometimes bad things happen to other people, and it affects you too, in a roundabout, indirect, downstream way. That’s life. That’s not a claim.” Furthermore, the pilots’ bid to recover compensation for lost flying time, wages, and the emotional injuries they allegedly suffered in the wake of their professional upheaval is a “nonstarter” under Illinois law because the economic loss doctrine bars their strict liability and negligence claims, according to the ruling. The pilots’ fraudulent concealment and fraudulent misrepresentation claims also hit a wall. The judge agreed with Boeing that it didn’t have any “special relationship” with the pilots that would create a duty to disclose information about the safe operation of the Max, and that the pilots couldn’t pinpoint any Boeing statements or omissions in operating manuals, pilot bulletins or training materials that influenced their decision to get certified on the Max. “Anyone attending a training had already made the decision to seek certification. So, information at the training did not lead anyone to decide to take the training. They were already there,” Judge Seeger said. “The failure to tell plaintiffs how to fly the planes safely did not cause them to suffer an injury, either. … Plaintiffs never experienced an emergency. And they never crashed. No harm, no foul, no claim.” Ultimately, the judge noted that after four tries, the pilots’ consolidated complaint is still “chock-full of generalities,” and vague, nondescript statements. Ultimately, “the defects of the Max airplane can be fixed. The defects of the complaint cannot,” Judge Seeger said. The pilots, who fly for airlines such as Air Canada, Norwegian Air, Lion Air, Jet Airways and other international carriers, kicked off the litigation in July 2019. They accused Boeing of “callous” and “contemptuous manipulation” of the 737 Max’s development and certification. The 737 Max jets were outfitted with a unique automated feature called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, which affected the plane’s flight control system. Accident investigators and other official review panels have since determined that the MCAS was vulnerable to faulty sensor readings that could inadvertently trigger the system and push the plane to nosedive. Investigators also determined that Boeing miscalculated how much time pilots might need to respond to cockpit alerts, meaning the system was designed in a manner that gave pilots only seconds to react if the MCAS were unexpectedly activated. The pilots maintained in court filings that Boeing’s webpage dedicated to recruiting pilots for 737 Max certification, the computer-based training sessions that they underwent and the more than 1,500-page flight crew operations manual for the 737 Max neglected to even mention the MCAS feature, let alone that it could malfunction and trigger the plane to nosedive. That meant pilots were left completely in the dark about a faulty feature that could impede their ability to safely fly the planes, they said. Moreover, the pilots who specifically trained to fly the 737 Max had to waste additional time retraining to fly other planes after the catastrophic crashes, according to court documents. Monday’s dismissal order comes shortly after the pilots again raised questions of impropriety and judicial bias by moving to have Judge Seeger bumped from the case. The pilots in 2020 unsuccessfully sought to have Judge Seeger recuse himself, given his previous tenure more than a decade earlier as a partner with Kirkland & Ellis LLP, the firm that’s defending Boeing in this dispute, as well as numerous other cases and investigations related to the 737 Max. The pilots said the judge was a former senior trial counsel with the SEC right before he was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in September 2019 — a period during which the SEC was investigating Boeing for its misrepresentations about the 737 Max jet’s overall safety. The SEC announced in September that Boeing had agreed to pay $200 million to settle allegations it misled investors about the 737 Max jet’s safety, while Boeing’s former chief executive, Dennis A. Muilenburg, agreed to shell out $1 million for misrepresentations that he made. Judge Seeger on Monday called the pilots’ latest recusal bid baseless, stating that he didn’t work on any Boeing matters while at the SEC, and didn’t do any work on any SEC investigation involving the Boeing 737 Max. Moreover, this particular case has nothing to do with the SEC, he said. “Do plaintiffs really think that this court would be biased in favor of Boeing if this court had investigated Boeing? Is plaintiffs’ theory that this court is biased in favor of Boeing because it used to work for an agency that charged Boeing?” Judge Seeger asked. “The SEC didn’t exactly give Boeing a clean bill of health, so it is hard to see how simply working for the SEC could create positive momentum for Boeing. Taking a step back, the motion is plaintiffs’ latest effort in their long-running attempt to go on a judge shopping spree.” “This court can’t help but think that plaintiffs are playing a game of heads-I-win, tails-you-lose,” Judge Seeger continued. “But judicial recusal is not a game, and this court will not play along.” Patrick M. Jones of PMJ PLLC and Joseph C. Wheeler of International Aerospace Law & Policy Group, co-counsel for the pilots, told Law360 on Monday that they intend to appeal. “The plaintiffs never had a chance in these cases,” Jones said. “At the initial status hearing in this case, Judge Seeger confided that he hadn’t read the complaint, but commented that this case seemed to be about ‘pilots being afraid to fly.’ That is not what this case is about and never was.” Jones said this is a basic fraudulent misrepresentation case — for conduct that Boeing has already admitted to in many forums. “Boeing lied directly to those pilots when it lobbied them to tie their careers to the Boeing 737 Max, which Boeing knew was uncertifiable,” Jones said. “Boeing, car manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, etc., should be subject to the same laws as everyone else. They are not ‘too big’ to be held liable for their actions.” Wheeler said Judge Seeger’s comments throughout the ruling underscored his “obvious bias” against the plaintiffs. “He is no expert at aeronautical engineering yet clearly presumes to be; and overlooks the inherent design flaw in the Max, the reason it was selected and ramifications that had in human life and, albeit to a lesser extent, the effects it had on our clients’ lives and livelihoods too,” Wheeler said. “This cannot be the view of a reasonable judge and is the style of dealing with plaintiffs that will underscore the impending appeal.” Boeing representatives declined to comment Monday. The pilots are represented by Patrick M. Jones and Sarah M. Beaujour of PMJ PLLC and Joseph C. Wheeler of International Aerospace Law & Policy Group. Boeing is represented by Michael B. Slade, Craig S. Primis and Ronald K. Anguas Jr. of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The lead case is In Re: Boeing 737 Max Pilots Litigation, case number 1:19-cv-05008, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Illinois. Read more at: https://www.law360.com/articles/1545113?copied=1 https://www.airlineratings.com/news/pilots-737-max-suit-tossed-out/ United Airlines Flight Bound For São Paulo Turns Back Midair After Protestors Block Highway to Airport Aslew of international airlines were forced to cancel or severely delay flights to São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport on Monday night after protestors who are angry with Jair Bolsonaro’s election defeat in Brazil’s presidential elections blocked the main highway to the airport. A United Airlines flight from Chicago to São Paulo was even forced to turn back midair after the aircrew who were expected to work the return flight found themselves trapped in tailbacks and unable to get to the airport. United made the costly decision to turn back flight UA845 just after it passed Charlotte, North Carolina rather than carry on to São Paulo where the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner could have been stranded, Twitter user @xJonNYC first reported. The airline also scrapped scheduled departures from Newark and Houston to São Paulo on Monday evening, telling customers there had been “schedule disruptions caused by ongoing protests”. Videos shared on social media showed angry pro-Bolsonaro supporters blocking the main highway with small fires, waving flags and lighting flares. Some passengers abandoned their cars and attempted to walk the rest of the way to the airport in the hope of catching their flights. On Sunday, Bolsonaro narrowly lost the Presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a remarkable comeback for the left-wing politician who was jailed in 2018 on corruption charges. Bolsonaro didn’t, however, immediately admit defeat and tensions were already high over fears that the result might be disputed. Ahead of the polls closing, Bolsonaro claimed there were three possible outcomes of the election: he won, he was arrested, or he was killed. American Airlines has delayed its scheduled departures to São Paulo from Monday night into Tuesday, as have Air Canada, British Airways and TAP Air Portugal. Lufthansa’s daily service from Frankfurt to São Paulo, however, pressed onwards on Monday night undeterred by the protests. The return flight isn’t expected to depart GRU until Tuesday evening, and by that point, the highway to the airport should hopefully be open. On Monday, the U.S. State Department hadn’t issued any specific warnings for Brazil following the Presidential elections, but the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office warned that protests “take place regularly and often without warning” and that delays on the main road to GRU are common. https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/2022/11/01/united-airlines-flight-bound-for-sao-paulo-turns-back-midair-after-protestors-block-highway-to-airport/ Recovery of air safety rating now a binational priority for US and Mexico Aviation authorities from both countries met Friday to map out the last leg in Mexico’s return to the FAA’s top safety rating, revealing a shift in how the governments are tackling the problem. MEXICO CITY (CN) — Although Mexico’s recovery of the Federal Aviation Administration’s top safety rating remains several months away, the issue has become a “binational priority” for both countries, according to Mexican transportation authorities. During a meeting at FAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., Friday, aviation authorities from both countries mapped out what they said is the home stretch of Mexico’s long awaited return to the FAA’s Category 1 safety rating. “The quick recovery of Mexico’s Category 1 status is a priority for the governments of Mexico and the United States, with the purpose of guaranteeing the air safety of 30 million passengers,” Mexico’s Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communication and Transportation (SICT) said in a statement issued after the meeting. The road map to recovery includes two significant dates in the months ahead. Firstly, the SICT and the FAA pledged to conclude a corrective action plan for Mexico’s aviation sector by December “at the latest.” The press release also states that acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen agreed to visit Mexico in January with his team to present the conclusions of the action plan and to set date for the final audit “before the summer” of 2023. Authorities from Mexico’s civil aviation authority AFAC told the FAA that the agency is working on a draft amendment to its establishing decree with the purpose of “strengthening the agency and implementing regulatory requirements.” It plans on issuing that amendment in December as well. AFAC authorities said that the agency has made changes that have allowed it to “strengthen its salary rubrics, education and training, and supervision of personnel,” according to the press release. The Mexican government is also looking for a permanent solution to provide the AFAC with “sufficient and sustainable resources so that it has the full capacity to fulfill all of its functions and responsibilities established in international air regulations.” The FAA does not comment on the specifics of ongoing cases, but told Courthouse News in an emailed statement: “We continue to provide assistance to Mexico’s civil aviation authority.” The FAA downgraded Mexico to its lowest safety rating — Category 2 — in May 2021 on the grounds that its civil aviation authority did not meet international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization. While it did not release any specific reasons for the downgrade, a report of an FAA technical review visit conducted in June of this year viewed by Courthouse News revealed non-conformances with airworthiness of aircraft, aviation legislation and personnel training and qualification, among other issues. Mexico is the top foreign destination for U.S. tourists, according to the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office. Over 39 million U.S. tourists visited Mexico in 2019. Although Friday’s press release reveals many more months ahead on Mexico’s journey back to Category 1, the meeting showed significant results in terms of the importance the issue has now taken on in both governments, according to Rogelio Rodríguez, an aviation lawyer and former executive in the AFAC’s precursor agency. “This shows that there has been an attitude change,” said Rodríguez in a phone interview. What was lacking before, he said, was the political will to resolve the matter. “It has finally risen up to political importance in both countries, and I think we can now say with more certainty that Mexico will return to Category 1 in seven or eight months,” he said. "Nothing in life is a sure thing, but I'd say the chances that this timeline is correct are around 97%, because now there's the will to get it done." https://www.courthousenews.com/recovery-of-air-safety-rating-now-a-binational-priority-for-us-and-mexico/ P-FOQA Offers Lower-cost Safety Analysis FOQA or flight operations (or operational) quality assurance is a buzzword in aviation, promising safety benefits based on analysis of flight data to identify issues and trends that are headed in the wrong direction. Many flight operations use SOPs (standard operating procedures or practices) to establish consistency in flying and consequently improved safety. But how to be sure that pilots are adhering to the SOPs? That’s the job of flight data monitoring and its analysis function FOQA. The equipment needed to record flight data and the software for post-flight analysis is expensive and not available to many aircraft operators. Only airlines, larger fleet operators, and well-off corporate flight departments could afford to participate in a FOQA program. That is, until products like CloudAhoy came along. For many years, CloudAhoy has been improving its post-flight debrief system, which recreates flight parameters based on a surprisingly slim set of data, starting with recorded GPS information. Since its launch in 2011, Lexington, Massachusetts-based CloudAhoy has helped pilots review their flights and over the years, CloudAhoy has added improvements and the capability to analyze the increasingly data-rich recordings from modern avionics. This led to the development of CloudAhoy’s next product, pilot-focused FOQA or P-FOQA. Essentially, P-FOQA takes the CloudAhoy debrief system and adds, according to the company, “the additional capability to identify potential risk events, to analyze and visualize aggregated data, and to notify pilots, safety personnel, and fleet managers. The integration with CloudAhoy Debrief provides an efficient way to identify the root cause of potentially risky events, increase pilots’ awareness, and facilitate learning—resulting in becoming a better, safer pilot.” The idea for P-FOQA came about because, said CloudAhoy founder and CEO Chuck Shavit, “We have all this data.” He wondered, “Can we look at it and analyze it?” Early this year, CloudAhoy formed a steering group with the Citation Jet Owner Pilot Association (CJP), Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF), and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to examine the potential of P-FOQA. A group of nine aircraft operators signed up for a beta test program, including Houston-based flight school and charter operator Tidal Aviation. Charlie Precourt, a CitationJet owner and chairman of the CJP safety committee, test pilot, and former NASA Shuttle astronaut, has also been involved in P-FOQA development and testing. CloudAhoy is now a provider for Textron Aviation’s flight data monitoring (FDM) and FOQA programs. A rich collection of flight data is available from modern Citations equipped with Textron Aviation’s AReS II hardware, and it can be automatically transferred using the LinxUs FDM program when connected to a Wi-Fi network. According to Textron Aviation, LinxUs is available for the SkyCourier, Longitude, Latitude, X+, Sovereign+, CJ4, CJ3/3+, and M2, and the company plans to make LinxUs available for non-AReS II equipped models. For the past few months, Embry-Riddle has been flying using P-FOQA with data from airplanes and simulators. While CloudAhoy’s debrief service gives pilots a lot of feedback on their performance, including grading each maneuver, P-FOQA takes it a step further. The main interface for P-FOQA is the dashboard, and this shows a summary of exceedances, flight parameters, data from each flight including block times, airports flown to, and scores for maneuvers and preset parameters. The customer can select which flight parameters to track and also set the boundaries for what counts as an exceedance, with whatever warning and critical limits are deemed necessary. There are dozens of flight parameters to choose from. CloudAhoy dashboard for Tidal Aviation president Reid Nelson In a sample provided by Tidal Aviation, its dashboard shows examples of exceedance tracking of a high or low indicated airspeed compared to Vref at 50 feet agl during landing, maximum bank below 1,000 and 200 feet, maximum bank in flight, and maximum sink rate below 200 or 1,000 feet. For more information about a specific exceedance, the customer can view a debrief for that flight and see exactly where it went off the rails. In a fleet operation like Tidal Aviation, P-FOQA aggregates all of the flight data to isolate trends. For example, the touchdown distance parameter shows how many flights are landing in the right zone on the runway and also how many are landing short or too long. It is up to the customer to decide how to use this information. TURNING THE TIDE “I firmly believe FDM/FOQA for general aviation is the next big play for driving down accident rates,” said Tidal Aviation president Reid Nelson. “We've had this data in small GA airplanes since Avidyne and Garmin started close to 20 years ago, however, the data is really only looked at...after the accident. With systems like AirSync and CloudAhoy, we in general aviation finally have the ability to detect an accident before it even happens.” When tools like CloudAhoy came about, Nelson was an early adopter and tried to incorporate it into his flight school’s processes. This required that pilots and instructors capture the data from each flight and upload it to CloudAhoy, and this proved to be inconsistent. But then Nelson discovered the AirSync Bridge, a device that captures flight data and automatically shares it with services like CloudAhoy. Bridge is a portable device powered by a USB port or cigarette lighter for most Avidyne IFD and integrated Garmin avionics suites. For Avidyne, the Bridge connects via Wi-Fi, and the Garmin avionics use a special AirSync SD card in one of the Garmin SD slots. A Bridge unit is also available to connect to Arinc 429 data from Collins Pro Line 21 and Fusion avionics. With a built-in cellular modem, the AirSync bridge automatically sends flight data after each flight to services such as CloudAhoy, SavvyAnalysis, and Flight Schedule Pro. Nelson tested Bridge with one of his Cirruses and the results were better than expected. Not only was data offloaded from the avionics after every flight and automatically sent to CloudAhoy, but the CloudAhoy debrief was almost instantly available to instructors and students to review after each flight. To make the debrief information available, Nelson installed a 75-inch monitor in the briefing room, where each flight was available for a detailed post-flight analysis. This greatly increased participation by instructors and students in using the CloudAhoy debriefs. When Nelson showed this detailed information to the owners of the 18 Tidal aircraft (14 pistons and four Vision jets, all on leaseback to Tidal), they appreciated what they were seeing and also agreed to pay for the Bridge and CloudAhoy subscription, in exchange for gaining full access to the information. Once CloudAhoy started signing up beta users for its new P-FOQA service, Nelson didn’t want to burden the aircraft owners with the additional expense. It turned out that revenue from the extra briefing time that instructors spent with the students after each flight easily covered the cost of P-FOQA. The results during the beta have shown it to be well worthwhile. Tidal’s chief pilot and chief instructor look at the P-FOQA information at least once a week, which is more detailed than the information available from the Cirrus IQ data-collection system, according to Nelson. “We’ve been digging into the finer aspects, like bank angles below 200 feet. We’ve had one or two instances of that.” In this case, Tidal will speak to the pilot and ask why they felt a need to bank more than 20 degrees when below 200 feet and help them figure out a way to avoid that. Another parameter is steep descent rates in the traffic pattern. Some instances have shown pilots pitching down 8 degrees when below 500 feet or descending at 1,500 fpm below 500 feet. “We talked to their instructor to see how they [could help their students] avoid that and what the circumstances were,” Nelson said. In one case, power-off approaches were on the menu, which in part explains the deviations. But in any case, having this information is helpful. “Ultimately we could be preventing something that could be a bridge too far and inevitably cause an accident,” he said. Looking back at two years of data in CloudAhoy, Nelson was happy to see that no one had done anything as stupid as trying aerobatics in any of Tidal’s airplanes. In a recent case, one renter was found to have violated the agreement not to land on runways less than 3,000 feet and not on grass strips. “Instead of saying, 'we have this program, we caught you and saw you went into this grass strip, here’s a reminder of our agreement,’ we gave [them] a warning, and said, ‘don’t ever do it again.’ Everybody knowing we’re looking at the data is in and of itself a little bit of a deterrent.” Nelson has been gratified to see that the students and renter pilots appreciate CloudAhoy. “As students become renters, they start competing with and scoring themselves when [they’re flying]. It’s exciting for me to see that. Renters are creating their own competitions and trying to improve themselves.” Flight instructors also appreciate P-FOQA, and learning about it benefits their careers as they will likely encounter FOQA programs at future jobs with corporate flight departments and airlines. Nelson has also briefed his insurance broker on P-FOQA and thinks there may be some benefits on that front. FINALIZING P-FOQA P-FOQA can be set up to automatically email reports to specific individuals. CloudAhoy can also integrate P-FOQA with flight scheduling software so it can connect flight data with the pilot who was flying the aircraft, although some companies may want to anonymize this information. Avionics manufacturer Avidyne is also a supporter of the FOQA capabilities enabled by CloudAhoy and AirSync. Avidyne’s 10.3 software update for its IFD navigators and Atlas and Helios FMSs makes it easier to output data via AirSync and also adds new discretes such as flaps and landing gear position, fuel quantity, radio frequencies, and more. “As we grow in the business aviation community, those are the kind of features we add that could benefit anyone,” said John Talmadge, Avidyne's v-p of worldwide sales. “We’re focused on single owner-operators to the chief pilot of a 50-ship fleet. We give them access and allow them to choose their FOQA path.” For operators of legacy jets, such as an air ambulance with a fleet of older Learjets, Avidyne’s navigators and FMSs provide access to LPV approaches, a key benefit but also a lower-cost way to participate in a FOQA program. “This is a very cost-efficient way to improve the operational efficiency of the pilot group,” he said. “When you start being able to drill down to that level of detail, you pay more attention to [things like] alignment, runway length, and stable approaches.” CloudAhoy’s Shavit hoped to formally launch P-FOQA in the third quarter. The anticipated cost is about $5,000 per year per tail number, but that hadn’t been finalized at the time this was written. “FOQA is coming to general aviation,” Shavit said. “Some regulators want FOQA, and this is the next step. We haven’t seen much of an improvement in general aviation safety. If you can’t measure it, you can’t change it. We’re in a revolution now for flight safety in general aviation.” The FAA supports efforts like P-FOQA, and at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in July, acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen acknowledged this during his “Meet the Administrator” session. “Every day we have to challenge ourselves to find even more ways to reduce and eliminate the risk inherent in aviation,” he said, “because we all know too well that it has little tolerance for mistakes. Rather than responding to incidents, we are getting better at predicting them through the careful analysis of data. But we need to do more of this—especially in general aviation—and we need to get better at it. Being preventative is no longer enough; we must become predictive.” https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2022-11-01/p-foqa-offers-lower-cost-safety-analysis Mark Zuckerberg's private jet made 28 trips in just 2 months, emitting 17 times more carbon than the average American does in a year, report says • The Meta CEO's private plane made 28 trips in less than two months, flight data shows. • Those flights produced around 253 metric tons of carbon emissions, one analysis shows. • The average American produces 14.7 metric tons of carbon per year, per the World Bank. By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. In just two months, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg's private jet has emitted 17 times more carbon than the average American produces in a year. In 28 trips between August 20 and October 15, Zuckerberg's plane released more than 253 metric tons of carbon, data Fox News reported, citing data compiled using flight tracking software ADS-B Exchange and shared by Jack Sweeney, who runs a number of Twitter accounts dedicated to tracking the movements of the private jets of billionaires. By comparison, the average American has an annual carbon footprint of 14.7 metric tons, according to data from the World Bank The Gulfstream G650 jet — which retails for $65 million — burned over $150,000 of jet fuel in its numerous trips across the United States over the two-month period. While some journeys were cross-country, others were much shorter, like a three minutes, 18-mile journey between two Arizona airstrips on October 15. As well as tracking Zuckerberg, Sweeney also runs an account tracking the movements of Elon Musk, and previously declined $5,000 from Musk to close the account. When Sweeney first launched the ZuccJet account, he told Bloomberg: "I find it interesting that he tracks us on Facebook, so it's fun that this kid is tracking him back." Meta has previously explained that the billionaire's security program requires him to use private aircraft for travel. The Financial Times reported that the company spent $1.6 million on Zuckerberg's flights in 2021. Last year, Facebook stepped up efforts to combat climate change misinformation with its Climate Science Information Center. "Climate change is one of the most urgent issues impacting our world today, and Meta is committed to helping tackle this global challenge," the company said. Zuckerberg has also argued that the metaverse will be a way to reduce carbon emissions, describing it as "better for society and for the planet overall," in an interview with The Information. In February, his philanthropic organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, invested $44 million in climate technology. Tracking the rich and famous and the movements of their private jets has become something of a phenomenon on social media, with Bernard Arnault, the world's second richest person saying last week that he had sold his private jet after people began tracking it online. Musician Taylor Swift has also drawn criticism for her frequent use of private jet travel. https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerbergs-private-jet-has-carbon-footprint-15-times-average-2022-10 Interest in private jet flights to Hong Kong takes off after axing of hotel quarantine, return of mega events Jolie Howard, CEO of private jet charter service, says her company has extra staff and planes on standby for financial leaders summit Industry leaders who catch Covid-19 while in city can be flown out, she explains, with trips to London and New York costing at least US$230,000 and US$350,000 The Hong Kong Business Aviation Centre says air traffic at its facility has doubled since the launch of the government’s “0+3” policy last month. Photo: SCMP Interest in chartering private planes to Hong Kong has increased in the run-up to its financial leaders summit this week, according to an operator, who says extra staff are ready to fly out any visiting bankers who test positive for Covid-19, but prices can top US$350,000. Jolie Howard, CEO of Hong Kong-based jet charter service L’VOYAGE, said the industry had also benefited from the government’s move to axe its mandatory hotel quarantine policy last month ahead of a number of big, high-profile events, including the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit. Any high-powered bankers who contracted Covid-19 while in the city could be flown out, with trips to London and New York costing at least US$230,000 and US$350,000 respectively, Howard said. While no planes would be on standby, aircraft could be hired on a last-minute basis, she explained. “We will dedicate a team to run 24/7 to cater to these needs,” she said. The option for Covid-positive overseas attendees to depart the city by private plane was part of current measures for those with special circumstances, such as attending the three-day summit, organised by the city’s Monetary Authority and which starts on Tuesday. Howard said her company was also handling more inquiries from banking professionals ahead of the high-profile event, adding that general interest in booking private planes had increased since the government scrapped its hotel quarantine requirement on September 26 in favour of a three-day home surveillance period. According to the company, a one-way flight from Hong Kong to New York using a heavy jet would cost US$350,000 or more, depending on the aircraft type and the number of passengers. Some exemptions offered to overseas bankers attending Hong Kong summit 21 Oct 2022 Similar flights to London would cost no less than US$230,000, it added. Meanwhile, Howard said some top company executives could opt to fly to neighbouring countries with less stringent restrictions if they contracted the virus. A one-way flight from Hong Kong to Singapore would cost between US$53,000 and US$78,000, while flights to Bangkok were between US$45,000 and US$65,000, the company said. The final cost would also depend on the size of the aircraft chartered, which ranged from mid-size to super mid-size, it added, with planes such as the 12-seater Cessna Citation Excel and 19-seater Bombardier Challenger 850 available for flights to neighbouring countries. The Hong Kong Business Aviation Centre, which operates a support facility for the industry, said air traffic at its facility had doubled since the launch of the government’s “0+3” policy last month. Global finance heavyweights roped in for Hong Kong seminar 19 Oct 2022 But the company, which operated 9,000 flights for 40,000 travellers in 2019, stopped short of providing any figures. It added that it believed more planes and passengers would return with the further easing of Hong Kong’s travel restrictions. A check by the Post found that several private jets had flown into the city from destinations such as Edinburgh, Zurich, Tokyo and Seoul. Among those recorded was a Gulfstream G650 plane owned by JP Morgan Chase, which arrived in the city from Tokyo on Saturday. Consisting of three living areas, the plane can carry up to 19 passengers. HKMA’s chief executive talks about November summit, interest rates and fintech 1 Oct 2022 A privately owned Bombardier Global 7500 was also logged, arriving from Edinburgh on the afternoon of the same day. According to its manufacturer, the aircraft can also seat up to 19 passengers and features amenities such as a 40-inch 4K TV home theatre surround sound set-up. Separately, the Four Seasons Hotel, which will host a half-day conference on Wednesday as part of the summit, said its imperial and presidential suites were available for event participants via direct booking. According to the hotel, a one-night stay at its imperial suite cost HK$98,000 (US$12,484), while the presidential suite was going for HK$108,000 per night. Hong Kong is hosting FinTech Week until Friday, when the Hong Kong Sevens rugby competition kicks off. The popular tournament was last held in 2019 and has been delayed five times over the past two years because of the pandemic. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3197908/interest-private-jets-hong-kong-rising-city-hosts-mega-events-and-welcomes-back-visitors-flight SpaceX may send Starship on its first orbital flight in December Starship's first orbital test flight could finally take place next month. Mark Kirasich, a senior NASA official overseeing the development of the Artemis moon program, has revealed the information during a livestreamed NASA Advisory Council meeting. According to Reuters, Kirasich said that NASA tracks four major Starship flights and that the first one is coming up in early December. Based on the plans SpaceX previously released, the Starship spacecraft with its Super Heavy booster will launch from the company's Boca Chica facility in Texas. The booster will break off three minutes into the flight and splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship vehicle itself will go into orbit before reentering and making an ocean landing near Hawaii. The company expects the entire test flight to last for 90 minutes. SpaceX has been planning Starship's first orbital flight since mid-2021, but it kept getting pushed back due to various technical and regulatory reasons. The space corporation's launch facility in Boca Chica, for instance, only recently cleared the FAA's environmental assessment. And even then, the FAA required the company to make more than 75 changes to mitigate the environmental impact of its flights before it grants the company a launch license for the site. An FAA spokesperson told Reuters that the agency will grant the company a launch license "only after SpaceX provides all outstanding information and the agency can fully analyze it." As SpaceNews notes, SpaceX must also conduct and clear more tests before the flight, including a static fire test of all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster. A static fire test of the Starship in July ended up in flames when propellants ignited under the booster. SpaceX's next attempt in August went smoothly, but the company only fired a single Raptor engine on the Super Heavy that time. In addition, Starship must go through a full wet dress rehearsal, wherein a rocket that's loaded with propellants go through the launch countdown without actually taking off. https://www.yahoo.com/news/spacex-starship-first-orbital-flight-december-100855885.html NASA plans its second human moon landing on Artemis 4 after all: report The agency previously said construction on the massive Gateway space station took priority over a second human landing after Artemis 3. NASA's second-ever moon landing in a half-century will take place on Artemis 4, agency officials confirmed in a report. A schedule shuffle based on changes in a SpaceX Starship moon landing contract will see the Artemis program's fourth mission as the follow-up crewed landing as soon as 2027, according to an Oct. 28 presentation attended by SpaceNews. (The first moon landing since 1972 will be Artemis 3, scheduled to land in 2025, if all goes according to plan.) All of these dates are tentative, though, as they depend upon systems like lunar landers and spacesuits being ready and upon the successful completion of other missions. Issues of note include the oft-delayed Artemis 1 now set to fly no earlier than Nov. 14 on an uncrewed venture around the moon, and the similarly grounded Starship that is awaiting regulatory approval for its first-ever orbital mission. Artemis 4 will land on the moon instead of continuing to build out a supporting NASA-led lunar station called Gateway, Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for Artemis campaign development at NASA, said in the presentation. (He spoke at the American Astronautical Society's Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.) Previously, NASA nixed the idea of a landing on Artemis 4, arguing that the complex delivery of a habitation module to Gateway was a higher priority than landing on the surface, SpaceNews said. The pivot to putting humans on the surface so soon, Kirasich added in his speech, is due to an option change involving Starship's contract. SpaceX is operating under a Human Landing System contract awarded in April 2021, and received an "Option B" amendment in March 2022 to "meet an extended set of requirements for sustaining missions at the moon," NASA officials said in a Sept. 16 press release(opens in new tab), which did not specify further details. NASA is also working on adding another company to the HLS contract to comply with a Congressional request, amid criticism that the contract was only awarded to one company instead of the forecasted two. (Kirasich told SpaceNews the new lander would be ready no earlier than Artemis 5; the current deadline for the solicitation closes Dec. 6, which is delayed from an initial Nov. 15 timeline.) Like Artemis, all Gateway timelines are also uncertain due to development milestones, but the habitation module (called I-Hab) remains on track with European and Japanese officials. NASA's massive Space Launch System rocket, however, is facing an issue with launching the massive module. A new upper stage, called Exploration Upper Stage, is required to heft the massive module. While that seems to be on track, the Mobile Launcher 2 platform required to support EUS is reportedly facing cost and schedule issues under its prime contractor Bechtel, according to SpaceNews. https://www.space.com/nasa-artemis-4-second-moon-landing Research Study: Professional Pilot Occupational Risk(s) Survey My name is August Parker, and I am a Doctor of Occupational Therapy Student at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. I am inviting employed professional pilots to participate in this study by completing an internet survey for a project entitled, “An Occupational Perspective: Therapeutic Interventions to Facilitate Job Performance in Aviators and Astronauts”. The purpose of this study is to assess professional pilots experience with risk(s) in musculoskeletal functioning, mental health, and overall well-being for flight performance. This is a one-time, voluntary survey that is anticipated to take no more than 10 minutes to complete. If you agree, your identity as a participant will remain anonymous during and after the study. This survey is not affiliated with any aviation-related organizations or facilities. I would be grateful if you could forward this message to other pilots in your workforce. If you have any questions, please contact me, August Parker by email at a.parker@usa.edu. For more information and access to the survey, please access the link provided below: https://sway.office.com/ksURu4OaOEAXm7mC?ref=Link THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN REVIEWED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE FOR HEALTH SCIENCES INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD FOR THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN SUBJECTS. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS, PLEASE CONTACT THE INSTITUTIONAL IRB CHAIR, DR. LORI KUPCZYNSKI, EMAIL: LKUPCZYNSKI@USA.EDU, PHONE: 904-330-1559 Thank you for your participation! August Parker, OTDS a.parker@usa.edu The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY Dear Pilots and Flight Attendants, Did you know that the difference between a 14-hour flight time and an 18-hour flight time is 28%, which means 28% more exposure by occupants to the cabin environment and other aircraft influences. Keeping this in mind, I am working on a new research study that aims to review current Health & Safety International and National Regulations and best practices for operating Ultra-Long-Range Routes (ULR). ULR operations refer to "An operation involving any sector between a specific city pair (A-B-A) in which the planned flight time exceeds 16 hours, taking into account mean wind conditions and seasonal changes. The scope of this study is to identify different health-related factors affecting Aircrew (Pilots & Flight Attendants) who operate these routes. Based on this review, a gap analysis will be conducted, and recommendations will be presented to mitigate health and safety-related impact factors on Aircrew. As a part of this study, a survey is designed for Aircrew (Pilots and Flight Attendants) who operate on ULR flights. This survey aims to learn about their experience and the different health and safety impact factors that Aircrew experience while operating these routes. Aircrew sought to participate in this study needs to meet the following criteria: - Employed (in the last 24 months) by an air carrier operating scheduled ULR flights (>16hrs); - Qualified as an aircrew member to operate ULR flights. During this study, you will be asked to complete a brief online survey about your opinions concerning health-related issues while operating ULR routes. You will answer several questions about different health-related factors and how it affects your lifestyle, including any prominent experiences you have encountered. The completion of the survey will take approximately 15-20 minutes. If you meet the criteria and are interested in helping, sign up for the study by clicking the link - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SV2D9KT You can also sign up by scanning the QR code below. Please let me know if you have any questions I can answer. Thank you for your participation Kind Regards, Aditya Rathi ISASI Robertson Fellow M.S. Safety Science '22 (Aviation Safety) Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott rathia@my.erau.edu | (928)-632-2707 Curt Lewis