May 24, 2023 - No. 021 In This Issue : Duncan Aviation extends Honeywell HTF7000 engine facility, appoints Shawn Schmitz as program manager : Boeing's flying laboratory helping combat harmful emissions : Boeing's 747 program wraps after decades of production : Digital standby pack introduced : Two 10-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliners are already being scrapped : Vancouver, Washington-based startup KinectAir wants to expand private flying beyond the ultra-rich : Why do we need hard limits on jet engines? : Women are less than 3% of aviation maintenance technicians. Why? Duncan Aviation extends Honeywell HTF7000 engine facility, appoints Shawn Schmitz as program manager May 3, 2023by MRO Business Today Duncan Aviation has complete service facilities located in Battle Creek, Michigan; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Provo, Utah. The new Duncan Aviation facility accommodates all engine services and backshop capabilities, a dedicated on-site NDT lab, a flow and balance room, and a state-of-the-art paint booth. Duncan Aviation, a leading aircraft service provider, has expanded its dedicated shop space for Honeywell HTF7000 engine maintenance services and named Shawn Schmitz as the new HTF7000 Program Manager. The company has quadrupled its shop space from 4,000 to 20,000 square feet in Lincoln, Nebraska, to meet the growing demand for the program. The new facility now accommodates all engine services and backshop capabilities, including a dedicated on-site nondestructive testing (NDT) lab, a flow and balance room, a large engine cleanroom, and a state-of-the-art paint booth. Scott Stoki, Duncan Aviation’s Manager of Engine Overhaul Services, stated that the company has been successfully performing all aspects of the HTF7000 engine maintenance process since receiving the minor authorization in 2015. He added that the new facility will allow them to make the best use of their time and space by supporting the entire process in one location without having to move certain critical parts through other areas of the company. Schmitz, who has years of hands-on experience tearing the HTF7000 engine down as far as possible in the field and then putting it back together again, takes ownership of the new capabilities. His first goal as HTF7000 Program Manager is education. He wants everyone on the team to be on the same page and move forward together. Schmitz works closely with the sales team to help them better understand what service bulletins and repairs are available and what questions to ask, allowing them to communicate better and provide the best support to customers with HTF services. “We have always been able to successfully perform all aspects of the HTF7000 engine maintenance process since receiving the minor authorization,” says Scott Stoki, Manager of Engine Overhaul Services, Duncan Aviation’s. “Shawn has years of hands-on experience tearing the HTF7000 engine down as far as possible in the field and then putting it back together again. This experience gives him the tribal knowledge to pass his expertise on to his team and to serve customers better. We are now making the best use of our time and space by supporting the entire process in one location and not having to move certain critical parts through other areas of the company,” he further added. Duncan Aviation is committed to providing the highest quality aircraft maintenance services to its customers. The company supports the aviation needs of business aircraft operators, government agencies, and other aircraft service providers. Services offered include major and minor airframe inspections, engine maintenance, major retrofits for cabin and cockpit avionics systems, full paint and interior services, engineering and certification services, fabrication and manufacturing services, and preowned aircraft sales and acquisitions. Shawn Schmitz, HTF7000 Program Manager, Duncan Aviation said, “I want everyone on the team to be on the same page and moving forward together. With this information, they can communicate better, allowing us to best support customers with our HTF services. No matter where our customers go to receive HTF services from Duncan Aviation, they will receive a similar customer service experience. I understand why customers like this engine. It is very reliable and has a good reputation in the fleet. It will be around for a long time. And we will be here to support it.” Duncan Aviation has complete service facilities located in Battle Creek, Michigan; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Provo, Utah. The company also has dozens of other facilities strategically located throughout the United States to provide customers with scheduled regional support and the quickest response possible to avionics, engine, and airframe Aircraft On Ground (AOG) situations. In conclusion, Duncan Aviation’s expansion of its HTF7000 engine maintenance services and the appointment of Shawn Schmitz as the new HTF7000 Program Manager reflect the company’s commitment to providing the highest quality services to its customers. The newly remodeled 20,000-square-foot facility will enable the company to meet the growing demand for its services and support the entire engine maintenance process in one location, providing a seamless and efficient experience for its customers. Duncan Aviation extends Honeywell HTF7000 engine facility, appoints Shawn Schmitz as program manager Boeing's flying laboratory helping combat harmful emissions Boeing's ecoDemonstrator jet is being used to help find the biggest sources of greenhouse gases and help airlines combat pollution. Note: See important video in the original article. Author: Glenn Farley, KING 5 Staff Published: 6:55 PM PST November 9, 2021 Updated: 8:01 PM PST November 9, 2021 SEATTLE — Global warming is driving change at the world's airlines, and Boeing is being asked to not only help to better understand and track greenhouse gases, but also to help airlines reduce the amount of Co2 they contribute. board Boeing's newest ecoDemonstrator jet, a 737 MAX 9 that will be delivered to Alaska Airlines in a few months, tubes from sensors connected through the right side of the jet and before the engines to gas analyzers and computers. It’s hoped if successful, this technology would also be put onto thousands of other airliners to help the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration to better track and study where greenhouse gases are most concentrated, least concentrated and at what altitudes as the planes take off and land. This is just one key technology in the ecoDemonstrator’s role as a flying laboratory that’s testing 27 new technologies overall. his test focuses on the common greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane, as well as carbon monoxide, which also aids in tracking the burning of fossil fuels. They're looking at the profile of greenhouse gases from the ground up into the atmosphere," said Doug Christensen, chief architect of Boeing's ecoDemonstrator program. Colm Sweeney, associate director of NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory, said they've been looking for opportunities to get their instruments onto commercial aircraft. What the aircraft profiles allow us to do is to really quantify the total impact to the atmosphere itself," Sweeney said. "Of course, it's the impact to the atmosphere that matters the most." he plane runs on a 50-50 blend of regular jet fuel and what is known as sustainable aviation fuel, which can be made from non food plants, animal waste products, algae and even refined from municipal waste. The ecoDemonstrator program also focuses on burning less fuel by saving weight and reducing drag. he COVID-19 pandemic hit Boeing hard as travel, for a time, halted and then slowly resumed. Boeing cut jobs and its balance sheet turned red. However, research continued. Sustainable aviation doesn't stop because of a pandemic," head of the ecoDemonstrator program Rae Lutters said. "We have to do our part to accelerate technologies, and that takes some time. So we continue moving forward, planning flight test programs during a global pandemic ... and we had such success we were able to continue that, and continue moving forward with a bigger program like we did with Alaska Airlines." The ecoDemonstrator program is more than 10 years old. About one-third of the technologies tested have made it onto airliners. Another one-third, according to the company, is worth further study. Boeing has used different types of airliners to also test reducing engine noises around airports, and make flying safer. Boeing's flying laboratory helping combat harmful emissions Boeing's 747, known as the 'Queen of the Sky,' set to take off for final time The last Boeing 747-8 freighter, now painted and ready to officially take flight, will be delivered to Atlas Air on Tuesday Author: Kristin Goodwillie Published: 6:06 AM PST January 30, 2023 Updated: 12:48 PM PST February 1, 2023 Note: See important video in the original article. EVERETT, Wash. — It took its first flight here in western Washington more than 50 years ago. ow the last Boeing 747-8 freighter, now painted and ready to officially take flight, will be delivered to Atlas Air on Tuesday. It’s considered the plane that changed travel around the world. Artist Jeff Barlow was a child when the 747 came out. “I look at it and I am just drawn to it,” Barlow said. He keeps a sketchbook with him wherever he goes, “I love to draw with a pencil," Barlow said. "It just has an energy to it that nothing else has." Now sitting under Boeing’s first Super Jet, Barlow has been sketching the last 747 for Boeing as it prepares for delivery. "It's my favorite plane in the whole world," Barlow said. Seattle Museum of flight docent Thomas Gray remembered watching the 747’s first test flight. “You suddenly see a huge mass in the air, it was unbelievable,” Gray said. More than 50 years later, Gray guides museum-goers through this massive plane, telling the history of how she came to be. “It was an incredible story,” Gray said. It took 50,000 men and women to design and complete the 747. They were deemed, "The Incredibles." “Thousands of men and women that actually put their heart and soul into conceiving and building this airplane,” Gray said. Gray was one of those employees who put his heart and soul into it. Before the museum, Gray was a test flight engineer for Boeing. “We were the data gatherers for the 747 test airplane,” Gray said. The patch on his jacket shows a number one for the original 747. Gray went on one of the first test flights on Feb. 25, 1969. “It wasn't until the 747 actually went into service that we realized that it was going to be a game changer in the world,” Gray said. “If we go back to the 1960s, just before the 747 first comes out, Seattle is probably best known for timber and for salmon,” said Michael Lombardi, Boeing historian. Not only did this jet make it economically feasible for average people to fly, but they could go wherever they wanted in the world. “It captured the world's imagination and the source of that was right here in our area,” Lombardi said. This plane put western Washington on the map as an aviation powerhouse. Boeing employed thousands of people, growing the community. "The hard work, the imagination, the dedication of people right here in our region," Lombardi said. "They did this." In late 1969, Ebony Magazine published a photo of Gray working on the Jet. Lombardi said the press initially called her jumbo or wide body, but Boeing preferred to call her the Super Jet. The name the plane is most known by came a bit later and stuck. "The Queen of the Sky is the proper nomenclature for this airplane,” Gray said. The Queen of the Sky is no longer in production and her delivery and eventual last accent from Everett are on the horizon. “Sad isn’t quite the right word," Barlow said. "Because, you know, I think part of the magic is that it's finite." With the last shadowing finished, Barlow is intent on documenting the final 747 as it is delivered. “It just feels really, really important to me,” Barlow said. The Queen of the Sky is still expected to fly for many more decades. “So I’ll just keep looking up to the sky and hope I see another one,” Barlow said. Boeing told KING 5 the 777 is taking the place of the 747. More than 1,500 747’s were produced. The last 747 will officially be delivered on Tuesday and the aircraft will take flight Wednesday, leaving Everett for the last time. Boeing's 747 program wraps after decades of production Digital standby pack introduced By General Aviation News Staff · May 4, 2023 Note: See photos in the original article. Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics has introduced an all-digital version of the company’s 2-inch standby package. The new, digital standby family features the company’s Flex Attitude Indicator, Flex Counter Drum Encoding Altimeter, and Flex Airspeed Indicator. All three instruments are supported by an Approved Model List (AML) Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) covering more than 180 aircraft models. “The new Flex digital standbys can be easily installed in one day,” said Van Winter director of aftermarket sales and support for Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics. “There’s no need to cut the panel and you can utilize the existing secondary or emergency bus. Less down time means more flying time.” Flex Digital Attitude Indicator • Independent attitude without the need for GPS, magnetometer or airspeed • Displays attitude, slip, turn rate, and heading during normal or standby operation • Heading with primary avionics via external ARINC input Flex Digital Counter Drum Encoding Altimeter • User-selectable • Altitude target • Approach Minimums alert • Vertical speed indication • 6-second vertical trend • Barometric setting (millibars, hectopascals or inches of mercury) • Certified to 55,000 feet AGL Flex Digital Airspeed Indicator • Configurable range markings • Eliminate time and cost of mechanical range markings • Ground Speed and True Air Speed can be displayed with external ARINC input • User-selectable Mach number display • Configurable dynamic VMO/MMO barber pole indicator • The Flex 2-inch digital instruments can be sold as a set with special three-pack pricing or sold individually. For more information: 316-630-0101 or MCICO.com. Digital standby pack introduced Two 10-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliners are already being scrapped Jacopo Prisco, CNN Published 6:55 AM EST, Fri March 10, 2023 CNN — If you’re in the market for a pair of lightly used widebody aircraft, you better head to Scotland fast and put in an offer — before two Boeing 787-8s formerly flying for Norwegian Air Shuttle get stripped for parts. Both planes are under 10 years old, as they were delivered in June and August 2013. Except for a testbed scrapped by Boeing in 2018, these are the first Dreamliners to be retired, and their disassembly, which began in early March, is taking place at Prestwick Airport near Glasgow, Scotland. “They’re being done side by side and it could take probably three to four months,” says Ken Fitzgibbon, CEO of EirTrade, the Dublin-based aviation trading company that is managing the operation. “The dismantling process resembles a production line, but it’s reverse engineered, and in the end we aim to recycle about 95% of the aircraft.” EirTrade has previous experience in scrapping young widebody aircraft, having worked on retired A380s from Singapore Airlines and Air France that were also about a decade old. “The 787 is a very new aircraft and it’s probably hard for people outside of aviation to get their head around this,” says Lee Carey, VP of asset management at Eirtrade, who points to upkeep costs as one of the reasons the planes are being cut up. “They were coming up to their 12-year check, the heaviest maintenance event that’s going to happen on these aircraft.” As many other 787s that are still flying are also coming up to this landmark maintenance event, demand for parts will spike, making the operation economically viable. “These particular aircraft already had the engines removed a couple of weeks ago,” says Carey. “We then commenced the defueling operation to ensure that any hazardous fuels were removed and disposed of correctly.” After that, the aircraft were pulled into a hangar for disassembly. The disassembly team has a “harvest list” of material they want — essentially where most of the value is. As components are removed, they are sent for repairs or overhaul, to get them back into shape: “After that, they will go on to be sold to airlines, maintenance companies, equipment manufacturers or aircraft leasing companies around the world to support the rest of the global 787 fleet.” Victims of the pandemic The planes arrived at their current location at Prestwick Airport in Scotland for storage back in the summer of 2019, after having flown transatlantic routes for Norwegian, via leasing companies, for about six years. They were part of a group of 35 Boeing 787s that were grounded because of problems with their engine blades, which were cracking or corroding prematurely. But even after a solution was found, the planes never entered service again, and then became engulfed in the pandemic. In 2020, Norwegian was struggling to survive and filed for bankruptcy. The longer the 787s remained on the ground, the more it would cost to get them to fly again, due to the maintenance work required. As a result, they were no longer airworthy. “Prestwick is a really terrible place to store an airplane, because it’s cold and wet and rainy and moist,” says Connor Diver, a senior analyst at aviation analytics firm Cirium. “Not somewhere you would plan to keep them for a long time. Maybe they were just planning to fix them, but then the other events happened.” Brand new Boeing 747 scrapped after 16 flights The condition of the aircraft likely played a big role in the fact that no airline came forward to buy them. “The maintenance on a modern widebody is very, very expensive,” Diver adds. “If you’re behind and in bad condition, the costs to bring these up to a serviceable state would be prohibitive, most likely. The value of the parts then may be more than the value of the aircraft.” The average value of a similarly aged Boeing 787-8 is around $30 million, but because of the condition they were in, these two aircraft would have been worth less and probably closer to $20 million, according to Diver. Scrapping them for parts and starting a second-hand components market for the 787 therefore became a more appealing option. How to recycle the world's largest passenger plane Earlier this year, a 10-year-old Boeing 747 in VIP configuration was scrapped with just 16 flights on the clock after failing to find a buyer. Several Airbus A380s of similar age have already been recycled. Now, the 787s have entered the circus: is this the start of a worrying trend of young widebody aircraft being retired too soon? “Never say never, but it could be an isolated incident,” says Diver. “Typically we would expect an airliner to stay in service for 20 to 25 years at least.” “If they were in good condition and had not sat there for three years, it’s very likely somebody would have wanted them.” Two 10-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliners are already being scrapped Vancouver, Washington-based startup KinectAir wants to expand private flying beyond the ultra-rich By Tom Banse (Northwest News Network) May 14, 2023 8 a.m. For a few years now, aviation enthusiasts have teased the idea of a Jetsons-style future in which small electric aircraft whisk us to work or across the state and region. That future is not here yet, though a handful of companies, including one based in the Pacific Northwest, are trying to get a head start on the future of flying using conventional planes. Vancouver, Washington-based startup KinectAir was established to serve clients like architect and entrepreneur Casey Wyckoff. Wyckoff explained his life was complicated by virtue of making his home near Kalispell while running the firm LSW Architects and two other businesses headquartered in Vancouver. "I live in Montana and travel every other week to Vancouver," Wyckoff said before boarding a charter plane home at Vancouver’s Pearson Field. "And to increase the complexity of my family's life, we're looking to open an office for the architectural company in Bend, Oregon." There used to be direct flights between Portland and Bend as well as Portland and Kalispell. But Alaska Airlines dropped those routes, as happened to a lot of smaller cities around the country during the pandemic. Wyckoff said connecting through Seattle on every trip would be a hassle and a time suck. So, he started booking with the Portland-area aviation startup, which aims to make private air charter more affordable and accessible. "For me, when I get to me plus two more (work or family members) and I think even a little bit about the value of time, that's where it breaks even," he said. The appeal of on-demand air charter is easy to see when tagging along on Wyckoff’s trip home. It's pretty much, drive up and go. No crowds at the sleepy neighborhood airport. No TSA security checks. On board, every seat is a window seat on the single-engine turboprop. The lone pilot also loads the luggage and offers drinks before takeoff. KinectAir CEO Jonathan Evans disembarks from a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft in Kalispell after joining a customer's flight from Vancouver, Washington. Tom Banse / NW News Network KinectAir’s business model is interesting. The startup does not own any aircraft or employ charter pilots. It makes money like Airbnb or the ride-hailing company Lyft by running an online marketplace, in this case, to match travelers with a curated network of underutilized small airplanes. They don’t use corporate jets. "Jet charter today is only accessible to a very, very minute demographic," KinectAir co-founder and CEO Jonathan Evans said. "We can make it much more accessible by orders of magnitude just by choosing the right aircraft in the hands of trusted operators and pilots." Evans said KinectAir has so far partnered with five existing air charter operators spread from Renton, Washington, to Truckee, California. The propeller-driven fleet is a mix of pressurized, 8-passenger Pilatus PC-12s and 4-passenger Diamond DA62s. Evans recalled the eureka moment that eventually resulted in KinectAir happened back in 2016 when he rented a small plane from the Hillsboro Flying Club to take two tech CEO buddies on a flightseeing trip over the Olympic Range. The trio touched down for brunch in Washington's San Juan Islands.' “I was telling them the unit economics of operating that day, how much it cost,” Evans said. Evans went on to describe how the existing air charter market was rife with inefficiencies. For example, many of the itineraries booked generate empty repositioning legs. Software could go a long way to unlock profits – and give discounts – by directing customers to seats on charter flights that would otherwise depart empty. "Of course, being three entrepreneurs, we were talking about this idea," Evans said of the brainstorming brunch. “They were like, 'You got it, you should do this.'" A year into actual operations though, the regional air taxi service remains expensive. A traveler booking Delta or Alaska Airlines between Seattle and Redmond/Bend could sit in first class for a $473 roundtrip in late May. The cheapest you could fly with KinectAir for the same trip on the same days would be $782 and that’s only if you filled every seat on the plane. Evans said future iterations of the KinectAir smartphone app and booking engine would allow pooling of separate parties going the same way on the same day. He also said the company wants to show empty legs to flexible travelers for booking at “deep discounts.” “I think it’s in the building stages,” observed pilot Jeff Wollenberg with McMinnville-based Precision, an air charter operator that flies for KinectAir. “The potential is there if you can streamline things and process all the data and get the data.” KinectAir CEO Jonathan Evans disembarks from a Pilatus PC-12 aircraft in Kalispell after joining a customer's flight from Vancouver, Washington. Prices for on-demand private flying could come down another notch with the introduction of hybrid-electric, battery or hydrogen-powered commuter planes. KinectAir and its competitors have pledged to buy those next-generation planes as soon as they are available. Electric aircraft promises to be cheaper to maintain and operate, less noisy, and better for the climate. Evans figured certification and commercial deliveries are about five years away. KinectAir is not the only company with visions of whisking you from A to B with fewer hassles and greater convenience than the major airlines. Two other regional aviation companies that decided to launch before the anticipated electrification revolution takes hold are California-based Surf Air Mobility and New York-based Blade Air Mobility. The insider buzzwords for the niche these startups want to exploit include "regional air mobility" (RAM) and "advanced air mobility” (AAM). A seminal NASA whitepaper on regional air mobility published in 2021 pointed out that the U.S. has slightly more than 5,000 public airports, only 10% of which currently have commercial airline service. Most Americans live within 20 minutes of a local airfield, the paper said. The NASA co-authors concluded that transformational aircraft designs and efficiency advances could make it economical to offer passenger flights from many more of America's airports and save people time in transit doing so. A follow-up study published in 2022 by Georgia Tech researchers, also funded by NASA’s aeronautics arm, attempted to quantify the untapped demand for shorter-distance flights from underserved airports. The study found that fixed-wing aircraft seating between 9 and 30 passengers could be a profitable option at hundreds of airports that do not have commercial service now. In the trade journal The Air Current, senior editor Elan Head added a dose of skepticism about the heralded revolution in travel. In an analysis posted online last month, Head wrote that the car remains a formidable competitor for private flying. “Even on blue-sky days, the need to find ground transportation to and from airports will make trip planning more complex and introduce the potential for delays that could erase the time savings that come from flying or, in a worst-case scenario, scuttle the entire journey,” Head said. “The low marginal cost of driving and the flexibility offered by a personal vehicle mean that for many trips within the theoretical range of an electric aircraft, it may still be cheaper and more convenient to drive,” she added. Vancouver, Washington-based startup KinectAir wants to expand private flying beyond the ultra-rich Why do we need hard limits on jet engines? Posted on April 29, 2021 by Shem Malmquist FRAeS We make a number of assumptions about automation, the good, the bad and the problems. I believe that it is time to put some of these to rest if we are to actually prevent future accidents. It is time for a new paradigm in how we think about automation and the types of problems that result from it. In this article I will challenge a number of assumptions that have been stated so often they are now accepted as fact. Software design has absolutely led to accidents, just perhaps not in the way most people think. Many (most?) have been missed entirely even after accidents. This article will highlight one such designed-in risk factor and offer a solution to that issue. While the October 29 Lion Air 610 accident investigation runs its course, the release of the FAA Emergency AD immediately following the crash has opened up valuable new discussions on the role of automation. The industry is being forced to recognize that when modern airplanes crash the problem is not necessarily lack of airmanship, commonly referred to as “automation dependency,” but rather the opaqueness of the actions and logic of the automation itself. Perhaps it is time to revisit commonly held assumptions such as “automation dependency,” which essentially blames the pilot and implies pilots are complacent and, instead look at the assumptions underlying the automatic systems themselves. The AD issued in the aftermath of the Lion Air 610 accident highlighted how the loss of a sensor for an advanced system can create very difficult scenarios. Consider the 2008 case of Qantas 72 (an Airbus A330). Here a faulty angle of attack (AoA) sensor led to the aircraft envelope protection (limit) feature attempting to prevent what the computer’s process model saw as a stall condition by rapidly lowering the aircraft pitch. Similarly, on November 5th, 2014, a Lufthansa A321 experienced a wild ride following a physical problem with the AoA probes. In another event, a Boeing 777 experienced some extreme pitch gyrations on August 1st, 2005, as a result of an erroneous angle of attack sensor, as reported by the Australian Transport Safety Board (ATSB)[i]. None of these were related to pilot competency in hand-flying. In fact, all three would have been much worse if pilots were not on board to save the day. The focus on “stick and rudder” skills and worrying about automation dependency has been repeated so often that we accept it at face value. We emphasize the need to hand-fly more. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love to hand-fly, and will often hand-fly the airplane below RVSM (reduced vertical separation minimum) airspace if the workload permits. The regulations limit my ability to hand-fly above RVSM (flight level 290) in general. As I don’t want to overload my first officer, I will couple it up when it’s busy, which is generally IMC, or operating in complex environments (ATC procedures, metric altimetry, etc.). However, as much as I enjoy hand-flying, is it really helping me to handle things when they go wrong? I am not so sure. First of all, I am flying the airplane in a normal state. The B-777, like other fly-by-wire (FBW) airplanes, has very consistent handling qualities. The pilot does not have to adjust for differences due to changes in CG, gross weight, flap settings, density altitude, q-factor, and a multitude of other factors that affect the way an airplane responds. FBW takes care of all that. It makes the airplane really easy to fly – as long as it’s working. Problems, such as an erroneous AoA signal can unexpectedly put the airplane in a degraded state. The handling qualities are going to be different, and, depending on the mode, the system may no longer be compensating for all those differences previously discussed. The pilot will have to do it, but is the pilot equipped to handle that, PLUS now having to hand-fly in a “complex environment”? What about those newer pilots that have little, or no experience hand-flying at the higher altitudes? The issue here is that arguing about pilots lacking the skills to handle the aircraft when the automation fails misses the point. Accidents are not occurring due to lack of pilot skill, or certainly not at any greater rate than they ever have. At the same time we have an argument rooted in a similar set of misconceptions, but this time from some pilots. These pilots argue that they need to exceed airplane limits to “save the day”. This debate about envelope limiting vs. protection is mostly an “Airbus vs. Boeing” debate. Both sides are wrong. As most pilots know, airplanes such as the Airbus FBW utilize “envelope limiting” while Boeing FBW utilizes “envelope protection”. Many anti-Airbus pilots will argue that they want to be able to exceed a limit in an emergency. I am not going to enter the debate on that directly, except to point out that in 30 years of operations with FBW Airbus with hard limits I know of no accident that could have been avoided if the limits were allowed to be exceeded. There are several known cases where the hard limits prevented an accident, however. Some will point to events such as the June 26, 1988, Habsheim, Air France A320 accident. A careful analysis of that event shows that allowing the pilots to exceed the pitch right into a stall (it was on the edge of a stall being limited from going further) would only have resulted in a very momentary “bump” in altitude, to be followed rapidly by a steep sink at a higher pitch attitude and rate into the trees. Not a great outcome, and it certainly would not have prevented the crash that actually took place. The story is similar on other events. Of course, on the other side, there have been problems as a result of envelope limiting, the Qantas 72 example previously mentioned is a good example of one, as was the Lufthansa A321 and there have been others! So the problem with “hard limits” on flight controls is not so much that they prevent pilots from exceeding them, but that they can take an action due to erroneous data or a missed assumption that the pilot cannot override without taking unusual steps. However, going back to the “hard limit” debate, we know that some pilots have been quick to want to exceed g-load, bank, pitch or angle of attack limits even though there is no evidence to support the need to do so. It is interesting to consider, then, that as far as I know, nobody ever has expressed concern about the digital electronic controls we use for all modern jet engines. Here is another example of conventional wisdom missing a larger potential issue. Whether we refer to it as FADEC (Full Authority Digital Electronic Control), EEC (Engine Electronic Control) or any other name, these systems limit the engines to maximum rated thrust. Apply firewall power (throttle against the stops) and the system will automatically limit it to maximum thrust, with some small exceptions. In the older engines with mechanical fuel control units we had to watch the throttle advancement to ensure we did not exceed any limitation, but it was also possible, in most circumstances, to shove the throttles forward to obtain 15% more thrust than the engine was rated for, or even more. Sure, that meant the engines might need to be inspected, or even trashed, but that thrust was available. Given the choice between hitting the ground or burning up the engines, I think all pilots would take the latter! Why has this issue not been raised? How many accidents could have been prevented had the engine’s controller allowed the pilot to exceed the limitation? I must add a caveat that many factors are in play here, including spool up time. If the engines were not able to reach the maximum rated thrust in the time prior to the accident, they would not be able to reach a higher thrust level either. With that said, examples that come to mind to investigate are: Habsheim. While the issue was not the pitch limit, as I discussed, 15% more thrust might well have saved the day. Asiana at San Francisco (2013). Adding 15% more thrust there may have been just enough to miss that 13 foot sea well. That’s right, just 13 feet, and in actual fact they probably just needed less than half that. American Airlines going into Cali (1995). The report stated that retracting the speed brakes would likely have prevented the accident. Would more thrust have been available at that altitude? Was there adequate spool-up time?You may be able to think many more examples that are better than these, but it is possible that quite a few accidents were the result of a design decision to create software that was more focused on extending engine life than saving an airplane in an extreme situation. To reiterate, I have not done any performance analysis on any of these. Those that worked performance for these accidents should have the data on a spreadsheet and it would not be hard to calculate. It might turn out that these three accidents would still have occurred regardless of the availability of extra thrust. Focusing on that would miss the point. Rather, the point is that there clearly are times when extra thrust would be a good thing, even at the cost of an engine. Examples are EGPWS escape, windshear escape, late recognition of impending CFIT, and many more cases. How might we design this? I would suggest looking at the MD-11, with its “FADEC bar”. It is a mechanical stop that, with an intentional extra forceful push, allows the throttles to move a bit more, a higher “throttle resolver angle” is fed into the electronic controller. The engineers were thinking correctly when they designed it. Unfortunately, the most it can do is revert the FADEC to an “alternate” mode, which essentially means that it is not relying on actual temperature and pressure, but a “default” setting. Pushing through the FADEC bar will never result in a decrease in thrust, but could potentially increase thrust up to as much as 10%. The key word here is “could”, because depending on the actual conditions, it may already be as high as it will get. I am proposing a system like the “FADEC bar” that allows us to truly increase thrust, beyond the engine design limits. An extra 15% or more, perhaps much more. I want the ability to intentionally (and only with conscious action) push the engines well above the design limits, risking catastrophic damage – as not doing so will likely destroy the engines along with the rest of the airplane anyway. What about the engine acceleration (spool-up) profile? Could that also be modified to allow for more rapid possible acceleration under dire circumstances? While my inclination is that the spool-up time is probably a physical limitation, it does not hurt to ask the question.There has never been a better time to start thinking about improvements to design that would afford pilots more control when they actually need it. Operating right up to the limit on angle of attack and stopping it there is an excellent use of automation where a human is just not going to be able to gain more performance, but adding in a limit that only protects the design limits is a different story. I’d also like to hear from pilots that do not like “hard limits.” Are you satisfied with engine systems that limit you artificially? Why do we need hard limits on jet engines? Women are less than 3% of aviation maintenance technicians. Why? Maintenance technicians are behind the scenes, diagnosing mechanical and technical issues of aircraft. By Alexandra Skores 6:00 AM on Apr 24, 2023 Note: Please see photos and data chart in the original article. Jennifer Morgan’s day at work at Southwest Airlines includes strapping herself to a harness and standing on top of a Boeing 737. She does it while sporting her signature tall blonde hair and a Southwest blue button-up shirt. The 52-year-old is known as “Powder” to her colleagues — almost all of whom are men. She’s an inspector for Southwest’s technical operation and she sees herself as one of the guys. “Everybody treats you, even if you’re older than them, they treat you like a little sister,” Morgan said. “They always check on you. Not that I need to be checked on. There’s no animosity as you would think in a lot of fields.” In a career that sees the least amount of women representation for the aviation industry, of all aircraft maintenance technicians, women only make up 2.6% of the field, according to Women in Aviation International. The advocacy group’s 2022 recommendations report said that Boeing forecast over the next 20 years, 626,000 maintenance technicians will be needed worldwide. Maintenance technicians are often the people behind the scenes, diagnosing mechanical and technical issues of different aircraft. On a perfect day, according to Stacey Rudser, president of the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance, the job is designed to be invisible. Most of the work is done at night when planes are grounded, Rudser said. “If there’s something we need to resolve on a flight, usually a passenger can’t really see us, like changing a tire on certain types of aircraft,” Rudser said, noting the career’s visibility problem. “You and the passengers aren’t gonna see that.” Rudser said the job goes unnoticed, where it has become easier to point young girls to more visible careers such as pilots or engineers. It’s a profession that is still seen as blue-collar when Rudser would rather think of it as “gray-collar,” based on how sophisticated the aircraft maintenance technicians’ work has become. Aviation is a culture that hasn’t quite caught up to be a welcoming environment for women, Rudser said, but the work being done now is more than it has ever been before. Evie Garces, 42, American Airlines’ vice president of line maintenance, is the first Hispanic woman to take on the leadership position at American. Her parents were immigrants from the Dominican Republic and she grew up in New York. Aviation High School caught her attention and she took the New York City subway at 14 years old to get to school every day. Garces later earned her airframe and powerplant license. Out of high school, she worked at Tower Air, a now-defunct airline once based out of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. “My first paycheck was more than what my Dad made,” Garces said. “That was an eye-opening experience for me because not only was I making more than my Dad, but I was making more than my Dad straight out of high school without any college education.” At American, starting salary ranges based on contracts range from $78,000 to $80,000 and top of scale could be anywhere from $119,000 to $121,000 within nine years. The range represents whether people work in line or base maintenance and there’s an additional premium to work line maintenance. Wage scales based on the contract and is a nine-step scale until reaching a max at nine years. At Southwest, the current starting rate for aircraft maintenance technicians is $30.86 with the opportunity for future increase per applicable collective bargaining agreement wage scale, as well as opportunities for overtime, shift pick-ups and shift premiums. “I was focused on becoming the best mechanic, becoming the best supervisor, that if there was negativity around me, it didn’t slow me down because I was trying to be the best at what American was paying me to do,” Garces said. “But there were challenges.” One of those challenges was being pregnant at 39 and working. “I just didn’t know how to be pregnant out on the hangar floor,” Garces said. “I didn’t see any women that were pregnant. It almost felt to me like, ‘You can’t do it, because no one does it.’ How accommodating are people going to be? Do I even want them to be accommodating? I can do the work.” Another barrier is cost, a similar barrier to what people face to become a pilot. Rudser said the cost of training for maintenance technicians varies on where training comes from. Community college programs run generally not as expensive, but vary between schools, Rudser said. Private trade schools are a much faster option for women interested in flying. According to Vocational Training HQ, an associate degree in aircraft maintenance can be anywhere from $8,000 to $30,000 and a bachelor’s can cost $20,000 to $80,000. Written tests run around $125 each, Rudser said. There are also three oral and practical tests with varying prices depending on where you’re taking them. Total testing costs can be around $5,000 to $6,000. “I know so many people who have gotten through school and between test anxiety and cost, they never get that license,” Rudser said. The industry is also aging. A 2022 pipeline report from the Aviation Technician Education Council said the average Federal Aviation Administration mechanic is 53. Females are typically younger, the average age of a female mechanic is 45. Despite the hurdles, these women leaders are encouraging more young girls to take part in the industry than ever before. Morgan said the largest reason she believes girls don’t see themselves as maintenance technicians is self-doubt. “Nobody was born with that knowledge and (women) have to remember that every single person out there started with no knowledge of the aircraft,” Morgan said. “Somebody came in and took them under their wing, and they taught them. There are people that will take you under their wing no matter what.” Women are less than 3% of aviation maintenance technicians. Why? Curt Lewis