Dec. 25, 2009 — At about 1258 CST, a Bell 407 helicopter (N600CE) was substantially damaged during a hard landing after a loss of engine power shortly after takeoff from the Wise Regional Health System Helipad (XA57) in Decatur, Texas. The pilot and flight medic sustained serious injuries and the flight nurse received minor injuries. The helicopter was registered to and operated by Air Evac EMS Inc., of North Plains, Mo. It was VFR and a company flight plan was filed for the positioning flight.
Flairjet, based at London Oxford Airport, earned its air operator’s certificate from the United Kingdom, clearing the way for the operator to begin public flights with its two new Embraer Phenom 100 aircraft. The operator has spent six months training pilots and operations staff in preparation to qualify for the AOC.
Premier Aircraft has won European Aviation Safety Agency approval of its Falcon 50 powerplant upgrade program, which converts the three-engine business jet’s Honeywell TFE731-3 engines to TFE731-4-1C powerplants. Premier also appointed Duncan Aviation and Jet Aviation as distributors for the so-called “Dash4 Performance Upgrade” program. Midcoast Aviation and Premier Aircraft co-founder West Star Aviation also are distributors.
The European Union and the FAA have made another commitment to cooperate on interoperability of their respective air traffic modernization programs — SESAR in Europe and NextGen in the United States. Talks began December in Brussels aimed at creating a memorandum of cooperation (MOC). Daniel Calleja, director of the EC’s air transportation directorate, led the negotiations for Europe. Stephen Creamer, director of the FAA’s office of Africa, Europe and the Middle East, led the U.S. team.
While the NTSB had not issued a probable cause at the time of this writing, it is pretty certain the Safety Board will address the phenomenon of hydroplaning in its final report and remind pilots to review available information including that below from the FAA’s Airplane Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-3A. (While the information below does not discuss the utility of anti-skid, thrust reverser or lift dump systems, it does provide some insight into the situation.)
I suspect your inbox is jammed with responses to “Midnight Sun,” (Flight Log, November 2009, page 72). I was a U.S. Coast Guard AT2 in Kodiak from June 1962 to June 1964. Your mention of Cerlette brought back some good memories. Wonder whatever became of her. I went back to Kodiak for another tour from 1969-72 but the place wasn’t the same. The earthquake and tsunami destroyed the downtown area. All the old places I remembered were gone, except the Montmartre. But it wasn’t the same without Cerlette.
A JPMorgan analyst agreed with NBAA’s Bolen. Despite noting the potential loss of a major order for Cessna, the analyst said, “We view this as a short-term blip.” The orders in question for both Cessna and Hawker Beechcraft were primarily for 2013 and beyond, JPMorgan added. Reports of other industry activity also have shown promise, as Bolen noted.
The FAA will defer the cancellation of 22 instrument ground-based approaches in response to comments from the AOPA, the association said. The AOPA gathered information from pilots on 154 instrument approaches that were slated to be removed and recommended that the 22 be retained.
Fokker Services has introduced FLYFokker, a new life-cycle support program for the fleet of out-of-production, Dutch-built regional jets, some of which have been used in corporate operations. Fokker Services (the organization formerly known as Stork Aerospace) is offering four support packages: Take Off, Take Care, Take Over and Take Next. The company says these support options are designed to provide “cost-effective aircraft and service solutions for start-up, mature and phase-out operators.”
The FAA plans to develop a performance specification that airports can use to competitively procure bird radar systems using AIP grants, the agency said. The Center of Excellence for Airport Technology (CEAT) at the University of Illinois has been the FAA’s partner for the performance assessments that have taken place. The first avian radar systems have been deployed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport since 2007, followed by deployments at to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2009.
David M. Bjellos (West Palm Beach, FL ), Aviation Manager (West Palm Beach, FL )
“The Trouble with Bubbletown” (Viewpoint, January 2010, page 7) codified in just a few words what everyone who doesn’t work in government needs to hear — there is no accountability in government service, just people trying to find ways to further muddle capitalism. Let’s hope the mid-term elections deliver a message from the part of our country that actually produces something besides rhetoric.
Houston air traffic controllers are now using ADS-B, a GPS-based, NextGen technology, to separate and monitor aircraft flying over the Gulf of Mexico. The FAA’s announcement Jan. 12 came as the U.S. Coast Guard was preparing to shut down the U.S. Loran-C chains that for decades have provided long-range position-fixing service to mariners and aviators (see above). Previously, there was virtually no radar coverage over the Gulf, which forced 120-mile in-trail separation of high-altitude IFR traffic.
NOAA wants to improve winter storm forecasts for North America. The agency has dispatched its Gulfstream IV research aircraft to the Pacific where most of North America’s weather originates, according to Louis Uccellini, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction, to gather data to improve winter storm forecasting, out to as much as six days in advance for North America. The Gulfstream will be stationed at Yokota AFB, Japan through February and reposition to Honolulu in March.
Burlington, Vt.-based Heritage Aviation has opened a new FBO facility that will rely heavily on wind, solar and other renewable energy sources. “When we had the opportunity to build a new general aviation facility, we knew we wanted to have renewable energy components as part of the facility,” said Christopher Hill, president of Heritage Aviation and Heritage Flight. The heart of the FBS’s renewable energy array is a 100-kilowatt turbine, Hill said.
Proponents of enhanced Loran as a ground-based backup for GPS were bitterly disappointed when the U.S. Coast Guard said it will begin a permanent shutdown of U.S. Loran-C stations at 2000Z on Feb. 8, 2010. At that time U.S. Loran-C chains should be considered unusable, but 24 U.S. stations that participate in Russian-American and Canadian Loran-C chains under international agreements will temporarily continue to operate. The Canadian Coast Guard announced that Canada will also decommission its Loran-C system this year.
From the Dec. 22, 2009, Avinode Business Intelligence newsletter: “Interesting to notice is that the price decrease has been stronger on the U.S. air charter market than it has been on the global air charter market. Prices on the U.S. market are approximately 9.5 percent lower today than they were Jan. 1 [2009].””
With the recent transfer of the Bell 47 type certificate to Scott’s Helicopter, all aspects of commercial spares support, technical support and continued airworthiness for the pioneering rotorcraft have become the responsibility of the Bell-approved customer service facility located in Le Sueur, Minn.
The NTSB has drastically expanded notification and reporting requirements regarding aircraft accidents and especially incidents. In particular, the NTSB is adding regulations to require operators to report certain incidents directly and immediately to the NTSB, even though they are already required to be reported to the FAA. Under 14 CFR 21.3, FAA notification is required within 24 hours, or the next business day if the event occurs on a weekend or a holiday. The NTSB says that is not quick enough for its needs.
Norman Schweizer (Washington, DC ), General Services Administration (Washington, DC ), Office of Government-wide Policy (Washington, DC ), Aviation Management Division (Washington, DC )
“Assessing the Auditors” by David Esler (January 2010, page 32) is an excellent encapsulation of today’s various audit standards. The Office of Aviation Management within the General Services Administration (GSA) sets government-wide policy for nonmilitary government aviation operators and I am certain this article will be extremely helpful to our member agencies as we strive to continue to improve safety for government aviation programs.
On Sept. 21, 2005, a scheduled airline Airbus 320 took off from Bob Hope Airport (BUR) in Burbank, Calif., bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), carrying 140 passengers and six crewmembers. While on climb-out, the copilot attempted to retract the landing gear, but the nose gear would not successfully return to the stowed position even after several attempts. The crew requested permission to make a flyby of their maintenance base at nearby Long Beach Municipal Airport (LGB), to try to get a visual indication of the problem.
David Sheehan, a business aviation veteran with thousands of hours of flight experience, a former NBAA board member and a regional representative for the association, died on Jan. 4. Sheehan worked in the Mobil Oil Corp. flight department for 31 years, ultimately attaining the position of general manager of Corporate Aviation before retiring in 1996 to pursue other business interests in Asia. He served on NBAA board of directors from 1989 to 1996. Sheehan joined the U.S.
The White House on Dec. 22 announced President Barack Obama’s new cybersecurity coordinator: Howard A. Schmidt, a former chief security officer at eBay and Microsoft. Last spring, the President declared cybersecurity to be a major national priority.
Proposed Rules Hawker Beechcraft King Air B300 and B300C airplanes — Inspect the terminal board on the circuit-card rack assembly to determine if the correct bus bar is installed. Also, replace the bus bar, if necessary, and check the left and right pitot-heat annunciators for proper operation. Honeywell LTS101-600A, -600A-1A, -700A-1A and 700D-2 engines — Remove certain power turbine blades from service. Piaggio P-180 airplanes — Conduct a dye-penetrant inspection of the “0” pressure bulkhead and reinforce it by installing doublers.
