An NTSB determination that a pilot’s “failure to maintain airspeed” caused an airplane to crash is too pithy a pronouncement to explain and prevent future stall accidents. Rather, a failure to cross-check and monitor is a key element in the error chain. Robert Sumwalt, the NTSB’s vice chairman and former airline captain and corporate flight department manager, has stated, “A flight crew member must carefully monitor the aircraft’s flight path and systems, as well as actively cross-check the other pilot’s actions, or safety can be compromised.”
At the end of February, Embraer had four Phenom 300s in flight testing at the company’s Flight Test Center at the Gavião Peixoto plant, in Brazil. The aircraft have flown to 45,000 feet, while maintaining a 6,600-foot cabin and demonstrated a maximum cruising speed of 450 KTAS (Mach 0.78). Ongoing tests include aerodynamics and natural ice, as well as data collection for the full-flight simulator development. Lightning strike, High Intensity Radiated Field (HIRF), external noise, crosswinds and cold soak tests are scheduled.
Eurocopter acquired 80 percent of the shares of Euroheli, the Eurocopter distributor in Japan, from co-owner Itochu Corp. Euroheli has been renamed Eurocopter Japan (ECJ). Eurocopter’s share of the Japanese distribution business will increase from 10 percent to 90 percent with Itochu retaining 10 percent of the company’s shares and continuing as a Eurocopter partner. As of April 1, Euroheli’s staff and activities were merged with ECJ which will continue to be headed by CEO Stephane Ginoux.
These graphs are designed to illustrate the performance of the King Air 350ER under a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions. Do not use these data for flight planning purposes because they are gross approximations of actual aircraft performance.
Bruce Holmes (Williamsburg, VA), Holmes Consulting LLC (Williamsburg, VA)
I want say how well “Per-Seat, On-Demand Persists” (January, page 48) did in capturing the big picture for the “per-seat” story in the emerging world of on-demand. I am putting together a seminar broadly covering innovation in air transportation systems for an audience at the College of William and Mary and have directed the class to your article for background.
The Italian Ministry of Justice has agreed to collaborate with the Italian flight safety board, Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza del Volo (ANSV) in investigating accidents. ANSV said it was pleased that the ministry agreed not to tamper with or alter evidence involving an aircraft accident before ANSV investigators can participate. The ministry also pledged to coordinate wreckage recovery with ANSV personnel. The agreement came as a result of an ANSV safety recommendation, and worldwide industry outrage in the wake of the Feb.
Flight Options revealed a restructured ownership around new investments from the private equity firm Resilience Capital Partners as well as from members of the company’s management team and Directional Capital, an investment firm led by Flight Options Chairman Kenn Ricci. The Cleveland-based fractional aircraft ownership provider did not break out details of the investment, but did say that H.I.G. Capital, which acquired Flight Options from Raytheon Co. in late 2007, remains an investor.
Time was when flying training schools in Florida, California, Arizona and other sunny climes in the southern United States were magnets for pilots seeking a professional career on the flight deck. And the World Aerospace Database (WAD) still lists far more training providers in North America than in any other region of the world. But excellent training can also be found far from these shores, as the accompanying list reveals.
Five of the 59 fatal Loss of Control (LOC) business jet accidents between 1991 and 2007 involved single-pilot operations. Two of those accidents have “undetermined causes,” one was attributed to pilot incapacitation, another involved a low-altitude stall on final approach and the last involved diverted attention, which subsequently led to an LOC.
As spring began, buyers of previously owned airplanes showed some signs of awakening from their winter slumber. Ever since the bottom dropped out of the used market in September 2008, everyone had wondered when the sales drought and freefall in aircraft valuations would end. At the end of March many brokers and dealers reported that aircraft sales remained slow and valuations remained substantially depressed from a year earlier. Skip Flint, Dassault Falcon Jet’s director of pre-owned aircraft sales, said, “I have never seen the pre-owned market plunge so quickly.
The business aircraft industry is in for tough times in 2009, probably rougher going than in any downturn in the last several decades. Historically, sales of business aircraft have risen and fallen on the fortunes of Wall Street and the world economy. Considering the state of the economy, the industry’s present slump is not unexpected.
Bankers, brokers and dealers who attended a National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA) forum earlier this year acknowledged there is no “silver bullet” to boost aircraft sales, but they resolved to work together to complete transactions. The NARA forum — titled “Challenges and Opportunities Ahead: The Aircraft Sales Industry in the Next Six Months” — drew more than 200 brokers, dealers and aircraft finance specialists to Dallas at the end of February to discuss the financial markets’ impact on the global economy and the resultant effect on aircraft sales.
House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) March 13 reiterated opposition to an apparent Obama administration plan to replace “some aviation taxes with direct user charges” beginning in 2011. “These concepts are stale leftovers from the Bush administration that are not supported in Congress,” said Costello. “We should not be wasting time rehashing bad ideas. Let me be clear, user fees on general aviation are a nonstarter.”
— At 0950 CDT, a Cessna E162 Skycatcher experimental airplane (N162CE) was substantially damaged when it impacted terrain near El Dorado, Kan., following a loss of control during a test flight. The pilot was not injured. The flight originated at Cessna Aircraft Field Airport (CEA) in Wichita where the weather was VFR. The pilot departed CEA about 0900 to conduct spin tests. During a planned test condition the airplane entered a rapid and disorienting spin.
Fresh from the shop after extensive maintenance and refurbishment on May 4, 2006, a Hawker Beechcraft 800A departed the Lincoln, Neb., airport for a test flight. On board were two Raytheon test pilots and four passengers whom Raytheon considered crucial for the flight. As pilots slowed the aircraft to approximately 126 knots for a “clean” stall, the right wing stalled, the nose dropped through the horizon and the aircraft continued to roll to the right in a near vertical descent as it entered a cloud layer.
Business and personal aircraft — even those vilified by the nattering blogeratti — continue to deliver their passengers and crews efficiently and safely to more places on the globe than any other mode of air transportation. Much of that efficiency and safety — as well as the health of our global economy — results from the continuing advances in avionics.
Rockwell Collins has been certified by EASA to offer avionics maintenance classes — B2 type training courses — for select Rockwell Collins Pro Line avionics equipped aircraft at the company’s Reading, England, location, the company announced March 24. The first course covers Hawker Beechcraft King Air 300 series Pro Line 21 avionics.
The Department of Homeland Security has dropped the color-coded security threat chart from its homepage, and DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano says she finds the system of only “marginal utility.” Though she stopped short of saying she would end the alerts completely, Napolitano told MSNBC, “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them.”
The Maryland state senate Finance Committee has approved a bill that may put the brakes on the state’s plan to buy more medevac helicopters. Under the bill, which still has to pass the full state senate, the Maryland Health Care Commission, working with the Maryland Institute of Emergency Medical Systems Services, would be required to study the state’s helicopter emergency medical services before moving with any helicopter purchase.
I have a small, Hong Kong-based company that sells pre-owned aircraft, and crews and manages them in Southeast Asia. Now, I’m trying to start an FAR Part 135 operation in Florida, but I am having a difficult time financially, like many other pilots. We need some verbal help from the president. We are not asking for financial help . . . even though many of us could use it since his words have been spoken. I believe the president should retract or revise what he is saying. My father said one should take care of business at home before you criticize your neighbor. The U.S.
Sometimes simpler is better. Amidst the torrent of ongoing research, claims and announcements of various alternative aviation fuels — almost universally bio-engineered — Teledyne Continental Motors has made the first flight of a certificated aircraft, a G36 Beechcraft Bonanza, using unleaded aviation gasoline. The 94 octane gasoline is a true avgas, identical to 100LL, but without the lead (tetraethyl). The initial tests are being conducted in collaboration with Hawker Beechcraft as part of that company’s sustainability program.
Robert Holleran, Jeppesen’s chief technical pilot, recently completed the flight validation training course for Satellite-Based Performance Based Navigation (PBN) and Special Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Instrument Flight Procedures (IFP) — making Jeppesen the first and only third-party vendor authorized to flight check PBN procedures.
Marcel Dassault is considering producing the MD-15 pressurized twin turboprop as a business airplane. The Bastan-powered aircraft would carry eight passengers, cruise at 290 mph at 19,500 feet and have a 1,250-mile range. Ramjets at rotor tips power the Dutch-built Kolbrie. The simple, low-cost rotorcraft is highly maneuverable with good stability and deemed ideal for agricultural work.
