June 14, 2018 - No. 047 In This Issue ICAO Adopts Standards For Electronic Recordkeeping US Airmen teach aircraft recovery to Chilean Air Force partner Constant Aviation Recognized for the 2nd Year in a row with 5-Star Award from National Air Transportation Association (NATA) P&WC Now Providing Its Proactive Help Desk Digital Engine Service to Nearly 3,000 PW300 Engines European Parliament Approves Revision of EASA Basic Reg Inspection Authorization Test Prep Program in Conroe, TX, Proven Successful FAA Rejects AOPA's Pricing Complaint at Asheville Airport Venezuela's Biggest Airport Is in Free Fall Nasa's Ikhana unmanned aircraft completes first test flight ST Engineering Aerospace Opens New Florida MRO Facility Solving 'The Secrets of Continued Airworthiness?' SpaceX is giving Wall Street a reason to bet on Tesla ICAO Adopts Standards For Electronic Recordkeeping The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is exploring new ways to simplify the airline business. Its Paperless Aircraft Operations (PAO) initiative faces the daunting task of rethinking the way companies document maintenance activity. The group envisions a paperless environment and global regulatory acceptance of a single e-record system. The three-year-old project is modeled after IATA's "Simplifying the Business" (STB)-an industry-led program that seeks to innovate and drive change in the aviation industry from a passenger and cargo perspective. "Similar to the STB, the PAO seeks to transform legacy processes into modern, digital processes," says IATA's head of operational cost management, Chris Markou. "These programs encourage industry to learn from experience and rethink the way we operate." PAO working group members expect global incorporation of paperless technologies will facilitate improved regulatory compliance and allow for new, cost-saving processes. "A paperless operation will essentially allow the aircraft to 'talk' about its history, airworthiness, technical condition and costs," explains Markou. "And worldwide acceptance of this type of documentation will improve efficiency and effectiveness of aviation technical operations that crisscross international borders." Maintenance organizations already are migrating toward paperless processes, and global standards developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) provide for their use. Nevertheless, the working group said aircraft maintenance information is still widely recorded, certified and stored in paper format. The group is developing new tools, resources and guidance materials in an effort to change that. In 2017, IATA released a guidance document to support implementation of the PAO for aircraft maintenance activities, parts supply chain and logistics, and the transfer of aircraft assets. The document was directed at industry and assisted organizations as they developed a business case and value proposition for adoption of electronic recordkeeping. A separate checklist provided a basis for the requisite aviation authority approval, a barrier that often thwarted companies from implementing an electronic system. "Some national aviation authority regulatory requirements hinder the go-paperless movement," Markou notes. "And until recently, there was no standard or guidance to encourage global acceptance of e-records." New ICAO guidance fills the void. Late last year, with the working group's full support, ICAO published "Guidance for Acceptance of Electronic Aircraft Maintenance Records," a regulatory framework that authorities around the world can use to adapt regulations to accept electronic documents. The international organization plans to adopt the language officially in a revision to the Airworthiness Manual (Doc 9760) later this year. That revised manual will support new electronic aircraft maintenance record provisions in Annexes 6 and 8 and is expected to take effect in 2020. The new guidance does not disallow paper-based systems, but encourages the adoption of "regulations and practices that enable and encourage the airworthiness activities of the air operators, design organizations, production organizations and maintenance organizations to use and rely on EAMR [electronic aircraft maintenance records]." The guidance also addresses common oversight challenges posed by electronic signatures, system security and transferring records. "There are many areas that need standardization to increase efficiencies," Markou says. The next steps for the working group are therefore to complete the standards for data transfers. Also on the PAO's agenda is development of sample business cases that operators and others can use to advance paperless operations in their companies. http://www.mro-network.com/safety-regulatory/icao-adopts-standards-electronic-recordkeeping Back to Top US Airmen teach aircraft recovery to Chilean Air Force partners ANTOFAGASTA, Chile-Twelfth Air Force (Air Forces Southern) sent a Mobile Training Team to Chile to conduct training with the Chilean Air Force on Crash Damaged Disabled Aircraft Recovery, May 13 to June 8. The CDDAR Mobile Training Team consisted of four seasoned crew chiefs who have experience being an aircraft crash team chief. The crew chiefs hailed from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona; Hill Air Force Base, Utah and Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. The team traveled from the United States to the 3rd Aviation Group at the Los Condores Air Force Base in Iquique, Chile and then to the 5th Air Brigade Maintenance Group at the Cerro Moreno Air Base in Antofagasta, Chile. "I view the MTTs as a key tool in our Security Cooperation apparatus," said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Hector L. Gonzalez, Embassy Santiago, Chile, Theater Security Cooperation Air Force section chief. Gonzalez explained that the MTTs are requested and funded by the Chilean Air Force. "By us being able to provide assistance in an area that they feel a need to improve, we're building that partnership, that relationship." U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Powell, 388th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Mobile Training Team member, explained that the MTT taught the basic principles of how to preserve the area surrounding an aircraft mishap for an investigation and recover a damaged or disabled aircraft. The CDDAR course was instructed in English to the native Spanish speakers for a duration of two weeks, the same as the U.S. Air Force CDDAR course. This was an opportunity for the Chilean Airmen to practice speaking in English as they already often read in English, since their aircraft technical orders are the same as the U.S. Air Force. "The course being in English actually helped me," said Chilean Air Force Airman Gonzalo Payacan, 5th Air Brigade Maintenance Group F-16 Fighting Falcon crew chief. "All of the Technical orders of my specialty are written in English. The course helps me prepare when needed." Throughout the training course, the Chilean Airmen were given classroom instruction covering an aircraft recovery plan, personnel protective equipment, and CDDAR operation followed by hands on training. Chilean Airmen demonstrated their knowledge by responding to a simulated damaged disabled F-16 Fighting Falcon and connecting a crane to simulate lifting the aircraft for the final objective of the course. "To physically see the aircraft lift procedures was a great experience," Paycan said. "I'm grateful to have experienced it." Thirty-five Chilean Airmen graduated the CDDAR course from both locations. The Chilean Airmen hailed from F-16 maintenance career fields to include: crew chiefs, jet engine mechanics, sheet metal technicians, avionics mechanics, safety Non Commissioned Officers, egress technicians, non- destruction inspection technicians, aircrew flight equipment technicians, maintenance officers and quality assurance inspectors. "It's very important we interact with different aircraft specialties when we need to pick up an aircraft," said Chilean Air Force Tech. Sgt. Benjamin Zepeda, 5th Air Brigade Maintenance Group F- 16 Fighting Falcon crew chief. "They will have different viewpoints and they are going to be the ones lifting the aircraft." Upon completing the final objective, U.S. and Chilean Airmen conducted a team debrief over what went well and what could've been improved. The following day the U.S. Airmen held a graduation ceremony for the newly CDDAR certified Chilean Airmen. "Thank you for your time and your patience and for giving us the instruction, life experiences and your knowledge," Zepeda said. "The instructors did everything in their power to make the course the best." https://www.dvidshub.net/news/280797/us-airmen-teach-aircraft-recovery-chilean-air-force- partners Back to Top Constant Aviation Recognized for the 2nd Year in a row with 5-Star Award from National Air Transportation Association (NATA) CLEVELAND, OHIO - June 13, 2018 - Constant Aviation, a full-service MRO with a nationwide network, was awarded the 2018 NATA Aviation Maintenance Technician Employer Recognition Award at this years' Annual Meeting and Business Aviation Conference. This award recognizes aviation maintenance organizations that encourage and support aviation maintenance technician (AMT) training. The 5-Star Award is the highest achievable award in the program. It requires 100% of a company's eligible AMT employees complete a minimum of 12 hours of qualified safety and/or maintenance related training each calendar year. "Our fanatical attention to detail and our aspiration to exceed our customers' expectations requires a keen commitment to quality and training throughout our organization", stated Kent Stauffer, Vice President - Quality, Safety and Training. He also commented, "We are honored to be receiving this award for the second year in a row. We believe dedicating time for our AMT's to participate in training not only hones their skills but also helps Constant Aviation achieve collective knowledge and experience across our network." For more information, please visit www.constantaviation.com http://www.aviationpros.com/press_release/12416820/constant-aviation-recognized-for-the-2nd- year-in-a-row-with-5-star-award-from-national-air-transportation-association-nata Back to Top P&WC Now Providing Its Proactive Help Desk Digital Engine Service to Nearly 3,000 PW300 Engines NEW YORK, June 12, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pratt & Whitney Canada now has nearly 3,000 PW300 engines enrolled in its Proactive Help Desk, where data from the engine and aircraft helps aviation technicians and analysts address customers' needs proactively. More than half of the PW300 engines flying today are benefitting from this proactive service, which includes predictive analysis to drive greater availability. P&WC is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX). "Our PW300 Proactive Help Desk provides a unique predictive and preventive maintenance experience for our customers," said Tim Swail, Vice President, Customer Programs, P&WC. "We're taking a tailored consulting approach where our analysts and technicians assess the data to identify possible events in advance and then proactively reach out to our customers to provide meaningful insight and actionable steps to help increase availability, save time and money." The Proactive Help Desk is a dedicated team of aviation technicians and data analysts who address customers' needs through the use of data-driven decision making and preventative maintenance tools and practices. The specialized team conducts daily reviews of customer data from sources such as P&WC's FAST™ prognostics solution and develops new engine health "signatures" that allow them to identify and address potential issues well in advance. The team proactively reaches out to customers with recommendations and actions they can take to avoid unplanned events and maximize availability. P&WC's services work together to drive performance optimization and mission readiness for business aviation customers. PW300 Availability through Proactive Pay-per-Hour Maintenance Programs P&WC has introduced a number of proactive initiatives as part of its ever-evolving pay-per-hour ESP™ maintenance coverage that can further drive availability and reduce costs. * PW307A ESP customers benefit from proactive reliability upgrades of key engine components at the time of aircraft C-Check at no additional charge. This includes the proactive incorporation of four service bulletins as part of the company's ongoing efforts to move customers to more fully planned environments. * PW306D1 customers enrolled in ESP have the option to move to an on-condition maintenance program, which allows flexible maintenance intervals based on digital engine health trending, along with a lower ESP rate. * PW307A, PW307D and PW308C customers enrolled in ESP Platinum are provided with complimentary flyaway kits. To date, more than 150 flyaway kits of key components have been delivered providing operators with access to the right part when and where they need it. "We are delivering exceptional levels of service and a unique value proposition for our operators through a host of proactive initiatives - the synthesis of digital engine health management and a proactive maintenance approach - bringing higher than ever availability and optimization to customers," said Swail. "What was once seen as the future of advanced digital engine health is now reality for our customers." About Pratt & Whitney Canada Founded in 1928, and a global leader in aerospace, P&WC is shaping the future of aviation with dependable, high-technology engines. Based in Longueuil, Quebec (Canada), P&WC is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. United Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries. http://www.aviationpros.com/press_release/12416506/pwc-now-providing-its-proactive-help-desk- digital-engine-service-to-nearly-3000-pw300-engines Back to Top European Parliament Approves Revision of EASA Basic Reg The European Aviation Safety Agency's new Basic Regulation passed another key milestone with European Parliament approval of the new mandate. The European Parliament sign-off followed a political agreement the leaders reached with member states and European Commission in December. "Today's endorsement by the entire Parliament paves the way for a new, modernized EASA framework in the coming months," said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce. "Industry and EASA are reliant on this new framework to fully realize the benefits of new technologies, oversight methods, and the changing aviation landscape." The new Basic Regulation will replace the existing 216/2008, marking the broadest rework of EASA regulations since the agency's inception. GAMA has long supported the effort to update EASA's regulatory framework, saying it will improve the agency's approach to regulating general aviation. "This has been a mammoth task for all involved, and we truly appreciate the Parliament's efforts to emphasize the need for appropriate rules for general aviation, in particular," Bunce said. He praised the regulation's move toward data sharing, calling the lack of such sharing among national authorities "one of the most glaring omissions in European safety efforts." GAMA pointed to other highlights, including language on a need for efficient certification and validation procedures and the introduction of the concept of a pan-European maintenance provider or operator. The regulation must still be cleared by EU members states at the ministerial level before it is published. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2018-06-12/european-parliament- approves-revision-easa-basic-reg Back to Top Inspection Authorization Test Prep Program in Conroe, TX, Proven Successful The Lone Star Aviation Test Prep Program located at Conroe-North Houston Airport has proven successful for Aircraft Maintenance Technicians pursuing an Inspection Authorization or IA Certification working as an aircraft mechanic. Our current pass rate stands at 92%. Robert Cunningham, owner and instructor, states, "There is a level of expectation in quality, standards and experience that comes with being an Authorized Inspector. Safety is foremost for every AMT but an IA puts his name, reputation and license on the line with every sign off for an aircraft going back into service. Not every mechanic will meet this caliber. This is not a test you can memorize. It is a test based on your knowledge and experience." The Inspection Authorization test offered by the FAA is the only Airman Knowledge Exam which remains a "closed test". The exact question bank is not available to the public. This test is 50 questions and is allowed three hours to complete. An AMT must be able to research and gather the information provided for the questions and then from this, glean the information to arrive at the answer. There is a high demand for mechanics and aviation technicians. An aviation mechanic who has held a certification for airframe and powerplant for at least three years and has worked on aircraft for two of those years is eligible to test as an Authorized Inspector to sign off on repairs and place an aircraft back into service. The test prep program also provides insight into the function of an IA, and excerpts of regulations, advisory circulars, airworthiness directives, type certificate data sheets, FAA orders and aircraft specifications. We also provide instruction on challenging topics such as sheet metal, bend radius and weight and balance. In large facilities this is done with a computer program. The written test requires the candidate to have mastered the mathematical formulas to complete these functions. Lone Star Aviation Testing Center can provide the insight, knowledge and information required to pass this FAA Airman Knowledge Test through our IA test prep program. The cost of the program is $599 which includes the FAA written test. Most candidates are ready to test in as few as four days. Testing is administered on site. More information can be found at www.flyinhouston.com/inspectionauthorization or by calling 832-721-3158. http://www.aviationpros.com/press_release/12416770/inspection-authorization-test-prep-program- in-conroe-texas-proven-successful Back to Top FAA Rejects AOPA's Pricing Complaint at Asheville Airport The FAA's Southern Region has rejected the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's claim that "egregious" FBO pricing at Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina violates federal airport grant assurances, calling the Part 13 complaint the association filed last summer "unpersuasive." The FAA Southern Region Airports Division wrote in a June 7 letter to AOPA general counsel Kenneth Mead that an investigation conducted over several months agreed with the Asheville Airport Authority's assertion that the fees charged by the airport's sole FBO are "necessary and reasonable." The agency went on to say it determined that the allegations made by AOPA in its complaint "are not supported and no further review is warranted." The issue swirled around AOPA's contention that some airports and FBOs are charging its members for services "they don't ask for or need," effectively denying pilots "affordable access" to those facilities. In rejecting AOPA's complaint, the FAA noted that FBOs spend millions of dollars to build facilities and compete for leaseholds at airports with the clear understanding that they will charge aircraft owners fees for using those facilities. The agency noted that the FBO investment by Signature Flight Support at Asheville Regional Airport included construction of the general aviation terminal building, large communal hangars, 68 T- hangars, aircraft maintenance facilities, office space, a fuel farm and a self-service fuel pump. "In addition to this initial investment," the FAA wrote, "the FBO was required to spend another $750,000 in leasehold improvements, including, as a minimum, improvements to the south and middle ramps as well as future financial commitments assumed in the lease agreement." The FAA said it found no evidence that FBO fees at Asheville Regional Airport are excessive. The ruling is a serious blow against AOPA's crusade to change fee policies at about a dozen general aviation airports served by single FBOs. In nearly every case, the FBO in question has been Signature Flight Support, which levies ramp fees on transient single-engine piston airplanes at the affected airports of $29, a charge that is waived with the purchase of seven gallons of fuel. Charges for turboprops and jets are higher, often running to hundreds of dollars. The FAA said it reviewed Asheville Airport's grant assurances and found they complied with federal law. "In considering whether Signature's fees are reasonable," the FAA added, "we found AOPA's assertions to be unpersuasive." The National Air Transport Association, which represents airport businesses like FBOs, said AOPA's actions against airports and FBOs reflected a "misunderstanding" of the economics of aviation businesses, the pricing of services and airport-FBO relationships. "NATA and its aviation business members are pleased that the FAA took the necessary time and steps to understand the complexity of the issue and to consider the views of all stakeholders," said NATA president Marty Hiller. "The FAA's complaint review letter illustrates the profound role of airport sponsors in upholding their federal obligations, and ensuring fees are reasonable and access to the airport is available to all users." In a statement, AOPA's Mead said the association will fight on. "Using all available avenues, we will continue to fight for reasonable access, transparent and public pricing and competition," he said. "It also is fundamentally offensive for the FAA to imply that it is an acceptable business practice to make pilots pay for services they don't request or need." https://www.flyingmag.com/faa-rejects-aopas-pricing-complaint-at-asheville-airport Back to Top Venezuela's Biggest Airport Is in Free Fall n 1976, you could fly from Caracas, Venezuela, to Paris in six hours, crossing the Atlantic Ocean aboard Air France's Concorde. Only France, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States were also regularly served by the futuristic supersonic aircraft. At the time, Venezuela's oil- fueled economy was the richest in South America, and for air travelers, it was the continent's best- connected state. In the decades since, Maiquetía International Airport (renamed Simón Bolívar International in 1972, but still widely known by its former name) boomed with taxiing 747s on intercontinental routes to Dublin, London, Amsterdam, and Zurich. Caracas also boasted several connections to major American hubs, such as Miami, New York, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Atlanta, operated by both Venezuelan carriers and American, Delta, United, Braniff, and Pan-Am. Today, that scene has changed dramatically. Since 2014, when Venezuela descended into a political and economic crisis, 15 airlines have ceased operations to and from Caracas, leaving the city--and the country--in a deepening state of aviation isolation. Maiquetía's terminal frequently goes without air conditioning, power, or running water; fears of crime in the city and in the airport itself have caused some remaining carriers to send flight crews to other cities rather than having them stay overnight in Caracas. The fall of Maiquetía started when Air Canada canceled its route from Toronto in March 2014, followed by Alitalia's withdrawal of its Rome-Caracas operation in April 2015. Eleven more carriers followed, including Delta, United, Lufthansa, Aeromexico, Aerolíneas Argentinas, GOL, Avianca, and LATAM, leaving the Venezuelan capital with no direct services to Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Houston, San Juan, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Lima, Bogotá, São Paulo, and Santiago. Currently, the only U.S. carrier operating to and from Venezuela is American Airlines, with a single daily flight to Miami from both Caracas and Maracaibo, Venezuela's second largest city. Two years ago, there were more than 40 flights per week between the Venezuelan capital and Miami. The airline exodus is just one symptom of the deteriorating political and economic crisis in Venezuela since the death of Hugo Chávez. Nicolás Maduro, his hand-picked successor, became president with 50.6 percent of the vote in 2013. Maduro continued Chavez's policies, which produced a great amount of overspending, a devaluation of the bolívar, hyperinflation of 25,000 percent, and shortages due to imports and foreign currency restrictions, among other factors. It has been estimated that 90 percent of Venezuelans now live below the poverty line. A vast number of Venezuelans have fled the country, while Maduro won re-election in May in a controversial election that many members of the international community have rejected as illegitimate. For airlines, Maduro's economic policies have made the Venezuelan capital a very difficult place to do business. Like in any other country, international carriers sell their tickets in national currency, which later gets exchanged into U.S. dollars, euros, or other foreign currencies. In the case of Venezuela, passengers were booking and paying for their flights in bolívares, the nation's currency. This income had to be exchanged into foreign currency, so it could be repatriated to the airlines' central bank accounts. In order to prevent capital flight and to halt a devaluation of the bolívar, in 2003 the Chavez government began enforcing fixed exchange rates and restricting the purchase of U.S. dollars for both companies and people, so the bolívares collected by ticket sales couldn't get converted into foreign currency. And as the recent economic crisis continues, the Maduro government has progressively tightened these currency controls through CENCOEX, Venezuela's National Center for Foreign Trade. As a result, international airlines in Venezuela have billions of bolívares frozen inside the country, and the carriers that remain have stopped selling tickets in national currency. Now, every international carrier only sells their tickets in euros or U.S. dollars, two currencies which are extremely difficult to get inside Venezuela. U.S. dollars, for example, are sold on the black market at rates almost 25 times more expensive than their official value. For euros, the rate is nearly 30 times higher. The International Air Transport Association--also known as IATA-- estimates that airlines have been unable collect nearly $3.8 billion from ticket sales in Venezuela since restrictions to currency exchange were strengthened in 2015. The association also closed its Caracas office in January 2018. If Venezuelans want to fly American Airlines, Air France, or any other international carrier, they must be either very wealthy and have access to foreign currencies at the black market, or be primary holders of a bank account abroad, which would allow them to pay for their ticket in euros or U.S. dollars. Both scenarios are rare in a country where the monthly average salary is approximately $1.3 at the unofficial exchange rate, or $32 at the official one. Without available foreign currency, replacement parts and other imported goods needed for aircraft maintenance, airport management, and other tasks have become scarce, and airlines dropped routes even when passenger demand was high, as for flights originating in U.S. cities like New York, Houston, Atlanta, and Fort Lauderdale. "If you want to see how the country is doing, take a look at its aviation industry," says José Leonardo Garelli, a Venezuelan aviation expert and editor at MiAerolinea.com, a bilingual blog dedicated to the airline industry. Meanwhile, according to Garelli and many others, conditions at Venezuela's main aviation gateway have deteriorated since the crisis began in 2014. "When I traveled through Maiquetía less than two years ago, there wasn't even air conditioning," he says. More recently, local media have reported that the airport is experiencing frequent power blackouts and that water isn't running in the terminal's toilets, while hundreds of passengers are being left stranded after flights get canceled without notice. Since Maiquetía's cleaning services company went bankrupt, there's no one sanitizing bathrooms, cleaning floors, or taking out the trash. Crime and safety is another growing concern. Since 2017, security for the airport has been provided by the National Bolivarian Guard, or GNB, Venezuela's highly militarized police force. An investigation from ABC, one of Spain's largest newspapers, reported that passengers on international-bound flights were being extorted by GNB officers at the check-in area before going through any security checkpoint. According to ABC, members of this "military mafia" regularly threatened to deny boarding and demanded foreign currency, tech gadgets, or jewelry from travelers. Arriving passengers are being greeted with similar treatment. Bands of thieves are said, by several media accounts, to be colluding with customs officers who identify potential wealthy targets entering the country on international flights. The travelers are then stopped at gunpoint on the freeway that links Caracas and Maiquetía. In one heavily publicized incident, a man was shot and killed by a sicario (or hitman) in August 2017 while checking in at an airline counter in front of dozens of people. A week before that murder, the Spanish national airline Iberia decided to discontinue their nonstop service from Madrid, mainly because the crew did not feel safe spending the night in Caracas. The airline still flies to Maiquetía, but now operates with a stopover in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic, for the crew to sleep and change shifts. Peter Cerdà, regional vice-president for the Americas at IATA, said that more airlines could stop flying into Venezuela if the situation worsens. "I wouldn't be surprised if the number of operating airlines in Venezuela keeps declining," he told Spanish news agency EFE. "Our problem is just a grain of sand compared to the country's situation, but, unfortunately, Venezuela is isolating itself from the rest of the world." That isolation is reflected in the toll on the country's tourism industry. According to the World Tourism Organization, international visitors into Venezuela have plummeted from 1,061,000 visitors in 2012 to 681,111 in 2016. During the same years, the number of tourists from the U.S. fell from 79,248 to 29,604. Visitors from South American countries decreased nearly 36 percent between 2015 and 2016. Tourism revenue is also in freefall, dropping 49 percent--from $1.1 billion in 2008 to $546 million in 2016. Figures from 2017 and 2018 were not available. CityLab contacted the Instituto Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetía, the Ministry of Transportation agency that oversees and manages the airport's operations. After several attempts, officials said they didn't have any updated statistics and instead referred us to the Ministry of Transportation. When contacted, the Ministry said those statistics were not under their responsibility and suggested that we should contact airport authorities again. Both institutions said they had no comments on the airport's current conditions. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/06/venezuela-biggest-airport-is-in-free-fall/561875/ Back to Top Nasa's Ikhana unmanned aircraft completes first test flight Nasa's remotely piloted Ikhana aircraft has successfully completed its first test flight without using a safety chase aircraft. The aircraft took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California, US and after travelling through a controlled air space, returned to its base in Nasa's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Prepared by the aircraft maintenance crews at the Armstrong centre,the flight was conducted to confirm that key technologies and operations required for the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) approval to fly Ikhana in the public airspace without a safety chase aircraft were being used. Operations of large unmanned aircraft such as Ikhana usually require a safety chase aircraft to follow the vehicle as it flies through the same airspace used by commercial aircraft. Ikhana can be used in various applications, including monitoring and fighting forest fires and providing new emergency search and rescue operations. It also features technology that could be scaled down for use in other general aviation aircraft. During the latest test, Ikhana flew following FAA's Technical Standard Order 211, Detect and Avoid Systems, and Technical Standard Order 212, Air-to-Air Radar for Traffic Surveillance. The test was based on a special permission granted by FAA to Nasa under a Certificate of Waiver or Authorisation, which allowed Ikhana's pilot to use new detect and avoid technology to enable the remote pilot on the ground to see and avoid other aircraft during the flight. The technology was developed by Nasa in collaboration with its industry partners and meets FAA's Technical Standard Orders requirements. During the flight, Ikhana employed an airborne radar developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, a Honeywell Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast capability and other detect and avoid technologies. The flight is the first remotely piloted aircraft to use airborne detect and avoid technology to meet FAA's 'see and avoid' rules. https://www.aerospace-technology.com/news/nasas-ikhana-unmanned-aircraft-completes-first- test-flight/ Back to Top ST Engineering Aerospace Opens New Florida MRO Facility ST Engineering's Aerospace sector continues to spread its global reach with the opening of a new airframe MRO facility in Pensacola, Florida. The new facility, located at the Pensacola International Airport, will perform aircraft modification work as well as heavy and line maintenance-similar to the company's two other American facilities in San Antonio, Texas and Mobile, Alabama. "Pensacola serves as an excellent base for us to serve the MRO needs of the North America region given its rich pool of highly trained engineering and aviation talent," says Lim Serh Ghee, President, ST Engineering's Aerospace sector. Florida's Governor Rick Scott and Pensacola's mayor, Ashton J. Hayward, expressed excitement about the new jobs the facility will bring to the area. Construction on the $46 million facility began in November 2016. According to ST Engineering Aerospace, the 173,500 sq. ft. hangar can accommodate either two widebody aircraft (up to the largest version of the Boeing 777 widebody series) or six Airbus A321 narrowbody aircraft, making it one of the largest in the company's global network of airframe maintenance facilities. The new facility currently has an annual capacity of 600,000 labor hours. ST Engineering Aerospace has already begun work with the facility's first customer, UPS. According to a spokesperson, ST Engineering is currently supporting UPS' Boeing 7575 fleet with heavy maintenance. "We are pleased to have the United Parcel Service as our launch customer at the new facility, and we look forward to welcoming more customers and supporting them with the same high level of quality and on-schedule redeliveries regardless of where our hangar is located, time and again," says Lim. http://www.mro-network.com/maintenance-repair-overhaul/st-engineering-aerospace-opens-new- florida-mro-facility Back to Top Solving 'The Secrets of Continued Airworthiness?' Last March, maintenance industry executives came to Washington for high-level briefings with government officials. During a visit to the FAA, participants repeatedly highlighted one concern: the availability of maintenance information. Respondents to this year's Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) member survey rated the issue as the biggest risk to their businesses along with "difficulty finding/retaining technical talent." Considering the long history regarding Instructions for Continued Airworthiness (ICA), an agency official asked: "How many times do we have to solve this problem?" Once would be nice. ICA issues were instrumental in the founding of ARSA 35 years ago. We're still working the issue: The rule dictates that ICA be prepared by design approval holders (DAH), provided to owners and made available to maintainers and others required to comply. We're still struggling to get it right. EASA just finished collecting comments, including ARSA's, to its Notice of ProposedAmendment (NPA) 2018-01. While the proposal has some positive attributes, it does not fully repair the long- standing disconnect between design and maintenance rules. The proposal does seek to standardize ICA practices and enhance EASA's control by making the complete ICA part of the product's type certificate. It suggests the ICA include actions required to restore a product or article to an airworthy condition before its limitations are exceeded or it becomes unairworthy, as an alternative to withdrawal from service. Subsequently, the proposal points out that not all articles must have maintenance instructions if restoration to an airworthy condition is not realistic. Unfortunately, it also recognizes that "remove and replace" is a viable option for ensuring the product's airworthiness, even when the replacement component can be maintained. The NPA continues to cede significant authority to the DAH for determining which component maintenance manuals (CMM) are in the ICA, leaving the vast majority of those manuals outside the ICA and therefore not subject to the "make available" requirement. Considering that the European Commission's anticompetitiveness investigation appears stalled, there is no imminent solution to the government-induced monopoly. EASA did not address restrictions that render the ICA constructively unavailable or the practices of removing repairs and/or directing that articles be returned to the OEM for maintenance, and imposing source-approval requirements for appropriately rated approved maintenance organizations. With safety management systems, the disconnect between the design and maintenance rules is obvious. Under the design rules, most components do not require a CMM, but tell that to the regulator demanding them from a continuing airworthiness management organization under EASA rules. Regulators do not countenance the withholding of flight manual information from operators because it was not part of the operating limitations. Why do they countenance the withholding of component maintenance data from those required to comply with those instructions? When EASA first started this rulemaking project, it held a public meeting in which one of its managers referred to ICA as the "Secrets for Continued Airworthiness." He was not joking. Unfortunately, what began with a lot of promise appears to have succumbed to the usual politics of aviation safety. http://www.mro-network.com/safety-regulatory/solving-secrets-continued-airworthiness Back to Top SpaceX is giving Wall Street a reason to bet on Tesla Elon Musk is exceptional at creating a few handbuilt, expensive things that go fast. Tesla started off building the Roadster, an electric supercar built on a Lotus chassis, assembled by hand in Britain and California. Tesla's next two cars, the Model S and Model X, were built in a proper factory yet not much less bespoke, at least initially. The CEO's hands-on design meant multiple iterations to remold manufacturing, not to mention supplier issues, ill-fitting falcon-wing doors and other snafus. This "production hell" continued until Tesla finally churned out about 103,000 cars in 2017-the same number Toyota produces (pdf) each week. The ultimate expression of this approach is Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX. Musk's space company launches re-useable metal tubes packed with explosives into space. Soaring hangars at the company's Hawthorne, California facility house hundreds of workers and robots who carefully piece together the space-age materials that will eventually become a multi-million-dollar rocket. There is still no such thing as a mass-produced rocket. Now Musk finds himself in a unique situation with Tesla. The electric carmaker must produce hundreds of thousands of the exact same product, nearly perfectly. It's not a discipline he's mastered before (his first two companies, Zip2 and what became PayPal, were both internet service startups). Nor is it a natural fit for someone who starts new companies in his spare time (seven, at last count) and dreams of retiring on Mars. Some investors have hitched their star to the idea that each company's success helps the other. And Tesla has the good fortune to share in the afterglow of SpaceX. Why investors remain optimistic about Tesla Automobile mass-production is a grueling exercise in optimizing the factory floor with methodical precision that resists improvisation. Mistakes that are fixable when making a few thousand cars become nearly impossible to remedy when mass producing hundreds of thousands. Musk's unscripted moves in manufacturing electric vehicles, while achieving what others deemed impossible, have cost Tesla dearly. Multiple executives responsible for manufacturing have left the company, and millions of dollars have been spent tearing out malfunctioning equipment and redoing assembly lines. In May, six cargo planes packed with robots and manufacturing equipment lifted off from Germany, destined for Tesla's Fremont, California plant. The airlift, an almost unprecedented (and expensive) move for the auto industry, delivered equipment to clear bottlenecks in Tesla's battery and Model 3 production. The Wall Street firm Bernstein Research estimates Tesla has spent over twice the amount of a typical auto manufacturer per unit of installed capacity, citing $2 billion in recent facility investments and redesigns. "As usual with Tesla, everything is being done in a massive hurry and money seems to be no obstacle," one source told Reuters. Still, Wall Street has not lost its faith in the company. While Tesla remains the most shorted stock in the US (with $10.7 billion in shares shorted as of April), its share price has remained buoyant rising 2% in 2018 despite lagging Model 3 production. Why are investors willing to shovel ever more money into Musk's cash inferno? One reason is Musk's star wattage. That "key man" argument is a disclosure on SEC filings for Tesla. But many investors have also had their heads turned by that other Musk creation: SpaceX. The soaring fortunes of the space company have bought incalculable goodwill for Tesla. Its greatest public relations coup, perhaps in the history of such things, was the February launch of a cherry-red Tesla Roadster atop SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, the world's most powerful operational rocket. It featured in the second most popular YouTube livestream of all time, attracting 2.3 million views. Why are investors willing to shovel ever more money into Musk's cash inferno? One reason is Musk's star wattage. That "key man" argument is a disclosure on SEC filings for Tesla. But many investors have also had their heads turned by that other Musk creation: SpaceX. "There's cross-fertilization of knowledge from the rocket and spacecraft history to auto back and forth is-I think has really been quite valuable," Musk said in a call with investors last year, according to Sentieo. "It's something that's been very valuable for me in thinking about how do we make mass-optimized vehicles, because in space, mass optimization is extremely important." In one example, Jonathan McNeill-Tesla's former president of global sales, who is now at Lyft-said SpaceX engineers helped design an ultrasound sensor test for metal objects inside Tesla vehicles, supposedly saving eight hours of assembly line work per car, during a 2017 investor call. The second reason: the complementary economics between the two ventures. Both companies, in theory, can capitalize on being first to market with groundbreaking technology. For SpaceX, the prize is a lucrative franchise launching cheap re-useable flights into orbit (medium term) and ferrying civilization to Mars (long term). For Tesla, it is making electric powertrains standard in automobiles (medium term) and a global switch to renewable energy (long term). But if they succeed, Tesla will have to work much harder to wring any profits from its efforts. Tesla's rivals in the car industry are numerous, fierce and well-funded. The electric vehicle market, at just 1% of global sales, remains niche. Tesla must master heavy manufacturing techniques refined by the car industry for more than a century while pushing transformative battery and digital technologies to their limits. Ultimately, the idea that SpaceX's capabilities reflect Tesla's assumes it's not rocket science to make cars. But, as Tim Fernolz of Quartz has reported, in many ways it's harder. SpaceX's main challenge was building a cheaper re-useable rocket using technology first demonstrated in the 1990s. The rocket company had one job: reach orbit cheaply without blowing up- something it performed admirably over 18 launches in 2017. Thanks to deep-pocketed customers like NASA, SpaceX has been profitable since 2016 while only raising $2 billion in equity, according to Pitchbook. If successful, SpaceX could dominate a massive market expected to hit $1.1 trillion by 2040, reports Barclays, against rivals with far more expensive, limited offerings. Tesla has raised more than $12.5 billion (debt and equity) and has never recorded a profitable year. The dreams that drive Tesla If Tesla was content manufacturing a few hundred thousand luxury electric cars, it could likely be counting its profits now. Its sights are set much higher: Tesla is working on the Tesla Semi truck, the Model Y crossover, a new Roadster and, within five years, a compact car. The company is expanding its solar panel and energy storage business, while building new Gigafactories in Europe and China on its way to "10 or 12" such facilities worldwide. But Tesla will have to do this in a more hostile environment. Automakers' margins of 8% to 13% are a fraction of the 20% to 30% enjoyed by major tech players, according to McKinsey (pdf), and unlike the $100 million or so SpaceX receives for each US government launch. Barclays' financial analysts declared SpaceX's economics "superior" to Tesla. As Musk likes to point out, every US car company except Ford and Tesla has declared bankruptcy. "It's very difficult to become a mass- manufacturing car company," Musk said at Tesla's annual shareholders meeting on June 5. "No one has succeeded in doing this in a very long time in the United States." Confidence in Tesla hasn't seemed to falter, even if cracks are beginning to show. At this year's annual shareholder meeting, one person asked Musk if his trust in Tesla's timelines was misplaced after the Model 3 debacle. "So should I keep discounting things on Elon time or have you learned anything about this?" he asked. Musk took it in stride. "I'm typically optimistic about these things, but hopefully less optimistic over time," he replied. "Like it pretty much always happens but not exactly on the time frame." Tesla's stock was up 10% the next day. https://qz.com/1299212/spacex-is-giving-wall-street-a-reason-to-bet-on-tesla/ Curt Lewis