Flight Safety Information February 22, 2019 - No. 039 In This Issue Incident: Southwest B738 at Fort Lauderdale and Orlando on Feb 21st 2019, tyre damage on departure Incident: Smartwings B738 at Winnipeg on Jan 29th 2019, engine shut down in flight Incident: Lufthansa B744 at Rio de Janeiro on Feb 20th 2019, engine problem Diamond DA42 Twin Star - Fatal Accident (Romania) Cessna U206G Stationair 6 II - Fatal Accident (Guyana) Embraer 145 - Smoke in Cockpit (Arkansas) EVAS - Cockpit Smoke Protection Air traffic controllers cautioned pilot in fatal California crash: NTSB report Dutch Safety Board: better handling of overflying conflict zones by airline industry since MH17 Position Available-IBAC is Searching for Candidates to Direct Its Office in Montreal - Director, ICAO Liaison...International Business Aviation Council IS-BAO Operator Continuous Improvement Roundtable at 2019 NBAA IOC IATA Releases 2018 Airline Safety Performance Citation Departs Controlled Airport Without a Clearance The FAA Is Finding New Tricks to Cut Delays Africa on the cusp of an aviation boom? As It Approaches 50, Southwest Is Dealing With Mature Airlines' Kind Of Problems Japan Airlines First Airbus A350 Enters Its Final Assembly Temple of thrust: Delta debuts world's largest jet engine test room USED BUSINESS JETS MAY GET TOUGHER TO SELL Israel's first lunar lander launched into space from Florida ISASI-Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapter (MARC) Dinner/Meeting--2 May 2019 ISASI 2019 Position: Chief Investigator of Accidents / GM Investigation Services SCSI - Fire and Explosion Investigation Course IATA - Safety and Flight Ops Conference GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY REQUEST ONLINE SURVEY REQUEST Incident: Southwest B738 at Fort Lauderdale and Orlando on Feb 21st 2019, tyre damage on departure A Southwest Boeing 737-800, registration N8686A performing flight WN-736 from Fort Lauderdale,FL to Denver,CO (USA), was climbing out of Fort Lauderdale's runway 10L when the crew stopped the climb at 12,000 feet due to suspected nose tyre damage. The aircraft diverted to Orlando,FL, burned off fuel and landed safely on Orlando's runway 18R about 2:20 hours after departure. A replacement Boeing 737-800 registration N8600F is estimated to reach Denver with a delay of 4.5 hours. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground about 5 hours after landing. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA736/history/20190221/1510Z/KFLL/KDEN http://avherald.com/h?article=4c48279c&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Smartwings B738 at Winnipeg on Jan 29th 2019, engine shut down in flight A Smartwings Boeing 737-800 on behalf of Flair Airlines, registration OK-TSS performing flight FLE-809 from Winnipeg,MB (Canada) to Miami,FL (USA) with 63 passengers and 6 crew, was climbing out of Winnipeg when the crew stopped the climb at FL280 after receiving a low oil pressure indication for the left hand engine (CFM56). While working the related checklists the crew shut the engine down, declared PAN PAN and returned to Winnipeg for a safe landing on runway 36 about 40 minutes after departure. The Canadian TSB reported maintenance found an internal oil leak within the engine. The engine was replaced. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/FLE809/history/20190129/1535Z/CYWG/KMIA http://avherald.com/h?article=4c480d54&opt=0 Back to Top Incident: Lufthansa B744 at Rio de Janeiro on Feb 20th 2019, engine problem A Lufthansa Boeing 747-400, registration D-ABVR performing flight LH-501 from Rio de Janeiro,RJ (Brazil) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany) with 361 people on board, was climbing out of Galeao's runway 11 when the crew stopped the climb at FL200 due to a problem with one of the four engines (CF6). The aircraft dumped fuel and returned to Galeao Airport for a safe landing on runway 11 about 2 hours after departure. The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Rio de Janeiro about 19 hours after landing back. http://avherald.com/h?article=4c4812f4&opt=0 Back to Top Diamond DA42 Twin Star - Fatal Accident (Romania) Date: 21-FEB-2019 Time: c. 16:00 Type: Diamond DA42 Twin Star Owner/operator: Regional Air School Registration: YR-SCF C/n / msn: 42.088 Fatalities: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: near Tuzla Airfield (LRTZ) - Romania Phase: Take off Nature: Training Departure airport: Tuzla Airfield (LRTZ) Destination airport: Tuzla Airfield (LRTZ) Narrative: The light plane crashed impacted open field near the Tuzla International Airport, under unknown circumstances during a training flight. One occupant died, another was seriously injured. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=222063 Back to Top Cessna U206G Stationair 6 II - Fatal Accident (Guyana) Date: 21-FEB-2019 Time: 17:45 Type: Cessna U206G Stationair 6 II Owner/operator: Fenix Aviation Registration: 8R-GHB C/n / msn: U20604889 Fatalities: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: Eteringbang Airport (SYET), Pomeroon-Supenaam - Guyana Phase: Approach Nature: Unknown Departure airport: Destination airport: Eteringbang Airport (SYET) Narrative: The aircraft impacted trees and terrain while on approach to the Eteringbang Airstrip, under unknown circumstances. The aircraft was destroyed by the post-impact fire and the sole pilot, who was a former ATC, received fatal injures. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=222086 Back to Top Embraer 145 - Smoke in Cockpit (Arkansas) Date: 21-FEB-2019 Time: 14:16 Type: Embraer 145 Owner/operator: Envoy Air Registration: C/n / msn: Fatalities: Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 35 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: None Location: Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport (KXNA), Fayetteville, AR - United States of America Phase: En route Nature: Domestic Scheduled Passenger Departure airport: Springfield-Branson National Airport, MO (SGF/KSGF) Destination airport: Fayetteville-Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, AR (XNA/KXNA) Narrative: An Embraer ERJ-145 operating as Envoy Air Flight 3769 from Springfield-Branson National Airport landed safely at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Fayetteville following an inflight declaration of smoke in the cockpit. There were no reported injuries relative to the incident and no apparent aircraft damage. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=222084 Back to Top Back to Top Air traffic controllers cautioned pilot in fatal California crash: NTSB report The National Transportation Safety Board is out with its preliminary report on a plane crash that killed a man who was posing as a retired Chicago police officer. The Cessna 414 crashed in Yorba Linda, California February 3rd and killed four people on the ground. Pilot Anthony Pastini was also killed. For years, he had told people he was a former Chicago officer. Crews also found a Chicago police star in the wreckage that was later determined to be fake. Pastini went by at least one other identity as well. The NTSB said air traffic controllers cautioned the pilot about deteriorating weather conditions including a microburst in the area. Radar showed the plane ran into trouble about five minutes after take-off. Witnesses told investigators they saw the plane break-apart in the air during a deep and sudden dive. It could take the NTSB as a long as a year to determine what caused the crash. https://wgntv.com/2019/02/21/air-traffic-controllers-cautioned-pilot-in-fatal-california- crash-ntsb-report/ Back to Top Dutch Safety Board: better handling of overflying conflict zones by airline industry since MH17 21 February 2019 Worldwide, airlines are handling the risks associated with overflying conflict zones more deliberately, according to a report published by the Dutch Safety Board. The Board investigated the level of implementation of their recommendations on the MH17 crash investigation. Since the crash of MH17, the issue has been incorporated into the international Standards and Recommended Practices, manuals and management systems of aviation organisations, including ICAO and IATA, the Safety Board states. Manuals have been published that devote specific attention to overflying conflict zones. In addition, more and more accurate information on conflict zones is now available for States and airlines to incorporate into their risk assessment operations. Aviation safety The investigation shows that a range of measures has been implemented. However, the effect on flight safety is difficult to measure. States and airlines around the world are aware of the issue at stake and devote more attention to it. Stakeholders no longer assume that open airspace over a conflict zone actually guarantees safe passage. Airlines are taking a more structured approach to analysing the risks and uncertainties, scaling up to a higher risk level at an earlier stage. Some airlines state that they now decide more quickly to refrain from overflying specific areas if no clear information relating to such areas is available. Information on conflict zones Progress has also been made on sharing threat-related information. For instance, the European Commission now organises meetings with representatives of EU member states and relevant EU bodies to analyse, on the basis of consolidated information from the intelligence services, the risk levels for overflying specific areas. Areas classified as 'high-risk zones' during the meeting are listed in a 'Conflict Zone Information Bulletin' that is published by EASA and made available to airlines and passengers worldwide. 'Rapid Alerts' can be deployed to instantly share information about suddenly escalating situations. This is how the EU member states collaborate to provide more adequate insight into the risks on a global scale. In the Netherlands, a special agreement has been established that ensures the exchange of threat information between the Dutch government and Dutch airlines. There are meetings to discuss non-public threat information. These activities have resulted in a network, which ensures that information can be exchanged quickly in urgent cases, too. Moreover, Dutch airlines can turn to a dedicated information desk established by the Dutch intelligence services if they have specific questions. Risk assessment Airlines around the world have stated that they have become more aware of the risks of overflying conflict zones since the crash of flight MH17. Many airlines now make a more active effort to gather accurate information and are more willing to share it with other airlines. There are States, such as the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany, that provide information and/or advice to national airlines, or even impose a ban on overflying specific conflict zones. That information is published to make it accessible to other airlines as well. In combination with the EASA bulletins and any information provided by (commercial) agencies, airlines now have access to more and generally more accurate information for their risk assessment operations. Areas of concern The follow-up investigation shows that important steps have been taken in recent years to control the risks associated with flying over conflict zones more effectively. It is essential for changes already implemented to be consolidated and for stakeholders to carry through with the subsequent steps they have announced. However, there are still issues that need to be addressed by nations and airlines. The investigators found that very few changes relating to airspace management by nations dealing with armed conflict within their territories have been made. Also, airlines require more detailed and complex information to perform adequate risk assessments. Information on suddenly escalating and/or new conflicts is another area of continued concern. In this context, the willingness and trust to actively inform other parties about (potential) threats are vital, something that does not come naturally in every region of the world. More information: * Dutch Safety Board report https://news.aviation-safety.net/2019/02/21/dutch-safety-board-better-handling-of- overflying-conflict-zones-by-airline-industry-since-mh17/ Back to Top Back to Top Director, ICAO Liaison International Business Aviation Council Work Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) is searching for a Director to lead its principal office at the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. IBAC is an international, non-profit trade association representing the interests of business aircraft operators at the global level. IBAC is an official observer organization at ICAO, supports member organizations around the world, and promotes safety through international best-practices standards for the business aviation community. The office in Montreal coordinates and leads IBAC's contributions to the work of ICAO on standards for international aviation safety, security, environment, facilitation and air navigation as they affect business aviation. Ideally, the selected candidate will be an energetic professional with knowledge of and direct experience at ICAO, with technical knowledge of and experience in business aviation, and with demonstrated experience in helping to lead and manage change. Duties and Responsibilities * Provides day-to-day management of the IBAC office and staff in Montreal, guides the work of IBAC technical representatives at ICAO meetings, and provides routine business aviation information to and coordination with the ICAO Secretariat; * Represents IBAC on the ICAO Air Navigation Commission and serves on various ICAO panels and working groups at the request of the Director General; * Advises the Director General and IBAC governing bodies; * Assists the Director General to develop IBAC's strategies, business plans, and policy approaches; * Drafts and coordinates correspondence and communications with and technical working papers for ICAO; * Serves as a resource to IBAC member associations around the world; and * Supports and provides guidance to IBAC programmes, including the Air Crew Card, International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations and International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling. The Director, ICAO Liaison, is expected to undertake a moderate (up to 25 percent) amount of international travel on an annual basis. Supervisory Responsibilities * Supervises office staff of two persons Required Education and Experience * Accredited university bachelor's degree * Minimum of fifteen years of work experience in technical aviation fields, such as safety and air navigation * Holder of pilot qualification * Five years of management experience in a technical aviation field with demonstrated evidence of achieving results with a team of people * Demonstrated ability to work, thrive, and achieve results in international contexts * Demonstrated knowledge of ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices and their relevance to business aviation * Demonstrated direct experience with and knowledge of ICAO bodies and procedures * Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively in writing and orally * English fluency required, as English is the working language of IBAC Desired Education and Experience * Graduate degree * Work experience in a business aviation context * Commercial pilot's license * Fluency in or good working knowledge of a second language, preferably French, Compensation and Term * Competitive salary * Three-year renewable contract * Four weeks paid vacation Employment in Canada of non-Canadian residents will be subject to the issue of a work permit and this could affect the start date. Contact Please send by 22 March 2019 a cover letter, including desired salary range, and resume, each not to exceed two pages, to DILpost@ibac.org or to IBAC, 999 Robert Bourassa Boulevard, Suite 16.33, Montreal, QC H3C 5J9. Back to Top Back to Top IATA Releases 2018 Airline Safety Performance The International Air Transport Association released data for the 2018 safety performance of the commercial airline industry showing continuing safety improvements over the long term, but an increase in accidents compared to 2017. International Air Transport Association (IATA) FEBRUARY 21, 2019 Tweet Share 2019IATA Safety Montreal - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for the 2018 safety performance of the commercial airline industry showing continuing safety improvements over the long term, but an increase in accidents compared to 2017. The all accident rate (measured in accidents per 1 million flights) was 1.35, which was the equivalent of one accident for every 740,000 flights. This was an improvement over the all accident rate of 1.79 for the previous 5-year period (2013-2017), but a decline compared to 2017's record performance of 1.11. The 2018 rate for major jet accidents (measured in jet hull losses per 1 million flights) was 0.19, which was the equivalent of one major accident for every 5.4 million flights. This was an improvement over the rate for the previous 5-year period (2013-2017) of 0.29 but not as good as the rate of 0.12 in 2017. There were 11 fatal accidents with 523 fatalities among passengers and crew. This compares with an average of 8.8 fatal accidents and approximately 234 fatalities per year in the previous 5-year period (2013-2017). In 2017, the industry experienced 6 fatal accidents with 19 fatalities, which was a record low. One accident in 2017 also resulted in the deaths of 35 persons on the ground. "Last year some 4.3 billion passengers flew safely on 46.1 million flights. 2018 was not the extraordinary year that 2017 was. However, flying is safe, and the data tell us that it is getting safer. For example, if safety in 2018 had remained at the same level as 2013, there would have been 109 accidents instead of 62; and there would have been 18 fatal accidents, instead of the 11 that actually occurred," said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's Director General and CEO. "Flying continues to be the safest form of long distance travel the world has ever known. Based on the data, on average, a passenger could take a flight every day for 241 years before experiencing an accident with one fatality on board. We remain committed to the goal of having every flight takeoff and land safely." Jet hull loss rates by region of operator (per million departures) Six regions showed improvement or stayed the same in 2018 compared to the previous five years (2013-2017) in terms of the jet hull loss rate. Turboprop hull loss rates by region of operator (per million departures) The world turboprop hull loss rate was 0.60 per million flights, which was an improvement over 1.23 in 2017 and also over the 5-year rate (2013-2017) of 1.83. All regions except for Middle East-North Africa saw their turboprop safety performance improve in 2018 when compared to their respective 5-year rates. Accidents involving turboprop aircraft represented 24% of all accidents in 2018 and 45% of fatal accidents. Progress in Africa For a third consecutive year, airlines in Sub-Saharan Africa experienced zero jet hull losses and zero fatalities in jet operations. The all accident rate was 2.71, a significant improvement over the rate of 6.80 for the previous five years. Africa was the only region to see a decline in the all-accident rate compared to 2017. However, the region experienced 2 fatal turboprop accidents, neither of which involved a scheduled passenger flight. "We continue to progress in the region toward world-class levels of safety. But, despite improvement there is still a gap to cover in the safety performance of the continent's turboprop fleet. Global standards such as the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) are making a difference. Counting all accidents, the performance of African airlines on the IOSA registry was more than twice as good as non-IOSA airlines in the region," said de Juniac. "In parallel, African governments must accelerate the implementation of ICAO's safety- related standards and recommended practices (SARPS). As of year-end 2017, only 26 African countries had at least 60% SARPS implementation. They also should incorporate IOSA into their safety oversight systems." IOSA In 2018, the all accident rate for airlines on the IOSA registry was more than two times lower than that of non-IOSA airlines (0.98 vs. 2.16) and it was more than two-and-a- half times better over the 2014-18 period. All IATA member airlines are required to maintain their IOSA registration. However, 2018 IOSA calculations are impacted by the fatal accident involving a Global Air aircraft that was leased, along with crew, to Cubana. Because Global Air is not on the IOSA registry, the accident is not considered to have involved an IOSA airline, even though Cubana, as a member of IATA, is required to be on the IOSA registry. There are currently 431 airlines on the IOSA Registry of which 131 are non-IATA Members. The IOSA program is undergoing a digital transformation that will enable IOSA airlines to compare and benchmark their performance. In the long run, the digital transformation will help to focus auditing on areas with the highest level of safety risk. Data-Driven Approach to Identifying Current and Emerging Risks IATA's Global Aviation Data Management (GADM) program is the world's most diverse aviation data exchange program. Data captured in GADM databases comprises accident and incident reports, ground damage occurrences and flight data from more than 470 different industry participants. "Through GADM, we are using information from the more than 100,000 flights that operate safely every day to identify and address operational issues before they can become potential risks," said de Juniac. The Flight Data Exchange (FDX) platform contains de-identified information from 4 million flights. Additionally, with the imminent introduction of Incident Data Exchange (IDX), participants will be provided with enhanced data analytics and benchmarking capabilities with aggregated de-identified global safety data. IATA has also been working with more than 100 aviation safety professionals on the IATA Safety Incident Taxonomy (ISIT). The ISIT will provide the ability to better capture global risk at a more granular level. One well-known hazard is inflight turbulence. As passenger and cabin crew injuries related to in-flight turbulence climb, IATA sees a need to address this increasing safety risk. In response, IATA has launched Turbulence Aware, a global platform for sharing automated turbulence reports in real time. Operational trials with a number of airlines are being conducted this year, with full launch planned for 2020. https://www.aviationpros.com/airlines/press-release/21069326/international-air- transport-association-iata-iata-releases-2018-airline-safety-performance Back to Top Citation Departs Controlled Airport Without a Clearance Pilot interaction with ATC overseas should not differ from U.S. operations. Citation CJ2 similar to the aircraft involved in the Icelandic incident. U.S.-registered aircraft crossing the North Atlantic is hardly new, but smaller jet and turboprop airplanes are making many more crossings than even a decade ago. Because some of these pilots fly primarily in domestic airspace, they might not have experienced some of the intricacies needed to safely operate from countries where English is not the first language. The Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network reported that in January 2018, a U.S. registered Cessna Citation CJ2 - N525FF - departed Reykjavík Domestic Airport's (RKV) runway 19 without a takeoff clearance. As it cleared the runway, the aircraft narrowly missed colliding with a truck that was sanding an intersecting runway due to poor local weather. As with most accidents, some of the events leading to this incident paint a clear picture of a potential problem. The abbreviated report of this serious incident left many unanswered questions, such as whether the Citation crew was ever made aware of the vehicle operating on the intersecting runway or why the tower controller was heard speaking both English and Icelandic. While the metar at RKV was not reported, the weather was generally listed as rain showers with a surface temperature near freezing. Reported braking action was poor, hence the decision to sand the runways. When the tower controller informed the Citation crew of the runway condition, they said they were ready to taxi for departure. The tower controller spoke English to the Citation crew but switched to Icelandic to communicate with the sand truck driver which would have made it difficult for the U.S. crew to understand the building problem. It is unclear whether the tower controller ever mentioned the sanding vehicle to the Citation crew or if the pilots queried the controller about other ground traffic. About 10:04 local time, the Citation crew was given a taxi clearance to runway 19 with an added note to "hold short of runway 19," which they acknowledged. A few minutes later the tower controller cleared, "525FF backtrack line up RWY 19," which was correctly read back by the flight crew. Shortly after some radio communications between the tower controller and the vehicle driver in Icelandic concluded, the controller switched back to English and instructed the Citation crew to make a "... right turn, line up RWY 19." About this same time, the sanding truck was turning around on runway 13 and beginning another run. There is no indication of whether the vehicle driver was ever informed of the jet taxiing on runway 19 for takeoff, nor whether the driver was asked to hold short of runway 19. The tower controller later told investigators from the Icelandic Transportation Safety Board that because he was involved with other communications, he did not notice the Citation crew began their takeoff roll on runway 19 after completing their 180-degree turn. As the sanding truck approached the runway 13/19 intersection, he noticed the jet about ready to rotate on runway 19. With insufficient time to react, the driver found himself crossing the runway 19 centerline as the Citation passed overhead, missing the truck by approximately three feet. The ITSB later interviewed the Citation crew. The pilot flying N525FF recalled being cleared to taxi and backtrack runway 19. When they turned around to line up on runway 19, the captain recalled the pilot not flying telling the tower they were "ready for departure." For some unknown reason, the PF had already increased thrust significantly and the aircraft reportedly started to slide on the ice. He quickly announced, "we have to go" and commenced the take-off roll. The ITSB analysis of the ATC recordings said the transmission by the PF "ready for departure," did not take place. It also did not explain why the pilot reported that transmission as coming from the person in the right seat nor why the ITSB reported the remark as coming from the PF, especially since it was not recorded anywhere. There was also no mention of whether anyone on the frequency used or heard a "cleared for takeoff," instruction. Despite a long list of confusing communications, the ITSB believes that if all had been made in English, the Citation pilot's situational awareness of the vehicle working on the intersecting runway might have been increased, not to mention for the truck driver. It also does not note any reason for why the PF decided on his own to ignore the need for a takeoff clearance, a necessary element to the start of any flight at a tower-controlled airport in the U.S. While there is sufficient responsibility for this extremely close call to spread between the pilots and the air traffic controller, the incident highlights the need for U.S. pilots to always be extra vigilant when operating in countries where English is not the native language. ICAO calls English the universal language of air traffic control, but rules are not always enough to prevent accidents. https://www.flyingmag.com/citation-departs-controlled-airport-without-clearance Back to Top The FAA Is Finding New Tricks to Cut Delays As airspace becomes more crowded, the agency is replicating air-traffic control changes that reduced delays due to congestion and bad weather The Federal Aviation Administration is taking steps to reduce air-traffic congestion that has spread beyond crowded New York. As the skies get more crowded, the Federal Aviation Administration is making changes to air-traffic control in hopes of avoiding the kind of widespread delays that travelers experienced routinely 20 years ago. The total number of minutes that flights were delayed by air-traffic control slowdowns- most of it attributable to weather-soared 69% to 21.7 million in 2017 from 12.8 million in 2012. Twenty-seventeen was a particularly bad year for ATC delays because of storm-related slowdowns, triggering the efforts to find new ways to minimize weather impact. It started working in 2018. Delay minutes actually dropped 4% compared with 2017 because of a new effort to speed flights out of New York airports. But the number of flights keeps growing-up 2% last year-as airlines add more service, and congestion concerns have spread beyond crowded New York. The FAA is under pressure to find ways to handle storms without as many delays to avoid a return to the quagmire that air travel became in 1999 and 2000, when talk of gridlock abounded. On April 1, the FAA will change how it handles flights into and out of Chicago and Denver, replicating the changes in New York airspace that reduced delays even as traffic increased. On the same day, it will also launch a major push to reduce slowdowns nationwide when bad weather hits. "The FAA is all over it," says Jim DeYoung, vice president of network operations at United Airlines. One major cause of delays is when FAA regional control centers impose what's called "miles-in-trail" restrictions, reducing the flow of airplanes when bad weather affects flight paths or airports. Typically, planes at the same altitude follow each other at least 5 miles apart. But when storms make some airspace unusable or require landings to be spaced further apart, the FAA increases that distance to 10 miles between planes, or sometimes up to 30 miles. That ensures safety, but leaves many travelers grounded. "There's a finite number of airplanes that a controller can safely manage. There's a finite number that an airport can accommodate," says Dan Smiley, senior vice president of global air traffic management at Passur Aerospace Inc. and a former senior FAA official. But the FAA doesn't always hit the right number. Starting April 1, the agency will be pushing managers to cut down on miles-in-trail restrictions, based on more-accurate weather data the agency now has and a database of how restrictions worked out in the past for every route and air-traffic control center. The FAA will review each miles-in-trail restriction and see if the duration of the slowdown or the miles required can be safely shortened. Instead of 20 miles for four hours, controllers may opt for 3½ hours or 15 miles in trail. The goal is to reduce miles- in-trail restrictions by 2% each quarter for the rest of this year. In 2018, New York's LaGuardia, pictured, and Kennedy plus Newark Liberty International in New Jersey together saw a 1.5% increase in flights compared with 2017 yet a 6.1% reduction in delay minutes attributable to air-traffic control. "It's a more surgical approach," says Mike Artist, the FAA's vice president of system operations services. Currently, "we leave a little bit of capacity on the table because we are creatures of habit. It's the way we've always done it." The FAA says it is working more collaboratively with airlines now than 20 years ago, reducing bottlenecks. Better data have helped. Airlines also have improved their own operations, reducing cancellations and scheduling more realistically. Some of that has meant adding minutes to schedules to account for congestion delays. Many air-traffic control sectors run very close to maximum capacity. Last year, the FAA handed an average of 44,000 flights per day on instrument flight plans compared with 50,000 per day in 2000. But today's flights are more concentrated around big airports because airlines have consolidated and closed smaller hubs. As a result, even small disruptions can have major impact on air travel when New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles or San Francisco are involved. "We are working very hard to stay ahead of it," Mr. Artist says. The changes in New York airspace last year convinced the FAA it could reduce delays even as traffic grew, though it remains to be seen if last year was an anomaly or something the FAA can continue. Faced with growing delays in New York, the FAA decided to reverse decades of always focusing on getting planes in the air on the ground and instead gave priority to departures-planes leaving New York. That required better planning on what departure routes would be available when bad weather was in the area, and more coordination with airlines. It turns out one big cause of delay in the past was airplanes waiting so long in departure queues that their assigned routes were no longer usable by the time they got to the front of the takeoff line. Then a new route had to be worked out, dictated to pilots and loaded into onboard navigation systems, further delaying all the planes behind that flight. Giving departing flights priority for the best routes has delayed some arrivals and caused a small increase in the number of planes in the air sent to holding patterns, but Mr. Artist says airlines are willing to do that because it keeps pressure on each airport and maximizes use of runways. "The overall outcome for the system is better," he says. In 2018, New York's LaGuardia and Kennedy plus Newark Liberty International in New Jersey together saw a 1.5% increase in flights compared with 2017 yet a 6.1% reduction in delay minutes attributable to air-traffic control. "We feel like we really did turn a corner last year. It was a downhill slide for many years," Mr. Artist says. On April 1, the same strategy will be launched in Chicago and Denver. Passur, which builds data systems for airlines and air-traffic control organizations, developed a tool tested in Newark and LaGuardia last year that helped reduce delays by maximizing use of runways in bad weather. At Newark, for example, 46 landings per hour is typical. Low clouds and wet runways might reduce that to the low 30s. So restrictions go out and flights are delayed. Passur's system takes weather conditions and compares them to past situations and shows what the capacity of the airport should be. "We're not guessing anymore," says Passur's Mr. Smiley, who used to have Mr. Artist's job at the FAA. Controllers may think they need to limit arrivals to 32 airplanes per hour, but in the same weather conditions in the past they may have actually landed 41 airplanes per hour. "So the rate may be too low," he says. "We're trying to help the industry find capacity that's going unused." The trial delivered one to two extra aircraft per hour and the FAA is now evaluating whether to deploy it at busy airports. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-faa-is-finding-new-tricks-to-cut-delays-11550671200 Back to Top Africa on the cusp of an aviation boom? February 20 2019 10:23 PM A member of the ground crew directs an Ethiopian Airlines plane at the Bole International Airport in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa (file). Weak infrastructure, high ticket prices, poor connectivity and lack of proper liberalisation are some of the headwinds on African aviation's path, albeit the continent currently sees an economic boom with tourism benefiting from greater prosperity. Continent Africa comprises some 54 countries. Africans total more than 12% of the global population, but surprisingly they make up only 3% of the world's air travellers. Africa has 731 airports and 419 airlines with an aviation industry that supports around 6.9mn jobs and $80bn in economic activity, data show. And according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Africa is set to become one of the fastest growing aviation regions in the next 20 years with an annual expansion of nearly 5%. While it is evident that aviation has the potential to fuel economic growth in Africa, several barriers do exist. Weak infrastructure, high ticket prices, poor connectivity and lack of proper liberalisation are some of the headwinds on African aviation's path, albeit the continent currently sees an economic boom with tourism benefiting from greater prosperity. But African aviation industry may get the much-needed thrust with the continent getting on to the 'Open Skies' trajectory , which is at the heart of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), a flagship project of the African Union (AU). Industry experts say implementing the SAATM, which is similar to the European Union's (EU) single aviation market, would go a long way towards making African air travel more competitive by reducing what many describe as "protectionist policies". The movement is indeed promising and will yield greater results once all African countries are onboard. IATA's data show some 28 countries have already signed up for SAATM. They are Benin, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Capo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Cameroon. These countries represent more than 80% of the existing aviation market in Africa. An IATA survey suggested that if just 12 key Africa countries opened their markets and increased connectivity, an extra 155,000 jobs and $1.3bn in annual GDP would be created in those countries. High ticket prices are cited as a major disincentive for Africa's air transport sector. It is expensive travelling to and from Africa, and worse still, tickets are exorbitantly priced for travel within Africa, which is an obvious off-shoot of inadequate competition in the continent's air transport sector. Some argue it is almost 50% more expensive to fly across Africa than it is in other regions, which reportedly discourages Africans from flying. According to the African Airlines Association (AFRAA), fuel cost remains a major component of the operating expense of every airline, accounting for between 40-50% of total direct operating costs. African countries are yet to fully open up their skies to one other, yet some of them have opened up to carriers from other continents. Non-African airlines currently fly about 80% of intercontinental traffic to and from Africa. As a result, it is often cheaper to fly from an African city to a neighbouring city via London, Amsterdam, or Doha than to travel direct! The lack of domestic flights causes significant issues, with stopovers causing double or triple the journey times on many routes. For example, when travelling from Abidjan to Kampala, one has to fly mostly via Istanbul and reconnect, because there are no direct flights. Several African countries established national airlines after their independence, mainly focusing on flights to destinations outside the continent. Many of these carriers have been propped up financially by the state exchequer and protected by regulation, stifling competition and leaving domestic and regional routes undeveloped for a long time. Poor safety record is often cited as another handicap for African aviation. Even some African airlines with good safety records are reportedly blocked from flying to the EU airports because of a lack of confidence in African safety regulators. Certainly, the existing infrastructure is causing problems for airlines in Africa. With passenger growth in excess of 7.5% in 2017, the continent's airports are facing grave challenges, and in some cases, the existing facilities are not designed to cater to the rapidly growing passenger numbers. But in recent years, African governments and increasingly foreign investors, including the Chinese, have invested heavily in African infrastructure, airports in particular. Certainly, African aviation is on the cusp of a major lift-off. Recognising aviation's potential in catapulting the continent's economic growth, African Union has launched the "Single African Sky" project as part of "Agenda 2063". The creation of a single unified air transport market in Africa will advance the liberalisation of civil aviation in Africa; IATA said and noted it will provide an impetus to the continent's economic integration agenda. SAATM will ensure aviation plays a major role in connecting Africa, promoting its social, economic and political integration and boosting intra-Africa trade and tourism as a result, IATA noted as it fully supports the initiative. Analysts believe the implementation of a project to develop the African Union Passport, which should be available to all Africans from 2020, will facilitate travel within Africa. Ethiopia, one of the fastest growing African countries, recently launched a visa-on- arrival facility for all African travellers. The service, that took effect on November 1 last year, will probably make it easier for Africans to visit Ethiopia, home to the African Union (AU) headquarters. With Ethiopia showing the way for some other African countries to follow, it is expected that air travel within the continent will get a lot easier as it emerges as a major global economic power house. With open skies, public-private partnerships for airport infrastructure and operations upgrade and visa liberalisation, African aviation looks set to soar high. https://www.gulf-times.com/story/622820/Africa-on-the-cusp-of-an-aviation-boom Back to Top As It Approaches 50, Southwest Is Dealing With Mature Airlines' Kind Of Problems Dan Reed Contributor The Federal Aviation Administration has been conducting a year-long investigation into how Southwest Airlines counts and estimates the weight of checked bags stowed in the bellies of its jets. That's just one of several bad news issues this week dogging the Dallas-based carrier, which transports more passengers annually than any other airline. (Ted S. Warren/Associated Press) For probably the first time in its 47 years of happily disruptive history, Southwest Airlines is having to deal with three major negative PR, operational and market events all at once. It almost certainly isn't a sign of impending doom for the nation's most successful "discount" air carrier. But it is the latest, and biggest yet confirmation that Southwest, which carries more passengers annually than any other U.S. airline, is no longer a precocious upstart annoying long-established rivals with its new-fangled marketing antics. Rather Southwest is an "all-grow'd-up" carrier (as they say in the company's native Texas), albeit one that has retained many residual start-up-like distinctives. And that means it is subject to the same vicissitudes, calamities, conflicts and cases of sloppiness or even management missteps that its older, conventional arrivals have been dealing with for decades. First, this week Dallas-based Southwest has experienced a sharp increase in the number of planes that have been grounded because of mechanical defects that either were discovered at the last minute or that required unusually lengthy hangar visits. Leaders of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association are shocked - shocked they say - that Southwest executives blame any of their 2,700 mechanics for conducting some sort of informal job action against the company. That leaves only one alternative: that it's mere coincidence that the airline's maintenance delays shot up 2.5 times higher than normal (around 50 grounded planes vs. around 20 on most days) within a just a couple of days of the frustrating end of the most recent, fruitless round of contract negotiations between AMFA and Southwest. Note: AMFA and Southwest have been locked in stalemated contract negotiations for six long years. On Tuesday, Southwest officials publicly apologized to passengers holding tickets for delays and cancelled flights, including more than 180 yesterday directly related to the maintenance issues. That may not sound like a lot, especially given Southwest's more than 4,000 daily scheduled flights. But those 180 flights are equal to between 23,000 and 28,000 passengers' trips being cancelled or greatly disrupted per day. And that's on top of the growing number of cancellations and delays that Southwest and other carriers are experiencing this week because of severe winter weather in the Midwest, Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions. Second, we also learned this week that the Federal Aviation Administration has been conducting a detailed investigation of Southwest's handling of passengers' bags for flight safety purposes not for a few weeks or months, but for an entire year. Based on initial reporting by the Wall Street Journal, the FAA believes the airline has been consistently and egregiously under-estimating the number and weight of checked bags loaded into the bellies of its planes. That, in theory, is a significant problem because key aircraft performance factors are negatively impacted by miscalculated bag totals and weights. The number and combined weight of bags can change how much power the engines must generate and how much runway the plane will have to use in order to take off safely. It also can affect where bags are placed within a plane's belly and, therefore that plane's center-of-gravity. "CG," as it's called, can impact flight control and engine power settings, as well as aircraft handling and fuel burn rates. All of those problems can be compensated for rather easily by pilots, but only if they have a reasonably accurate understanding of how many bags are stowed below deck, how much they weigh and where they're placed. And third, Southwest disclosed late Tuesday that it missed - badly - on its earlier estimate of how much the 34-day partial shutdown of the federal government cost the airline. Initially company officials said the shutdown probably would take $10 million to $15 million of revenue off the top of the company's first quarter revenues. On Tuesday the company filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission amending that estimate to $60 million or so. Also Southwest disclosed that its capacity growth now will be in the range of 3 percent to 4 percent year-over-year, not the 4 percent to 5 percent range that the airline previously was predicting. As you would expect, investors did not take that news particularly well. They sent Southwest shares tumbling nearly 6 percent from Tuesday afternoon's peak of $58.14 a share to a low of $54.24 late Wednesday morning. The share price rose a bit from there to close at $54.41. Other airline stocks were dragged down, too, by investors assuming that if Southwest was hurt more than it expected by the government shutdown its rivals must be in the same boat. That may or may not be the case; other carriers have not yet sent such signals. But investors have historical reason to expect them to lower their guidance, too. Southwest has a well-deserved reputation for never, ever issuing guidance about its financial performance that is so far off the mark. Thus, the airline's surprising re-statement of the financial impact of the shutdown, and the fact that it was off by a factor of five or six, set off alarm bells for all analysts who follow the entire airline industry and for many of those investors who trade in airlines' shares. To make matters a tad bit worse for Southwest, its plans to launch service to Hawaii for the first time ever are continuing to be delayed. The airline had hoped to launch service in the fall but delays in the arrival of new planes pushed that back to sometime around the start of this year. But New Year's came and went without Southwest launching its highly-anticipated service to Honolulu. Then there was widespread belief the carrier would begin selling tickets to Hawaii on Valentine's Day (a day of particular celebration for a carrier headquartered at Love Field in Dallas, one that uses the stock symbol "LUV," bills itself as "The Love Airline" and paints a big ol' heart on the front bellies - or anthropomorphic chests - of all 750 of its Boeing 737s). But that didn't happen either because the carrier had not yet completed its required over-water safety proving runs with FAA inspectors. Most of those tests now, reportedly, are complete. But Southwest has missed the big planning and buying period for early summer vacations to Hawaii. And it likely won't be able to launch service until mid- or late spring. That means it'll miss out on Hawaii's big spring break travel season, and on much or all of the islands' healthy spring vacation season. None of these issues - individually or even collectively - rises to the level of catastrophe. They aren't going to be enough to cause Southwest to post its first annual loss in 46 years. It won't even come close to that. But these, each one of them, are grown-up airline problems, not the kind of problems typically dealt with by start-ups and others seeking to disrupt a fossilized industry. That doesn't mean that Southwest itself is becoming a little bit fossilized, too. But as it approaches its 50th birthday it's clear that Southwest's ability to continue disrupting the industry is shrinking. It's not going away entirely. Indeed, launching all-one-class class service on a single-aisle airplane to Hawaii, while not unprecedented, will disrupt the very popular (but never really very profitable) mainland-Hawaii air travel market. Southwest, if it follows its usual market growth pattern, will have several dozen flights a day to Hawaii, from various western cities on the mainland, within a relatively short time. That will make life very difficult for its big rivals - United, American and Delta - and for its soon-to-be new rival Hawaiian. Those carriers provide lots of service on the mainland-Hawaii routes primarily so that their best customers, business travelers who earn hundreds of thousands of frequent flier mileage points, can cash in those chits for a great family vacation or romantic getaway in paradise. Because Hawaii is the very definition of a leisure travel market, airlines simply don't have the ability to sell lots of high-priced seats on flights to and from the islands. There are very few big corporations and business clients who'll foot the big bills for travelers' vacation trips the way they'll cover first and business class trips for employees and consults traveling for work. So Southwest, with its plans to push the floor of the Hawaiian airfare market a bit lower than already is the case, is sure to make life more uncomfortable for its competitors on those routes. But, life for Southwest itself is, as these events this week illustrate, getting a bit more uncomfortable. It's labor costs, long one of its best competitive advantages, have risen a lot over the years and are continuing to rise. Once it finally reaches a peaceful settlement with its mechanics other unions at Southwest will want better deals, too, when it comes time to negotiate with them again. The FAA's concerns about the way Southwest counts checked bags and accounts for their weight means the airline will soon be switching from manual counting and weight estimates to a technology-dependent system. That's the kind of thing the Southwest of old eschewed because of the complexity and cost it added to its notoriously simple and cheap operating methods. And, no doubt, the airline already is working on some way to make sure it never again so grossly misses the target on predicting the financial impact of exogenous events like a government shutdown, bad weather event, or other big, unexpected disruption. In the long run, that's all good. And Southwest will be just fine. But it all illustrates the cost pressures now piling up on the airline that in years gone by was nearly always introduced in news stories as "low-cost Southwest Airlines." For now, it still has low costs relative to its largest rivals. But Southwest is not now, and hasn't been for nearly two years the industry's low cost leader. That's why it no longer can afford to offer the lowest fares in every market it serves, the way it did for probably close to 30 years. To be sure, it still offers relatively low fares, and often offers a greater percentage of its available seats at those lower prices than can its big competitors. But if you insist above all else on buying the bottom dollar fare chances are these days you won't be flying on Southwest. Today's Southwest has changed its business model enough so that its leaders are okay with that. They've turned Southwest into a powerful revenue-generating machine. That's why it still is handsomely profitable while remaining far more liked - even loved - by its passengers than are other airlines. But as the news of this week makes abundantly clear, Southwest is now, and has been for some time, a grown-up airline dealing with grown-up airline problems. https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielreed/2019/02/21/all-grown-up-as-it-approaches- 50-southwest-is-dealing-with-mature-airlines-kinds-of-problems/#11510f317a7e Back to Top Japan Airlines First Airbus A350 Enters Its Final Assembly The first Japan Airlines Airbus A350 has entered the final assembly line in Toulouse, France. When it's delivered Japan Airlines will become the first Japanese carrier to operate the A350 and have recently signed a Flight Hour Service agreement with Airbus to support the launch. JAL A350 tail Airbus released images of the liveried tailfin of the JAL A350 The final assembly of the Japan Airlines Airbus A350 is underway in France, with the manufacturer releasing photos of the JAL liveried vertical stabiliser being moved into position, and later actually fitted to the fuselage. JAL A350 The Airbus picture shows the tailfin fitted to the fuselage of the almost complete aircraft After this station, the next operation will be to install winglets and to undertake the final structural completion, including ground testing of electrical, mechanical and avionics systems. Flight Hour Services agreed with Airbus Just today Japan Airlines have announced that they've entered into a Flight Hour Services (FHS) agreement with Airbus for all of its incoming A350 fleet. Japan Airlines have signed a FHS contract with Airbus The carrier will become the first Airbus FHS A350 operator in Japan to benefit from this agreement. The Airbus FHS provides an integrated component service, including access to a spares pool, on site stock replenishment and components repair. By taking out this maintenance plan alongside their new aircraft, JAL are ensuring a smooth rollout of their new A350 fleet. The first A350 in Japan When the Japan Airlines A350 is delivered, it marks an important occasion for the carrier, and the nation too. Not only will it be the first JAL A350, it will be the first A350 in Japan too. Not only that, but it marks the carrier's first ever order of an Airbus aircraft, previously operating only Boeing models. Japan Airlines has orders in place for 31 of the aircraft, with 18 A350-900s and 13 A350-1000s on the books. They expect to take delivery of the first jet in around June, with service earmarked to begin in September. The remaining 14 JAL A350-900s will be delivered between 2020 and 2023, with the larger -1000 variant commencing deliveries in 2021. The Japan Airlines Airbus A350 is one of many due for delivery in 2019. Four other airlines are expecting to take delivery of an A350 this year, including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Air France and Scandinavian Airlines. Where will the Japan Airlines A350 fly? JAL have already confirmed that the initial route for the A350-900 will be a domestic one. Set to run on a link between the cities of Haneda and Fukuoka, it will replace the existing 777-200 on that route. As such, the route will be much less expensive for Japan Airlines to operate, with the A350 being more efficient than the 777. It seats up to 25 more passengers too, allowing the airline to maximise capacity on this busy route. Not only will this be the first A350 to operate in Japan, it will also be the first time that this widebody aircraft has been used on an exclusively domestic service. https://simpleflying.com/japan-airlines-first-a350/ Back to Top Temple of thrust: Delta debuts world's largest jet engine test room Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) - Delta Air Lines opened what's billed as the largest facility of its kind Thursday, adding a key layer to safe and reliable air travel. The airline's new multimillion-dollar "engine test cell" building -- located at its Atlanta global headquarters -- centers around a gigantic testing room that helps technicians maintain the powerful machines that push airplanes through the air, carrying millions of passengers every year. World's largest jet engine test cell #avgeek #airlines #delta You could call it a temple of thrust -- a building designed to handle the massive thrust these engines can kick up. Walls 3 feet thick and giant doors weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds enclose a sort of laboratory for jet engines. Delta says this is the first such facility built in the United States in 20 years. Places like these are key to the goal of making airline jet engines work perfectly all the time -- every time. Last week, Delta invited me to visit the new building to see how it's designed to put today's engines through their paces, as well as the super-powerful engines of the future. Inside the 48-foot-high room technicians let me stand a few dozen feet away from a powerful 8-ton Rolls-Royce Trent XWB turbofan jet engine while they fired it up. 'Like a hurricane of your worst nightmares' How powerful? Imagine holding a giant bathroom scale up against the blast while the engine was at take-off thrust. That imaginary scale would register a weight of 85,000 pounds. So, while we waited for technicians in a nearby control room to crank this behemoth, you could say there was a bit of nervous excitement. As it stirred to life, the engine hummed ... and then coughed out a little puff of atomized jet fuel. Then, I felt a vibration move through the room, making the hair standup on the back of my neck. Next, a whirring wall of sound grew into an overwhelming mechanical roar. Talking was useless. Despite all this, the engine was just idling -- creating only about 3,000 pounds of thrust -- nowhere close to full power. Safety is always a priority here, and no one is ever allowed in the room during unsafe conditions -- especially with an engine blasting at full thrust. It "would probably be like a hurricane of your worst nightmares," said Mike Moore, Delta's senior vice president of operations, inventory and logistics. A Rolls-Royce Trent XWB turbofan jet engine hangs above Delta's new test cell in Atlanta. 48-foot-high doors and a 'blast basket' And let's not forget the doors. Make no mistake, we're talking about massive doors here. Technicians roll the engines into the test cell through a set of double doors made of solid concrete that are 26 feet wide and tower 48 feet above us. Each door weighs more than 300,000 pounds. So huge are these doors that they're controlled from a special box that pushes them open and shut with the touch of a few buttons. Why so big? The doors have to be able to hold up to the extreme levels of air pressure that can occur during testing. Delta had "to build a facility robust enough to be able to take the negative pressures the engine is building on the front -- and to be able to take the pressure -- the thrust -- on the backside of the engine," said Don Mitacek, Delta's senior vice president for technical operations. There are other amazing design features inside this building -- like the "exhaust stack." Basically, it's a room that gets rid of engine exhaust. When you're running huge jet engines all day, you have to send all the exhaust somewhere. "Exhaust gases reach upwards of 800-900 degrees Celsius (1472-1652 degrees Fahrenheit) inside the engine," said Dustin Thames, Delta's principle engineer for engine testing and performance. The engine pumps that super-hot exhaust into a huge circular tunnel built into the wall - - which leads to a special chamber where the gases are released into a giant cylindrical cooling device called a "blast basket." The room design serves to calm down "the violence of the air," Thames said. Vents in the blast basket disperse the engine exhaust throughout the room -- eventually rising though a network of sound-absorbing "bar silencers" before exiting the building through an open roof. Flooring the engine Delta and all other airlines are required to keep their fleets safe through regular maintenance checks and the replacement of key parts at specific intervals. A big part of that process includes making sure the engines -- and their tens of thousands of parts -- are ready to fly thousands of miles over mountains and oceans without breaking down. "A typical engine when it goes through the rebuild process is in the shop anywhere from 60-90 days," Moore said. "The engine is completely disassembled. All the parts are inspected and everything's reassembled and then it has to come to this facility to be tested." Obviously, the preventative engine maintenance process can never be perfect. But perfection is the goal. Engines fail on very rare occasions and airline crews are highly trained to deal with those situations. "The overall safety picture has dramatically improved in the last 10 years. And a lot of this we owe to some of the technology that goes into the equipment -- engines being one of them," said Mark Millam, technical vice president at the Flight Safety Foundation, an independent global nonprofit focused on aviation safety. Technicians inside the control room put a jet engine through its paces. What happens, for example, when a twin-engine jet aborts a landing attempt and then loses power in one engine? The other engine has to quickly increase its thrust. Technicians demonstrated that for us inside the test cell control room. We watched them put the Trent XWB through a so-called "snap acceleration" -- the equivalent to flooring it when you're behind the wheel of a car. A shiny thrust control handle in the control room is pushed forward to maximum, and in just a few seconds, the engine revs up to high power -- more than 85,000 pounds of thrust. The technicians monitor the engine's oil pressure, temperature, how fast it's turning and other factors -- on alert in case anything looks out of whack. "When you run an engine, it's really like an orchestra. Everyone has got their part to play and everybody's got to come in at the right time," Moore said. They're making sure everything is "working in harmony to produce thrust at the given settings that they're supposed to produce." The testing phase after repair or overhaul adds a layer of safety. "Just the fact that you have one more resource to go to in terms of how you service the engines and get maintenance and repairs performed just makes it that much more viable to use that equipment," said Millam. "The more you have these high-reliability devices in operations, the better it is for safety for everyone." Future of flight The new test facility is part of Delta TechOps, Delta's separate maintenance, repair and overhaul division which serves the Delta fleet as well as other airlines. The division also has maintenance contracts with jet engine manufacturers Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney. It all points toward a future that includes more passengers and more powerful engines, Moore said. "When you look at aviation around the world over the course of the next decade or two decades. It's nothing but growth, especially around the engine space." In fact, the facility is designed to handle engines that are so powerful, they haven't been developed yet -- up to 150,000 pounds of thrust. "We believe in the near future there will be engines that will require that type of thrust," Mitacek said, including "engines for supersonic jets." During the quest to stay ahead of the curve, Delta says safety remains the priority. "In this facility, [safety is] just one piece of the puzzle connecting all the work we do to that final engine assembly," said Mitacek. "And we know when it leaves here, that it's going to be safe and reliable." https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/delta-air-lines-worlds-largest-jet-engine-test- cell/index.html Back to Top USED BUSINESS JETS MAY GET TOUGHER TO SELL ADS-B MANDATE AMONG THE FACTORS Three factors, including the fast-approaching Automatic Dependent Surveillance- Broadcast (ADS-B) Out mandate, are expected to drive up the number of used business jets for sale. Aviation analyst Brian Foley said the number of used business jets for sale has been on a declining trend for nearly a decade, and was less than 9 percent of the total for-sale fleet in January, a level not seen in 20 years. That's about half of the percentage of used jets on the market at the height of the financial crisis in 2009, when almost one in five business jets in the operating fleet was posted for sale amid cratering consumer confidence. Foley said he expects the number of used business jets on the market to increase, and probably soon. "It's always a risk to call the high or low of any market, but after nearly a decade of tightening inventory I feel we're at a bottom and used business jet inventory will begin edging upwards into the foreseeable future," Foley said in a news release issued about a week before the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and the Aircraft Electronics Association issued their annual industry reports. GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce delivered some insight during the organization's State of the Industry address on Feb. 20, noting that avionics shops are busy installing updated equipment at a rate of about 1,000 piston aircraft per month, and about 500 jets per month are getting the same upgrade. "We think on the piston side, we're doing well," Bunce said, though he added that many aircraft are likely to equip after Jan. 1, 2020, when all aircraft flying in airspace where a transponder is currently required will be required to broadcast their position via ADS-B Out. Bunce said the turbine fleet is in much the same shape, with roughly 63 percent of business jets ready for the coming mandate. Helicopter installations are lagging, however, with installations in that segment proceeding at a rate of about 100 aircraft per month. "We, as a community, still have a concern about rotorcraft aircraft," Bunce said. AEA's annual market data report released Feb. 19 logged $2.7 billion in annual sales, 57 percent of which was retrofits. Not all of that is ADS-B equipment, but the scramble to meet the deadline appears to be showing up in the top-line numbers. Graphic based on AMSTAT data courtesy of Brian Foley Associates. Foley expects some business jet owners will put their aircraft up for sale rather than pay for the retrofit, and "this will contribute to steadily rising inventory levels throughout the year consisting of undesirable aircraft that won't sell anytime soon." Foley cited two other factors as the basis for his prediction of rising used business jet inventory: a softening U.S. economy, which he said is likely to undermine confidence and reduce discretionary spending on airplanes, and basic analytics. Prior periods of shrinking used inventory lasted for six or seven years, and the current trend is now a decade old. "As for the effects of an increasing used jet inventory, a significant impact on new aircraft sales isn't expected since an increase in older aircraft is not of interest to typical new aircraft buyers," Foley wrote. "For used aircraft brokers, somewhat fewer pre- owned sales activity can be expected since rising inventory is indicative of more people wanting to get out of ownership than get in. Finally, don't expect pricing of used aircraft, which have also been in a tailspin for a decade, to recover much. Whereas supply and demand dynamics once kept used prices propped up, basic capital good economics have caught up to business jets and softer residual values are now the norm. A new business jet now depreciates no differently than a Buick automobile." https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/february/21/used-business-jets- may-get-tougher-to-sell Back to Top Israel's first lunar lander launched into space from Florida CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Thursday night carrying Israel's first lunar lander on a mission that if successful will make the Jewish state only the fourth nation to achieve a controlled touchdown on the moon's surface. The unmanned robotic lander dubbed Beresheet - Hebrew for the biblical phrase "in the beginning" - soared into space from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at about 8:45 p.m. EST (0145 GMT Friday) atop the 23-story-tall rocket. Beresheet, about the size of a dish-washing machine, was one of three sets of cargo carried aloft by the Falcon 9, part of the private rocket fleet of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's California-based company SpaceX. The rocket's two other payloads were a telecommunications satellite for Indonesia and an experimental satellite for the U.S. Air Force. Beresheet was jettisoned into Earth orbit about 34 minutes after launch, followed 15 minutes later by the release of the two satellites, according to a SpaceX webcast of the event. In addition to a textbook launch and payload deployments, SpaceX scored yet another success in its pioneering technology for recycling its own rockets. Just minutes after blastoff, the Falcon 9's nine-engine suborbital main-stage booster separated from the upper stage, flew back to Earth and landed safely on a drone ship floating in the Atlantic Ocean more than 300 miles (483 km) off the Florida coast. As seen from the launch site, the distant glow of the returning booster rocket was visible in the sky just as the moon appeared over the horizon. The spectacle drew cheers from mission control engineers. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Israel's first spacecraft designed to land on the moon lifts off on the first privately-funded lunar mission at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., February 21, 2019. REUTERS/Joe Skipper The encouraging moment came on the eve of a key hurdle for SpaceX to clear in the company's quest to help NASA revive its human spaceflight program. On Friday, NASA is expected to decide whether to give its final go-ahead to SpaceX for a first, unmanned test flight on March 2 of a new capsule the company designed for carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. FROM EARTH TO THE MOON Beresheet is slated to reach its destination on the near-side of the moon in mid-April following a two-month journey through 4 million miles (6.5 million km) of space. A flight path directly from Earth to the moon would cover roughly 240,000 miles (386,242 km), but Beresheet will follow a more circuitous route. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft's gradually widening Earth orbit will eventually bring the probe within the moon's gravitational pull, setting the stage for a series of additional maneuvers leading to an automated touchdown. So far, only three other nations have carried out controlled "soft" landings on the moon - the United States, the former Soviet Union and China. Spacecraft from several countries, including India's Moon Impact Probe, Japan's SELENE orbiter and a European Space Agency orbital probe called SMART 1, have intentionally crashed on the lunar surface. The U.S. Apollo program tallied six manned missions to the moon - the only ones yet achieved - between 1969 and 1972, with about a dozen more robotic landings combined by the Americans and Soviets. China made history in January with its Chang'e 4, the first to touch down on the dark side of the moon. Beresheet would mark the first non-government lunar landing. The 1,290-pound (585- kg) spacecraft was built by Israeli nonprofit space venture SpaceIL and state-owned defense contractor Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) with $100 million furnished almost entirely by private donors. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Israel's first spacecraft designed to land on the moon lifts off on the first privately-funded lunar mission at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., February 21, 2019. REUTERS/Joe Skipper Beresheet is designed to spend just two to three days using on-board instruments to photograph its landing site and measure the moon's magnetic field. Data will be relayed via the U.S. space agency NASA's Deep Space Network to SpaceIL's Israel-based ground station Yehud. At the end of its brief mission, mission controllers plan to simply shut down the spacecraft, according to SpaceIL officials, leaving Beresheet as the latest piece of human hardware to litter the lunar landscape. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-moon-israel/israels-first-lunar-lander- launched-into-space-from-florida-idUSKCN1QA2V9 Back to Top Back to Top Back to Top Chief Investigator of Accidents / GM Investigation Services * Strategic leadership contribution at Executive level * Represent New Zealand * Leadership role with investigation focus The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) investigates significant aviation, rail and marine accidents and incidents with a view to avoiding similar occurrences in the future. The commission has set a visionary goal of "No Repeat Accidents - Ever!" Thorough investigation skills are pivotal to the Commission's successful performance. To lead capability and capacity to respond to accidents, TAIC is currently recruiting the Chief Investigator of Accidents/ GM Investigation Services. The successful applicant will have relevant leadership experience at a senior level, technical investigation experience ideally in a multi-modal setting and relevant professional and technical qualifications. As Chief Investigator of Accidents/GM Investigation Services you will effectively lead teams who provide high quality and timely accident investigation services. Key competencies and experience include: * Senior leadership and business skills and experience. * Investigative and QA experience and skills. * Ability to work conceptually, anticipating and identifying risks/issues and identifying possible solutions. * Communication skills; written, verbal and interpersonal, including the ability to present on behalf of NZ at a National and International level. * Understanding of quasi-judicial processes, particularly the rules and requirements applicable to a Commission of Inquiry. * Emotional and psychological maturity to handle stressful and emotionally difficult situations and to support your team in this area. * Political nous and sound judgement. * Medically and physically fit with a valid passport, current driver's licence and the ability to travel at short notice. I look forward to hearing from those interested in progressing their career in this key role within this pivotal organisation based in central Wellington, New Zealand. Applications close at 5pm on Sunday 10 March. If you are interested in the position please visit our website www.peopleandco.nz and search on the keyword 18892 under the Jobs tab. All applications will be acknowledged electronically. For further information contact Michele Walls on 00 64 4 931 9448 quoting job number 18892. Only people with the right to work in New Zealand may apply for this position. For advice on obtaining a New Zealand work or residence visa visit www.immigration.govt.nz Back to Top Back to Top Back to Top GRADUATE RESEARCH SURVEY REQUEST Dear Participants, My name is Sabrina Woods, and I am a researcher working towards my Doctorate in Aviation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University under the guidance of my adviser, Dr. Scott Winter. My research focuses on how different general aviation pilots approach cross-country flying. To support my research project, I have created an online questionnaire to gather information directly from the GA population. In order to participate you must: * be at least 18 years old * hold a private, sport, commercial, ATP or recreational certificate, and * be willing to volunteer your time. Participation is voluntary and anonymous, and you may opt out of the study at any time. If you choose to opt out, your data will be destroyed. The survey will take about 10 minutes or less of your time to complete. Thank you in advance for your help. Please click on the link below to access the questionnaire. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WoodsStudy Back to Top ONLINE SURVEY REQUEST Dear Participant, You are being asked to participate in a research study to evaluate pilot decision-making. This study is expected to take approximately 5 minutes of your time. In order to participate, you must be at least 18 years old and currently employed as a professional pilot. Participation in this study is voluntary, and you may choose to opt out of the study at any time. If you choose to opt out, your data will be destroyed. We appreciate your consideration and time to complete our study. Please click on or copy and paste the URL below: https://goo.gl/forms/9ITjTgICot9o9Jjp1 For more information, please contact: Dr. Stephen Rice scrice@outlook.com We appreciate your interest and participation! Curt Lewis