All Ops & safety articles – Page 1304
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News
How far can you go?
There is nothing new about outsourcing (the practice of obtaining components from a third party). No-one expects an airline to make the tyres for its aircraft, and many successful carriers do not undertake their own heavy maintenance. The trend to outsource more work and concentrate on core services has ...
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Nothing to show
Ramon Lopez/Washington DC On 17 July, as the first anniversary of the Trans World Airlines Flight 800 crash passed, US Government and industry officials were still waging a war of words over what lessons have been learned and what, if anything, should be done as a result of the ...
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NTSB wants to limit Tomahawk training
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) believes that flight training in the Piper Tomahawk should be restricted pending completion of flight-testing by the US Federal Aviation Administration. The Safety Board recommendation to the FAA follows the crash on 4 March, 1994, of a Piper Tomahawk which killed a ...
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UK CAA and single-engined flights
Sir - I was disappointed to read in Bob Crowe's letter "Getting round UK night-rules" (Flight International, 9-15 July) that he believes that he received a curt "…wait until the JARs are in place" reply from the Civil Aviation Authority, when his operators asked to operate under Joint Aviation ...
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CD players are still risky on aircraft
Sir - Capt Mark Zucal (Letters, Flight International, 18-24 June) is quite wrong to rail against rules which forbid the use of a compact-disc (CD) player in passenger aircraft. I can assure him that the rules are not nearly tough enough. The problem is that some portable electronic devices ...
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Commercial flights only concern JAA
Sir - The European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) is concerned with extended-range operations (ETOPS) of smaller, twin-turbofan aircraft only when they are flown for the purpose of commercial air transport. Nobody in the JAA has ever suggested that the proposed rules under discussion should be applicable to these smaller ...
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Engine failure marks the end for Orient
Orient Avia, the independent Russian airline, has ceased operations following an engine failure on its last serviceable Ilyushin Il-62 on 10 July. The airline primarily operated services from Moscow to Vladivostok and Petroparlovsk in Kamchatka. At its peak, Orient operated three Il-62s, an Ilyushin Il-86 and a Tupolev ...
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FAA orders flight data-recorder upgrades
COMMERCIAL passenger aircraft being operated in the USA must be retrofitted with enhanced flight-data recorders (FDRs) within four years, according to a new ruling from the US Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA rule change, which was finalised this month, was urged by the US National Transportation Safety Board ...
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NASA plans mission to investigate Sun's corona
A spacecraft could fly within 2.72 million kilometres (1.7 million miles) of the Sun in July 2007 as part of a series of new interplanetary space missions being studied by NASA. The Solar Probe, protected against high temperatures by a large umbrella-like heatshield, would be used to explore ...
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Collision conclusion
The mid-air collision near Delhi, India, on 12 November, 1996, which killed 349 people, happened because the Chimkentavia Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 freighter was 1,000ft (300m) lower than its cleared altitude, according to Indian press reports leaked from the final accident investigation report. The Il-76 collided with an outbound Saudi Arabian ...
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US schools near trainer choices
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC TWO MAJOR US universities are in the final stages of selecting manufacturers to replace their fleets of training aircraft. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University wants to replace the 103 aircraft at its Daytona Beach, Florida, and Prescott, Arizona, campuses over five years, while the University of North ...
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Pegasus is on track for Saudi Arabian debut
Flight tests of Honeywell's Pegasus advanced flight- management system (FMS) on a McDonnell Douglas (MDC) MD-90 are "-progressing well and are on schedule" for first delivery to Saudi Arabian Airlines in November, says Honeywell. US Federal Aviation Administration certification of the FMS is expected in October, representing the ...
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US AOPA unveils upgraded Arrow
A 1978 PIPER Arrow piston single, reconditioned by the US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) as a showcase for avionics and other upgrades, will be displayed at the US Experimental Aircraft Association's Oshkosh, Wisconsin, fly-in, beginning on 28 July. The "Ultimate Arrow" has an Arnav Systems MFD ...
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War in the air
IT IS A TRUTH THAT the people who start wars are very rarely the people who end up winning them. That should be remembered by the European Union (EU) politicians and officials who seem determined to start a trade war with the USA over the proposed merger of Boeing and ...
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FAA approves use of PC-based training after push by AOPA
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC AN ADVISORYCIRCULAR (AC) approving the use of personal-computer-based aviation training devices (PC-ATDs) has been issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration, and is expected to simulate development of equipment costing substantially less than general-aviation flight-training devices now available. The US National Air Transportation ...
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MD-95 landing gear is joined to structure
The first McDonnell Douglas MD-95 T-1 test aircraft's primary structure rests on its landing gear for the first time at Douglas Aircraft's plant in Long Beach, California. Israel Aircraft Industries built the gear for the aircraft, which is due to be completed by the end of this year, with the ...
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DC-8 training faulted
Flight-simulator fidelity in reproducing aircraft stall characteristics may have to be improved, if the US Federal Aviation Administration accepts National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendations emerging from its investigation of December 1996 fatal crash on an Airborne Express McDonnell Douglas DC-8-63 in Virginia. The aircraft crashed when the ...
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FAA accelerates 747 fuse-pin inspections
The US Federal Aviation Administration has re-issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) reducing the time allowed for replacing the engine/ pylon fuse pins on General Electric- and Pratt & Whitney- powered Boeing 747s. The action follows the discovery of a fractured forward fuse pin on an unidentified aircraft. ...
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Operators shrug off FAA's 727 payload restrictions
OPERATORS ARE playing down the impact of payload restrictions to be imposed on Boeing 727 freighter conversions under four airworthiness directives (ADs) proposed on 14 July. The ADs, which cover over 300 727s converted from passenger to freighter configuration by third-party modification companies, will require operators to fit strengthened floor ...
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Europe's JAA places Trent-powered A330 on ETOPS trial
The Airbus A330-300, equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 700s, will have to have several months of reliability exhibited before the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) restores 180min extended-range twin-engined operations (ETOPS) clearance for the aircraft. The Trent-powered variant became the last of the three A330ss to be cleared by ...