Helo Safety Team: Act Now To Check Fatal Accident Rate

The U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) today warned that the U.S. helicopter industry is heading toward its highest annual fatal accident rate in more than a decade, already recording 15 fatal accidents with 27 fatalities in the first six months of 2019. The USHST notes that is already on par with 2013 when 30 fatal helicopter accidents were recorded, but cautioned that the rate could go even higher, as July historically posts the highest number of rotorcraft accidents during the calendar year.

Figuring in that history, the USHST warns that “the industry also is at risk to reach the total from 2008, when there were 35 fatal helicopter accidents. With half of 2019 completed and another six months to go, the U.S. helicopter industry is experiencing a year of tragic accidents with too many lives being lost.”

The USHST is calling on operators, pilots, instructors, and mechanics to “rely on safety basics and place a stronger emphasis on identifying and managing risk.” The USHST is calling on the industry to focus on basics, including fuel management, adequate pre-flight inspections, adherence to checklists, understanding the impact of over-the-counter medications, avoiding flying VFR in IFR conditions (scud running), not succumbing to “get-there-itis,” and learning when to abort missions en route. 

Rolls-Royce Increasing Hybrid-electric Resources

On the heels of last month’s proposed acquisition of Siemens’s electric and hybrid-electric aerospace propulsion “eAircraft” business, Rolls-Royce this week inked an agreement with the state of Brandenburg to create a so-called ecosystem for hybrid-electric drive systems for aircraft in the German region. The arrangement, which still needs to be formalized, marks another step in the UK engine manufacturer’s electrification strategy and its ambition to play a major role in what it describes as the “third era” of aviation.

The initiative aims to pioneer the development of hybrid-electric 400 to 1,000 kW propulsion systems and builds on Rolls-Royce’s existing cooperation with the Brandenburg Technical University (BTU) in Cottbus-Senftenberg, one of the four Rolls-Royce technology university centers in Germany. The OEM maintains a global network of 24 technology university centers and seven research centers, each addressing a key technology.

The state of Brandenburg and Rolls-Royce committed to co-fund the initiative over the next six years. The partners said they will agree on the program details before the end of 2019.

“Developing world-class hybrid electric power and propulsion systems represents a significant opportunity for Rolls-Royce,” said Dirk Geisinger, director of business aviation and chairman of Rolls-Royce Deutschland. “With the acquisition of the Siemens eAircraft business, we are investing in Germany and Hungary already. Adding Brandenburg with the BTU and regional partners to that effort would be an exciting next step.” 

Ontic Takes On More Meggitt Legacy Parts Work

Ontic will support Meggitt’s OEM legacy manufacturing of signal conditioners, military chip detectors, cockpit indicators, and connector harnesses under a new license agreement. Those parts are used on a variety of legacy commercial, business and general aviation, and military aircraft, according to Ontic, a unit of BBA Aviation. 

“Ontic is pleased to add these products to our portfolio and having them benefit from the Extended Life Solutions we provide,” Ontic president Gareth Hall said. “This license of product families, in particular, highlights Ontic’s capability to strategically assist OEMs with the on-going support of their non-core products, allowing the OEM to progress and concentrate on its strategic priorities.”

Manufacturing and maintenance support of those products will be provided to the installed base through the new agreement, which calls for Ontic to continue Part 21 new-build manufacturing as well as comprehensive Part 145 repairs and spares. It builds on a Meggitt license Ontic acquired earlier for engine pressure and fuel-flow transmitters, and fluid monitoring chip detectors.

FAA Limits Certain Collins TCAS Use

The FAA is calling for operating limitations on the traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) used in Collins FDSA-6500 flight display systems installed on certain Bombardier Challenger 604, Cessna Citation CJ3, and Beechcraft King Air models. Earlier this week, the agency issued an airworthiness directive requiring the limits, warning of a potential conflict between TCAS display indications and aural alerts that can occur during a resolution advisory (RA).

Collins determined that the TCAS was incorrectly translated by the FDSA-6500 software. Collins is developing a software fix, but in the interim, the FAA issued the AD to address the potential conflict. 

Separately, the agency recently issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB CE-19-14) to inform owners and operators of an issue that may cause certain versions of the Collins Pro Line Fusion flight management Systems (FMS) to fly a wrong turn direction when deleting a waypoint. 

According to the notice, if the crew uses DELETE to remove a waypoint in a departure, standard terminal arrival route (STAR), or approach, it is possible for the FMS to make the longest turn (more than 180 degrees) onto the following leg. Consequently, the agency recommends using an alternative method to delete waypoints rather than the DELETE selection. At this time, the FAA doesn’t believe the safety concern warrants an AD on the Fusion issue.

Netherlands Charter Operator Adds German Base

Exxaero has expanded its operations to Germany after received an air operator’s certificate from Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, the Netherlands charter operator announced. It will initially operate a single Hawker Beechcraft Premier I at Weeze Airport in Germany's Lower Rhine region, but Exxaero plans to add more business aircraft there.

“Because we have an increasing number of German customers and fly on a regular basis from Weeze, we have expanded our airline to Germany,” Exxaero accountable manager Rogier Buijs said. “The handling is even easier for German customers now [that] they can book their flights at our German branch and fly with a German-registered aircraft.”

Exxaero expects to add four more aircraft in Weeze in the next 12 months because of high demand in Germany for private jet flights, Buijs said. Solid Handling will provide Exxaero’s ground handling at Weeze. In addition to serving as a charter operator, Exxaero offers aircraft management services and sales.

FAA Proposal To Change Fire-protection Standards

The FAA published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on July 3 to change certain fire protection regulations for interior compartments on transport category airplanes. Proposed changes would affect materials ranging from floor covering to textiles to acrylic windows and signs to insulation.

The proposal would shift from “detailed, prescriptive requirements into simpler, performance-based standards,” establishing two performance-based categories of standards: in-flight fire protections and protections to maximize escape time from post-crash fire. In creating the two performance-based categories, the FAA cited differing hazards from post-crash vs. in-flight fires. In a crash, combustion of spilled fuel is a primary hazard, making evacuation time critical, the FAA said. “Roughly 90 percent of actual evacuations are completed within 5 minutes.”

In-flight fires become most critical when starting in an inaccessible area such as behind interior panels. In contrast, fires in areas accessible to a person with a fire extinguisher are still a concern but “much less likely to evolve into a threat to the airplane,” the FAA wrote. 

The NPRM would extend fire protection requirements to materials extensively used in inaccessible areas. Additionally, the FAA's proposal would remove mandatory test methods and allow applicants, in certain cases, to demonstrate compliance without conducting testing or providing independent substantiation of the flammability characteristics of proposed materials.

Comments are due October 1.

FTC To Hold Repair Restriction Workshop

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will host a meeting in Washington, D.C., next week to examine ways in which manufacturers may limit third-party repairs and whether those limitations affect consumer protection. Titled “Nixing the Fix: A Workshop on Repair Restrictions,” the July 16 session at the Constitution Center is open to the public and will discuss some of the issues that arise when a manufacturer restricts or makes it impossible for a consumer or an independent repair shop to make product repairs and whether such restrictions undercut the Warranty Act’s protections. The afternoon workshop will consist of three panel discussions: How do repair restrictions affect consumers and small businesses? What are the arguments for and against repair restrictions? and What is the fix?

The Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) has been working with interested industry partners to use the event as another opportunity to shed light on the challenges repair stations face when trying to obtain maintenance manuals and the FAA’s unwillingness to enforce the relevant regulations. As it considers policy changes, the FTC is seeking research and data focused on such limitations, which would need to be submitted by September 16.

Florida Airport, Tenants Team Up To Help Local Students

Florida’s Boca Raton Airport Authority (BRAA) is once again teaming up with its tenants for a school supply drive. Customers of the airport are invited to support local children in need by dropping off supplies in the lobby of the BRAA administration building, the Atlantic Aviation and Signature Flight Support FBOs, or at the Fairfield Inn on Airport Road, through the end of July.

Among the items most requested are #2 pencils, boxes of colored pens (black, blue, and red), mechanical pencils and highlighters, reams of ruled paper, packs of tissues, and personal-size hand sanitizers. Clothing items needed are socks and red, navy, and light blue polo-style uniform shirts in all sizes.

Those items will be distributed for the upcoming school year through the community partner Spirit of Giving Network.

Boeing Next Tests Future eVTOL Air Mobility Concepts

Boeing’s Next division is conducting test flights of electrically-powered, autonomously controlled aircraft being developed for both passenger and cargo transportation as part of an effort that it believes could transform mobility over the next decade.

In January 2019, Boeing started flying its passenger air vehicle outdoors, and in May this aircraft was joined by a cargo air vehicle. In its current design, the passenger air vehicle can carry two people up to 50 miles, and Boeing is considering a model that would carry four people. The cargo air vehicle, which had conducted several indoor flights starting in 2018, can carry a payload of up to 500 pounds.