NTSB Head: Part 135 Needs Same Safety Tools as Airlines

“If Part 135 aviation had the same tools as Part 121,” including safety management systems, flight data monitoring, and crew resource management, “we might not be here today,” NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said this morning during a board meeting on the May 15, 2017 fatal crash of a Learjet 35A during an approach to Teterboro Airport. According to Sumwalt, “The pilots allowed the aircraft to stall, and they subsequently lost control of the aircraft as they were turning onto final approach while on a poorly flown circling approach.” The airplane was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire, killing both pilots.

While the accident occurred on a Part 91 positioning flight operated by Part 135 operator Trans-Pacific Air Charter, it “raises important questions about what can be done to improve the safety of Part 135 operations,” he said.

Sumwalt said the accident also highlights the problem of procedural non-compliance—the copilot, who was at the controls during the flight, did not yet have enough experience necessary to operate the twinjet; the pilot-in-command had not conducted adequate preflight planning; and the pilots did not brief the approach during the flight. There were also performance deficiencies noted during the pilots’ initial training that were not being monitored by the company, he said. The NTSB chief also cited lack of professionalism on the part of the crew.

White House FAA Budget Request Focuses on UAS, NextGen

The White House is seeking $17.1 billion for the FAA in Fiscal Year 2020 in a budget request released yesterday that would include a nearly $300 million increase in facilities and equipment (F&E) funding as the administration emphasizes NextGen modernization and integration of unmanned systems.

At the same time, the FY20 budget request seeks to shave about $70 million off the FAA’s operations budget, to $10.34 billion, and as much from its research and development (R&D) efforts, to $120 million, from FY19 levels. Overall, the budget would fall short of this fiscal year’s levels by $350 million, but the enacted FY19 budget included a $500 million bump for airports funding meant as a one-time investment.

Aside from the loss of that additional investment, airports funding remains flat at $3.35 billion. The White House, noting the importance of investing in the National Airspace System, is asking for nearly $3.3 billion for F&E, including $1.22 billion to support NextGen efforts.  

The budget includes funding to enable the FAA to further its efforts to integrate UAS into the National Airspace System, requesting $63.1 million, an increase of $12 million, in the agency's operations budget for this purpose. Another $130.8 million would be set aside in the agency’s F&E account for the development of an unmanned traffic management system, which would be a separate but complementary system. 

Part 135 Training Changes Coming Soon

The FAA is expected to soon release an Advisory Circular that will pave the way toward a new standardized training curriculum for Part 135 operations, industry leaders learned during today’s 2019 Air Charter Safety Symposium. More than 135 charter executives registered for this year’s Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF) event.

This year’s symposium provided an overview of changes for Part 135 training through Part 142 centers. The FAA last fall released a draft AC that will enable industry experts and the FAA to jointly develop a standardized simulator training curriculum for each type of aircraft.

The draft AC drew about 200 comments resulting in a few changes, said FAA aviation safety inspector Mark Valette. David Underwood, regional director of regulatory affairs for FlightSafety International, said he expects the final AC to be out shortly.

John DeLisi, director of the NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety, highlighted areas that led to Part 121 safety improvements and encouraged the audience to look toward their adoption, such as flight-data monitoring, safety management systems, and controlled flight into terrain avoidance training.

The two day-event, themed “Promoting the Highest levels of Aviation Safety,” also is addressing safety culture, the new charter broker rules, data and analytics, stick-and-rudder skills, a deeper dive into recent accident case studies, and an update on the ACSF’s Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP).

AirSky Offers Air-to-ground Network Development

Avionics manufacturer Avidyne and Airspan, a cellular telephone network LTE small cell and 4G base station manufacturer, have formed a partnership, AirSky, to offer development of regional air-to-ground telecommunications networks. Under the arrangement, Avidyne would manufacture airborne equipment while Airspan would build the base stations.

There are currently three major air-to-ground (ATG) airborne connectivity networks operating or in development. The Gogo ATG network is the longest-serving, since the early 2000s, and covers the continental U.S., central and other areas in Canada, and portions of Alaska. SmartSky anticipates standing up its ATG network serving much of the continental U.S. this year. And in Europe, Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom have partnered to develop the European Aviation Network, a high-speed combined ATG and satcom airborne connectivity system.

This leaves other regions in the world without any ATG network opportunities and reliant only on satcom, and that’s the void that AirSky wants to fill. The proposed AirSky A2G network would run on Airspan's AirSky ground infrastructure and services and use Avidyne's SkyLNX airborne hardware.

AirSky has thus far built a demonstration network with two ground stations in Florida and done some in-flight testing. Network speeds were demonstrated at up to 50 Mbps downlink, but the big advantage of ATG over satcom is lower latency (signal delay) because the airborne equipment is much closer to the ground-based stations.

Biggin Hill To Change Pricing, Remove Shoulder Fees

In its bid to be more competitive, London Biggin Hill Airport (BQH) will eliminate shoulder fees and streamline its landing, handling, and parking fees, the general and business aviation airport announced today. The new pricing structure takes effect April 1 and is intended to improve transparency and simplify the payment process, it said.

“As the only dedicated business aviation airport in London, it is vital that we continue to find new ways to support the uninterrupted flow of international business investment into the capital,” London Biggin Hill business development director Robert Walters said. “Our extended operating hours have demonstrably benefitted travelers from the U.S., Asia-Pacific, and Middle East; and the growth of our resident MROs to 11 service centers, the most of any business aviation airport in Europe, means we can support almost every make and model of business jet.”

BQH introduced shoulder charges when it extended operating hours in May 2017. They are in effect between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. local time on weekdays, and from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. local time on weekends and bank holidays—periods of “high demand,” officials told AIN. Any aircraft movement during those periods incurs a $196.78 (£150) shoulders hour charge, which will be removed next month with the pricing change.

Sheltair Adds Hangars at New York Bizav Hub

Aviation service provider real estate developer Sheltair has opened a new hangar complex at its FBO at Republic Airport on New York’s Long Island as part of a $55 million development project. The first phase includes three hangars, each with 31,000 sq ft of aircraft storage space, 28-foot-high doors and 4,000 sq ft of office space, which brings the location to nearly 180,000 sq ft of hangar floor.

“A tremendous amount of time and effort has been invested in the design and construction of these facilities,” noted Todd Anderson, the Florida-based company’s senior vice president for real estate and development, citing the thermal pane windows just beneath the roofline to allow natural light, and the heated hangar door tracks to permit smooth operations even in winter. “Energy-efficient features are found throughout the design, and the administrative spaces are capable of being configured to meet the unique needs of each tenant.” According to Sheltair, two of the three new structures are already fully leased.

“These first three of what will be six hangars reflect decades of experience in what works when ensuring the most efficient use of space for tenants,” added COO Warren Kroeppel. Along with the three similar-sized additional hangars, the second phase of the project will include a new 10,000-sq-ft FBO terminal that is expected to be completed later next year.

GE Aviation: The Future Is Data and Digital

Though speakers generally mentioned Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) in an airline context at the recent GE Aviation Waypoint conference, GE officials noted the company offers a corporate FOQA digital solution with aggregated data from more than 350,000 corporate flights on more than 500 business aircraft.

“Now is the time to look at how to pull data off the aircraft, start analyzing, and do predictive things,” said John Mansfield, chief digital officer for GE Aviation during a general session panel discussion. “We have great domain expertise within aviation: the capabilities, the people, and customers who help us. We have an opportunity to use our capabilities to work directly with our customers and solve some really intriguing problems that we couldn't have afforded to do four or five years ago.”

“From the customer view, the question is, ‘When do I act on my asset and what is the mitigation?’” said Dinakar Deshmukh, v-p of data sciences and analytics at GE Aviation, during one of more than 60 breakout sessions ranging from general trends in digital innovation to specific workings of GE Aviation Digital’s AirVault and Asset Performance Management solutions. “It’s a seemingly simple question, but to arrive at the answer, a lot is working in the background: figuring out root causes, data collection, parameter selection, model building, operationalization, implementation, and all for a particular asset.”

FAA-EU Pacts Expand Aviation Market Access

Two agreements signed last week between FAA and European Union officials have further opened market access in Europe for U.S. companies that manufacture or modify aircraft, and reciprocally increase access to the U.S. for European companies that make aircraft parts. The two decisions, which take effect on April 8, are associated with the Airworthiness Annex of the U.S./EU Safety Agreement.

Under the first decision, EASA will lower its fees for validation of U.S. aerospace products, ranging from STCs to full type certifications. “This achievement is the culmination of a multi-year effort to reduce duplication of efforts by the FAA and EASA, and to lower EASA fees on U.S. industry to be more commensurate with that reduced level of effort,” the FAA said.

The second decision removes country-specific limitations associated with aeronautical products and parts eligible for import into the U.S. This amendment treats all EU Member States equally under the agreement and “recognizes EASA’s oversight and standardization processes throughout its jurisdiction.”