NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen stressed the need to remain vigilant in safety, noting that for business aviation to grow it must be safe and perceived to be safe. “We’re trying to address both of those,” Bolen said during the FAA Safety Summit this week. He remarked that aviation has many layers of safety and redundancy, “Sometimes those layers can allow someone to say, ‘it’s all okay. I can relax.’”
He further noted that even with redundancies, there are specific areas with technology that can be enhanced—pointing to the technical glitches the notam system suffered in January. “The impact was significant,” Bolen said, adding there is an opportunity for improvement. He also discussed the importance of safety management systems, calling them great safety tools. However, Bolen stressed, “The tool needs to be sized to recognize the challenge.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg opened the Safety Summit on Wednesday, saying, “We are particularly concerned because we have seen an uptick in serious close calls that we must address together.” He added that initial information suggests “more mistakes than usual are happening across the system."
Following the opening remarks and initial panel, the Safety Summit moved into breakout sessions, including one focused on general aviation issues. NATA COO Keith DeBerry and v-p of regulatory affairs Alan Stephens highlighted issues including human factors, ground operations, FAA interoperability, and other risk factors.
On March 8—International Women’s Day—I was once again stopped in my tracks as I read this Fast Company headline: “All I want for International Women’s Day: No more female founder takedowns.”
In a nutshell, the article explains how females in tech often make the same mistakes as their male counterparts, yet they face much harsher repercussions. Unfortunately, these female takedowns aren’t just happening in the tech industry.
In fact, that headline made me think about gossip I heard last week at the NBAA Leadership Conference about yet another female pilot who’s struggling at training. A person in the aviation industry was telling me that a flight department had pressure from HR to hire a woman and how “she’s having a hard time training on a new aircraft.”
As if male pilots don’t struggle at training! Yet never once, in my 20-plus years working in business aviation, have I ever heard anyone gossiping about a male pilot struggling at training. I would venture to say that men also struggle with new technology and bigger aircraft, but no one makes a big deal over it because we take for granted they will come up to speed. And women will as well.
The crew of the Guardian Flight air ambulance Pilatus PC-12 that broke up in flight near Stagecoach, Nevada, on February 24 made their last radio call at approximately 9:08 p.m. at 15,400 feet, according to a newly released NTSB preliminary report. In that communication, the pilot acknowledged an ATC instruction to climb to and maintain FL250 and the caution for light to moderate turbulence.
Review of ADS-B data showed that the airplane departed Reno-Tahoe Airport at about 9 p.m. on an IFR flight to transport a patient to Salt Lake City. The turboprop single continued on a southerly heading until about 9:05 p.m., when it turned left to a southeasterly heading at an altitude of 12,100 feet. As the airplane turned southeast, it climbed to 15,700 feet and then turned northeast.
At 9:11 p.m., three minutes after the final radio communications and as the aircraft reached 18,300 feet, it made a right turn to the southeast for about 47 seconds before climbing to 18,900 feet, making a left turn to north, and climbing to 19,100 feet. Then the aircraft started a descending right turn until 9:14 p.m., when ADS-B contact was lost at 11,000 feet.
All five people on the aircraft were killed in the accident—the pilot, flight nurse, patient, paramedic, and a member of the patient's family.
The AOPA Foundation has received a $498,000 grant from the FAA to build on its You Can Fly High School curriculum. The aid was among the $10 million that the FAA awarded through its congressionally funded Aviation Workforce Development Grants, which help prepare students to become pilots, aerospace engineers, or drone operators and support the related professional development of teachers.
The You Can Fly High School program offers a free STEM curriculum that is designed to help foster the pipeline of pilots, technicians, and other aviation professionals. The program, which has reached more than 49,000 students since it was launched six years ago, currently involves about 16,300 students in 43 states.
According to AOPA, 70 percent of recent graduates of the program report they are actively pursuing an aviation career. Further, the association added, half the student participants are from minority backgrounds and one-quarter are female.
AOPA plans to use the grant to train educators through in-person sessions to ensure they have the necessary professional development for the You Can Fly High School initiative.
Leading Russian state corporations are significantly increasing their purchases of indigenous business jets, as the Russian economy slowly improves. In fact, the country's largest transmission grid company, Federal Grid Co. (FGC), has bought a new-production SSJ-100 in business configuration for the equivalent of $63 million, with $10 million allocated for VIP cabin outfitting. The company already owns a Bombardier Global, but Western sanctions against Russia due to the Ukraine war make servicing of this aircraft nearly impossible.
Before the imposition of Western sanctions, Russian customers used about 500 business jets, while the number of business jets affiliated with Russian citizens were estimated at 600 to 800 units, according to the Russian Business Aviation Association. Last year, customers showed an interest in Russian VIP aircraft, but there are no such jets for resale in Russia at present.
Even so, potential SSJ-100 customers are also concerned about possible difficulties involved with servicing the Russian-French PowerJet SaM-146 engines. According to analysts, only a limited market demand exists for SSJ-100s as replacements for foreign jets due to their high maintenance costs.
There was interest from Russian businesses for the re-equipment of dismantled Tu-214s, which were put up for sale by Ilyushin Finance. However, these plans were never implemented.
Brazilian airframer Embraer hosted its first youth Aviation Day last week at its Melbourne, Florida campus. The March 9 event—held in partnership with Experience Aviation and the Brevard Public Schools Offices of Career and Technical Education as well as Diversity and Inclusion—saw 100 local middle school students visit the company’s engineering and technology center.
The seventh and eighth graders, hand selected from their school’s career and STEM tech programs, met with Embraer employees representing many of the manufacturer’s disciplines such as engineering, design, and flight operations to learn more about what is required to perform those jobs. They also participated in hands-on STEM projects developed by the Flying Classroom, a partner of the Embraer Foundation which has a goal of fostering aviation interest among youth. According to the OEM, its goal is “to ignite the curiosity of future industry leaders” through the transfer of knowledge and direct exposure to the industry.
As a special guest, the students also met the founder of Experience Aviation, Barrington Irving, the Guinness World Record holder as the youngest person and first Black pilot to fly solo around the world. His nonprofit educational foundation looks to take children out of the classroom and into cockpits.
The Senate Commerce Committee yesterday focused on the workforce challenges confronting the aviation industry as it contemplates the development of a comprehensive FAA reauthorization bill.
“Now more than ever, we cannot afford to leave good talent on the table,” said Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Washington). She noted that over the next 20 years, the commercial aviation industry will need 128,000 pilots, 134,000 maintenance technicians, and 173,000 cabin crewmembers in North America alone, and looking at just this year, aircraft manufacturers hope to hire 10,000 workers to ramp up production.
She also pointed out the importance of diversifying the workforce—particularly since women represent just 5 percent of airline pilots and less than 12 percent of aerospace engineers, but are 47 percent of the total U.S. workforce. “We have got to bridge the gap.”
Sen. Tammy Duckwork (D-Illinois), who chairs the aviation subcommittee, warned that “success or failure may ride on whether we will be able to dramatically strengthen our nation's aviation workforce over the next five years.” Both Duckwork and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), the ranking member of the aviation subcommittee, agreed that the hearing focusing on means to strengthen the workforce was a key part of getting the next FAA reauthorization bill done.
Aircraft can now be equipped with Becker Avionics’ DVCS6100 voice communication system and AMU6500 digital intercom paired together as a hybrid system, according to the Rheinmünster, Germany company.
Becker’s DVCS6100 NVIS-compatible digital voice system controls eight transceivers, connects to six audio channels, includes an integrated alert tone generator for 10 signals, and provides interfaces to two cockpit voice recorders. The digital intercom AMU6500 audio management unit includes a connection to passenger telephone audio, 3D spatial audio, 12 transceivers, programmable soft keys and functions, and stereo sound.
When paired together, according to Becker, this “would allow DVCS6100 controls in the cockpit for the pilots and AMU6500 controls in the passenger compartment.” Passengers could connect to the AMU6500 via Bluetooth and listen to music from their devices or other sources and also make satellite voice calls “on a two-way line, operating as if it was a normal phone conversation.” Push-to-talk or voice activation is also available for communication between occupants.
Buyers can also opt for the installation of the ACU6510 control unit. When the ACJ6510 is coupled with the AMU6500, it can control 12 transceivers, three AMU6500s, and six ACU6510s, which would allow for nine positions in an aircraft, each with full transmit and receive capability and AMU6500 features such as Bluetooth, stereo, and 3D audio.
Photo of the Week
Cerulean blue. Air Journey’s Anais Pouille snapped this stunning photo from an Embraer Phenom 300 departing Sao Tome Airport (FPST). She captured this view of the African island nation, which is close to the equator, with an iPhone 13 Pro during Air Journey’s “Islands of Indian Ocean and Beyond” pilot travel adventure last year. Thanks for sharing, Anais!
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