Helipass Calls For Open Market To Stimulate eVTOL Growth
Flight-booking platform Helipass is positioning itself as a key enabler for commercial eVTOL operations, with plans to transition from a current business model based entirely on rotorcraft. The France-based company is in talks with its network of around 120 helicopter operators to encourage them to transition to electric aircraft. Helipass seeks to provide a user-friendly booking platform for customers and also software that operators can use to handle payments, fleet planning, and passenger records.
Helipass recently reached an agreement with Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions to market up to 100,000 flight hours annually in the Embraer subsidiary’s four-passenger eVTOL. However, the company intends to include other eVTOL types in its platform and has already approached manufacturers Volocopter, Joby, and Lilium.
Company president Frederic Aguettant views sightseeing flights as an early market for eVTOL passenger operations. He pointed to popular locations such as Hawaii, the Grand Canyon, and New York City, where there is strong demand but also a concern about helicopter noise.
Aguettant sees the volume of eVTOL usage stacking up quickly: “When [the industry] is flying around six million helicopter tours, each for an average of 20 minutes and with four or five passengers, you can see what’s happening in the market, and this equates to 500,000 hours.” He believes new eVTOL services will gain significant momentum in the latter half of this decade.
Want more? You can find a longer version of this article at FutureFlight.aero, a news and information resource developed by AIN to provide objective coverage and analysis of cutting-edge aviation technology.
APS Leverages VR Technology for UPRT
Mesa, Arizona-based Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) has used a mix of academic, on-aircraft, and simulator training to deliver upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT), but is now adding virtual-reality (VR) technologies for the maximum transference of UPRT skills to a customer’s specific aircraft type.
“APS is committed to helping pilots bring everyone home safely,” said company CEO Paul “B.J.” Ransbury. “Our maximum impact to accomplish this vision is our full-time sole commitment to upset prevention and recovery training to overcome loss of control in-flight (LOC-I). LOC-I is responsible for nearly 50 percent of all fatalities in aviation worldwide, with UPRT being the most effective mitigation.”
Introduction of virtual-reality technology is the next step in providing a comprehensive UPRT solution to pilots, Ransbury said. This immersive approach to training allows pilots to consolidate knowledge on their own aircraft type following APS’s integrated academic, on-aircraft, and advanced simulator training.
A primary benefit of the virtual-reality component of APS’s integrated UPRT solution is the ability to directly transfer core skills to the customer’s exact flight deck. In addition to having a photorealistic model of the aircraft’s flight deck, the software incorporates exacting aerodynamic modeling to mimic the handling characteristics of the aircraft. Other benefits include the ability to replicate in-flight upset scenarios at low altitudes and/or in instrument meteorological conditions.
The Citation Jet Pilots Owner Pilot Association (CJP) is launching a “Safe to Land” initiative to reduce the rate of runway mishaps. Announced last week during CJP's annual convention, Safe to Land involves a series of new procedures and callouts that should be made during visual and instrument approaches. Programming surrounding the initiative will begin on January 1 and continue for 18 months, including video training, a new cockpit briefing card, and a dedicated web page.
The initiative is the culmination of more than a year of research with the Presage Group that examined go-around decisions made by single-pilot jet operators, the organization said, adding that the study builds on work already conducted with airlines. Research involved a survey of more than 200 CJP members who shared decision-making processes during both stable and unstable approaches.
Armed with this data, CJP formed a working group that met at FlightSafety International to develop new procedures, which were then evaluated and verified by two dozen CJP members. Participating pilots flew more than 200 approaches in multiple Citation simulators provided by FSI.
"These new approach and landing procedures were designed specifically for single-pilots of Citations,” said CJP CEO Trent Corcia. “Presage subject matter experts captured data from each pilot as they made multiple approaches during varied weather conditions.”
Under a new agreement, MRO provider West Star Aviation has become a dealership for CCX Technologies, an onboard cyber security solutions provider. West Star will sell, install, and maintain CCX’s products that offer actionable security capabilities and flight data, including the Canadian-based company’s AP-250, which features two dual-band Wi-Fi radios with encryption and a half-km range, as well as a one terabyte solid-state drive with all data encrypted at rest.
Other CCX products include dataPHY, a compact device that receives onboard avionics databus data such as Arinc 429 for advanced monitoring for anomalies and other flight-critical data events. With the equipment installed on an aircraft, operators can monitor their inflight networks with data sourced from the aircraft itself.
“All this recent attention on security breaches has encouraged operators to want onboard cyber security,” said Aaron Berg, West Star avionics technical sales manager in Grand Junction, Colorado. “It’s a rising concern and an emerging trend we see escalating. As we’ve learned, the AP-250 and dataPHY products are the type of innovation aviation needs, particularly with more and more aircraft becoming connected.”
Metro To Test FAA Weather Cam in Michigan
Metro Aviation is embarking on a year-long project to test the capabilities of an FAA weather camera at its Ann Arbor base serving the University of Michigan’s Survival Flight. Metro operates 30 to 45 flights each month out of Ann Arbor and cancels up to 15 percent of them due to inadequate or misleading weather reports, the company said.
Its pilots at Ann Arbor currently use off-hospital automated surface observing systems (ASOS) to obtain weather data, which provides varying levels of accuracy. The hospital does not have its own weather reporting system and relies on an ASOS that sits in a valley five miles away. “The way [that ASOS] sits, it gives off lower-than-perceived visibility reports,” said Laennec Ratard, an FAA flight standards employee and principal operations inspector overseeing Metro. He believes the skewed data is leading to unnecessary flight cancellations.
The FAA began its weather camera program in 1999 in Alaska and has since expanded it, working with state governments in Colorado, Hawaii, and Montana. Metro is the first non-governmental entity to participate in the program. If successful at Ann Arbor, Metro plans to offer weather cameras to all of its remaining 38 helicopter air ambulance programs at more than 140 bases across the country.
Dickson: FAA Quickly Turning Around Training LODAs
While acknowledging the confusion surrounding requirements for flight training in certain primary, limited, and experimental category aircraft, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson late last week maintained that an interim process put in place to accommodate such activity is “far from being bureaucratic” and that the agency is quickly moving on instructor requests.
The FAA implemented the process as it issued a policy determination in July to clarify that a flight instructor operating certain aircraft, such as a warbird, and carrying a paying student without a letter of deviation authority (LODA) is acting contrary to federal regulation, even if that compensation is for instruction and not carriage. Reps. Sam Graves (R-Missouri) and Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii) have included legislation in the National Defense Authorization Act to reverse that policy determination. During a House aviation subcommittee hearing on Thursday, Graves reiterated his concerns about the policy, saying, “it’s really creating a problem.”
Dickson responded that “I know that it has created some confusion and some frustration,” but maintained “this actually wasn’t a change in legal interpretation.”
Further, the agency is updating the rules to permanently address the issue, Dickson said, “but we wanted to have an interim process in place that facilitates the training.” He added, “We've actually created a very quick turnaround process on these [LODA] approvals. The time to process the deviation request is less than a day.”
MT-Propeller has received an STC from EASA for the installation of its new Silent 7 MTV-37 seven-blade propeller on the twin-turboprop Shorts SC-7, the Germany-based company announced last week. The STC follows FAA type certification of the propeller in late September.
The SC-7 is also the second aircraft model to receive EASA and FAA STC approval for MT’s new prop, with the first going earlier this year to the Pilatus PC-12 turboprop single powered by the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67B, PT6A-67P, or PT6E-67XP engines.
According to MT, the composite with nickel leading-edge propeller provides nearly vibration-free propeller operation on the SC-7 and Viking Air Series 3 equipped with Honeywell TPE331-2-201A engines and allows for a 5 percent shorter takeoff distance and 10 percent enhanced climb performance. On the PC-12, installation of the MTV-37 requires no engine modifications and offers improved climb performance and reduction of cabin noise by between 6 and 7 decibels.
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
Provided by
Which of the following is considered one of the most effective tools in aviation to prevent approach and landing accidents?
A. Flying faster than Vref and above the required glide path to have some extra energy to recover from upsets.
B. Asking passengers to remain seated until the aircraft has finished taxing after landing.
C. If the stabilized approach criteria is not met, doing as much as possible to regain control of the approach flight path to assure landing on schedule.
D. Performing a go-around.
Bombardier Safety Standdown Turns 25
Bombardier’s annual Safety Standdown is turning 25. This year’s event is returning to Wichita next week—from November 2 to 3—at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Established 25 years ago by Bombardier’s Learjet flight demonstration team, the theme for this year’s event is “Learn, Apply, Share,” prompting aviation professionals and organizations to learn new skills, apply them, and share their knowledge to make an impact.
Presenters include Tony Kern, founding partner and the CEO of Convergent Performance; Amy Grubb, digital transformation advisor to the FBI CIO; Dan Boedigheimer, CEO of Advanced Aircrew Academy; Christopher Lutat, managing partner of Convergent Performance; and Captain Clarke “Otter” McNeace, v-p of flight operations and standards at Aviation Performance Solutions, who will explore Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I).
“For a quarter of a century, Bombardier has led the industry in providing aviation professionals with critical knowledge-based aviation training,” said Bombardier’s Andy Nureddin, who stewards the Safety Standdown program. “This invaluable event fosters a community of aviation professionals who are committed to lifelong learning and to disseminating higher standards of safety and professionalism throughout the industry.”
Bombardier has adopted a Covid-19 vaccine requirement for Safety Standdown 2021. All registrants must present proof of full vaccination to enter the venue and comply with CDC and state of Kansas recommendations on indoor masking for all event activities.
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