Monthly Archives: February 2019

U.S. operations safer than some other regions of the world.

Each year the safety data for airline travel aboard commercial aircraft weighing more than 12,500 pounds just keeps getting better in the United States according to the International Air Transport Association. There hasn’t been a major U.S. airline accident in years. Worth noting is that last weekend’s AtlasAir Boeing 767 crash near Houston that claimed the lives of the three crewmembers aboard would not be counted in these IATA statistics because Atlas does not carry passengers.

IATA said, “Last year some 4.3 billion passengers flew safely on 46.1 million flights,” according to Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO. Safety organizations like to express operations using rates, making 2018’s 1.35 per one million flights. For the rest of us, that translates into the equivalent of one accident every 740,000 flights. This was an improvement over the average accident rate of 1.79 for the previous 5-year period (2013-2017). But since it was a decline compared to 2017’s record number of 1.11. de Juniac admitted, “2018 was not the extraordinary year that 2017 was.” Data showed an increase in total air carrier accidents to 11 from just one in 2017. Fatalities last year also climbed significantly to 523.

Because IATA is an international organization, passengers can learn quite a bit from paying close attention to the specifics and the data collection labels of these safety numbers. For a third consecutive year, airlines in Sub-Saharan Africa experienced zero jet hull losses and zero fatalities in jet operations. The accident rate there was 2.71, a significant improvement over the rate of 6.80 for the previous five years. Africa was the only region to see a decline in the all-accident rate compared to 2017. However, neither of the two fatal turboprop accidents there involved a scheduled passenger flight.

The world turboprop hull loss rate was 0.60 per million flights, an improvement over 1.23 in 2017 and also over the 5-year rate (2013-2017) of 1.83. All regions except for Middle East-North Africa saw their turboprop safety performance improve in 2018 when compared to their respective 5-year rates. Accidents involving turboprop aircraft represented 24 percent of all accidents in 2018 and 45 percent of fatal accidents.

Part of IATA’s mandate is the search for additional risks in commercial aviation with one well-known hazard being inflight turbulence. In response, IATA has launched Turbulence Aware, a global platform for sharing automated turbulence reports in real time. Operational trials with a number of airlines are being conducted this year, with a full launch planned for 2020.

IATA’s de Juniac said, “Flying is safe, and the data tell us that it is getting safer. For example, if safety in 2018 had remained at the same level as 2013, there would have been 109 accidents instead of 62; and there would have been 18 fatal accidents, instead of the 11 that actually occurred.”

Source: Flying

$10,000 is distributed to dedicated flight instructors.

Members of the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) and the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) got some well-deserved funding to help further their endeavors in making pilots safer. Ten flight instructors received anywhere from $500 to $1,500 as part of the Paul and Fran Burger $10,000 WINGS Sweepstakes.

The sweepstakes was conceived to encourage instructors to get their students to use the FAASTeam WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program as a way to increase flight safety. Four groups, NAFI, SAFE, the AOPA Safety Institute (ASI) and the FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam), came together to bring the concept to life and 40 organizations and individuals have endorsed the campaign.

“More than 20 years ago I personally witnessed a tragedy where the pilot, his nephew and niece and a family friend were killed. Since then I have donated a substantial amount of energy, time and money for GA safety so that fewer friends and family have to have this same experience,” said Paul Burger, the founder of the WINGS Industry Advisory Committee (WIAC), which announced the winners of the sweepstakes.

Members of the two flight instructor organizations receive entries for the sweepstakes when they validate WINGS flight credits that bring a student pilot or pilot to a phase. The WINGS program has three phases and each phase requires six credits. Credits can be achieved by attending WINGS-qualified clinics live or online.

This year, four instructors received $1,500, four received $750 and two instructors won $500.

Source: Flying

Airport in the Sky will add ACE Clearwater Airfield to its name after the company made a large donation.

Work to restore the well-worn runway at Catalina Airport (KAVX), located on the island outside the Los Angeles metropolitan area, is well underway. More than 100 U.S. Marines and Navy sailors, who are working with the Catalina Island Conservancy as part of a partnership with the Department of Defense, arrived in January to begin work on the much-needed repairs to the 3,250-foot paved runway, which was full of potholes and loose rocks. The pavement will be replaced with a more durable concrete material.

Suited for the Experimental and LSA markets, this new ASI presents a multitude of useful information to pilots.

Radiant Technology, a unit of Belite Enterprises, has introduced what the company calls the Universal Airspeed Indicator. Suited for Experimental, light-sport and ultralight aircraft, the instrument provides a number of useful cues to pilots and presents speed in three ways: a bar graph, historical trend and large, easy-to-read numerical digits.

All speed ranges are user-definable across the aircraft’s total operating range, including green, yellow, redline, and white arc, its maker says. The UAI’s digital sensor is claimed to be very precise, especially at moderate to high speeds. The unit also includes built-in caution indication and works with standard pitot and static lines and any system voltage from 8 to 32 volts.

“This new ASI provides pilots with big numeric digits, a smooth historical trendline, and everything is selectable at setup time,” said James Wiebe, CEO of Radiant Technology. “It covers the most popular speed ranges, and works in knots or mph. It even indicates when flaps may be extended and flags a warning when airspeed is too low or too high. This advances this instrument to what we truly believe is best in class for the experimental market.”

The instrument is available now at a price of $299.95.

Source: Flying