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AVnews -- 2008 
Propliners on show 5 November
Aussie Propliners of the '50s is the theme of a new photographic exhibition to be unveiled at the 2008 Open Day at the Airways Museum at Essendon Airport. The exhibition will be on display for one year from 15 November.
Using photographs drawn mainly from the CAHS collections, the exhibition shows the range of propeller-driven airliners that plied Australian skies in the decade before jets began to take over.
Museum web site
Also…
The photos of this rather bizarre aeroplane come from the Captain EC Johnston collection in the CAHS archives. As Controller of Civil Aviation, Johnston kept up a broad correspondence, and it is likely that he was sent these photos in that capacity, which would probably date them to the early post-Great War period. So far, research has failed to uncover the identity of this machine. Perhaps it was a joke and never intended to actually fly?
If you have the answer we'd love to hear from you. Please send an email to CAHS webmaster
Critical thinking training for pilots
CASA: A key step is being taken to improve the training being given to new pilots in Australia.
For the first time all pilots will be formally taught critical thinking skills from early in their flying training.
From the middle of next year pilots in training will be tested on their knowledge of human factors and threat and error management.
To prepare the flying training industry and trainee pilots for the new requirements, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority has issued special guidance material on the teaching and assessing of human factors and threat and error management.
More
Incident stats up
The Age: The Australian Transport Safety Bureau's annual review -- which covers Australia's entire aviation fleet from recreational aircraft to passenger jets - shows a distinct rise in the number of reported incidents that involve aircraft frames and engines.
More
Bonhomme takes Perth
Red Bull Air Race: Britain’s Paul Bonhomme scored a stylish victory in the final race of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Perth on Sunday in front of a crowd of more than 200,000 spectators while Hannes Arch was crowned 2008 World Champion after finishing third. It was the 7th podium in 8 races this year for the remarkably consistent ace from Austria. Bonhomme collected his 4th victory trophy of the season with a triumph over compatriot Nigel Lamb on a sunny afternoon in Western Australia to take second place overall for the second consecutive year.
“I was very pleased to win here in Perth,” said Bonhomme, who had dominated the first half of the season before Arch took control in the second half. “I got to Perth early this year to get acclimatised and that paid off. The airplane is not really going that well but at least I have been flying it well here.”
More
Battle for second in Perth 27 October
Red Bull Air Race series: It is shaping up as the most dramatic late-season battle in Red Bull Air Race history, a thrilling three-way contest in the season finale in Perth that pits the most successful pilots against each other in the fight for second place. Paul Bonhomme, Kirby Chambliss and Mike Mangold have been duelling all season long – and for the last four years – for supremacy in the world’s most exciting aerial competition. They have all had their winning streaks over the years but none have proven to be unbeatable for long.
But they were all taken by surprise – and overtaken – this year by Hannes Arch, the Austrian who in his second year soared from 10th place overall to open a 9-point lead on 54 points going into Perth. It would take a minor miracle for Bonhomme, currently in 2nd on 45 points, to overtake Arch and win the 2008 championship – Arch would have to finish with zero points and Bonhomme would have to win to pick up the 9 points.
Yet even though winning the overall title is still his primary goal, the British ace is looking to at least secure second place again this year after getting second in 2007. But Bonhomme has the two American former champions breathing hard down his neck in the pitched battle for second. Chambliss, the 2006 world champion, is on 44 points in third and Mangold, who won in 2005 and 2007, is on 43 points in fourth.
Competitive as pilots are, they are all trying to downplay any particular enthusiasm about winning the Red Bull Air Race World Championship’s “silver medal” for second. But because they are highly competitive people, there is no doubt that all three will be going all out in Australia to salvage their season with a victory in Perth – and second place overall for 2008.
“I am thinking about second place and I don’t want to fall lower in the rankings than I already have,” said Bonhomme, who won three of the first four races this year and led the table until Arch overtook him in the last race in Porto with his 6th podium in 7 races. “But the history books are only ever interested in the winner. So I don’t think second place is going to be the biggest story going.”
Bonhomme prefers to look at Perth as a chance to win the 8th race in his career (after 1 win in 2006, 3 wins in 2007, and 3 wins so far in 2008). He was second overall in 2007, 4th in 2006 and 5th in 2005.
Chambliss also would rather talk about winning the race in Perth, which would give him his 7th career victory (4 wins in 2006, 2 wins in 2008). The ambitious American, who was 4th in 2007, 1st in 2006 and 3rd in 2005) just doesn’t like talking about second place, which he often despairingly refers to as “first loser”.
“I am sure there are some people who care about second place but I am not a second place kinda guy,” Chambliss said. “I’ll see you in Perth.”
Mangold is more focused on winning Perth to end the disappointing year on a high note. A win Down Under would give him his 9th career victory (5 in 2005, 3 in 2007). In between his championship wins in 2005 and 2007 he was 3rd overall in 2006.
“The big story is always the overall champion,” Mangold said. “My team is aiming for a win in Perth. We want it for self-validation. The battle to win in Perth will be very tight amongst the top four teams. That’s the big story in Perth. Second place is first consolation. It’s better than 3rd or 4th, but I think few care about that in the long run.”
Ed's note: The race is to be telecast on Network Nine and will be available online via redbullairrace.com
Plus…
Click here or above to download this special feature on how the pilots prepare for a race. (WMV file = 30Mb. Mac users can play it via Realplayer)
WA aviation slows down
The Australian: The foot is coming off the accelerator of Western Australia's aviation boom, but it's only to change down from overdrive. That is the prognosis from Skywest Airlines managing director Hugh Davin on the economic downturn…
More
Plus…
The Australian: Boeing is to lay off 200 workers at Williamtown air base in NSW after failing to win a federal Government Hornet jet fighter contract.
More
2009 aviation post-grad courses open
University of NSW: UNSW is now accepting applications for entry to the postgraduate coursework programs in aviation for Semester 1, 2009.
Applications for entry into the postgraduate coursework programs by distance education can be made directly to the University via the online application website.
More
Qantas A330 drama has happened before 15 October
The incident involving the Qantas A330 which experienced severe uncommanded attitude changes en-route to Perth is not unique, despite ATSB claims to the contrary.
While it may be new to Airbus, it has happened with a Boeing. A Malayasia Airlines 777, on flight MH124, outbound from Perth, experienced a very similar failure with similar but less severe results.
Both cases had to do with the failure of the ADIRU.
See this link for a discussion of the faults
And this link for a report on the Malaysia Airlines incident
Qantas can’t win 14 October
It seems Qantas can’t win a trick. Its latest screw-up is with a bus rather than an aircraft, which had a near miss that resulted in several passengers being injured.
Full story at SMH
Also…
Meanwhile the investigation into the recent uncommanded altitude change aboard an A330 off the west coast of Australia, which injured some 70 people, is still being investigated. The latest update confirms there was an uncommanded fault in the aircraft's software and bulletins are now being sent world-wide. An early summary from the ATSB says:
The aircraft was flying at FL 370 or 37, 000 feet with Autopilot and Auto-thrust system engaged, when an Inertial Reference System fault occurred within the Number-1 Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU 1), which resulted in the Autopilot automatically disconnecting. From this moment, the crew flew the aircraft manually to the end of the flight, except for a short duration of a few seconds, when the Autopilot was reengaged. However, it is important to note that in fly by wire aircraft such as the Airbus, even when being flown with the Autopilot off, in normal operation, the aircrafts flight control computers will still command control surfaces to protect the aircraft from unsafe conditions such as a stall.
The faulty Air Data Inertial Reference Unit continued to feed erroneous and spike values for various aircraft parameters to the aircrafts Flight Control Primary Computers which led to several consequences including:
* false stall and overspeed warnings
* loss of attitude information on the Captain's Primary Flight Display
* several Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitoring system warnings.
About 2 minutes after the initial fault, ADIRU 1 generated very high, random and incorrect values for the aircrafts angle of attack.
These very high, random and incorrect values of the angle attack led to:
* the flight control computers commanding a nose-down aircraft movement, which resulted in the aircraft pitching down to a maximum of about 8.5 degrees,
* the triggering of a Flight Control Primary Computer pitch fault.
More
Air NZ tries different style
The Australian: Air NZ general manager, airline operations, and chief pilot David Morgan is part of a new breed of management at Air NZ that is turning industry norms on their head…"My last (frontline) shift was in engineering and I had to help change seven tyres on a 767 and the month before I was loading bags in Auckland," Morgan says.
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GPS ATC to save US $10 billion/year?
USA Today: A World War II-era air traffic network that often forces planes to take longer, zigzagging routes is costing U.S. airlines billions of dollars in wasted fuel while an upgrade to a satellite-based system has languished in the planning stages for more than a decade.
Full story
Boeing develops new attack copter
 Boeing has announced a new rotorcraft program, the AH-6 light attack/reconnaissance helicopter.
Designed on a combat-proven platform with a heritage of successful service with Special Operations, the AH-6 is designed to meet the current requirements of international military customers while maintaining flexibility for future growth.
"Boeing has been approached by several potential customers seeking light attack and reconnaissance capabilities in a flexible rotorcraft platform," Dave Palm, director of Boeing Rotorcraft Business Development, said today at the Association of the United States Army's annual convention in Washington, DC "We believe this system is a perfect fit for those customers seeking long endurance, proven performance and 2000-pound payload within an affordable helicopter."
The AH-6 features an Electro-Optical/Infrared forward-looking sight system as well as a mount for weapons that have been qualified on the aircraft, including Hellfire missiles, the M260 seven-shot rocket pod, a machine gun and a mini-gun integrated with a sensor system. A communications package allows the AH-6 to connect to other aircraft and to ground stations.
Boeing will produce the AH-6 at its Rotorcraft Systems facility in Mesa, Ariz., and will draw on that organization's existing secure supply base to ensure on-time, on-cost delivery.
Also…
Boeing has announced it is combining Alteon, a wholly owned subsidiary, and existing training groups within Boeing Commercial Airplanes to form a new, unified training organization. The new training organization retains the Alteon name as a business unit within Boeing Commercial Aviation Services.
"The combined expertise of our Commercial Airplanes and Alteon teams will better serve our customers' training needs by providing them with a more comprehensive suite of aviation training and flight services," said Lou Mancini, vice president and general manager of Commercial Aviation Services. "This is yet another way that Boeing is helping to ensure our airline customers operate more efficiently."
The new organization includes 1400 training professionals. Alteon serves more than 400 customers around the world, delivering 330 training programs accepted by more than 100 regulatory authorities. It has more than 100 full-flight simulators in 20 locations on six continents.
Airbus opens China plant
Airbus has opened its first final assembly line outside of Europe. The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, together with the Party's Secretary of Tianjin, Zhang Gaoli and Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders inaugurated the Airbus A320 Family Final Assembly Line in Tianjin, China (FALC) at a grand ceremony with over 600 guests.
The final assembly line is a joint venture between Airbus and a Chinese consortium comprising Tianjin Free Trade Zone (TJFTZ) and China Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC).
"The Tianjin final assembly line for Airbus A320 Family aircraft has been set as a paradigm of Sino-European friendship and cooperation. Based on mutual trust and close-knit cooperation, the two parties have commenced the final assembly of the first aircraft within only one year and three months from the beginning of the facility construction till present and created a miracle in the history of this giant project," said Huang Xingguo, mayor of Tianjin.India air show opens
The Hindu: Hyderabad: An Ilyushin-114, regional turboprop planes and several other aircraft including Bell helicopter 412s, landed at the Begumpet airport on Monday to take part in the four-day India Aviation 2008, beginning here on October 15.
The world’s largest passenger aircraft, A380, is expected to be the star attraction at the event
More; Air show home page
UAV manages sea landing
From DCNS: On 9 and 10 October 2008, DCNS successfully landed a rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in automatic mode on French Navy frigate Montcalm while the ship was under way in the Mediterranean.
Until now, unresolved challenges involving UAV recovery by ships at sea have limited their deployment for safety reasons. The experimental solutions available to date have only worked reliably during daylight and in calm seas; two severe limitations for systems that are required to operate round the clock and in poor weather.
To overcome these shortcomings, DCNS developed the SADA automatic deck landing and take-off system. SADA takes less than two minutes to land a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV on a moving flight deck up to sea state 5. SADA uses an infrared sensor to accurately track the UAV while generating flight commands to adjust the trajectory until the UAV is positioned to ensure that its harpoon engages the centre of the landing grid. Tracking accuracy is 30cm which is far better than that achieved by GPS-only systems.
DCNS
Plus…
However a US hypersonic program has been cancelled.
Aviation Week: The Blackswift reusable hypersonic testbed has been canceled by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) after Congress slashed the program’s fiscal 2009 budget to $10 million, from $120 million.
More
US biz aviation sentiment is mixed
New York Times: annual trade show and convention of the National Business Aviation Association is always a swell affair, with a huge crowd, a vast expanse of convention displays and row after row of shiny new corporate jets lined up at a nearby airport. This week is no exception at the convention in Orlando…
More
Liberty signs Gernany deal
Liberty Aerospace has signed into effect an exclusive distributorship with Piper-Germany to sell and distribute the Liberty XL2 to the general aviation market in Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom.
More
Strong sales for Embraer
IFALPA: Embraer has released its latest figures from its orders and deliveries bookwhich reveal that 37 commercial aircraft were delivered in the three monthsto end September. The total for the first three quarters of deliveries forthis year now stands at 118, 38 being delivered in the first quarter and 43in the second quarter.The E-190 continues to be the manufacturer's best selling model with 58 delivered so far this year.
Synthetic vision launched
Dassault Aviation has launched a development of its synthetic vision system.
It claims: The Synthetic Vision System displays a high-resolution three dimensional digital image on both pilots’ primary display units (PDU) during all phases of flight. What the pilot sees through the windshield on a clear day will be displayed on the PDU in a synthesized picture in all flying conditions including terrain data and manmade obstacles. The data is derived from the onboard Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) which enables map displays and alerts pilots if terrain is approaching the aircraft’s intended flight path. The terrain data is continuously updated from user experience encompassing 800 million flight hours.
More
New drug & alcohol regime begins
CASA: New regulations introducing a comprehensive drug and alcohol programfor the aviation industry have come into force. The regulations include random alcohol and drug testing, as well a requirement for aviation organisations to develop comprehensive drug and alcohol management plans. It is expected random testing will begin later this year, while aviation organisations have six months to develop and implement their drug and alcohol management plans.
More than 120,000 people who work in Australia’s aviation industry will be covered by the new program. This includes pilots, engineers, cabin crew, ground refuellers, dispatchers, load controllers, baggage handlers, air traffic controllers and CASA inspectors.The random testing will be carried out by a professional contractor on behalf of CASA and can happen day or night, seven days a week. There will be a blood alcohol limit of less than 0.02 and drug limits set out according to the Australian standard for urine and saliva testing. Penalties may involve an administrative fine of $550 if an infringement notice is served and paid. If the matter is determined by a court a fine of up to $5500 may be imposed. Where appropriate, action to vary, suspend or cancel a person's licence my also be taken.
Also…
Aircraft passengers can now learn more about the often misunderstood procedure used by pilots when a planned landing is aborted.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has published a new web page answering common questions about 'go-arounds'.
More
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