David Kaminski-Morrow, Air Transport Intelligence News, October 30, 2007

Danish investigations into the Scandinavian Airlines Bombardier Q400 gear-up landing in Copenhagen at the weekend have discovered that a blockage in a retraction actuator prevented the right -hand landing-gear extending.

The finding supports initial suggestions that the 27 October event was unrelated to the two gear collapse accidents involving Scandinavian Airlines Q400s at Aalborg and Vilnius on 9 and 12 September.

Danish investigation authority HCL says the right-hand main landing-gear only partially deployed during the approach to Copenhagen, and attempts to recycle the gear and use alternative extension procedures failed to resolve the problem. Corroded retraction actuators, which had then disconnected, had been found on the Q400s involved in the earlier accidents but HCL says the actuator on the Copenhagen aircraft was found to be intact and still connected to the undercarriage. But it states that further examination identified a blocked orifice within the actuator assembly which prevented the complete extension of the right main gear. “This finding is not related to the two previous accidents,” says HCL. “The source of the blockage is unknown at this time and the investigation continues.”

HCL’s discovery appears to back manufacturer Bombardier’s earlier claim that this latest event was unconnected to those last month. SAS Group grounded all Q400s after the first two accidents in order to replace appropriate landing-gear components on its entire fleet, and the aircraft had only been back in service for a few days when the Copenhagen event occurred.

The event has prompted SAS to ground its Q400s again and permanently withdraw them from service.

Some interesting and revealing comment that widens our understanding of the issues surrounding the type and more importantly the Bombardier situation in Canada.

Any old car buff probably has on his study wall of the vintage ‘blower’ Bentley in a remote place, covered in an old tarpaulin and chicken litter. They may even be a hen parked irreverently in the drivers seat clucking over her egg as the barn door opens splaying light across the magical scene.

This fantasy lives on in another form with the aircraft collectors advances across Europe and the newly opened Eastern Block and Russia. I have photographs (ok, later) of major, fairly intact sections of a Stuka (JU 87) found by an acquaintance in Russia and presumably exported to Europe for restoration. Like other aircraft either crashed or forced down in that extremely cold and low humidity environment, it looks as though it landed yesterday. Its paint work and unit markings bright as the day they were dropped in the snow, though pierced with bullet holes created  by their persuers.

I became involved some time ago in the restoration of a FW189 that had been discovered in Russia. It had been shot down by a couple of LAK 5′s and was resting inverted in a clearing in the cold wastes between St Petersburg and Archangel. The Germans lost over 500 aircraft trying to cut, and keep out of action the railway line connecting the town and the city.
The aircraft had been forced landed and whilst it was substantially damaged, it was rebuild-able as the critical components (castings) were intact. Again the aircraft was complete, the only missing items were the fuel tanks  that had been appropriated by farmers for their tractors. The locals learned the hard way that weapons and munitions are dangerous booty and they left them well alone. They lay where they fell in the wreckage surrounded other detritus of war. Remarkable really, and an exceptional record lying still in the frozen wastes.

For one reason or another I didn’t retain my association with that project; the detail of the discovery and restoration would make another fine story. The excitement that surrounds these enterprises borders on hysterical sometimes and I am sure lives have been taken in the squabbles over spoils. You need to use your imagination there a bit.

Back to the Spitfire. pretty, isn’t she? I have this old friend (I used to fly with his father) who is Welsh (not that you would notice) and speaks a little Russian (work that one out) you see, who is….

Sorry – not a story that can be told yet, more perhaps much, much later….  maybe.

Interesting isn’t it Henry?

“It’s aviation Jim, but not as we know it.”

Here are some interior shots of Singapore Airlines new A380.
Who knows how the economics, the weight numbers, or the practicalities will play out with regard to the service routines aboard. But for imagination and élan, Airbus and Singapore must get a high score.

If what we see is what is going to enter service the Worlds airlines have a new standard in air travel to meet. But will it work and pay? Does Fortune really favor the brave?

A quick break from the rough and tumble of the aeronautical world to take a quick look at where our pressurized aluminum tubes actually take us. Everyone has their favorite places, mine are India and Africa. The Dark Continent has a mystery all of its own and if you spend too much time there, you become entranced. The reasons for this are many and varied but for me it is the quality of the light, the wilderness and in particular, the wildlife.

Some years ago now I was scheduled to fly to Lusaka in Zambia, it was a four day trip with two local nights off which provided us with some ‘in country time’ giving us an opportunity to cast about and see something of the local color. “Who fancies a safari?” was the call and we all, the whole crew answered it crushing our dollars into the hands of the agent who arranged the trip. And what a trip it turned out to be; a thorough education in what it means to be out in the bush in Africa.

I won’t run on but will show you some photographs taken by a colleague of mine. Dave Stevens is one of our training captains and quite a character. He is one of life’s enthusiasts gifted with a quick mind and an inquisitive nature that takes him places many of us would never go. Dave is never happy until he has rooted out the cause of a problem or made something work that was broken. He also has a keen artistic and compassionate eye. I am sure you will agree but judge for yourself as you cast your eyes across the photos that he took whilst in Lusaka not so long ago.
Dave very kindly gave me permission to use these superb images here for your entertainment.

I try and learn something from everyone I fly with, that might sound a bit worthy but in reality I probably do it for selfish reasons, life is full of surprises and you never know what might come your way if you keep your eyes open and ears pinned back. Besides, it makes the bit in the middle go that much more quickly.
In the larger airline world, you are often flying with someone you have never met before and it is the familiarity of the company standard operating procedures that enables crews to produce a safe and seamless operation.  I don’t mean to sound melodramatic but I suspect all of us run through an almost subconscious routine where we asses our companion for the trip. You cannot hide anything from each other, with experience you know within a very short time where someone sits on the ability and capacity stakes and that intuitive energy runs in both directions across the flight deck. It’s good to know who you are sitting next to and working with, your career, or in extremis your life might depend on  your colleague’s qualities.

Continue Reading…

Ethiopia was locked in a fruitless war with Eritrea and the harvest had failed. The country became gripped by famine and the overwhelmed Ethiopians asked for the help of the International community. Britain responded by sending us. 
We flew down to Africa in early December with the Band Aid tune ringing in our ears with a sombre sense of purpose, within twenty-four hours of arriving we started moving food up country from Addis Ababa. 
Our Hercules could carry 420001bs of grain in 110lbs nylon sacks.  Each sack contained enough to feed a family of five for a month. In the early days of the operation we just slowed down the rate at which people died. It was exhausting but hugely rewarding work.
Low-level delivery by airdrop was challenging and rough as old boots from the turbulence generated by the heat. The pallets, piled with sacks were pushed straight out off the aircraft by our Loadmasters to free fall, tumbling to the ground 20 feet below, slamming into the bush in a swath; some bursting but most not. Thousands swarmed across the drop zone, eager hands rapidly spirited them away to hungry mouths, women and children scooping and scraping up the failed bags contents.
The jungle telegraph is real, after the first drop to a reception team, people appeared at the drop zones in their thousands, gathering up and sometimes fighting over the food; so many desperate people. Rigid control and distribution would have been impossible.

Continue Reading…

To an audible sigh of relief that must have chimed around the World, Airbus delivered the first of its ordered batch of A380s to Singapore yesterday (15th October). Operators will be watching very carefully to see how the aircraft performs in service and sinking ‘sonar buoys’ to detect the level of satisfaction that emanates from the SIA crucible. Airbus must have their fingers and everything else crossed at the moment….
After all the preparation it will be very interesting to see how well the aircraft actually integrates into airport movement and handling systems. I wonder what the dispatch reliability will be like and how ell the aircraft adheres to its schedules after the first couple of months in service.

The best of luck guys, you are making history.

From ATW.
SIA’s A380 is scheduled to depart Toulouse today and enter service on the Singapore-Sydney route on Oct. 25. Delivery of the second and third aircraft in the first quarter of next year will allow the airline to extend the service to London Heathrow. Delivery of the fourth in April will see Tokyo Narita service commence and the fifth and sixth later in the year will be dedicated to San Francisco service via Hong Kong.

Recognise this picture? China is constraining the growth of it’s carriers, particularly new start-ups to take the load of  f her infrastructure. A move that India must be planning if not implementing if internal pressures and dynamics allow.  Both nations are desperately short of pilots. Good eh?

Chinese carriers call for private pilot training to make up for severe shortage

Tuesday October 9, 2007
Chinese carriers are beginning to follow the internationally common practice of recruiting privately trained pilots in an effort to make up for a pilot shortfall that CAAC Vice Minister Gao Hongfeng said last month will reach 2,000 over the next two years.

The country’s commercial aviation fleet numbered 1,067 aircraft at the end of July and is expected to rise to 1,250 by 2010. Chinese carriers traditionally cover training expenses for their pilots, which normally runs several million yuan for each individual. As a result, pilots rarely are able to transfer to competing carriers as the current employer often asks for heavy compensation from a potential new employer.

In addition, the rising number of new entrants is exacerbating the problem. Gao said 39 privately run airlines have submitted applications to CAAC since 2004 and 17 have been approved so far.

China Southern Airlines started the trend in May, announcing its plans to recruit 100 privately trained pilots. Sichuan Airlines followed three months later, hiring 50 private pilots. This month Spring Airlines, East Star Airlines and Eagle Airlines disclosed their interest in recruiting such pilots in the near future.

Shenzhen Airlines has taken it one step further, establishing Kunpeng International Flight School with a CNY30 million investment. KIFS will award privately trained pilots an ICAO-recognized license on their graduation and currently has 120 students. That number is expected to leap to 480 next year.

Industry analysts have pointed out that privately trained pilots’ ability to seek new jobs when their working contracts expire or are terminated will help the market mature and constitute a significant step toward solving the shortage.

ATW
by Katie Cantle

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Ever since I was a little chap this aircraft has captivated me (and the rest of several generations). For sheer beauty it has no peer, a truth as self evident to me as the blue of the sky or the steel grey of the sea. We will never again see an engine that produces a symphony of such beauty and complexity; engineers and artists strive all over the world to restore and remanufacture components so that that those twelve cylinders can sing on.
Flowery prose and when I re-read it I wonder that I can press ‘publish’ on my blogging software. The test though is to evaluate every word against my internal measure of veracity – it passes.

A friend flies a P51 when he operates to the US and others fly similar types around the bazaars. Another colleague flies a DC3 and a two seat Spitfire as a check pilot in his spare time. Though I had an opportunity to do so, I decided long ago not to move in the heavy metal direction. That was around the time I moved away from the display scene. It is very expensive and hugely time consuming; my path lay in a different direction at the time. The gentle tug at the heart strings never stops though, during the summer Yeovlton Air Day often brings the Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster through the overhead as we live beneath the Yeovilton MATZ. Ahh, Sigh for a Merlin.

So… I have a friend who flies for Emirates and it was his birthday the other day, he just passed fifty and we shared a glass with him and friends as he was home from Dubai and lives just down the road. During the social whirl and the gentle chinking of glasses I met two charming people who also live nearby and share a love (infatuation) of horses with Teresa and Mike’s wife Mary.  During our conversation it spilled out that they have a very good friend who has a Spitfire which he keeps at Yeovilton. Interesting I thought, the good old Triumph Spitfire was a neat little runabout sports car from the 70s. Why would he want to store it at RNAS Yeovilton? Then I caught on – it took but a fraction of a second. It’s not the sort of machine you store, it lives in a hanger.

The gentleman is also going to the Birthday party and apparently looking forward to meeting up for a chinwag about flying; well there’s a thing, so am I.  I wonder if he will let me clean the oil from her belly and polish the windscreen? Perhaps some pictures would be possible, maybe a nice digital recording of her starting up… you never know. If it is appropriate I will write more later.