Fly Me Friendly

As some of you may be aware, on October 7th 2008 a QANTAS A330 traveling from Singapore to Perth was about 154km west of Learmouth, West Australia when it entered a rapid descent, causing unsecured items & people to float up in the cabin, leading to injuries on board. The aircraft declared an emergency and diverted to Learmouth.

The ATSB has released a preliminary finding that states that a fault in one of the Air Data Inertial Reference Units (ADIRU #1) led to the incident. Investigations are continuing and QANTAS have instigated changes in their procedures should the symptoms appear again.

Well, guess what, the symptoms have appeared again! On Dec 27th, a QF A330 going from Perth to Singapore had a similar ADIRU problem in a similar part of the world (this time about 650 kilometers south of Learmouth). Fortunately the crew were able to enact the revised procedures and disconnect the systems, avoiding any upsets. They then decided to return to Perth.

The ATSB says it’s too early to draw conclusions but they note that it is the same problem and also that it occurred in a similar area to the previous incident. As such, they will include this incident in the investigations being performed for the Oct 7th incident which should produce a factual report about mid February.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Oct 7th incident is that the potential was raised for possible external influence on the ADIRU due to either portable electronic devices on board (laptops, mp3 players, etc) or from the Harold E Holt Naval Communications Station near Learmouth (there’s also a Wikipedia article on the comms station).

The situation gets even more interesting if you note that a Malaysian Airlines 777 had a similar ADIRU fault back in 2005 (PDF) in roughly the same area. Of course, the 777 has a different ADIRU, different software and the problem was traced to failed accelerometers and a software fault, but still – very interesting.

Hmmmm – I wonder if the military have been experimenting with something and accidentally zapping ADIRUs every now and again? (cue X-Files theme…).

Yes, there have been more light aircraft accidents in 2008. Sadly, the author of this article appears to be trying to link the rise in Recreational Aviation to the increase, throwing in comments about maintenance being done by non-CASA certified engineers and how RAAus wants to increase the weight of aircraft it is allowed to govern.

Suffice to say, I submitted a comment to the newspaper:

Hi,

Is Paul Bibby trying to imply that RAAus is the reason for the increase in accidents this year? An interesting concept given that the aircraft involved in the 4 most recent crashes were in no way RAAus aircraft but were, in fact, covered by CASA and their maintenance, monitoring and training regimes (2 x Cessna 172s, 1 x Lake Buccanneer and a crop duster). Further, the two mid-air collisions in 2008 (Moorabbin and Bankstown) both involved VH registered aircraft that were covered by CASA, not RAAus.

So, while over half the fatalities were in the 0 – 2250 category, how many were actually weighing less than 544kg and thus governed by RAAus instead of CASA? It is also important to compare the number of fatalities against the number of hours flown. It may be that there are more deaths because people are flying more but that, over all, we’re having fewer accidents per thousand hours, etc. Paul’s report doesn’t supply that information.

Fewer regulations are not necessarily indicative of a lax safety attitude. In fact, fewer regulations that are easier to learn & follow often lead to a safer environment. It seems of late that CASAs view on air safety is that we’d be safest if no-one actually flew. RAAus has been working hard to safely get more people flying once again and it is no surprise that the Recreational space is growing while the CASA controlled flight training environments are shrinking.

The increase in aviation related deaths, while still tiny compared to Australia’s annual road toll, is a trigger that we should be reviewing our procedures & processes in general. From this review we can determine where it may be necessary to educate to address common factors or revise procedures.

Combining information about increased fatalities with references to RAAus having fewer regulations and wanting to increase its area of control only serves to make me wonder about Paul’s motives in writing this story.

Cheers,

Grant

Two more light aircraft accidents have occurred in Australia, taking the total since Christmas Eve to 4. The first involved a light plane hitting a concrete tank then crashing. The two men on board were injured and some additional information reveals it was a Lake Buccaneer. Indications are that it was probably doing a precautionary landing in a field when it clipped the tank. Ouch…

The second accident was a crop duster crash that killed the pilot & sole occupant. No real news available on that one as yet.

Four accidents almost as many days may not seem like much to some but in Australia that’s a fairly high number. While there may be the odd accident here and there, lately there seem to have been a few (mid air at Moorabbin in August, mid air near Bankstown in December, other incidents in between, now these two and the ones around Christmas Day). I don’t have links to all the details at the moment but the number of incidents does seem to be on the rise.

Seems a couple of light aircraft have gone down in Australia this Christmas. Both involved C172 aircraft, the first one carrying two men and reports say low cloud & rain may have contributed. The second one had a single pilot on board who hit powerlines and crashed.

While these reports are from general media and may not have all the facts, initial review leads to speculation that the first may have been “scud running” due to “press-on-itis” and the second may have been due to low flying. If so, it makes these accidents doubly tragic as they could have been avoided.

It’s important to read and learn from the ATSB safety reports as well as those from the FAA. Typically in aviation you don’t get a chance to learn from your mistakes (many being fatal) so it’s important to learn from the mistakes of others.

I’m counting on good flight training (practical & theoretical), learning from studying accident reports and generally asking myself “How will this look in the news?” to help me learn good judgment when flying. Of course, I’m really safe in my flying at the moment – I haven’t got the time or money to go flying – small consolation…

Please excuse the non-aviation related post, but the hypocritical government here in Australia wants to implement an Internet filter to “protect the kiddies.” This despite our prime minister having recently told the Chinese government to suck it up and not be afraid of the Internet’s openness. Pure hypocrisy.

I’ve already started to take action to ensure my representatives are aware of how stupid this idea is. If you also believe that this is a crazy idea, feel free to take action and tell the Australian government why. Even if you’re not an Australian, let them know how stupid they look from overseas.

OK – time to go back to dreaming of flying…

Here in Melbourne we have at least one DC-3 based out at Essendon airport (YMEN) that’s operated by Short Stop Jet Charter. They have it available for winery tours, joy flights and dinner flights. It’s not uncommon to hear it out on a good night flying a group of people around the Port Phillip Bay area & over the city. It’s a beautiful sound and I’m very pleased that these guys are able to keep it in the air.

Actually, it’s in the air right now and I’m listening to it as it flies around the city, passing over us here and there. The house is quiet as everyone else is asleep, but I’m working and the drone is soothingly wonderful, triggering thoughts from my past.

I have very fond memories of being in the right place at the right time while hanging out at Bankstown airport (YSBK) in Sydney and helping with the DC-3s that were parked there. Working with Captain Jack Curtis to taxi one that needed to be moved due to some works being done. This involved pumping the hell out of the wobble-pump to get the engines primed & started then sitting in the copilot’s seat and watching out the window to ensure we didn’t chew up any cones. Another time I went along as we taxied from one side of the airport to the other, wound up sitting inside and chatting while the aircraft was used as a backdrop for a photoshoot, then taxied it all the way back. During an airshow at Bankstown in the 90′s I was cleaning the DC-3 between rides and helping to guide people to & from the aircraft plus wheeling the steps in & out. Later I helped walk the wing when we had to bring one out from the static park to replace the one giving rides after it’d gone U/S. When the airshow itself started, I got to sit on top and watch the show – best seats in the house.

Many years and a few countries later, I was at Moorabbin (YMMB) in the dark at 5am on the Royal Victorian Aero Club’s flight line preparing our assigned aircraft to go on RVAC’s Dawn Patrol when I heard that beautiful drone once again. I called it and we all stopped to listen for it. Sure enough, a set of lights could be seen flying a distant downwind, rolling onto base and then coming in to land in the dark. As it came over the threshold we could confirm it as the old Ansett DC-3 and didn’t it look beautiful. I caught up with the crew just before the pilot briefing for a quick chat about people, places and so on. Magic moments.

I would really love to learn to fly the DC-3 at some point as it’s a beautiful aircraft and we need new pilots to help keep the old birds flying. Maybe I’ll head over to the USA to get a type rating via Dan Gryder and the HERPA DC-3. I didn’t realise this option existed until I heard about it on Aero News and listened to Stephen Force doing his SIC rating.

For now, I’ll just looked forward to the day when I’ll be able to spare some $$$ to go on one of Short Stop’s dinner flights. Of course, I’ll be wanting to spend the flight on the jumpseat in the cockpit instead of in the passenger chairs (who needs food – just let me do the flight up front).

I’ve been posting some comments on a couple of stories from Dan Webb’s ‘Things in the Sky’ blog. He’s noted that the transport statistics for August 2008 show the on-time arrivals improved and mishandled baggage rates reduced and that he’s looking forward to September’s figures as there should be further impact from the capacity cuts recently introduced by the airlines.

I think the improvements we’re seeing now are related to a reduction in passenger numbers (the figures didn’t show pax volumes but Dan found them somewhere else in his second post). We should see even more improvement due to the capacity cuts.

To me, the US airport system is like juggling balls. You’re doing fine with 4 balls but when you add a 5th, you start to drop one every now and again – nothing major, just the odd “ooops” moment. The problem is when you wind up juggling 8 or more balls: it’s overload and you’re dropping lots, if not all of them.

In the US most major airports have more flights scheduled per hour than the airport can physically handle. An aircraft can’t land until the runway is clear and can’t take off until sufficient time has been allowed for wake turbulance from the aircraft that went ahead of it. So, imagine an airport that can process 60 movements per hour (landings & take offs) in good weather. Sadly, the airlines have scheduled 65 movements per hour during peak periods, meaning that airport will always have 5 movements per hour (cumulative) that are delayed at those times. These delays will increase for every hour that there are 65 movements scheduled until the peak time passes and they can start to catch up.

Now, imagine that the airport’s movement rate reduces to 40 in bad weather (increased separation between aircraft and so on). That means every hour at peak times during bad weather, 25 aircraft will be delayed. If the weather remains bad for long enough, it may take a day or two to recover.

Sound familiar?

Passenger loads play a factor in aircraft turn-around times. The more pax that have to get on & off, the longer it takes. Also, more pax usually means more luggage to unload and load. More pax & more luggage means longer on the ground.

So, if we’ve got fewer pax and they’re checking less baggage, guess what, you get faster turn arounds which leads to a better on-time rate (especially if on-time departure means pushing back from the gate on time and doesn’t include 20 minutes waiting on the ground before you leave). With prices going up and checked luggage rates being introduced, there has been a reduction in passengers which, in turn, has helped increase on-time rates and decrease lost luggage rates.

Yet another factor is the volume of luggage going through the system. After the “liquid bombers” in the UK, security introduced major restrictions on liquids, gels and such in carry on luggage. This lead to a lot of people checking their luggage and, surprise surprise, straight away there was a huge increase in the number of lost bags. A classic example of the juggler going from 4 balls to 8 and starting to lose it. Now we’re seeing a reduction in luggage with the checked luggage fees which, in turn, has helped reduce the stress on the system leading to less mishandling of luggage.

Given there’s less luggage going through the system, fewer passengers and the airlines are cutting capacity (which helps reduce scheduled movements at overloaded airports), I’m expecting that the reports for September & October will see some bigger improvements in on-time rates and much smaller mishandled baggage rates.

Now, as to the number of customer complaints – who knows where that’ll go. Until all the airlines in the US learn about customer satisfaction, I doubt we’ll ever see that number reduce significantly…

Is it just me or do other people out there think that all the Chapter 11 section of the bankruptcy law in the USA is doing is to preserve outdated, inept and clueless airline management? It amazes me how airlines can go into Chapter 11, negotiate with those they owe money to, rip off their employees (forcing harsher conditions/pay & raping their pensions), restructure a little and then come out the other end repeating the same stupidity before, some years later, going back into Chapter 11 to repeat the process.

I can see the benefits to being able to step back, reassess and recover from mistakes, but these guys seem to use it as a business strategy. Is there any way that a company can be prevented from going into Chapter 11 more than once?

Personally, I believe that if an airline is going under, let it. There is pain in many lives but it’s a once-off thing and then everyone moves on. Here in Australia we lost Ansett Airlines and it was a complete disaster. Virgin Blue has grown to fill the gap and QANTAS have produced their JetStar group to target the low end.

It’s time the USA learned to grow up and stop propping up failing business models, idiotic management and militant unions. For a country that claims to be champions of democracy and free trade, they certainly do a lot to stop it from happening.

[updated: After having been advised of the suicides resulting from the collapse of Ansett (over 40 deaths), I've removed the "not the end of the world" comment in relation to the Ansett disaster]