by John on February 8, 2010
We found this piece in the press recently, and are still trying to decipher what it means! We don’t speak Australian, so interpretation is left open. Answers on a postcard……………….:
"Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) have recently felt the need to defend it’s safety record, after charges that the airlines aren’t being regulated to required standards. CASA’s Director of Safety, Mick Toller quoted that accident rates have dropped significantly in the last 10 years and that Australia’s airlines are at least twice as safe as European and North American airlines.
He also responded to the media coverage by saying, "Let’s not treat aviation as a tall poppy, but support and encourage what is one of most successful, vibrant and important industries."
And they tell us that you can smoke poppies too!!
by Vincent on February 7, 2010
Located 5 miles south-east of Frankfurt am Main, Egelsbach is Germany’s busiest general aviation airport. It’s a non-controlled VFR-only airport in class D airspace, with a permanent implicit clearance to enter, granted from Frankfurt Tower. On busy days, up to 80 movements per hour are not unusual. Yes, 80 landings or take-offs in 60 minutes, on a single runway. I flew there in 2009 when I got my multi-engine rating flying a DA42 TwinStar at the Motorflugschule Egelsbach. I used to fly at busy, international airports, but I must say that what I experienced at Egelsbach is something different. Before flying there, I never had to overtake other aircraft in the airport pattern.
The runway has an east / west orientation and there are two circuits, one on the north side for training, and one on the south side for aircraft coming to land or leaving the area. The circuits for runway 09 have almost no final leg, the base turn is to be flown shortly after passing abeam the threshold, to avoid intruding the Frankfurt CTR. Both circuits must be flown at 1′300 feet, and the Charlie airspace of Frankfurt TMA starts at 1′500. Finding the circuits is rather easy, thanks to two nearby motorways and a power line on the south. The golden rule is easy: you should in no case fly west of the A5 motorway – this is Frankfurt airspace.
Because of the proximity with Frankfurt, approaching and leaving Egelsbach is possible only via the south and the east. Five VFR reporting points are defined (J, D, K, E and T) and routes between these points and the airport are published. Beware of one important details: these routes are all one way, and change according to the active runway. Don’t think of an overhead join, or a mid of downwind entry. A bit more than the standard preparation is required here. The “Egelsbach info” frequency is active when the airport is open and the guys operating it are rather helpful and they have good radar coverage. Even if it is not formally a Tower, not following their advice would be silly.
The Egelsbach train station is approximately 20 walking minutes away, and taxis are always available. From there, Frankfurt is a 20 minutes ride away. The airport’s restaurant is one of the best in the area, I personally like their fillet of springbock.
by John on February 7, 2010
SkyCharts 1.5.8 Review. AviationReviews.com has posted a review of SkyCharts 1.5.8, an iPhone 3G application that uses your built-in GPS to give your positional information overlaid on a sectional chart. In addition, the application has the ability to view approach charts and A/FD information in PDF format and the ability to dial ASOS/AWOS weather directly from the program. SkyCharts 1.5.8 is available for download for US$9.99 or €7.26.
AvConnect Version 1.2. In addition, General Aviation News has noted that AvConnect has just released its updated Version 1.2 iPhone application which now provides GPS flight tracking and confirmation along with information about international airports (more than 33,000 worldwide airports) and aircraft support. In fact and once a GPS flight has been confirmed, the flight path becomes reviewable in 3-D via Google Earth. Other product enhancements include customization of logbook fields and general performance improvements.
Singapore Air Show. Meanwhile, both Jon Ostrower of FlightBlogger and Randy Tinseth, a vice president of marketing for Boeing and the blogger behind Randy’s Journal, are reporting from the Singapore Air Show where the temperature is 82F degrees with 89% humidity. Jon has already posted about 142 photos from the show and mentioned there would be briefings from Boeing, Mitsubishi, Piper, Cessna and Gulfsteam that he would report about. In addition, readers can also catch up with all of the events and briefings on the Singapore Air Show portal page.
The First Episode of Jetpardy. On a different note, if you want to listen to some really smart airline people competing in a Jeopardy-like format, Airline Reporter has noted the first episode of Jetpardy. Contestants include Henry Harteveldt (Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research), Brett Snyder (The Cranky Flier blog) and Phil Derner (NYCAviation). For more information, check out the Airplane Geeks website or just visit the Ustream website.
Hot Engine Starts. If you need tips about hot engine starts, Paul McBride has posted on General Aviation News some useful comments about how one of his readers performs hot engine starts. Paul noted that the reader’s procedure begins like a cold start but he noted that its hard to argue with a procedure that works for him.
LearnToFlyDay.com Launches. Meanwhile and in support of International Learn to Fly Day, Pilot Journey has launched LearnToFlyDay.com, a website that will list all Learn to Fly Day events across the USA.
MusicianAviators.com Launches. On the other hand, if you are already both a pilot and a musician, a free membership website for musician pilots, MusicianAviators.com, has just been launched. This is the second musician/pilot organization to be started in recent months with the Flying Musicians Association having been launched last year. In fact, they held their first Fly-In MusicFest last November in Fort Worth.
New Regulations Regarding Sport Pilot and Light Sport Aircraft. And finally, the FAA has recently made some changes to the Sport Pilot and Light Sport Aircraft rules and these new FAA Federal regulations were published February 1, 2010 and will become effective March 2, 2010. According to this short video by Paul Hamilton, the rules are more or less favorable for sport pilots.
by John on February 6, 2010
In case you have not seen the February 2010 issue of AOPA Pilot magazine, there is a great article in it about the rescue of a pilot and a flight instructor who luckily for them, both had GPS devices capable of sending emergency signals. The incident involved a Cessna 206 that had crashed among tall pine trees shortly after take-off from a remote back country airstrip in Idaho – leaving the plane owner with minor injuries and the flight instructor with more serious ones.
And while the aircraft was equipped with a 121.5 MHz emergency locator transmitter (ELT), there was no longer any satellite monitoring of the transmitter’s frequencies while the downed aircraft’s location was in an area where few planes flew over. Hence, the transmitter would only be useful if rescue crews knew the plane was lost and had a general idea of where to start looking.
Luckily, both on board had SPOT 1 GPS devices and they immediately activated the emergency distress buttons which alerted a dispatch center. The dispatch center then contacted the pair’s designated emergency contacts and confirmed the location of the crash. All told, it only took about 20 minutes to dispatch a rescue team to the site – no doubt saving the lives of both crash victims.
In addition, the article mentioned another incident worth noting where a pilot had the same device but had attached it to the aircraft’s glareshield with Velcro. Unfortunately, the force of a crash caused the device to fly into a cluster of poison oak and it took an hour for the seriously injured pilot to retrieve it. Lesson learned: Ensure that emergency devices are secured to you and NOT your aircraft.
