John Croft: April 2010 Archives

Eurocopter has invited journos from far and wide to come to its booth in Geneva on 4 May during the European Business Aviation Association's annual trade show at the Palexpo Centre for a special announcement....

Here's what they say:

Save the date
11:00am on Tuesday, May 4th
during EBACE in Geneva
... for the unveiling of a "new and unique transport concept"

My imagination likes to wander when an unexpected release pops up, especially when Eurocopter has traditionally had a meek presence at EBACE. Could this be the grand unveiling of the X4 (a new take on the Dauphin line of helicopters), which, in a really cool world, would be something like what we see in the patent application below.

More details from my previous coverage of the topic during this year's Heli-Expo show in Houston in February.

Follow Flight International at the EBACE show on our website www.flightglobal.com and on Twitter using #EBACE

The opportunity to write a blog that references a new product AND one of the best rock anthems of my generation (the 50-somethings) is an honour and a privilege.

The rock anthem is Rod Argent's Hold Your Head Up (click the link and check the hair..)

The product is Rockwell Collins' new synthetic vision system for its HGS-6000 head-up guidance system, which gives pilots just about all the information they need to fly an aircraft whilst looking out the windscreen, holding their head up!

Here's an article I wrote for Flight International's 27 April magazine. What's not in the article are the videos you're about to see.

A caveat first though -  Due to my shaky hands and my ability NOT to get the camera in just the right spot, the view through the head-up display (HUD) is not always full field-of-view, and the brightness of the actual display is not as good in the video as it is in person.

Here's me (middle), looking a bit worse for wear, at Rockwell Collins HGS facility in Portland, Oregon, a company formerly known as Flight Dynamics. To my left is John Wilson, head of marketing for Rockwell Collins HGS. To my right is Peter Howells, principal systems engineer. I was sampling the HGS on a fixed base simulator of a large commercial aircraft, like the Boeing 757, with HGS-6000 and a simulated landscape in the Portland area. We flew the system on 30 March 2010.

That being said, here are four videos that show some of the attributes of this system, the first of its kind, which will fly on Bombardier's Global Vision cockpit for the Global 5000 and Global Express XRS aircraft in 2012 and beyond.

The fourth video isn't so much to do with synthetic vision, but how an HGS can come in handy for recovering an aircraft after an upset condition. Note that the system shows G-force in the middle of the display, a data point that turns out to be very useful, particularly for high angle-of-attack. slow airspeed recoveries (push for 0.5G to recover). 

...One, apparently. 

Remember the infamous $640 toilet seat for the P-3C in the Reagan era?

While the Obama administration might have had the right through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.idea to dump money into the economy to stimulate goods, services and jobs, the idea of giving NASA $1 billion of that money and expecting the agency to spend it wisely in a very short time was... Ok, judge for yourself.

This is one of many examples of seemingly over-cost goods that I have seen come through the FedBizOps pages when it comes to the Reinvestment Act,

NASA's Ames Research Center is paying Bell Helicopter $4 million to design and deliver a set of prop rotor blades, which I have to presume are similar to the V22 Osprey or BA609 tiltrotor blades the company is building or is in the process of building.

There's also a $6 million contract for a test stand on which to test the rotors.

NASA says it will use the swiveling test stand to "enable testing of single, approximately 25ft diameter rotors [the size of the BA609 rotor] in the 40x80ft wind tunnel and 40ft diameter rotors [the V22 rotor is 38ft diameter] in the 80 x120ft wind tunnel". 

"The result of this task will enable next generation vertical lift aircraft with substantial performance and productivity improvements," NASA says in the contract annoucement.

It could be that there is a great deal of R&D in these blades and test stand, but no one is saying. 

Bell says call NASA. 

NASA, through a spokeswoman, says the notices in FedBizOpps are...

"task orders on an existing contract that was competed in 2008 for the design and fabrication of an advanced capability tiltrotor test stand for the National Full-scale Aerodynamics Complex at Ames. In one task order, the company will be completing another segment of the fabrication". That's the $6 million contract.

Regarding the $4 million contract, NASA says...

"In the other task order, the company will be providing a set of blades which will be used to check out the facility once construction is completed."

$4 million for a set of blades just to check out a new facility? I've got a $640 toilet seat they may want to have a look at.

As if to counter the slap down issued by Iranian president Mahmoud Adhmadinejad in early February after he launched a 10-ft-long Kavoshgar-3 research rocket carrying -- a mouse, two turtles and some worms -- into space, the US has, apparently, raised the stakes.

Ahmadinejad said his feat showed "Iran could defeat the West in the battle of technology", according to MSNBC.

Oh yeah, well here's some good old American technology -- and animal welfare -- right back atcha.

NASA is planning to lauch mice and rats, not just for a joy ride, but for a stint on the International Space Station. The agency is currently looking for vendors who can provide living quarters for rats and mice on the orbiting micro city. 

And not just any living quarters, these high tech wonders go above and beyond the Habitrail in the basement. They've got to have...

• Air and waste filtering systems (odor & particulate)
• Food and water delivery and measurement systems
• A cage lighting system in the visual and infrared spectrum
• Habitat control, data and video management systems

No mention of turtles or worms.

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The pilot of a Czech Aircraft Works SportCruiser light sport aircraft, a model that earlier this year became the PiperSport, taking off in Millbrook, NY appears to have learned a lesson in phyics the hard way on 11 April.

NTSB: According to several witnesses, the airplane's engine sound was "good" during the takeoff roll and throughout the flight, but at liftoff, the wings were "rocking" and the airplane was not gaining altitude. Almost immediately, the airplane banked "really hard left" back towards the airport, and disappeared from view. The sounds of impact were heard, and a fire ensued at ground contact. Some of the witnesses stated that they saw something fall off of, or from the airplane during the turn.

Further, the NTSB preliminary report, issued 19 April, said the pilot, who crawled away from the now-burning low-wing LSA, told the first witness at the scene that he had been trying to hold the canopy shut and "fly the plane" at the same time. "I did not lock the canopy," he told the responder.The pilot was seriously injured in the crash, and I don't know his condition but hope he's making a recovery.

While flight instructors constantly quiz students in Cessna 152s and Piper Cherokees as to what do if a door pops open on takeoff or in flight (ANSWER: NOTHING - KEEP FLYING), the action may not be so clear when talking about a big, beautiful bulbous canopy like the one on the PiperSport, or other non-standard door or canopy designs.

Cessna, for its new Skycatcher C162, is having to rewrite its tried true training rules about the sweet nothings to do when a door pops open in flight. The Skycatcher's doors lift upward instead of forward. So while the ram air before would hold the 152 door most of the way closed, allowing you to fly along a little cooler than before, that's not the case with the C162.

In the video segment below, which I took earlier this year (skip to 1:35), Cessna chief pilot for piston engine operations, Kirby Ortega, answers the question he always gets asked about the Skycatcher door...

If the C162 door does open in flight, Ortega says pilots are instructed to slow down to 80kt airspeed and land as soon as possible, rather than try to close the door in flight or continue flying, as is the procedure for the 152.

For the SportCruiser, aka PiperSport, it would seem logical that ram air would hold the forward-lifting one-piece canopy closed, but a guy name Bernoulli many years ago determined that faster air flowing over a top surface causes lower pressure and hence net lift in the direction of that lower pressure, which in the case of the Sport, would cause the canopy to try to lift up and open.

Anyone know Czech's or Piper's standard operating procedure for handling a popped canopy in flight?

Picture is from sportcruiserpros.com

As the proud part-owner of a 1977 Piper PA28-181 Archer II, serial number 28-7890011, I'm happy to observe the golden anniversary of the Piper Cherokee famly.

That's me on the left, next to Duane (aka Vinnie) and Reid the K-man (right). Together with N43756 we're the "Jerky Boyz", a name that came up in an earlier club we had been in with a 1973 Piper Cherokee 140 (N5140G). 

A non-pilot passenger of Vinnie's heard him talking on the common traffic advisory frequency, something to the tune of "Freeway traffic, Cher-kee four-zero Gulf turning right downwind 36, Freeway traffic", to which his passenger asked, "Who're these 'jerky boys' you're talking about". Get it? Cher-kee; Jerky? Easy to see how the non-pilot could hear it.

Just imagine how many similar interesting, fun and life-chaning stories have been generated over the 50 years since the Cherokee aircraft and its entire family came to be? I'm certainly happy to be part of the heritage.

I'll try to be more diligent in telling some of those stories as the Jerky Boyz get out and about, no doubt tangling with trouble every now and again.

Meanwhile here's an interesting video on the golden history Cherokee.

UPDATE: On point 1, I've been told that Global Express II is an internal identifier for this particular vendor's products for the Global line and doesn't relate to the supposed new Global Express platform. So maybe I'm delusional on piont 1 perhaps, but what about point 2! 

Mathematicians will tell you that It takes two points to define a line; and three points to make a plane.

In the case of this blog post, I've got several points, or some semblance thereof, that, when combined with other information that's been published, might define a "plane". In this case the plane would be a new ultra long-range business jet (aka M170) that Bombardier, we think, has been quietly building to compete with Gulfstream's G650....

First up is photo "evidence" from a presentation given to me from a supplier to Bombardier, taken from a recent plant visit. This was not proprietary information, but I'll let you figure out who the company might be.

When asked specifically about the Global Express II reference, the company said their product "was on the Global family" and is part of the Global Vision program. Hmmm. 

Global Vision is a comprehensive cockpit upgrade that Bombardier has launched for the Global 5000 and Global XRS, but could Global Vision be just part of the refresh for the Global Express II program? 

Another point comes from an tantalizing snippet that I received from GE when writing about engine diagnostics recently. Officials there told me that they had been selected to provide an aircraft-level integrated vehicle health management system for an as yet unnannounced new aircraft platform that is to enter service in 2012 or 2013!. By process of elmination (using other information from a source), I have determined that this application can only be a business aviation program, and a Bombardier program makes the mose sense.

A third point, perhaps, is that Bombardier has a test program for the Global Vision that includes four pre-production aircraft, Seems like a lot of test aircraft for a new avioinics package.

Could it be that, based on the GE information, that the Global Express II is already among us disguised as the Global Vision program? The timeframes are close. Entry into service for the first Global Vision cockpit is to be 2012.  

Or I could be delusional. You decide.

While the NTSB is a long way from making its final determination the probable cause of a 25 March crash of a Eurocopter AS-350-B3 (N855HW) with its commercial pilot and two flight nurses on a medical repositioning flight in pre-dawn darkness, the initial NTSB report leaves little to the imagination.

Long story short, the pilot had reason to race back (from Jackson) to his home base (Brownsville) that morning. Unfortunately a very strong storm front was coming from the opposite direction. The storm, apparently, won.

From the NTSB report:

"Radar images indicated that at the approximate time of the accident, a mesoscale convective system was moving through the area, southwest to northeast, at a groundspeed of about 60 knots. The location of the most severe portion of the convective system was coincident with the accident time and location. There was also a "bow" shape in a line of severe thunderstorms near the accident site, typically associated with strong surface winds, heavy rainfall and extreme wind-shear."
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Eyewitness reports, also in the report, are infamously inaccurate, but maybe not this time:
Three witnesses near the accident site stated that they saw lightning and heard thunder at the time of the accident. One witness stated that it was very windy at the time, and another stated that heavy rain bands were passing through the area.

Why in this day and age are we flying brand new multi-million dollar Eurocopters (about 200 hours since new, according to the NTSB) without something so inexpensive as Nexrad weather through XM or WSI on the dashboard? Cheaper yet, why aren't pilots carrying a service like Garmin MyPilot on their cell phones. We know from the NTSB report that one of the nurses had answered a cell phone enroute.

Of course, maybe they did have such equipment, but went and decided to try and beat the oncoming beast anyway. Hard to tell at this point, but its a shame to lose more good people, the best people, in fact, to such an avoidable accident.

Here's the local news coverage I took the above pictures from.

After shaking my head at the stupidity of a very experienced captain (who is also a check pilot) flying a US Airways Express Bombardier CRJ200 that overran a runway at the Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Va, after a high-speed rejected takeoff, I realized that, in some small way, I'm part of the problem.

I wrote a story yesterday for Flightglobal with many of the details (click here to see the NTSB reports for yourself), but the gist of this blog post is this:

• The captain and first offficer had configured the aircraft flaps incorrectly for takeoff, perhaps because they had been chattering away during the taxi portion. Sterile cockpit? Wha?
• During the takeoff run, the captain notices the flaps are in the wrong position (8 degrees instead of 20 degrees), and instead of aborting the takeoff per procedures, he cranked in more flaps while still accelerating.
• What he didn't anticipate were all the bells and whistles that went off when the onboard systems sensed that the flaps were moving during a critical phase of flight.
• The plane continued accelerating, past V1 and up to 143kt before the captain decided to abort.
• Procedures weren't followed during the abort, and if not for a crushable concrete pad put in by the airport, the CRJ would most likely have plummeted off the end of the runway and down a steep embankment.

Why might I be just a little to blame?

Because as an FAA certified flight instructor, I realize that I have never taught (or been taught for that matter) to abort a takeoff if I found the aircraft to be in an improper configuration during the takeoff run. Practice like you fly, and fly like you practice, right? 

The tried and and true (and tired) condition that we practice ad naseum is a failed engine during departure, for which you do the obvious - Pull the throttle and slam on the brakes.

But how much more likely is it that the flaps are in the wrong position, or a tire blows?

I may very well have done the same thing this CRJ pilot did because if I were flying a Cessna 150 or a Piper Archer, and saw during the takeoff run that I had the wrong flaps put in, I would have adjusted the flaps and continued. The law of primacy rules -- you learn best what you learn first. 

I'd be interested in hearing from other pilots and instructors your thoughts on this accident.   

Photo: John Croft

NASA's Glenn Research Centre plans to issue a contract to upgrade its vintage Beechcraft T-34C (N608NA) turbine-powered single engine military trainer to a state-of-the-art unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) communications test bed.

"One of the major limitations to operations of UAS with the next generation air transportation system (NextGen) is the ability for UAS to communicate with ground controllers, using limited radio-frequency resources," says the agency in a 1 April solicitation.

NASA says the aircraft will to be used for "validation and verification of UAS communications systems as they impact UAS in flight", part of a broader one-year NASA and industry project to "develop and implement a national plan to successfully address the challenges of UAS access to the national airspace system (NAS) in a safe and timely manner".

The agency plans to release very soon a request for proposal for vendors to install research computers and internal Ethernet that will interface with a new two-axis autopilot, electronic flight instrumentation systems for both the T-34C front and rear cockpit and Mode S transponders for ADS-B "out" and ADS-B "in" functionality, also in both cockpits.

Satellite weather, either through XM or WSI, is also to be incorporated into the avionics.

NASA is requiring that the aircraft undergo an operational readiness review 40 weeks after contract award.

DANG IT -  I should have looked at the date of this email - April 1. See the comment section.. Punk'd!!

There are skeletons in the proverbial closet of Campbell Field Airport (9VG) in southern Virginia. Literally.

According to an email I received from my friend, Lee Schiek, manager of Maryland's College Park Airport (CGS) last week, 9VG will be closed until tomorrow because of something a cute dog named Piper (pictured left with her cryptic find) brought home.

I obviously never met Mr. Kellam, who'll you find out about below, but I think I would have liked him.

Here's the press release:

Temporary Airport Closure to Exhume Human Remains

Thought to be the remains of airport founder Darrell Kellam

Airport Closed via NOTAM through 4/8/10

Weirwood, VA - Human remains and burial artifacts were discovered yesterday in the middle of the airport runway. A Notice to Airmen has been issued closing the field through April 8th to facilitate the exhumation.

The remains were discovered by the current airport owner who attributes the find to the record rainfall and widespread flooding at the airport. "We had another downpour a couple of days ago and yesterday my dog was doing her daily rounds of the airport and she came back to the office with this enormous bone", said owner Gordon Campbell.

"I thought the dog looked cute with this big bone in her mouth so I took a picture and emailed it to some friends. One of the recipients was a doctor who immediately replied that it looks like a human bone my dog was chewing on. Now my dog has not been known to kill anyone so I thought there must be some human remains nearby." A walk down the runway led to the area where the dog had found the bone. "The grave site is about 1000 feet from the southern end of the runway and exactly where the threshold for the runway used to be", said Campbell.

While no analysis of the remains has yet been undertaken they are thought to be those of Darrell Kellam, the the founder of the Airport in 1933, who died in 1976.

An old timer at the field remembers hearing that Mr. Kellam had been buried here; "Years ago someone passed through and recounted that Darrell Kellam had requested that he be buried at the end of the runway. I never really thought much about it but I know this airport was Mr. Kellams pride, joy and lifelong endevour.

Darrells blood ran through this place and I guess that's no longer a metaphor", commented Ray Gefken. There has been no further exhumation of the remains out of respect for the deceased but some careful probing of the site yielded a box containing burial artifacts. "There was a box of artifacts that was buried alongside the body. A Piper Cub Owner's Manual, a couple aviation books and a log book with Mr. Kellam's name in it.", said Gordon Campbell.

Speculation is that flooding over the years helped "float" the remains to the surface.

"This airport has quite a history and this discovery is just one more footnote", said Mr. Campbell, adding, "I always thought that when I go it would be nice to be buried here. Since the south end is already spoken for I'm happy taking the north end. At least I will be in good company."

A NOTAM has been issued closing the field to enable a crew to carefully exhume the body. "I am going to do some research and if Mr. Kellam wanted to be buried at the end of the runway we will comply with his wishes but move the burial site to the present runway end that is thankfully on higher ground" said Campbell.

Pilot's should call Flight Service at 1-800-WX-BRIEF for current NOTAM information.

Air traffic control tapes from a near-miss between a United Airlines Flight 889, a Boeing 777-222 (N216UA), and a Cessna 182(N9870E), over the San Francisco Airport on 27 March reveal that both aircraft were being worked by the tower, with the Cessna instructed to maintain visual separation with the heavy. Here's the preliminary NTSB report.

The expression in the woman 777 pilot's voice, however, when she says, "...We need to talk" pretty much says that things didn't go as ATC might have planned. 

Take a listen from this LiveATC.net audio file captured by one of the kind patrons there: SFO_near_miss.mp3