FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1981
1981 - 0007.PDF
FLIGHT International. 3 January 1981 New York airports helo link set to go PROBLEMS dogging planned helicop ter links between Manhattan and New York's three airports have been largely resolved, and Trans New York (TNY) intends to begin Agusta 109A services immediately. Island Helicop ters' newly formed commuter, the New York Helicopter Corporation will start work on January 6 with SA.360 Dauphins. TNY plans to use Manhattan's World Trade Centre Heliport, or the West 34th Street Heliport which had been closed. But this has not been ap proved as we go to press, so services may have to start as inter-airport links only. TNY has approval to use a United Airlines' gate at JFK, an American gate at La Guardia, and Braniff's Newark gate. The airline owns two Agustas now and plans to acquire more early this year so it can provide a passenger shuttle between the airports and Manhattan every 15 to 20min. The lowest fare is $25 for JFK-La Guardia, and the highest is $45 for JFK-Newark. New York Helicopter (NYH) has no downtown terminal problem—it will use Island Helicopters' own 34th Street Heliport. NYH will start ser vices with seven SA.360s operating shuttles every 30min through the four points. Handling stations at the airports will be a Trans World Air lines' gate at JFK, American gate 9 at La Guardia, and United's gate 21 at Terminal A, Newark. Island plans to replace NYH's nine- passenger Dauphins with 19-passenger Super Pumas within two years. Fredric Fine, Island's chairman and chief executive, says he has placed letters of intent for three or four Super Pumas, delivery to start in 1982. A NYH Aerospatiale Dauphin is seen against the Manhattan skyline (right, above). Trans New York is the new name of Agusta A. 109 operator New York Air (right) Safety update... O Within two months the US National Aeronautics and Space Administra tion's Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) will have com pleted plans for a detailed study of the effects of "jet lag" on aircrew. Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr has been pressing for such a study, and this has enabled Nasa to earmark $1 million in 1981 to research and provide information the Federal Avia tion Administration wants for its re view of crew duty time regulations. The first step in the programme will be to publish a pamphlet explaining "circadian desynchronosis" (jet lag) and how to reduce its effects—for in stance, by reducing coffee intake. In the second phase, volunteer pilots from a cross-section of airlines will be studied at work. Finally, these pilots will take part in an elaborate Nasa simulation study. • Metal fatigue in the butt-end of a blade caused propeller breakup in a Douglas DC-3 last year, according to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report. On December 27. 1979, a Hamilton Standard propel ler blade on Dakota N100SD separa ted from the starboard engine and damaged the aircraft's lower fuselage and a blade on the opposite propeller. The high-cycle, low-stress fatigue dis covered in the blade had been sub stantially worsened by corrosion which probably set in during an idle period when oil protection from the hub was lost. The Federal Aviation Administra tion reports that six instances of corrosion-related damage to the shank or fillet of Hamilton Standard Hydro- matic propeller blades have been re ported in the last five years, fj Occasional major deviations from track on North Atlantic routes are being recorded by NAT air traffic con- Safety update ... trol agencies, and many of the air craft involved are equipped with triple INS (inertial navigation systems). Al most all the errors are caused by crews who either insert co-ordinates incorrectly (having read them back correctly), or inadvertently feed re vised waypoints into one of the two inactive INSs while using the third. For errors of 10° of latitude to build up following a programming mistake the crew would then have to show considerable negligence in track moni toring; this appears to be happening. This kind of error has been com pounded by crews who fail to carry out a selcal check, and are then unreachable by ATC because the air craft's selcal turns out to be unser viceable. Since lateral separation in the NAT MNPS area (minimum navigation performance specification) has been reduced to 60 n.m. this kind of mistake has become more signifi cant. D Qantas has agreed to cabin staff demands that duty-free liquor must not be carried in the aircraft cabin, and that passengers are to be limited to one piece of hand baggage. Despite airline fears that the decision would adversely affect passenger traffic the rules have already come into force. Qantas is the only international air line operating into Australia which has so far adopted this policy. There is a gathering body of opinion which maintains that the carriage of bottles in overhead racks, or under seats, could cause avoidable injury in the event of impact or severe turbulence. The suggested answer to the prob lem is to provide duty-free shops at airports for inbound international pas sengers. Oantas has also reported having difficulty with the occasional drunken passenger. Short hauls... • Singapore Airlines has recorded an after-tax profit of $31 million for the year ended March 31, 1980, compared to just under $18 million for the pre vious year. The increased profit in cludes proceeds raised from the sale of aircraft and dividends from sub sidiary companies. SIA is selling McDonnell Douglas DC-lOs and Boeing 727s, and standardising its fleet on the Boeing 747 and Airbus A300. The McDonnell Douglas and Boeing trijets are to continue in ser vice for a limited period until the air line's re-equipment is complete. • American Airlines reports a net loss of $14-25 million for the first nine months of 1980, compared to a profit of more than $90 million for the same period in 1979. American attributes the downturn partly to ris ing fuel costs—its fuel bill for the 1980 period has risen by more than 30 per cent, even though it is now achieving significantly less fuel con sumption and flew nearly 8 per cent less passenger miles during the nine months. American also says that its 1979 results were inflated by the favourable influence of strikes at two other airlines and the use of a 50 per cent fare discount coupon programme, now discontinued. • Lufthansa aircrew held a two-hour strike on December 15 in support of their demand that the airline's ordered Airbus A310s be equipped for a three-man crew. The German flag carrier says the stoppage, which affected 80 per cent of its domestic flights is illegal.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
