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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 0354.PDF
332 New York Helicopter plans expansion as services start NEW YORK HELICOPTER (NYH) is to add two more Aerospatiale Dauphins to the three it uses on its new service linking the city's gateway airports to the East 34th Street heli port. The new machines will be de livered in March and Super Pumas will be added later. Initially, NYH is operating 48 daily flights Monday- Friday with 28 on each weekend day; services begin at 0620hr and last flight is at 2138hr. Each flight has three legs—NYH using the TWA terminal at Kennedy International, American Airline's gate 9 at La Guardia and United's Newark Inter national gate 21. The three Dauphins already in ser vice are laid out for nine passengers and were chosen for what NYH calls their ample baggage area (T92ftV passenger against a claimed airline average of l-77ft3) and because the type features a wheeled landing gear for airport taxiing; two of the three previously had skids fitted. Two NYH Dauphins engaged in sightseeing and charter operations are available for use in times of heavy traffic. According to Fred Fine, chief executive of parent company Island Helicopter, previous operator New York Airways had a 96 per cent punctuality record with its S-61 ser vices between the airports and Man hattan; NYH aims to equal or exceed that performance. All operations are VFR but the airline expects to remain in operation through all but the most extreme weather conditions—for ex ample, freezing rain or dense fog— when it argues that the airports are likely to be closed down. Sector lengths, times and fares vary between the 5min/6-mile/$26 La Guardia-34th Street trip and the 13min/21-mile/$47 stage from New ark to Kennedy. Over the whole net work average fares work out at less than $3 a mile, the shortest leg's almost $4-50/mile being about twice the rate effective for the longest stage. • Island Helicopter's sightseeing operation carried more than 100,000 passengers during 1980 over stages of six to 18min using JetRangers, LongRangers, Dauphins and AStars. Two of New York Helicopter's Dauphin Is are seen here at the E 34th Street heliport The current fleet comprises two AStars and five Twin Stars are on order; deliveries begin in March. Island Helicopter has the only certifi cated, Aerospatiale-approved, Dauphin maintenance facility. Safety update... • The US Federal Aviation Admini stration is to sponsor a public con ference on the development of anti- misting jet fuels. The FAA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the British Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) have jointly been working on an anti- misting additive developed by Britain's Imperial Chemical Indus tries, FM-9, which is intended to reduce the chances of post-crash fires in otherwise survivable aircraft acci dents. The overall research effort includes work on fuel tank explosion protection; reducing the fiammability, toxicity and smoke protection of air craft interior materials; and improve ment of evacuation slides. The FAA intends to ask industry to submit ideas and data about the impact of anti-misting additives on the aircraft Safety update... industry. The UK/US group says none of the problems discovered so far are technically insoluble, and the con ference, to be held at the FAA's Technical Centre near Atlantic City, New Jersey, on February 18-19, will focus on FM-9 work completed to date. Those interested in attending the conference are asked to contact Joseph Wilson at the Technical Centre; telephone [609] 641-8200. Q Capt John O'Donnell of the US Air Line Pilots' Association has confirmed February 17 as the date for a pos sible 24-72hr 30-carrier pilots' strike. Alpa has stressed again its submission to Congress that the Federal Aviation Administration's two main roles— promoter of the aviation industry's interests and of safety—are incom patible. O'Donnell repeats Alpa's claim that the 14hr crew duty day is Aeroflot modernises services AEROFLOT introduced new aircraft types on more than 400 of its routes during 1976-80, the period of the USSR's tenth Five-Year Plan. The Ilyushin 11-62 is now operating 13*2 per cent of the carrier's services, com pared to 6 per cent in 1975, while the Tupolev Tu-154 now accounts for nearly 38 per cent of the airline's operations, compared with only 7 per cent before the start of the Plan. The Tu-134 is being used on 18'2 per cent of Aeroflot's flights (exactly double the share it accounted for in 1975) and gas turbine-powered types are now reported to be operating almost 99 per cent of the airline's passenger services. The remaining 1 per cent is mainly operated by the Antonov An-2, which flies on short local flights and on services in remote mountainous areas of the USSR. Some Mil Mi-4 helicopters are still used on passenger services, along with a few Ilyushin Il-14s and Yakovlev Yak-12s, and possibly one or two Lisunov Li-2s. Safety update... too long for safety in some situations. "The FAA has addressed itself to fatigue (of aircraft parts) but it has not addressed human factors and the workload." • Malaysian Airlines System Fokker F.27 (9M-MCZ), dry leased from Danish Aero Lease, had starboard undercarriage failure on landing at Subang International Airport, Kuala Lumpur, on January 22. There were no injuries to any of the 27 persons on board. Shortly after take off from Johore Bahru en route Malacca there was a retraction fault on the gear, so the captain diverted to Kuala Lum pur. On landing the drag strut failed and the gear collapsed. There was damage to the starboard propeller, engine and rear fuselage. The air craft was lifted and moved to a hangar for repairs. • After a flight from London on January 17, a Sabena Boeing 737 landed safely at Antwerp, then skidded off the runway into a field while taxiing clear. There were no injuries. Q An Overseas National Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-8-61 (N-913R) has been written off having caught fire during a refurbishing and modifi cation programme in a Cargolux hangar at Luxembourg, January 15. • A Garuda Indonesian Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 (PK-GIB) sustained substantial damage cm landing at Ujung Padang, Sulawesi on January 12.
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