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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 0062.PDF
MR TRANSPORT Single-turboprops head for airline service BY PAUL PHELAN IN CAIRNS AND GRAHAM WARWICK IN ATLANTA Transport Canada is to issue an operations specification allowing commercial passenger carriage in single-turboprop air craft at night and in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). The move will permit full commuter and air-taxi oper ations with aircraft previously limited largely to private, corpo rate and cargo use. Under the proposed rule, ex pected to become law by the end of February, "...only factory- built, turbine-powered aero planes will be considered for the operations specification", Trans port Canada says. "Turbine con versions of existing reciprocat ing-engine-powered aeroplanes will not be considered." Industry expects a "domino effect", with first Australia, then the USA and, eventually, Europe following Canada's lead. The Australian Civil Aviation Au thority has been liaising with Transport Canada and has "...an active project. We are collecting information, and we have asked industry to let us know what they want". Aerospatiale subsidiary Socata, Cessna and Pilatus — manufacturers, respectively, of the TBM.700, Caravan and PC-6 and PC-12 turboprop singles — have been invited to make a collective submission. The draft proposal on Can ada's new operations specifica tion has already been issued for comment and, following re sponses, a new specification will be issued before the end of February. Cessna says that it believes the change in rules could lead to a big demand for new single- engined aircraft as companies now running "old" piston twins trade down to take advantage of the new specifications. The US Federal Aviation Ad ministration, which has so far refused "numerous" petitions asking for the rules governing single-turbine operations to be relaxed, says it is "taking an other look". Brian Calendine, acting branch manager at the FAA for commuter and air-taxi flight standards, admits: "Tur bine engines are now more relia ble than any other aircraft system, including the pilot." The FAA has begun building a database of accidents involving single-turbine aircraft as a prel ude to rule-making. This should be ready "within the year", ac cording to Calendine. He says that the FAA plans to canvass industry and public opinion on relaxing the rules "soon". At present, IMC operations with fare-paying passengers are only allowed if the single-turbine air craft can take off, land and descend after engine failure in visual meteorological conditions. The European Joint Aviation Authorities appear not to be progressing in the same direc tion as those in North America. A draft Joint Airworthiness Requirement-Operations, which is due to be made available in the second quarter of this year "...does not allow single-engined aircraft to operate IFR...however, it should be noted that the topic is still awaiting a policy decision from the JAA's Opera tions Committee". Transport Canada says that the turbine engines of candidate aircraft must have a demon strated mean time between fail ures (MTBF) of 0.01/l,000h, and manufacturers of new types will have to prove that MTBF over 250,000h in service. Other requirements are: dual inde pendently powered attitude indi cators; dual independent gener ating systems each able to sus tain all essential equipment; auto-ignition or continuous igni tion for take-off, landing and operation in visible moisture; oil-system chip detector; radar altimeter; and a manual throttle to bypass any fuel-control failure. Canada is expected to grant exemp tions to j the ex-l isting Cessna hopes to cash in on the single-turboprop rule change rules until the new operations specifi cation is introduced. Kelner Air ways of Manitoba, which is approaching 50,000 fleet hours with four Caravan Is, expects to implement the new rules by the end of January. Managing direc tor Frank Kelner says that his highest-time aircraft is ap proaching 9,000h and has had only one unserviceability — a flat tyre. Kelner reckons that the rule change could give an immediate 30% increase in revenue to a business which operates largely by supplying isolated villages with cargo, but returning empty. Brant Dahlfors, marketing manager for TBM North Amer ica, welcomes Canada's move and expects the long-term effect "...will be very positive". In the owner-flown business- aircraft market served by the TBM.700 turbine-single, he ex pects buyers to benefit from being able to lease their aircraft to charter operators to increase utilisation and offset costs. • KLM Cityhopper drops two routes Lack of business is blamed for the decision by KLM's City- hopper regional subsidiary to drop two of its European routes. The airline has given its Eind hoven-Hamburg route to Base Business Airlines, which is based at Eindhoven. Its Amsterdam- Bordeaux route will be discon tinued from 1 February. The Dutch airline says that no further reductions are planned at present, "...but we're monitor ing all of our operations ex tremely carefully. If necessary, there is a chance that we'll drop more routes". Fleet size will remain the same. KLM Cityhopper has ex panded its fleet considerably in the last two years to a total of 26 aircraft. There are no outstand ing orders. The airline says, however, that ceasing operations on the two routes means it can avoid leasing expensive capacity from third parties, which would have been necessary to meet the expected expansion of its Euro pean network. "We haven't seen that expansion yet," it adds. • The US Department of Trans port has approved KLM's appli cation for anti-trust immunity in its co-operation with Northwest Airlines, in which it has a 20% stake. The move effectively clears the way for the two air lines to fully exploit the "open- skies" deal signed between the USA and the Netherlands in September 1992. "It is a very important milestone," says KLM. "Now we have the foundation we need to make full use of our co-operation." • Caught hopping: poor business has made KLM • nY, stop two »-4 Cityhopper u s^^^"""-" routes "•" FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 20 - 26 January, 1993
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