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Volume 38, No 3 Q Q <strong>May</strong> <strong>2010</strong><br />

South Africa: R30,00 (inc VAT),<br />

Other countries in Southern<br />

Africa: R26,32 (ex Tax)<br />

Malawi: K200. East Africa:<br />

Ksh 320.<br />

AFRICA’S JOURNAL FOR THE DISCERNING AVIATION PROFESSIONAL<br />

HURRICANE EXPERIENCE<br />

SOLAR IMPULSE FLIES-<br />

FRENCH “BUSHMAN”<br />

CAR-CUM-PLANE<br />

South Africa: R30,00 (inc VAT), Other countries in Southern Africa: R26,32 (ex Tax)<br />

Malawi: K200. Kenya: KES320. Tanzania: TZS: 5500. Rest of the world: Equivalent £2,50<br />

Incorporating Wings over Africa & African Air Transport


YOUR FLIGHT DEPARTMENT IS<br />

PRESSURED TO DO MORE FOR LESS?<br />

Go figure.<br />

Increased fiscal scrutiny. Heightened environmental awareness. There’s never been a stronger<br />

mandate for efficiency in your flight operation. Or a better time to calculate the advantage of<br />

a turbine-powered PC12 NG. Versatility, for example. The capacity to transport eight executives<br />

in cabin class comfort. Even to remote airports. Or to carry the whole trade show team plus the<br />

exhibit as well. All with much lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions than you would experience<br />

with a jet. Call us to figure out how a PC12 NG can heighten efficiency. While lowering costs.<br />

Pilatus PC-12 Centre (Pty) Ltd,<br />

Hangar 16, Rand Airport, Germiston.<br />

Tel: 011 383 0800, Fax: 011 824 0884<br />

Raymond Steyn 082 652 3439<br />

Tim Webster 083 251 0318<br />

Gerry Wyss 082 318 5089<br />

PC-12 NG<br />

DO THE<br />

MATH


Official journal of:-<br />

Commercial Aviation Association of Southern Africa,<br />

The Airlines Association of SA, The Association of SA Aircraft Traders, Association of<br />

Training Organisations of SA, Aerodromes & Airports Association of SA,<br />

Association of Aviation Maintenance Organisations,<br />

SA Society of Aerospace & Environmental Medicine, Helicopter Association of Southern<br />

Africa, Aircraft Owners & Pilots’ Association of SA, Airside Operators’<br />

Association of SA, and SA Aerial Applicators Association.<br />

COMPANY HEAD OFFICE<br />

PO Box 35082, Northway, 4065, South Africa.<br />

Tel +27 (0)31 564 1319. Fax+27 (0)31 563 7115<br />

info@airnews.co.za www.airnews.co.za<br />

PUBLISHER<br />

TCE Publications<br />

MANAGING EDITOR<br />

Tom Chalmers<br />

tom@airnews.co.za<br />

ASSOCIATE EDITOR<br />

Joan Chalmers<br />

PRODUCTION/ADVERTISING<br />

Tracy Sugden<br />

tracy@airnews.co.za<br />

GAUTENG JOURNALIST<br />

Mark Mansfield<br />

082 463 2436<br />

markmansfield@vodamail.co.za<br />

MARKETING<br />

Marie Jordan,<br />

Cell: 083 720 8147.<br />

Fax: 086 605 1378.<br />

mjproject@absamail.co.za<br />

EUROPEAN EDITOR<br />

Don Parry<br />

don.parry@talk21.com<br />

US EDITOR<br />

Ed Hirsch<br />

ed.hirsch@iamgrp.com<br />

PROPRIETORS &<br />

PUBLISHERS<br />

Tom Chalmers Enterprises<br />

T/A: TCE Publications.<br />

PRINTERS<br />

Intrepid Printers<br />

DISTRIBUTED BY<br />

Racing Distributors, Durban<br />

ADVERTISING & BUSINESS<br />

REPRESENTATIVES<br />

SOUTH AFRICA<br />

Head Office<br />

TCE Publications<br />

PO Box 35082<br />

Northway, 4065.<br />

Tel +27(0)31 564 1319<br />

Fax +27(0)31563 7115<br />

info@airnews.co.za<br />

Western Cape<br />

Stramrood & Associates.<br />

PO Box 23705,<br />

Claremont 7735<br />

Tel +27(0)21 685 3838<br />

Fax +27(0)21 685 3852<br />

AUSTRALASIA<br />

Henry Krug,<br />

28 Archbold Road, Roseville<br />

N.S.W. Australia 2069.<br />

Tel +61 (0)2 99242940<br />

Fax +61 (0)2 99242941<br />

hekrug@optusnet.com.au<br />

BRITAIN & EUROPE<br />

BSP Media. Brian Passey and<br />

Sally Cole. PO Box 4421<br />

Henley-on-Thames<br />

RG9 5ZJ England<br />

Tel +44 (0)1491 628000<br />

Fax +44 (0)1491 628044<br />

brian@bspmedia.com or<br />

sally@bspmedia.com<br />

DRC<br />

Collin Matshitshi<br />

BP 170 Kinshasa 24<br />

Tel +243 9929563<br />

matshitshikhoy@yahoo.fr.<br />

GABON<br />

Avirex. Ernest M. Masiala<br />

Aeroport Leon MBA<br />

PO Box 9900, Libreville<br />

Tel +241 313308<br />

masiala.m@voila.fr<br />

KENYA<br />

Kauli Mwembe<br />

Box 10810-00400, Nairobi.<br />

Tel +254 20 2230086<br />

Fax +254 20 2230060<br />

kauli@vivi.co.ke<br />

POLAND<br />

Maciej Stanecki, A1.1000lecia<br />

14/33, 05-820 Piastow.<br />

staneckim@yahoo.com<br />

MALAWI<br />

Frank Jomo, Abwenzi Transport,<br />

Box 3074 Blantyre.<br />

Tel: +265 9220911<br />

fjomo@yahoo.com<br />

MALTA<br />

Chris Cauchi, St. George Bay,<br />

St. Julians STJ 3313.<br />

Cell: 00356 9928 2208.<br />

MOZAMBIQUE<br />

Wahab Import & Export<br />

(Muhammed Wahab)<br />

Av. 24 de Julho 3051,<br />

Maputo.<br />

Tel +258 84 3335550<br />

ceoaam@yahoo.com<br />

NAMIBIA<br />

Dr. Andreas Vogt<br />

PO Box 24241, Windhoek.<br />

Tel +264 61224435<br />

ifoxta@iway.na<br />

NIGERIA<br />

Fred Latimore, PO Box 4636<br />

M/M Int’l Airport, Ikeja, Lagos<br />

Tel +234 1 742 6349<br />

freddielatimore@yahoo.com<br />

RUSSIA<br />

Laguk Co. ap0p.132 1/15,<br />

Krasnokholmskaya<br />

nab, Moscow, 115172<br />

Tel +74 959 121346<br />

ylarm-lml@mtu-net.ru<br />

TANZANIA<br />

Laura Hartstone<br />

PO Box 16390, Arusha.<br />

Tel +255 783 000 431<br />

lhartstone@gmail.com<br />

UGANDA<br />

Sue O’Connor<br />

PO Box 40295, Kampala<br />

Tel +256 772604286<br />

kevin@imul.com<br />

USA, SOUTH AMERICA &<br />

CANADA<br />

International Aviation<br />

Magazine Group. Ed Hirsch<br />

12901 S.W. 64th Court,<br />

Miami, Florida 33156<br />

Tel (305) 6662055<br />

Fax (305) 6677812<br />

or Lorrie Balding<br />

Tel (305) 6687836<br />

Fax (305) 6687938<br />

ZAMBIA<br />

Isaac Mwesa. PO Box 38573,<br />

Lusaka 10101.<br />

Tel: +260977822207<br />

isaacmwesa2001@yahoo.com<br />

ZIMBABWE<br />

Michael Quintana, 4-12th Ave,<br />

Mabelreign, Harare.<br />

Cell +263 4 2265796<br />

intrepid@mango.zw<br />

REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS<br />

Barry Schiff, Geoffrey Jones,<br />

Bob Grimstead,<br />

Brian Lecomber,<br />

Morné Booij-Liewes<br />

M. Wahab (Mozambique),<br />

Laura Hartstone, (Tanzania),<br />

Frank Jomo (Malawi),<br />

Fred Latimore (Nigeria),<br />

Kauli Mwembe (Kenya)<br />

Collin Matshitshi (DRC)<br />

Sue O’Connor (Uganda)<br />

PLEASE NOTE: Opinions expressed in signed articles or in advertisements<br />

appearing in <strong>World</strong> <strong>Airnews</strong>, are those of the author or advertiser and do not<br />

necessarily reflect those of this journal nor of its publisher. The mention of<br />

specific companies or products in articles or advertisements, does not imply<br />

that they are endorsed or recommended by this journal or its publisher in<br />

preference to others of a similar nature which are not mentioned or advertised.<br />

WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED.<br />

PAGE 6<br />

PAGE 34<br />

PAGE 36<br />

PAGE 51<br />

PAGE 65<br />

MAINTENANCE<br />

AVIONICS<br />

CHECKLIST<br />

Flarepath ...................................................................................................................4<br />

Flying the Hawker Hurricane with Howard Cook.......................................................6<br />

Airvan for epic flight.................................................................................................15<br />

Restored DC-7B ready for flight / “First for the F-35” / Late news...........................16<br />

Sixty-six, clickity click, the Robbie goes turbine ......................................................17<br />

First helicopter test flight in Galileo test bed............................................................18<br />

The search for cleaner skies – Don Parry reports..................................................20<br />

Professional flight testing in South Africa – Des Barker comments.........................24<br />

Air Malawi faces liquidation / Kenya Airways rejoins AFRAA..................................28<br />

Seawind enters production......................................................................................29<br />

Works starts on JKIA expansion / Second time lucky for Raptor at RIAT? .............30<br />

Arik Air restructures / A400M testing steps up / New Jetlink hangar.......................32<br />

FIDAE comes out tops despite earthquake.............................................................33<br />

Solar Impulse writes new chapter in aviation history...............................................34<br />

New transcontinental medical evacuation partnership............................................35<br />

Aircraft slinging, NAC style – Mark Mansfield reports .............................................36<br />

IATA halves <strong>2010</strong> loss forecast ...............................................................................39<br />

Kenya Airways plans major turnaround / Alyzair enters African market ..................40<br />

New turbine engine / WAAS/LPV for King Air / Dreams do come true....................42<br />

Ethiopian Airlines’ “Mission <strong>2010</strong>” – Keith Mwanalushi reports ...............................43<br />

CAASA objects to mandatory Lanseria employee security clearance.....................45<br />

ATNS system wins award / AFRAA objects to EU’s “black list”...............................46<br />

Cessna calls for industry unity / Major A order / B777 for Egypt ............................47<br />

Cessna CJ4 gets FAA certification / Plan to safeguard Africa’s airlines ..................48<br />

NATS helps ATNS with <strong>World</strong> Cup / Cessna’s landmark “single”............................50<br />

The French “Bushman” – Geoff Jones reports on the Broussard ...........................51<br />

Brother and sister score one for the record books ..................................................54<br />

Car-cum-plane – What dreams are made of...........................................................57<br />

DC-2 will lead “The Last Flight” of DC-3s/C-47s to Oshkosh..................................59<br />

Plettenberg Bay Airport shock.................................................................................61<br />

From the cockpit: Brain Lecomber’s monthly column .............................................63<br />

Evektor Aerotechnik logs 40 years of aircraft production ........................................65<br />

Malta aviation park development / Nimrod MRA4 “ ready for training”....................67<br />

Dreamliner ultimate load test completed / Pupil Pilot’s course reunion.....................6<br />

African airline news briefs – Morné. Booij-Liewes reports......................................69<br />

The Proficient Pilot: Barry Schiff’s regular column ..................................................71<br />

<strong>World</strong> air news round-up .........................................................................................72<br />

Dassault launches new service strategy / Tool attracts Africa airlines ....................73<br />

Hangar Talk: Apathy rears its ugly head – Again.....................................................74<br />

Check our website, www.airnews.co.za for an<br />

electronic version of this edition.<br />

Specialists in Hawker HS125 series;<br />

King Air series; Caravan 208 series; Learjet; Citation;<br />

G-II/III/IV; Challenger CL600 series & Embraer EMB120 series.<br />

Contact Trevor Van Rooyen<br />

Cell +27 82 886 6005 Email trevor@interjet.aero<br />

Specialists in: RVSM; ACAS II; EGPWS; COM; NAV; XPDR;<br />

CVR; ELT; FMS; HF; RADAR and various other avionics.<br />

We also provide bench repairs on Collins and<br />

Honeywell (BendixKing) avionics, as well as FDR download and readout.<br />

Contact Arno Greeff<br />

Cell +27 82 438 1421 Email arno@interjet.aero<br />

We are a TRACE approved company!<br />

Dedicated Aircraft Maintenance Engineer technical training in the following:<br />

General: Civil Aviation Regulation 1997, all mechanic and avionic general subjects, Human Factors<br />

Airframe: Beechcraft 200, 300/350 and 1900 Series, Caravan C208 Series,<br />

Citation 500 Series, HS 125/BAe 125 Series.<br />

Engines: Garret TFE 731, Pratt & Whitney JT15D Series,<br />

Pratt & Whitney PT6A Series, Rolls Royce Viper 522.<br />

Helicopter: AS330 Puma Series<br />

Contact Lukas Potgieter<br />

Cell: +27 83 228 9711 Email: lukas@interjet.aero<br />

TRAINING<br />

www.interjet.aero<br />

Hangars 6 & 28, Lanseria International Airport<br />

PO Box 508 or 109, Lanseria 1748, South Africa<br />

Tel: +27 11 701 3545 / 3170<br />

Fax: +27 11 659 1672 / 2482<br />

Interjet Maintenance AMO080 - Inter Avionics AMO199 - AMETA ATO018


IF EVER there was a case of gross waste of public money coupled<br />

with an outright failure to comply with “cast in stone”<br />

legislation and an attitude of “we don’t care about anyone<br />

else as long as we are all right”, then the Airports Company<br />

South Africa (ACSA), must surely take the cake over its proposed<br />

handling of the future of the Durban International Airport (DIA).<br />

It has stated on more than one occasion that it is going to decommission<br />

this airport in favour of the new King Shaka Airport<br />

once the <strong>World</strong> Cup Soccer tournament is over. It had originally<br />

planned to close DIA immediately after the opening of King<br />

Shaka on <strong>May</strong> 1, but luckily the SA Air Force pointed out that<br />

DIA was needed to handle fighter aircraft movements during<br />

the <strong>World</strong> Cup which could not be accommodated at King Shaka.<br />

But a strong rumour persists that as soon as DIA is decommissioned,<br />

ACSA “will send in the bulldozers to rip up the runway”<br />

and presumably demolish all the existing buildings to<br />

boot. ACSA may well deny the rumour, but there is no smoke<br />

without fire.<br />

The company is seemingly completely overlooking the millions<br />

and millions of rand of public money it has spent on upgrading<br />

Durban International since it was given the facility on a plate and<br />

at no cost when ACSA was first established.<br />

True, it turned the airport into a modern, very workable and<br />

pleasant facility capable of handling all but perhaps the Airbus<br />

A380 today.<br />

Widening and strengthening the runway and some adjustments<br />

to the terminals to cope with this aircraft would cost a<br />

whole lot less to do than the R7,4-billion ACSA, at the obvious<br />

behest of some politicians, has already spent on the new King<br />

Shaka Airport, which none of the international airlines, and<br />

most of the local ones, did not want anyway.<br />

Then take the millions it spent on the new parkade at DIA.<br />

A cynical question one could ask here is whether this parkade<br />

was built for the convenience of passengers, or in the hope<br />

that it would encourage vehicle manufacturer, Toyota, to buy<br />

the airport for its use after the planned decommissioning?<br />

But Toyota apparently does not want the property, at least<br />

not at the price ACSA is quoting. Neither does Transnet, which<br />

ACSA was hoping would be a second option.<br />

So ACSA’s marketing strategy for the sale of DIA has backfired.<br />

But despite this, it has turned down a joint offer made by South<br />

Africa’s largest private airline company, Comair, and the largest<br />

private airport in the country, Lanseria International Airport, to<br />

buy the property. ACSA said at the time that it did not want DIA<br />

to be used by airlines in competition to King Shaka.<br />

So, as things stand at present, DIA appears to be doomed, at<br />

least if ACSA has its way. But there are many other issues<br />

tangled in this web of intrigue. It is known, for example, that<br />

an American group is keen to invest in DIA to reopen it as a<br />

combination of an “aerospace village” and a general aviation<br />

“City Airport”.<br />

This move follows a suggestion first made by the<br />

Commercial Aviation Association of Southern Africa (CAASA)<br />

that the airport remains open to accommodate all the general<br />

aviation operators at Durban’s current general aviation airport,<br />

Virginia, once their leases expire in 2012.<br />

Not only would this overcome a major problem general<br />

aviation is facing over the future of Virginia, but it would also<br />

4 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

FLAREPATH<br />

solve the problem facing both the South African Air Force and<br />

the South African Police Service’s Air Wing, both of which face<br />

eviction with the closure of DIA. ACSA has “kindly” offered<br />

sites at King Shaka to both services, overlooking the fact that<br />

neither has planned for such a move nor can afford the millions<br />

it would cost to relocate.<br />

This means that the SAAF would have to move its helicopter<br />

operations to another of its bases (Bloemfontein has been<br />

mentioned), with the same applying to the SAPS.<br />

No one in ACSA or in the Department of Transport, ACSA’s<br />

sole shareholder, seems to be the least bit concerned that,<br />

should the SAAF move its helicopters to Bloemfontein, it will<br />

seriously impair the country’s ability to meet its international<br />

obligations to provide an effective search and rescue service as<br />

required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation<br />

(ICAO). If ACSA and the DoT are considering the issue, then<br />

they are keeping very quiet about it.<br />

As mentioned above, ACSA has at least offered alternative<br />

accommodation to the SAAF and SAPS at King Shaka. Not so<br />

general aviation, despite the fact that the new airport has<br />

taken over Virginia’s general flying area which it has used for<br />

more than 43 years and that this has already seriously affected<br />

at least three major helicopter training institutions.<br />

To the contrary, ACSA has flatly stated that there will be no<br />

general aviation operations allowed at the airport (apart from<br />

aircraft landing there for customs and immigration clearances).<br />

This despite the fact that the legislation which governed ACSA’s<br />

formation in the first place, contains a specific clause that the<br />

parastatal cannot “unduly discriminate” against any user wanting<br />

to be based at, or use, any or its airports anywhere in the<br />

country – and that includes general aviation.<br />

This clause is flatly and with an obvious great degree of<br />

determination, ignored by ACSA.<br />

The fact remains, and even ACSA cannot deny this, that a<br />

fully-equipped and functional facility is available to solve many<br />

of the serious questions facing several sectors of the aviation<br />

industry, much needed by the city and its surrounds to boost<br />

tourism, provide jobs and generally follow the route taken by<br />

so many metropolitan areas overseas of having a main and a<br />

subsidiary airport to meet the needs of all.<br />

It already has it, so why throw it away? If it does not want it,<br />

let someone else have it, but do not destroy it!<br />

One suspects that ACSA’S acute fear of competition lies<br />

behind all this. Is the company scared that if competition is<br />

allowed, King Shaka will become the “white elephant” about<br />

which so many have warned?<br />

Decommissioning DIA will be a high price for Durban, its<br />

peoples and the country’s aviation industry to pay as its loss<br />

would destroy the major role it could play in the future development<br />

of the area and the industry.<br />

Then, of course, there is the question of actually destroying<br />

the infrastructure that will cost many more millions the<br />

currently cash-strapped ACSA certainly cannot afford. In the<br />

end it will be another burden for the taxpayer to bear.<br />

All in all, to demolish a perfectly good airport which is still<br />

needed by the aviation industry and, indeed, the public, is a<br />

luxury that South Africa cannot afford.<br />

The bottom line is: STOP ACSA DESTROYING DIA.


Flying the<br />

HAWKER HURRICANE<br />

Hot, heavy and loud<br />

Ever wondered what it would be like to fly the fighter that really<br />

won the Battle of Britain? Howard Cook gets behind the controls.<br />

Keith Wilson took the pictures.<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 7


THE BRITISH public and indeed<br />

many, many others might think the<br />

Battle of Britain was won by the<br />

Spitfire, but I’m guessing most pilot readers<br />

are better educated.<br />

With 32 Hurricane squadrons on<br />

strength and only 19 Spitfire squadrons, it<br />

was the Hurricane’s fight.<br />

The “Hurri” went on to serve in all theatres,<br />

including North Africa, the Middle<br />

East, Burma and Russia. Only its thick wing<br />

restricted its further development as a<br />

fighter. However, its strength and loadcarrying<br />

ability enabled new roles such as<br />

fighter-bomber (‘Hurribomber’), tank<br />

buster (‘Flying Tin Openers’), operation<br />

from carriers as the Sea Hurricane and<br />

catapulting by rockets off merchant ships<br />

(‘Hurricats’).<br />

The Hurricane was the Royal Air Force‘s<br />

first monoplane fighter and the first capable<br />

of a level speed over 300 mph. It was<br />

designed by Sydney Camm, drawing on<br />

the tried-and-tested construction techniques<br />

used in the Hawker Hart and Hind<br />

bombers and Fury and Nimrod fighters,<br />

perhaps the most beautiful biplanes of all<br />

time. Hawker’s wood, fabric and tubular<br />

metal structures enabled Hurricanes to go<br />

into service earlier than the Spitfire, which<br />

used the then new and highly labour-intensive<br />

stressed-skin technology.<br />

The first impression of the Hurricane is<br />

that this is a big aeroplane. The Spitfire is<br />

almost dainty by comparison. There is a<br />

retractable step on the Hurricane just aft<br />

of the trailing edge that you will need to<br />

use to even get on the Hurricane wing and<br />

8 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

it takes yet another fuselage step to get<br />

over the cockpit rail and into the cockpit.<br />

It must have been quite a climb in the<br />

heat of a squadron scramble.<br />

Sitting inside the cockpit on the Irvin<br />

seat parachute is roomy and comfortable<br />

in a vintage kind of way, capacious at the<br />

hip and a tapering fit at the shoulders. I<br />

am six-foot tall and it is the most comfortable<br />

of all cockpits for me.<br />

The first impression of the cockpit layout<br />

is that below the standard RAF blind<br />

flying panel, controls, trims, indicators and<br />

the H-box of flap and undercarriage selector<br />

seem to be attached anywhere they<br />

can be mounted on the tubular frame. In<br />

terms of strength, it is like sitting inside<br />

the Forth Bridge.<br />

The view out of the cockpit ahead is<br />

very different to the Historic Aircraft Collection<br />

Mk.V Spitfire that I flew previously.<br />

Although it has the same 27 litres of supercharged<br />

V-12 Rolls Royce Merlin in<br />

front, the Hurricane nose drops away a little<br />

so there is better visibility forwards, although<br />

it is still poor by modern light<br />

aircraft standards.<br />

However, the view out to the side with<br />

the multi-framed canopy is like looking<br />

through a greenhouse, filled with irritating<br />

blind spots.<br />

I normally work around the cockpit<br />

from left to right. Battery, generator and<br />

avionics master switches all on; forward<br />

to the throttle and above the RPM lever.<br />

Unlike the Spitfire where they are in the<br />

same unit, the throttle and propeller units<br />

are separate. The mixture on G-HURI has<br />

two positions RUN and ICO, the engine<br />

works on one and not on the other – so it<br />

is easy to remember!<br />

Elevator trim – neutral; rudder trim –<br />

fully right. Fuel on and in the detent;<br />

check around the standard RAF blind flying<br />

panel, the undercarriage indicator<br />

lights – green light on. Unusually there are<br />

spare lights to check.<br />

ALL IN THE ‘H’<br />

The thing that most struck me when Charlie<br />

Brown did my conversion to type back in<br />

2005 was the ‘H’ undercarriage and flap<br />

selector. Undercarriage is on the left side of<br />

the ‘H’ and flaps on the right. At least<br />

there’s a safety catch to prevent you raising<br />

the gear while on the ground. It looks like a<br />

car gear selector, but I doubt whether<br />

learner drivers fret about it as much as I did<br />

when I started flying the Hurri.<br />

I move the selector to flaps down and<br />

test what is a quite excellent hydraulic hand<br />

pump. For the first of many times in the<br />

prep and flight I will check that I have selected<br />

the flap gate and not the undercarriage.<br />

The hand pump can also be used to<br />

pump the undercarriage down if there is a<br />

loss of power in flight. There is also a foot<br />

pedal that if pushed forward will allow the<br />

undercarriage to lower in flight by gravity.<br />

Now I am ready for engine start. I unscrew<br />

the Ki-gas primer, make six pumps<br />

after the pressure comes up and lock it.<br />

Stick back into my stomach, brakes on and<br />

with sufficient pressure and parking catch<br />

on. The Hurricane, like the Spit, needs<br />

three hands to start. The start and boost


coolant pipes and lagging is nice in winter,<br />

but it is a Swedish sauna in summer.<br />

I find a clear area, carry out HASELL<br />

checks and prepare for stalling which will<br />

initially be clean with gear and flaps up<br />

and then ‘Configured’ with gear and flaps<br />

down.<br />

Unlike the Spitfire, which gives a great<br />

deal of warning and has a quite benign<br />

stall, the Hurricane does not give much<br />

warning and will drop a wing by some 60<br />

degrees. The aircraft stalls clean at about<br />

70 knots and configured, some 15 knots<br />

slower.<br />

The best way to gain handling experience<br />

from rehearsing the configured stall<br />

is by flying a practice circuit to make it realistic.<br />

In the circuit you need to get the speed<br />

below 104 knots and then select undercarriage<br />

down and keep slowing down to<br />

reach 90 knots by the end of the imaginary<br />

downwind leg. At this point, select full flap<br />

and the nose will drop significantly.<br />

Even winding in maximum trim is not<br />

quite sufficient to remove all of the nosedown<br />

pitch force. I slow down as if rounding<br />

out and continue to the stall. With my<br />

last look at the ASI showing just under 55<br />

knots, the Hurri is now feeling soggy and<br />

starts to drop its nose and wing.<br />

Flying the Hurricane slow is not a comfortable<br />

experience, although its instability<br />

was not quite as bad as I had heard, but it<br />

is a fighter – it is not meant to fly slow!<br />

DANCING ALOFT<br />

Climbing away I find a spot for some cloud<br />

dancing and higher speed handling. The<br />

ailerons are light but the roll is slow,<br />

slower than a Spitfire, taking five or six<br />

seconds to rotate through 360 degrees,<br />

depending on the speed of entry.<br />

For my part I do everything at 240 knots<br />

in Hurricane aerobatics if I am flying vertical<br />

manoeuvres. The noise of these has<br />

to be heard to be believed, and the heat<br />

rising through the cockpit from the radiator<br />

pipes has to be felt to be believed. The<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 11


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AIRVAN FOR EPIC FLIGHT<br />

Flight to raise funds for<br />

fight against malaria...<br />

WITH A quadruple purpose in<br />

mind, two Australian pilots,<br />

Tim Pryse and Ken Evers, both<br />

from Bendigo, Victoria, are planning an<br />

around-the-world flight in a Gippsland<br />

Aeronautics GA8-TC Airvan.<br />

They were originally supposed to have<br />

started their epic journey on March 18<br />

but, due to funding problems, they took<br />

the decision the day before to postpone<br />

the flight by eight weeks, making departure<br />

time now mid-<strong>May</strong>.<br />

March 18 was the actual centenary anniversary<br />

of the first controlled, powered<br />

flight made by an aeroplane in Australia.<br />

At the controls of that first flight was<br />

Harry Houdini whose escapade was to<br />

change forever the then Australian concept<br />

of flying from “fanciful” or “neigh on<br />

impossible” to being simply a part of<br />

every day life. The aircraft he flew was a<br />

French-designed Voisin biplane.<br />

The year <strong>2010</strong> thus serves as the Centenary<br />

of Australian Aviation, and Pryse<br />

and Evers have developed an exciting<br />

project that uniquely commemorates this<br />

iconic time in the country’s history.<br />

As far as their actual flight is concerned,<br />

when completed possibly in late July, although<br />

no specific timetable had been announced<br />

at the time of writing, will have<br />

achieved three of their four objectives,<br />

namely: celebrating in unique style the<br />

centenary; secondly, flying around the<br />

world, which is still considered a major accomplishment<br />

in a single-engine general<br />

aviation aircraft and, thirdly, it will mark<br />

the first time that an Australian-designed<br />

and manufactured aircraft will have ever<br />

circumnavigated the globe on a dedicated<br />

flight.<br />

The two airmen have calculated that<br />

their flight will cover 26 740 nautical miles<br />

and will take some 230 flying hours to<br />

complete. In that time, they estimate they<br />

will burn some 13 980 litres of fuel.<br />

The first three legs will all be over<br />

Australian territory, namely Bendigo to<br />

Melton, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk<br />

Island before they head for Pago Pago, in<br />

American Samoa. From there they head<br />

for Hawaii via Christmas Island and then<br />

across the Pacific to Mojave, in California,<br />

before continuing on to McNeal, in<br />

Arizona and then New Orleans.<br />

Their flight path will then take them to<br />

Kingston, Jamaica, Bridgetown, Barbados,<br />

and then to Brazil stopping at Macapa and<br />

Natal. Up to this point, their longest leg<br />

will have been across the Pacific from<br />

Hawaii to Mojave, but now will begin a<br />

2 211-nautical mile leg to Accra, in Ghana.<br />

Then it is a two-stop (Entebbe, Uganda,<br />

and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) journey<br />

across Africa before heading for the Seychelles<br />

and then on to Bangalore, in India.<br />

Hanoi, in Vietnam, will be their next<br />

stop before they start heading southwards<br />

through the Philippines and Papua<br />

New Guinea to make landfall at Cairns,<br />

Australia, prior to their last 1 194 nautical<br />

mile leg to their home base, Bendigo<br />

MILLIONS AGAINST MALARIA<br />

But perhaps what will make the<br />

endeavour of Pryse and Evers even more<br />

unique is their fourth objective. The flight<br />

is to be used as a platform to hopefully<br />

raise $1-million in donations for the<br />

Australian Foundation for the Peoples of<br />

Asia and Pacific (AFAP) and Mission<br />

Aviation Fellowship (MAF).<br />

Large numbers of people, especially<br />

young children, in many of the countries<br />

that Pryse and Evers will be flying over<br />

and landing in are suffering from malaria,<br />

and these pilots aim to use this opportunity<br />

to raise awareness about the devastating<br />

effects of the disease.<br />

Both AFAP and MAF are heavily involved<br />

in combating malaria in many<br />

countries around the world, and Pryse<br />

and Evers have set their sights on raising<br />

at lease one million dollars for these char-<br />

Australian pilots, Tim Pryse and Ken<br />

Evers, who will be undertaking the unique<br />

flight. Below is the Airvan which is<br />

ready for the flight.<br />

ities. As a result, they have come up with<br />

the name: Millions Against Malaria! for<br />

their historic flight.<br />

Readers who wish to keep track of the<br />

flight can do so on the IndigoSat site<br />

www.millionsagainstmalaria.com which is<br />

being sponsored by NTech Media. Also on<br />

this site will be the pilots’ blog as they<br />

complete each leg of their journey.<br />

In addition, there is also a facility on the<br />

site to donate to either of the two charities.<br />

The donation does not go through<br />

Millions Against Malaria, but directly to<br />

the charity itself. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 15


RESTORED DC-7B SET TO FLY<br />

AGAIN SOON<br />

ADOUGLAS Aircraft DC-7B which is<br />

owned by the US-based Historical<br />

Flight Foundation (HFF), and which<br />

has been undergoing major restoration work<br />

for the past six years, was on the verge of flying<br />

again as this edition went to press, following<br />

the recent exemption granted by the<br />

Federal Aviation Administration.<br />

It is estimated that over 32 000 man hours<br />

have been put into the restoration of this aircraft<br />

by crews of Legendary Airlines and<br />

Florida Air Transport as well as dozen of volun-<br />

“FIRST” FOR THE F-35<br />

BAE SYSTEMS’ test pilot, Graham “GT”<br />

Tomlinson, has successfully completed the<br />

first vertical landing of the short take off<br />

vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the<br />

Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II at Naval Air<br />

Station, Patuxent River, Maryland.<br />

The company is teamed with Northrop<br />

Grumman and prime contractor Lockheed<br />

Martin in the F-35’s development, testing and<br />

production.<br />

BAE Systems is developing a variety of<br />

structures and systems for the F-35 and is<br />

bringing key operational effectiveness and<br />

ongoing support capabilities to the F-35<br />

programme. It also delivers significant<br />

subsystems, including electronic warfare,<br />

advanced low observable apertures, advanced<br />

countermeasure systems, vehicle management<br />

computers, and active inceptor systems<br />

from a number of facilities in the US.<br />

The STOVL variant has been developed for<br />

the US Marine Corps and the UK Royal Air<br />

Force and Royal Navy. Q<br />

16 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

teers. The aircraft sports the original Eastern<br />

Air Lines livery (although it has been repainted)<br />

and its original registration, N836D.<br />

Fitted with four Curtiss Wright engines rated<br />

at 3 250 horsepower each giving the airliner a<br />

total power output of 13 000 hp, the DC-7B’s<br />

restoration included upgrading the full passenger<br />

cabin and a lounge area at the rear of the<br />

aircraft with which it was still fitted.<br />

The first aircraft in the Historical Flight Foundation’s<br />

collection, the organisation is planning<br />

to take the airliner on tour around the United<br />

States flying passengers wherever it goes.<br />

As the secretary of the foundation, Roger<br />

Jarman, said: “It will tour the United States in<br />

the years ahead creating a passion for aviation<br />

not seen in a long time.”<br />

Currently based at Opa-locka Airport, a few<br />

miles north of Miami International Airport, in<br />

Florida, it was flown there in 2004 from its<br />

original base in St. Paul, Minnesota, to begin<br />

the restoration work.<br />

The DC-7B underwent successful engine<br />

trails and high speed taxi tests during March<br />

prior to the HFF’s application to the FAA.<br />

In granting the exemption to the foundation,<br />

James McGraw, the FAA’s acting director<br />

of flight standards services, wrote: “The FAA<br />

finds that a grant of exemption would be in the<br />

public’s interest and would provide an equivalent<br />

level of safety to that provided by current<br />

regulation.<br />

“The HFF is unique in that its Douglas Aircraft<br />

Co. DC-7B aircraft represents the only USbased,<br />

four-engine, passenger prop-liner in<br />

operation today.<br />

“With the advent of jet aircraft, most of the<br />

DC-7 aircraft disappeared from commercial airline<br />

service by the early 1970s. The majority of<br />

DC-7s were simply scrapped as they were seen<br />

as being uneconomical to operate.<br />

“In this unique case, the aircraft being operated<br />

by the HFF was still in its original passenger<br />

configuration as delivered to Eastern Air Lines<br />

in January 1958.<br />

“Of the 112 DC-7 aircraft produced, this is the<br />

only surviving passenger-configured aircraft,”<br />

wrote McGraw. Q<br />

LATE NEWS…<br />

Pilatus / PZL Swidnik Partnership<br />

Stans, Switzerland – Pilatus Aircraft has announced<br />

the formation of a partnership<br />

with the Polish aerospace company, PZL<br />

Swidnik, for the assembly of PC-12 fuselage<br />

and wing cells.<br />

The contract, signed for a ten year period,<br />

provides for delivery of the first complete<br />

PC-12 structures during the second<br />

half of 2011. Pilatus will continue to produce<br />

detail parts in Stans and these will be<br />

made available to PZL Swidnik for assembly<br />

work.<br />

B787 Delivery Deadline<br />

Seattle – Boeing is insisting that the first 787<br />

Dreamliner will be delivered to launch customer<br />

All Nippon Airways by the end of this<br />

year even though it has yet to start certification<br />

flight testing.<br />

Snags in pre-certification testing, one of<br />

which resulted in the shutdown of an engine,<br />

has caused delays, but there is some<br />

cushion in the schedule (see also Pg 68).<br />

New Air Link<br />

Arusha – Tanzanian airline, Precision Air, is<br />

planning to start scheduled flights linking<br />

Arusha with Johannesburg, Lusaka and<br />

Harare in the near future.<br />

The airline currently flies domestically to<br />

10 destinations and schedules regionally to<br />

Nairobi, Mombasa and Entebbe.<br />

Safety Information<br />

Montreal – The International Air Transport<br />

Association, the International Civil Aviation<br />

Organisation, the US Federal Aviation<br />

Administration and the Commission of the<br />

European Union have signed a Declaration<br />

of Intent to exchange safety data.<br />

New System<br />

Paris – Dassault Falcon has delivered the<br />

first Falcon business jet with Honeywell’s<br />

new MCS 7120 Swift Broadband<br />

Communications Gateway, which provides<br />

a fully integrated wired and wireless cabin<br />

communication system and high speed<br />

global connectivity via the Inmarsat I4<br />

satellite network.<br />

Gulfstream Appointment<br />

Savannah, Ga — Gulfstream Aerospace<br />

Corp. has named Pete Buresh as its international<br />

sales director for Africa.<br />

He has been with Gulfstream for 17 years<br />

and held a number of key positions. Q


SIXTY-SIX, CLICKITY, CLICK,<br />

the “Robbie” goes turbine....<br />

FIRST IT was the Robinson R22, the<br />

light piston-powered helicopter<br />

which took the rotor-winged industry<br />

by storm and set Frank Robinson and<br />

his team firmly on their feet.<br />

Building on the outstanding success of<br />

the R22, Robinson Helicopters then<br />

developed yet another highly successful<br />

machine, the R44, larger and more<br />

powerful than its “kid sister” and able to<br />

carry more passengers.<br />

The helicopter industry was forced to<br />

hold its breath for several years, though,<br />

waiting for Robinson to “go turbine”, but<br />

the company was not in a hurry and<br />

although rumours were plentiful at<br />

successive Heli-Expo exhibitions in the<br />

United States year after year, it was not<br />

until recently that Robinson finally<br />

decided now was the time to switch from<br />

piston to turbine power.<br />

The result is the Robinson R66 which incorporates<br />

many of the design features of<br />

the R44, including the two-bladed rotor<br />

system (main and tail), T-bar cyclic and an<br />

open interior cabin configuration.<br />

Now powered by the Rolls-Royce RR-<br />

330 turboshaft engine which was specifically<br />

designed for the R66, it is not<br />

surprising that notable differences between<br />

the R66 and R44 are the R66’s in-<br />

creased reserve power, improved altitude<br />

performance, fifth seat, and larger baggage<br />

compartment.<br />

Popular upgrades include HID landing<br />

lights and such creature comforts as<br />

leather seats and a stereo audio control<br />

panel which are standard on the type. Also<br />

standard are a “seven hole” panel for engine<br />

and flight instrumentation with an optional<br />

pilot’s avionics console to the right.<br />

The new helicopter is currently undergoing<br />

is flight test programme leading to<br />

FAA certification, but no date for this has<br />

yet been announced.<br />

Tipping the scales at a gross weight of<br />

1 225 kg, it has an empty weight (including<br />

oil and standard avionics) of 581 kg. Its<br />

maximum fuel load is just over 278 litres<br />

or 224 kg leaving 420 kg for passengers<br />

and baggage with full tanks.<br />

Its cruise speed is a sprightly 120 knots<br />

and the R66 has a maximum range of<br />

about 325 nautical miles without reserves.<br />

Capable of hovering in ground effect<br />

up to 10 000 feet and with a hover<br />

ceiling out of ground effect above that<br />

level, the R66 has a maximum operating<br />

altitude of 14 000 feet with a rate of climb<br />

at sea level of over 1 000 feet per minute.<br />

From the tip of its nose to the end of its<br />

tail rotor protection skid, it measures a<br />

fraction under nine metres and it has a<br />

main rotor diameter of 5,08 metres with<br />

a tail rotor diameter of 1,52 metres. From<br />

the bottom of its skids to the top of its<br />

rotor head, it measures 3,47 metres.<br />

The fuselage has a maximum outside<br />

width of 1,47 metres and its skids spread<br />

over 2,28 metres.<br />

The R66 made its debut at the recent<br />

Heli-Expo <strong>2010</strong> (see <strong>World</strong> <strong>Airnews</strong>, April<br />

<strong>2010</strong>) and with a price tag of US$770 000,<br />

it is not surprising that orders are flowing<br />

in at “a rate of knots”.<br />

Robinson has sold more helicopters<br />

than all the other manufacturers combined<br />

and this new model is likely to help<br />

him keep that record. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 17


FIRST HELICOPTER TEST<br />

FLIGHT IN GALILEO TEST<br />

BED GATE<br />

EUROCOPTER AND Funkwerk Avionics<br />

have successfully completed a helicopter<br />

test flight with an EC145 in the<br />

Galileo test bed GATE in Berchtesgaden,<br />

southern Germany.<br />

The test marked the first time that signals<br />

from the future European satellite navigation<br />

system, Galileo, were used for navigation in a<br />

helicopter. In the Galileo Test and Development<br />

Environment (GATE), transmission antennae on<br />

six mountain peaks simulated the Galileo signals.<br />

In recent months, these so-called “pseudolites”<br />

had been upgraded to the current Galileo signal<br />

definition.<br />

The test flight was one of three demonstration<br />

campaigns as part of the European research<br />

project MAGES (Mature Applications of<br />

Galileo for Emergency Services) and is a project<br />

funded by the Galileo Supervisory Authority,<br />

which aims to demonstrate the benefits of<br />

EGNOS and Galileo for emergency services.<br />

For helicopter air rescue services Galileo<br />

could one day lead to a paradigm shift, as<br />

there would then be an additional satellite<br />

navigation system, independent of (although<br />

compatible with) the American Navstar GPS<br />

available, which would also, as part of the<br />

Safety Of Life Service, provide information on<br />

the reliability of the signal.<br />

This could, in combination with highly reliable<br />

terrain data and obstacle detection system<br />

as well as up-to-the-minute traffic data,<br />

allow for the development of new flight procedures,<br />

which would permit rescue helicopters<br />

to achieve field landings closed to the<br />

accident site, even in bad weather conditions.<br />

At present, such landings at not previously<br />

identified sites are only possible under visual<br />

meteorological conditions.<br />

During the test flight in Berchtesgaden the<br />

EC145 test pilot used a synthetic vision system<br />

developed by Eurocopter, on which the terrain<br />

below and around the helicopter is shown in<br />

perspective. The positioning of the synthetic<br />

terrain displayed is based on the data from the<br />

Galileo satellite navigation system.<br />

As an additional navigational aid, the pilot<br />

was also provided with a special “tunnel-inthe-sky”<br />

symbology for the planned flight<br />

path, which led him safely through the mountainous<br />

terrain to its landing site.<br />

As part of the test flight an “integrity alarm”,<br />

on which one of the simulated Galileo satellites<br />

was marked as having failed, was also<br />

demonstrated. In future, this “integrity infor-<br />

18 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

mation” would make it possible for a suitable<br />

navigation system to warn the pilot that continuing<br />

the flight may be unsafe if the navigation<br />

provided by Galileo can no longer be<br />

guaranteed to be reliable.<br />

During the test flight it was also possible to<br />

demonstrate other innovative solutions to<br />

existing problems. For example, the helicopter<br />

crew was able to fly straight to an “injured”<br />

fireman and “rescue” him thanks to a<br />

transponder, powered with rechargeable<br />

batteries, which allowed his position to be<br />

displayed on the navigation system’s screen in<br />

the helicopter (see the accompanying<br />

photograph). The system demonstrated is<br />

based on transponder technology developed<br />

by Funkwerk Avionics.<br />

The ADS-B transponder used by the system<br />

determines its current position via GPS and<br />

transmits this information continuously (“ADS-<br />

B out”). The receiver located on board the helicopter<br />

receives these signals (“ADS-B in”) and<br />

sends them to the helicopter’s navigation system,<br />

where the position is displayed on the<br />

basis of the data received.<br />

In the next stage of this process, these signals<br />

could then also be transmitted to a ground<br />

station, but this was not demonstrated during<br />

this flight. The great advantage of this system<br />

is that it operates without the need for any<br />

ground infrastructure, such as a GSM network,<br />

as such infrastructure is not available everywhere<br />

on the one hand (for example, when<br />

fighting forest fires in remote locations), or<br />

may be destroyed by the event itself.<br />

The ADS-B system was originally developed<br />

for use in air space surveillance, but has also<br />

proven its worth in various applications such<br />

as for monitoring ground vehicle movements<br />

at airports. Q


The Search for Cleaner Skies<br />

By: DON PARRY<br />

THE OFFICIAL launch of the Clean Sky<br />

JTI research programme was made<br />

just two years ago. The Clean Sky<br />

initiative stemmed from a European<br />

Union (EU)-wide collaborative private/<br />

public partnership, to encourage the full<br />

participation of SMEs, universities and research<br />

centres as well as leading aeronautics<br />

manufacturers, in the programme.<br />

Intended to last for seven years, Clean<br />

Sky is one of Europe’s largest research<br />

programmes, with a budget of €1,6-billion.<br />

It represents a joint commitment<br />

from the EU and aeronautics industry to<br />

make air travel more sustainable, by encouraging<br />

the aeronautics manufacturers<br />

to develop and produce greener products.<br />

The leading initiatives cover the<br />

“smart” fixed wing aircraft that will deliver<br />

active wing technologies and new aircraft<br />

configurations. Green regional aircraft will<br />

deliver low-weight aircraft using smart<br />

structures, as well as low external noise<br />

configurations (see <strong>World</strong> <strong>Airnews</strong>,<br />

January 2007) and the integration of<br />

other technologies such as engines,<br />

energy management and new system<br />

architectures.<br />

Green rotorcraft will deliver innovative<br />

rotor blades and engine installation for<br />

noise reduction, lower airframe drag, integration<br />

of Diesel engine technology and<br />

advanced electrical systems for elimination<br />

of noxious hydraulic fluids and fuel<br />

consumption reduction.<br />

Sustainable and “Green engines” will<br />

design and build five engine demonstrators<br />

to integrate technologies for low<br />

noise and lightweight low pressure systems,<br />

high efficiency, low NOx and low<br />

weight cores and novel configurations<br />

such as open rotors and intercoolers.<br />

Current targets are for 50% reduction<br />

of CO2 emissions, through drastic reduction<br />

of fuel consumption, 80% reduction<br />

of NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions and a<br />

50% reduction of external noise<br />

Systems for Green Operations will focus<br />

on all-electrical aircraft equipment and<br />

systems architectures, thermal<br />

management, capabilities for “green”<br />

trajectories and mission and improved<br />

ground operations to give any aircraft the<br />

capability to fully exploit the benefits of<br />

the “Single European Sky”.<br />

Eco-Design will focus on green design<br />

and production, withdrawal, and recycling<br />

20 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Heathrow Airport, NATS (UK air traffic services provider), Singapore Airlines and Airbus<br />

have launched an improved departure procedure for the Airbus A380, saving even more<br />

fuel, emitting even less CO2 and remaining within the airport’s strict noise procedures. This<br />

new procedure saves an additional 300 kg of fuel per flight, equating to one metric tonne of<br />

emissions of CO2 on a flight to Singapore, as well as reducing NOx emissions.<br />

of aircraft, by optimal use of raw materials<br />

and energies thus improving the environmental<br />

impact of the whole products life<br />

cycle and accelerating compliance with<br />

the REACH directive.<br />

ALTERNATIVE FUELS<br />

Engine manufacturers have a particularly<br />

tough challenge. Not only do they have to<br />

reduce chemical and noise pollutants, but<br />

attempt to be ever more fuel efficient and<br />

even adapt their products to the currently<br />

fashionable “alternative” fuels.<br />

Several flights, included revenue ones,<br />

have already been carried out with these<br />

fuels. Research is constantly seeking different<br />

base products to turn into fuel in a<br />

modern version of the philosopher’s stone.<br />

In Germany, Deutsches Zentrum fuer<br />

Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) suggests that<br />

designer fuels based on coal, natural gas<br />

and sustainable biomass could, in the future,<br />

replace kerosene in aviation. In the<br />

search for alternatives to crude oil, DLR<br />

has been conducting research into new<br />

synthetic fuels for aviation for several<br />

years. Current results show that the future<br />

fuels may even be superior to<br />

kerosene with regard to environmental<br />

friendliness and engine reliability.<br />

In the United States, experiments by<br />

scientists at the Defence Advanced Research<br />

Projects Agency (DARPA) are claiming<br />

that they could be producing jet fuel<br />

from algae at competitive prices by next<br />

year. Reportedly, DARPA researchers have<br />

already produced oil from algae in ponds<br />

at a cost of about $2 per gallon and could<br />

be mass-producing as much as 50-million<br />

gallons a year in 2011.<br />

In something of a recent surprise move,<br />

British Airways, in partnership with the<br />

Solena Group, is to establish Europe’s first<br />

sustainable jet-fuel plant and plans to use<br />

the low-carbon fuel to power part of its<br />

fleet from 2014. The new fuel will be derived<br />

from waste biomass and manufactured<br />

in a facility that can convert a<br />

variety of waste materials, usually destined<br />

for landfill, into aviation fuel.<br />

The self-contained plant, likely to be<br />

sited in east London, will convert 500 000<br />

tonnes of waste per year into 16-million<br />

gallons of green jet fuel, through a process<br />

that offers lifecycle greenhouse gas savings<br />

of up to 95% compared with fossilfuel<br />

derived jet kerosene.<br />

Following trials with a jatropha-seed-oil<br />

biofuel blend, instead of straight Jet A, Air<br />

New Zealand aims to fulfil 10% of its fuel<br />

requirements with alternative sources by<br />

2013.<br />

Amid all the excitement it has to be<br />

noted that some analysts consider improvements<br />

in engine technology to be<br />

the better bet, rather than alternative<br />

fuels. Although some airline routes could<br />

be serviced with these fuels relatively<br />

soon, it will take considerably longer to introduce<br />

the assurance of global supplies<br />

and support. This considers also a scenario<br />

where oil prices remain in the anticipated<br />

$80 to $110 per barrel range for<br />

the next three years.


Further military action in the Middle<br />

East could destabilise the situation and<br />

lead to price rises that could well surpass<br />

$200 per barrel and this would lead to a<br />

reduction in air travel and highlight the<br />

need for even greater fuel conservation<br />

and then be a boost for alternative fuels.<br />

ENTER THE EFE<br />

Meanwhile, enter the environmentally<br />

friendly engine (EFE) an example of which<br />

is about to begin testing at a Rolls-Royce<br />

facility. Rolls-Royce embarked on a series<br />

of programmes using private venture,<br />

MoD, DTI and EU funding sources.<br />

The EFE programme is a critical element<br />

in the overall technology acquisition<br />

and validation process to achieve industry<br />

targets and in order to develop the UK<br />

aerospace industry, funding for this programme<br />

is being sought entirely from<br />

within the UK.<br />

The key technologies are high temperature<br />

materials, high efficiency turbine components,<br />

low emissions combustion,<br />

advanced manufacturing technologies, engine<br />

controls and actuation technologies<br />

and nacelle aerodynamic technologies.<br />

Engine cores can be designed to be<br />

smaller and lighter thanks to new materials<br />

and higher pressure ratios and temperatures.<br />

The smaller core can allow<br />

higher by-pass ratios with both a reduction<br />

in fuel consumption and noise.<br />

These are typical parameters for the<br />

EFE where they can be tested and even<br />

retrofitted into existing engines to some<br />

extent. Rolls-Royce is on record as saying<br />

that the EFE programme is expected to introduce<br />

technologies that could be operational<br />

within ten years.<br />

The first EFE is a modified Trent 1000,<br />

though it lacks fan blades. Work will concentrate<br />

on combustor and turbine developments<br />

and is expected to run some 100<br />

to 150 degrees hotter than current engines.<br />

It is a collaborative programme including<br />

Bombardier Aerospace, HS Marston<br />

Aerospace, Unison Engine Components<br />

and Aero Engine Controls. This lastnamed<br />

company is a joint venture between<br />

Rolls-Royce and Goodrich<br />

Corporation. No doubt, an early recipient<br />

of the emerging technology will be the<br />

Trent XWB engine being developed for<br />

the Airbus A350XWB.<br />

Meanwhile, wind tunnel testing of multiple<br />

configurations of sub-scale blades for<br />

GE’s open rotor engine is being conducted<br />

to identify the optimum blade design for<br />

the engine’s two counter-rotating stages<br />

of blades. Minimal noise output and min-<br />

CFM International has carried out successful tests on a CFM-56 engine using an ester type biofuel<br />

imal specific fuel consumption, (with the<br />

associated lower emissions output) are<br />

primary benefits derived from the optimum<br />

blade configuration (see <strong>World</strong><br />

<strong>Airnews</strong>, October 2009).<br />

Open rotors cause some concern over<br />

the problem of noise. Subsequent acoustic<br />

testing, still ongoing, has involved complex<br />

blade configurations that reflect the technological<br />

advances of the past 20 years, in<br />

areas such as inter-blade spacing, blade<br />

sweep angle and chord length and in other<br />

features derived through three-dimensional<br />

aerodynamic (3-D aero) design.<br />

Rolls-Royce has expressed interest and<br />

confidence in the open rotor concept,<br />

though it has said little about its own developments.<br />

CFM International also is exploring<br />

the open rotor, though admitting<br />

some concern over the noise problem.<br />

Pratt & Whitney already has something<br />

to shout about and is currently touting<br />

the geared turbofan.<br />

This company’s PurePower PW1000G<br />

geared turbofan, due to enter service in<br />

2013, will provide a 12 to 15 percent fuel<br />

efficiency over current turbofans and will,<br />

no doubt, improve on those figures in<br />

service as experience and technology is<br />

accumulated.<br />

Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower 1000G<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 21


GOOD HOUSEKEEPING<br />

Much of this technology is still in the future<br />

but cleaner skies can be addressed in<br />

a more immediate way. What might be<br />

called “good housekeeping” can make a<br />

real and immediate improvement.<br />

Air New Zealand, Airservices Australia<br />

and the Federal Aviation Administration<br />

(FAA) of the United States, are the founding<br />

members of an initiative created in<br />

February 2008 to reduce greenhouse gas<br />

emissions from aviation activities in the<br />

region through technological innovation<br />

and best practice air traffic management.<br />

The intention is to establish a baseline<br />

for air traffic management performance<br />

and carbon emissions and the group also<br />

hopes to demonstrate the benefits of increasing<br />

global collaboration between air<br />

navigation service providers (ANSPs).<br />

Known as the Asia and South Pacific Initiative<br />

to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE) partnership<br />

group, it has undertaken a series<br />

of transPacific test flights in partnership<br />

with Qantas, Air New Zealand and United<br />

Airlines, to demonstrate and measure the<br />

emission reductions and fuel savings<br />

achievable through the use of existing efficiency<br />

procedures.<br />

The results were impressive. An Air<br />

New Zealand Boeing 777 flying from Auckland<br />

to San Francisco saved 3 490 kg of<br />

fuel and 12 565 kg of carbon dioxide. A<br />

Qantas A380 flying from Los Angeles to<br />

Melbourne saved 8 890 kg of fuel and<br />

27 986 kg of carbon dioxide. And a United<br />

B747 flying from Sydney to San Francisco<br />

saved 4 763 kg of fuel and 15 012 kg of<br />

carbon dioxide.<br />

Japan has now joined ASPIRE and a<br />

Japan Airlines flight from Honolulu to<br />

Osaka, was the latest ASPIRE flight<br />

demonstration to reduce emissions and to<br />

save time and fuel by utilising the most efficient,<br />

advanced technologies and procedures.<br />

These include procedures such as<br />

just-in-time fuelling, using preferred<br />

routes over the ocean, optimising speed<br />

and altitude and using a tailored-arrival<br />

approach to the destination airport.<br />

JAPAN PLAYS ITS PART<br />

Japan has certainly been looking at the<br />

fine details of “green” awareness. Japan<br />

Airlines (JAL) has implemented a “shades<br />

closed exercise” across 17 domestic airports<br />

in Japan and five airports overseas,<br />

where window shades of parked aircraft<br />

will be shut in order to block out the sunlight<br />

to keep temperatures in the interior<br />

from rising.<br />

By doing so, the amount of air condi-<br />

22 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

A380 FLIES THE FLAG<br />

AIRBUS IS showing support for the<br />

United Nations International Year of<br />

Biodiversity by featuring the official<br />

logo (arrowed above) on its largest<br />

passenger aircraft, the A380.<br />

In addition to pioneering greener<br />

flight, to which the flagship A380 pays<br />

testimony, Airbus is using its global<br />

outreach to back the UN Secretariat of<br />

the Convention on Biological Diversity’s<br />

(CBD) Green Wave initiative, designed<br />

to educate young people about<br />

the importance of biodiversity, its role<br />

in their future and the steps they can<br />

take to nurture the nature around<br />

them. The A380 will carry the logo<br />

throughout <strong>2010</strong> during its scheduled<br />

activities.<br />

Claimed by Airbus as having been<br />

developed as the most efficient<br />

airliner ever conceived, the A380<br />

symbolises the aviation industry’s<br />

determination to balance growth in air<br />

travel with a commitment to minimise<br />

its carbon footprint.<br />

The A380 has set a new benchmark<br />

for fuel consumption at less than three<br />

litres per 100 seat kilometres, corresponding<br />

to less than 75 g of CO2 per<br />

passenger per km.<br />

tioning required in the cabin prior to<br />

boarding and flight will be significantly reduced,<br />

which in turn can reduce the<br />

amount of energy consumed and carbon<br />

dioxide (CO2) gas emitted.<br />

From July 14, to July 24, 2009, JAL conducted<br />

a trial in domestic airports in<br />

Japan, whereby window shades of aircraft,<br />

that were parked overnight, were<br />

closed by ground staff during cabin cleaning.<br />

Results showed that on average, the<br />

amount of time needed for air conditioning<br />

for large aircraft was reduced by 35<br />

minutes and for small aircraft by 21 minutes.<br />

The combined effect of the 650<br />

flights that were involved in the trial was<br />

a substantial drop in CO2 emissions by 55<br />

tonnes.<br />

HEATHROW/A380 PROCEDURE<br />

More recently, in the UK, Heathrow Airport,<br />

NATS (UK air traffic services<br />

provider), Singapore Airlines and Airbus<br />

launched an improved departure procedure<br />

for the Airbus A380, saving even<br />

more fuel, emitting even less CO2 and remaining<br />

within the airport’s strict noise<br />

procedures.<br />

This new procedure saves an additional<br />

300 kg of fuel per flight, equating to one<br />

metric tonne of emissions of CO2 on a<br />

flight to Singapore, as well as reducing<br />

NOx emissions.<br />

The companies worked together over<br />

the last year to develop the new airline<br />

procedure, which has already been put<br />

into place.<br />

Airbus A380s departing Heathrow Airport<br />

now use less power when taking off,<br />

saving fuel and reducing NOx emissions.<br />

Once a height of 1 500 feet has been<br />

reached, the aircraft uses flexible acceleration<br />

up to 4 000 feet, before continuing<br />

its journey.<br />

The A380 is also significantly quieter<br />

than other large aircraft. It produces half<br />

the noise energy at takeoff and cuts the<br />

area exposed to equivalent noise levels<br />

around the airport runway by half.<br />

At landing the A380 is producing three<br />

to four times less noise energy, contributing<br />

significantly to reduce the noise impact<br />

while enabling the airline to carry<br />

more passengers per flight.<br />

CO2 and fuel benefit is mostly coming<br />

from the new sequence of actions,<br />

namely: early acceleration at 1 500 ft with<br />

green-dot up to 4 000 feet, green dot<br />

being approximately the best lift to drag<br />

ratio speed, which provides in general the<br />

lowest fuel consumption up to 4 000 ft.<br />

NOx benefit is coming from switching<br />

from TOGA to FLEX procedures. TOGA<br />

procedure is a one where the thrust lever<br />

is on the “Take-off Go-Around” position,<br />

meaning full thrust is used.<br />

A FLEX procedure is when the thrust<br />

lever is on the “MCT/FLEX” position for<br />

take-off, meaning the thrust is adapted<br />

(reduced) to the actual aircraft take-off<br />

weight, in order to decrease engine stress<br />

and increase its on-wing life.<br />

Singapore Airlines has now adopted optimum<br />

FLEX and early acceleration at<br />

1 500 ft with green dot up to 4 000 ft as<br />

the current departure procedure.<br />

There is more than one solution to<br />

green awareness and there is plenty of<br />

choice to develop and introduce future<br />

technology, procedures and commercial<br />

awareness of the advantages. Q


PROFESSIONAL FLIGHT TESTING IN<br />

SOUTH AFRICA<br />

By: Des Barker<br />

FOLLOWING ON from the news<br />

reports of the recent loss of the<br />

prototype Sling to a spin accident<br />

during the certification programme,<br />

some media reports incorrectly referred<br />

to the pilots as “qualified test pilots”<br />

while others more correctly, referred to<br />

the pilots as South African Civil Aviation<br />

Authority (SACAA) approved Class II test<br />

pilots. There is a major difference.<br />

The Sling had achieved world-wide<br />

fame and it did not take long for inquiries<br />

from overseas to media reports that<br />

“qualified test pilots baled-out from an<br />

unrecoverable flat spin”. Questions were<br />

asked which included: “Why did the ‘test<br />

pilots’ get it wrong?”.<br />

The explanation is that the so-called<br />

“test pilots” were not test pilots, but<br />

rather SACAA-approved pilots to conduct<br />

critical exploratory flight testing, raised serious<br />

questions as to “what are you guys<br />

up to in South Africa?”<br />

Questioning the flight testing standards<br />

in South Africa was rather sad and unfortunate,<br />

considering that the country has<br />

developed a reputation for compliance<br />

with international best practice when it<br />

comes to flight testing.<br />

Since the 1970s when the South African<br />

Air Force (SAAF) first sent its pilots for<br />

formal test pilot training, the family of<br />

experimental test pilots has performed<br />

exceptionally in putting South Africa “on<br />

the map” as a reputable, professional<br />

group, complying with the stringent<br />

standards required universally and having<br />

completed thousands of flight test<br />

programmes and flown thousands of<br />

flight test hours, safely and professionally.<br />

Such is the recognition of South African<br />

flight testing standards that several test<br />

pilots and engineers have taken their skills<br />

and experience to other countries such as<br />

the USA, Canada and Australia.<br />

Such is the quality of South African test<br />

pilots, that several of the test personnel<br />

are currently involved in providing professional<br />

flight test services to other countries<br />

in which such expensive resources do<br />

not exist.<br />

24 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

So You’re A Test<br />

Pilot Are You?<br />

THE TENETS expressed in this article<br />

are those of the author and are not<br />

necessarily supported by <strong>World</strong><br />

<strong>Airnews</strong> or its publisher.<br />

The issue of an SACAA approval as a<br />

test pilot, does not necessarily make<br />

one a test pilot! If you are not a graduate<br />

of one of the internationally recognised<br />

flight test schools, you are<br />

legally, not a Test Pilot.<br />

Exception was taken by the test pilot<br />

community to claims by the Airplane<br />

Factory’s owners that their pilots involved<br />

in the loss of the Sling, were<br />

“qualified test pilots”<br />

PROBLEM DEFINITION<br />

So what is the problem? Well, the use of<br />

SACAA Class II test pilots to conduct critical<br />

and exploratory flight testing which<br />

lies in the domain of experimental test pilots,<br />

is a serious problem.<br />

In addition, SACAA Class II “test pilots”<br />

and in some cases, even Class I “test pilots”,<br />

have been approved by the authority<br />

without having any formal flight test<br />

training. Such ratings have been dispensed<br />

by the SACAA without the requirement<br />

for demonstrating flight test<br />

competency, knowledge or experience.<br />

These are the very criteria the SACAA<br />

uses for the regulation of general aviation<br />

pilot’s licences and what Courts of Law<br />

use to determine competency.<br />

If anything, this unnecessary accident<br />

revealed the true state of ignorance existing<br />

in general aviation of flight testing requirements<br />

and exactly what is the role<br />

and function of a test pilot.<br />

n What a Test Pilot is not! A test pilot,<br />

contrary to the images conjured up by the<br />

movie, “The Right Stuff”, is not necessarily<br />

the best “stick” in the world; does not<br />

“walk on water”; does not have all the answers;<br />

is not a mathematical genius; does<br />

not necessarily go around winning<br />

“medals for bravery” or any other of the<br />

melodramatic portrayals of the super hero<br />

in the movies.<br />

n What a Test Pilot Is! He or she is an experienced<br />

aviator who has successfully<br />

graduated from an internationally recognised<br />

flight test school and been certified<br />

as an experimental, engineering or research<br />

test pilot. Such schooling is only<br />

provided in the USA (USAF Test Pilot<br />

School and United States Navy Test Pilot<br />

School), the UK (Empire Test Pilot School),<br />

France (EPNER) and Russia (Russian Test<br />

Pilot School).<br />

The only active civilian flight test school<br />

is the National Test Pilot School, at<br />

Mojave, in the USA, which essentially<br />

follows the USAF Test Pilot School syllabus<br />

and is staffed by former military flight test<br />

personnel, but has a slight shift in<br />

emphasis, additionally focussing on both<br />

FAA certification standards in addition to<br />

the military standards.<br />

SACAA LICENSING<br />

SACAA regulations enable an approved<br />

Class I test pilot “to act as pilot-incommand<br />

of an experimental, prototype<br />

aircraft which is engaged in experimental,<br />

developmental or investigative test flying<br />

in accordance with the test schedule<br />

approved by the Commissioner, for the<br />

purpose of experimental test flying,<br />

development, certification, type certification,<br />

or for the purpose of issuing,<br />

validating or rendering effective a<br />

certificate of airworthiness of such aircraft<br />

provided that he/she is the holder of a<br />

valid class rating”.<br />

A Class II approved SACAA test pilot is<br />

essentially authorised for the same scope<br />

of testing provided it is under supervision<br />

of an SACAA Class I test pilot. It could be<br />

argued that the SACAA, by allowing ‘unqualified’<br />

pilots to operate in the realm of<br />

exploratory flight testing, is irresponsible<br />

and by doing so, is probably in breach of


its statutory duty to properly regulate aviation<br />

safety in South Africa.<br />

INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARKING<br />

Post maintenance test flights are best carried<br />

out by a maintenance pilot – the<br />

French call it reception test flying and it is<br />

a different qualification to the qualified<br />

test pilot.<br />

What is usually required, is a pilot current<br />

on type with, ideally, vast experience<br />

of different aircraft of the same type and<br />

marque. Spare capacity is required, but it<br />

is not as essential as that required by the<br />

qualified test pilot.<br />

The maintenance test pilot can then<br />

make a balanced judgement based on his<br />

prior knowledge of the type he is assessing.<br />

A less well known fact is that qualified test<br />

pilots, by their nature, do not necessarily<br />

make the best maintenance test pilots.<br />

The French insist that all their test<br />

crews are suitably qualified and their licences<br />

are marked accordingly. They differentiate<br />

between Test Pilots, Flight Test<br />

Engineers, Flight Test Instrumentation Engineers,<br />

Flight Engineers (Test) and Maintenance<br />

Test Pilots – all have different<br />

qualifications. None is allowed to practice<br />

in his/her respective role without the appropriate<br />

qualification.<br />

General aviation pilots insist that their<br />

aircraft are maintained and signed off by<br />

a qualified engineer, but do they have it<br />

tested by a qualified test pilot? An approved<br />

test pilot, yes, but is he or she actually<br />

qualified?<br />

THE LEGAL STANCE<br />

The bottom line is that irrespective of the<br />

approved SA Civil Aviation Authority test<br />

pilot’s categories awarded, if the pilot involved<br />

in an exploratory or critical flight<br />

test programme has not been declared<br />

competent through graduation from an<br />

internationally recognised flight test<br />

school, such a pilot is not a “qualified” test<br />

pilot, contrary to what claims are made by<br />

pilots as to their qualifications.<br />

The prosecution in any criminal case,<br />

alternatively the plaintiff in any civil litigation,<br />

would latch on to the lack of competency<br />

issue to prove either criminal or civil<br />

negligence on the part of those owing a<br />

duty of care, or making it a “walkover” for<br />

a court to impose a hefty criminal or civil<br />

sanction.<br />

There are also other liability and risk<br />

management aspects related to this issue.<br />

For instance, insurance companies could<br />

either refuse to cover test programmes<br />

where unqualified test pilots are used;<br />

alternatively repudiate claims where<br />

unqualified or incompetent pilots or pilots<br />

not competent to conduct such flight<br />

tests, are utilised for exploratory flight<br />

testing programmes where this fact was<br />

not properly disclosed at the time the<br />

insurer underwrote the risk..<br />

It is just sad that South African general<br />

aviation pilots do not understand this and<br />

are prepared to take on such challenges<br />

in ignorance of the skills and experience<br />

required to fly the tests, and also place<br />

their lives at risk. The “arrogance of incompetence”<br />

has cost many a pilot’s life.<br />

The most dangerous combination for<br />

any flight test programme is a test team<br />

ignorant of the hazards posed by the particular<br />

flight test programme’s requirements.<br />

Making it even more hazardous,<br />

Test Flight & Development Centre collage<br />

though, are glib-tongued unqualified test<br />

pilots beguiling the naive aircraft owners<br />

of their skills, capabilities and experience.<br />

This is indeed heartbreaking for an aircraft<br />

owner when the expensive and passionate<br />

acquisition of an aircraft becomes<br />

a “smoking hole in the ground”.<br />

TEST PILOT TRAINING<br />

Test pilot training essentially aims at developing<br />

a pilot into a specialist, much the<br />

same as in the medical profession’s specialist.<br />

The training is focussed on delving into<br />

the deep theory, the mathematics and<br />

science of aeronautics and, in some cases,<br />

aerospace, in an effort to provide the test<br />

pilot with the academic tools required to<br />

interrogate performance, handling quali-<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 25


ties, stability and control, ergonomics and<br />

aircraft systems, among a vast range of<br />

subject matter.<br />

The flight test team, pilot and engineer,<br />

are taught the task of opening up and<br />

expanding the flight envelope of the air<br />

vehicle under test.<br />

Test pilots are taught the various flight<br />

test techniques to measure and assess the<br />

performance and stability and control;<br />

they are taught the how to analyse the<br />

data gathered during the flight, and most<br />

importantly, what the data means, not<br />

only to the flying qualities of the aircraft,<br />

but the engineering input for any retrospective<br />

modifications required to comply<br />

with specifications.<br />

Most of all, it enables the test pilot to<br />

identify areas in flight dynamics that pose<br />

hazardous challenges to safe mission<br />

accomplishment.<br />

In effect, the test pilots are taught to<br />

“know what it is they don’t know” and<br />

how to evaluate an aircraft safely from<br />

first principles, if necessary.<br />

Risk management lies at the heart of all<br />

test pilot training, more specifically, the<br />

ability to understand the risks imposed by<br />

the particular test being conducted versus<br />

the skills of the test pilot.<br />

Obviously, test pilots and flight test engineers<br />

are taught what processes, procedures<br />

and flight test techniques to apply<br />

to mitigate risk in the test programme.<br />

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS<br />

What are the minimum entry qualifications<br />

to enter such a school? By way of<br />

an example, the South African Air Force<br />

typically requires the following minimum<br />

experience:<br />

n An above average flying assessment.<br />

n A medical category of G1K1A1.<br />

n A minimum of 1 500 hours as pilot in<br />

command.<br />

n A current Instrument Rating.<br />

n He/she must have completed at least<br />

one operational squadron tour other than<br />

an instructional tour, or a line tour in an<br />

airline operation.<br />

n Satisfy a selection board of his/her suitability<br />

for test flying duties.<br />

n Meet the academic entrance criteria for<br />

one of the recognised test pilot schools.<br />

The desired minimum academic<br />

qualification is a BSc degree, although<br />

each country has the prerogative to send<br />

pilots without tertiary qualifications on<br />

the proviso that they can meet the<br />

minimum academic standards in mathematics,<br />

science and physics.<br />

During the intensive course, the aspirant<br />

26 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Class I and Class II Test Pilot<br />

Ratings have been dispensed<br />

by the South African Civil<br />

Aviation Authority without the<br />

requirement for demonstrating<br />

flight test competency,<br />

knowledge or experience.<br />

test pilot, besides overcoming a huge mass<br />

of theoretical training, will fly in excess of<br />

20 different aircraft types, covering the entire<br />

range of aircraft categories viz from low<br />

to high speed, 100 knots single engine light<br />

sport aircraft to Mach 2 military fighters,<br />

from gliders to four engined Boeings or Airbus<br />

and even the odd helicopter thrown in<br />

for fixed wing pilots; all this equivalent to<br />

approximately 120 hours.<br />

The bane of the test pilot of course is<br />

the administrative load on flight testing.<br />

For every one hour flight testing, approximately<br />

six to eight hours are required for<br />

data reduction and report writing followed<br />

by debriefing or oral presentation.<br />

For certification as an experimental/<br />

research test pilot, the incumbent must<br />

have graduated from a test pilot’s course<br />

at one of the Society of Experimental<br />

Test Pilots (SETP) recognised test pilot<br />

schools.<br />

EXPERIMENTAL TEST PILOTS<br />

Experimental test pilots in South Africa<br />

have mostly proceeded through the South<br />

African Air Force, although Denel Aviation<br />

sponsored the training of some flight test<br />

personnel several years ago.<br />

Approximately 50 South African experimental<br />

flight test personnel, test pilots<br />

and flight test engineers, have been<br />

trained since 1970 and even today the exorbitant<br />

costs (approximately R8-million)<br />

influence the rate of training of test crews<br />

within the SAAF.<br />

Only one test crew, a test pilot plus a<br />

flight test engineer, is trained every<br />

second to third year as a function of the<br />

SAAF’s flight test requirements and<br />

acquisition programmes. Such training<br />

alternates between fixed wing and rotary<br />

wing.<br />

Today, in South Africa, there are approximately<br />

nine fixed wing and five rotary<br />

wing experimental test pilots actively<br />

involved with development programmes<br />

within the SAAF and the industry, mostly<br />

Denel Aviation and ATE.<br />

There are 18 internationally-certified<br />

flight test engineers providing flight test<br />

support services.<br />

SAFETY NET FAILURE<br />

Getting back to the Sling accident: So,<br />

where did the safety net fail the Sling<br />

team? It could be argued that firstly, the<br />

SACAA’s creation of a Class II test pilot’s<br />

rating with associated freedoms given to<br />

an inexperienced pilot, was contributory.<br />

The pilots assumed that since they<br />

were essentially “legal” and being in possession<br />

of the SACAA’s so-called “test<br />

pilot’s rating”, they could lawfully conduct<br />

envelope expansion testing. An entry into<br />

one’s logbook without demonstration of<br />

competency does not constitute understanding,<br />

experience or skill, certainly not<br />

in hazardous flight testing.<br />

Next, the safety net that would have existed<br />

had the team made use of experimental<br />

test pilots and flight test engineers, and<br />

presented their test plan to a specialist<br />

Safety Review Board, which is universal best<br />

practice, was not in place. It was a case of<br />

the blind leading the blind under the mantle<br />

of Non-Type Certificated Aircraft (NTCA)<br />

testing which, in itself, poses a risk to life<br />

and property due to such reduced oversight<br />

standards for non-type certification.<br />

The reality is that NTCA cannot be absolved<br />

by any manufacturer from due diligence<br />

and the SACAA cannot sit back and<br />

use the excuse of non-type certified aircraft<br />

not requiring comprehensive SACAA<br />

regulatory oversight.<br />

CONCLUSION<br />

There is no doubt that South Africa’s flight<br />

testing standards in general aviation have<br />

been eroded by lack of oversight and<br />

training, with pilots going “out on the<br />

limb” under the misapprehension that<br />

they are “perfectly legal”.<br />

The SACAA regulations governing test<br />

pilot rating approvals are well documented,<br />

but are not strictly applied, nor<br />

is adequate training oversight applied to<br />

ensure minimum safety levels.<br />

What to do about it though, is the question?<br />

Much to the chagrin of general aviation<br />

pilots, if one wants to do it<br />

professionally, there will be no other way<br />

than through the SACAA.<br />

Prudence requires that the SACAA review<br />

all approved test pilot ratings for<br />

compliance with regulations and institute<br />

a review of the regulations to upgrade the<br />

“minimum practical and theoretical standards”<br />

for all approved test pilot ratings.<br />

Failure by the SACAA to intervene in the<br />

regulation of flight testing standards at all<br />

levels will bring general aviation safety<br />

and flight testing in South Africa into<br />

further disrepute. Q


28 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

AIR MALAWI FACES LIQUIDATION<br />

Frank Jomo reports from Blantyre<br />

THE COMMERCIAL Court in Malawi has given the country’s<br />

flag-carrying airline, Air Malawi, 21 days from March 25<br />

to discuss with a Moroccan company, Snecma Morocco<br />

Engine Service, how to settle a debt of US$3,4-million in a bid<br />

to avoid liquidation. The deadline, April 15, occurred after this<br />

edition went to press<br />

The Moroccan firm went to court in Blantyre asking it to liquidate<br />

Air Malawi over an unsettled $3,4 million debt the airline<br />

owes the Moroccan company for servicing its aircraft.<br />

The case is the latest of the problems facing Air Malawi which<br />

had been showing signs of resuscitation recently. According to a<br />

notice of the petition to have the company liquidated published<br />

in Malawi’s Daily Times, Snecma wants the court to declare Air<br />

Malawi bankrupt and have all its assets sold in order to honour<br />

its debts.<br />

Air Malawi lawyer, Gabriel Kambale, acknowledged the debt<br />

and asked the court to allow it discuss with the Moroccan firm<br />

how best to settle the debt. He said the Malawi Government,<br />

which was the sole owner of the airline, had committed to pay<br />

back the debt.<br />

Earlier, Finance Minister, Ken Kandodo, said Government was<br />

strategising on how best to bail out Air Malawi from its financial<br />

woes. “The Malawi Government is the sole owner of Air Malawi<br />

and we have the obligation, using the legal framework that governs<br />

the airline, to protect it from being liquidated. There is no cause<br />

for alarm,” Kandodo Banda told <strong>World</strong> <strong>Airnews</strong> in an interview.<br />

Last year during a budget presentation in Parliament, Kandodo<br />

told legislators that government intended to finance Air Malawi<br />

to pay some of its debt.<br />

Air Malawi, which was in talks with South Africa’s Comair for a<br />

possible take-over in 2009, has debts amounting to K4,1-billion.<br />

The Malawi leader, Bingu wa Mutharika, and his cabinet have<br />

been discussing whether to liquidate the company or bring in a<br />

new partner to help it run the airline. But Mchungula who told a<br />

Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Public Works later that<br />

the country would lose all foreign exchange earnings it received<br />

from air transport if the country’s national flag carrier was privatised<br />

or liquidated, said: “The cost needed to liquidate the airline<br />

will be more than what is needed to resuscitate it.” Q<br />

KENYA AIRWAYS REJOINS AFRAA<br />

SIX YEARS after it had resigned from the African Airline Association<br />

because of what it claimed to be “principled views on certain<br />

issues”, Kenya Airways has rejoined the association.<br />

The airline gave as its reason for rejoining the change in<br />

AFRAA leadership and a commitment to address the pertinent<br />

issues. Dr Titus Naikuni, the group managing director and CEO<br />

of Kenya Airways has called on the association leadership to<br />

maintain accountability on its operations.<br />

The airline’s Southern Africa area manager, Rosemary Adogo,<br />

said this was a step in the right direction and that she looked forward<br />

to a strong working relationship with the organisation.<br />

Noting that “an all talk, no action” culture had bedevilled the<br />

association, the body’s new secretary general, Nick Fadugba,<br />

said that very little had been achieved by AFRAA. He committed<br />

to Kenya Airways that the association would actively seek<br />

collaboration with aviation training institutions in Africa to<br />

generate much needed synergy. Q


SEAWIND ENTERS PRODUCTION<br />

ONE OF the most aestheticallypleasing<br />

amphibious aircraft to<br />

appear on the world aviation<br />

scene for many years, the Seawind 300C,<br />

recently obtained its FAA certification<br />

and has now gone into series production.<br />

With a wingspan of 10,67 metres, a<br />

length of just under 8,3 metres and a<br />

height of 3,1 metres, the Seawind is constructed<br />

almost entirely from fibreglass,<br />

vinylester resin and PVC closed cell foam<br />

composite.<br />

It is designed to carry four to five<br />

people and it is powered by a 310 hp<br />

Continental IO.550N engine driving a<br />

three-blade, constant speed McCauley<br />

”pusher” propeller with a diameter of<br />

1,93 metres. In a VFR-equipped version,<br />

its base price ex-factory is US$349 900.<br />

When water-borne and fully-loaded to a<br />

maximum takeoff weight of 1 543 kg, it has<br />

a draft of only 406 mm. Fully-equipped, it<br />

has an empty weight of 1 088 kg. With the<br />

main tanks filled it has a fuel capacity of 302<br />

litres, which can be increased to 416 litres<br />

with extended range tanks.<br />

For such a relatively small aircraft, it has<br />

an amazing performance being able to<br />

cruise at sea level at maximum power at<br />

174 knots or 166 knots at 75% power at<br />

8 000 feet or 156 knots at 60% power at<br />

the same altitude. Fuel burn at 55%<br />

power is just over 48 litres per hour (12,8<br />

US gph).<br />

The Seawind 300C has a maximum<br />

range of 918 nautical miles with standard<br />

tanks or 1 450 nm with long range tanks.<br />

Its best rate of climb without flaps is 86<br />

knots giving it 1 250 ft/min, or the best<br />

angle of climb with 20 degrees of flap is<br />

obtained at 64 knots. It has a service ceiling<br />

of 18 000 feet.<br />

Stall speed clean is 63 knots and, with<br />

flaps and wheels extended, that is reduced<br />

to 54 knots.<br />

Take off distance to clear a 17-metre<br />

obstacle requires 358 metres from a runway<br />

or 441 metres from water. Without<br />

the obstacle clearance requirement, it lifts<br />

off in 204 metres from a tarmac runway<br />

and 335 m from water. It requires 235 metres<br />

of runway to land and <strong>covers</strong> 250 metres<br />

on water after touchdown. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 29


Ksh 9,7-BILLION<br />

PHASE II<br />

EXPANSION OF<br />

JKIA HAS<br />

STARTED<br />

From Kauli Mwembe in Nairobi<br />

KENYA AIRPORTS Authority (KAA)<br />

has started work on the second<br />

phase of the Jomo Kenyatta International<br />

Airport expansion following the<br />

securing of a Ksh9,7-billion loan from the<br />

French Development Agency.<br />

According to outgoing KAA managing<br />

director, George Muhoho, construction<br />

began recently.<br />

Muhoho made the announcement during<br />

the visit of French Trade Minister, Ms<br />

Anne-Marie Idra, who announced that<br />

Paris would offer technical expertise on<br />

the JKIA expansion. She told reporters in<br />

Nairobi that France would channel its aid<br />

to Kenya through a French agency, AFD.<br />

Muhoho, whose second term at the<br />

KAA was scheduled to end at last month,<br />

said he was proud of the achievements<br />

the authority had made during his tenure<br />

in office.<br />

“In 2003, JKIA was ranked as the third<br />

largest cargo hub but it has since overtaken<br />

Egypt and South Africa and is now<br />

the largest cargo hub in Africa,” Muhoho<br />

said. He added that he would not be seeking<br />

another term at KAA and also dispelled<br />

speculation that he would be<br />

joining active politics.<br />

Work on phase two follows completion<br />

of the first phase, which involved construction<br />

of the airport’s apron and other<br />

civil works. When work is completed in<br />

December 2013, the airport will increase<br />

its passenger handling capacity from 2,5to<br />

9,3-million passengers per annum.<br />

Parking space for passenger aircraft will<br />

be increased from 23 to 37, and slots for<br />

cargo aircraft from three to eight.<br />

Currently, JKIA has five cargo facilities with<br />

a capacity to handle 200 000 tonnes of<br />

cargo annually, and an animal holding<br />

facility, which occupies 401 square<br />

metres.<br />

The final phase of expansion work at<br />

30 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

SECOND TIME LUCKY FOR RAPTOR?<br />

PROVIDED THE weather does not intervene<br />

again, it should be a case of “second<br />

time lucky” for one of the world’s newest<br />

and most exciting jet fighters when the<br />

F-22 Raptor makes a return to the<br />

Cotswolds this summer – two years after<br />

its planned UK debut was rained out.<br />

JKIA will involve rehabilitation of terminals<br />

one, two and three as well as the arrival<br />

building.<br />

JKIA is one of the largest airports in East<br />

and Central Africa, served by 49 scheduled<br />

airlines and direct flight connections<br />

to Europe, the Middle East, Far East and<br />

other African countries. Although expansion<br />

work began three years ago, the project,<br />

which is meant to address capacity<br />

and other operational constraints, has<br />

been painfully slow.<br />

Work on the completed phase one was<br />

undertaken by China Wu Yi, a Chinese company,<br />

at a cost of Ksh2,6-billion. It involved<br />

construction of a new apron, taxiways and<br />

an extended fuel hydrant system associated<br />

with the proposed Unit 4 terminal building.<br />

The new apron (remote parking) is already<br />

in use and the whole apron can now be<br />

used for aircraft parking.<br />

An estimated 34 airlines with over 120<br />

flights use JKIA daily, making it the largest<br />

aviation facility in the country. Other<br />

airports run by KAA include Wilson,<br />

Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, Malindi,<br />

Lokichogio, Wajir, Manda and Ukunda. Q<br />

Now the aircraft, from the US Air<br />

Combat Command, will be returning to<br />

the Royal International Air Tattoo on July<br />

17 and 18 to demonstrate why it is<br />

capable of outperforming any existing<br />

fighter aircraft in air-to-air combat.<br />

The Raptor represents a new generation<br />

of fighter aircraft incorporating state-ofthe-art<br />

stealth technology, sophisticated<br />

weaponry and vectored thrust giving it an<br />

unrivalled combination of secrecy, power<br />

and manoeuvrability.<br />

RIAT deputy director of air operations,<br />

Robert Windsor, said: “The Raptor is one<br />

of the jewels in the crown of military aviation<br />

and its display in July will be among<br />

the highlights of the seven-and-a-halfhour<br />

flying display. I recall that the pilot<br />

and his ground crew were tremendously<br />

friendly and professional throughout their<br />

stay with us – despite their obvious disappointment.”<br />

The Air Tattoo, which is held in support<br />

of the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust, is<br />

the world’s largest military air show and<br />

attracts around 300 aircraft from across<br />

the globe.<br />

This summer’s event will stage special<br />

tributes marking the 70 th Anniversary of<br />

the Battle of Britain.<br />

In addition to the flying display, visitors<br />

can enjoy a large static aircraft park plus<br />

a wide range of ground-based activities<br />

including a concert stage, fairground<br />

rides, and the interactive Tri@RIAT area<br />

for youngsters. Q


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Despite the earthquake,<br />

FIDAE COMES<br />

OUT TOPS<br />

Yuri Laskin<br />

reports from Santiago de Chile<br />

DESPITE THE massive earthquake<br />

which rocked Chile in February<br />

causing mayhem throughout<br />

much of the country, the international air<br />

show – FIDAE – which followed a few<br />

weeks later, echoed the resilience of this<br />

South American state to return to normal<br />

as quickly as possible.<br />

Planning for the show was thrown into<br />

turmoil when the national mobile and internet<br />

network collapsed for 24 hours resulting<br />

in hundreds of foreign exhibitors<br />

and delegates hesitating about attending.<br />

But with typical Chilean determination,<br />

the organisers of the Feria Internacional<br />

del Aire y del Espacio (International Air<br />

and Space Fair) changed its name from<br />

FIDAE-<strong>2010</strong> to FIDAE de la Solidaridad<br />

(Exhibition of Solidarity) and went ahead<br />

making sure everything was ready for the<br />

opening on March 23.<br />

Their efforts were assisted by the fact<br />

that the Santiago International Airport<br />

was fully operational by March 6 seeing<br />

not only normal traffic operating, but the<br />

steady stream of aircraft bringing relief<br />

supplies from all over the world.<br />

This airlift prompted the country’s<br />

newly-elected president, Sebastain<br />

Pinbiero, in his opening address at the<br />

exhibition, to personally thank the main<br />

donors of the national relief fund<br />

(“Esperanzsa”) for their contributions –<br />

donors such as Airbus, Boeing, Bell<br />

Helicopters and other world aerospace<br />

giants.<br />

The net result was that only five<br />

companies which had originally planned<br />

to attend the show, failed to arrive, but<br />

this did not prevent an impressive record<br />

of 428 exhibitors, 120 aircraft from 39<br />

countries, coupled with an estimated<br />

100 000 foreign visitors adding to the tens<br />

of thousands of locals which all went to<br />

make this one of the biggest regional<br />

aerospace exhibitions in the world.<br />

Small wonder, then, that the exhibition<br />

has earned the description of the<br />

“Doorstep to the Latin American market”.<br />

If one were to try and pinpoint the<br />

Above: The Russian Be-300 amphibian fire-bomber demonstrates its capabilities during the<br />

show. Below: This Boeing BBJ converted to uplift freight was not actually part of the show<br />

but was one of a constant stream of aircraft involved in the airlift of aid to<br />

earthquake-ravaged Chile. It is seen here being offloaded at the<br />

Santiago airport near where FIDAE was taking place.<br />

highlights of the show, the choice would<br />

be split fairly evenly between the United<br />

States Air Force’s presentation of a pair of<br />

fifth-generation F/A-22 Raptor fighters<br />

which gave impressive daily flying<br />

displays, and the Russian giant Be-300<br />

amphibian aircraft which made its debut<br />

in its water bomber format.<br />

The Raptors certainly attracted the attention<br />

of the military delegations, especially<br />

that of Chile, in view of the role they play in<br />

the United States’ regional strategy.<br />

The Be-300’s arrival at FIDAE followed<br />

an impressive transEurasian, transAmerica<br />

flight as part of a Latin America sales<br />

campaign.<br />

The aircraft can scoop up to 12 tons of<br />

water in 18 seconds and then drop its load<br />

on any forest or industrial fire.<br />

Although both European and Russian<br />

helicopter manufacturers came away with<br />

smiles on their faces and swollen order<br />

books, this was not the case for their<br />

fixed-wing counterparts, the lack of major<br />

contracts being characterised by the current<br />

world economic slump.<br />

But still, there was a mood of quiet<br />

optimism which was underlined by the<br />

fact that at least 80 percent of this year’s<br />

exhibitors had made their preliminary<br />

bookings for the 2012 event by the time<br />

the gates had closed. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 33


SOLAR IMPULSE WRITES A NEW CHAPTER IN<br />

AVIATION HISTORY<br />

APRIL 7, <strong>2010</strong> will go down in the annals<br />

of aviation history as the day on<br />

which the first flight of the prototype<br />

Solar Impulse was made, culminating seven<br />

years of intensive work, calculations, simulations<br />

and tests to build the completely new<br />

carbon fibre, solar-powered aircraft.<br />

The Solar Impulse left the runway at<br />

Payerne airfield, in Switzerland, at exactly<br />

10h27 watched by thousands of spectators<br />

from all over the country who had come to<br />

witness the historic event. Registered HB-SIA,<br />

the aircraft climbed slowly to a height of just<br />

under 4 000 feet (1 200 metres).<br />

The next 87 minutes saw Solar Impulse test<br />

pilot, Markus Scherdel, spend familiarising<br />

himself with the prototype’s flight behaviour<br />

and performing the initial flight exercises before<br />

making the first landing.<br />

The execution of these various manoeuvres<br />

which included turns simulating the approach<br />

phase, was designed to get a feel for the aircraft<br />

and verify its controllability.<br />

“This first flight was for me a very intense<br />

moment!” exclaimed Scherdel, still under the<br />

emotion of the event, when he stepped down<br />

34 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

from the aircraft. “The HB-SIA behaved just as<br />

the flight simulator told us! Despite its immense<br />

size and feather weight, the aircraft’s<br />

controllability matches our expectations!”<br />

A delighted André Borschberg, CEO and cofounder<br />

of the project, had this to say: “This<br />

first mission was the most risky phase of the<br />

entire project. One hour and 27 minutes of intense<br />

emotion after seven years of research,<br />

testing and perseverance. Never has an airplane<br />

as large and as light as this flown before!<br />

“The aim was to verify the prototype’s behaviour<br />

in flight and to test its reaction to various<br />

manoeuvres. The success of this first flight<br />

allows us to envisage the further programme<br />

with greater serenity!” he added.<br />

Echoing his sentiments, Solar Impulse<br />

chairman and initiator, Bertrand Piccard,<br />

added: “We still have a long way to go until the<br />

night flights and an even longer way before<br />

flying round the world, but today, thanks to the<br />

extraordinary work of an entire team, an<br />

essential step towards achieving our vision has<br />

been taken.<br />

“Our future depends on our ability to convert<br />

rapidly to the use of renewable energies.<br />

Solar Impulse is intended to demonstrate what<br />

can be done already today by using these energies<br />

and applying new technologies that can<br />

save natural resources,” he said.<br />

A few months earlier, the Solar Impulse had<br />

lifted from the runway during taxi tests, but<br />

that flight was described as a mere “flea hop”<br />

and not logged as an official maiden flight.<br />

Involved in the project are 70 people and 80<br />

partner companies, among which are the main<br />

ones: Solvay, Omega and Deutsche Bank; its official<br />

partner; Bayer Material Science; its official<br />

scientific partner; EPFL, its engineering<br />

partner Altran, and its advisory aircraft manufacturer,<br />

Dassault-Aviation.<br />

With its wingspan comparable to that of an<br />

Airbus A340, namely 63,4 metres and its<br />

weight similar to that of an average car (1 600<br />

kg), no aircraft so large yet so light has ever<br />

been built before.<br />

Some 12 000 solar cells are built into its<br />

wing, supplying the four electric motors with<br />

a maximum output of 10 hp with renewable<br />

energy and charging the lithium-polymer (400<br />

kg) batteries during the day to allow the solarpowered<br />

aircraft to fly at night. Q


NEW TRANS-CONTINENTAL MEDICAL EVACUATION PARTNERSHIP<br />

HARDLY HAD the ink dried on the paperwork<br />

sealing a brand new mutualservice<br />

agreement between RMSI<br />

MEDEVAC and Netcare 911 when the first<br />

major, joint trans-continental, mercy flight between<br />

the two large aero-medical evacuation<br />

specialists was undertaken.<br />

Reflecting on the events that culminated in<br />

what is described as a “text-book perfect”<br />

evacuation of a seriously ill 32-year-old man<br />

from Windhoek, in Namibia, via Dubai to<br />

Shanghai, in China, Netcare 911 international<br />

business development manager, James Crawford-Nutt,<br />

said that the case had truly reinforced<br />

the significance of inter-continental<br />

partnerships.<br />

“A service offering of this nature is absolutely<br />

invaluable for travellers and insurance<br />

companies looking for life-saving yet cost-effective<br />

solutions. While we are well positioned<br />

throughout sub-Saharan Africa we have been<br />

on the look out for the right inter-continental<br />

partner who is well positioned particularly in<br />

the Eastern and Asian markets.<br />

“We attended the 17 th International Travel<br />

Insurers conference held in Athens in November<br />

last year with the explicit objective of setting<br />

up inter-continental routes with other<br />

reputable air ambulance providers. Our enquiries<br />

there lead us to RMSI, a company with<br />

considerable experience in the provision of<br />

medical evacuations throughout the Middle<br />

East, Central Asia and Northern Africa and a<br />

fellow-member of the International Assistance<br />

Group,” explained Crawford-Nutt.<br />

According to Rob Lamb, president and CEO<br />

of RMSI, the two services enjoyed many synergies<br />

and a partnership between the two<br />

“made perfect sense”. He added: “When it<br />

comes to repatriation local knowledge is indispensable.<br />

RMSI offers an incomparable service<br />

to North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia<br />

while Netcare 911 is an expert when it comes<br />

to sub-Saharan Africa. It was only natural that<br />

we should bring the two together in order to<br />

be able to provide a seamless service throughout<br />

these regions.”<br />

The patient requiring repatriation from<br />

Namibia to Shanghai had a pre-existing medical<br />

condition. He became seriously ill while on<br />

business in Windhoek and required urgent<br />

repatriation to his home country where his<br />

doctors were familiar with the history of his<br />

condition. The Netcare 911 Aeromedical division<br />

was able to fly from South Africa into<br />

Windhoek at short notice in a fully equipped<br />

and staffed Hawker 800 jet air ambulance and<br />

then on to Dubai where a RMSI Hawker 800<br />

was on standby to take him home.<br />

The patient is reported still to be seriously ill,<br />

though stable. Q


035 - NETCARE:Layout 1 <strong>2010</strong>/04/13 02:36 PM Page 2<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.


AIRCRAFT<br />

SLINGING –<br />

NAC STYLE<br />

Text and photos: Mark Mansfield<br />

NATIONAL AIRWAYS Corporation<br />

(NAC) Helicopter Division, based<br />

at Lanseria International Airport,<br />

is well known for its wide range of services<br />

which include: geological survey,<br />

game work, aerial filming, vehicle tracking,<br />

contract management, advanced<br />

helicopter instruction, as well as charter<br />

flights.<br />

But a service that is not mentioned often<br />

is one of the division’s specialties – aircraft<br />

recoveries or, as it is more commonly<br />

known in the trade, “aircraft slinging”.<br />

I was privileged to be invited by Alistair<br />

Brown, manager of NAC Helicopter Division,<br />

to join his team on one such aircraft<br />

recovery mission to see for myself all that<br />

is involved in such a complicated and<br />

often dangerous undertaking.<br />

For this particular mission NAC was<br />

contracted by one of its various insurance<br />

company clients to remove an aircraft<br />

wreck located in a very precarious position<br />

on a mountainside.<br />

Due to the on-going investigation, specific<br />

details of the aircraft accident in<br />

terms of aircraft type, location and other<br />

information have been omitted from this<br />

report.<br />

The choice of aircraft for this particular<br />

operation was the venerable Bell UH-1H<br />

utility helicopter, or “Huey” as it is better<br />

known. The Huey was chosen because of<br />

its excellent lift capabilities – 1 300 kg on<br />

the hook – its large cargo loading area, as<br />

well as its excellent performance under<br />

hot and high conditions.<br />

A total of 1 000 kg was to be lifted in<br />

three loads on this mission as the aircraft<br />

wreckage was scattered over a large area<br />

of the mountain.<br />

Before the actual flight, a safety briefing<br />

was held by Alistair Brown and the objectives<br />

and action plan were discussed in<br />

full. Each member of the team was tasked<br />

with a specific objective and given a full<br />

safety briefing. Once everybody was<br />

aware of the task at hand, the ground support<br />

team, including a fuel bowser, flatbed<br />

truck for the wreckage and safety inspectors,<br />

as well as the South African Police<br />

36 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

The Huey “slings” a wing from the<br />

crashed aircraft to take it to the waiting<br />

low-bed truck at the foot of the mountain.<br />

The wreckage of the aircraft’s tail<br />

section can be seen at the<br />

lower right of the picture.


Services, departed by road to the site of<br />

the wreck.<br />

The airborne team led by Brown inspected<br />

all the slinging equipment and<br />

packed the Huey before departing on the<br />

1,5-hour flight to the location of the wreck.<br />

Once airborne, a weather update was<br />

obtained and final adjustments to the action<br />

plan were made. On arrival at the<br />

crash site, a few orbits were flown to determine<br />

the best and safest approach to<br />

be made. The Huey then landed on top of<br />

the mountain and a final briefing was held<br />

to place everybody in the correct spots.<br />

The truck and part of the ground crew<br />

made their way to the base of the mountain,<br />

while the other members of the crew<br />

were tasked with gathering parts of the<br />

wreckage and were responsible for the<br />

strapping and bundling of the aircraft<br />

pieces.<br />

Part of this involved smashing holes<br />

into the remains of the aircraft wings to<br />

avoid them producing lift from the rotor<br />

downdraught as they were hoisted on the<br />

sling and possibly cause an accident as a<br />

result.<br />

Another part of the ground crew’s responsibility<br />

was to ensure that all loose<br />

bits from the wreck would not break free<br />

during the lift with the possible attendant<br />

danger to all involved.<br />

Before the Huey went into action, all<br />

three loads were prepared for the lift to<br />

avoid wasting valuable time as well as to<br />

reduce costs.<br />

Before Alistair took-off for the slinging<br />

operation, the weather was re-assessed;<br />

by this time a gusting 30-knot wind had<br />

sprung up making the task all the more<br />

challenging.<br />

Besides the wind and the proximity to<br />

the mountain slope, Brown had to maintain<br />

focus on controlling the swing of the<br />

load and to make sure that the load did<br />

not snag on any ground objects as he<br />

began lifting.<br />

One of the challenges he faced was<br />

that, during the actual lift, he had to lean<br />

out of the cockpit to keep his eye on the<br />

load below him and to maintain vertical<br />

reference, which he described as “learning<br />

to hover all over again”.<br />

With Brown’s experience this was all<br />

one smooth and very well executed lift<br />

and seemed effortless to the ground crew<br />

and myself.<br />

Within hours most of the visible signs<br />

of the wreck had been safely removed<br />

from the mountain slope and we were<br />

making our way back to Lanseria at a comfortable<br />

110 knots ground speed. Q<br />

Above: With the door off, Alistair Brown peers out of the cockpit to watch the load of wreckage<br />

as he lifts it from the crash site. Below: The Huey comes in close to the mountainside on an<br />

inspection run. Bottom: Brown (white shirt) and his crew assess the wreckage to work out<br />

how best to “sling” it for evacuation from the crash site.<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 37


IATA Halves <strong>2010</strong> Loss Forecast<br />

THE INTERNATIONAL Air Transport Association (IATA) has<br />

halved its loss forecast for <strong>2010</strong> to US$2,8-billion<br />

compared to the US$5,6-billion loss originally forecast in<br />

December 2009.<br />

The improvement is largely driven by a much stronger recovery<br />

in demand seen by year-end gains that continued into the<br />

first months of <strong>2010</strong>. Relatively flat capacity translated into some<br />

yield improvement and stronger revenues.<br />

IATA also lowered its 2009 loss estimate to US$9,4-billion from<br />

the previously forecast US$11-billion loss.<br />

Improvements are driven by economic recovery in the emerging<br />

markets of Asia-Pacific and Latin America whose carriers<br />

posted international passenger demand gains of 6,5% and 11%<br />

respectively in January. North America and Europe are lagging<br />

with international passenger demand gains of 2,1% and 3,1% respectively<br />

for the same month.<br />

Forecast highlights include an improving passenger demand<br />

which fell by 2,9% in 2009, but which is expected to grow by 5,6%<br />

in <strong>2010</strong>. This is an improvement on the previous forecast in December<br />

of 4,5% growth. As far as load factors are concerned, airlines<br />

kept capacity relatively in line with demand throughout 2009.<br />

A strong year-end recovery pushed load factors to record levels<br />

when adjusted for seasonality. By January the international passenger<br />

load factor was 75,9% while cargo utilisation was at 49,6%.<br />

In terms of yields, tighter supply and demand conditions are<br />

expected to see yields improve—2% for passenger and 3,1% for<br />

cargo. This is a considerable improvement from the precipitous<br />

14% fall experienced by both in 2009.<br />

With improved economic conditions, the price of fuel is rising.<br />

IATA raised its expected average oil price to US$79 per barrel from<br />

the previously forecast $75. The combined impact of increased capacity<br />

and a higher fuel price will add $19-billion to the industry<br />

fuel bill bringing it to an expected $132-billion in <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Revenues will rise to $522-billion in <strong>2010</strong>, which is $44-billion<br />

more than previously forecast and a $43-billion improvement<br />

on 2009.<br />

REGIONAL DIFFERENCES<br />

Regional differences in airlines prospects are sharp. Asia-Pacific<br />

carriers will see the US$2,7-billion 2009 loss turn to $900-million<br />

in profits on the back of a rapid economic recovery being driven<br />

by China.<br />

Cargo markets are particularly strong with long-haul cargo capacity<br />

for shipments originating in Asia experiencing a capacity<br />

shortage. Demand is expected to grow by 12% in <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Latin American carriers will post an $800-million profit for the<br />

second consecutive year. The region’s economies are less debtburdened<br />

than the US or Europe. Economic ties to Asia helped<br />

isolate the region from the worst of the financial crisis.<br />

European carriers will post a $2,2-billion loss — the largest<br />

among the regions. North American carriers will post the second<br />

largest losses at $1,8-billion.<br />

Middle East carriers are expected to experience demand<br />

growth of 15,2% in <strong>2010</strong>, but will see losses of $400-million. Low<br />

yields in long-haul markets connected over Middle East hubs is<br />

a burden on profitability.<br />

African carriers are likely to post a US$100-million loss for<br />

<strong>2010</strong>, halving 2009 losses. Demand is expected to improve by<br />

7,4%, but this will not be sufficient for profitability as they continue<br />

to face strong competition for market share. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 39<br />

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KENYA AIRWAYS<br />

PLANS MAJOR<br />

TURNAROUND<br />

From Kauli Mwembe in Nairobi<br />

KENYA AIRWAYS is laying the foundations<br />

for major turnaround next year,<br />

as the global airlines industry projects<br />

improved performance.<br />

The airline intends to achieve the target objective<br />

through investment in staff training, improvement<br />

of systems and fleet modernisation.<br />

It also plans to recruit at least 68 pilots as<br />

part of its advance preparations for the arrival<br />

of new aircraft into its fleet and to complement<br />

staff due to retire.<br />

Kenya Airways told its shareholders during<br />

its recent annual meeting that although it<br />

made an after tax loss of Ksh4,1-billion in the<br />

financial year up to March <strong>2010</strong>, it remained<br />

optimistic its performance would improve. The<br />

SA Flyer Mag 02 | 2007<br />

40 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

confidence comes at a time when the International<br />

Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced<br />

improvement in the global demand<br />

for air travel.<br />

Kenya Airways’ chairman, Evans Mwaniki, is<br />

confident that despite the loss in the last financial<br />

year, the airline has a bright future. He said<br />

the anticipated improved performance would<br />

come through increased passenger numbers,<br />

better yield and a favourable exchange rate.<br />

Kenya Airways CEO, Titus Naikuni, told the<br />

meeting: “We plan to recruit at least 48 direct<br />

entry pilots and 20 ab initio pilots.” He revealed<br />

that the recruitment process would<br />

accommodate the exit of 23 pilots who would be<br />

leaving the national carrier in the next five years<br />

after attaining the retirement age of 63 years.<br />

Meanwhile, the airline has received safety<br />

certification from International Air Transport<br />

Association for its ground operations. This will<br />

now make the carrier, whose hubs are Jomo<br />

Kenyatta and Moi International airports, more<br />

attractive as a provider of ground handling<br />

services to other airlines which lack ground<br />

teams at these airports. Q<br />

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aircraft operators through Hi-Fly Marketing, a<br />

Cape Town-based specialist in the fulfilment of<br />

technology for the aviation industry.<br />

Alyzair has developed a customer web interface,<br />

alyzia.net, with interactive characteristics<br />

which have revolutionised the way airlines can<br />

handle their safety management system.<br />

Also referred to as flight operations quality<br />

assurance, operational flight data monitoring<br />

is the exploitation and study of flight data to<br />

enhance flight safety.<br />

Alyzair gives technical and operations teams<br />

a complete analysis of flight data, including<br />

flight data replay, flight data analysis, advanced<br />

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ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES’ “VISION <strong>2010</strong>”<br />

TOUCHES DOWN<br />

By Keith Mwanalushi<br />

THE PIONEERING spirit demonstrated by<br />

Ethiopian Airlines (ET) for over 60 years<br />

has set a benchmark for efficiency and<br />

operational success. The state-owned airline<br />

has worked its way through multiple governments,<br />

political unrest and a global economic<br />

crisis, but has still turned a profit for almost<br />

every year of its existence.<br />

“Several years ago ET mapped out its ‘Vision<br />

<strong>2010</strong>’ programme, its core objective was to<br />

achieve annual revenues of US$1-billion by<br />

<strong>2010</strong> and also increase passenger uplift to<br />

three-million passengers,” said CEO, Girma<br />

Wake, when he spoke about his airline’s Vision<br />

<strong>2010</strong>, new aircraft and airline cooperation. He<br />

was recently elected president of the African<br />

Airlines Association.<br />

“Our Vision <strong>2010</strong> strategy was a blueprint<br />

for concerted action in a number of ways, and<br />

I am pleased to report that we are now well on<br />

our way to meeting these objectives,” Wake<br />

declared.<br />

Capacity increase and network development<br />

have been the major driving forces in<br />

achieving this vision, which began alongside<br />

the order for 10 Boeing 787s in 2005. This was<br />

followed by an aggressive marketing campaign<br />

and major cost cutting.<br />

The financial target that the airline set for<br />

itself seems well on course. During the fiscal<br />

year 2008-2009 the company achieved operating<br />

revenues of over US$900-million while<br />

transporting 2,8-million passengers. Over the<br />

last five years, passenger traffic has grown at<br />

a staggering rate of 20% annually.<br />

The surge in passenger uplift has been predominantly<br />

on African routes, on which the<br />

airline makes special emphasis. The African<br />

network is among its key strengths with a 70%<br />

transfer rate. Routes have been increased from<br />

28 African destinations in 2006 to 35 in <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Ethiopian Airlines recently introduced<br />

services to Mombasa, Abuja, Lubumbashi,<br />

Monrovia and Zanzibar, and four additional<br />

weekly flights have been added to Nairobi and<br />

Dar-es-Salaam respectively from the 2009/<br />

<strong>2010</strong> winter season.<br />

“We have increased capacity, and as a result<br />

our Eastern and Southern African destinations<br />

are now served with a daily frequency. In West<br />

Africa, we have both increased the frequency<br />

and provided higher capacity aircraft,” Wake<br />

explained.”<br />

Network development has seen an increased<br />

shift to non-stop services or at least<br />

one-stop at the most. ET was once notoriously<br />

renowned for its multiple leg routings such as<br />

the tedious Addis-Nairobi-Brazzaville-Lagos-<br />

Abidjan route.<br />

Capacity increase has also been applied to<br />

the Middle East and Asia where the network<br />

spans 14 destinations. Service to Dubai alone<br />

has been extended to three flights per day.<br />

Beijing, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, in China,<br />

are split between 14 flights a week.<br />

The airline’s European affairs have also<br />

made the news; its courtship with Lufthansa<br />

has been strengthened by enhancing their<br />

code-share partnership. Currently, the two airlines<br />

jointly offer eight weekly services between<br />

Addis Ababa and Frankfurt. As of June<br />

<strong>2010</strong>, this service will be extended to 10 flights<br />

a week on the same sector.<br />

“Our code-share agreement is providing a<br />

mutual competitive advantage. It has enhanced<br />

Ethiopian business in Europe and has<br />

helped boost Lufthansa’s performance in<br />

Africa,” Wake said.<br />

Lufthansa provides access to over 100 destinations<br />

in Europe alone, via its vast Euro network<br />

that <strong>covers</strong> 39 countries; a fitting<br />

complement to ET’s limited network in Europe<br />

that <strong>covers</strong> just a handful of destinations that<br />

include London, Rome and Stockholm. Nevertheless,<br />

Lufthansa’s footprint in Africa is<br />

Top: The five Boeing 777-200LRs on order will be used predominately on long-range routes.<br />

Above: The airline has an order for up to eight DH Dash 8-Q400s worth US$366-million.<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 43


NEW TURBINE ENGINE<br />

DEVELOPMENT<br />

ADVANCES<br />

EXHIBITING FOR the first time at the<br />

AERO <strong>2010</strong> exhibition held at<br />

Friedrichshafen, Germany, last<br />

month, French-based engine manufacturer,<br />

Price Induction, displayed a model<br />

of its DGEN 380 high bypass ratio turbofan<br />

engine, currently under development.<br />

The DGEN 380 is a two spool, unmixed<br />

flow turbofan jet engine controlled by<br />

FADEC and based on a configuration combining<br />

reduced dimensions, light weight<br />

and an “all electric” system. The weight of<br />

an a fully-equipped dry engine will be<br />

around 77 kg which does not include the<br />

580 mm outer diameter nacelle.<br />

The engine, and a slightly more powerful<br />

“sister” powerplant, the DGEN 390,<br />

have been designed with inherent robustness,<br />

easy integration and maintainability,<br />

low fuel consumption and low level noise<br />

levels (55 dBA) in mind.<br />

The DGEN 380, which produces 575 lbs<br />

of thrust at take-off power, with a by-pass<br />

ratio of 7.6, fits twin-engine aircraft with<br />

a 1 590 kg maximum takeoff weight and a<br />

maximum speed of 240 knots.<br />

The DGEN 390, which produces 740 lbs<br />

of thrust at take-off power with a by-pass<br />

ratio of 6.9, fits twin-engine aircraft with<br />

a 2 000 kg MTOW and a maximum speed<br />

of 280 Knots.<br />

Both powerplants are optimised for a<br />

10 000 ft to 15 000 ft operating altitude,<br />

and a flight ceiling of 25 000 ft.<br />

The DGEN 380 and 390 jet engines are<br />

intended to equip personal light jets (PLJ)<br />

with maximum takeoff weights ranging<br />

from 1 500 to 2 500 kg and accommodating<br />

four to six people.<br />

The first run of the DGEN 380 occurred<br />

at the end of 2006 and Price Induction has<br />

subsequently been working on the testing,<br />

optimisation and production of<br />

demonstration engines.<br />

The engine type was first unveiled at<br />

last year’s Paris Air Show and the experimental<br />

campaign of the DGEN 380 has led<br />

to new architecture of the high pressure<br />

core which has been validated through<br />

more than 50 hours of intensive testing.<br />

That opened the way for the assembly<br />

and testing of the implemented A6 version<br />

of the DGEN 380. To date the engine<br />

type has completed nearly 200 hours of<br />

test running with 2 200 starts. Q<br />

42 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

WAAS/LPV FOR THE<br />

KING AIR C90GTi<br />

HAWKER Beechcraft Services (HBS) has<br />

announced that the certified wide area<br />

augmentation system (WAAS) is now<br />

available on Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21equipped<br />

King Air C90GTi aircraft.<br />

The WAAS installation offers operational<br />

flexibility and cost savings associated<br />

with direct area navigation routes,<br />

which allow for improved access to special<br />

use airspace, high traffic and/or terrain<br />

challenged airports.<br />

Another benefit of the installation is the<br />

DREAMS DO COME TRUE<br />

At left is an example of the DGEN 380 jet<br />

engine and above is an artist’s impression<br />

of the type of aircraft for which it<br />

would be suited.<br />

use of WAAS-enabled localiser performance<br />

with vertical guidance (LPV)<br />

approaches, which are nearly identical to<br />

traditional ILS approaches, and provide<br />

decision heights as low as 200 feet with onehalf<br />

mile visibility, resulting in the reduction<br />

of missed approaches and diversions.<br />

The King Air C90GTi WAAS upgrade follows<br />

the successful launch of Hawker<br />

900XP, 800XP and 750 WAAS installations,<br />

which were introduced last year. Additional<br />

WAAS solutions will be available in<br />

the near future for the remaining Pro Line<br />

21 King Air and Premier models, as well as<br />

Hawker 400XP / Beechjet 400As equipped<br />

with Rockwell Collins AMS-5000. Q<br />

These youngsters, all from the Reach for a Dream foundation which fulfils the dreams<br />

of children between the ages of three and 18 who have been diagnosed as having a<br />

life-threatening illness, had their dreams come true recently when they were all taken<br />

for rides in an NAC Helicopter Division Bell UH-1 “Huey” based at Lanseria Airport.<br />

The “flips” followed a large party with food and other “goodies” sponsored by Spar.


Also on order are twelve Airbus A350 XWB long range airliners.<br />

greatly extended by tapping into Ethiopian Airlines’<br />

vast African network.<br />

The partnership has also extended to frequent<br />

flyer programmes. ET ‘Sheba Miles’<br />

members have reciprocal earn-and-redeem<br />

privileges on Lufthansa’s “Miles and More”<br />

programme and vice versa.<br />

The sequence of events unfolding leads to<br />

the obvious thought of Ethiopian Airlines and<br />

the Star Alliance. Lufthansa is a founding member<br />

of the airline grouping and ET already<br />

code-shares with other Star members such as<br />

bmi, British Midlands, South African Airways<br />

and Brussels Airlines.<br />

Wake has reportedly said that his airline<br />

hoped to join the alliance in late <strong>2010</strong> or early<br />

2011. This dismisses speculation that the rival<br />

Oneworld alliance was in urgent talks with the<br />

Ethiopian carrier. Oneworld has no Africanbased<br />

partner apart from a few British Airways<br />

franchise operations in Southern Africa.<br />

In the present operating environment,<br />

many of the world’s major international airlines<br />

are scaling back operations and reporting<br />

heavy losses; ET seems to be flying on a different<br />

flight path. Last year, the airline reported<br />

a net profit of US$117-million, the highest ever<br />

recorded in its history.<br />

“One of the yard sticks for success of an airline<br />

is its profitability. The overall performance<br />

of our airline is noteworthy and rewarding considering<br />

the numerous challenges we have to<br />

cope with. Cut throat competition, a global crisis,<br />

escalating operational and capital costs led<br />

by the less than predictable and fluid gyration<br />

of fuel prices, and the shrinking trends of the<br />

market,” Wake stated.<br />

AIRCRAFT DELIVERY<br />

The tragic crash of one of its B737-800s off the<br />

coast of Lebanon in January in which all 90 passengers<br />

and crew perished, overshadows what<br />

should have been an enviable year for<br />

Ethiopian Airlines.<br />

Nevertheless, apart from financial objectives<br />

being on target, this year marks the start<br />

44 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

of the delivery of brand new aircraft. The company<br />

has 45 new aircraft on order, namely 10<br />

B787 Dreamliners, five B777-200LRs, eight<br />

Bombardier Q400s, 12 A350-900s and an additional<br />

order for ten B737-800s.<br />

Wake insists that the diverse types are complementary<br />

to the fleet. He stressed that Addis<br />

Ababa was 8 000 feet above sea level, a situation<br />

that made optimum engine performance<br />

very difficult.<br />

The B777-200LR provided good advantage<br />

with performance; it was the most ideal in<br />

offering the range required to serve long haul<br />

markets efficiently, he said.<br />

Secondly, the airline’s annual growth rate of<br />

20% meant there was a requirement for an aircraft<br />

with a capacity of over 300 passengers. The<br />

current 767-300ERs in the fleet were too small<br />

to accommodate this growth, so the 777s were<br />

selected. The GE90-115B-powered 777-200LR<br />

would be the first to enter service in Africa,<br />

Wake pointed out.<br />

Delay to the B787 Dreamliner has caused<br />

problems, but Ethiopian will still take on all its<br />

orders. It has been reported that the initial<br />

787-8 deliveries to airlines may be overweight.<br />

Even though Ethiopian is “not very happy”<br />

about the overweight situation, the aircraft<br />

would still perform well on mid-range routes<br />

within Africa and to Europe replacing the 757<br />

and 767s. Far East and American operations<br />

will be left to the 777s and A350s, delivery of<br />

the latter is scheduled for 2017.<br />

The original order for the 787 is for eight -<br />

8s and two -9s. However the airline may convert<br />

to more of the -9s if contractual range,<br />

payload and fuel consumption targets for the<br />

-9 are met by Boeing.<br />

Yet another aircraft type making its debut<br />

into the fleet is the Bombardier Q400<br />

NextGen, an order for up to eight aircraft being<br />

valued at US$366-million.<br />

Wake explained his reasons for the Bombardier<br />

purchase: “The 360-knot speed of the<br />

aircraft, low operating costs and its environmental<br />

credentials are the main reasons for<br />

the choice. It has excellent range and payload<br />

capability that will allow us to deploy it on domestic<br />

routes within Ethiopia, as well as regional<br />

routes of up to 1 000 nm from Addis<br />

Ababa.<br />

“The Q400 has exceptional performance in<br />

terms of climb rate, single-engine ceiling and<br />

higher take-off weight, thus greater payload<br />

from hot and high elevation airfields,” he<br />

added<br />

It has been frequently mentioned that the<br />

future prosperity of African commercial aviation<br />

lies with greater cooperation among airlines<br />

on the continent. Despite the slow<br />

progress, some advances are being made.<br />

Ethiopian Airlines and Nigerian Eagle Airlines<br />

are the first two African airlines to sign a<br />

Technical Service Agreement (TSA). This <strong>covers</strong><br />

training, maintenance, and resource pooling.<br />

ET will maintain all of Nigeria Eagle’s Boeing<br />

737s, including a host of other opportunities<br />

that will be explored including training of pilots,<br />

cabin crew and engineers.<br />

“We are assisting Nigerian Eagle to maintain<br />

the good standard that it already has. This will<br />

be an imperial benefit to Africa. Technical cooperation<br />

is a two-way thing, and I believe that<br />

we will achieve synergy from this,” Wake said.<br />

The Ethiopian Airlines Aviation Academy is<br />

now an International Air Transport Associationaccredited<br />

training centre with a large multinational<br />

customer base mostly from Africa and the<br />

Middle East. The academy recently took on a 30million<br />

euro loan from the French Development<br />

Bank towards further upgrades in order to cope<br />

with growing training demands.<br />

Traditionally, African airlines have their<br />

maintenance and training done in Europe or<br />

the United States. The Technical Service Agreement<br />

effectively ends Nigerian Eagle’s technical<br />

partnership with British carrier Virgin<br />

Atlantic.<br />

Ethiopian Airlines remains very busy in West<br />

Africa. In a bid to further strengthen regional<br />

partnerships, the company signed a five-year<br />

management contract with new Togolese regional<br />

airline ASKY Airlines. Based in the capital,<br />

Lome, ASKY will develop a West African<br />

hub feeding into the Ethiopian’s global network.<br />

ET has a 25% stake in ASKY.<br />

It is believed a duplicate model in Southern<br />

Africa may be on the cards, “possibly from<br />

Zambia to Mozambique, Botswana and<br />

Malawi,” Wake hinted.<br />

Over the next few years the Ethiopian flag<br />

carrier has set its sights on new territory, with<br />

hopes to gradually launch services to Brazil and<br />

Canada.<br />

Additional points in the USA are likely, and<br />

expansion in the Far East to include cities like<br />

Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur are on the cards<br />

as the next phase of expansion takes shape. Q


CAASA objects to<br />

MANDATORY SECURITY<br />

CLEARANCE OF ALL EMPLOYEES<br />

AT LANSERIA AIRPORT<br />

INCENSED AT the lack of response to<br />

its letter to the Director of the National<br />

Intelligence Agency regarding<br />

the NIA’s demand that all employees at<br />

Lanseria International Airport be security<br />

cleared prior to the start of the FIFA<br />

<strong>World</strong> Cup next month, the Commercial<br />

Aviation Association of Southern Africa<br />

(CAASA) has now taken its complaint<br />

straight to the Minister of State Security.<br />

However, despite sending all relevant<br />

documentation and explaining its situation,<br />

no response had been received from<br />

the minister either by the time of writing.<br />

The situation developed when tenants<br />

at Lanseria International Airport were advised<br />

by the airport management that<br />

they were required to compel their employees<br />

to complete Form 2206 and submit<br />

it to the National Intelligence Agency<br />

so that the employees can be security<br />

cleared prior to the start of the <strong>World</strong> Cup<br />

soccer tournament. The airport management<br />

has indicated that this requirement<br />

emanated from the NIA and the South<br />

African Police Services.<br />

CAASA’s letters to the NIA and the<br />

Minister of State Security were both<br />

written and signed by the association’s<br />

CEO, Kim Gorringe. In the one to the NIA,<br />

Gorringe explained that a meeting was<br />

held at the beginning of March between<br />

a representative from the NIA and the<br />

Association of Non-Scheduled Operators<br />

(ANSO), an affiliate of CAASA, to find out<br />

more about the requirement.<br />

“Unfortunately, besides the obvious<br />

argument that Government wants to do<br />

everything possible to ensure the safety<br />

and security of foreign guests and visitors<br />

attending the <strong>World</strong> Cup, no concrete<br />

reason could be advanced as to why such<br />

an invasive and far-reaching security<br />

measure is necessary.<br />

“Although our members, like all proud<br />

and patriotic South Africans, would like to<br />

co-operate with Government to ensure<br />

that the <strong>World</strong> Cup is a resounding success,<br />

they question the efficacy, as well as<br />

the practicality, of the measure proposed,”<br />

wrote Gorringe.<br />

DOCUMENT REQUEST<br />

He requested that the NIA provide CAASA<br />

with a number of documents, one of<br />

which was a copy of the written<br />

instruction from the NIA to either the<br />

Lanseria Airport Management,<br />

alternatively all tenants/employees on the<br />

airport requiring them to implement this<br />

security clearance measure, as well as<br />

outlining the personal information that<br />

was required to be submitted, the form to<br />

be completed and supporting information<br />

which must be attached.<br />

CAASA further requested in the letter<br />

to the NIA that it provide references to the<br />

legislation such as applicable sections of<br />

Act and/or regulations mandating the<br />

agency and/or the SAPS to require private<br />

citizens working at a private airport to<br />

complete the Form 2206 and undergo security<br />

clearances designed for the screening<br />

of state officials and public servants.<br />

“We must emphasise,” Gorringe continued,<br />

“that without the existence of legislation<br />

mandating these measures, the<br />

requirements of the Basic Conditions of<br />

Employment Act No.75 of 1997 read together<br />

with the Labour Relations Act<br />

No.66 of 1995 will prevent employers<br />

from compelling their staff to complete<br />

the Form 2206 and undergo security<br />

screening.<br />

“Security clearances will only be able to<br />

be conducted on those employees who<br />

‘consent’ to these measures.<br />

“We have also been advised that many<br />

unionised employees at Lanseria Airport<br />

have already received advice from their<br />

respective labour unions not to participate<br />

in the security clearance process.<br />

“We have engaged your department as<br />

we deem this a matter or urgency and<br />

great importance and we unfortunately<br />

cannot advise our association members<br />

without your written response on these<br />

issues,” Gorringe concluded. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 45<br />

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46 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

ATNS SYSTEM WINS WORLD<br />

AWARD<br />

THE ADVANCED air traffic flow management<br />

(ATFM) system deployed by<br />

South Africa’s Air Traffic and Navigation<br />

Services (ATNS) has been named by Jane’s Airport<br />

Review as the winner of the <strong>2010</strong> Enabling<br />

Technology Award for contribution to<br />

enhanced capacity and safety.<br />

The ATFM system, provided by Thales and<br />

Metron Aviation, is deployed at ATNS’ central<br />

airspace management unit and provides a system-wide<br />

view for managing the entire region,<br />

approximately 10% of the global airspace.<br />

The solution utilises end-to-end collaborative<br />

decision making to increase capacity utilisation<br />

and enables airlines to optimise operations by<br />

dynamically managing their allocated slots.<br />

Over the last decade, tourism and travel in<br />

South Africa has steadily increased by approximately<br />

7% each year. With the increase in aircraft,<br />

passengers and total air traffic movements,<br />

South Africa felt it needed to more efficiently<br />

manage airspace while enhancing safety. When<br />

THE AFRICAN Airlines Association<br />

(AFRAA), based in Nairobi, has expressed<br />

deep concern about the<br />

European Union’s latest list of airlines<br />

banned from the European airspace due<br />

to safety concern.<br />

Thirteen of the 17 countries affected by<br />

the ban are from Africa, with a total of 111<br />

African airlines now named on the EU’s<br />

so-called black list.<br />

“Air safety is AFRAA’s number one priority<br />

and we are the first to admit that<br />

Africa needs to improve its air safety<br />

record. However, while the EU list may be<br />

well-intended, its main achievement has<br />

been to undermine international confidence<br />

in the African airline industry,” said<br />

Nick Fadugba, Secretary General of<br />

AFRAA.<br />

In his response to the latest listing, he<br />

claimed that the ultimate beneficiaries of<br />

the ban were European airlines which<br />

dominated the African skies to the disadvantage<br />

of African carriers (see page 48).<br />

“If any list is to be published, it should<br />

be done so by the International Civil Aviation<br />

Organisation (ICAO), the global regulator<br />

of aviation safety, which has a known<br />

South Africa was awarded the FIFA <strong>2010</strong> <strong>World</strong><br />

Cup, airspace optimisation and management<br />

became an even larger challenge.<br />

“This ATFM system helps us optimise capacity<br />

and redefines the way we work with airlines,”<br />

said Patrick Dlamini, CEO of ATNS. “The<br />

central airspace management unit can now<br />

predict the traffic flow well in advance which<br />

will help us to put proactive measures to efficiently<br />

and safely control traffic.”<br />

The ATFM system gives ATNS advanced tools<br />

for strategic planning, as well as pre-tactical and<br />

tactical management of traffic flows within the<br />

available capacity of the air traffic management<br />

system. The system provides the comprehensive<br />

ATFM capabilities to model and implement all<br />

traffic flow initiatives for both aerodrome/airport<br />

and airspace volumes in South Africa.<br />

Traffic flow initiatives are used to dynamically<br />

balance air traffic demand with capacity<br />

to keep traffic flowing as smoothly and efficiently<br />

as possible. Q<br />

AFRAA OBJECTS TO EU’S LATEST LIST OF<br />

BANNED AFRICAN AIRLINES‘<br />

track record of impartiality,” he added.<br />

According to AFRAA, the EU list has the<br />

effect of damaging the reputation and<br />

business of many scheduled African airlines<br />

whose safety records and adherence<br />

to ICAO safety standards are comparable<br />

to the best airlines anywhere in the world.<br />

The association contends that a detailed<br />

examination of the EU list reveals<br />

some contradictions. For example: The<br />

majority of the African airlines on the list<br />

have never operated scheduled flights to<br />

Europe, do not plan to do so and have no<br />

aircraft with the range to fly to any EU<br />

state, and the list also includes many airlines<br />

that only exist on paper and are not<br />

operational.<br />

The list indicates that neither the operating<br />

licence nor the ICAO registration<br />

number of most of the banned airlines are<br />

known.<br />

AFRAA has called on the EU to emulate<br />

the example of the United States’ “Safe<br />

Skies for Africa” initiative and launch an<br />

air safety improvement programme for<br />

Africa rather than issue a “blacklist” which<br />

has not proved to be helpful in solving the<br />

problem. Q


CESSNA CALLS FOR<br />

INDUSTRY UNITY<br />

ROBERT STANGARONE, vice president,<br />

corporate communications<br />

at Cessna, has called on the<br />

aviation industry to keeping communicating<br />

the value and benefits of business<br />

aviation.<br />

Addressing the British Business and<br />

General Aviation Association (BBGA)<br />

annual conference in London recently,<br />

Stangarone said: “Everyone in our<br />

industry should consider themselves<br />

ambassadors. Business aircraft are used in<br />

so many valuable ways and have truly<br />

become essential to the global transportation<br />

system.<br />

“We need to take every opportunity to<br />

spread that message to the world.”<br />

He stressed the importance and<br />

strength of unity. “Protecting our image is<br />

a common goal we can all pursue, on both<br />

sides of the Atlantic. Through Cessna’s<br />

own ‘Rise’ campaign, we’ve seen the<br />

power of partnering with our industry<br />

allies and associations, with our government<br />

officials, with our customers and<br />

ONE OF the world’s largest carriers,<br />

United States-based United Airlines, has<br />

formalised a commitment announced<br />

earlier by signing a firm order for 25<br />

Airbus A350-900 XWB aircraft.<br />

The aircraft will be powered by Rolls-<br />

Royce Trent XWB engines. Deliveries of<br />

will begin in 2016 and run through 2019.<br />

The A350 XWB is a new family of midsize<br />

wide-body airliners. The aircraft<br />

brings together the latest in aerodynamics,<br />

design and advanced technologies to<br />

provide a 25-percent step-change in fuel<br />

efficiency compared to current aircraft in<br />

the same size category.<br />

The A350 XWB airframe will have 53<br />

percent composite materials, lightening<br />

the weight thereby maximising fuel economy.<br />

Featuring an entirely new, very<br />

quiet, cabin with extra space and comfort,<br />

passengers will enjoy more headroom,<br />

wide panoramic windows and more overhead<br />

storage area.<br />

The three passenger versions have true<br />

long-range capability and flexibility. The<br />

A350-800 will fly 270 passengers in a<br />

three-class configuration 8 300 nautical<br />

with other stakeholders.<br />

“Together, we need to make sure the<br />

facts are heard. Business aviation supports<br />

1,2-million jobs across the US.<br />

Equally, thousands of European jobs as<br />

well as those in other areas like Africa depend<br />

on our industry.<br />

“And companies that use business<br />

aviation are more productive than their<br />

competitors.<br />

“It’s not just big business either,” continued<br />

Stangarone. “The vast majority of<br />

companies that rely on business aviation<br />

are small and medium-sized operations.<br />

And just as important, business jets are a<br />

lifeline for small cities across North America<br />

and remote communities in Europe,<br />

and they play a critical role in disaster relief<br />

efforts following catastrophes such as<br />

the earthquake in Haiti.”<br />

Stangarone concluded, “As an industry<br />

we’re a force with strong points to make<br />

and a solid strategy. We’re making good<br />

headway but we have to keep working to<br />

protect our image.” Q<br />

MAJOR AIRBUS A350XWB ORDER<br />

miles. The 314-seat A350-900 and 350seat<br />

A350-1000 will offer similar longrange<br />

performance.<br />

The order book for the aircraft type<br />

now stands at 530 aircraft.<br />

Final assembly of the first aircraft is anticipated<br />

in 2011, with the first delivery<br />

scheduled for 2013. This will be an A350-<br />

900 model. Q<br />

EGYPTAIR’S FIRST B777-300ER<br />

EGYPTAIR AND leasing company GE Capital<br />

Aviation Services (GECAS) took delivery<br />

recently of the first Boeing 777-300ER<br />

jetliner to join the carrier’s fleet which already<br />

includes five B777-200ERs, five<br />

B737-500s and 12 737-800s, with another<br />

eight 737-800s on order.<br />

The Egyptian flag carrier is leasing the<br />

new 777-300ER from GECAS and will take<br />

an additional five 777-300ERs on lease<br />

through the second quarter of 2011 to<br />

continue upgrading its long-haul service.<br />

A member of the Star Alliance, EgyptAir<br />

will fly 777-300ERs on routes to London,<br />

Tokyo and North America. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 47<br />

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CITATION CJ4<br />

GAINS FAA<br />

CERTIFICATION<br />

CESSNA’S LATEST corporate jet, the<br />

Citation CJ4, has gained its type<br />

certification by the US Federal Aviation<br />

Administration (FAA), and the company<br />

announced that deliveries were set<br />

to begin later this year.<br />

The Citation CJ4 is the newest and<br />

largest member of the popular CJ family<br />

of business jets consisting of the Citation<br />

CJ1+, CJ2+ and CJ3. The CJ4 is approved<br />

for single-pilot operations and shares a<br />

common pilot type rating with the others.<br />

Retail price in <strong>2010</strong> dollars for a typically<br />

equipped Citation CJ4 is $9-million.<br />

The final results of extensive flight testing<br />

have validated significant performance<br />

enhancements including a takeoff distance<br />

of 954 metres at maximum takeoff<br />

weight, capable of a direct climb to 45 000<br />

feet in just 28 minutes, a maximum speed<br />

of 453 knots, a range of 2 002 nautical<br />

miles with two crew and five passengers,<br />

and a landing distance of 823 metres at<br />

maximum landing weight.<br />

The Citation CJ4 also offers an extensive<br />

standard equipment list including a fourscreen<br />

Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite<br />

with electronic charts and graphical<br />

weather, TCAS II, EGPWS Class A TAWS,<br />

48 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Dual Mode S Diversity transponders with<br />

ADS-B out capability, Multi-Scan weather<br />

radar, emergency descent mode, and an<br />

essential electrical bus.<br />

The aircraft will debut the new Williams<br />

International FJ44-4A electronically controlled<br />

(FADEC) engines which gained FAA<br />

AFRICAN AIRLINES have agreed to a<br />

number of objectives to safeguard their<br />

interests, especially the looming penetration<br />

of the continent’s market by<br />

foreign carriers.<br />

The 40 carrier-member African Airline<br />

Association (AFRAA) says one of its toughest<br />

challenges is to guard the African market<br />

against foreign carriers. “Currently<br />

mega carriers transport over 70% of the<br />

intercontinental traffic to and from the<br />

continent and this proportion continues<br />

to increase,” said Christian Folly-Kossi, the<br />

association’s recently-retired Secretary<br />

General. He noted that a head count revealed<br />

that barely a dozen African airlines<br />

were currently fairing well. He challenged<br />

AFRAA member airlines to come up with<br />

a strategy to fiercely fight competition<br />

from foreign carriers.<br />

“The biggest risk is seeing African carriers<br />

run out of business one by one with all<br />

imaginable consequences such as job<br />

losses and lack of transportation facilities<br />

to promote the African tourism industry.”<br />

certification in February. The cabin can be<br />

configured for up to eight passengers with<br />

a standard, belted aft lavatory.<br />

The Citation CJ4 also introduces the Rockwell<br />

Collins Venue cabin management system<br />

that includes BluRay DVD with HD<br />

monitors, moving maps and XM radio. Q<br />

PLAN TO SAFEGUARD AFRICAN SKIES FROM<br />

FOREIGN AIRLINES<br />

Other comments on the issue have<br />

come a number of sources, such as President<br />

Armando Emilio Guebuza, of<br />

Mozambique, who said air transport<br />

should be a catalyst for economic development<br />

in the continent. He challenged<br />

African governments to co-operate to<br />

allow the continent’s carriers to operate<br />

freely in Africa.<br />

Another comment came from Africa<br />

Civil Aviation Commission President,<br />

Charles Wako, of Kenya, who noted that<br />

opening African skies to African airlines<br />

was the only way to fight domination by<br />

foreign carriers. He said full implementation<br />

of the Yamoussoukro Declaration was<br />

critical to the survival of African airlines.<br />

“Until this is done, our air transport systems<br />

risk collapse,” said Wako who is also<br />

chairman of Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.<br />

He said the Yamoussoukro Declaration<br />

was put in place to facilitate the liberalisation<br />

of access to air transport markets<br />

in Africa and to promote and protect the<br />

air transport system on the continent. Q


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WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 49


50 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

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Getting ready for the kick off –<br />

NATS SERVICES HELPS ATNS<br />

PREPARE FOR WORLD CUP INFLUX<br />

AT KING SHAKA<br />

CONSULTANTS from the UK’s NATS Services have been working<br />

with their partners in South African air traffic control<br />

to reshape procedures at one of the country’s main airports<br />

to ensure thousands of extra flights taking place because of<br />

the <strong>World</strong> Cup can be managed safely and efficiently.<br />

NATS provides air traffic control from its centres at Swanwick,<br />

Hampshire and Prestwick, Ayrshire, in the UK. NATS handled 2,2million<br />

flights in 2009, covering the UK and eastern North Atlantic<br />

and carried more than 200-million passengers safely through<br />

some of the busiest and most complex airspace in the world.<br />

Prestigious international sporting events create such a dramatic<br />

increase in business and charter jet flights that states have to create<br />

special plans to ensure they can handle the extra movements.<br />

The South African Air Traffic Navigation Services (ATNS) has<br />

called on NATS Services to support its preparation for this major<br />

global occasion by reviewing and updating procedures for the<br />

King Shaka International Airport, in Durban.<br />

ATNS aeronautical information services manager, Francois<br />

Coetzee, said: “We knew that to deliver on time and meet all the<br />

necessary requirements, we had to involve external partners.<br />

Based upon technical expertise and price, NATS Services won the<br />

contract.”<br />

NATS Services project manager, Alec McLaren, said: “Training<br />

the staff who will be running the show when the tournament<br />

starts was a key element. That team – and the systems – are now<br />

in place to manage the rise in traffic this year and beyond.<br />

“We built a strong relationship based on mutual respect and<br />

everyone was very open and straightforward. What we have built<br />

together is new procedures fundamentally to improve capacity.”<br />

He added that the brief was to ensure compliance with international<br />

air traffic standards and to design new instrument procedures,<br />

which incorporated the latest satellite navigation<br />

technologies for the <strong>World</strong> Cup and beyond, when air traffic volumes<br />

are forecast to rise.<br />

The tournament starts on June 11 and ends on July 11, with<br />

both beginning and end dates expected to see the biggest peaks<br />

in air traffic movements. Q<br />

CESSNA’S LANDMARK “SINGLE”<br />

CESSNA RECENTLY delivered the 9000 th single-engine, pistonpowered<br />

aircraft it has produced at its Independence, Kansas,<br />

facility which it opened with the first model coming off the assembly<br />

line in November 1996, following the company‘s 10year<br />

hiatus from producing single-engine piston aircraft.<br />

The milestone aircraft was a Cessna Skylane which was delivered<br />

on site to its new owner.<br />

Cessna had ceased production in the mid-1980s due to rising<br />

liability costs and resumed production after the 1994 passage of<br />

the US General Aviation Revitalisation Act.<br />

In total, Cessna has produced more than 154 000 single-engine<br />

pistons since the company’s founding in 1927. Cessna produces<br />

the Skyhawk, Skylane, Stationair, Corvalis, Corvalis TT and<br />

Citation Mustang at its facility in Independence. Q


The French<br />

Bushman –<br />

BROUSSARD<br />

Text and photos by:<br />

GEOFF JONES<br />

WEAING THE squadron badge<br />

on its nose from its tour of<br />

duty at Tindouf, in Algeria, in<br />

1960, this Max Holste MH.1521C1<br />

Broussard now lives in a very contrasting<br />

environment from the dust of the North<br />

African desert.<br />

Owned by classic aircraft enthusiast,<br />

Nigel Skinner, this Broussard’s home is the<br />

green and bucolic farmland of Eggesford,<br />

Devon, in south-west England, one of a<br />

surviving handful of these 1950’s military<br />

liaison and transport aircraft built by the<br />

French company Avions Max Holste at<br />

Reims-Prunay (then known as St-Léonard)<br />

in France.<br />

Nigel Skinner, one of the Eggesford<br />

Heritage Flight, acquired this aircraft from<br />

France in 2000 where it had been civilian<br />

operated by the Association Sauvegarde<br />

des Avions Anciens, at Marmande as<br />

F-GDPZ (c/n 208) since being formally demobbed<br />

from the Armée de l’Air around<br />

1984. Before this it served in the colours<br />

it now wears with 76 Groupe Saharen de<br />

Reconnaisance at Tindouf. After the<br />

Algerian conflict ended it was re-deployed<br />

to Berlin-Tegel, patrolling the French<br />

sector of Berlin.<br />

Max Holste designed the Broussard and<br />

his company of the same name built a<br />

total of 318 examples of the type for the<br />

military, mainly the French Armée de l’Air,<br />

ALAT (Aviation Légère de l’Armée de Terre)<br />

and Marine National (3) plus 52 civilian<br />

examples.<br />

The prototype first flew on November<br />

17, 1952 and production ended in<br />

December 1961. It was not until after the<br />

first flight, when a journalist for the<br />

French magazine Les Ailes Jean Grampaix<br />

flew and wrote about the MH.1521 as an<br />

aircraft for ‘de brouse’ or ‘bush’, that<br />

Holste christened his aircraft the<br />

Broussard.<br />

In French military service the Broussard<br />

was soon nick-named the Soapbox because<br />

of its angular, slab sided fuselage.<br />

Examples were exported to foreign air<br />

forces in Argentina (10), Portugal, the<br />

Royal Moroccan Air Force (6), to Madagascar,<br />

Mauretania and Senegal.<br />

In the civilian version, the MH.1521C,<br />

one was delivered to the airline UAT<br />

(Union Aéromaritime de Transport) in<br />

North Africa, four to Upper Volta (now<br />

Burkina Faso) to operate a network of<br />

postal, administrative and humanitarian<br />

scheduled flights; one to Tunisia for use as<br />

an aerial laboratory for atmospheric studies<br />

and another in 1957 to Phnom-Penh in<br />

Cambodia, where it also assisted the<br />

French economic and technical mission<br />

established in Saigon.<br />

Many Broussards were distributed to<br />

French African processions when they<br />

were granted independence in 1960 including<br />

Burkino Faso, Congo and Chad. In<br />

1963 five Broussard’s were distributed<br />

world-wide for use by French Air Attaché’s<br />

overseas in New Delhi, Rome, Bonn, Rio<br />

de Janeiro and Tel-Aviv.<br />

In Argentina, the type was used by the<br />

Ministry of Agriculture for crop dusting, but<br />

was mainly used as a six-seat utility transport<br />

and ambulance evacuation aircraft<br />

accommodating two casualty stretchers, two<br />

sitting casualties and medical attendants. In<br />

later years these Broussards were used as<br />

jump ships for parachutists.<br />

A large aircraft with a 13,72 metre wing<br />

span, standing 1,5 m high, it is also a<br />

heavy aircraft with a 1 653 kg empty<br />

weight. However, with its powerful, ninecylinder,<br />

450 hp Pratt & Whitney R-985-<br />

AN Wasp air-cooled engine, it is able to<br />

carry a useful load of six people or 1 053<br />

kg. With large flaps, very effective ailerons<br />

and the unique twin tails and large elevator<br />

the Broussard is a STOL (short take-off<br />

and landing) machine.<br />

To capitalise and improve on this performance<br />

a modified version, the<br />

MH.1522 was proposed, with double slotted<br />

wing flaps and full span leading edge<br />

slots, but only a single prototype was<br />

built. Speed is modest, normal cruise<br />

being about 122 knots with the maximum<br />

speed 139 knots at 3 000 feet. Range is<br />

647 nautical miles at a speed of 115 knots.<br />

The remaining airworthy examples in<br />

<strong>2010</strong> are mainly ex-French Air Force, and<br />

most are flown in France, Germany, Norway,<br />

the UK, the US and Canada. Several<br />

examples are preserved in museums including<br />

one in the Museo Nacional de<br />

Aerónautica in Buenos Aires, Argentina.<br />

FLYING THE BROUSSARD<br />

With the same nine-cylinder engine as fitted<br />

to the contemporary DHC-2 Beaver,<br />

performance is similar, although the<br />

Broussard’s empty weight is greater, and<br />

consuming around 75 litres (16,5 imp gallons)<br />

per hour in an economy cruise, it is<br />

an expensive aircraft to operate – even<br />

the oil reservoir has a 36-litre capacity.<br />

Its engine is also similar to that used by<br />

the North American AT-6 (Harvard). The<br />

Broussard has two main wing-root fuel<br />

tanks with a capacity of 440 litres of which<br />

430 are useable, and it has a 2,6 m diameter<br />

aluminium variable pitch propeller.<br />

The pilot and co-pilot seats are very<br />

high and you clamber in to the seats up<br />

the steeply inclined cabin, almost like in a<br />

DC-3 – the view once seated is like the<br />

captain on the bridge of his ship!<br />

Able to carry six people the Broussard<br />

is a great aircraft for transporting a large<br />

family or for a flying camping holiday, although<br />

you have to be careful with weight<br />

and balance to ensure the CofG is not too<br />

far back. The opposite applies if the<br />

Broussard is flown solo, so you may need<br />

to carry ballast.<br />

A rarity on this aircraft is one of the engine<br />

instruments, the pressure gauge to<br />

be precise. It is graduation unit is the<br />

pièze, or pz for short, with 1 pz being<br />

equal to 0,01 bar. A fuller explanation can<br />

be found in the sidebar on page 53.<br />

From a reasonable runway surface,<br />

with full throttle and in to wind, the tail<br />

soon lifts and at 50/55 knots a gentle back<br />

pressure on the stick and some deft rudder-work,<br />

the Broussard is flying and can<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 51


e established in a ‘best climb’ of 700<br />

ft/min at 80 knots, the gauges showing<br />

117 pz and 2 200 rpm. At almost full power<br />

(455 hp) in the climb a fuel consumption of<br />

135 litres per hour will soon have you easing<br />

back on the throttle to a more economic<br />

420 hp when the gauges indicate 88 pz and<br />

1 900 rpm with 100 knots indicated and fuel<br />

consumption at 76 litres per hour.<br />

Push the throttle and get 93 pz with<br />

2 000 rpm and the speed will increase to<br />

105 knots, but with the attendant fuel consumption<br />

increase to 78 l/hr.<br />

The Broussard’s flaps are effective as<br />

demonstrated at landing or in the stall –<br />

slow speed handling is good in all axes at<br />

52 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

62 knots for loitering/reconnaissance and<br />

deploying 30° of flaps will help bring the<br />

speed back to 57 knots. For landing 80<br />

knots is recommended down-wind with<br />

20° of flaps, then on base leg slowing to<br />

75 knots with 30° of flaps and establishing<br />

finals at 70 knots with 40° of flaps at short<br />

finals, plenty of rudder work and a threepoint<br />

touch down technique.<br />

Every Broussard pilot should be able to<br />

land his aircraft on a 600 metre strip or<br />

less and to take off from same. It is also<br />

capable in cross-winds, the book maximum<br />

for a 90° cross-wind being 16 knots<br />

– just 20° and the limit is 50 knots.<br />

If you want to buy a Broussard they are<br />

available, but prices vary according to condition<br />

and engine time – a good 1960 example<br />

was advertised for sale in France<br />

last year for Euro 49 000 with 4 600 hours<br />

total time.<br />

LARGER VERSION<br />

Max Holste developed a larger, 17-seat,<br />

twin-engine Broussard, the MH.250 Super<br />

Broussard which first flew in <strong>May</strong> 1959,<br />

ten examples being ordered by the French<br />

Government. The company’s finances<br />

were stretched so Max Holste collaborated<br />

with Nord Aviation to develop and<br />

build the MH.250 – this aircraft eventually<br />

became the Nord 262 commuter-liner.


Meanwhile, a 49% stake in Max Holste<br />

was acquired by Cessna Aircraft Company<br />

from the USA and the old company name<br />

disappeared and it became Reims Aviation<br />

SA producing various Cessna singleengine<br />

models (mainly 150s and 172s) for<br />

the European and Middle East markets<br />

and later the twin engine Cessna 404.<br />

In the Algerian conflict (1956-1962) the<br />

Armée de l’Air deployed 140 Broussards for<br />

aerial reconnaissance, artillery spotting and<br />

medi-vac duties, the aircraft equipped with<br />

four under-wing hard points and often carrying<br />

a machine gun mounted in the leftside<br />

entry door position.<br />

At least 29 examples were lost in this<br />

conflict, many of them in landing and<br />

take-off accidents. By 1980 there were<br />

only 75 Broussards active with the French<br />

military, many examples having already<br />

been distributed to French aero clubs and<br />

parachute clubs. The last Armée de l’Air<br />

example was retired in November 1987,<br />

followed by a veritable ‘flea-market’ of<br />

Broussard sales to private owners, mainly<br />

‘war-bird’ enthusiasts in the US. The very<br />

last French military Broussard was retired<br />

by ALAT at Montauban, in south-west<br />

France, on July 1, 1993.<br />

When the featured example came to<br />

the UK it was adorned in a gaudy, brightly<br />

coloured scheme sponsored by the dairy<br />

WHAT‘S A PZ?<br />

THE PIÈZE (pz) is a unit of pressure<br />

in the metre-tonne-second system<br />

of units (MTS system), used, for example,<br />

in the former Soviet Union<br />

1933-1955.<br />

It is defined as one sthène per<br />

square metre. For all intents and<br />

purposes, 1 pz is equal to 0,01 bar so<br />

if you are planning on buying a<br />

Broussard you had better brush up<br />

on the MTS system.<br />

company, St. Ivel, and advertising its<br />

‘Shape’ yoghurt products, attending air<br />

shows and fly-ins between 2000 and<br />

2006.<br />

It then reverted to this more modest<br />

and authentic Armée de l’Air scheme,<br />

coded ‘IR’ from its days at Tindouf in the<br />

western Algerian desert – note the white<br />

painted upper surfaces to provide some<br />

deflection to the searing Saharan heat.<br />

It is one of an estimated 20 examples<br />

world-wide still maintained in airworthy<br />

condition and most years European<br />

Broussard pilots enjoy a ‘rassemblement’<br />

at their aircraft’s birth place, French<br />

champagne country at Reims. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 53


ONE FOR<br />

THE<br />

RECORD<br />

BOOKS?<br />

Brother and sister<br />

combo make a<br />

unique flying pair...<br />

THERE HAVE been many instances of<br />

two brothers or even a brother and<br />

sister both choosing flying as a career,<br />

but seldom – if ever in Africa anyway<br />

– have there been a brother and<br />

sister who both started learning to fly at<br />

the same flying school on the same day<br />

and then, a year and a half later, again on<br />

the same day, qualifying for their Commercial<br />

Pilots’ Licences.<br />

Meet Andre and Riëtte Strydom, the<br />

brother and sister team from<br />

Johannesburg who have done just that<br />

writing perhaps a new chapter in the<br />

annals of South African aviation. They<br />

finished their CPL course at 43 Air School,<br />

in Port Alfred, and qualified on the same<br />

day recently, both immediately setting<br />

their sights on obtaining their Airline<br />

Transport Pilots’ Licences just as soon as<br />

they can complete the written examinations<br />

and build up sufficient flying hours<br />

to do so.<br />

But do they have the same goals in aviation?<br />

Riëtte said, with a mischievous<br />

twinkle in her eye, that her ideal job as a<br />

pilot would be to “fly some rich person<br />

around in a private jet.” Her brother has<br />

set his sights on one day becoming an airline<br />

captain commanding an Airbus A380.<br />

Was there much competition or friction<br />

between them during their flying training?<br />

“Not in the least,” they answered in<br />

unison when asked. Andre added: “For a<br />

brother and sister, I think we get along<br />

great. As the younger brother, I don’t<br />

think of Riëtte as a sister, but rather as my<br />

best friend.”<br />

Riëtte’s interest in flying developed<br />

54 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Andre and Riëtte Strydom both qualfied as CPLs on the same day recently.<br />

when she met several pilots with different<br />

lifestyles through her mother’s business.<br />

“We lived near Johannesburg International<br />

Airport nearly all our lives and I remember<br />

watching the planes approaching<br />

to land. I was in awe of how such a big<br />

thing could stay in the air. I am very proud<br />

to be one of the comparatively few<br />

women in a male-dominated industry to<br />

have qualified as a Commercial Pilot.”<br />

For Andre it was a dream come true. “It<br />

has been my dream since I was a little boy.<br />

I have been in love with the thought of flying<br />

for as long as I can remember, but I<br />

lost the dream somewhere along the way.<br />

That was until my sister decided to start<br />

flying – and I could not let her have all the<br />

fun, could I?”<br />

HIGHLIGHTS<br />

Asked what was the highlight during their<br />

time of training at 43 Air School, Riëtte<br />

said that not only was it qualifying as a<br />

Commercial Pilot, but also the friendships<br />

she had made that would last a life time.<br />

“The day I passed my CPL test, I realised<br />

that my dream of having an office with a<br />

view will finally become a reality.”<br />

For Andre the highlight was also passing<br />

his CPL test. “But this came with the<br />

thought that I had to utilise all the skills I<br />

had acquired over the last year and a half<br />

in one day. I think, too, that another highlight<br />

must have been waking up every<br />

morning knowing that I’ll be doing what I<br />

love every day.”<br />

Asked about the “low points” in their<br />

training Riëtte said: “Some days I really<br />

thought it could not get any worse and<br />

that I would give up. But my parents<br />

bought us Harley Davidsons (motorbikes)<br />

as an incentive to keep our chins up.”<br />

Andre agreed that in flying you have<br />

good days and bad days. “For me there<br />

were very few bad days. Being somewhat<br />

of a perfectionist, made these bad days<br />

worse, as you always want to do everything<br />

perfectly. Our parents telling us they<br />

were enjoying their breakfast runs on<br />

their bikes while we had to work and<br />

study, did not help either.”<br />

And 43 Air School? “The school has a<br />

reputation for being one of the best in the<br />

world. Naturally, if you want to be one of<br />

the best, you have to learn from the best,”<br />

they both agreed.<br />

They were also in unison on another<br />

point: “We are so blessed to have amazingly<br />

supportive parents who have been<br />

there every step along the way and without<br />

whose sponsorship our dreams would<br />

never have become a reality.” Q


Avionic Systems at Rand Airport has been established<br />

for 46 years. We are authorised<br />

dealers for ROCKWELL-COLLINS (Business &<br />

Regional and Air Transport Divisions). In addition,<br />

we are SOLE Dealers in the region for<br />

COLLINS GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS (Military<br />

equipment). Our experienced technicians are<br />

available for pre- and after-sales advice. We<br />

also import and support equipment from<br />

BECKER and INTERTRADE. Our Licenced<br />

workshop is accessible by road and runway,<br />

with convenient aircraft parking. We are sole<br />

agents for ENTERPRISE ELECTRONICS, manufacturers<br />

of meteorological equipment, including<br />

ground-based radar systems.<br />

56 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Rand Airport, Germiston, South Africa<br />

P O Box 18004, Rand Airport, 1419<br />

Tel: +27 11 827 5593/4 Fax: +27 11 824 2928<br />

E-mail: arthur@avionicsystems.co.za<br />

AMO 020<br />

Member of Trace International<br />

Arthur Wurdeman Pieter Breedt


WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF<br />

EVER SINCE private flying, and more<br />

specifically, general aviation, became<br />

a popular mode of transport<br />

after the end of <strong>World</strong> War II, aircraft designers<br />

have been wanting to develop a<br />

small aircraft which could easily be converted<br />

into a motor car and vice versa.<br />

There have also been those who have<br />

converted cars into boats and even submarines,<br />

James Bond style. Many designs<br />

in both disciplines have appeared, but few<br />

have proven to be successful to the extent<br />

that they have captured many sales.<br />

Now, however, an American company<br />

which has been specialising in what it calls<br />

“advancing the state-of-the-art in personal<br />

aircraft since 2006”, has come up<br />

with a unique design which it has called<br />

the Transition Roadable Aircraft.<br />

Based in Woburn, MA, Terrafugia Inc.<br />

has successfully test driven and test flown<br />

this two-seat, side-by-side car-cumaircraft<br />

which, from an aviation point of<br />

view, is registered in the Light Sport Aircraft<br />

(LSA) category.<br />

Discussing the rationale behind the development<br />

of the Transition, a company<br />

spokesman explained: “Every pilot faces<br />

uncertain weather, rising costs and<br />

ground transportation hassles.<br />

“The Transition combines the unique<br />

convenience of being able to fold its wings<br />

and drive on any road surface with a modern<br />

personal airframe platform.<br />

“Folding the wings for road use,” the<br />

spokesman continued, “and deploying<br />

them for flight at the airport, is activated<br />

from inside the cockpit. This unique functionality<br />

addresses head-on the chal-<br />

lenges faced by today’s private and sport<br />

pilots.”<br />

On the road, the car version cruises at<br />

speeds up to 104 km/hr (65 mph), but in<br />

flight its cruising speed is 100 knots. In the<br />

air it burns a just over 19 litres per hour,<br />

while its fuel consumption on the ground<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 57


its consumption is around eight to ten<br />

litres per 100 km.<br />

As an aircraft with its wings folded out<br />

to a span of 8,3 metres (27,5 feet), the<br />

Transition Roadable Aircraft requires a<br />

takeoff run of 518 metres to get airborne<br />

and clear the traditional 17-metre obstacle.<br />

It rotates at 70 knots, stalls at 45<br />

knots and has a range of 400 nautical<br />

miles from a fuel tank containing 75 litres<br />

when full. The aircraft-cum-car has a useful<br />

load of 195 kg.<br />

With its wings folded and ready for the<br />

road, the Transition is more “compact”<br />

than many compact cars. It is 5,62 metres<br />

long and only two metres wide and is 1,96<br />

metres high, its folded wings only adding<br />

a few millimetres extra to the height of<br />

the “fuselage” when folded.<br />

From a safety point of view, the<br />

Transition has a safety cage and crumple<br />

zone in addition to all the crash safety<br />

features of a modern car plus a “full<br />

vehicle” parachute which appears to be in<br />

58 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

vogue with the latest light aircraft.<br />

The cockpit has plenty of room being<br />

1,29 metre at the shoulders. It has a “glass<br />

panel” with the latest state-of-the-art<br />

avionics plus the usual road instrumentation<br />

all neatly positioned.<br />

The Transition Roadable Aircraft is<br />

powered by the well-proven 100 hp Rotex<br />

912S engine driving a four-bladed pusher<br />

propeller while in flight and front wheel<br />

drive while on the ground.<br />

For road use, no special licence other<br />

than a normal car driver’s licence is<br />

required. For those without a flying<br />

licence, the company offers a specific<br />

Transition course for a Sport Pilot’s<br />

licence which can be acquired in as little<br />

as 20 hours. Licensed pilots need only go<br />

through a familiarisation course. This is<br />

included with every Transition delivery.<br />

The company anticipates a purchase<br />

price of $194 000 and potential owners<br />

can secure an airframe with a refundable<br />

deposit of $10 000. Q


AIRVENTURE DAKOTA UPDATE<br />

DC-2 WILL LEAD ‘THE LAST FLIGHT...”<br />

ANNIVERSARY FORMATION OF<br />

DC-3/C-47S TO OSHKOPSH<br />

Henry M. Holden reports<br />

This aircraft, reported to be the last airworthy Douglas DC-2 in existence, will lead the<br />

formation of at least 40 DC-3/C-47 Dakotas on the historic 75th anniversary flight to the<br />

EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh at the end of July. The DC-2 was the predecessor to the DC-3.<br />

THEY ARE coming from all over the<br />

United States – some 40 Dakota<br />

aircraft have signed up to take part<br />

in “The Last Time...” 75th anniversary<br />

celebration of the aircraft type at EAA<br />

AirVenture, Oshkosh <strong>2010</strong> (see <strong>World</strong><br />

<strong>Airnews</strong>, April <strong>2010</strong>).<br />

Another 12 aircraft are in the queue<br />

waiting for a coveted “slot” should one<br />

come available. Fewer than 100 of the aircraft<br />

remain airworthy in the United<br />

States, meaning that perhaps more than<br />

half of the current fleet will be present at<br />

AirVenture <strong>2010</strong> at Oshkosh at the end of<br />

July.<br />

The other Dakota aircraft attending but<br />

not flying in the formation will allow Air-<br />

Venture attendees to be able to see no<br />

fewer than 50 DC-3/Dakota/C-47 aircraft<br />

on the ground at the same time at<br />

Oshkosh<br />

The 40 Dakotas will stage during the<br />

weekend prior to opening day at Whiteside<br />

County Airport, Illinois (KSQI). The<br />

public, as well as media, are welcome to<br />

visit KSQI to watch the launch of all 40 aircraft,<br />

as the formation will be built in the<br />

skies above this airport before heading for<br />

Oshkosh.<br />

The existing civilian world record formation<br />

flight for the type is currently 27, set<br />

in 1985 in South Africa. This event will represent<br />

the largest gathering of airworthy<br />

Dakotas since <strong>World</strong> War II.<br />

One of only two Douglas DC-2s, the<br />

predecessor to the DC-3, will join the July<br />

26 mass arrival at EAA AirVenture.<br />

The only airworthy DC-2 is owned by<br />

the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington.<br />

It will head the group flight of DC-3s<br />

just before the opening day air show to<br />

usher in the week-long celebration.<br />

Aviation luminary, Clay Lacy, who was a<br />

driving force behind the aircraft‘s restoration,<br />

will pilot the DC-2 from its current<br />

home at Van Nuys Airport, California, to<br />

KSQI, and then on to Oshkosh.<br />

The United States Air Force has<br />

confirmed that the Altus Air base C-17<br />

demo team “Rat Pack” will be present at<br />

Air-Venture this year in support of the DC-<br />

3 / C-47 reunion. This massive heavy airlift<br />

aircraft has been authorised to fly the<br />

“firstin the history of aviation” C-17<br />

heritage flight with three other C-47s in<br />

formation at the same time.<br />

This flight will only occur once, and will<br />

take place at AirVenture pending EAA approval<br />

and sequencing which is expected<br />

shortly.<br />

The week-long festivities at AirVenture<br />

will also include historical and technical<br />

forums/presentations, movies in which<br />

Dakotas played a major role such as the<br />

1953 John Wayne classic, “Island in the Sky,”<br />

fly-bys and a special evening DC-3<br />

programme at the Theatre in the Woods<br />

venue at Wittman Field. Q<br />

AptracAviation<br />

Fixed-wing &<br />

Helicopter Training<br />

PPL, CPL and ATP<br />

Night, Instrument and<br />

Instructor Ratings<br />

Game/Sling Ratings<br />

Type Ratings<br />

Full Groundschool<br />

On-site Simulator<br />

CRM courses<br />

Residential campus<br />

Based at Port Elizabeth<br />

International Airport<br />

South Africa<br />

Tel +27 41 581 0327<br />

Enquiries: info@aptrac.com<br />

www.aptrac.com<br />

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WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 59


PLETTENBERG BAY AIRPORT<br />

SHOCK<br />

Tom Chalmers reports<br />

ALL AVIATION fuel supplies – Avgas<br />

and Jet A1 – at Plettenberg Bay<br />

Airport were drained from their<br />

holding tanks just before Christmas and<br />

all the equipment and infrastructure was<br />

disassembled, loaded on to flat-bed<br />

heavy duty trucks and removed recently,<br />

appropriately perhaps under a mantel of<br />

heavy fog and rain.<br />

The withdrawal of the refuelling service<br />

which was run by the local municipality,<br />

and then the later removal of the all the<br />

infrastructure, has been met with dismay<br />

by not only the general aviation fraternity<br />

at the airport and in the immediate vicinity,<br />

but also by many owners and operators<br />

of aircraft throughout the country<br />

which use the airport.<br />

Not only is Plettenberg Bay a prime holiday<br />

resort on the Cape Garden Route, but<br />

it was also the only airport with refuelling<br />

facilities between the two ACSA-operated<br />

airports of Port Elizabeth and George. The<br />

refuelling facilities were used extensively<br />

by both piston and jet-powered aircraft,<br />

especially during peak holiday periods.<br />

It was also likely to have been an airport<br />

of choice for overseas visitors during the<br />

<strong>World</strong> Cup soccer tournament, but<br />

without available fuel, this could seriously<br />

affect the expected influx. Said one<br />

aviation observer when asked to<br />

comment: “With the <strong>World</strong> Cup just<br />

around the corner and billions being spent<br />

by Government, it boggles one’s brain as<br />

to why this has been allowed to happen<br />

to this Garden Route coastal airport.”<br />

To date no official statement is known<br />

to have been made by the Plettenberg Bay<br />

municipality as to the reason for the with-<br />

The death knell of “Plett”?<br />

drawal of the service.<br />

<strong>World</strong> <strong>Airnews</strong> understands that an<br />

undisclosed number of businessmen in<br />

the Plettenberg Bay area had subsequently<br />

approached both the municipality<br />

and BP, the oil company supplying the<br />

fuel, with a proposal that they purchase<br />

the facility and its infrastructure from BP<br />

and take over the running of the service.<br />

Although BP apparently agreed to the proposal,<br />

the municipality turned it down,<br />

saying that the airport was going to be put<br />

out to tender.<br />

Locals say they have heard this story before<br />

since the tender idea was first mooted<br />

six years ago. A number of proposals have<br />

subsequently been put to the municipality,<br />

but all have apparently been rejected.<br />

Senior members of the Town Council<br />

are said to be “not interested in the airport<br />

nor the effect its possible closure will<br />

have on tourism to the town.” Efforts by<br />

<strong>World</strong> <strong>Airnews</strong> over several days to contact<br />

the Municipal Manager, the Corporate<br />

Manager or even the <strong>May</strong>or, for<br />

comment on the current situation or the<br />

future of the airport, were “brickwalled”<br />

by telephonists and/or secretaries.<br />

It appears that the officials are “in<br />

meetings” or “not available” or otherwise<br />

“away on business,” no matter what time<br />

of the day contact was attempted.<br />

The six employees at the airfield who<br />

were given the job of handling the refuelling<br />

of aircraft were still there at the time<br />

of writing without apparently anything to<br />

do. They are believed to have been told<br />

that “something else will be found for<br />

them to do.” They referred all enquiries to<br />

the Town Manager. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 61


TWO MILESTONES FOR AIRBUS<br />

THE GRANTING of the EADS Type Certification for the new Airbus<br />

A330-200F freighter and the maiden flight of the second A400M<br />

turboprop heavyweight transport aircraft, marked respective<br />

milestones for Airbus and its subsidiary, Airbus Military, is recent<br />

weeks.<br />

A surprise came with the granting of the A330-220F certification in<br />

that its payload capability has been listed as 70-tones, one tonne greater<br />

than was expected. The granting of the certification followed an extensive<br />

200-hour flight test programme which was performed by two aircraft<br />

covering both engine types on offer, namely the Pratt and Whitney<br />

PW4000 and the Rolls-Royce Trent 700.<br />

This dedicated freighter aircraft, which is a derivative of the A330-<br />

200 passenger model, has been certified through an amendment to the<br />

existing A330-200 EASA Type Certificate granted to Airbus in 1998. This<br />

EASA award will be followed by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)<br />

Type Certification.<br />

The A330-200F features an optimised fuselage cross-section, offering<br />

flexibility to carry a wide variety of pallet and container sizes. Airbus<br />

claims the type offers 30% more volume than any freighter in its class,<br />

and is based on the proven and technologically-advanced A330 plat-<br />

62 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

form, for which Airbus has over 1 000 orders and already more than<br />

650 aircraft in service.<br />

Over 3 400 freighters will be needed in the next 20 years to cater for<br />

a 5,2% average annual growth rate. This will include around 1 600 midsized<br />

freighters, of which the A330-200F will play an important role.<br />

Meanwhile, the second Airbus Military A400M military airlifter made<br />

its maiden flight recently getting airborne from off from Seville, Spain,<br />

with a take-off weight off 128 tonnes. Its first flight lasted four hours<br />

and 50 minutes. The aircraft, dubbed MSN2, has now joined its sistership,<br />

MSN1, which had already completed 66,5 hours in 15 flights.<br />

MSN2 is the second of an eventual five aircraft which will conduct<br />

the 3 700 hour flight-test programme leading to first delivery. Like<br />

MSN1, it carries heavy flight-test instrumentation. It will be primarily<br />

dedicated to aircraft and powerplant performance testing while MSN1<br />

continues to be used for clearance of the aircraft and powerplant flight<br />

envelope, loads, flutter, and handling qualities development.<br />

The third A400M aircraft is expected to fly by the beginning of the<br />

summer and the fourth around the end of the year.<br />

A total of 184 aircraft has so far been ordered by Belgium, France,<br />

Germany, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Spain, Turkey and Britain. Q<br />

F. GOMES<br />

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THE SPIN<br />

Brian’s life flashes before<br />

him as the Extra spins on<br />

and on and on.....<br />

IT OCCURS to me, with a sense of mild injustice,<br />

that in the next twenty seconds I<br />

am going to die. And I do not know why.<br />

My right leg and arm are bar-taut and quivering,<br />

jamming full rudder and forward stick.<br />

We must recover. The Extra spins on.<br />

Fright is the igniter of true fear. But this has<br />

happened so quickly there has been no time<br />

even for fright. I am simply observing the fields<br />

of Buckinghamshire whirling past the nose and<br />

wondering what I am doing wrong that is going<br />

to make me die on this summer morning.<br />

The power is off. Even if my left hand wasn’t<br />

hauling the throttle hard back I’d know this because<br />

of the noise. The sound of the airflow in<br />

this spin is an eerie whistle such as I have never<br />

heard before in the Extra’s cockpit.<br />

We spin on. The Extra does not do this.<br />

The Extra EA230, designed by the near-genius<br />

Walter Extra and built with Teutonic precision<br />

by Extra Flugzeugbau, spins like an<br />

obedient politician. And, of course, recovery is<br />

equally mannerly. No fancy techniques<br />

needed; just rudder-stick and it stops. Bingo.<br />

In fact, as in most aerobatic hot ships, you<br />

never normally even think about the tiny matter<br />

of recovery from a mere spin. When you require<br />

to stop a spin in this kind of aeroplane you require<br />

it in the down-vertical on heading and you<br />

require it exactly on heading, not a sloppy three<br />

of four degrees off. So you do not go think-rudder-stick;<br />

instead you slam the controls like cracking<br />

a whip; hit whatever you need to translate<br />

instantly from auto-rotation to vertical dive.<br />

In the course of this ungentle procedure the<br />

actual spin recovery is an almost incidental byproduct.<br />

It always stops. Every time. That is, it<br />

was every time. Here and now the Extra spins<br />

on. And I still have not the slightest idea why.<br />

In a short time I shall never know why in this<br />

world. Because in a short time this aeroplane<br />

and I will be an intermixed mass in one of the<br />

peaceful fields below.<br />

In one way, of course, it was due. If a man<br />

will earn his living flying displays of aerobatics<br />

By: Brian Lecomber<br />

at low level, there will inevitably be moments<br />

when Old Man Death reaches out a beckoning<br />

hand. In the early years you laugh off these encounters<br />

with varying degrees of conviction.<br />

But as more years roll by the mirth tends to<br />

acquire a certain hollow ring, until eventually<br />

(unless you are completely lacking in all imagination)<br />

you come to accept that diligently as<br />

you may scheme to avoid the final summons,<br />

still the Old Man will probably have his way in<br />

the end if you persist in your calling.<br />

This is the law of averages, and is not to be<br />

denied. It is why life insurance in this line of<br />

work is for all practical purposes unaffordable.<br />

I have been around for a fair while. I have<br />

nodded to the Old Man on several occasions.<br />

This likely termination is, by dry actuarial reckoning,<br />

due and overdue.<br />

But this way! This is not the sometime-inevitable<br />

mistake. This is total betrayal…<br />

The treachery is absolute. Against all reason<br />

the Extra has simply decided to throw away<br />

the known laws of aerodynamics and whirl on<br />

down to its destruction. And mine.<br />

Four years ago I would have been less astonished<br />

at such infidelity. Then the Extra was<br />

new and I was not used to Extras and there<br />

was a period of deliberate vulgarity while I established<br />

just what my new lady would and<br />

would not let me get away with.<br />

In-spin aileron, out-spin aileron, stick-before-rudder,<br />

power-on, power-off, stick back<br />

Muller style – all the liberties which might have<br />

been expected to prompt a fit of passion and a<br />

slap around the face.<br />

And – nothing. The Extra was the perfect<br />

mistress. Spin how you will, hash up the controls,<br />

come home drunk singing dirty songs –<br />

still she smiled demurely and forgave. To stop<br />

a spin, just stop and you’ve stopped.<br />

So what, in heaven’s name, is different now?<br />

Two differences spring to mind which I do<br />

not wish to dwell upon. The first is that four<br />

years ago I was up at 4 000 feet conducting my<br />

nervous experimentations. And the second is<br />

that at that time I dressed slightly differently,<br />

to the extend of rounding off my outfit with<br />

the small frippery of a parachute.<br />

We spin on.<br />

A separate part of me notes that the nose<br />

is high and the rotation is very fast. This probably<br />

means we are not coming down particularly<br />

quickly as spins go – a factor which, even<br />

if true, is of very little consequence indeed, especially<br />

since this separate part also notes that<br />

the whirling panorama of the ground is slowly<br />

swelling up and around us.<br />

Being an experienced separate part it knows<br />

that ‘slowly’ is an illusion brought on by the imminence<br />

of demise; the ground only ever appears<br />

to swell up when you are close to it and<br />

becoming rapidly closer.<br />

I check feet again. Hitting the wrong rudder<br />

is the oldest killer in the book and far easier to<br />

do than many aviators would believe; the main<br />

lesson long experience teaches is that long experience<br />

does not render one immune.<br />

But I am not doing it; we are spinning left,<br />

and my quivering leg is locked on right rudder.<br />

God what am I doing, or not doing, which is<br />

making this spin different? And Sir, if you’re<br />

going to let me know, please do it very soon.<br />

The spectre of structural failure has already<br />

crossed my mind. If a rudder cable or something<br />

has broken I could shove my foot halfway<br />

through the Lycoming’s crankcase without<br />

achieving the slightest result. But the aeroplane<br />

feels all right; the Extra and I have now<br />

long been one, and even in this extreme I am<br />

sure I would know if our body was wounded.<br />

Also, of course, if something has bust there<br />

is exactly nothing I can do about it. This truth<br />

renders all thoughts on the subject nothing but<br />

a pure waste of seconds – seconds I require for<br />

more positive considerations.<br />

Or at least, I would require them if I could<br />

think of anything positive to consider. As it is I am<br />

consumed by utter helplessness. The unnatural<br />

whistling of the airflow seems to freeze my brain<br />

and curdle the very marrow of my bones.<br />

I suppose the sound is a function of the very<br />

fast rotation, which is certainly the fastest I<br />

have ever experienced in any aeroplane. And<br />

that is probably due to the way we went in.<br />

The way we went in was highly inadvertently.<br />

I was practicing knife-edge spins. These<br />

are rapid negative-g semi-stalled gyrations<br />

with the wings in the vertical plane. They look<br />

sickeningly weird – which is not misleading –<br />

and their overall flight path is straight down<br />

with the subtlety of a dropped brick.<br />

Some aeroplanes – among which the Extra<br />

230 is definitely numbered – require a certain<br />

degree of tact and diplomacy on entry to the<br />

knife-edge spin, lest they become cantankerous.<br />

My technique is to enter off a stall-turn;<br />

most gingerly at first to get the rotation<br />

started, and then delicately smashing every<br />

control hard into the appropriate corner of the<br />

cockpit to wind up the revolutions.<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 63


The right moment to smash is critical. Too<br />

late and you go into a highly uncomfortable<br />

negative-g down-vertical barrel roll; too early<br />

and the whole world explodes into such a<br />

maelstrom of whirling violence that you can<br />

only cling on aghast, convinced that no aircraft<br />

can possible gyrate this fast while still maintaining<br />

possession of all its major appendages,<br />

such as wings.<br />

When this happenstance occurs, the only<br />

thought you have is to halt the proceedings at the<br />

earliest possible moment before your head flies<br />

off your shoulders. This instinct is most sound,<br />

since even if your head remains attached there<br />

is certainly a very real danger of the propeller<br />

parting company from the rest of the assembly.<br />

So you tramp on opposite rudder and un-bash<br />

the stick and wait for anxious moments…<br />

Which is what I did when it happened to me<br />

thirty seconds ago, resulting in this spin.<br />

The transition from super-fast negative<br />

knife-edge spin to very fast positive ordinary<br />

spin happened too quickly for perception.<br />

There was a second or so of that ominous<br />

rolling-sliding feeling which all aeroplanes can<br />

produce when they seriously wish to inform<br />

you that things have got out of hand, and then<br />

there we were, spinning. And not, ridiculously<br />

not, stopping spinning when so directed.<br />

The whistling noise is grimly steady, testifying<br />

to the locked-in state of the spin. My leg<br />

muscles shake as if in disbelief that their<br />

strength is not this time halting the ghastly rotation<br />

of the landscape around the engine<br />

cowling. Why? Why?<br />

I snatch my hand back and forth again to<br />

bang the stick hard against the forward stop.<br />

Just to make sure. It was there anyway.<br />

The spin goes on.<br />

The ground is horribly close. The details are<br />

not a factor, one bit of farmland being much like<br />

another to die in. But you only ever see revolving<br />

ground from very much too low once in a lifetime,<br />

and that briefly. The spectacle is impressive.<br />

The sunshine is bright and warm, and the<br />

world will go on. I will not be with it.<br />

The Extra will probably not burn – the engine<br />

having been idling for half a minute there<br />

won’t be the red-hot exhaust to flash the fuel<br />

– but the aeroplane and I will certainly be an<br />

impacted tangle in the earth, mute and crumpled<br />

testimony to my ineptitude.<br />

If I should have any small – and by this performance,<br />

undeserved – reputation, then the<br />

wreckage may cause some puzzlement among<br />

those whose job it is to look into such things.<br />

The Air Accident Investigation Branch will peer<br />

at the remains, check, measure, piece together<br />

shattered parts, trace twisted control runs,<br />

search for mechanical failure. Not finding it,<br />

they will look for evidence of pilot error.<br />

Because they are very conscientious and because<br />

I was known as a long-lasting aerobatic<br />

pilot at least up until this point, they will look<br />

64 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

very hard, lest whatever caught me should rear<br />

up again and claim further victims.<br />

Well, I wish you luck, AAIB. Much luck. Because<br />

I fear I am going to leave you precious<br />

little evidence.<br />

The spin goes on.<br />

Of course, AAIB, you will question the witnesses<br />

and also look at my record. The witnesses<br />

will furnish colourful variations on the<br />

central theme (the plane was stunting, bits fell<br />

off it in the air, there was an explosion, etc.),<br />

but my colleagues in the business may offer<br />

more seemingly pertinent clues. They may tell<br />

you, for example, that my normal display routine<br />

includes a five-turn full-power flat spin entered<br />

from 1 400 feet. And you may thereby<br />

conclude that this was what I was doing and<br />

for once I lost count of the turns or fumbled<br />

the recovery…<br />

But you will be wrong. This is not a poweron<br />

flat spin – the nose is lower, the rotation is<br />

much faster, and the power is most definitely<br />

off. I wish it was a true flat spin because I can<br />

recover from a flat spin in an instant with reflex<br />

motions as familiar as breathing. So benign is<br />

the Extra that you don’t even have to throttle<br />

back; just lead a quarter-turn and smash in<br />

hard out-spin rudder, in-spin aileron and forward<br />

stick.<br />

AILERON!<br />

I look down at my right hand. It is a distant<br />

member, frozen in effort. It is holding the stick<br />

hard forward.<br />

And central.<br />

I move the hand to the left. Into the spin.<br />

The spin stops.<br />

It stops immediately and without the slightest<br />

fuss. The sudden sanity is absolute after<br />

the turmoil.<br />

We pull out of the dive. The ground is 200,<br />

maybe even 300 feet beneath us.<br />

We soar up into the warm sky, the Extra and<br />

I. Snarling at full power away from that dread<br />

place in the innocent farmland. My heels are<br />

drumming on the alloy footwells and my<br />

mouth is sticky-dry. The shaking of my hands<br />

is echoed by the wild pounding of my heart.<br />

Even before we level off I am an older and<br />

wiser man. I know with hideous clarity the extent<br />

and simplicity of my sin.<br />

The truth of this day is not flattering.<br />

In the knife-edge spin one hits, among other<br />

things, full-forward-full-left stick. When this<br />

knife-edge spin went beserk my first act of recovery<br />

was to hastily remove all such extreme<br />

control inputs. The Extra then translated into<br />

an ordinary spin, while I doggedly hung on to<br />

out-spin controls for the knife-edge.<br />

Which, of course, did not include in-spin<br />

aileron.<br />

In the ordinary way this would not have<br />

mattered overmuch. I had the correct rudder<br />

on, and normally if you have that the Extra will<br />

come out of a spin eventually even if you’ve<br />

pulled the stick out by the roots.<br />

But this was not an ordinary spin. The incredible<br />

violence of a knife-edge gone bananas<br />

imparted such rotational velocity that the spin<br />

was maybe twice as fast as the Extra’s normal<br />

cadence. It may well be that this is the only<br />

way you could ever get an Extra 230 into a spin<br />

that fast.<br />

And for that extra spin, as I can now testify,<br />

it turns out that you do most definitely need<br />

in-spin aileron for recovery.<br />

Simple.<br />

My already dry mouth is host to the ashes<br />

of mortification. Because, of course, I knew<br />

this: I know that in nasty spins any aeroplane<br />

may need in-spin aileron on recovery. It is a<br />

fundamental which is branded in letters of fire<br />

through the very fibre of my being.<br />

So how come I sit there fat and dumb, if not<br />

exactly happy, holding a recovery action which<br />

was half-a-leftover from a previous embarrassment?<br />

How come my oh-so-experienced<br />

reflexes were to be so mesmerised as to permit<br />

such an elementary lapse?<br />

We fly around in a large, aimless circle. My<br />

face itches with sweat and I wipe my sleeve<br />

across it, leaving damp patches on the Nomex.<br />

Oh, I know how come, of course.<br />

Sudden shock of the unexpected. Idea fix –<br />

fixed idea that I’d already done the right thing,<br />

the whole right thing, and nothing but the<br />

right thing. Failure, dismal failure, to recognise<br />

gut-feel reflex as unreliable and instantly replace<br />

it with proven rote. Idiocy. The human<br />

condition. Premature senility…<br />

All the usual things.<br />

But I have learned. Oh yes. Another twig on<br />

the sometimes creaking edifice of experience.<br />

This will – may – be a mistake I shall not make<br />

again.<br />

Doubtless I shall find others.<br />

But when I do, just may they please be not<br />

quite so low. Or quite so persistent.<br />

Realistic low-level practice for display flying<br />

is absolutely vital for all concerned. You practice<br />

high at first and then slowly bring it down<br />

low; this is fundamental for the safety of the<br />

performers, the spectators, the organisers,<br />

even the careers of the bureaucrats who claim<br />

to control these things. Everybody. It is a primary<br />

imperative. Unarguable.<br />

But in the nature of the beast it does mean<br />

that somewhere, sometime, somebody is<br />

going to screw up at that low level. This is<br />

equally unarguable…<br />

So Lord, next time I make a screw-up on this<br />

scale, please help it to be in earlier practice.<br />

Just a bit earlier, when I am just a bit higher…<br />

The cockpit is now normal again, and I am<br />

one small bit wiser.<br />

We wheel round, the Extra and I, clearing<br />

the sky. Then we pull up to the vertical.<br />

There are those knife-edge spins to look at<br />

again. Q


The Evektor SportStar<br />

EVEKTOR AEROTECHNIK –<br />

40 years of aircraft production<br />

ONE OF the most prolific and bestknown<br />

manufacturers of light<br />

aircraft, Evektor Aerotechnik, is<br />

celebrating its Ruby Anniversary this year<br />

and, to mark the auspicious occasion, it<br />

recently rolled out its first twin-engine<br />

turboprop model, the nine- to 14passenger<br />

the EV-55 Outback.<br />

This aircraft had its first engine run in<br />

December and had been undergoing<br />

ground testing prior to its official roll-out<br />

late in March.<br />

This followed close on the heels of the<br />

unveiling of the new single engine fourseat<br />

aircraft, the VUT100 Cobra, which<br />

marked Evektor Aerotechnik’s move into<br />

the higher segment of general aviation<br />

manufacturing.<br />

Forty years ago the company was<br />

established with the manufacture of the<br />

well-known L-13 Vivat motor glider. It<br />

then went on to produce general aviation<br />

aircraft with the remodelling of Zlin<br />

aircraft types such as the L-60 Brigadyr.<br />

The company soon established itself in<br />

aircraft design and manufacturing together<br />

with transmission of the highest<br />

general aviation standards.<br />

Manufacturing and marketing sport<br />

aviation aircraft became a base for<br />

Evektor Aerotechnik’s success on the<br />

world markets in this particular sphere<br />

with the result that, today, the company<br />

is one of the world’s largest manufacturer<br />

of advanced UL and LSA airplanes with<br />

fleet of around 1 000 aircraft flying.<br />

These are operated by flight schools<br />

and by private individuals in more than 40<br />

countries across the world.<br />

In 1996 production of advanced<br />

ultralight aircraft was launched; starting<br />

with the P-220UL Koala. In 1997 Evektor<br />

introduced the advanced ultralight EV-97<br />

Eurostar which, thanks to its excellent<br />

flight characteristics, reliability and<br />

uncompromising built-in quality, immediately<br />

became popular worldwide for<br />

training in flight schools as well as leisure<br />

flying.<br />

Early in 2003 the new Evektor Harmony<br />

trainer gained the JAR-VLA type certificate<br />

from the Czech CAA followed by EASA TC<br />

two years later. The rugged JAR-VLA airframe<br />

was also utilised in the Evektor new<br />

light sport aircraft called SportStar that, in<br />

April 2004, became the very first aircraft<br />

type in the world approved by the FAA in<br />

the US LSA category.<br />

For its proven excellent flight<br />

characteristics and outstanding control<br />

harmonies the SportStar received “S-LSA<br />

Aircraft of the Year” honour from AeroNews<br />

Network.<br />

In 2008 the Evektor introduced the new<br />

SL models of the EuroStar and SportStar.<br />

SL is the abbreviation of words Sleek Lines<br />

representing the new sleek exterior design<br />

of both models.<br />

At lastr month’s Aero Friedrichshafen<br />

air show, Evektor unveiled the new luxury<br />

cockpit of the EuroStar / SportStar where<br />

Evektor has utilised its long-term experience<br />

in car interior designs.<br />

Evektor is involved also in general<br />

aviation projects from the European<br />

aviation industry. In recent years the<br />

company has participated in deliveries of<br />

subassemblies such as those for the Ibis<br />

Ae 270 project; Aero Vodochody L-159<br />

programme and deliveries of production<br />

jigs for the Boeing 747 auxiliary fuel tank<br />

programme of Marshall Aerospace. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 65


MALTA AVIATION PARK<br />

DEVELOPMENTS<br />

ACCELERATE<br />

From: Chris Cauchi<br />

THE NEW aviation park which is<br />

being built in Malta at a cost of<br />

some 17-million euros and which<br />

will ultimately cover an area of over<br />

200 000 square metres, is attracting increasing<br />

numbers of operators, the latest<br />

two being Medavia and SR Technics<br />

which are both building large premises<br />

at the park.<br />

Due to be fully operational by the end<br />

of this year, the Maltese Prime Minister,<br />

Lawrence Gonzi, has been quoted as saying<br />

that the aviation park was “a vision<br />

through which the government wants to<br />

establish Malta as a major aviation centre<br />

in the world.”<br />

Medavia, a Malta-based company<br />

which forms part of the Libyan Arab Foreign<br />

Investment Company (LAFICO), is investing<br />

10,5-million euros to build a new<br />

hangar and office block at the aviation<br />

park as part of its plan to expand operations<br />

on the island.<br />

The company is mainly involved in the<br />

movement of personnel and cargo from<br />

Tripoli to desert oilfields. It also provides<br />

specialised aircraft maintenance and administration.<br />

It employs 250 people both in<br />

Malta as well as Libya.<br />

The new investment will feature a 5 000<br />

square metre hangar and a 2 000 square<br />

metre office block.<br />

Medavia managing director, Abdurazagh<br />

Zmirli, explained that the new office<br />

block and hangar would be built on<br />

the site of an old similar facility that was<br />

being dismantled. It used to belong to<br />

NewCal Aviation in the past.<br />

Materials from the old hangar will be<br />

recycled and used in the new environmentally-friendly<br />

premises that are<br />

planned to be completed by July.<br />

Another development at the aviation<br />

park is that of SR Technics which is due to<br />

begin operations there within the next<br />

few months and the first aircraft to arrive<br />

there for major maintenance is expected<br />

in September.<br />

The Maltese Minister of Finance, Tonio<br />

Fenech, explained that the aviation industry<br />

was continuing to expand and that<br />

Malta was fully geared to benefit from the<br />

opportunities that would surface in the<br />

NIMROD MRA4 DECLARED ‘READY TO TRAIN’<br />

THE NIMROD MRA4 has made significant<br />

steps forward with the<br />

UK Ministry of Defence recently<br />

having formally accepting the aircraft<br />

and declaring it “ready to train”.<br />

This declaration follows the type<br />

acceptance of the MRA4 which allows<br />

the delivery of production aircraft and<br />

the start of aircrew training, and the<br />

handover of the first production<br />

aircraft, designated PA04, following a<br />

demanding series of acceptance tests.<br />

PA04 (shown above) has now moved<br />

from Woodford to BAE Systems’ Warton<br />

site, where RAF aircrew will be trained<br />

under what is termed the “transition<br />

programme” and the first of those<br />

trained will become instructors.<br />

The MRA4 will transfer to the aircraft’s<br />

future main operating base at<br />

RAF Kinloss later this year once an initial<br />

near future. He said that Malta offered<br />

more than just maintenance services. The<br />

financial services industry, call centres,<br />

software development and other ancillary<br />

services all formed part of the services<br />

Malta offered to prospective clients.<br />

RYANAIR BASE<br />

Meanwhile, Ryanair, the Irish headquartered<br />

low cost carrier, announced at a joint<br />

press conference with the Malta Tourism<br />

Authority that it would establish a base in<br />

Malta with immediate effect. One Boeing<br />

737-800 would be permanently stationed<br />

there and would operate 19 routes, six of<br />

which would be new ones, namely: from<br />

Malta to Billund, Bologna, Krakow, Marseille,<br />

Seville and Valencia.<br />

The new Maltese base will handle up to<br />

800 000 passengers per year and sustain<br />

800 jobs in Malta. The airline will operate<br />

120 weekly flights, and it will invest over<br />

US$70-million dollars at its new base. Q<br />

release to service and a support contract<br />

are in place.<br />

A further milestone achieved recently<br />

was the first flight of the second production<br />

aircraft, PA05, which is now being<br />

painted in RAF livery before undergoing<br />

acceptance flights. The remaining seven<br />

production aircraft are all in build and will<br />

be delivered on schedule.<br />

The MRA4 will fulfil a number of roles<br />

such as anti-submarine and anti-ship<br />

warfare, maritime reconnaissance, intelligence<br />

collection, search and rescue<br />

and attack.<br />

Equipped with more than 90 antennae<br />

and sensors and containing over six<br />

million lines of software code, the<br />

MRA4 is able to scan an area the size of<br />

the UK every 10 seconds. The aircraft is<br />

able to fly 6 000 miles or 14 hours without<br />

refuelling. Q<br />

PRODUCTION RATE INCREASES<br />

BOTH AIRBUS and Boeing have recently<br />

announced production rate increases for<br />

specific models, clearly indicating they<br />

are confident of a decisive turn-around<br />

in the current economic slump.<br />

Airbus will increase the monthly production<br />

rate for its single-aisle A320 Family<br />

from the current rate of 34 to 36,<br />

starting in December, but the production<br />

rate for the long-range A330/A340 Family<br />

will be maintained at eight per month.<br />

Boeing will accelerate planned rate increases<br />

on both the 777 and 747 programmes.<br />

The 777 programme‘s rate will<br />

go up to seven aircraft per month (from<br />

five) from the originally planned early<br />

2012 to mid-2011.<br />

The 747 programme‘s planned production<br />

rate increase to two aircraft per<br />

month (from 1,5 per month) will move<br />

forward from mid-2013 to mid-2012. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 67


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DREAMLINER ULTIMATE-LOAD WING TEST<br />

COMPLETED<br />

THE ULTIMATE-load wing up-bending<br />

test on the 787 Dreamliner<br />

static test unit was completed by<br />

Boeing recently, marking yet another<br />

critical milestone in the aircraft’s test<br />

programme towards FAA certification.<br />

During the testing, loads were applied<br />

to the airframe to replicate 150 percent of<br />

the most extreme forces the airliner is<br />

ever expected to experience while in<br />

service. The wings were flexed upward by<br />

approximately 7,6 metres (25 feet) during<br />

the test.<br />

The initial results of the ultimate-load<br />

test are positive. More extensive analysis<br />

and review are required before the test<br />

can be deemed a success.<br />

“The test programme has been more<br />

68 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

robust than any conducted on a Boeing<br />

commercial jetliner,” said Scott Fancher,<br />

vice president and general manager of the<br />

787 programme, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.<br />

“It has taken countless hours of<br />

hard work by the Boeing team and our<br />

partners to work through the static test<br />

programme. Everyone who has been involved<br />

in this effort over the past several<br />

years should be very proud of their contributions<br />

to ensuring the safety of the<br />

787 Dreamliner.<br />

“We are looking forward to the technical<br />

team’s report on the details of the test<br />

results,” said Fancher.<br />

It will take them several weeks to work<br />

through all of the data.<br />

During each second of the more than<br />

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two-hour test, thousands of data points<br />

were collected to monitor the performance<br />

of the wing. Key data points are<br />

monitored real-time during the test, but<br />

all of the data will be evaluated in the<br />

weeks ahead. Q<br />

PUPIL PILOTS’ COURSE<br />

64/46 REUNION<br />

THE PILOTS who were students on the<br />

South African Air Force Pupil Pilots<br />

Course of 1964 have been invited to attend<br />

a reunion which will be the form of<br />

a solo evening dinner function at the<br />

Cape Town Club on September 23.<br />

This date will coincide with the Africa<br />

Aerospace and Defence exhibition being<br />

held at AFB Ysterplaat over the following<br />

few days and provides participants with<br />

the opportunity to attend the exhibition<br />

and view the flying displays and stands.<br />

The thinking behind the reunion name,<br />

64/46, is that the course was held in 1964,<br />

which took place 46 years ago; 64 is now<br />

the average age of the then pupil pilots,<br />

and most of the pilots who took part in<br />

the course are aged 64 today.<br />

It has proven difficult to contact many of<br />

the “old boys” as they have dispersed all<br />

over the world and to various occupations.<br />

Those members of this course who<br />

would like to attend the reunion are<br />

requested to contact Brig. Gen, (Rtd)<br />

Derek Kirkland on cell 0027 (0) 82 894<br />

4215, email: derek.kirkland@comair.co.za<br />

or Scully Levin at flyboys@global.co.za to<br />

ensure participation. Q


A round-up of airline news briefs by<br />

Morné Booij-Liewes<br />

NEW SERVICE<br />

Melbourne – V Australia has become the<br />

second Australian carrier to start scheduled<br />

services to South Africa with the first<br />

flight arriving recently.<br />

The carrier operates twice weekly<br />

schedules between Melbourne and<br />

Johannesburg using Boeing 777-30ERs.<br />

The photograph above shows V<br />

Australia’s brand new Boeing 777-300ER<br />

touching down at Johannesburg’s O.R.<br />

Tambo International Airport recently on<br />

its inaugural twice-weekly service linking<br />

Melbourne with Africa’s financial capital.<br />

“SLOW LOUNGES”<br />

Johannesburg – Comair has unveiled its<br />

new “SLOW Lounges”. These are located<br />

at Johannesburg and Cape Town international<br />

airports, with Durban to launch<br />

later in the year.<br />

Access to these lounges is exclusive to<br />

qualifying British Airways Executive Club<br />

holders, British Airways Club (business<br />

class) passengers, RMB Private Bank<br />

clients, FNB platinum card holders and<br />

FNB Private Bank travellers.<br />

These lounges have been designed to<br />

provide a perfect sanctuary from the fast<br />

pace of travel and modern life. Features<br />

include a chef, a barista, a bar serving the<br />

finest South African wines, a library, a<br />

Nintendo games room, private meeting<br />

spaces and business facilities.<br />

In addition, Cape Town’s SLOW Lounge<br />

also contains an on-site Spa offering<br />

massages and wellness treatments<br />

RWANDAIR RELAUNCH<br />

Kigali – Rwandair, the national carrier of<br />

Rwanda, has formally relaunched its<br />

direct flights between Johannesburg and<br />

Kigali. This comes just two months after<br />

the carrier took delivery of two new<br />

Bombardier CRJ200 50-seat regional jets<br />

as part of a comprehensive fleet renewal<br />

programme that will also see the addition<br />

of a Boeing 737-800 and B767-300 to its<br />

fleet by year-end.<br />

The carrier operated four weekly<br />

schedules with the CRJ200 equipment to<br />

Johannesburg to start with, but this will<br />

increase with the delivery of the Boeing<br />

737-800 later this month. Leading maintenance,<br />

repair and overhaul company,<br />

Lufthansa Technik, has been contracted to<br />

do aircraft maintenance.<br />

ARIK AIR A330S<br />

Lagos – Arik Air will introduce its newly<br />

delivered Airbus A330-200 on the Lagos-<br />

Johannesburg service, starting <strong>May</strong> 2.<br />

The aircraft replaces the single isle Boeing<br />

737-800s currently operating the<br />

route.<br />

DALIA LEGACY<br />

Casablanca – Dalia Air, an executive jet<br />

operator, has taken delivery of a brand<br />

new Legacy 600 corporate jet.<br />

THIRD EMBRAER<br />

Luanda – SEAA (Serviços Executivos<br />

Aéreos de Angola) has taken delivery of an<br />

Embraer 145EP, completing the order it<br />

placed asome time ago with the Brazilian<br />

aircraft manufacturer.<br />

MANGO TO BLOEM<br />

Johannesburg – Low cost carrier, Mango,<br />

has added its first new destination since<br />

starting operations with the recent<br />

introduction of the Free State capital,<br />

Bloemfontein, to its route network.<br />

The services will eventually increase to<br />

five weekly frequencies but will initially<br />

only be operated three days per week<br />

with two frequencies each day between<br />

Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.<br />

AIR MALI BOEING<br />

Ougadougou – Air Mali has added a<br />

Boeing 737-800 to its fleet which was<br />

noted in service in Madrid and Paris-Orly<br />

recently.<br />

IRS FOKKER<br />

Lagos – IRS Airlines has added an additional<br />

Fokker 100 to its fleet as part of its<br />

continuing replacement of its legacy fleet<br />

of F28-4000s.<br />

THIRD BOEING<br />

Lusaka – Zambezi Airlines has acquired a<br />

third Boeing 737-500 as part of an expansion<br />

plan.<br />

The carrier also recently entered into a<br />

code sharing agreement with Kenya<br />

Airways.<br />

CORPORATE SHUTTLE<br />

Tripoli – Petro Air has added an Embraer<br />

170LR to its fleet. The aircraft is operated<br />

on corporate shuttle services in support<br />

of Libya’s oil industry.<br />

ARIK AIR DASH 8<br />

Lagos – Arik Air has added two more<br />

Bombardier Dash 8-300s to its fleet, replacing<br />

its fleet of Fokker 50s that have all<br />

been returned to lessor, Denim Air.<br />

FIRST B777-300ER<br />

Cairo – EgyptAir has taken delivery of its<br />

first of five new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft<br />

on order.<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 69


MOZAMBIQUE NEWS<br />

Maputo – Despite several obstacles put in<br />

place in a bid to prevent the launch of the<br />

new service, TTA Airlink recently launched<br />

operations between Maputo and<br />

Johannesburg.<br />

The identity of the company or organisation<br />

which attempted to block the introduction<br />

of the service, has not yet<br />

been revealed.<br />

Meanwhile, our Mozambique correspondent<br />

reports that national flag carrier,<br />

LAM, has announced that it is to resume<br />

services to Lisbon, Portugal, as from<br />

October.<br />

A single B767-300 will be leased for this<br />

service. The airline also has plans to begin<br />

services to Brazil in the near future.<br />

Other news from LAM is that a third<br />

Embraer ERJ195 will join the fleet early<br />

next year to replace the B737-200 which<br />

will be phased out in April 2011.<br />

LANDING ACCIDENT<br />

Nairobi – Kenya-based Safe Air Company<br />

lost one of its Fokker F27-300s recently in<br />

a landing accident at Bossaso, Somalia.<br />

FREIGHTER LEASE<br />

Vatry – Zimbabwean-based cargo airline,<br />

Avient, has operated a Boeing 767-300<br />

freighter on a short term lease from<br />

Portugal-based EuroAtlantic.<br />

70 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

South African cellphone service provider has painted a Dornier Do228-200<br />

in its corporate colours.<br />

DIRECT FLIGHTS<br />

Entebbe – Air Uganda has become the latest<br />

international airline to fly directly to<br />

Mombasa from its Entebbe hub, reports<br />

our Nairobi correspondent.<br />

The move heralds a new era of air connectivity<br />

between landlocked Uganda and<br />

Mombasa, which is an important business<br />

corridor for many Ugandan and Great<br />

Lakes region entrepreneurs.<br />

Air Uganda will operate three times a<br />

week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays<br />

using an MD-87.<br />

“Following extensive market research,<br />

we have started this service which will<br />

boost regional tourism and business,” Air<br />

Uganda head of sales and marketing,<br />

Jeniffer Musiime, said after the inaugural<br />

direct flight touched down at the Moi International<br />

Airport recently.<br />

EMIRATES TO SENEGAL<br />

Dubai – Emirates will start scheduled services<br />

to Dakar, Senegal, in September.<br />

The West African city will become the<br />

carrier’s 106 th international destination<br />

and the route will be operated with<br />

Airbus A340-300 equipment.<br />

FIRST Q400<br />

Addis Ababa – Ethiopian Airlines has<br />

taken delivery of its first Bombardier Dash<br />

8-Q400 turboprop. It is one of eight of the<br />

type on order. Q


AT A recent pilot meeting at Castle<br />

Airport, near Merced, California, a<br />

local instrument instructor lamented<br />

that airspace and traffic issues frequently<br />

prevented him from having his<br />

students practice back-course and other<br />

instrument approach procedures.<br />

This complaint reminded me of a procedure<br />

that I developed several years ago,<br />

a procedure that allows an instrument<br />

pilot to practice non-precision approaches<br />

in flight without having to be concerned<br />

about arriving and departing traffic.<br />

You can even shoot a VOR approach to<br />

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, or a localiser approach<br />

to Mumbai, India, without having<br />

to go there.<br />

Although such distant approaches<br />

might be romantically appealing, my<br />

reason for suggesting these exotic<br />

approaches is not to yield to a pilot’s<br />

wanderlust. Rather, my intent is to add<br />

some variety to instrument training while<br />

offering a way to practice non-precision<br />

approaches that might otherwise be<br />

geographically undesirable.<br />

It might be surprising to some, but<br />

many consider non-precision approaches<br />

to be more difficult to execute and master<br />

than ILS approaches. This is because<br />

most ILS approaches are essentially the<br />

same. Once a pilot learns to keep the needles<br />

centred, he is just as capable of sliding<br />

down the slot at Hong Kong as he is of<br />

doing the same at home.<br />

Non-precision approaches are not so<br />

identical; each has a unique personality<br />

and incorporates procedures that differentiate<br />

one from another. Unfortunately,<br />

however, the average pilot usually gets to<br />

practice only non-precision approaches at<br />

or near his or her home airport.<br />

But there is a solution to this problem<br />

as well as the one expressed by the instructor<br />

at the beginning of this column.<br />

It is a different approach to non-precision<br />

approaches.<br />

Do you want to execute a back-course<br />

approach to a runway when traffic is arriving<br />

and departing in the opposite direction?<br />

No problem. All you have to do is<br />

add 3 000 feet (or other appropriate number<br />

of feet) to every altitude shown on the<br />

approach plate. You then follow the dictates<br />

of the approach procedure using<br />

A DIFFERENT<br />

APPROACH<br />

these new higher altitudes, altitudes that<br />

generally will keep you safely above airport<br />

traffic and free of conflict.<br />

The same procedure can be used to<br />

practice almost any non-precision<br />

approach as long as you are not operating<br />

in Class B or Class C airspace and does not<br />

place you in conflict with other flight<br />

restrictions.<br />

The typical VOR or VOR/DME approach<br />

utilises only one Vortac. Any local station,<br />

therefore, can be used as if it were distantly<br />

located.<br />

For example, a pilot living in Bakersfield,<br />

California, can use nearby Shafter<br />

Vortac to practice the VOR/DME approach<br />

to Runway 27 at the Kansas City International<br />

Airport instead of having to fly all<br />

the way to Missouri. The altitudes, of<br />

course, would have to be tailored to keep<br />

the aircraft safely above the Class D airspace<br />

at Bakersfield.<br />

Using a little imagination, an<br />

instructor can develop his<br />

own approaches, or he can<br />

direct his students to practice<br />

instrument approaches to<br />

almost any airport in the world<br />

without ever leaving the local<br />

practice area.<br />

Those sufficiently masochistic who want<br />

to practice an NDB (ADF) approach to some<br />

distant airport can do so using a local commercial<br />

broadcast station as the basis for<br />

the approach. This overcomes the scarcity<br />

of NDBs in many parts of the world.<br />

When training some advanced pilots in<br />

the Los Angeles area, for example, I occasionally<br />

have them tune in KMPC on the<br />

AM dial and pretend it is the Targy NDB at<br />

West Yellowstone, Montana. The beauty<br />

of this approach is that the altitudes<br />

shown on the approach plate do not have<br />

to be changed.<br />

The actual MDA (minimum descent altitude)<br />

is 8 000 feet msl, well above the<br />

Class C airspace associated with the airports<br />

at Burbank and Van Nuys, California.<br />

While these pilots struggle to track an outbound<br />

bearing under the influence of a<br />

crosswind, I sit back, relax and listen to<br />

the radio.<br />

There is one obvious problem with<br />

these customised approaches. The aircraft<br />

either will be too high to descend safely<br />

to a landing from the higher MDA and<br />

prior to reaching the MAP (missed approach<br />

point), or there might not be a<br />

nearby airport at all.<br />

This disadvantage can be used to<br />

advantage. The pilot can do what he is<br />

supposed to do prior to executing any<br />

instrument approach, and that is to<br />

prepare for the missed approach. During<br />

any approach — real or practice — he<br />

should be as prepared for the miss as he is<br />

for the approach itself.<br />

More often than not, those practicing<br />

instrument approaches at busy airports<br />

are not allowed to practice associated<br />

missed approaches because of traffic conflicts.<br />

Shooting approaches and missed<br />

approaches at altitude eliminates this<br />

problem.<br />

Creative instrument instructors can take<br />

this inventive approach procedure one step<br />

further and use local radio aids to develop<br />

their own custom approaches to points in<br />

space (approaches that do not terminate<br />

with a visual approach to landing). In this<br />

way, he can ensure that his students have<br />

an opportunity to practice specific procedures<br />

that might not be available when<br />

practicing local approaches.<br />

For example, he could develop a<br />

VOR/DME approach with a long final<br />

approach incorporating numerous stepdown<br />

fixes. Or perhaps he might develop a<br />

missed approach beginning with a climbing,<br />

teardrop return to the final-approach fix<br />

and terminating with a parallel or teardrop<br />

entry into a holding pattern.<br />

Using a little imagination, an instrument<br />

instructor can develop his own approaches<br />

(and name them after himself!),<br />

or he can direct his students to practice<br />

instrument approaches to almost any airport<br />

in the world without ever leaving the<br />

local practice area. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 71


FOURTH 787<br />

Everett, Wash. — Boeing has added the<br />

fourth 787 Dreamliner to its flight-test<br />

fleet with the completion of the first flight<br />

of ZA003.<br />

This aircraft is the only 787 in the flight<br />

test fleet that includes elements of the<br />

passenger interior features including<br />

cabin and crew support systems.<br />

The 787 is introducing new passenger<br />

amenities and provisions among which<br />

are improved lighting, bigger stowage<br />

bins, larger windows with electro-chromatic<br />

shades and redesigned lavatories<br />

with easier access.<br />

In addition to demonstrating that the<br />

interior meets certification requirements,<br />

ZA003 will be used to conduct tests on<br />

systems, noise performance, flight-deck<br />

operations, avionics, electro-magnetic<br />

effects, high-intensity radio frequency<br />

response and ETOPS.<br />

MAIDEN FLIGHT OF SECOND S-76D<br />

West Palm Beach, Florida – Sikorsky Aircraft<br />

Corp. has successfully completed the<br />

first flight of its second S-76D helicopter.<br />

“The first flight of D2 is extremely<br />

important to the S-76D programme as it<br />

allows us to begin testing the engines for<br />

certification credit. The team will run D2<br />

through a series of rigorous tests to<br />

validate the performance of the new<br />

PW210S engines.<br />

“Having two aircraft in flight test also<br />

provides the team more flexibility, and is<br />

critical to achieving our overall FAA<br />

certification of the S-76D helicopter,” said<br />

Jesse Bavaro, S-76D helicopter deputy<br />

programme manager.<br />

Among the S-76D’s features are allcomposite,<br />

flaw-tolerant main rotor<br />

blades; an advanced Thales avionics system<br />

and autopilot; dual rotor speed for<br />

quiet mode operation with active vibration<br />

control; powerful Pratt & Whitney<br />

210S engines; a quiet mode; and an optional<br />

rotor ice protection system (RIPS)<br />

for all-weather capability.<br />

ACCOLADE FOR EXECUJET SA<br />

Johannesburg – One of South Africa’s<br />

leading general aviation avionics firm, S-<br />

TEC / Cobham, has named ExecuJet South<br />

Africa yet again as one of its top ten international<br />

dealers for 2009 – for the<br />

ninth consecutive year.<br />

72 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

The accolade is in recognition of exceptional<br />

sales levels, as an international distributor<br />

for S-TEC / Cobham products and<br />

also exceptionally high commitment to<br />

customer support and satisfaction.<br />

Vince Goncalves and his avionics team<br />

at ExecuJet South Africa have supplied<br />

and installed many different autopilots in<br />

a vast amount of aircraft including Piper<br />

PA-23-XXX, Piper PA-28-XXX, Piper PA-32-<br />

XXX, Cessna C172, C182, C210, C402,<br />

C425, C441 and Beechcraft King Air B200s<br />

to mention but a few.<br />

ExecuJet South Africa is based at<br />

Lanseria International Airport, near<br />

Johannesburg, and at Cape Town<br />

International Airport.<br />

HI-FLY REPRESENTS AEROCONSEIL<br />

Cape Town – Hi-Fly Marketing has signed<br />

a representation contract with Aeroconseil<br />

Aviation Engineering and Services,<br />

which provides a comprehensive range of<br />

services to airlines, maintenance centres,<br />

aircraft owners / lessors, and aircraft and<br />

equipment manufacturers with expertise<br />

in maintenance and engineering, asset<br />

management and modifications.<br />

Aeroconseil provides airlines with operational<br />

and technical audits and consultation<br />

regarding training, preparation for<br />

IOSA or support in obtaining AOC. Aeroconseil<br />

is certified Part 145 and can support<br />

airlines with technical services<br />

including power plant management and<br />

engine trend monitoring, as well as supporting<br />

airlines’ fuel consumption optimisation<br />

by working on aircraft performance<br />

and route studies. The company’s range<br />

of products and service systems is widespread<br />

and comprehensive.<br />

ROTAX 914 SERIES ENGINES<br />

Gunskirchen, Austria – BRP-Powertrain<br />

has received authorisation from the European<br />

Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to extend<br />

the period of operation of its Rotax<br />

914 series piston aviation aircraft engines<br />

from 1 200 to 2 000 hours of time between<br />

overhauls (TBO).<br />

The TBO increase also applies to the<br />

914 series engines currently in the field,<br />

subject to the performance of applicable<br />

service bulletins.<br />

The engines of the Rotax 912 and 914<br />

series have carried out more than 20 000<br />

flight hours already.<br />

ECLIPSE GETS SINGLE PILOT TICKET<br />

Charleston, SC – The USA-based North<br />

American Jet Charter Group (NAJet) announced<br />

recently that it had become the<br />

first aircraft charter operator to receive<br />

Federal Aviation Administration Part 135<br />

charter approval for operation of its fleet<br />

of Eclipse 500 very light jets in a singlepilot<br />

charter configuration.<br />

In June 2007, the company became the<br />

first charter operator in the world to operate<br />

the Eclipse 500.<br />

The ability to operate the Eclipse 500<br />

VLJ single pilot in commercial charter operations<br />

was made possible by the recent<br />

delivery of fully upgraded Eclipse 500 aircraft<br />

from the new Eclipse Aerospace<br />

company.<br />

The Eclipse is now certified and approved<br />

for flight into known icing conditions.<br />

In addition, the AvioNG system,<br />

exclusive to the Eclipse 500 VLJ, provides<br />

the aircraft with centralised control of virtually<br />

all Eclipse 500 systems and avionics<br />

functions. AvioNG comes complete with<br />

ILS and GPS-coupled autopilot functions<br />

that significantly reduce pilot workloads<br />

by simplifying tasks, generating useful information<br />

and acting as a virtual co-pilot.<br />

With a fleet of 10 aircraft and growing<br />

in multiple cities, NAJet expects to add additional<br />

Eclipse Jets to its fleet as they are<br />

made available through the upgrade and<br />

refurbishment programme of Eclipse<br />

Aerospace.<br />

TOULOUSE-BLAGNAC AIRPORT<br />

Toulouse, France – One of the busiest<br />

regional airports in France, Toulouse-<br />

Blagnac, home to Airbus, Avions Transport<br />

Regional and other major European<br />

aerospace companies, recently opened its<br />

new passenger terminal, Hall D.<br />

The first flight from the new terminal<br />

was operated by Air Austral to Saint Denis<br />

in Reunion Island.<br />

With the opening of Hall D, Toulouse-<br />

Blagnac Airport has almost doubled its<br />

surface area and brought its passenger capacity<br />

level to 8,5-million passengers.<br />

Construction of the new terminal took<br />

four years to complete. Hall D will handle<br />

European and international destinations.<br />

During its long history, the airport has<br />

witnessed many first flights, such as the<br />

Concorde SST and most Airbus types,<br />

including more recently the giant A380. Q


DASSAULT FALCON<br />

LAUNCHES MAJOR NEW<br />

SERVICE STRATEGY<br />

IN AN effort to deliver an industry<br />

leading service centre experience to<br />

Falcon customers, Dassault recently<br />

undertook a major review of both its<br />

company owned and Authorised Service<br />

Centre (ASC) network.<br />

Currently, Dassault Falcon has five company<br />

owned service centres and 26 Authorised<br />

Service Centres strategically<br />

located throughout the world. In addition,<br />

the company recently added five Satellite<br />

Service Stations with “GoTeams” positioned<br />

on four continents.<br />

At the time the traditional Falcon ASCs<br />

were established, the basic philosophy<br />

was that each centre needed to meet an<br />

ultimate level of requirements in terms of<br />

equipment and services to support all Falcon<br />

models, up to and including “C” inspections.<br />

While this philosophy works<br />

well in areas with large Falcon populations<br />

such as Europe and the United States, it<br />

proved less practical in some of the new,<br />

emerging markets for business jets.<br />

The company is now putting in place a<br />

stronger, more vibrant network that will<br />

allow ASCs to specialise in one or two aircraft<br />

models if they choose or to support<br />

all Falcon models through all phases of<br />

maintenance.<br />

The new Dassault Falcon ASC structure<br />

will be divided into three categories:<br />

Heavy, Major and Line maintenance.<br />

Heavy Service Centres will provide comprehensive<br />

customer support for all Falcon<br />

models and hold local regulatory<br />

approvals as well as those from the FAA<br />

and EASA. Most of the ASCs in North<br />

America and many in Europe fall into this<br />

category offering a complete line of services<br />

including all levels of maintenance<br />

and inspections, rapid response AOG<br />

teams, refurbishments and upgrades.<br />

Major Service Centres will provide comprehensive<br />

support for Falcons of a particular<br />

model series and hold local<br />

regulatory approvals, as well as those<br />

from the FAA and EASA. Services will typically<br />

include all maintenance including<br />

AOG service and inspections through a ‘C’<br />

check. Five centres located in Finland,<br />

Germany, Singapore, South Africa, and the<br />

US fall into this category.<br />

Line Service Centres will provide support<br />

for specific Falcon models and hold a<br />

minimum of local regulatory approvals.<br />

Services include what is typically called<br />

line maintenance up through A and A+<br />

checks. Thirteen centres around the globe<br />

fall into this category.<br />

Dassault Falcon has also introduced<br />

company-owned Satellite Service Stations.<br />

These facilities are an extension of an existing<br />

company-owned service centre and<br />

are staffed with technicians, AOG support<br />

tooling and a targeted inventory of spares.<br />

The Satellite Service Stations will support<br />

basic line maintenance up through A<br />

inspections. Each will be staffed with an<br />

AOG GoTeam which will provide rapid mobile<br />

response directly to an aircraft location<br />

with the parts and tools necessary to<br />

get an operator’s Falcon flying with minimal<br />

delay. Q<br />

TOOL ATTRACTS KEY<br />

AFRICAN AIRLINES<br />

KENYA AIRWAYS and TAAG Linhas Aereas<br />

de Angola have signed up for the Boeing<br />

maintenance performance “Toolbox”, as<br />

part of each airline’s programme to enhance<br />

efficiency and improve dispatch<br />

reliability through the use of e-enabled<br />

technologies.<br />

Toolbox comprises six different tools in<br />

one easy-to-use suite of software products<br />

that an airline can employ to tailor an<br />

efficient solution to its specific need.<br />

TAAG and Kenya Airways each ordered<br />

Toolbox for use on their multiple Boeing<br />

jetliner models.<br />

Kenya Airways’ Next-Generation 737,<br />

767 and 777 fleets will be equipped with<br />

Toolbox. The airline’s 737 and 777 fleets<br />

will utilise three modules each (Library,<br />

Authoring and Systems), while its 767<br />

fleet will use the Library module.<br />

TAAG will employ Toolbox on its Next-<br />

Generation 737 and 777 fleets. Each fleet<br />

type will utilise four modules: Library, Authoring,<br />

Systems and Structures.<br />

The Library module allows the airline to<br />

store and access current, consolidated<br />

manufacturer and customer maintenance<br />

data. The Authoring module allows the<br />

airline to customise manufacturer maintenance<br />

information to its own systems.<br />

The Structures module provides a comprehensive<br />

structural repair history for<br />

each aircraft, and the Systems module reduces<br />

the time needed to find tail-specific<br />

technical information in time-critical situations,<br />

such as line maintenance troubleshooting<br />

and dispatch. Q<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 73


By: Tom Chalmers<br />

APATHY<br />

REARS ITS<br />

UGLY HEAD –<br />

AGAIN!<br />

TO OPEN the hangar doors this month, I<br />

have taken a quotation from the<br />

editorial in the latest edition of SELCAL,<br />

the journal of the Air Line Pilots’ Association<br />

– South Africa (ALPA-SA), perhaps one of, if<br />

not THE, strongest organisations of its type in<br />

the country.<br />

It reads: “Why are people prepared to put so<br />

much of their time and effort into the<br />

association? The answer is really very short and<br />

fortunately sweet – they do it because of their<br />

passion for aviation and their fellow pilots.”<br />

There is a very strong message in that quote<br />

for every other club, association, organisation<br />

– call it what you will – involved in aviation in<br />

this and, indeed, many other countries. If not,<br />

why is it that whenever there is a problem,<br />

work to be done or assistance needed, there<br />

usually are only a handful of people who come<br />

to the fore?<br />

Here, too, the answer is simple, though<br />

unfortunately, not sweet. It is Apathy, with a<br />

capital “A”. It is a disease which is rampant,<br />

though covert, in most clubs, associations et<br />

al. It causes even well-meaning people to look<br />

the other way and to “leave it to someone<br />

else” to do.<br />

Club committees are elected each year and,<br />

in the main, it is the same old “die hards” who<br />

find themselves back in office running the<br />

organisation’s affairs, often criticised, but<br />

seldom praised, for what they do.<br />

And it is not only in organised bodies of like-<br />

74 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

minded people where this disease, Apathy, is<br />

prevalent. It is also very obvious in other<br />

spheres of aviation as well.<br />

Take for instance the case of Virginia<br />

Airport, Durban’s sole general aviation facility,<br />

which, like it or not, is facing an uncertain<br />

future. All leases are due to expire in 2012 and,<br />

in an obvious attempt to pour oil on troubled<br />

water, the municipal manager, Mike Sutcliffe,<br />

has “graciously” told operators that their<br />

leases may be renewed on a month-to-month<br />

basis thereafter for an unspecified period.<br />

Has Sutcliffe lost touch with reality? How<br />

does he honestly expect operators with annual<br />

average wage bills collectively totalling over<br />

R300-million, to operate effectively on such a<br />

basis? Does he actually care, especially with an<br />

annual R1,7-million pay packet in his back<br />

pocket?<br />

But be that as it may, do the operators<br />

themselves really care? One would certainly<br />

think so, but not if one is to consider the<br />

Apathy being shown at present.<br />

At about this time last year, some operators<br />

began to sit up and realise that something had<br />

to be done about their future at Virginia Airport.<br />

Time was passing quicker than they had<br />

realised and to make matters worse there<br />

were moves afoot among local residents to<br />

take legal action about the perceived “excessive<br />

noise” caused by helicopters and fixed<br />

wing aircraft. The situation was beginning to<br />

look decisively ugly<br />

As is often the case, an antidote for Apathy<br />

was quickly found in the form of an approach<br />

by most – but not all – to the Commercial<br />

Aviation Association of Southern Africa for<br />

help. (It is remarkable to note here, too, that<br />

few of the operators are members of CAASA,<br />

but expect its support anyway).<br />

CAASA took up the challenge immediately<br />

with its CEO, Kim Gorringe, bearing the brunt<br />

of travelling backwards and forwards between<br />

Johannesburg and Durban attending numerous<br />

meetings of operators and attempting<br />

those with the municipality whose representatives<br />

seldom turned up for the meeting. All<br />

this cost money – and a great deal of time —<br />

with CAASA footing the bill and never a single<br />

offer being made by the operators to assist or<br />

even join the body.<br />

The “Battle for Virginia” took a new turn<br />

when the question of the general flying area<br />

(GFA) arose. Training organisations at Virginia<br />

had been using the GFA for around 43 years give<br />

or take a few, and because of this, there was a<br />

good chance that if a legal confrontation was to<br />

occur, they could well win their case to stay. But<br />

the new King Shaka Airport had been built in the<br />

middle of the GFA, and no way were ACSA, ATNS<br />

or the airlines going to put up with these<br />

“puddle jumpers” using the area.<br />

ATNS proposed a number of alternative<br />

areas, none of which was really suitable and a<br />

deadlock ensued. Instead of Virginia operators<br />

banding together and raising the funds for a<br />

court action, they let it slide and the Commissioner<br />

of Civil Aviation used his powers to solve<br />

the solution with a stroke of his pen – the GFA<br />

must go and GA has had to take whatever else<br />

ATNS and the SACAA have to offer.<br />

Re-enter Apathy with a vengeance. Did this<br />

major set-back make the operators more<br />

resolute? Certainly not by the look of things.<br />

Not even the pending loss by three helicopter<br />

flight training schools of the bulk of their income<br />

because of the GFA issue, seems to have goaded<br />

the other operators, including one of the<br />

biggest flying clubs in the country, into action.<br />

Why worry? They still have two years to sort<br />

this out. Yes, but, when action started to be<br />

taken, there were three years left. And in 2011,<br />

there will be only one year left. And then? Will<br />

it again be left to “the few” to sort it out? Q


File photo<br />

File photo<br />

2004 Cessna T206 H<br />

TTSN 1156 hours. Engine & Prop<br />

Since New 1156 hours. King<br />

Equipped - KMA28 Audio Panel,<br />

KX165A Nav/ Comm, KX155A<br />

Nav/ Comm, KR87 ADF, KT76C<br />

TXP, KLN94 GPS, KMH880 Multi<br />

Hazard Awareness System,<br />

KAP140 Auto Pilot, HSI / ILS,<br />

Baggage/Cargo Pod, Oversize<br />

wheels, Centri-Lube camshaft.<br />

Price: R2 600 0000 + VAT<br />

2004 Eurocopter AS 350 B2<br />

TTSN 2430 hours. Garmin GNS<br />

430 GPS/Nav/Com, King 165A<br />

VHF Radio, GTX 327 TXP,<br />

Garmin GMA 340 Audio Panel,<br />

ELT, King HSI, King Radar Alt,<br />

High Skids, Vertical reference<br />

window, Air conditioning, Sand<br />

Filter, Cargo hook, Full length<br />

footsteps, Wire strike, R/H windscreen<br />

wiper, Dual controls.<br />

Price: R11 500 000 + VAT<br />

1993 Cessna 208B<br />

Grand Caravan<br />

TTSN 2800 hrs. King equipped - KMA<br />

24-70 Audio Panel w/ Cabin PA, KR<br />

87 ADF, KN 63 DME, Dual KT 70<br />

TXP, KCS 150 AP/FD, KI 229 RMI,<br />

King KRA 10A RA, KAS 297B ALT,<br />

Garmin 530 GPS/Nav/Com & TWAS<br />

overlay, Bendix RDS 81 Radar,<br />

Avidyne Flightmax 750 with<br />

Stormscope & TCAS Overlay, De-Ice,<br />

Air-conditioning, Retractable Crew<br />

Steps LH & RH, Omni Flash Beacon.<br />

Price R8 500 000 + VAT<br />

6 x Refurbished<br />

Allouette IIIs<br />

for Sale.<br />

Good component<br />

times.<br />

Price: R2 750 000<br />

each + VAT<br />

2007 Robinson R44 Raven II<br />

TTSN 474 hours! Audio<br />

Panel; King KY 196A Comm;<br />

4-Place Intercom; King<br />

KT76A TXP; Remote Altitude<br />

Encoder; Garmin 430X<br />

Colour GPS with 2nd Com +<br />

ILS; 4 x Bose Headsets;<br />

Millibar Altimeter; AH, DI;<br />

Turn Co-Ordinator; Nine Hole<br />

Instrument Panel; Air<br />

Conditioning; 4 Observation<br />

Bubble Windows, wheels.<br />

Price: R3 000 000 + VAT<br />

Hughes 300s<br />

ONLY 2 LEFT<br />

TTSN 250 hours<br />

or less<br />

Price US$130 000 +<br />

VAT as is, delivered<br />

Lanseria.<br />

Call for more details.<br />

Require import MPI.<br />

file photo 1985 Bell Jetranger 206B<br />

TTSN 1900 hrs. King KMA24 Audio<br />

Panel, GNS 530 GPS Nav/Com/<br />

Glidescope with moving map & storm<br />

interface, King KY 196A Digital Com,<br />

King KT76A TXP, King KCS 55 HSI<br />

file photo<br />

slaved, WX-500 Stormscope,<br />

Skywatch Model SKY497 interfaced<br />

with GNS 530, King KI 525A Indicator,<br />

KG 102A Directional Gyro,<br />

Airconditioning, New Exterior & New<br />

Interior, & much more.<br />

Price: R6 500 000 + VAT<br />

2004 Eurocopter AS 350 B3<br />

2001 AS350 B3 Eurocopter<br />

OFFERS<br />

TTSN 1892 hrs, Engine SNew 1892<br />

hrs, Gyro-Horizon Thales H 321 EHM,<br />

Gyro-compass Honeywell KCS 55 A<br />

with KI 525A HSI, Turn and bank indicator<br />

UI 9560, VHF/VOR /LOC/GS KX<br />

165 A, VHF/VOR/LOC/ GS GPS<br />

Garmin GNS 430, Garmin GTX 327<br />

TXP Mode A+C, Shadin 8800T ALT,<br />

Kannad 406 AF-H ELT, Honeywell KRA<br />

405B RA, dual controls with twist grip,<br />

skid wearing plates, high skid gear, sand<br />

filter, soundproofing, airconditioning,<br />

wire strike protection system, 7x David<br />

Clark headsets, tinted bulged windows,<br />

cargo hook fixed provisions and electrical<br />

installation for cargo hook. P.O.A.<br />

1977 Bell Jetranger<br />

206B<br />

TTSN 9226 hours. King KMA-<br />

24H Audio Panel, King KY96A<br />

Com, King KT76A TXP, Garmin<br />

150XL GPS, Garmin 196 GPS<br />

(dash mounted), ICOM IC-706<br />

MK-IIG HF Radio, AK-450 ELT,<br />

Dual Controls, Particle<br />

Separator, High Skids.<br />

Price: R4 100 000 + VAT<br />

TTSN 2950 hours, Garmin GNS<br />

430 GPS, B/King KN64 DME,<br />

CD Player, ICOM IC-706 MKII G<br />

Transceiver / HF /VHF/UHF,<br />

Garmin GMA 340 Audio Panel,<br />

KY196 Com, KT 76 TXP, Full<br />

FADEC, Vertical Reference Box<br />

Windows, Airconditioning.<br />

Price: R11 000 000 + VAT<br />

The owner's new helicopter<br />

has arrived.<br />

This one must be sold!<br />

2000 Robinson R22<br />

Beta II<br />

TTSN 1600 hrs - 400 hrs<br />

Since Rebuild. Standard<br />

Instrumentation, Garmin<br />

150XL GPS, Transponder,<br />

Turn and Bank, New Skids,<br />

New Windows, New Main<br />

Rotor Blades. Interior Grey<br />

Leather.<br />

Price: R 1 450 000 + VAT<br />

1997 Eurocopter AS<br />

350 B2<br />

TTSN ±5330 hours. ±60% remaining<br />

on all major comp. Garmin SL30<br />

Nav/Com, SL 40 Com, Garmin TXP<br />

Mode C, High Skid Gear, DART<br />

Rear Maintenance Foot Steps, LH<br />

& RH Sliding Door, Cargo Swing<br />

provisions and load meter, Dart<br />

Vertical Reference floor Window,<br />

AFS Barrier intake filter.<br />

Price: R 9 500 000 + VAT<br />

OFFERS<br />

1980 Bell JetRanger<br />

206B III<br />

File photo<br />

2006 G36 Beechcraft<br />

Bonanza<br />

TTSN 200 hours. MPI fresh.<br />

Garmin 1000 package.<br />

Exterior: White with black &<br />

gold accent. Int: grey leather.<br />

All the bells and whistles!<br />

Aircraft like new!<br />

Available immediately.<br />

Aircraft in South Africa.<br />

Price: US$ 430 000 + VAT<br />

1970 Hawker 12-400A/731<br />

(Fan Jet)<br />

TTSN 16 027 hrs. Engines: left<br />

9448 hrs, right 9730 hrs – MSP<br />

Gold. Dual Collins FD109, Collins<br />

AP104 Autopilot, Dual Collins –<br />

DME 40, VHF20 Comms, VIR30<br />

NAvs, ADF60, L3 Mode S TXP, L3<br />

TCAS II, Collins 718 HF,<br />

Honeywell KLN900 GPS, Collins<br />

WXR300 Radar, F800 Flight<br />

Director, ELT, Aeromech STC,<br />

RVSM and more!<br />

Price: POA<br />

2002 Robinson R44 Raven II<br />

TTSN 1881 hrs, King KY<br />

196A Nav/Comm, King KT<br />

76C Transponder, Garmin<br />

150XL GPS, AH/DI/Alt,<br />

Hydraulic Power Controls,<br />

RHC Oil Filter, BFG 1100<br />

A/H, BFG 205-1A D/G, Turn<br />

Co-Ordinator, Millibar Alt, 4-<br />

Place Intercom System,<br />

Remote Altitude Encoder, 4 x<br />

David Clark H10-13H<br />

Headsets.<br />

Price R1 350 000 + VAT<br />

TTSN 4300 hrs. Garmin Audio<br />

Panel with 3 Point Marker<br />

Beacons, Garmin 530 GPS /<br />

Nav/Com, Glideslope with<br />

Moving Map Display, King KY 96<br />

Comm, Gramin TXP, AH, DI,<br />

Dual Controls, Rotor Brake,<br />

Particle Separator. Folding<br />

Maintenance Step, Passenger<br />

Door Openers, Baggage<br />

Extender. Wedge Windows front<br />

& back, Rain Gutters, Floor<br />

Protectors.<br />

Price R5 500 000 + VAT<br />

2008 Robinson R44<br />

Raven II<br />

TTSN 69 hrs. 9 Hole Panel,<br />

AA12S Audio Panel, King<br />

Digital KY 196A Com,<br />

Garmin GNS 420 GPS /<br />

Moving Map Display with<br />

2nd Com, King KT 76C TXP,<br />

Bubble Windows, Aircon.<br />

Price: R3 250 000 + VAT<br />

2002 Eurocopter AS 350 B2<br />

TTSN 1910 hrs. King 76 A TXP,<br />

King KX 196 A Com, King KY<br />

165, 2x AH, HSI, VSI, Radar<br />

Alt, Inercom, Dual controls,<br />

Cabin Heating, Sand Filter,<br />

Cargo Sling, Ground Power<br />

receptacle, Full options electrical<br />

master box, Sling door,<br />

High skid landing gear, Footsteps.<br />

Price: R9 650 000 + VAT<br />

Email: aviation@lantic.net Tel: (011) 701-3423 / Fax: (011) 701-3461 PO Box 650 Lanseria 1748,<br />

Quinton Warne 082-806-5193 Paul Weinberg 082-850-0019


WE BUY AIRCRAFT<br />

File photo<br />

File photo<br />

1977 Cessna 177 RG<br />

Cardinal<br />

1990 Bell Longranger<br />

206L3<br />

TTSN 4566 hrs. King/Bendix<br />

KT76A, KR87 TSO, KN 67A<br />

TSO & COM. Garmin GMA<br />

340 Audio, GNC 250 XL GPS<br />

& 296 GPS, High Skids,<br />

Rotor Brake, L/R step handles,<br />

Boot extender, 7 x David<br />

Clark headsets, Blade tie<br />

downs, Wheels.<br />

Price: P O A<br />

2005 Robinson R44 II<br />

TTSN 720 hours.<br />

Garmin 296, 9 Hole<br />

panel, King KT 79<br />

Transponder, King KY<br />

196A Com, Intercom, 4x<br />

David Clark headsets,<br />

Bubble windows,<br />

Wheels.<br />

Price: R2 600 000 + VAT<br />

TTSN 2005 hrs. Engine 233 hours<br />

since factory Reman & Zero hours-<br />

Since Shock-load, Propeller 42 hrs<br />

SNEW, Zero hrs since overhaul,<br />

MPI Fresh, New Metal Panel, King<br />

KA 134 Audio Panel 3 Point<br />

Marker Beacon, 2 x King KX 155<br />

Digital Nav/Comm's + VOR / ILS,<br />

Narco 890 DME, King Digital KR87<br />

ADT, Cessna 359 TXP + Mode C,<br />

Garmin 100 GPS, Cessna<br />

Navomatic 200 AP, WX 900<br />

Stormscope, Intercom. New Paint<br />

and Exterior, New Windows, New<br />

Interior.<br />

Price: R 795 000 + VAT<br />

1974 Cessna 210L<br />

TTSN 5577 hrs. Engine SMOH<br />

300 hrs & Zero hrs- Since Shockload.<br />

Propeller SPOH Zero hrs,<br />

MPI-Fresh, King KMA 24 Audio<br />

Panel, 2 x King Digital KX 155<br />

NavComs ILS + VOR, King Digital<br />

KN 62 DME, King Digital KR76<br />

ADF, King KT76 TSP Mode C,<br />

WX900 Stormscope, Garmin 100<br />

GPS, Cessna 400 Navomatic 3-<br />

Axis AP.<br />

Price: R1 250 000 + VAT<br />

1998 Piper Saratoga<br />

TTSN 1032 hrs. Engine 1032<br />

hrs - Top Overhaul done at<br />

1022 hrs. Propeller SPOH<br />

±300 hours.King KX155A<br />

Navcom, King KFC 150 AP,<br />

King KN62A DME, King KR<br />

87 ADF, King KT76 TXP<br />

Mode C, King KLN89B GPS,<br />

No damage history.<br />

Price: US$ 265 000 + VAT<br />

2005 Eurocopter AS<br />

350 B2<br />

TTSN 1524 hrs. Standard<br />

Eurocopter Nav/Com, Garmin<br />

430, Dual Controls, Pilot and Co<br />

Pilot Windshield Wipers, High<br />

Skid Gear, DART Long Foot<br />

Steps, LH Sliding Door, Cargo<br />

swing provisions, Emergency<br />

Float Provisions, DART Mirrors,<br />

DART Vertical reference floor<br />

window, FDC Aerofilter.<br />

Price: R13 300 000 + VAT<br />

1980 Bell Long Ranger<br />

L1 C30<br />

(Long Ranger III<br />

Conversion)<br />

Completely refurbished in<br />

2009! Pristine paintwork &<br />

Interior. Components are<br />

either overhauled or Brand<br />

New!<br />

Price: US$ 1 200 000 +<br />

VAT<br />

2006 EUROCOPTER EC<br />

130 B4<br />

TTSN 600 hours. Garmin<br />

GNS 430 GPS, Garmin GMA<br />

340 Intercom, Garmin GTX<br />

327 TXP, King KX 155A TSO<br />

Nav/Com, VOR / ILS, Dual<br />

Controls, Turn & Slip, Air conditioning,<br />

"Stylence" VIP<br />

leather interior, Sandfilter.<br />

Price: € 1 730 000 + VAT<br />

1995 Cessna 208B<br />

Grand Caravan<br />

TTSN 11 806 hrs. Engine SMOH<br />

1796 hrs, Since HSI ZERO hrs.<br />

Prop SPOH 2543 hrs. Fully Bendix<br />

/ King equipped - KX 165<br />

Nav/Comm, KT70 TSO TXP, KDI-<br />

572 DME, KMA-24H Audio Panel,<br />

KR-87TSO ADF, KI-192 AH, KFC-<br />

150 Autopilot, KI-244 Radar, KLN<br />

89B GPS, KTR953 HF Radio &<br />

Kannad 406AF ELT.<br />

Price: US$ 850 000 + VAT<br />

2007 Robinson R44<br />

Raven ll<br />

TTSN 520 hours. Nine hole<br />

Panel, IAA12S Audio Panel,<br />

King Digital KY 196 A Com,<br />

Garmin GNS 420 GPS/Moving<br />

Map Display, KT 76 C TXP, AH,<br />

DI, Turn and Slip, Altimeter, 4 x<br />

David Clark Headsets, 4 x<br />

Observation Windows, Wheels.<br />

Price: R2 700 000 + VAT<br />

1979 Cessna 182 Q<br />

TTSN 3650 hours, Engine SMOH,<br />

ZERO hours, Propeller SPOH,<br />

ZERO hours, MPI Fresh, new<br />

metal panel, King audio panel,<br />

Garmin 196 GPS (Panel Mount),<br />

King KX 155 Nav Comm,<br />

gKing KX 125 Nav Comm, King KT<br />

76 Transponder, fuel flow computer,<br />

4 Place Intercom. New Grey<br />

Leather Interior & New Carpets.<br />

Newly Painted Exterior.<br />

Price: R 1 000 000 + VAT<br />

2005 Robinson R44<br />

Raven II<br />

TTSN 770 hours. 9 Hole Panel,<br />

Garmin GNS 150 XL GPS, King<br />

KT 76 TXP Mode C, King Digital<br />

King KY 196 A Com, 4 Place<br />

Intercom, BFG 1100 AH, Turn and<br />

slip, Dual Controls, Wheels, 4<br />

David Clark Headsets, s/steel<br />

plate exhaust protector, 4 x<br />

s/steel door protectors.<br />

Price: R2 550 000 + VAT<br />

WE BUY AIRCRAFT<br />

Email: aviation@lantic.net Tel: (011) 701-3423 / Fax: (011) 701-3461 PO Box 650 Lanseria 1748,<br />

Quinton Warne 082-806-5193 Paul Weinberg 082-850-0019<br />

2008 Robinson R22<br />

Beta II<br />

TTSN 380 hours,<br />

King Digital KY 197A<br />

Com, King KT76<br />

TXP, Siren Dual<br />

Controls.<br />

Price: R 1 500 000 +<br />

VAT<br />

1999 Cessna T206H<br />

TTSN 1635 hours, Engine Since<br />

New 1635 hours, Propeller SPOH<br />

439 hours, Garmin Audio Panel,<br />

Garmin GNS 430 Nav / Com/<br />

DME / Moving map display, King<br />

Digital KX 155 Nav / Com, King<br />

Digital KT 76 A TXP, King KAP<br />

140 AP, SF Strike finder - Radar/<br />

Stormscope, TCI Altitude<br />

Digitalizer, Radar ALT, Eam 700<br />

EGT, Sportman STOL, Longer<br />

wings, Cargo pod, Stone<br />

Protection Shields, Float Kit<br />

Price: R2 000 000 + VAT<br />

Schweizer 269C<br />

1998 Model -Rebuilt in 2007.<br />

TTSN 1000 hrs. Engine<br />

SMOH 100 hrs, Prop SPOH<br />

600 hrs. Garmin 430 GPS/<br />

with moving map display/<br />

Com King KT 76 TXP,<br />

Artificial Horizon, Vertical<br />

Speed Indicator, ALT, Turn<br />

and Slip, Directional Indicator,<br />

Wheels<br />

Price: R2 150 000 + VAT<br />

1974 Cessna Citation 500 SP<br />

TTSN 9950 hrs. Engines: SMOH 2200 hrs/<br />

2100 hrs, SHSI 451 hrs / 297 hrs, Audio<br />

Panel, Garmin GNS 530 with Colour GPS/<br />

Moving Map Display with 2nd Com,<br />

Garmin GNS 430 with Colour GPS /<br />

Moving Map Display with 2nd Com, HSI,<br />

RMI, VOR, ILS, Bendix King KNS80 R<br />

NAV/DME, Garmin GTX 327 TXP Mode C,<br />

BFG 1000 Stromscope, Dave Tron Digital<br />

Clock, Auto Pilot / Flight Director, RC200<br />

ELT, Sperry Colour Radar, Altitude Pre-<br />

Select, Aircon, Thrust Reverses, Long<br />

Wing, Beige Leather Interior.<br />

Price: R 5 500 000 + VAT<br />

1977 Cessna 210M<br />

TTSN 2183 hrs. Engine<br />

SMOH 798 hrs, Prop<br />

SPOH 224 hrs. KMA 20<br />

Audio Panel, KN76 DME,<br />

2 x KX 170B Nav /Com,<br />

Century III Auto Pilot,<br />

KT76 TXP, KR85 ADF<br />

Price: R 1 100 000 + VAT<br />

1981 Piper Seneca II<br />

TTSN 5160 hours, Engines<br />

SMOH left 1295/ right 1295,<br />

Prop SPOH left 315 right<br />

315, Garmin 430, Air- conditioning.<br />

Brand New Exterior<br />

and New Leather Interior.<br />

New Windows throughout.<br />

STUNNING!!<br />

Trades considered<br />

Price: R800 000 + VAT


FOR YOUR NEXT AIRCRAFT INVESTMENT<br />

TTSN 200 Hours,Garmin<br />

430, Radar Alt. EXTRAS:<br />

ELT,Engine flush, Sand<br />

Filter, Aircon, Rear sliding<br />

doors.<br />

R 19,000,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 1580 Hours.<br />

Garmin 430, King Stack.<br />

EXTRAS: Onboard<br />

Weighing System. Cargo<br />

Hook. Aircondioning.<br />

Cargo Mirrors. Particles<br />

Seperator. L/H Sliding<br />

Door.<br />

R 12,750,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 5786, Completely<br />

refurbed 2009/Great<br />

Components, Garmin<br />

296. EXTRAS: Skid Steps,<br />

On board Weighing,<br />

Aircon, Barrier Sand<br />

Filter, R/H Sliding Door.<br />

R 9 500 000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 1600 Hours,<br />

Garmin 430, King Stack.<br />

EXTRAS: Boot Extender,<br />

High Skids, Rotor Brake,<br />

Step Handles.<br />

$ 1 550 000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 800 Hours, New<br />

Main Rotor Blades,<br />

Garmin 420. EXTRAS: 9<br />

Hole Panel, 4 Bubble<br />

Windows, Aircon.<br />

R 2,450,000 Ex VAT<br />

TT 250hrs. Nine Hole<br />

Panel, Garmin 420 GPS.<br />

EXTRAS: 4 Bubble<br />

Windows, Air-conditioning.<br />

R 3,200,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 1987 Hours,<br />

Garmin 430, King Stack.<br />

EXTRAS: Vertical Ref<br />

Window, Aircon, Vortes<br />

sand Filter, L/H & R/H<br />

Sliding Doors, Wire Stike<br />

Fixed Provisions.<br />

R 13,750,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 680 Hours, VMD,<br />

Garmon 430, ELT, Radar<br />

Alt. EXTRAS: Engine<br />

Flush, Sand Filter, Aircon,<br />

Dual Controlls, Verticalk<br />

Ref Window, Cargo<br />

Swing<br />

R 16,250,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 1800 Hours, NEW<br />

ENGINE, Garmin GMA<br />

340 Audio Panel, Garmin<br />

GNS 530 GPS, Garmin<br />

GNS 430 GPS, Garmin<br />

GTX 327 Transponder,<br />

ELT, AH, ILS.<br />

$ 2,300,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 4566 Hrs, King/ Bendix<br />

KT76A, King/Bendix KR87 TSO,<br />

King/Bendix KN 67A TSO,<br />

King/Bendix COM, Garmin<br />

GMA 340 Audio, Garmin GNC<br />

250 XL GPS, Garmin 296 GPS.<br />

EXTRAS: High Skids, Rotor,<br />

Brake, L/R Step Handles, Boot<br />

Extender, 7 x david Clarck<br />

Headsets, Blade tie Down,<br />

Wheels.<br />

R 8,500,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 750 Hours, Garmin<br />

296. EXTRAS: 9 Hole<br />

Panel, Bubble Windows,<br />

Headsets, Wheels.<br />

R 2,450,000 Ex VAT<br />

www.moneyaviation.co.za<br />

Email: sales@moneyaviation.co.za<br />

Angus Money : +27 83 263 2934<br />

Gavin Williams: +27 83 352 4939<br />

Tel: 011 805 0073 I Fax: 011 805 0625<br />

Grand Central Airport, New Road, Midrand<br />

2008 Eurocopter AS350 B3 2006 Eurocopter AS350 B3 2004 EUROCOPTER AS350B2<br />

TTSN 480 Hours, Nine<br />

Hole Panel, Garmin 420<br />

GOS, remote Altitude<br />

Encoder. EXTRAS: 4<br />

Bubble Windows,<br />

Leather Seats.<br />

R 2,600,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 2431 Hours.<br />

Garmin 430, ELT Kannad,<br />

Radar ALT. EXTRAS:<br />

Vertical Reference<br />

Window, Sandfilter,<br />

Cargo hook, Wire Strike,<br />

L/H Sliding Door,<br />

Airconditioner.<br />

R 10,500,000 Ex VAT<br />

2006 EUROCOPTER AS350 B2 2008 Eurocopter AS350 B2 2003 Eurocopter EC 130 B4<br />

TTSN 1815 Hours, NEW<br />

ENGINE, Garmin GNS<br />

430, ARTEX ELT. EXTRAS:<br />

Dual Controls, Air-conditioning,<br />

Sliding Door Left<br />

Hand. New Engine.<br />

R 15,875,000 Ex VAT<br />

1997 Eurocopter AS350 B2 2004 Bell 407 2007 Bell 206B-3 Jetranger II<br />

TTSN 270 Hours, Chelton<br />

EFIS, Garmin 430, Remote<br />

ALT, ENC, Artex ELT.<br />

EXTRAS: AFS, Barrier Filter,<br />

Sound-proofing, High Skids,<br />

Increase Gross Weight Kit,<br />

Baggage Extender, High<br />

Visibility Main Rotor<br />

Blades.<br />

$ 1,550,000 Ex VAT<br />

1996 Bell Longranger L4 1990 Bell Jet LongRanger 206L3 1984 Bell 206B-3 JetRanger III<br />

Total Refurb 2008 / New<br />

Paint / New Interior /<br />

Great Components,<br />

TTSN 4269 Hours,<br />

Garmin 530. EXTRAS:<br />

VOR, Cargo Hook, Rotor<br />

Brake, Step Handle , LH<br />

& RH, High Skids.<br />

R 4,950,000 Ex VAT<br />

2008 Robinson R44 Raven II 2006 Robinson R44 Raven II 2009 Robinson R44 Raven II<br />

TTSN 70 Hours, Garmin<br />

420. EXTRAS: 9 Hole<br />

Panel, 4 Bubble<br />

Windows, Leather Seats,<br />

Aircon.<br />

R 3,650,000 Ex VAT<br />

2008 Robinson R44 Raven II 2005 Robinson R44 Raven II 2009 Eurocopter EC130B4<br />

TTSN 80 Hours, Garmin<br />

430, ARTEX ELT, Radio<br />

Alt, Aircon, Baggage<br />

Cheeks.<br />

Euro 2,100,000


* Helicopter and Aircraft Sales<br />

* Financing<br />

* Insurance<br />

* Specialized Aircraft Sourcing<br />

* CAA Licensing & Registration<br />

1985 Learjet 35A 2001 Citation X 1982 G III<br />

TTSN 10 509 Hours, ZS-<br />

REGISTERED, RVSM,<br />

TCAS 11, Jet FC 530<br />

Autopilot, MSP Gold, 8<br />

Place Leather Interior,<br />

Aircon.<br />

$ 1,300,000 Ex VAT<br />

King Air 90 1996 Citation CJ 1<br />

TTSN 10846 Hours, New<br />

VIP Interior, Engines<br />

439/439 SMOH, New<br />

Props, Garmin 430,<br />

Weather Radar, Flight<br />

Director.<br />

R 3,500,000 Ex VAT<br />

THIS IS NOT A<br />

MISPRINT!<br />

TT 5788 Hours, Engines<br />

SMOH 529/729, Props<br />

SPOH 121/121, King<br />

Stack, Navomatic 400<br />

Auto pilot, colour radar,<br />

air conditioned.<br />

R 1,700,000 Ex VAT<br />

Upgraded Fenestron<br />

Rotor, Upgrade Turbine<br />

to 643 Horsepower,<br />

Garmin 430, Military<br />

installed Radio<br />

Altimeter. Broad<br />

Retention Straps.<br />

$ 560,000 Ex VAT<br />

Hours 6763. Engines On<br />

Rolls Royce Corporate<br />

Care.Fastest Business Jet<br />

on the Market.<br />

$ 9 600 000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 3684 Hours.<br />

Engines 576/576 SMOH.<br />

On JSSI 100 Tip to Tail.<br />

Engines on 100% TAP<br />

Elite. On Cesscom. 2<br />

Tube EFIS. EGPWS. FDR.<br />

FMS.<br />

$ 2,150,000 Ex VAT<br />

1983 Jetstream 3102 1973 Shrike Aerocommander 500S2 1980 Hawker 400A<br />

TTSN 32683 Hours,<br />

Engines 5168/4503.<br />

Props 5800/5800. Collins<br />

and Honeywell Avionics.<br />

Flight Data Recorder.<br />

EGPWS. 2 plus 18 Seats.<br />

R 6,300,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 2600 Hours.<br />

Engines and Props all<br />

Zero Hours. SMOH. Gami<br />

Injectors with Merlyn<br />

Turbo System (New),<br />

New Paint Interior.<br />

$ 350,000 USD Ex<br />

VAT<br />

1973 Cessna 414 1979 Cessna 421C Golden Eagle III<br />

1999 Pilatus PC12-45<br />

1979 Beechcraft Bonanza F33A 1964 Cessna 172E<br />

TTSN 2980 Hours, Engine<br />

SMOH 1230, Garmin<br />

495, King Stack, 6 Place<br />

Intercom, Piper<br />

Autocontroll III<br />

Autopilot.<br />

R995,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 4623 Hours,<br />

Engines SMOH 494/592,<br />

SPOH 1805, Garmin 430,<br />

WX Monochrome Radar<br />

IFCS Autopiliot,<br />

YawDamper, Flight<br />

Director, Aircon, Full De-<br />

Ice.<br />

R 2,600,000 Ex VAT<br />

TT 3080 hours, Engine SMOH 180<br />

hours, Engine has been upgraded<br />

to a Lycoming 160 HP 4 cylinder,<br />

Propeller SPOH ± 270 hours.<br />

EXTRAS: New Windows and<br />

Windscreen throughout, New<br />

Tyres, New Seat Rails, New<br />

Carpeting, New Controls,<br />

Cleveland Disc Brakes, Vacuum<br />

Pump, EGT, Wingtips.<br />

R 600,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 5657,3 hrs,<br />

Engines SMOH 251 /<br />

802, Props SPOH 251 /<br />

251, New Paint and<br />

Interior 2008, Garmin<br />

430, Storm Scope,<br />

Autopilot.<br />

R 990,000 Ex VAT<br />

www.moneyaviation.co.za<br />

FOR YOUR NEXT AIRCRAFT INVESTMENT<br />

1943 Boeing Stearman<br />

Hours 11466. Engines<br />

Due Mid Life 2013. Fresh<br />

Inspections. QTA Stage 3<br />

Hush Kit. Very Well<br />

Equipped. 12 Passengers.<br />

$ 3,350,000 Ex VAT<br />

1993 CARAVAN 208B<br />

TT 10 068.8 hours, Engines SMOH<br />

432Hrs. Props SPOH 432 Hrs, King<br />

Stack. EXTRAS: Extended Nose Fork,<br />

Oversize Tires, Oxygen, Known Icing.<br />

$ 985,000 Ex VAT<br />

1995 CARAVAN 208B<br />

TT 11 805.5hours, Engine SMOH<br />

964Hrs. Prop TT 1,443.1, King Stack.<br />

EXTRAS: Extended Nose Fork,<br />

Oversize Tires, Oxygen.<br />

$ 985,000 Ex VAT<br />

TT 12 210 Hours, Engines<br />

5532 / 5436 Hours,<br />

Collins EFIS, MSP Gold,<br />

Eight PAX exec.<br />

$ 1,100,000 Ex VAT<br />

TTSN 920 Hours, SPOH<br />

450, EFIS 50 (2-Tube),<br />

King 325 Autopilot, RDR-<br />

2000 Colour Weather<br />

Radar, TCAS, Aircon, 6<br />

Place "Platinum<br />

Upgrade" Tan Interior +<br />

2 Aft Seats.<br />

$2,350,000 Ex VAT<br />

ZS-Registered,<br />

Call for Full Spec.<br />

R650,000 Ex VAT<br />

1977 Aerospatiale Gazelle 1976 Beechcraft Baron B55 1969 PA32-300 69 Cherokee 6<br />

TT ± 2807, Engine SMOH<br />

± 600 (TBO 2000). Prop<br />

overhauled in 2008, Full<br />

IF stack, ELT, Strobes, 300<br />

Horse power, Toe brakes,<br />

Garmin 100. Piper<br />

autopilot, ELT, Digital<br />

Fuel, flow meter.<br />

R 950 000 Ex VAT


Deadline for receipt of advertisements<br />

in this section of the magazine is the<br />

3rd of the month preceding<br />

publication, or the closest<br />

working day to that date.<br />

Tel: (031) 564-1319<br />

Fax: (031) 563-7115 or<br />

email marketplace@airnews.co.za<br />

AVIATION GEAR<br />

� AIRWEAR® Flight suits and pilot<br />

gear. www.airwear.co.za<br />

airwear@mweb.co.za<br />

Tel & fax: +27 (0) 31 783-4300.<br />

AVIATION INSURANCE<br />

� VIVIERS AVIATION INSURANCE.<br />

Contact Pierre Viviers, an instrument<br />

rated aircraft owner and attorney for a<br />

quotation on aircraft insurance.<br />

Tel: 018 297 5201. Fax: 018 297 8066.<br />

Cell: 082-377 7699.<br />

Email: pierre@viviersattorneys.co.za<br />

BOOKS<br />

� PPL MANUAL by JIM DAVIS<br />

Making you a SAFER pilot 046 624 5933<br />

www.jimdavis.co.za<br />

jimdavis@telkomsa.net<br />

� FLIGHT TESTS by JIM DAVIS<br />

Pass your test first time, guaranteed.<br />

046 624 5933 jimdavis@telkomsa.net<br />

FLIGHT TRAINING<br />

� DESIGNATED EXAMINER DFE-I-A,<br />

Pretoria area. Flight tests and advanced<br />

training. CAA/0210. chris@pilots.co.za,<br />

or SMS to 072 233 2111.<br />

� PROFESSIONAL GROUND SCHOOL<br />

in Cape Town. CPL, ATP & Crew Resources<br />

management held every month. English<br />

language training for foreign students.<br />

84 WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>.<br />

Contact Deborah Mann 082 495 8179 or<br />

021 934 5267 or<br />

www.dealalliance.co.za<br />

� FAA FLIGHT REVIEW<br />

Revalidate your FAA Pilot Certificate in<br />

Gauteng. chris@pilots.co.za<br />

LEGAL SERVICES<br />

� VIVIERS ATTORNEYS.<br />

Contact Pierre Viviers, an instrument<br />

rated aircraft owner to assist with your<br />

aviation legal requirements.<br />

Tel: 018 297 5201.<br />

Fax: 018 297 8066.<br />

Cell: 082 377 7699.<br />

Email: pierre@viviersattorneys.co.za<br />

� CON KILIAN ATTORNEYS.<br />

For your aviation legal requirements.<br />

25 HA development land<br />

(RES 1&3, BUS 3),<br />

fully walled & electric fence,<br />

2 Eskom points,<br />

municipal water.<br />

10 km north of Fourways,<br />

bordering new Tanganani<br />

development.<br />

Outright purchase or rental<br />

Contact owner:<br />

search4me@webmail.co.za<br />

www.helicoptercharter.co.za<br />

Best training<br />

rates and<br />

quality in the<br />

world to-day!<br />

John Huddlestone<br />

Cell 083-653-4294 Tel 041-507-7343<br />

fax 041-507-7344 or email<br />

helichar@iafrica.com<br />

CAA/0113<br />

Contact Con 013 656 5379 or<br />

082 554 1891or email<br />

con.k@mweb.co.za<br />

GETAWAYS<br />

� STUNNING GAME FARM,<br />

ideal weekend getaway 80 nm north<br />

of Lanseria. Helipad & hangar (for<br />

single bladed heli) & 1200 m<br />

excellent dirt strip. Luxury self<br />

catering lodge with 4 en suite<br />

bedrooms, daily game drives. Prolific<br />

wildlife and fantastic birding.<br />

Michvs@mweb.co.za<br />

FOR SALE<br />

� R44 HYDRAULIC BOGEY for sale,<br />

can be towed by quad/ similar or pulled<br />

by hand. R5 000 michvs@mweb.co.za<br />

At SFT, we enjoy sharing our love of flying with our<br />

students. Our instructors have experience on almost<br />

100 aircraft models. All training is<br />

supervised by two Grade I instructors. We use<br />

new-technology aircraft to make superb flight<br />

2training extremely affordable.<br />

Introductory flights cost only R300. CAA/0210<br />

Q PPL to ATP<br />

Q Advanced and Recurrent training.<br />

pilots.co.za 012 811 2233<br />

Kitty Hawk Airfield, East of Pretoria.


10 kms on tar from LANSERIA airport<br />

250 000 sqm property, 7 500 sqm under roof<br />

Operational and fully equipped<br />

MULTIPLE POSSIBILITIES - IDEAL FOR:<br />

* In house training facility for corporate/UN/NGO<br />

* Retirement/Lifestyle estate<br />

* School/college campus<br />

* Church venue<br />

* Leisure market / Time share / Hotel<br />

Outright sale or rental<br />

Contact Owner : Search4me@webmail.co.za<br />

WORLD AIRNEWS, MAY <strong>2010</strong>. 85


Aircraft Sales<br />

Aero Export is the leading importer of used business jets from the United States. We are<br />

extremely well connected in the USA through our network of associates and therefore in a<br />

position to offer you, the discerning business aircraft buyer, a professional, efficient and cost effective solution<br />

to the procurement of your next aircraft.<br />

We offer a total service covering:<br />

• Sourcing<br />

• Finance<br />

• Pre-buy inspections<br />

• Ferry flight<br />

• Insurance<br />

• Aircraft registrations<br />

Call us and make a comparison before finalising your next purchase!<br />

2006 Citation CJ3<br />

$ 6,250,000<br />

Total time 600 Hrs – one<br />

owner – Cescom – Collins<br />

Proline 21 Avionics suite –<br />

RVSM – TCAS – EGPWS.<br />

Like new.<br />

2009 Citation Mustang<br />

$ 2,395,000<br />

New Aircraft,<br />

Delivery NOW!<br />

2009 Pilatus PC 12 – NG<br />

MAKE AN OFFER<br />

Total time since new 95<br />

hours<br />

Integrated Honeywell Primus<br />

Apex avionics suite.<br />

Like new.<br />

2000 Global Express<br />

$ 27,500,000<br />

Total time 9200 Hrs, One<br />

owner, Rolls Royce Corp Care,<br />

Smart Parts, 6<br />

Tube EFIS<br />

2011 HONDAJET<br />

$ 3,650,000<br />

Delivery 3rd Quarter<br />

2012<br />

Total time<br />

7200 Hrs, 4<br />

tube EFIS,<br />

RVSM, TAWS,<br />

EGPWS, MSP<br />

Gold<br />

Tel: (011) 467 5751 / 0861-Planes (752637) / Fax: (011) 467 5991<br />

Email: flyer@mweb.co.za Website: www.aeroexport.co. za<br />

Bruce Theunissen: 083-326-8965<br />

ALL PRICES EXCLUDE VAT<br />

2007 Citation CJ2+<br />

$ 4,795,000<br />

Total time 475 Hrs –<br />

Collins Proline 21 Avionics<br />

suite – Cescom and<br />

Cessna Pro Parts – RVSM<br />

– TCAS – CVR – EGPWS.<br />

1998 Learjet 60<br />

$ 3,995,000


1977 Hawker 700A<br />

$ 950,000<br />

Total time 10,700 Hrs – SMOH 326/263<br />

Engines on MSP Gold – MFD – RVSM –<br />

EGPWS -<br />

1995 Gulfstream IV SP<br />

$ 12,995,000<br />

Total time 11,800 Hrs.<br />

Engines on Rolls Royce<br />

Corp Care, APU on MSP,<br />

Absolutely loaded with<br />

avionics,<br />

Recent paint and Interior.<br />

2009 Embraer Phenom 100<br />

$ 2, 750,000<br />

New Aircraft,<br />

$ 70,000 installed options,<br />

Immediate delivery.<br />

Aircraft Sales<br />

1993 Citation II<br />

$ 1,750,000<br />

Total time 4900 Hrs, 1308<br />

SMOH, Honeywell EFIS, TCAS,<br />

RVSM, EGPWS,<br />

fresh I – IV<br />

Inspections, on<br />

Cescom<br />

1985 Citation SII<br />

$ 1,495,000<br />

Total time 8980 hrs – SMOH 1285/503.<br />

Two owners since new, RVSM, TCAS,<br />

TAWS, EGPWS,<br />

CVR, recent Phase I<br />

– V by Cessna, Part<br />

135 operated, on<br />

Cescom.<br />

Total time 5889 Engines 2600/1900<br />

New paint and interior.<br />

RVSM with brand new Garmin & Sandel<br />

Avionics suite (cost $ 360,000)<br />

An absolute gem – In SA and ready to go.<br />

1980 Beech King Air B200<br />

$ 1,100,000<br />

Total time 15 747 hours<br />

SMOH 518/2382 (3600 hours engines).<br />

Props 320/314. Full Collins suite with<br />

great paint and interior. Factory fitted<br />

cargo door.<br />

In SA on the Register.<br />

1982 Citation I SP<br />

MAKE AN OFFER<br />

1970 Gulfstream II SP<br />

$ 1,995,000<br />

Total time 12,200 Hrs, 542/510<br />

since midlife, Collins Pro-Line with<br />

Honeywell SP-50G Autopilot, Dual FMS, TCAS II,<br />

EGPWS, RVSM, Airshow 400, Recent paint and<br />

Interior, recent 72 month inspections. On<br />

Gulfstream maintenance programme.<br />

1979 Citation I SP<br />

$ 695,000<br />

Total time 9410 – SMOH 2200/1950 –<br />

SHSI 600/600. RVSM – Garmin 500<br />

with TAWS –<br />

Thrust reversers –<br />

Recent Phase I – V<br />

Inspections.<br />

1982 Challenger 600<br />

$ 1,995,000<br />

Total time 7500 hours,<br />

RVSM, TAWS, TCAS, Dual<br />

GNS, 60 and 120 Month<br />

inspections done 5/07.<br />

Current Part 135 operated.<br />

Recent paint and interior.<br />

On MSP Gold.<br />

1980 Learjet 35A<br />

$ 1,195,000<br />

Total time 11,200 Hrs, TCAS II,<br />

RVSM, EGPWS, Cargo Door,<br />

TRs, MSP Gold.<br />

Tel: (011) 467 5751 / 0861-Planes (752637) / Fax: (011) 467 5991<br />

Email: flyer@mweb.co.za Website: www.aeroexport.co. za<br />

Bruce Theunissen: 083-326-8965<br />

ALL PRICES EXCLUDE VAT


“What To Say<br />

On the Radio”<br />

CD or Audio Cassette<br />

t This very useful aid contains examples of radio procedures.<br />

t Made by Air Traffic Controllers and Pilots as a guide to you.<br />

t VFR procedures for circuit work general flying and a long<br />

cross country navigation exercise.<br />

t IFR procedures for instrument flying including procedures<br />

for an ILS let down.<br />

t Recordings of actual live broadcasts for both VFR and IFR<br />

exercises.<br />

DON’T DELAY, GET YOUR COPY TODAY!<br />

Call Tel: 073 346 0490<br />

Fax: 011 432-0098 email: mandy@airsafety.co.za<br />

www.airsafety.co.za<br />

15 Spitfire Crescent Rand Airport<br />

INSTRUMENT AND AVIONIC SOLUTIONS<br />

Tempe Airport, Bloemfontein<br />

THE ONLY INSTRUMENT AND AVIONICS<br />

FACILITY IN THE FREE STATE<br />

q Fully licensed<br />

q All instrument & auto-pilot repairs & installations<br />

q Support offered to all airfields in the Free State<br />

q Immaculate panel revamps<br />

q All avionics installations<br />

q Limited avionics repairs<br />

q LS 1 category plug & play panels<br />

q Accredited Aspen avionics installation facility<br />

Contact: Andrew Bennetts<br />

073 513 3205<br />

e-mail: andrew@aibloem.co.za<br />

The largest supplier of pilot accessories in Africa.<br />

LANSERIA - Main Terminal Building 011 701-3209 (T)<br />

GRAND CENTRAL - Main Terminal Building 011 805-0684 (T&F)<br />

Email wingsn@iafrica.com<br />

or visit the 24 hour on line shop<br />

www.wingsnthings.co.za<br />

STOCKISTS OF: WAC/ONC/IFR/CHARTS,<br />

EPAULETTES, WATCHES, DAVID CLARK, ICOM,<br />

GARMIN, AVCOMM, BOSE, JEPPESEN, PILOT WEAR<br />

AND MUCH MUCH MORE........<br />

Shop A, Terminal Building,<br />

Virginia Airport.<br />

WE ARE STOCKISTS OF:-<br />

« Headsets, intercoms, transceivers.<br />

« GPS - aviation, land and marine.<br />

« Maps, books, pilot shirts, posters novelties.<br />

« Sunglasses, T-shirts, caps.<br />

« Flight simulator hardware and software<br />

« Jeppesen, Aerad.<br />

Tel: (031) 564-9157 Fax: (031) 564-1543<br />

email: pilotshp@iafrica.com<br />

Booking is now open for our 14 th annual tour to the EAA Oshkosh Airshow (26 th July to 1 st Aug <strong>2010</strong>)<br />

Fares start at R25,500 - inclusive of air-conditioned en-suite hotel accommodation, "american-continental"<br />

breakfasts, choice of multiple daily twenty minute coach transfers by privileged roadway<br />

directly to (and from) the entry gate of the airshow, airfares and taxes, gratuities, assisted travel<br />

insurance, entry fee to the Harley-Davidson Museum, an embroidered pilot's cap and a sunhat.<br />

Extras apply for single rooms, semi-suites and business class airfares. Break-aways are welcome, as<br />

are Voyager, other "point” scheme redeemers, and ID flyers.<br />

Optionally extra are four days, pre-Oshkosh, in Washington: - A free day to visit the Smithsonian<br />

Air and Space Museum, and other Washington musts; a day at the Udvar-Hazy Museum (the world's<br />

largest collection of historic aircraft), and Arlington; and a day at the famed "Flying Circus". This<br />

day includes:- a Stearman flight for each of the tour party, guest attendance at the show pilot’s<br />

briefing, the Barnstorming Airshow itself, and a beer and pizza evening together with the performing<br />

pilots and aircrew after the show. Fares from R4,200 all costs inclusive.<br />

We have capacity for only 30 aviation enthusiasts - book now. Contact us for an information flyer.<br />

Designer Tours - (021) 788-8440 - calvin@designer.co.za


603Baron_WA_01.04<br />

The love of<br />

my life,<br />

seen here<br />

with my wife<br />

AIRCRAFT SALES<br />

Keith Garritt,<br />

passionate owner.<br />

BEECHCRAFT BONANZA G36<br />

SALES MAINTENANCE PARTS AVIONICS CHARTER TRAINING VALUE ADDED PRODUCTS FINANCE INSURANCE<br />

“NAC really understands my passion for aircraft. With their versatile product range, you’ll always fi nd the best of breed in what you are<br />

looking for. In my opinion, there is nothing fi ner than the Beechcraft Bonanza or Baron, and NAC hooked me up with the love of my life.”<br />

“Speak to NAC about your aviation requirements today and they’ll be able to fi nd the right aircraft to satisfy your<br />

passion too!” – Keith Garritt<br />

For more information contact:<br />

Lanseria +27 11 267 5000 • Rand +27 11 345 2500 • Cape Town +27 21 425 3868<br />

Pretoria +27 12 567 5161 • Durban +27 31 571 8316 • Gaborone +267 397 5257<br />

Australia +6189 429 8881 • USA +27 001 316 685 8660 • ISO 9001:2008 Quality Assured • www.nac.co.za<br />

BEECHCRAFT BARON G58

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