Volume 11, Number 48a — November 28, 2005

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The Top Headlines From AVweb's Expanded, Illustrated News Coverage At AVweb's NewsWire.

FAA TAKES CREDIT FOR AIRLINE SAFETY...
In an unusually acerbic letterpublished in Friday's USA Today, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey claims that the near-perfect airline safety record of the past four years (several fatal commuter-line crashes don't appear to count in either Blakey's or USA Today's reckoning) is the result of the "enormous effort and singular focus by the FAA and the industry to achieve a historic safety record." Blakey was responding to a USA Today editorialthat appeared the previous day that, in directly addressing airline passengers, asserts that they "have a right to know what's going on beneath the silvery skins of all those jetliners." More...

...SYSTEM GOOD, GETTING BETTER, SAYS BLAKEY...
In her letter, Blakey said the FAA has moved away from a "checklist" approach to safety programs to a risk-based system in which inspectors can spot safety trends and then direct carriers to adjust their in-house safety programs to solve problems before they result in a crash. Blakey also appears to dispute Mead's suggestion that foreign-based maintenance contractors are under-inspected or that the inspections themselves are somehow deficient because they are carried out by the host country's aviation authorities. She claims that while U.S. maintenance shops undergo 30 audits a year, foreign operators get checked an average of 74 times a year, and in countries that have bilateral agreements with the U.S., contractors must maintain FAA certification to work on U.S. planes. But the editorial was skeptical of the FAA's defense of its safety programs. More...

...WHERE THE FEARS REALLY LIE
While the focus appears to be on maintenance outsourcing, FAA officials privately admit that their greatest fear of an accident has nothing to do with a mechanical failure. Sources have told AVweb in the past that they consider the greatest risk for another airliner disaster to be on the ground and not in the air. And according to an FAA study, a cluster of three California airports, John Wayne, Long Beach and LAX, rank first, second and third in both the outright number of incursions and the number of incursions per 100,000 flights. Because LAX caters almost exclusively to airliners, the FAA is most concerned about its incursion rate, which is fueled by its design. Aircraft must cross active runways to get to the terminal. Boston's Logan Airport has also had an unusually bad year for incursions (15 so far) and officials are taking action. More...

FAA ISSUES AIRBUS NOSE GEAR AD...
Two months after the made-for-television landing of a JetBlue A320 with the nose gear cocked 90 degrees to the runway centerline (most prior incidents didn't make TV news), the FAA has issued an Airworthiness Directive (AD) that requires inspection of the nose gear on about 200 U.S.-registered planes and will likely affect another 650 in other countries. Although the landing at LAX, with smoke and sparks pouring from the twisted gear, provided a major ratings boost for the news channels, no one on board suffered a scratch. And while the authorities know that the combined failure of some lugs and the braking and steering control unit led to the wheels being misaligned, they don't know why and further ADs may follow. More...

...WHILE EXPLODING FUEL TANKS GET MORE TIME
And while no one has so much as broken a nail because of the nose gear issue, hundreds have been killed because of exploding fuel tanks and, according to the FAA's proposed AD, more such calamities are "virtually certain to occur." The agency has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that will not require the installation of specific hardware to address fuel-tank explosions, but rather will set flammability standards for the ullage, the space in the tank not occupied by fuel. It will be up to manufacturers and airlines to meet those standards, something the FAA says was not thought practical a few years ago but which is now economically viable. More...

AERIAL ADVERTISING BAN CHALLENGED IN HAWAII
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will soon decide whether Hawaii has the legal authority to allow the city of Honolulu to ban aerial advertising. An anti-abortion group is appealing the ban, which has been in place since 2002, so it can pull above the beaches and other populated areas of the city 50-by-100-foot banners adorned with images of aborted fetuses. The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform argues that airspace is a federal responsibility and the state, which has passed legislation supporting Honolulu's ban, has no business trying to regulate it. It would appear the FAA thinks the same way. More...

CONGRESS REJECTS USER FEES -- FOR A YEAR
Congress has decided to maintain the status quo in funding the FAA and that means no user fees, at least not yet. The funding bill passed last week by Congress continues to bankroll the agency through the Airway and Airports Trust Fund and from general revenue. "Congress, acting as the board of directors for the FAA, has once again decided that the fairest, most responsible way to pay for aviation's benefits to all citizens is through excise taxes and general fund contributions," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "And that's why we want to make sure that Congress retains oversight of the FAA." More...

AIRLINER SCARE OVER TURKEY
From what we can make of a Turkish news report, warplanes from that country were scrambled to force down a German airliner that passed over on its way from Egypt to Munich -- but they apparently failed to intercept it. According to a somewhat sketchy translation of the Zaman Daily News, the A321 (airline unknown) reportedly crossed over Turkey without contact with air traffic control. The fighters were scrambled but, for reasons yet unexplained, didn't find the airliner. The news service quoted unnamed government sources describing the operation as a "fiasco." More...

INDIAN ADVENTURER CLAIMS BALLOON ALTITUDE RECORD
An Indian textiles tycoon is claiming to have established a new altitude record for hot air balloons. Vijaypat Singhania says he flew the specially designed balloon to 21,300 meters (70,000 feet) in a five-hour flight that covered about 150 miles on Saturday. "When I broke the record, I was euphoric. I screamed quite loudly," Singhania told The Associated Press. "This goes to show to the world that we are not bullock cart drivers, but we can compete against the best of the world." Instruments sealed within the balloon's capsule must be analyzed to determine the exact height of the flight. More...

"NEW" SUPERIOR ENGINE GETS PRODUCTION CERTIFICATE
Generally, if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck ... well, you know the rest. But the devil's in the details and as much as this engine looks (and presumably sounds) like a Lycoming 360, Superior Air Parts says its Vantage engine is "the newest FAA certified 180-horsepower piston engine." Last week, the FAA granted Superior a full production certificate for the engine, which was certified in April. Although in form it appears to be a Lycoming, Superior says there are significant improvements in design over the 50-year-old example and demand is strong for its "new" engine. More...

AVIATION HISTORY "PRESERVED"
Military aviation history isn't always about planes and pilots. Sometimes it's soaked into a patch of red paisley carpet or etched into a slab of wood. For pilots and crew who headed into harm's way in the Western Pacific, the watering hole known as The Cubi Bar at Cubi Point Naval Air Station in the Philippines was the closest thing to home. And now, anytime they're in the Pensacola area, they can visit their old haunt, check to see that their squadron plaque is still hanging and maybe play a game of shuffleboard. After Subic Bay closed in the early 1990s, the National Museum of Naval Aviation had the bar dismantled and shipped to Pensacola where it was reassembled down to the last detail. More...

ON THE FLY...
Attempt to surpass record paper airplane flight stopped short...
Flight 93 the movie is currently Flight 93 the web site...
NetJets pilots have reached a contract with management...
SpaceX looks to reschedule Falcon 1 launch. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Drop us a line. Heard something that 130,000 pilots might want to know about? If it caught your eye, it will interest someone else. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. You're a part of our team ... often, the best part. More...

READER FEEDBACK ON AVWEB'S NEWS COVERAGE AND FEATURE ARTICLES:
AVmail: November 28, 2005
Reader mail this week about light guns, fuel prices, TSOs and more.

More...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB
COLUMNS
The Pilot's Lounge #94: It's The Medium, Manfred
There's a new aviation myth running around the Internet. It involves a conveyer-belt runway and misuse of aerodynamics and ... well, it's better if AVweb's Rick Durden explains it all himself in The Pilot's Lounge.

More...

AVWEB'S BUSINESS AVFLASH
HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVweb's NO-COST twice monthly Business AVflash? Reporting on breaking news, Business AVflash also focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the Business of Aviation. Business AVflash is a must read. Watch for a Business AVflash regular feature, TSA WATCH: GA IN THE "SPOTLIGHT". Sign up today at http://www.avweb.com/profile/ More...

SHORT FINAL...
I was practicing night landings when another aircraft departed the airport to the southeast. This is the communication I heard between that aircraft and the tower...

Departing Aircraft: Uh, Tower, N1234. Are you talkin' to this traffic out here? He's headed straight for us.

(short pause)

Departing Aircraft: Scratch that ... (timidly) ... we're looking at a planet. More...

AVflash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest aviation news, articles, products, features and events featured on AVweb, the Internet's Aviation Magazine and News Service. http://www.avweb.com

Letters to the editor intended for publication in AVmail should be sent to mailto:editor@avweb.com.com. Have a comment or question? Send it to mailto:newsteam@avweb.com.

Today's issue written by News Writer Russ Niles:
http://www.avweb.com/contact/authors.html#rniles
AVweb's editorial team: http://avweb.com/contact/authors.html.

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