Volume 11, Number 49a — December 5, 2005

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

AIRLINE PILOT REPORTS "SMOKE TRAIL"...
An American Airlines pilot departing from Los Angeles International Airport told air traffic controllers that a missile had been fired at his aircraft and missed, a local ABC News affiliate reported last week. The pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit as the airplane climbed out over the ocean. FBI agents and Homeland Security officials investigated last weekend and said it was probably a flare or a [very impressive] bottle rocket, but they may never know for sure, according to KYW Newsradio 1060. The flight was en route to Chicago and proceeded without further incident. More...

...AS SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM STALLS...
Although both BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman say they will be ready to produce workable missile-defense systems for airliners by January, so far there is no funding available and no mandate that would require airlines to utilize such defenses, The Associated Press reported last week. Several bills pending in Congress would require the systems be carried -- at least on some flights -- but the airlines have balked at cost and maintenance issues, and complain that the systems are too unreliable. Both systems under development use lasers to jam the guidance systems of incoming missiles. More...

...AND CABIN CREWS BALK AT TSA'S LATEST CHANGES
When the Transportation Security Administration announced new passenger-screening procedures and a revised prohibited-items list last week, the Air Line Pilots Association thought it was a good idea. "We feel it's a move in the right direction," Bob Hesselbein, chairman of ALPA's security committee, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "We have to keep the focus on the facts of the terrorists and the techniques they use, not on our fears of what they could do." The new list will allow small scissors and screwdrivers on board. However, the Association of Flight Attendants – whose members work in the passenger cabin, while pilots operate behind locked doors -- opposes the change. More...

NTSB TAKES ON GA WEATHER HAZARDS...
Typically, the NTSB reports on flight risks after reviewing a set of relevant accidents, but for its latest report, released last week, the board has implemented a new methodology. The new "case-control" statistical-analysis approach was used in a study of GA weather-related accidents, comparing a group of accident flights to a matching group of non-accident flights in an effort to identify patterns of variables that distinguish the two groups from each other. The advantage, the NTSB says, is that instead of focusing on factors that accidents have in common -- and possibly being misled by characteristics common to most pilots and flights -- it identifies characteristics that set accidents apart and contribute to their occurrence. More...

...RISK FACTORS REVEALED...
For this study, NTSB investigators collected data from 72 GA accidents that occurred between August 2003 and April 2004. An additional 135 safe flights that were conducted in the same area and time as the accident flights were also studied. The analysis showed that risk factors associated with flying in instrument weather conditions or low visibility include: 1) pilot age and training-related differences; 2) pilot testing, accident, and incident history; and 3) pilot weather briefing sources and methods. The board recommended that the FAA should beef up weather-related portions of the Airman Knowledge Tests and flight reviews, develop a means to identify at-risk pilots and target them for intervention, and improve the delivery of weather information to pilots. More...

...AS FAA STANDS FIRM ON CARAVAN ICING AD
The FAA has no plans to revise recent Airworthiness Directives that require a tactile check by pilots to prevent icing problems on the Cessna Model 208 Caravan, the Regional Air Cargo Carriers Association (RACCA) said on Friday. RACCA representatives met with the FAA in mid-November and told the agency that the requirement that pilots must physically inspect the airframe for ice contamination within five minutes of takeoff was impractical at most airports. Since such inspections would likely have to take place in run-up areas, where lighting is often poor and other aircraft are operating, "the cure is seemingly more dangerous to pilots than the disease," RACCA said. More...

AN AIRBUS' GLASS COCKPIT GOES DARK
Picture this ... you're the captain of an Airbus A319-131, and you've just taken off from London into a clear night sky, bound for Budapest with 76 passengers on board. Approaching FL200, you hear a "CLUNK" and the cockpit goes dark. No autopilot, no multi-function displays, no radios, just a bit of backup lighting. An airline pilot must now actually fly the airplane. As your co-pilot starts down the checklist, you take manual control of the airplane, and fly by the night horizon outside and what backup instruments you can see. Two minutes into the checklist, the co-pilot pushes a button, and all whirrs back into bright life. That's what happened during a very long two minutes on Oct. 5. More...

BOOMTIME FOR BOEING
With 800 jets sold already this year and some big orders pending, Boeing is closing in on surpassing its peak of 877 sales, set back in 1988. But in the manufacturing world, big orders can be a mixed blessing. Back in the late 1990s, high demand cost Boeing billions of dollars when the company ran up against a shortage of materials and an abundance of production problems. The company leadership remembers those days all too well, spokesman Craig Martin told MarketWatch. "They are -- to a person -- determined it will never happen again, and particularly not on their watch." Much of the sales boom is being driven by growth abroad. More...

PILOT FACES FEDERAL CHARGES OF LYING ON MEDICAL
A commercial pilot from Centerville, Mass., has been charged in federal court with four counts of making false statements on FAA medical forms, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said on Friday. The 53-year-old pilot lied on four first-class medical FAA forms, Sullivan alleged. If convicted, the pilot faces up to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of the Inspector General, Investigations Division. It is being prosecuted by Sullivan's Major Crimes Unit in Boston. More...

AOPA TO FAA -- HANDS OFF GA
When it's not airspace grabs, it's user-fee threats -- that's AOPA's take on the FAA these days. FAA Administrator Marion Blakey spoke to the Aero Club in Washington, D.C., last Monday, and expressed what is by now a familiar theme -- the Aviation Trust Fund faces imminent doom and a new funding system is essential. "You do the math," she said. "The equation doesn't work." AOPA was quick to respond. "Others have done the math, including the White House's Office of Management and Budget," AOPA said at its Web site. The OMB predicts continued trust fund growth. The FAA's authority to collect aviation ticket and fuel taxes will expire in 2007, and Blakey wants to replace the current funding structure. More...

ZERO-ZERO LANDINGS IN THE WORKS (FOR MILITARY FLYERS)
The Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Ohio, is working to develop technology that will enable the Air Mobility Command to land in a range of environmental conditions, anytime and anywhere, the Air Force said last week. An onboard system will process data picked up by imaging radar to generate a near real-time three-dimensional video image on a heads-up display. The image will be enhanced to appear as if the pilot were landing in daytime conditions on a typical visual approach, the Air Force said. The system would allow for landing in low visibility at remote runways that lack navigation aids. More...

AUSTRALIANS WORKING ON AGRICULTURAL UAVS
Unmanned aerial vehicles have been attracting more and more attention in recent years, mainly for applications in military reconnaissance and border patrol. But down under in Australia, a new research center is aiming in a new direction. "People are talking about using them for so-called armchair farming," says Rod Walker, director of the brand-new Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation that opened at Brisbane Airport last Thursday. Farmers with large properties could send out cheap UAVs to find where the stock is, or to collect data on crops to improve management and productivity, Walker told ABC Newsonline. And protecting the country's borders is on the agenda too More...

ON THE FLY...
AD targets 40 faulty propeller hubs from McCauley Propeller Systems...
Around-the-world helicopter flight to raise funds for poor kids...
Raytheon last week won its biggest-ever order, $1 billion in jets...
Flight Aware Web site offers free live online flight tracking...
A 1981 Piper Seneca stolen in Bahamas last Wednesday...
LAX to scrap 11 years of planning and start over...
Pilot Journey to take over marketing and sales for Liberty Aerospace...
First G1000 Diamond Star delivered in Australia. 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...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB
COLUMNS
Motor Head #10: Baffling Explanations
We squeeze engines into tight, streamlined cowls and allow the least amount of (drag-producing) cooling air through there because what we really want is speed. But even tiny leaks in baffles can have huge effects on engine cooling and, therefore, engine longevity as Marc Cook discusses in this month's Motor Head column.

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ATIS
ATC Pay
This opinion piece from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) is in response to a letter from an AVweb reader about recent negotiations between the FAA and NATCA.

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READER FEEDBACK ON AVWEB'S NEWS COVERAGE AND FEATURE ARTICLES:
AVmail: December 5, 2005
Reader mail this week about flight service, Airbus ADs, controller pay negotiations and more.

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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...
Submitted by a heavy iron driver.

After landing on RWY 30 the other day I began to taxi to the gate when I noticed a beautiful red fox strolling across the taxiway.

Me: Hey, Ground. Did you know you have foxes here on the airport?

Ground: Oh, sure, plenty of them. I'm surprised you knew it was a fox -- most pilots think they are wild dogs.

Me: Well, I've been to a bar or two. I know a fox when I see one!

Female Voice: Then I guess you'd know a wild dog, too. More...