FAA Loses 119,000 Planes?

NEW YORK – The chairman of the Senate subcommittee overseeing aviation said Friday he would recommend holding congressional hearings on aircraft registration after The Associated Press reported the Federal Aviation Administration was missing data on one-third of U.S. planes.
"We need to find out why, and how it can be brought back to have a registry that has credibility," said North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat.
The FAA says as many as 119,000 of the 357,000 U.S.-registered aircraft have "questionable registration" due to missing paperwork, invalid addresses and other paperwork problems.
In reports in 2007 and 2008, the agency warned that the probblem was causing loopholes that terrorists, drug traffickers and other criminals might exploit. It was concerned that a criminal might use a U.S. registration, known as an N-number, to slip by computer systems designed to track suspicious flights.

So we are body scanning every good citizen at airports in the U.S., but have lost track of over 100,000 aircraft? Not to mention literally thousands of large potentially dangerous radio control models, some approaching more than 1/2 the size of real aircraft. These "models" have zero accountability or tracking. They could easily carry bombs or chemicals in sufficient quantities to do major damage. But what the heck, lets just harass in the people boarding planes instead of addressing pertinent issues.

Jet Flyby wow!

How would you like to live at this apartment building. Exciting to say the least. A Navy jet from the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia passes an apartment building during tactical demonstration flyover as part of the 2009 Chrysler Jeep Superstores APBA Detroit Gold Cup race, Sunday July 12, 2009 along the Detroit River in Detroit.

Pilot Dies on Continental Flight

By ADAM GOLDMAN and VICTOR EPSTEIN, Associated Press Writers Adam Goldman And Victor Epstein, Associated Press Writers

"NEWARK, N.J. – The only inkling passengers had that something was wrong on the Continental Airlines flight over the Atlantic Ocean was when an announcement came over the loudspeaker asking if there was a doctor on board.

Otherwise, flight attendants continued to serve snacks. Passengers read magazines and watched movies. And the flight kept on its schedule.

But in the cockpit, the 60-year-old captain had died of a suspected heart attack and two co-pilots took over the controls. The 247 passengers aboard did not learn what had happened until the flight from Brussels landed safely Thursday and was met by fire trucks, emergency vehicles and dozens of reporters.

"I was shocked," said Dora Dekeyser of Houston. "Nobody knew anything."

"We weren't panicking. I never thought it was something as serious as this. We were relaxed," said Dekeyser's granddaughter, Stephanie Mallis, 18, of Lansdale, Pa.

After the crew of the Boeing 777 asked if there were any doctors aboard, several passengers approached the cockpit, including a doctor who said the pilot appeared to have suffered a heart attack.

Dr. Julien Struyven, 72, a cardiologist and radiologist from Brussels, examined the pilot in the cockpit and tried to revive him using a defibrillator. But it was too late.

"He was not alive," Struyven said. There was "no chance at all" of saving him.

The dead pilot was based in Newark and had worked for Continental for 32 years, the airline said. His name was not immediately released."

This is tragic for the pilot and his family. It makes a good headline, but is it really an emergency? With two other pilots aboard, it seems that there was no imminent danger to the plane or passengers. but what is questionable are the medical procedures and tests in the bi yearly physical exams for pilots, especially for a 60 year old Captain. Should there be stricter requirements? An age limit?

Amateurs Win ARCAA UAV Competition Flying 30-Year-Old R/C Kit

Sun, 26 Oct '08

"Team Telemaster" Bests Engineering Students' Entries
Aaron Donaldson and Simeon O'Neill entered and won the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation 2008 UAV Outback Rescue Challenge in Queensland, Australia last month with a Hobby-Lobby Senior Telemaster kit purchased over 30 years ago by Aaron's dad.



Converted from gas- to electric-power, Team Telemaster's plane featured a fully articulating belly-mounted camera. Their ground-based control displayed airspeed, altimeter, artificial horizon, the plane's GPS coordinates, and included an autopilot system and a video screen.

The two other entrants, both university-sponsored teams spending four times as much on their projects as Team Telemaster, crashed their planes. "Everyone [else] was aerospace engineers," Donaldson said. "Simeon and I didn't finish more than a semester of engineering."

The 2008 UAV Challenge, a direct outcome of "The Future of UAVs -- Challenges and Applications in the Asia Pacific Region" workshop ARCAA conducted in 2005, was held from September 23 to 25, 2008 at Kingaroy airport in Queensland, Australia. Kingaroy is the site for a new UAV test and training center being used by Boeing Australia and ARCAA.

The goal of the Outback Rescue competition was to rescue "Outback Joe," who is lost in the Australian outback and desperately in need of assistance. "A total time of one hour is allowed for the mission. This includes all time for set up, launch, mission, landing and recovery," ARCAA rules stated.

"Your system must be capable of searching an area of at least 2nm x 2nm, up to 5nm from the aerodrome. The target for your search will be a human (or dummy) wearing light khaki clothes and an Akubra hat. The target will not be moving and will be positioned in a typical resting pose in a rural setting.

"The GPS coordinates representing the four corners of the search area will be provided in the days leading up to the competition. The air vehicle must not travel outside of the search area or transit lane, for its flight will be terminated if it does so. The search area will be not more that 5nm from the aerodrome.

"Over a 60 minute period, teams must deploy their air vehicle systems and conduct the search. Once the search has been conducted a decision must be made as to where Outback Joe is located. A GPS coordinate, representing Outback Joe's location, must be provided to the judges.

"Once Joe has been located with the judges' approval, the air vehicle must be tasked with delivering its emergency package. The emergency package will contain 500ml of 'life saving' water. The package must be dropped as closely as possible to Outback Joe, without landing on him. The UAV will then return to the Kingaroy airport for recovery."

Though they failed to complete the challenge after a loose wiring plug forced them to land, Team Telemaster still walked off with top honors and a $5,000 AU prize.

"The entire team at Hobby-Lobby is thrilled to see our classic Telemaster take on the big guys and win," said Hobby-Lobby President Jay Graves. "The Telemaster has been a consistently great plane for R/C pilots looking for easy flying characteristics combined with a simple assembly process."

Hobby-Lobby International is a 43-year-old, Tennessee-based company manufacturing R/C airplanes, helicopters and boats. The high-wing Telemaster comes in a variety of sizes from micro to a version with a 12-foot wingspan. Assembly options include kits, which are built piece by piece, or "Almost Ready to Fly" (ARF) planes that only require the addition of an engine and electronics.

Fuel cost Crisis looming

---Quote---from http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080611050051.b41h6liu&show_article=1&catnum=0*

Oil costs will push some Asian airlines under: analysts say, Record-high oil prices have sparked the biggest crisis in the Asian airline industry since the SARS scare, and analysts say some carriers are likely to go under if prices do not let up soon. They say many of the region's airlines are ill-prepared to cope with the price surge, which saw oil top 139 dollars per barrel last week amid wide expectation prices will only keep rising in the months ahead."No one is going to escape this crisis unscathed," said Derek Sabudin, an analyst from the Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation consultancy.

He said airlines face a "severe shakeout" if extremely high fuel prices continue, with the industry already coping with the fallout from a US-led global economic slowdown."Carriers will be exiting the market," Sabudin said. "The weaker ones will go, and stronger carriers will shrink in size, if we see prices where they are above 120 dollars beyond the summer peak."Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst with Standard and Poor's Equity Research, said most carriers had not factored in prices at such "stratospheric" levels -- and that they were now not moving quickly enough in response."Few Asian airlines are reacting, in our view, adequately and aggressively enough to the oil shock and the devastation soon to follow," Shukor said.

If prices continue rising and hit 150 dollars a barrel or even higher, he said, "expect to see a rash of Asian carriers grounded and go bust."The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which had predicted an industry profit of 4.5 billion US dollars this year, is now projecting a loss of 2.3 billion dollars.The IATA, which represents more than 200 carriers that account for 94 percent of global traffic, says that every one dollar rise in oil prices will increase airline operating costs by 1.6 billion US dollars annually.Airlines already expected to pay about 176 billion US dollars for fuel expenses this year based on oil prices of 106.5 US dollars per barrel, said IATA, adding fuel accounts for 34 percent of operating costs.

Overall, analysts say, it is the worst crisis to hit Asia's aviation industry since the pneumonia-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) killed almost 800 people in 32 countries in a 2002-2003 outbreak.The health scare led to a massive slump in regional travel as well as financial losses for major carriers including Japan Airlines Group, China Airlines of Taiwan, and Singapore Airlines (SIA).To deal with the crisis, SIA slashed capacity by 30 percent while Philippine low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific suspended its route to Singapore.

In the face of the current situation, some regional carriers have begun to replicate the cost-cutting measures rolled out by US airlines trying to cope with the steep oil price rise. Australian flag carrier Qantas announced plans last month to slash domestic capacity by five percent, cut payroll, and retire several aircraft. The airline also reduced service to Asia. Thai Airways said last Friday it is cancelling its direct flight from Bangkok to New York, starting July, and selling four planes used on that route. Malaysia Airlines said it would freeze recruitment and was considering axing more routes as part of cost-cutting measures triggered by rising fuel prices.

Apart from their financial reserves, the strategies adopted by Asian carriers will determine whether they can survive this latest crisis, said Jason Pereira, a senior associate with Las Vegas-based Globalysis consultancy."It is a combination of financial reserve strength and smart strategy that will see some airlines come out on top," said Pereira, who monitors the region from Singapore.Some analysts say the region's low-cost carriers are more vulnerable to rising oil prices because they are typically managed on a tight budget.

Tiger Airways and AirAsia, two leading budget airlines in Southeast Asia, have both said will survive the turbulence -- and even emerge stronger."Profits are obviously going to be affected when oil triples in price but I take a very different approach," said Tony Fernandes, group chief executive of AirAsia, which pioneered regional low-cost travel."We think the time is to grow now," he told AFP. "There is a limit to what you can cut" in terms of costs.Tiger Airways chief operating officer Steve Burns said the carrier keeps costs to a minimum and is confident it can weather the fuel price onslaught."What we focus on is to be as lean and as efficient as possible," he said.---End Quote---

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