Sanctuary!

Piedmont Airlines has announced that it will provide employment-relief to the newly displaced ExpressJet airmen under the distressed carrier provision of its ALPA-negotiated pilot contract. Added in 2021, the provision allows the airline to offer employment—as well as seniority-based pay and bonuses—to pilots in, or formerly in, the employ of carriers deemed distressed.

New Drone Places Focus on VR-Like Controls and Immersive, Close Quarters FPV Flight

DJI has unveiled their newest drone, breaking the mold with a compact, sharp little unit geared towards agile, quick recording wherever necessary. The Avata breaks from the usual convention among drones, opting to enclose all 4 electric rotors within an arrangement of rings directly underneath the fuselage. That small size makes it a perfect fit for cramped, high speed flights, where a larger drone with outboard motors might pose a hazard to nearby subjects or surroundings. 

These Are the Voyages…

United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur mission is slated to deliver the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and cast members James Doohan (Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery Scott), Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura), and Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Nurse Christine Chapel) into a so-called graveyard orbit around the sun. The fitting tribute to Roddenberry et al. will need wait, however, until Vulcan's oft-delayed engines are delivered.

Goodbye, Iroquois: Hello, Gray Wolf

Leonardo S.p.A., the Italian multinational aerospace, defense, and security company; and Boeing, the world’s preeminent commercial aircraft concern and second-largest defense contractor, have delivered the first four MH-139A Grey Wolf test helicopters to the U.S. Air Force. The medium-sized, multi-mission, twin-engine MH-139A derives of AgustaWestland’s AW139 platform, and is slated to replace the USAF’s aging fleet of Bell UH-1N Twin Huey utility helicopters. The delivery follows the FAA issuance of the last supplemental type certificate necessary to complete U.S. Department of Defense Form 250 and formally commence aircraft acceptance.

Preliminary Report Cites Grim Findings

The NTSB has released its preliminary report on a highly-publicized, 29 July 2022 incident that saw a pilot fall to his death from a CASA-212 of which he was the second in command. The report, though inconclusive, dispells to some degree the speculation by which the occurrence and those involved therein have been beset. 

Also: Vertical Flight Society, Helicopter Deal, More Airline Cuts, Russian Spacewalk Cut

An unidentified amateur photographer was falsely imprisoned, denied his rights to counsel, and defamed by print and social media when a woman seated next to him on an American Airlines flight from Indianapolis to LaGuardia mistook his vintage camera for an explosive device. Lockheed’s F-35 is the first aircraft since Douglas’s mighty F-4 Phantom to be used concomitantly by the United States’ Air Force, Navy, and Marines. What’s more, the F-35 program—through which the USAF ultimately plans to provision itself with 3,300 of the stealthy

Wind River Air Owner-Pilot Vindicated

The Federal Aviation Administration has closed an investigation into a complaint against Wyoming helicopter operator Wind River Air. FAA aviation safety investigator Derek Smith of the Denver Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) stated in a June 2022 letter: “The outcome of our investigation indicates that there was insufficient evidence to determine that a possible violation of the Code of Federal Regulations by Wind River Air LLC occurred.”

Also: Vertical Flight Society, Helicopter Deal, More Airline Cuts, Russian Spacewalk Cut

An unidentified amateur photographer was falsely imprisoned, denied his rights to counsel, and defamed by print and social media when a woman seated next to him on an American Airlines flight from Indianapolis to LaGuardia mistook his vintage camera for an explosive device. Lockheed’s F-35 is the first aircraft since Douglas’s mighty F-4 Phantom to be used concomitantly by the United States’ Air Force, Navy, and Marines. What’s more, the F-35 program—through which the USAF ultimately plans to provision itself with 3,300 of the stealthy

Alex Orozco, Vice President at Nippon Kayaku America, Speaks With ANN At XPONENTIAL 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia

ParaSafe is an emergency parachute system for drones. Its parent company, Nippon Kayaku, has been building automotive technology with a focus on safety systems, such as car airbags, for the past 29 years. Creating products for unmanned systems seemed like the next step for the company to embrace the future. Nippon Kayaku created ParaSafe with the aim of protecting people. “We are a company that cares, we want to be able to offer high reliability products for society,” Orozco says.

Also: Boom Supersonic, Pilot Reinstated, USAF and Aptima, US Aviation Academy

A new American regional airline is using the ultimate weapon—money—to circumvent a pilot shortage that ALPA (the Airline Pilots Association, International) asserts does not exist, and airline industry pundits claim is the greatest threat to aviation since American Airlines did away with inflight peanuts in 2003. Connect Airlines, a division of Bedford-Massachusetts-based charter outfit Waltzing Matilda Aviation, is offering qualified pilots an eye-watering yearly salary of $250,000. The National Mediation Board recently certified the Air Line Pilots Association, I

Left-Wing Tip Was Impact Separated And Was Located About 140 Ft Before The Main Wreckage

On August 19, 2022, about 1030 central daylight time, an Air Tractor AT-602, N602PB, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Glendora, Mississippi. The commercial pilot was fatally injured. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 137 aerial application flight. According to the operator’s son, the pilot had planned for three flights to spray the target field and was returning from the second flight to reload when the accident occurred.

Aero Linx: International Aviation Fire Protection Association IAFPA was first formed in 2000 by a group of airport fire officers in the UK.  From the initial UK site, the work of IAFPA spread throughout the Asia Pacific and the Middle East.  In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world and affected almost all economies on the world stage especially aviation and the hospitality industry. With this major impact, the Council decided that to be relevant in the fast changing times and to be mission ready in the post-Covid era, IAFPA needed to restructure itself going forward.  On 28 Sep 2020, the IAFPA Executive Council took a major decision to merge IAFPA UK and IAFPA Asia into a str

Overhead Maneuver A series of predetermined maneuvers prescribed for aircraft (often in formation) for entry into the visual flight rules (VFR) traffic pattern and to proceed to a landing. An overhead maneuver is not an instrument flight rules (IFR) approach procedure. An aircraft executing an overhead maneuver is considered VFR and the IFR flight plan is canceled when the aircraft reaches the “initial point” on the initial approach portion of the maneuver. The pattern usually specifies the following...

“Piedmont added distressed carrier language to its pilot contract last year before anticipating the fragility of some regional carriers after the pandemic. No one wants to see an airline fail, ever. We know that ExpressJet pilots are well-trained aviators who know the Embraer 145, and we are very pleased to make this transition as easy as possible for them.” Source: From a statement by Piedmont Airlines’ director of operations Matt Kernan, concerning Piedmont Airlines, via a shrewd, self-serving move artfully veiled in the raiments of altruism, announceent that it will provide employment-relief to the newly displaced ExpressJet airmen under the distressed carrier provision of its ALPA-negotiated pilot contract.

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