Cause of, and Solution to Unspecified Problem Supposedly Solved

The pause that followed the fatal crash of a US Air Force Osprey in the sea near Japan has ended, with flights resuming for all branches operating the V-22. During the pause, Osprey crews reportedly underwent necessary maintenance and training, blaming the fatal crash on an "unprecedented" but unspecified part failure. That crash killed 8 servicemen in November of 2023, continuing a distressing streak of Osprey fatalities. "This decision follows a meticulous and data-driven approach prioritizing the safety of our aircrews," a Navy official said. The return to service okays the V-22 for flight with every branch, from the Navy and the Marines to the Air Force itself.

V1.0 Manufacturer Takes On Textron with Italian Style

Vulcanair North America has announced a home base at the Elizabethtown Corporate Airpark, based at Curtis L. Brown, Jr. Airfield of North Carolina. Vulcanair North America's parent company, Ameravia Inc, believes they can take on the C-172 in sales, seeing plenty of growth in the cards for the North American market. Ameravia CEO Chris Benaiges feels like they'll be sitting pretty to address such demand, since the industry as a whole can barely produce half of the aircraft required to replenish the training market. This year, the production backlog sits at about 3 years for the average GA manufacturer, leaving lots of room for Vulcanair to meet immediate demand.

Dual GPS FMS Suites Still Popular

Avidyne Corporation has shown off a retrofit for the Falcon 50 boasting a dual Atlas FMS, offering coupled GPS approach capabilities without the aged Collins ProLine suite. Avidyne says their Atlas Flight Management System offers everything an operator could want on deck, like 3d Synthetic Vision, Electronic Approach Charting, and GPS support for LPV, LP, LNAV, VNAV, and LNAV-only approaches. The first installation of the suite on a Falcon 50 took place by field approval in Brazil by way of SAB Aviaçâo. At a retail price of $30,900 a piece, each Atlas frees up some cost for those fearfully watching their old ProLine systems slowly flickering themselves to death on powerup.

Californian Bee Colony Hangs Out in Highway Patrol Aircraft

The California Highway Patrol recently had to pause operations using their Airbus AS350 helicopter when they found a live beehive colonizing the nose section. Being good environmental stewards, or simply recognizing the vital use for bees in the local agricultural economy. Local almond farms rely heavily on the proliferation of the tiny pollinators, so the CHP Coastal Division's Air Operations Team from Paso Robles called in some outside expertise to give the bees a free move. Suzi Hulsmann met the team at the local airport with all her kit in tow. She vacuumed out the majority of the worker drones, hoovering up 3 pounds of bees with a specialized system. That enabled her to keep mos

High Demand for DPEs to Continue Into Forseeable Future

The FAA's 2023 stats regarding the pass rate of knowledge and practical tests have been published, granting a nice little window into the state of the industry at the ground level. Takeaways this year: The industry is smaller than one would expect, with less than 807,000 pilots of all stripes. Flight instructors come in at a fraction of that, with 131,577 of them active. Instrument-rated pilots only amount to 332,313 instrument ratings in total, just a little bit less than the total number of remote pilots in the country. Those who crunch the numbers see some highs and lows in terms of pass rates, but the overall takeaway: DPE's will have to take on about twice the workload they did a de

Bolen Pushes Unified Messaging in Hopes of Staving Off Tax Increases

The NBAA finished up a "Texas-sized" iteration of its Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference (SDC2024), which saw almost 3,300 registered attendees and more than 450 exhibiting companies. The Conference gave everyone a chance to meet, network, and catch up on everything in the domain of aircraft scheduling, checking in on the industry at large and looking at all the latest and greatest the industry had to offer.

Klyde Maintains His Carefully Honed Non-Political Stance... NOT

FMI: www.klydemorris.com

Also: Hartzell Rebrands POWERUP, JetBlue Contract, AAL Shops Airbus, USAF Warrant Officers

KE Works of Mount Dora, Florida is hard at work bringing a 1929 Lockheed Vega 5C back to life. The rebuilder, JKE Works, has completed its fair share of restorations in its time, with the company recently handed down to its 2nd and 3rd generation owners. Jim Kimball started things off, restoring some mundane GA Aircraft and good old classics like the Stearman, Travelair, and Beech Staggerwing. Three of the passengers aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 have filed suit against the carrier and Boeing, citing the usual host of psychological issues seen

From 2022 (YouTube Version): Florida Based Company Develops Heavy Lift Cargo Drone

Aergility—the Florida-based company that develops and builds autonomous, long-range, high-payload, cargo-carrying, hybrid-electric, vertical takeoff and landing, unmanned aerial vehicles—has unveiled a prototype of its ATLIS UAV. The vehicle’s long-range, heavy-lift capabilities are conducive to humanitarian, disaster-relief, military, and industrial missions conducted in areas where ground transportation is impossible, impractical, or flat-out dangerous.

...Entered An Aggressive Right Roll And Descended Rapidly Into Terrain

On February 11, 2024, about 1035 Pacific standard time, an Evektor-Aerotechnik Harmony LSA, N377YG, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Santa Ana, California. The flight instructor sustained serious injuries and the student pilot sustained minor injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 instructional flight. According to a flight instructor that witnessed the accident, a transport category airplane had touched down on runway 20R at the John Wayne/Orange County Airport (SNA), Santa Ana, California, about 30 seconds before the accident airplane descended over airport property just north of runway 20L.

Aero Linx: International Federation of Airworthiness (IFA) We aim to be the most internationally respected independent authority on the subject of Airworthiness. IFA uniquely combines together all those with responsibility for policies, principles and practices concerned with the continuing airworthiness of civil transport aircraft throughout the world. IFA’s mission is to contribute to the debate and formation of policies, which affect the Airworthiness of civil aircraft worldwide, and to influence Regulators, Airlines, Maintenance Organisations and Governments to constantly improve aviation safety. 

Secondary Radar/Radar Beacon (ATCRBS) A radar system in which the object to be detected is fitted with cooperative equipment in the form of a radio receiver/transmitter (transponder). Radar pulses transmitted from the searching transmitter/receiver (interrogator) site are received in the cooperative equipment and used to trigger a distinctive transmission from the transponder. This reply transmission, rather than a reflected signal, is then received back at the transmitter/receiver site for processing and display at an air traffic control facility. 

“It was a great team effort on all fronts. We appreciate the coordination between the air station, sector and Royal Caribbean. The effective coordination and communication allowed us to get on scene in a timely matter and transport the patient to higher medical care.” Source: Cmdr. Raymond Jamros, MH-60T Jayhawk aircraft commander for a case in which the US Coast Guard deployed one of their MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters to pluck a stroke patient from the Royal Caribbean International ship Symphony of the Seas, bringing the 57-year-old to medical services ashore.