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Dear Colleague,
Helideck certification under CAP 437 is immensely complex and, without doubt, one of the most demanding external audit processes. Having realised the safety and liability implications involved in a standalone approach to this exacting audit requirement, Flight Safety approached the Helideck Certification Agency (HCA) in Aberdeen to explore mutual opportunities as a means of improving CAP 437 helideck inspection processes locally.
The resultant long term contractual arrangement that Flight Safety has entered into with the HCA, appointed as their local agents covering Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Indonesia has turned out to be immensely valuable in terms of access gained to the wealth of North Sea helideck operational experience and, significantly, HCA awareness training provided for ten of Flight Safety's auditors/inspectors. John Monaghan, the HCA operations manager and chief trainer came out to Australia last year to present the course and participate in the Flight Safety annual Training Seminar held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.
The success of that Seminar followed through into this year's event held over the week of the 7th September 2009, which we review below. From this group experience we have realised the immense value of these 'Think Tank' sessions and a decision has been taken to open this Forum to the industry with subsequent Hyatt Training Seminars.
In addition, Flight Safety now offers advanced Helideck Inspector awareness training through their subsidiary Helideck Certification company - Flight Safety Helideck Certification Pty Ltd. The two day courses are arranged at venues globally, to suit client convenience, up to a maximum of ten attendees.
This edition also covers some recent technological developments in the areas of helideck lighting, tracking systems and avian radar, and an update on the Air France disaster investigation.
The November edition of the Flight Safety newsletter will address the first of a series of safety related, repetitive audit Findings - specifically, de-identified and generalised audit results involving widespread ALAR/CFIT (Approach & Landing Accident Reduction/Controlled Flight into Terrain) awareness training deficiencies.
Sincerely,  Colin Weir, Managing Director Flight Safety Pty Ltd |
Flight Safety Seminar
held 7th - 9th September 2009
This
year's seminar brought together 22 delegates from various aspects of
aviation: resource sector clients; service providers, regulators, the
global non-profit Flight Safety Foundation, training organisations, and
of course auditors; many delegates shared their perspectives with
informative presentations.
Areas covered included: organisational
accident analysis, helideck safety management, emergency response
training, and the weighted, scored audit result. In addition, Flight
Safety personnel from around Australia converged to receive specific
training and exchange experience.
Brad Ogden, representing Woodside Energy Limited, said
afterwards:
"...thanks again for inviting me to participate in this
year's seminar, which I believe was a great success."
Flight Safety
would like to sincerely thank all those who took time to attend the
seminar, thereby contributing to its success.
Visit our Gallery page to see the official photos...
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Lighting upgrades enhance North Sea helicopter safety
Helideck lighting development has proved to be one of the most fruitful
areas of safety enhancement over the last decade and is hoped to lead
to the widespread adoption of a new configuration from next year.
Research pinpointed three issues with helideck lighting schemes at the
time: their use of yellow and white lights did not stand out from the
rest of the rig lighting; the touchdown spot in the middle of the deck
was effectively a "black hole"; and floodlighting used to illuminate
the helideck was too bright, with even slight misalignment making
things markedly worse.
UK CAA research manager David Howson says: "The science of visual
perception is not fully understood so to some extent we have do this by
empirical process."
The result has been an extensive series of flight trials
over the last five years in which a design has evolved that is now
receiving consistently strong reviews by pilots who have experienced
it, or elements of it.
Further trial iterations over several years have resulted in a final
configuration with green perimeter lights; a single, broken, yellow
touchdown marker circle; and a green hollow-H for the touchdown point
itself (see picture).
The CAA is planning an interim update to the CAP437 document, which specifies helideck standards.
Read full article at Flight Global >>
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Plane-crash probe to urge new tracking system
 An upcoming Transportation Safety
Board (Canada) report into a deadly Pacific Coastal Airlines accident in August,
2008, will call for the increased use of new GPS-based flight-tracking
systems capable of locating downed planes and survivors within minutes
of a crash, company officials said.
Vince Crooks, Pacific Coastal's director of flight operations, said TSB
investigators have expressed serious concern about the failure of the
plane's electronic locator transmitter (ELT), a Transport
Canada-mandated device designed to broadcast a radio signal when a
plane goes down.
Last December, the TSB issued a three-page safety advisory on the
Port Hardy crash focusing specifically on ELT failures and identifying
GPS-linked satellite tracking systems as an option to improve
"flight-following capability."
Between January, 2007, and December, 2008, the agency documented "30
of 97 occurrences" in which ELTs were damaged, destroyed or failed to
activate, "resulting in a failure rate of about 31 per cent," the
advisory said.
Pacific Coastal's new tracking system, made by Victoria-based Latitude
Technologies, automatically broadcasts critical flight data via
satellite directly to the e-mail accounts of senior airline company
managers. "Data bursts" detailing a flight's exact co-ordinates, airspeed,
altitude, fuel reserves and other data can be programmed to arrive
every 10 seconds to every two hours.
Read full article at the Globe and Mail >>
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The four reasons why Air France 447 crashed
The disaster of Air France Flight 447 was the result of a preventable
mix of human and technical failures, according to a London law firm
that is representing families of the victims:
- The aircraft flew into an area of storms which other aircraft avoided by steering around them.
- The pitot tubes (speed sensors on the front of the plane) suffered faults
- There was a malfunction in the ADIRU, the three air data computers
which feed information to the flight system and the pilots.
- The pilots may not have had sufficient training to retain control of the malfunctioning aircraft.
"If any one of these issues had not happened to AF 447, the accident would not have happened," said said John Mahon, an Airbus and Boeing training captain, who is advising the law firm.
Read full article by Charles Bremner, Paris Correspondent for The Times >>
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Pilots question airspeed sensors' troubled history
In a related article, Associated Press reports that Airbus
knew since at least 2002 about problems with the type of pitot speed sensors used on Flight 447. But air safety authorities did not order their replacement
until after the crash, which killed all 228 people aboard.
The
pitot tubes made by French company Thales SA are vulnerable to blockage from water and icing. Experts have
suggested that Flight 447's sensors may have iced over and sent false speed information to the computers as
the plane ran into a thunderstorm at about 35,000 feet (10,600 meters).
The
exact role the Pitot sensors played in the crash may
never be known without the flight recorders, which have not been
recovered and which have stopped emitting signals. Investigators insist
sensor malfunction was not the cause of the crash, but many pilots
think false speed readings may have triggered a chain of events that
doomed the plane.
Several European airline pilots, including former Air France captain
Gerard Feldzer, believe a reading of the messages suggests Air France
pilots were suddenly forced to take manual control in near impossible
conditions: a cockpit ringing with warning bells and flashing lights,
some of them contradictory, with few clues to speed, altitude and
nighttime weather conditions.
"It's very difficult when you
are already experiencing turbulence in the middle of the night, to know
what to do," said Feldzer, adding that the plane's automated warning
system could have been issuing incorrect instructions. "It's very
difficult to resist what you are being ordered to do because they are
false orders."
Air France is now
starting a training program for pilots on how to manage a Pitot
malfunction at high altitudes of the type experienced on Flight 447.
Previously, Air France had only offered simulator training for Pitot
malfunction on take-off and landing.
Read on at Associated Press >>
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Helicopter locator beacons return
to North Sea
Personal locator beacons (PLBs) are set to be reintroduced for workers on helicopters flying offshore.
The
devices were withdrawn after they were found to have interfered with
rescue equipment after a Super Puma ditched into the North Sea in
February.
Investigators of the February crash found that interference from
PLBs carried by passengers had caused the "smart" long-range rescue
beacons on the aircraft and life rafts to shut down.
Bob
Keiller, chairman of the UK Oil and Gas Helicopter Task Group, which
was set up to address helicopter safety issues, said: "Search and
rescue operations rely on the powerful long-range rescue beacons to
home in on accident sites.
"We were therefore concerned to
learn that the weaker personal beacons, with a more limited signal
range, had the ability to switch these off.
"Following an
instruction from the CAA to the helicopter operators to stop carrying
the personal beacons in "standby" mode in case they were accidentally
activated and interfered with aircraft safety systems, the industry
withdrew the personal beacons until a technical solution could be
found. We have been giving this our urgent attention."
An interim Air Accidents Investigation Board (AAIB) report revealed
that non-certificated - though legal - wristwatch personal locator
beacons (PLB) routinely carried by oil workers caused the
higher-powered, more capable electronic locator transmitters (ELT)
carried by the pilots and on the dinghies to shut down.
This was
due to a "smart" system in the ELTs designed to select a "master"
beacon when they are in close proximity and to suppress the signal from
the others in order to avoid confusing homing devices and save battery
power. The result in the accident was that only the much weaker PLB
signal was transmitted and no voice communications were available. Furthermore,
the AAIB discovered that neither the pilots nor passengers realised
they should extend the telescopic aerials of the ELTs to provide the
maximum range.
Read full article on BBC >>
Related article at Flight Global >>
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New radar revealed at Bird Strike Conference
The ditching of a US Airways flight in the Hudson River earlier this year has highlighted the intractable problem of reducing bird strikes.
Professionals from all facets of aviation and wildlife management convened for the 11th annual Bird Strike North America Conference Sept 14-17 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Accipter, which has avian radar systems deployed at New York's Kennedy and Chicago's O'Hare airports, will debut "the future of 360-degree 3-D Avian Radar surveillance at the conference", according to Accipter President and CEO Dr. Tim J. Nohara.
In addition to radar technology, there were presentations and displays from vendors on other avian mitigation techniques such as garlic oil coatings for grassy areas to discourage avian landings, lasers, acoustics, and landscaping.
Find out more about Accipter >>
Bird Strike North America Conference Papers archive >>
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