Formålet med bloggen er å bidra til informasjon om luftfart av alle slag. Også litt om ubåter og forsvarsspørsmål. Nyheter vil du finne her også, en del på engelsk som er det mest brukte luftfartsspråket. Har du selv noe som bør komme ut, så send meg en mail til per.gram@hesbynett.no
onsdag 31. mai 2017
Kina mangler flygere - Curt Lewis
China To Raise Mandatory Retirement Age for Pilots
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) plans to raise the mandatory retirement age for pilots from the current 60 as part of a strategy to ease the shortage faced by Chinese airlines. The agency has yet to arrive at a decision on the exact age, but it plans to implement the change in two or three years.
CAAC official Liu Shen told AIN that the shortage could get more acute as airlines acquire more aircraft and that hiring foreign pilots has become more difficult over the past five years as airlines around the world face a similar situation.
"Many airlines in the region have also raised the retirement age, salary and other benefits for their pilots to stay," Liu noted.
Official estimates forecast a need for about 2,800 to 3,000 pilots annually over the next three years. The 12 flying schools across China can produce only between 1,250 and 1,300 a year.
Local airlines increasingly send their cadet pilots to the U.S., Europe or Australia for training due to the limited capacity at local schools. Cadets must undergo a minimum 80-hour English course before they start training. Some schools require six months of coursework.
Chinese carriers attract experienced foreign pilots with retention bonuses and big salary packages ranging from $240,000 to $310,000 a year for a captain, depending on his or her experience and aircraft type rating.
Bånn i bøtta fra Giæver - AN
Ola Giæver med særdeles hardt skyts mot Widerøe. Foto: Avinor / Bodø Lufthavn
Ola Giæver: – Bare i min karriere har Widerøe avlivet 66 mennesker!
FlyViking-sjefen med frontalangrep på Widerøe.
Det har stormet rundt den kontroversielle piloten Ola Giæver flere ganger tidligere. Nå hogger eieren av FlyViking løs mot sin tidligere arbeidsgiver, Widerøe, og påstår selskapet har styrtet en rekke fly og drept 66 mennesker.
Det var sist helg at Giæver la ut følgende to kommentarer på Facebook-siden til nettavisen Luftfart.Media:
Ola Giævers angrep på Widerøe. Foto: Privat/Skjermdump
– Bare å lese historiebøker
Kommentarene ble fjernet kort tid etter av nettsidens administratorer.
– Jeg skrev dette fordi en person antydet at det er dårlig sikkerhetskultur i mitt flyselskap, FlyViking. Han trakk også frem Widerøe som et kronksempel på god sikkerhet. Det mener jeg er ekstremt sleivete og følte for å minne vedkommende på ting som har skjedd tidligere, sier Giæver selv.
– Hva er det du konkret tenker på da?
– At det har gått ned en rekke Widerøe-fly gjennom historien. Selskapet har blant annet styrtet i Gamvik, Namsos og på Værøy. Det er bare å lese historiebøker, så ser man at det stemmer.
– Så du synes ikke ordlyden du bruker er drøy?
– Slettes ikke. Det jeg sier er jo sant.
– At Widerøe har avlivet 66 mennesker?
– Ja, de tok jo folk med i seg i døden da flyene styrtet.
– Har du fått noen reaksjoner på det du skrev?
– Ingen. Det er vel ingen som er så dumme at de fornekter ting som faktisk har skjedd?
– Et ekstremt lavmål
Kommunikasjonsdirektør i Widerøe, Silje Brandvoll, blir oppgitt når hun blir konfrontert med hva deres tidligere pilot har skrevet.
– For å si det slik: Kommentarer som disse er ikke verdt en kommentar fra oss. Enkelt og greit.
– Hva tenker du om at sjefen for et annet flyselskap bruker slike karakteristikker om en konkurrent?
– Det får stå for hans regning. Der der er et ekstremt lavmål som vi over hodet ikke ønsker å lage noen debatt rundt. Det er egentlig alt jeg vil si om det, avslutter hun.
mange tilfeller av røyk/lukt i cockpit eller kabinen i det siste - Curt Lewis
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Incident: Horizon DH8D near Yakima on May 29th 2017, burning
electrical odour
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Incident: Alaska B738 near Kansas City on May 29th 2017, electrical
burning odour in lavatory
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Incident: Easyjet A319 at Thessaloniki on May 30th 2017, smoke in
cockpit
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Brann i lithium batteri i "electronic device" - USA - Curt Lewis
JetBlue A321 - Inflight Smoke & Fire
JetBlue Flight 915 diverted to Grand Rapids' Gerald R. Ford International Airport, Michigan, USA after the lithium battery from a passenger's laptop caught fire. The aircraft, an Airbus A321, had departed New York-JFK International Airport at 18:25 EDT (22:25 UTC) on a service to San Francisco, California. While en route over Michigan at FL340 "smoke began emitting from a carry-on bag holding an electronic device," according to JetBlue. The flight crew diverted to Grand Rapids as a precaution. A safe landing was made at 20:13 EDT (00:13 UTC). The flight was continued after a two-hour stopover at Grand Rapids. |
Norwegian med Roma-USA ruter - DN
Norwegian lanserer direkteruter mellom Roma og tre amerikanske storbyer, opplyses det i en pressemelding onsdag. De tre amerikanske byene er New York, Los Angeles og San Francisco, og rutene vil ha oppstart i november i år.
Samtidig etablerer flyselskapet en base i Roma for den nye langdistanseoperasjonen.
– Lanseringen av direkteruter mellom Italia og USA er en ny milepæl for Norwegian. Roma er en av verdens mest populære turistattraksjoner og er et ettertraktet reisemål for mange amerikanere, sier konsernsjef Bjørn Kjos i pressemeldingen.
Les også:Norwegian har på nåværende tidspunkt 70 medarbeidere i Roma. Med den nye lanseringen vil Norwegian rekruttere ytterligere 200 medarbeidere, heter det.
Markedet for LCC, Low Cost Carriers, fylles opp - ATW
CCO: Eurowings’ fleet could grow to more than 200 aircraft
Eurowings Airbus A320
Rob Finlayson
Lufthansa Group low-cost (LCC) subsidiary Eurowings—which remains the fastest-growing airline in Europe—aims to continue its fleet expansion and eventually double the number of aircraft it has in order to compete with other European LCCs such as the UK’s easyJet and Ireland’s Ryanair. Eurowings’ fleet has grown from 32 aircraft in 2013 to the current 110. Eurowings CCO Oliver Wagner said he believes it is necessary for Eurowings to have more than 200 aircraft ...
Ryanair gjør det godt - ATW
Ryanair full-year net profit up 6%
Ryanair
Irish low-cost carrier (LCC) Ryanair reported a full-year net profit of €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion), up 6% from a €1.2 billion net profit in the year-ago period.
The airline said the 20% margin for the full year ended March 31 was achieved through the third year of its latest turnaround strategy, even after a 13% cut in average fares.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said the LCC managed to post improved results, despite “difficult trading conditions,” including security events at European cities, a switch of charter capacity from North Africa, Turkey and Egypt to mainland Europe, and a sharp decline in the UK pound following the UK’s June 2016 vote to leave the European Union (Brexit).
“We reacted to these challenges by improving our customer experience and stimulating growth with lower fares,” O’Leary said.
Revenue rose 2% to €6.6 billion, with ancillary revenues up 13% at €1.8 billion (27% of the total). Expenses increased 1% to €5.1 billion, producing an operating profit of €1.5 billion, 5% higher than the €1.4 billion operating profit in the prior year.
Total passenger seats sold for the year rose 13% to 120 million, producing a load factor of 94%, up 1 point. Average fares—including checked luggage fees—fell 13% to €41, while cost per passenger (including fuel) fell 11% to €43. Unit costs ex-fuel were down 5%.
For the incoming April 2017-March 2018 financial year, Ryanair is expecting 8% traffic growth, taking it to 130 million seats sold with load factor remaining stable at 94%. The airline’s fleet will grow to 427 aircraft by March 2018.
Ryanair said 2017-18 yields are expected to fall by 5%-7% (-5% in the first half and -8% in the second half) because of the weakness of the pound and continued excess capacity in Europe.
“Ancillary revenue per customer will likely be flat as we continue to drive penetration with discounts,” Ryanair said, although the airline added that ancillaries are on track to hit to 30% of total revenues by March 2020.
On the cost side, fuel prices are forecast to drop €70 million, although Ryanair will use this gain to lower its fares. Overall ex-fuel costs are predicted to be down 1%.
This should deliver a €1.4-€1.45 billion net profit for the 2017-18 financial year, up 8% on 2016-17, although this remains subject to Brexit, security events and air traffic controller strikes.
In the longer term, Ryanair is expecting its customer total to grow to 142 million in 2019 with a fleet of 448 aircraft (9% growth), 152 million in 2020 with 481 aircraft (7% growth), 162 million in 2021 with 516 aircraft (7% growth), 175 million in 2022 with 540 aircraft (8% growth), 189 million in 2023 with 575 aircraft (8% growth), and to 200 million by 2024 with 585 aircraft (6% growth).
tirsdag 30. mai 2017
Helikopter - Airbus produseres i Kina nå - AIN
| Airbus Breaks Ground On China Assembly Plant |
Airbus Helicopters has broken ground on its H135 final assembly line in Qingdao, Shangdong Province, China. Construction is expected to be completed by 2018 and the first helicopter is expected off the line there by mid-2019. The assembly line is part of the $790 million 2016 framework agreement that calls for the assembly of 100 H135s in China over the next 10 years.
The agreement is the first of its kind for Airbus Helicopters. “This groundbreaking is a remarkable milestone for Airbus Helicopters’ global footprint and demonstrates our commitment to further enhancing our industrial cooperation with China’s rapidly growing aviation industry,” said Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus Helicopters.
The new facility, located in Jimo Provincial Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, will be operated by Airbus Helicopters and Qingdao United General Aviation Company, a joint venture between China Aviation Supplies Holding Company and Qingdao United General Aviation Industrial Development Company.
Following the joint venture agreement signed in April of this year, Airbus Helicopters holds a majority share of 51 percent. For the first time in 2016, China became Airbus Helicopters’ largest civil market in terms of annual bookings. Chinese demand for light-twin helicopters is forecast at 600 units over the next two decades.
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Helikopter - AW189 til Russland - AIN
| Leonardo To Deliver 10 AW189s to Russia’s Rosneft |
Leonardo Helicopters is set to deliver 10 AW189s later this year to Russian oil company Rosneft, Emilio Dalmasso, senior vice president at the Italian manufacturer’s commercial/business unit told AIN.
Last year, Leonardo shipped a single AW189 to Russia, later placing it with the type’s first local client, Aviashelf Aviation Company. The Mil Mi-8 operator was established in 1999 by Bristow Group Inc., along with local investors, and provides helicopter charter service to offshore oil-and-gas companies. It also serves international projects on the island of Sakhalin.
An Aviashelf representative told AIN that Rosneft is among the customers using its offshore oil-and-gas services.
The Rosneft contract for 10 helicopters is “a part of the bigger deal” that was announced in December 2014, calling for as many as 200 AW189s. However, Dalmasso acknowledged, that bigger deal is yet to be finalized. The two companies continue discussing details and are working to acquire various permissions from government bodies.
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Cessna 441 down - Australia - Curt Lewis
Three dead after light plane crashes near Renmark Aerodrome in the
Riverland (Australia)
THREE people have been killed when their light aircraft crashed near the Renmark Aerodrome in the Riverland.
An SA Police search party found the plane wreckage around 4km west of the Renmark Aerodrome at 7.10pm last night.
All three people on board the Rossair charter plane, which was on a check and training flight, were killed in the crash.
Chief executive officer Warren Puvanendran said he had stepped off a plane and was seeking more information about the incident.
The company will be issuing a statement shortly.
THREE people have been killed when their light aircraft crashed near the Renmark Aerodrome in the Riverland.
An SA Police search party found the plane wreckage around 4km west of the Renmark Aerodrome at 7.10pm last night.
All three people on board the Rossair charter plane, which was on a check and training flight, were killed in the crash.
Chief executive officer Warren Puvanendran said he had stepped off a plane and was seeking more information about the incident.
The company will be issuing a statement shortly.
Norsk Orion på langtur i følge Sputnik News
It’s starting to get crowded about the South China Sea, and US surveillance planes in the area could result in a civilian air tragedy, a security expert warns.
After Chinese fighters intercepted a US plane earlier this week, fears are growing that military aircraft in the area could jeopardize the safety of civil air traffic.
Two Chinese fighter jets intercepted a US Navy surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea on Wednesday, according to a statement by the US Department of Defense. According to military expert Antony Wong Dong, the encounter happened near Shangchuan Island in Taishan, Guangdong, about 130km from Hong Kong.
The US plane was watching a Chinese submarine. The Pentagon insists the encounter, which it describes as "unsafe and unprofessional," happened in international airspace, 240km southeast of Hong Kong.
"We… will convey our concerns through appropriate channels with the Chinese government," Pentagon spokesman Navy Commander Gary Ross said in a statement.
According to Wong, if US planes continue to fly so close to Chinese soil, they may affect civilian aviation. He also pointed out that at least five major civilian airports are located in the nearby Pearl River Delta area.
"It's quite rare for US surveillance aircraft to fly so close to Hong Kong on an intelligence mission. I am afraid these kinds of unexpected encounters will happen more frequently," Wong said.
His sentiment was shared by Peter Lok Kung-nam, former Hong Kong civil aviation chief. According to Lok, military planes usually fly lower than civilian aircraft, but if military planes soar higher, security will be compromised.
"The safety of civil aircraft might be affected if those kinds of intercepts happen when military planes fly as high as civilian aircraft, or over 13,000 metres above sea level," he said, according to South China Morning Post.
The Wednesday intercept was the second encounter this month, as two Chinese Su-30 fighters also intercepted a US WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft in international airspace over the East China Sea earlier in May.
F-22 på jobb i Syria - AW&ST
Inside The Cockpit: Flying The F-22 Against Islamic State In Syria
Cruising in the midnight sky above western Syria, “Crash” could scarcely believe the lethal Soviet air defenses below had no idea he was there. It was September 2014, the opening salvo of U.S.-led airstrikes on Islamic State group targets in Syria, and Crash was flying the stealth F-22 Raptor on its first combat mission.
Crash, a lieutenant colonel who told his story on the condition that Aviation Week identify him by his call sign, was not supposed to be there. It was the last week of his six-month deployment to the Middle East, and the F-22s were configured to go home with external tanks loaded. Crash and his squadron had spent the previous months on standby, waiting for orders as the U.S. and coalition partners weighed whether to move forward with airstrikes in Syria.
Since that night almost three years ago, the F-22 has been crucial to U.S. and coalition operations in the volatile country. The Raptor’s integrated avionics allow pilots to focus on making tactical decisions instead of trying to gather information, while its unique supercruise capability lends added flexibility, say pilots. And of course, the aircraft’s stealth abilities enable the Raptor to fly with impunity into the denied air space above western Syria, where the regime has robust integrated air-defense systems (IADS)—primarily Soviet surface-to-air missiles—that can potentially track and kill allied aircraft.
But that first night did not go smoothly. The mission was broken up into four strike packages assigned to four different target areas in the Middle Eastern country. Crash was one of four Raptor pilots designated to help take out targets in western Syria, where the IADS posed the biggest threat. He and his wingman were to sweep the area for surface and air threats, then take out an Islamic State group command-and-control facility; the other two-ship was to escort the F-15 Strike Eagles to and from their targets. The Raptors were loaded with both air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles.
From the start, things did not go according to plan. The first Strike Eagle slated to take off had an engine malfunction, shutting down the runway for 20 min. Trying to compensate, all the aircraft took off immediately, causing congestion above the airfield. The winds were stronger than expected, making it difficult for air traffic control to guide the F-22s up to altitude, so they were burning gas and flying slower at a lower altitude than planned.
“All these things snowballed, so by the time we got into Iraq, approaching Baghdad, we realized there was no way we’d make our planned time on target,” says Crash.
He knew he and his wingman had to make up for lost time. They decided to supercruise, climbing to 40,000 ft. and Mach 1.5 without using afterburners. The stealth aircraft cruised across Iraq and Syria for 15 min. to the target and released their bombs—GBU-32 1,000-lb. GPS-guided JDAMS—right on time.
“We went from being last in the train, furthest behind, farthest to go, to first people on station, thanks to the capability of the F-22,” says Crash.
But the night wasn’t over. Crash and his wingman headed out to gas up back at the Iraq-Syria border for the return trip to base. About halfway home, they got an unexpected call from the air battle managers: “We need you to fly back into Syria.” The Strike Eagles had not struck all their intended targets, and the Raptor was needed to escort a B-1 back into enemy territory in just a few hours to finish the job.
Crash hadn’t planned for this. The Raptors had just enough gas to make it home, but not a drop more. And on top of the fuel problem, he now had to deconflict from the next planned strike package that was already rolling in for another round of airstrikes.
“All of our fuel planning consisted of getting to and from the airspace. We had some contingencies in case we needed to fight in the airspace, but the reroll portion of it was completely off script,” says Crash of those nerve-racking few hours. “We had no idea where our gas was going to come from, where our tankers were located, who we were escorting, and we didn’t know where the target was.”
After some coordination, Crash sent the other two-ship of Raptors home, and he and his wingman headed back to the tanker. They had to hit three tankers before they could get all the fuel they needed, and then they flew back over the border into Syria.
Mercifully for Crash and his wingman, the rest of the night was uneventful. The B-1 hit the target and the package headed home. The surface and air threat was quiet. Any time Crash got worried about deconfliction, he and his wingman would climb up to 40,000 ft. where they could be out of the way. In all, what was planned as a 6-hr. mission ended up clocking in at 9 hr.; it was almost midday on Sept. 24 before Crash made it back home.
“There were a lot of emotional roller-coasters throughout the flight, but in general it went much smoother than we anticipated,” Crash says of the mission.
The Raptor pilots from his unit flew a total of three missions into Syria before they got orders to pack up and go home, soon to be replaced with another F-22 squadron. But though Crash’s time in Syria was brief, the impact of his mission was felt worldwide. Almost a decade after the Raptor entered service, its performance in combat did not disappoint—the fighter hit its intended target on time, and went undetected throughout the entire flight.
“It’s a little nerve-racking as well, because stealth is not always 100%, so you have to be very cognizant about what’s going on around you,” says Crash. “But once you get in, there the jet’s telling me exactly who’s looking at me, and the reality was I didn’t have to worry about anybody.”
Overall, there have been no major surprises during the Raptor’s few years in Syria, says Col. Pete Fesler, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing at Joint Base Langley-Eustis. The Raptor pilots’ extensive training program has served them well in combat, and the more missions they fly the more comfortable they get, he notes.
“Because we train to these incredibly complicated, high-end, contested, degraded environments, when you go to a more permissive environment like they were on in that first combat mission in 2014, they had excess capacity in their brains to be able to work through those new challenges,” says Fesler.
But as technology advances, the Air Force and Lockheed Martin have plans to modernize the 1990s-era airframe. Lockheed has developed a new low-observable (LO) coating that is expected to last longer and reduce maintenance on the aircraft, and is currently repainting the fleet’s engine intakes. At the same time, the company is working on enabling the Raptor to transmit Link 16 signals—currently the aircraft can only receive Link 16—and fielding Increment 3.2B, a new software load that will allow the F-22 to take full advantage of the AIM-9X and AIM-120D Amraam missiles.
The cockpit itself is “pretty modern,” says Fesler, and he sees no need to change it to look more like Lockheed’s newer stealth aircraft, the F-35. The F-22 may eventually get a helmet-mounted display, much like the F-35’s, which projects information on the helmet’s visor rather than on a traditional heads-up display.
“This is a fundamentally different airplane—the LO portion of it changes the game significantly, the integration of the sensors changes the game significantly,” says Fesler. “I wouldn’t want to go to war with any other airplane.”