Premium on Safety Issue 04 Year 2010 Insuring Safe Skies
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PREMIUM ON SAFETY ISSUE 04 YEAR 2010 INSURING SAFE SKIES IN THIS ISSUE Turbine Pilot: Single-Pilot Safety 03 Engine Failure at Night 04 Accident Profile: Fogged Out 05 Turbine Trouble: Jet Engine vs. Volcano 06 Safety Experts: NOAA 07 Critter woes A MESSAGE FROM USAIG Uninvited guests may lead to in-flight issues Greetings! The arrival of warm weather BY ROB FINFROCK signals birds and other critters alike to find a cozy spot in With summer upon us, now may be the right corporate aircraft, over a weekend flyer’s your aircraft. These little pests time for a refresher on the birds and the piston-powered Cessna. build their imperceptible nests with great panache, and their bees, and the havoc they may bring upon A more persistent issue may be of the swiftly built dwellings can be our aircraft. insect variety. Flying pests such as bees a nuisance, even dangerous, if Any unplugged vent, intake, or other open- and wasps are attracted to several things not deconstructed before flight. ing on a parked aircraft gives critters the on an airport ramp—from the bright colors We’ve heard of mice, wasps, chance to make that space their home. If of intake covers and even aircraft paint snakes, and other vermin an aircraft sits unattended for any length schemes, to the scent of aviation fuels. Did finding their way into hangars and airplanes; a startling finding of time—even overnight—that gives ample you use a citrus-scented cleaner to touch up for the unsuspecting pilot during opportunity for birds, mice, and other small the cabin before that next charter? You may preflight, but gone undetected a animals to take up residence. want to take a cautionary glance around dangerous discovery in flight. What’s the risk? If left unnoticed, ani- your aircraft before departing on the next Have you had a critter mal nests may restrict airflow through an trip leg...or, listen for buzzing. encounter? Tell us your stories so we may share your airplane’s engines, or hinder the free move- If that sounds a bit farfetched, take experiences in an upcoming ment of the aircraft’s controls. Debris from heed of a May 2006 incident on the ramp newsletter. the nest—twigs, mud, and don’t forget the at California’s Bob Hope Burbank Airport. Safe skies. animals themselves—will cause significant Pilots walking to their Beech King Air 200 damage if they pass through delicate tur- were stunned to discover a swarm of bees bine blades, and may even lead to engine or nesting on their aircraft. The airport’s fire David L. McKay electrical fires. department responded by spraying affected President and COO, USAIG That said, incidents of bird or mice areas of the aircraft’s exterior with fire retar- leading to difficulties on turbine aircraft dant, while the pilots took a vacuum cleaner aren’t very common, compared to the to several adventurous drones that managed piston fleet. Higher utilization rates for to make their way inside the cabin. Those turbines mean less time on the ground for measures curtailed the bees’ activities, but those pests to take up residence; also, that wasn’t the end of it. After the aircraft those aircraft are often hangared when completed an uneventful charter leg to San not in use. While those factors certainly Francisco, followed by a quick repositioning don’t eliminate the risk, they do reduce flight to Sacramento, technicians were the chances for nesting animals inside a (continued on page 2) DID YOU KNOW? FAA’S NEW TAXI Critter woes (continued from page 1) PROCEDURES shocked to discover a thick layer of dead “Examination of the pitot static system An important change in taxi bees covering the inside of the engine cowl- revealed that the captain’s airspeed indica- clearance phraseology and ing...and even a few live ones that managed tions were lagging behind the first officer’s procedures took place on June to survive their short excursion up into the airspeed indications,” the NTSB deter- 30, 2010: The familiar “taxi flight levels. mined, “and that the captain’s pitot tube to runway” clearance, which Insects also have a way of making their was partially blocked by the remains of an allowed you to taxi across presence known, even after they’ve flown insect nest.” Of note, the NTSB added the all runways intersecting your path to the takeoff runway, away. Two persons onboard a Piper PA-60 aircraft was not hangared when parked, has been dropped from ATC Aerostar were fortunate to walk away from a and that “covers for the pitot tubes on the parlance. Instead, now you will November 2000 takeoff incident. Departing accident airplane were not available.” receive a specific clearance to IFR from Preston, Minnesota, the pilot stated So, what can pilots do to reduce their cross each runway. airspeed failed to increase above 115 KIAS risk of having uninvited guests cause Getting to the runway in the climb. Wary of raising the nose further problems on their flight? As with many The clearance starts with and risking a stall, the pilot waited until the potential issues, the answer is a diligent, the assigned runway, then specifies the taxi route and any initial runway crossing and/ or hold short instructions. For example: “Cessna Four-Golf- Technicians were shocked to Alpha, Runway 36L, taxi via Alpha, Charlie, cross Runway discover a thick layer of dead bees 13, hold short of Runway 27.” If multiple runways intersect the covering the inside of the engine route to the takeoff runway, the controller will not issue all the cowling...and even a few live ones crossing clearances at once. An exception may be made that managed to survive their short in cases where the distance between two runway centerlines excursion up into the flight levels. is less than 1,000 feet. Taxi to the gate “Taxi to” will be used when instructed to taxi to the ramp last second to pull up, and clipped treetops thorough preflight inspection. This starts or gate, but you will receive at the end of the runway. With the airplane with taking notice of any bird or animal specific crossing instructions still flyable, the pilot diverted to Quad City droppings underneath the aircraft—telltale for each runway encountered International Airport in Moline, Illinois, where indicators something may have gotten on the taxi route. he made an uneventful landing. During the inside your airplane. The bottom line trip, the pilot verified the airspeed indicator When looking inside the engine cowling, Whether an aircraft is inbound was displaying false readings. “I had a prob- don’t just look for fluid leaks and obvious or outbound, controllers are lem six weeks ago with a mud dauber wasp signs of wear. Use a flashlight to shine a required to issue a specific building a nest in the pitot tube,” the pilot light on the depths of the nacelle assembly clearance for each and every admitted to investigators with the National for signs of nesting, too. runway crossed or operated on. Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), adding Finally, be sure to pay careful heed to The FAA expects to incorporate “But this had been cleared out, and the air- your aircraft’s pitot-static system. If any these changes in the August craft flew several times since.” contamination is noted, simply clearing out 26 edition of the Aeronautical Information Manual. Such incidents aren’t limited to piston- what you can may not be enough. Have a engine aircraft, either. The NTSB deter- technician inspect the system as well…even More information mined the 2006 runway overrun of a if that means a delayed flight. It’s better to For more details and a few Dornier 328-300 twinjet in Manassas, be safe than sorry. real-world examples of the Virginia, was because of the late decision changes visit the website Rob Finfrock is a licensed sport pilot, and (www.aopa.org/taxichanges). to abort takeoff, when the flight crew expe- formerly managing editor of an online aviation --MAS rienced a discrepancy between the pilot’s and copilot’s airspeed readings. news service. 2 Safety Brief Turbine pilot: Single-pilot safety The risks of riding solo BY THOMAS A. HORNE There are a number of reasons why turbine flying is safer than operations involving piston-powered airplanes. For one, turbine pilots usually attend thorough, structured, simulator-based training designed around the type of airplane they’ll be flying; after all, insurance companies require it in order for pilots to be covered. In addition, turbine powerplants, owing to their comparative simplicity of design, are more reliable than piston engines. Then there’s a recency-of- experience factor at work. Many turboprop and turbofan airplanes serve in air taxi, char- ter, fractional, and cargo-hauling fleets. This means that their pilots fly on a regular basis. But to be more specific, what about sin- gle-pilot turbine operations? Has the record shown that single-pilot (SP) flying is more risky than flights with two-pilot crews? In a word, yes. Robert E. Breiling Associates, an accident analysis firm based in Florida, has been compiling accident data on tur- boprop and turbofan airplanes since the 1960s. Breiling’s annual compilation of business aircraft accidents has become 2007 U.S. mishaps involving turboprop air- What is known is that turboprop twins a standard reference tool in the business craft certified for single-pilot operation took flown in corporate/executive operations aviation community. place while the aircraft was flown by one by professional crews were involved in two Breiling gets his data from the FAA, the pilot.