Coverstory

After heavy maintenance, an aircraft usually must be flown to ensure that it was put back together properly.

Check Flight Checkup FSF symposium focuses attention on functional check flight safety. BY MARK LACAGNINA

xcitement and adventure are correctly after the airplane was taken This red flag prompted the industry not on the typical line pilot’s apart during heavy maintenance. to ask Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) agenda. Standard-rate turns, There is a bewildering variety of to organize an international meet- smooth power and configura- names for the types of ad hoc non- ing to discuss the risks and how they tionE changes, and staying comfortably revenue flights that aircraft operators can be reduced. “While exploring the within the “envelope” mark an perform, which include postmaintenance, issue with industry safety specialists, pilot’s professionalism. Sometimes, airworthiness, aircraft-acceptance and we found that there are not as many however, pilots are called upon to take end-of-lease check flights. However, a answers as there are questions, not aircraft to their limits, to demonstrate recent fatal accident and a rash of serious the least of which was how to define that normal and emergency systems incidents have made one thing clear: The the topic,” said Jim Burin, FSF direc- are working properly, or to determine risks involved in these flight activities are tor of technical programs. “Test flights if everything was put back together higher than in normal operations. are not performed by operators but

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by manufacturers’ test pilots. We’re not talking — was that this question must be asked before about check flights, either, because check flights launching any functional check flight. involve aircrew evaluation.” “Flight checking of aircraft, particularly Ultimately, the term functional check flight older aircraft, often is driven by the mainte- was adopted by consensus of a steering team nance manual,” said keynote speaker David

© Jonathan Rankin/Jetphotos.net formed by Burin of specialists from , Morgan, chief pilot and general manager for , Bombardier and Embraer. Air . However, aircraft maintenance manu- Pivotal Question als (AMMs) often lack clarity, said Homero For the 275 aviation safety specialists who came Montandon, a test pilot in the Airworthiness from 41 countries to attend the FSF Functional Branch of ANAC, the Brazilian national civil Check Flight Symposium in Vancouver, Canada, aviation agency. “AMMs should be more specific Feb. 8–9, there were many other questions to about the necessity to perform check flights ponder: Are the crews who conduct such flights after maintenance,” he said. qualified to do so? What are the necessary Andre Tousignant, director of the Air Safety qualifications? How do you train crewmembers Investigation Office at Bombardier Aerospace, for functional check flights? Are simulators noted that few, if any, functional check flights adequate for the task? Are operators getting the are required by the AMMs for modern air- information they need from the manufactur- craft that have on-board troubleshooting and ers? Are they getting useful guidance from the fault-reporting systems. The AMM for the This A320 regulators? Do we need more regulations? Q400 requires only a trim check after an aileron crashed when the Do we need to perform functional check is replaced. The AMM for the CRJs requires crew lost control flights at all? either a flight check or a ground check after an while performing The resounding answer to that question — air-driven generator is repaired or replaced. “If a low-speed checks from the attendees and the speakers who repre- flight check is not required by the AMM, we see at low altitude. sented manufacturers, regulators and operators1 no need for it,” he said. © Nik French/Jetphotos.net

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Similarly, Joáo Carlos Braile and Fab- following the crash of an Airbus A320 in gray hair; with other , it sets rízio Sabioni Lourenço, who coordinate Perpignan, France, on Nov. 27, 2008. The with those with the most education.” flight test activities at Embraer, noted that accident occurred during an end-of-lease Customer acceptance flight check- the AMM for the Embraer 145 requires demonstration flight pending the return lists, which usually are provided by a flight check for data acquisition, only. of the aircraft to Air New Zealand by XL manufacturers with the sale of a new There are no requirements for check Airways (ASW, 11/10, p. 22). aircraft, typically are adapted by opera- flights in the 170/190 AMMs, they said. The official investigation by the tors for use in end-of-lease demonstra- Unnecessary flight testing must be French Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses tion flights and other types of functional avoided, said Gary Meiser, chief pilot of found that the flight crew was not aware check flights. “Many operators are production flight test at Boeing Commer- that the angle-of-attack sensors were conducting functional check flights with cial Airplanes. “We need to eliminate test- blocked by ice — they lost control of checklists that are out of date,” Morgan ing for testing’s sake,” he said. “We need the A320 while performing low-speed said. “They might not apply to changes to ask ourselves: Does it really need to be checks at low altitude. Among the fac- made per service bulletins, for exam- flown? Can it be done on the ground?” tors that contributed to the accident, ple.” He called for more support from Exemplifying one of the gray areas which killed all seven people aboard manufacturers in keeping checklists associated with this topic, the an- the aircraft, was the flight crew’s lack of up-to-date. swers to Meiser’s questions might be training and experience in performing The regulatory framework for func- maybe and maybe not, according to Sel functional check flights, and their inad- tional check flights, too, is “less than Laughter, flight test manager for United equate coordination during the flight. optimal,” he said. “Regulatory interven- Airlines. Noting that United checks During its in-house investiga- tion could be quite useful. We need a backup systems during postmainte- tion, Air New Zealand discovered that more effective and consistent regulato- nance flights, Laughter said, “A lot of several other airlines were performing ry framework with a clearly defined set times, they’ll check OK in the hangar similar end-of-lease demonstration of rules to cover all nonrevenue flights.” but not in the air.” flights. “We found that the processes Lessons from the Perpignan ac- for these types of flights tend to be cident report and the airline’s in-house Hard Lessons handed down from one chief test pilot investigation prompted Air New Zea- In his keynote address, David Morgan to another,” Morgan said. “With some land to “take a policy decision not to recounted lessons learned during Air airlines, the responsibility for these expose our crews to what we consider New Zealand’s in-house investigation flights sets with those with the most unacceptable risk when conducting end-of-lease and other ad hoc flights,” Morgan said. That policy subsequently was chal- lenged by a set of end-of-lease dem- onstration procedures demanded by a leasing company. The airline found that some of the procedures posed unnec- essary risk, but the leasing company contended that the procedures had served them well, so why change them? Although some compromises were reached, Air New Zealand refused to perform several systems checks that it Vancouver, site of the believed could be performed adequate- FSF Functional Check ly on the ground. “Aircraft systems or Flight Symposium. components should only be checked in the air if they cannot be checked on the

Mark Lacagnina ground,” Morgan said.

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operating weights during functional check flights, resulting in “handling qualities that may be different than what we are used to,” said Harry Nelson, an experimental test pilot for Airbus.

‘Hard Limits’ Several speakers emphasized the need for painstaking preparation for func- tional check flights. Among the factors to be considered are the time of day, weather conditions and the airspace in which the flight will be conducted. Advance coordination with air traf- fic control (ATC) is important. “You must consider ATC as an integral part Mark Lacagnina of a successful test flight,” said Steve Although the airline adhered to its (Accident Prevention, 9/97). However, Smith, manager of flight technical ser- safety policy, the leasing company did the system failed to activate, and the vices for Airlines. not relent. “The checks we refused to aircraft stalled at a slightly higher-than- “Maintenance partnership is critical,” carry out were subsequently imposed expected airspeed, possibly because said Boeing’s Meiser. “There must be on the delivery crew from the next of ice accumulation and/or control open and honest dialogue.” airline,” Morgan noted. misrigging, said the report by the U.S. Detailed briefings between flight National Transportation Safety Board crews and maintenance teams should Simulator Infidelity (NTSB). be conducted before and after a func- Morgan said that the in-house inves- The pilot flying applied full aft con- tional check flight. Before flight, the tigation also led Air New Zealand to trol pressure when the DC-8 suddenly crew should review the emergency question whether flight simulators pitched nose-down. The aircraft then procedures for each system and compo- realistically replicate the flight charac- descended rapidly in a full stall and nent that was involved in maintenance, teristics of an airplane flown close to or struck terrain near Narrows, Virginia, said Bombardier’s Tousignant. beyond the edge of its flight envelope. U.S., killing all three flight crewmem- Noting the infrequency of func- According to Jean-Michel Roy, a test bers and the three maintenance techni- tional check flights at , Emilio pilot for Airbus, they don’t. “Simulators cians who were aboard. Ranz, the airline’s flight test department do not replicate the forces, vibrations The NTSB report said that nei- chief, said, “The lack of test flight pro- and sounds often experienced in test ther the pilot flying nor the pilot-in- ficiency is our biggest problem.” The flights,” Roy said. command had experienced an actual department copes with this by “writing Simulator fidelity was found to be stall in a DC-8, and the pilot flying’s everything down so that it can be used a factor in a functional check flight inappropriate control inputs likely were to review and prepare for the next flight accident that occurred the night of influenced by his training experience test,” he said. “We have to develop a Dec. 22, 1996. The crew of a Douglas in a simulator that “developed a stable, checklist for each check because of the DC-8 freighter, which had undergone nose-high, wings-level descent, with no lack of proficiency.” The department major modifications and an exten- tendency to pitch down in a stall break.” also maintains a detailed flight test sive maintenance check, slowed the Beyond flight characteristics that operations manual. aircraft in clean configuration at 13,500 might not be the same as those expe- “Plan the flight and fly your plan” ft, just above a cloud deck, to record rienced in simulators, another factor was a message delivered repeatedly the airspeed at which the stick shaker, to consider is that aircraft usually are during the symposium. Improvisa- or stall-warning system, activated substantially lighter than their normal tion, which was a major factor in the

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Perpignan accident, is one of the great- procedures, but if you have the wrong now,” he said. “We cannot wait for the est risks, said Walter Istchenko, chief people, you will fail,” he said. “I know regulators.” of flight test for Transport Canada. people with 25,000 hours who have Nevertheless, calling attention “Crews may improvise and conduct been doing the same things, flying the to the recent accidents and serious maneuvers in inappropriate airspace same routes, for years. They may not be incidents involving functional check and/or at an inappropriate time — for the people you’re looking for.” flights, Didier Nicolle, chairman of example, with high workload,” he said. Among personal traits to look the European Aviation Safety Agency Be “failure-minded” and have an es- for are good communication and (EASA) Flight Test Group, said, “We cape plan when something goes wrong, teamwork skills, inquisitiveness and have a problem, and there is a positive suggested Harry Nelson. “If things patience, Nelson said. Among traits to need to do something in regulation.” don’t look right, they probably aren’t, so be avoided are egoism, indecisiveness Accordingly, EASA plans to take stop,” he said. and impatience. final action by the end of this year on a Glenn Bradley, air operations check Although many operators perform notice of proposed amendment (NPA) flight manager for easyJet, offered a in-house training, some also are send- issued in August 2008 that seeks to good example involving an A320 post- ing check crews to the Technical Flight define four categories of “flight testing,” maintenance check flight. The crew was Familiarization Course offered monthly establish qualifications for pilots and performing a low-speed check when at Airbus training centers. The course flight test engineers involved in specific a pre-stall buffet occurred. “It was not comprises two days in ground school, types of flight testing, and require op- working, so the pilot-in-command did two days in a flight simulator and one erators to have a flight test operations the right thing: He stopped the test and day in flight. During a question-and- manual, Nicolle said. got the aircraft on the ground,” Bradley answer session, Claude Lelaie, special The first three categories include said. A subsequent review of recorded adviser to the president and CEO of experimental, engineering and produc- flight data showed that the angle-of- Airbus, pointed out that the goal is not tion flight testing activities typically attack values being displayed were to train operators’ pilots to be “test performed by the manufacturers. Func- “frozen”; the problem disappeared after pilots” but to train them to perform tional check flights likely fall in the the gauges were replaced. functional check flights safely. Since the fourth category, which will not include The policy at Cathay Pacific is that course was begun in September 2009, special crew qualifications. “if any one of the crew is uncomfortable 27 A320 crewmembers from six airlines The NPA noted that between 1990 with what is going on, that crewmem- have completed the training. and 2005, 30 airplane accidents, with ber can call for a temporary halt in the 53 fatalities, and 15 helicopter accidents, operation,” Smith said. Standards vs. Regulations with nine fatalities, occurred during Nelson recommended that critical Opinion was divided on whether the flight testing activities. checks have “hard limits” labeled on safety of functional check flights can be At press time, the Foundation the checklist as “DO NOT EXCEED.” enhanced through increased regulation. learned that three more fatal accidents, “Knock-it-off limits” was the term While some participants said that well- with 13 fatalities, recently have oc- used by Boeing’s Meiser, who also founded and sensible regulation would curred — an Antonov 148 in Russia, a stressed the importance of “stopping help, others argued that the industry CASA 212 in Indonesia and a de Havil- what you’re doing when it starts going would benefit most by setting its own land Twin Otter in the United States. wrong.” standards. Jim Burin and the functional check “We need to create some industry flight steering team members are Airbus School standards,” said Delvin Young, chief considering ways to build upon the Symposium attendees received a wealth pilot for flight test at . groundwork laid in Vancouver.  of information on how to establish and “We, as airline operators, have to man- staff a functional check flight organi- age ourselves, or somebody else will.” Note

zation. Choosing the right people is Time is of the essence, said easyJet’s 1. The symposium presentations are available paramount, according to Harry Nelson. Glenn Bradley. “These problems exist in the Aviation Safety Seminars section of “I believe that you can have the best now, and we have to solve these problems the FSF Web site, .

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