TP 185E Issue 3/2013 aviation safety letter In this issue… Survival on the Hudson: Inattention to Safety Briefings, Life Vests and Life Lines Increased Risks After US Airways Flight 1549 Touched Down Aviation Weather —What You Need to Know Sharing of Safety Information Key to Effective Industry-Wide Safety Management Is Your Aviation Document Booklet Expiring? Flight Test—Ultra-light Aeroplane Watch That Hand Over the Governor Beep Switch! Approved Aircraft Maintenance Type Training SECURITAS—Report Transportation Safety Concerns in Confidence 2013 Flight Crew Recency Requirements Self-Paced Study Program Learn from the mistakes of others; you’ll not live long enough to make them all yourself ... The Aviation Safety Letter is published quarterly by To obtain information concerning copyright ownership and Transport Canada, Civil Aviation. 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ISSN: 0709-8103 TP 185E Table of Contents section page To The Letter .................................................................................................................................................................3 Pre-Flight ......................................................................................................................................................................................4 Flight Operations .......................................................................................................................................................................11 Maintenance and Certification .................................................................................................................................................16 TSB Final Report Summaries ..................................................................................................................................................18 Accident Synopses .....................................................................................................................................................................32 Debrief .........................................................................................................................................................................35 SNOWBIRDS CAN FLY OVER PARLIAMENT HILL…YOU CAN’T ..................................................... Poster 2013 Flight Crew Recency Requirements: Self-Paced Study Program .....................................................................Tear- off 2 Table of Contents ASL 3/2013 To The Letter GPS signals The “Can GPS Get You Lost?” article in ASL 4/2012 makes This could take the form of a plug-in remote antenna, or in some good points. Many pilots have become too dependent on the case of a computer tablet, an external GPS receiver that portable GPS receivers and don’t even unfold a map let alone either uses Bluetooth or connects directly. Another thing to follow their track on one. This can mean real trouble if GPS consider with a tablet is whether you can rely on it for maps. guidance is lost. Several examples in the article, however, leave In the case of a dead battery or other total failure you will the impression that GPS signal coverage is an issue, but loss need either paper maps or another electronic map source. of coverage is extremely rare. Loss of guidance is much more likely due to the limitations of portable units. Regardless of the technical solution, the operational solution is self-evident: fly VFR in weather that allows you to see the GPS signals are very weak when they reach a receiver, ground, follow your track on a map and use your portable making antenna design and location critical. Antennas in GPS receiver as an aid to navigation. portable GPS receivers perform well enough, but not as well as externally-mounted antennas. Airframe shielding Ross Bowie can prevent a unit from receiving signals from all available Ottawa, ON satellites, sometimes resulting in loss of guidance. If this Ross Bowie managed the SatNav Program Office in happens, putting the unit up on the glare shield could Transport Canada and then in NAV CANADA for a help, but a pilot’s first priority should be to pinpoint total of 10 years. After retiring in 2009 he revised the GNSS position on a map. Manual under contract with the International Civil Aviation Above all, flying the aircraft has to take precedence—too Organization (ICAO). He holds an Airline Transport Pilot many pilots have been distracted trying to sort out technical Licence (ATPL) and has flown for 46 years—the last problems, with disastrous results. Finding a technical 20 with GPS. solution can wait until you’re back on the ground. When the ELT Became the Hazard A local flight training unit (FTU) requested that I conduct an I bring this to your attention because the aircraft manufacturer examination for a private pilot licence on a student pilot in his is not required to view this area of the structure during a own Cessna 172 C. I have completed pilot examinations in pre-flight inspection. I think it might be a good idea for privately registered aircraft in the past. I insist that the aircraft owners and operators to assess the safety of any items in be inspected by an approved maintenance organization (AMO) such areas periodically. We will never know if my hunch to the same standard as a commercially registered aircraft of prevented an accident, nor for how long the ELT was in this the same type that may be flown by an FTU. condition. The commercial and private flight tests do require stalls, sideslips, spirals and/or spins. Therefore, the use of the While observing Exercise 2D, the pre-flight inspection, I took rudders to recover from these manoeuvres would obviously a notion, for some unknown reason, to personally peer into the be of paramount importance. aft fuselage behind a panel to see if this aircraft was equipped with a 406 emergency locator transmitter (ELT) beacon or The owner, in this case, immediately took the aircraft to his the old style 121.5/243 beacon. To my surprise, the beacon AMO, who reinstalled the beacon and also added air to the was not where it should have been (attached to the bracket tires before we boarded the aircraft and conducted the test on the side of the fuselage). Upon opening the panel a bit that day. more, I saw the beacon in the belly on its back, still attached to its antenna but lying between the rudder cables and on John M. Laing top of the trim cables. The right rudder cable appeared to Delta, B.C. have been rubbing on the plastic case of the ELT battery. ASL 3/2013 To The Letter 3 Pre-Flight Survival on the Hudson: Inattention to Safety Briefings, Life Vests and Life Lines Increased Risks After US Airways Flight 1549 Touched Down. ...............................................................................................................................4 Aviation Weather—What You Need to Know .............................................................................................................................8 Sharing of Safety Information Key to Effective Industry-Wide Safety Management ....................................................................9 Nominate a Person or Organization for the 2014 Aviation Safety Award! ..................................................................................9 Is Your Aviation Document Booklet Expiring? ..........................................................................................................................10 Survival on the Hudson: Inattention to Safety Briefings, Life Vests and Life Lines Increased Risks After