Newsdesk – General Aviation

Flight R Ecorders for GA Aircraft:

For the fifth time in two years, the US National Transportation Safety Board has urged the Federal Aviation Administration to require the use of flight recorders on complex general aviation aircraft. The Board repeated the result recommendations today as a of its investigation into the crash of Gates Learjet 25D on January 19, 1979, at Detroit’s Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, which killed 6 persons.

The plane, operated by Massey Ferguson, Inc. , Des Moines, Iowa, crashed while attempting a landing. Witnesses saw the Learjet cross the runway threshold in a normal landing attitude and seconds later roll violently, The Learjet was in a steep right bank when the wing tip fuel tank struck the runway 2640 feet from the threshold, and the aircraft burst into flames.

The board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the pilot’s loss of aircraft control. The loss of control “may have been caused by wake turbulence of a departing aircraft, by a premature stall caused by an accumulation of wing ice, or by delayed application of engine thrust during an attempted go-around, or by any combination of these factors. ” The vote was 3 to 2.

However, lacking information from a flight data recorder or a cockpit voice recorder, the Board said it was unable to develop conclusive support for any of the possible causes for loss of control.

“In this accident, the Safety Board was forced to depend primarily upon witness observations, the sole source available, to establish the critical flight path of the landing aircraft. In most investigations, witness statements are supportive of recorded fact. Witness statements lack essential time relationships of height and motion essential for definitive analysis,” the Board report said.

 Beech Scores Record Number Of International King Air Deliveries In May:

During the month of May, Beech Aircraft Corporation delivered more Beechcraft King Airs internationally than in any previous month in the aircraft series’ 16-year history.

Thirteen Beechcraft King Air models were delivered by the company’s International Division during May, bringing the number of Beechcraft King Airs exported for the calendar year to 51.

The company credits the record deliveries to a strong international turboprop market as well as its own online production capability.

A total of 601 King Air models have been exported to international markets since the series began deliveries in 1964.

US General Aviation Manufacturers Association figures show that turboprop shipments exported this year are up more than 50 per cent over last year. Exports in May for the industry represented 38. 3 per cent of total units shipped and 38 per cent of total dollars. For the year exports are accounting for 31 per cent of total units and 30 per cent of total dollars, according to GAMA reports.

Citation Deliveries Top 700 Mark:

Cessna Aircraft Company recently delivered the 700th Citation produced since its business jet was introduced in 1972. En route to number 700, Citation customers have made the series the best selling business jets in the world. Last year, 140 Citation deliveries surpassed all other business jets and established an all-time record for one year. “We expect to deliver more than 150 aircraft in 1980 as we meet the demand for Citations around the world,” said J. Derek Vaughan, Cessna senior vice president and general manager of the Commercial Jet Marketing Division. “In 1981 we plan to deliver 185 Citations,” Vaughan added, “and the total dollar volume of Citation sales will represent more than 40 per cent of Cessna’s total aircraft sales next year, as we increase the production rate to 1 8 units per month by July, 1981. Delivery positions for the Citation I and Citation II jets are sold for the next two years. A third model, the Citation Ill, is currently undergoing flight testing, and orders have been received for the first three years of production. Cessna recently reported a firm order backlog in excess of $1.2 billion for the complete Citation line.

Cessna Reports Lower Third Quarter Sales and Earnings:

Cessna Aircraft Company reported sales of $237 million in its third fiscal quarter, down from $267 million last year. Net income was $3. 4 million, versus $15 million a year ago.

Sales for the first nine months, which ended June 30, were $ 738 million versus $681 million a year ago. Net income of $17. 6 million was down from $36 million.

The expected downturn in third-quarter sales was caused primarily by the sudden slowdown in deliveries of single-engine aircraft. High interest rates, credit restrictions and concern about the economy combined to sharply reduce sales of single-engine units industry-wide.

Orders for Cessna’s larger aircraft, including the Citation business Jets and the Conquest strong and Corsair propjets remain strong.

Gliding Booms at Narromine:

Probably Australia’s best-organised gliding training centre, the well-known Narromine Soaring Centre has enjoyed a record year in soaring activities. The total number of trainees for 1979 was 334 male and 21 female as against 2 7 4 male and 1 7 female the previous year. The number of flights achieved in 1979 was 11,356 as against 6984 in 1978 while the total hours logged was 6816 in 1979 and 8133 in 1978. The total kilometres flown in 1979 was 96,892 while for 1978 the figure was 83,954 kilometres. Narromine is an ideal gliding centre owing to its warm winter days and near to perfect summer and mid-season climate allowing gliding as it was meant to be.

Turbine Sales Continue To Boom:

Sales of non-avgas burning aircraft continue to soar while many well maintained pre-owned turbine-powered aircraft have actually appreciated in value over the past year. Canadair now has more than 140 orders for their Challenger twin-jet, forty of which were firmed between January and July this year. IAI reported a boom in February with the confirmed sales of 19 Westwind jets in that month alone. British Aerospace who have received good value from their long-lived 125 airframe 500 sales have notched 13 sales in the first half of 1980 and are confident that their 125-700 will remain a firm seller for years to come. 1980 production of the type is slated at 36 aircraft.

Meanwhile Falcon Jet continues to sell well with the tri-jet Falcon 50 set to be built at the rate of four per month. There is a substantial backlog for the smaller Falcon 1 0 which is being produced at the rate of 2. 5 a month. Mitsubishi are set to launch the Diamond and claim to have 82 confirmed orders, 41 of which will be delivered in 1981.

Learjet are enjoying their usual degree of success and will be producing the latest of the marque, the Series 50 Longhorn, at a rate of five a month by 1981 instead of 1982 as originally planned. Gates wrote orders on no less than 88 aircraft in the first four months of 1980 alone continuing their dominance of the corporate market. Despite the recession, Gulfstream logged orders for six of its airliner-like G3 wingletted jets in April alone bringing total orders to 65. Sales of Cessna Citation jets plus all turboprop aircraft also continue strong with backlogs in some cases stretching into 1982.

 Warning on Spatial Disorientation:

The National Transportation Safety Board has issued an accident report which illustrates the possible danger to a pilot who follows a the practice of aviation’s early years – flying “by the seat of your pants. ”

“Spatial disorientation” was the Board’s determination of the probable cause of the crash of a light aircraft two miles west of a Florida general aviation field early in 1979. The pilot and both passengers died in the crash and ensuing fire.

Spatial disorientation in flying an aircraft involves a pilot’s inability to determine the attitude of a plane in flight – whether it is climbing, descending, turning, or in level flight. It is brought on when a pilot cannot use the horizon or the ground for visual reference and lacks the capability to maintain a desired attitude by use of cockpit instruments.

Board investigation of the Florida crash showed that the single-engine plane was on a southwesterly heading at about 800 feet on what its pilot described in a radio transmission as an “extended” downwind leg of a left-hand-pattern approach to the airport’s Runway 9. The plane’s position and heading placed the lights of the runway and other lights of the airport behind the pilot.

The weather was clear, but there was no moon on the evening of the accident. To the southwest, west and northwest of the airport, there were no lights on the ground to give a pilot visual guidance.

“Spatial I disorientation is an insidious hazard,” the Safety Board said in issuing the accident briefs. “It breeds in a lack of experience with low-visibility and night flying, and in a pilot’s overconfidence in the ability to “fly by the seat of one’s pants. ”

“This pilot had 160 hours of total flight time, but only 10 hours as pilot-in-command while flying at night. Had he understood the hazard of spatial disorientation, he would have realized that as he headed out over the totally unlighted terrain to the west of the airport, he was encountering conditions that effectively required him to fly by his instruments. Unfortunately, his instrument experience was only two hours of simulation.

“The pilot probably could have avoided spatial disorientation by looking back at the airport every few seconds, and by making his turns onto the base leg and final approach as quickly as possible. “