India: Patna zoo may lose 2000 trees for airport expansion

PATNA: The Airport Authority of India (AAI) is surveying and marking over 2,000 trees on the premises of Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park under its expansion plan for the Jaya Prakash Narayan airport here. The AAI will send a proposal to the state government for cutting the identified trees creating problems in taking-off and landing of the aircrafts at the airport.

If the AAI got its proposal forwarded by the state government and approved by the Union ministry of forest and environment, the 2,000 trees above 25 feet of height would be uprooted. There are many precious and rare species of trees on the 15 acre land of the zoo.

"The trees are being identified and marked only. The zoo is governed under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. It is a protected forest. The airport authorities will need the permission from the Union ministry of forest and environment for even scratching the trees," zoo director Abhay Kumar told TOI on Monday.

He, however, said the process would take. "Earlier the airport authorities had identified 3,700 trees to cut down for the safety of airplanes landing at the Patna airport," he said.

Director of Patna airport Arvind Dubey said, "Aircrafts taking off and landing at the airport face disturbances due to the thick vegetation around the airport area. The proposal for removal of trees has been pending for a long time and we want this change for the safe movement of flights. The survey is on to list the trees creating disturbances in the area."

The zoo has about 10,000 trees. Some of them, like patali, putranjiva, hijjal, terminaliya myriocarpa, heterophragma, kigalia pinnata, ficus and cassia javanica, are of rare varieties.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Gary Air Show will feature Thunderbirds this year

HAMMOND — Spectators looking forward to the Gary Air Show will still enjoy the same physics-defying acts and world-class views they always have; it’ll just have to be enjoyed over to the left a ways.

Construction on the $28 million Marquette Park revamp by the Regional Development Authority couldn’t be done in time for the popular event, South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority President and CEO Speros Batistatos said during a news conference announcing the lineup. As such, parking and viewing will be moved west of the Aquatorium, with the new lots serving as the event’s center stage.

Rick Hitchcock, principal of Hitchcock Design Group, said safety is his and his construction managers’ first priority, and everyone involved in the construction zone will be expected to secure the sites.

An earlier show date to accommodate the show’s crown jewel, the United States Air Force Thunderbirds, is also expected to bring thousands more to Marquette Park since Taste of Chicago has not only been shortened, but its start date has been moved back. Batistatos thanked Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel for his unintentional generosity.

“We treasure our relationship with the city of Chicago, but we will have the (seminal) event this year for the Fourth of July weekend,” he said. “We’re going to have an entire city looking for that event, and you know what? We’re it.”

Gone this year will be the VIP Party at the Gary/Chicago International Airport during the Friday night Twilight Show, Batistatos said, but it’ll be replaced with something he and Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson agree is even cooler: A giant beach party, of which the proceeds will go toward charity. “Beach Bash for Regional Charities” will ask 10 Northwest Indiana charities — three of which should reside in the city, and the other seven of which should have ties to it — to sell 200 tickets at $75 apiece.

Out of the $75 ticket price, $55 will go to benefit the charities, Batistatos said.

“Considering we have between 75,000 and 100,000 people for the Twilight show alone, that’s going to be a big party,” he said.

Parking will still be $20 — a bargain, Batistatos said, considering most air shows charge for parking and admission — but negotiations are still under way for parking and shuttle service from Majestic Star Casinos. Coolers and tailgating are once again not allowed on the premises; cooling centers will be on-site in case of oppressively hot temperatures.

The show itself, meanwhile, will start at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday instead of noon, also to accommodate the Thunderbirds’ performance time of 3:30 p.m. Show acts will include the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team and Lima Lima, the world’s largest original six-ship, civilian formation team; aerobatic teams Aerostars and Aeroshell; Bill Stein; the Firebirds; Elgin Wells’ Starjammer; Lucas Oil air-show pilot Michael Wiskus; and Bob Carlton Vertigo Airshows.

The Twilight Show on Friday will start at 3:30 p.m.

http://posttrib.suntimes.com

Passenger numbers from Indonesia are expected to take off thanks to direct flights between Jakarta and Auckland

Auckland Airport's signed a memorandum of understanding with Garuda Indonesia, which is planning to fly direct between the countries as soon as market conditions allow.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler says currently fewer than 12 thousand people arrive every year from Indonesia.

He's expecting that number to jump quickly with Garuda.

"They've got a lot of orders for new aircraft and they have big plans to revitalise the airline. They said New Zealand has been part of that so we think it could turn into something quite serious. It could strengthen New Zealand ties with Europe as well."

Mr Thomas says Indonesia is a growing market and New Zealand's ready to take full advantage.

"Business travel will grow, and secondly the holiday market will grow, simply because of availability and scheduling."

Kevin Bowler expects we'll see big marketing campaigns from Garuda.

The flight path is also likely to do wonders for diplomatic relations.

Mr Bowler says the Government has recognised Indonesia is fast growing.

"We do think the introduction of a direct service would be a great convenience for visitors from Indonesia. It will also be great for building the relationship between the two countries."

Kevin Bowler says currently all flights to New Zealand from Indonesia go via Singapore.

Brent Thomas says Garuda's confident it has the numbers to keep afloat. 

http://home.nzcity.co.nz

Internet scam involving a nonexistent airplane - Ventura County, California

Suspect arrested on suspicion of defrauding Santa Rosa Valley resident

A 22-year-old woman was recently arrested on suspicion of targeting a Santa Rosa Valley resident with an Internet scam involving a nonexistent airplane, Ventura County Sheriff's Office officials said.

Kelly Bryant of Los Angeles was arrested Thursday in connection with the incident, which was reported in January, sheriff's  officials said.

The ruse involved the sale of a fictitious airplane and a fake escrow-holding account controlled by a group of suspects, officials said.

The report of the incident led to a three-month investigation of the group and Bryant's arrest in April, officials said. She was booked into Ventura County jail and released the same day on bail, officials said.

The investigation is ongoing.

Source:  http://www.vcstar.com

Aviation discipline brings business rewards

BALANCE: Volcanic Air Safaris' Phill Barclay is all about balance - in business and in life more generally. 

 

HIGH ACHIEVER: Phill Barclay, managing director of Volcanic Air Safaris 

 To be a good pilot, you need to be disciplined and Volcanic Air Safaris managing director Phill Barclay says the same is true in business.

"If you have a good year, don't go out and have a good spend up. A good year usually means the next bad year is getting closer."

Whether it's the bad weather, an economic downturn or a combination of both, Phill says good discipline and good planning can enable business owners to still be successful.

He also lists a reasonable mechanical understanding as a key skill for a pilot.

"You can tell when something is not quite right and can get it seen to before it becomes a major breakdown."

This, too, applies well to business - you don't need to know all the technical details about every aspect of your business, but the more you know, the easier it is to spot problems in their early stages.

Having grown up around aviation, it was inevitable Phill's career would be up in the air. He came to Rotorua in 1989 as a pilot for Geyserland Airways before becoming operations manager at Volcanic Air Safaris in 1992. He and his wife Dorien Vroom bought the business in 2002.

These days he spends less time flying and is focusing more on the business side of aviation.

"I spend more time thinking about business growth and expanding. I'm always looking for new opportunities."

Safety is obviously key in aviation and Phill is proud of Volcanic Air Safaris' platinum rating - being the only company in New Zealand to achieve this by operating for 25 years without an incident, while averaging 22,000 flights a year in the past five years.

In terms of tourism, he says it is important for Rotorua to pursue new markets such as China and India, but he strongly believes in continuing to invest in traditional markets such as the United Kingdom, Europe and North America. Visitors from these regions tend to stay longer and spend more than the shorter-stay visitors from Asia.

"The challenge is to continue to get good numbers out of those traditional markets, while entering different markets to keep up the growth. We need to have a good balance."

Balance is also something Phill strives for in his personal life. While he has spent his entire career in aviation and tourism, Phill makes a concerted effort to socialise with people outside those industries.

"It is important that you have balance in your social life and you won't get that if you work in tourism and only socialise with tourism people."

As well as avoiding the temptation to talk about work all the time, he says mixing with business owners from other sectors often gives him a new perspective on his own sector.

Making time for two rounds of golf a week and the odd beer also help him achieve that balance!

IN HIS OWN WORDS

How has the poor summer weather affected Volcanic Air Safaris and the tourism sector in general?

Our records on days lost to weather go back to the 1990s. For March the average is two days, but this year it was eight.

From Boxing Day through to January 7 is usually the best two weeks of the year and ... well, you remember what it was like. We were probably about 15 per cent down on the same period last year.

The problem with our type of business is that it is so weather dependent. Even if it is safe to fly, you cannot take people up to show them something on a day when they won't see anything.

We had a good Easter, but we had so many visitors asking why everything was shut. When it comes to Easter trading laws, it is time Rotorua stood up and said "Enough! We are going to open regardless."

The whole country needs to do that to highlight the issue. Let people have the choice.

What was your first job and what did you learn from it?

I was a labourer at a batten mill owned by former Maori All Black Mac McCallion in Waiuku. He was a hardest boss I ever worked for, but he put in just as much work as everybody else.

Geothermal Airways was my first full-time flying job, with John and Raewyn Burns. I still regard John as being ahead of his time in terms of looking after and maintaining aircraft.

How would you like to see Rotorua's Lakefront developed from an operator's perspective?

The last thing I want to see is a 200m jetty into the lake. Every pier like that in the world has ended up being a financial disaster. Why would we copy that?

I also don't want one big building for all the operators. We need to individualise a bit more and spread things out a bit more.

We could make the Lakefront a lot nicer without spending excessive amounts of money. We need a range of quality restaurants and cafes and good public facilities.

What is the difference between being a good pilot and being a good pilot instructor?

The best trainers are not always the smoothest pilots. A person who is a good instructor has the ability not just to say "that was a rubbish landing", but to be able to track the landing back to the approach and help the person understand where it started going wrong.

You need to be constructive about it. You also have to be able to put the person you are teaching at ease so they are not too nervous to focus on learning.

http://www.rotoruadailypost.co.nz

Great Falls International Airport gets hi-tech fire truck

The Great Falls International Airport has a new addition to help them better combat aircraft fires - a state-of-the-art fire engine unlike any other in Montana.  Darnell Stucker, assistant fire chief with the Montana Air National Guard, noted,  "The engine on it that is has is a Caterpillar engine, is 680 horsepower. It goes zero to 50 in 23 seconds with a top speed of 74 miles per hour."

The new addition to the airport is part of an FAA mandate for Cat 3 runways, requiring airports to be equipped with a fire engine that can get to the midpoint of a runway in three minutes or less.

Stucker explained, "It takes 90 seconds for a fire to go through a fuselage in an aircraft. So the first truck has to be there in three minutes and all the other fire trucks need to be there in four minutes."

The $750,000 truck was 95% paid for by the FAA.

Last week crews spent 10 hours a day training on the new machine.

Stucker said, "We are very fortunate here not to have very large frame aircraft catch on fire, but we have had numerous aircrafts that have unfortunately crashed and we have had some fatalities up here."

The truck holds 1,500 gallons of water, 210 gallons of foam and weighs about 62,000 pounds.

It also has something very unique - an infared camera.

Stucker explained, "We are actually able to go out on the runway in basically zero visibility...and this FLIR camera will actually guide us through the roads and we can see everything through this FLIR camera. It's going to be an interesting concept for us to be able to have that capability."

Read more, photos and video:   http://www.krtv.com

LifeFlight raising money to add airplane to its fleet of helicopters

 LifeFlight of Maine is raising money to add an airplane to its fleet of two helicopters in response to growing demand for air ambulance services.

Adding a third aircraft is expected to allow the statewide service to treat up to 300 more patients a year by freeing up the maxed-out helicopters.

“As more and more physicians ask us to transport their most critical patients, our medical crews and helicopters are reaching their capacity,” LifeFlight of Maine Executive Director Tom Judge said in an email. “Last year, on average, we transported a patient every six hours. Adding a fixed-wing aircraft to our current resources will mean more patients have access to the care they need, when they need it.”

In 2009, LifeFlight was unable to care for 236 patients who needed air ambulance services because the helicopters already were occupied or unable to fly in bad weather.

The airplane LifeFlight is eyeing, a Beech King Air 200 twin-engine turboprop, could transport patients over longer distances more quickly and fly in weather conditions such as freezing rain and fog that the helicopters can’t handle, Judge wrote.

The helicopters are clocking 900 flight hours a year, far more than LifeFlight anticipated, according to Melissa Arndt, marketing and educational outreach manager for the LifeFlight Foundation, which raises money for the service.

“We’ve almost doubled the number of hours we expected to put on them,” Arndt said.

LifeFlight has raised about a third of the airplane’s $3.5 million price tag, which includes costs to retrofit the interior and purchase medical equipment, Arndt said. The foundation hopes to collect the full amount within the next year.

Established in 1998, LifeFlight is a nonprofit agency run by Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems in Bangor and Central Maine Healthcare Corp. of Lewiston.

In the last year, LifeFlight transported more than 1,400 patients from all over the state. Many of them suffered severe injuries in crashes.

While LifeFlight helicopters sometimes land at crash scenes, the bulk of the flights transfer critically ill or injured patients from rural hospitals to trauma centers in Bangor, Portland and Lewiston.

About 5 percent of LifeFlight’s patients wind up in Boston for treatment, Arndt said. Even with the addition of an airplane better suited to longer flights, “we don’t expect to see significantly more patients leaving the state,” she said.

The new airplane could be modified to land on the shorter runways typical of Maine’s rural airports but still have the range to accommodate a wider flight ring including Montreal, Pittsburgh, Pa., and Richmond, Va., for patients needing specialized services unavailable in Maine.

Adding the new aircraft also is expected to improve LifeFlight’s coverage in southern Maine by cutting down on long flights by the Lewiston-based helicopter.

“The same crew and the same equipment are going to be aboard either aircraft, so the care the patient receives will be the same,” Arndt said.

Airplanes are ideal for trips topping 175 miles, she explained. While fixed-wing aircraft require ambulances to transfer patients from the hospital to the airport and vice versa — the helicopters land on hospital helipads — their speed over longer flights makes up for the extra time, she said.

“In Maine, our typical helicopter flight is much longer than the national average,” Judge wrote in the email. “A fixed-wing aircraft is faster and more efficient over these longer distances, helping the patient get to the care they need sooner.”

Maine’s emergency medical services network already includes airplanes operating out of airports in Rockland and Caribou, though LifeFlight’s crew receives a higher level of critical care training, Arndt said.

http://bangordailynews.com

Alva native pilots B-25 for special show

Executive Sweet, shown with Lt. Col. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle at an earlier reunion of the Doolittle's Raiders, will arrive at the Alva Regional Airport about 10 a.m. on May 21. Bob Baker will provide a fighter escort with his P-51 Warbird. 

Photo courtesy of AAF.org 

Look to the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a formation of War Birds headed for the Alva Regional Airport on April 21. Alva native Lt. Col. John 'Weebs' Wiebener will pilot the B- 25 'Executive Sweet' on its journey back to California from Urbana, Ohio and the 70th Reunion of Doolittle's Raiders. Two dozen B-25s and the five surviving crewmen from the legendary raid met for what was billed as the final reunion. On April 18, 1942, 80 men achieved the unimaginable when they took off from an aircraft carrier on a top secret mission to bomb Japan. 

These men, led by Lt. Col. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, came to be known as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders. The fully restored warbird will be given a fighter escort to the Alva airport by local pilot Bob Baker's P-51s positioned at the B-25's wingtips. 

Static Display 

The warbirds will do a fly-over before landing at the airport at approximately 10 a.m. Once they land, the B-25 will be on static display for anyone who wants to see it until 5:30 p.m. The pilot and crew will be available for photos during this time. A minimum $5 donation will be asked to tour the plane. T- shirts and hats will also be for sale. "It's extremely expensive to keep these old planes flying," Wiebener said. Wiebener said the airport board and Plane Plastics have been extremely helpful in planning this event. 

The special visit will coincide with the monthly EAA pilots' meeting. Rides lasting approximately 30 minutes will be available for $425 per person, a minimum of four persons, and a maximum of six passengers. A one-on-one instructional ride can be purchased for $2,500. On this ride, the purchaser will pretty much fly the plane from takeoff to touchdown. 

World War II veterans are invited to a barbecue dinner at 6:30 p.m. at Bob Baker's hangars. Veterans planning to attend are asked to RSVP to Plane Plastics at 580-327-1565 so enough food can be prepared. Veterans will get to meet the crew and get a close look at the plane. If a veteran wants to purchase a flight, they need to be at the airport around noon.

The Pilot 

This journey marks 'Weebs' first flight at the controls of the legendary plane. The Alva native flew F-16 fighter jets during his career with the U.S. Air Force. Lt. Co. Wiebener flew 27 missions over Iraq during Desert Storm. Wiebener started flying in 1978 while attending college in Florida. "I grew up on a farm west of the Alva airport watching planes take off and land all my life," he said. 

At one point in time, his grandpa had a T6 and a Birdog stored in the barn on the farm. While other kids pretended to drive tractors or cars, Weebs pretended to fly those planes. "I must have flown around the world 100 times," he said of those imaginary trips.

Since retiring from the Air Force, Wiebener returned to his home in Albuquerque, N.M., where he began a second career as a pilot for FedEx. "This has been a wonderful second career for me," he said. "I'm flying the newest and largest airplane in the FedEx fleet. This last week I flew one that had only 40 hours on it. It still had the 'new car' smell." When asked about his selection as pilot for this mission, Wiebener answered saying, "It was mostly persistence." 

Two of Wiebener's fellow FedEx pilots fly B-25s periodically and knew of his desire to fly this airplane. "I think they realized they needed an additional pilot," Wiebener said. "I've been wanting into the war bird world for quite a while." Wiebener said the entire war bird world is about networking. "Once you're flying for one person, they'll see you and like what you are doing," he said. "My ultimate motive is to fly a variety of war birds." 

Source:  http://news.mywebpal.com

Small-Jet Makers Flock to China - As Sector Shrinks Elsewhere, Growing Market Outweighs Competitive Risks for United States Manufacturers

By ANDREW GALBRAITH 

The Wall Street Journal 
 -
SHANGHAI—U.S. makers of small aircraft increasingly are teaming up with Chinese companies, deciding that the need to ply the growing market outweighs the risk that their partners will become rivals.

Cessna, which displayed jets at the Singapore Airshow in February, plans to build jets in Chengdu, China.

In the last few months, business-plane makers Cessna Aircraft Co. and Hawker Beechcraft Corp. have discussed joint ventures in the country. Industry supplier Honeywell International Inc. HON -0.12% signed several initial agreements last year. Non-U.S. companies are moving in, too: Brazil's Embraer SA ERJ +0.61% last month said it would consider transforming a Chinese joint-venture plant for small commercial jets to turn out executive planes.

China has grown more attractive as the industry otherwise has shrunk. Honeywell in October estimated that 600 to 650 new business jets would be delivered industrywide last year, down from 732 in 2010 because of global economic weakness. Cessna, a unit of Textron Inc., TXT +0.60% expects China to become the world's No. 2 business-aircraft market, after the U.S., within roughly 15 years.

"Everyone's jockeying for position now, trying to figure out…'Who do I partner with? How do I get the right access?' " says Briand Greer, Asian-Pacific president of Honeywell Aerospace.

Cessna last month signed an agreement with a unit of state-controlled Aviation Industry Corp. of China to establish a joint venture in the western city of Chengdu, where Cessna plans to build midsize business jets and codevelop a larger jet. The Wichita, Kan., company also reached an agreement with AVIC, as the Chinese company is known, for broader cooperation on general aviation, a category that excludes military and commercial aircraft.

"If you have the ability to produce local content in the market, it gives you the ability to understand your customers better, to react quicker," says Cessna Chief Executive Scott Ernest.

Shawn Vick, an executive vice president at Wichita-based Hawker Beechcraft, said at a recent news briefing in Shanghai that his company had "entertained discussions with four separate entities for joint-venture activities inside China."


Labor costs also are part of China's lure. "Our competitors in Brazil or in Switzerland can charge lower labor rates than we can in the U.S. and labor is a big component of building the airplane," says Sean McGeough, Hawker Beechcraft's president for Europe, the Mideast, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

The aircraft maker, suffering from a long slump in demand for business jets and uncertainty over military spending, recently hired a turnaround specialist and bankruptcy counsel.

Honeywell, based in Morristown, N.J., reached five agreements last year with Chinese aerospace companies, including one for the development of a general-aviation cockpit. Honeywell also makes aircraft engines and other aerospace products.

China's business and general-aviation sector is in its infancy. Honeywell's Mr. Greer estimates that the country has about 1,000 business and general-aviation aircraft, compared with roughly 225,000 in the U.S.

But industry experts expect China's number to rise with the country's wealth and as Beijing relaxes aviation regulations.

Setting up joint ventures, which generally are required by Beijing for foreign companies establishing significant operations in the country, can be troublesome. Such partnerships have given a technological lift to Chinese companies in other industries, such as automobiles.

Aerospace executives say they need to keep up the pace of technological development to stay ahead of would-be Chinese rivals. "The only way you can really stay away ahead of the [intellectual-property] curve here is you continue to innovate faster than the things you're bringing to market," Mr. Greer says.

Cessna's Mr. Ernest says Volkswagen AG's VOW.XE +0.68% Audi unit and General Motors Co. GM -1.60% have succeeded in navigating such shoals."It's not any different from what Audi's done or what GM's done," he says, referring to his company's joint-venture plans.

The competitive threat from China also is rising as the country builds its own ability to take on global aerospace rivals. Last June, an AVIC unit acquired Minnesota-based private-aircraft maker Cirrus Industries Inc., giving the Chinese company access to a line of light propeller aircraft and a small jet under development. Outside of business and general aviation, state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China is developing a regional jet to compete with planes made by Embraer and Canada's Bombardier Inc. BBD.B.T -0.75% Comac, as the Chinese company is known, also is developing a single-aisle commercial jetliner that could compete with Boeing Co.'s BA -0.33% 737 line and the A320 family from the Airbus unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. EAD.FR +1.49%

Despite such challenges, foreign companies still are looking at deals.

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. President Larry Flynn says his company has "not in the least ruled out China for manufacturing capabilities." Gulfstream, a unit of General Dynamics Corp., GD +0.46% currently focuses its investment in China on building up maintenance, repair and overhaul capacity.

Source:  http://online.wsj.com

Air Show Promises Explosive Experience

Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point is getting ready to host nearly 150,000 of its closest friends and neighbors at the 2012 Cherry Point Air Show. This 3 day show will showcase aviation at its best with the highlight being a demonstration by the United States Naval Flight Demonstration Team, the Blue Angels!

Show Times:

- Friday - Night Show, May 4, 7:30-10 p.m. Gates will open at 5 p.m.

- Saturday and Sunday - Day Shows, May 5-6, 10:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. Gates will open at 8 a.m.

For more information visit the MCAS Cherry Point Air Show website at http://www.cherrypointairshow.com/, "Like" the MCAS Cherry Point Air Show Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TheAirShow, "Follow" the MCAS Cherry Point Air Show Twitter page at www.facebook.com/CPAirShow.

CHERRY POINT -- The 30-minute air show sneak peek flight offered at MCAS Cherry Point on Monday was either the longest or shortest half hour ever. It just depends who's asked.

The point was to offer a behind-the-scenes preview of just one of the features awaiting attendees of the 2012 MCAS Cherry Point "Celebrate the Heritage" Air Show.The Northeast Raiders brought two of their aircraft -- one a YAK-52 and the other a CJ-6A Nanchang -- to Cherry Point, and each is equipped with inverted fuel and oil systems permitting inverted flight for as long as two minutes.

 The air show is expected to attract about 150,000 people, and Lt. Col. Ken Asbridge said they'll all have an explosive experience.

"The Marine Air-Ground Task Force (show) literally features a wall of fire," Asbridge said. "There's a simulated enemy, and (you can) really see Marines in action. You're going to see them dropping bombs and there will be explosions -- big explosions."

Probably the most anticipated aerial performers will be the Blue Angels, which Asbridge said he's most looking forward to seeing.

But the highlight of the show Monday was the duo from the Northeast Raiders. Marty "Raider" Sheehan piloted his bright red YAK-52, while Keith "Wizard" McKinley showed off his CJ-6A Nanchang.

Flying in tandem, the two aircraft took off together and performed carefully choreographed stunts several thousand feet in the air -- each flight with white-knuckled members of the media in the back seat.

Flying around a handful of journalists allowed the Raiders to present their case for most exciting show off terra firma, but the two-seater planes are also on hand trying to turn the stomachs of a few special passengers.

"We're glad to get the chance to fly around some of the Wounded Warriors," said Sheehan, who served more than two decades in the Marine Corps. "These are men and women who have lost their legs and arms fighting for our country, and they just want to get back out there. It's a real reward (to get to fly with them); it's a real honor."

The show kicks off Friday night at 7:30, with gates opening at 5 p.m. Friday's festivities will run until about 10 p.m. The action will runSaturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. Gates open those days at 8 a.m.

Both attendance and parking for the air show are free, and the Marines at Cherry Point are proud to open their gates to the community.

"It's a chance to see just what the Marine Corps does," Asbridge said. "And it's our chance to show the community how proud we are to defend their freedom."

As for that 30-minute flight on Monday, for the crew from NewsChannel 12 it was over all too soon. It's a good thing the action picks back up May 4-6.

For a list of aerial performers: http://j.mp/Ihfwhm

For a list of ground performers: http://j.mp/I0xFNP

Read more and photos:   http://www.wcti12.com/news/30902341/detail.html

Flying doctor's personal mission

 

Richmond Hill dentist Dr Peter Martin with his Cessna XP Hawk. 

Jacklyn Wagner

Dentist and pilot Dr Peter Martin goes to extreme lengths to help people with serious illnesses in remote regional areas.

For seven years, he has flown his light plane to distant parts of Australia, picked up isolated ill people, usually children, and transported them to medical care.

"It's good to be able to share the privilege that I've got to be able to fly in the first place," Dr Martin said.

The Richmond Hill resident said he was inspired by patients he transported.

"It has never ceased to amaze me, particularly these little children who have so many things wrong with them, at the end of the day they've still got this big smile on their face," he said.

Dr Martin has conducted about one to two patient transfers each week and paid for the associated costs. 

However, national patient transfer organization, Angel Flight, has reimbursed Dr Martin for fuel.

Dr Martin said the implementation of a positron emission tomography scan machine, which takes dynamic pictures of cancer patients' organs, at Lismore Base Hospital will soon require him to fly a large number of patients to Lismore.

"This is the only regional area that has been provided with this facility. Once it's established, there will be a lot of patients brought into Lismore for that purpose alone," he said.

Northern Rivers Aero Club vice president Allan Fry said Dr Martin's dedication to helping other people was a rarity.

"You go through life and meet a lot of people, but then you meet someone like this and you remember what it's all about," Mr Fry said.

Dr Martin said he would find it difficult to continue transporting patients without Angel Flight subsidizing his fuel. 

In June, a fundraiser will be held for Angel Flight at Northern Rivers Aero Club and you can also donate via angelflight.org.au.

Source:   http://www.northernstar.com.au

Morris Riggin takes over Madison Municipal Airport (KMDS), South Dakota

 

Morris Riggin

He hasn't entirely moved into his new establishment at the Madison Municipal Airport, but Morris Riggin already has plenty of business to take care of as its manager.

City officials hired Riggin in March to take over the operation of the city airport and serve as its fixed-base operator. Riggin judged on Monday (today) that he could finish moving his tools into the main hangar at the airport with another weekend's work.

As the new FBO, Riggin will provide services such as aircraft hangaring, flight instruction and aircraft maintenance. He'll also stay busy by performing other flight-related work, including aerial crop spraying, which has provided a major part of his income for years.

Riggin teaches pilot instruction, saying that he's busy with "a growing flight school."

"I've been a flight instructor since I was 18," Riggin said.

Riggin can help students earn their private and commercial pilot's license. He can also help them obtain certification for instrument, seaplane and multi-engined piloting. According to Riggin, he started teaching students while living in Ipswich, providing ground classes at his home. His students would start flying from a grass strip near Mina. Riggin also taught float-plane piloting from a spot on Mina Lake. He has some familiarity in managing a rural airport. Riggin's father managed the Milbank airport for about 20 years, and Riggin managed the same airport for nine years. In 2003, he moved to the Aberdeen area and worked as a pilot and flight instructor in the north-central part of South Dakota. Riggin fielded a couple of phone calls during his interview -- one from a Sioux Falls aircraft owner who was interested in finding hangar space at the Madison airport. Riggin pitched the idea of the pilot building a new hangar in Madison instead of leasing space. After finishing the call, Riggin said the Madison airport offered lower construction costs when compared to the same hangar space at the larger Sioux Falls airport. He said not having to negotiate through airport security concerns was a major factor to Madison offering lower costs to pilots. According to Riggin, Madison also offers benefits to corporations that own and operate their own aircraft. "That's something that I would like to work on -- getting more corporate airplanes coming into Madison," Riggin said. He said larger retail companies often base and fly light or twin-engine airplanes from cities such as Sioux Falls. In addition, the larger corporations fly executives across the country using turboprops such as Citations. "We're not that far away from Sioux Falls, so there's a possibility that we could lure some business aircraft to Madison," Riggin said. "This airport can offer a great facility with the improvements that we'll make during the next two years, and we also have jet fuel." Engineers are still busy completing the design and environmental work needed before construction of the airport's new parallel taxiway can start. However, Riggin said the Madison airport should have a new ground communication outlet available for pilots. During days with bad weather, pilots on the Madison runway need to call air-traffic control in Sioux Falls on their cell phones to get flight clearance. With a new GCO system, pilots can connect with air-traffic control on their aircraft's radio.  Source:  http://madisonet.com

Long lunch? Just get a seaplane home

• Sydney restaurant offers sea plane rides
• One-hour drive takes 10 minutes by plane
• Costs $505 per person

Who needs to catch a cab home after a long lunch? Introducing transport for winners: the seaplane. 

A restaurant on Sydney's northern beaches is offering flights home via seaplane.

Jonah's at Whale Beach is one of a handful of restaurants in Sydney that you can get to on a luxurious day trip by plane.

A journey which would take about an hour to drive is only a ten-minute flight in a seaplane.

And everything looks different from above.

When we round the craggy cliffs of the Harbour at North Head near Manly, I'm surprised at how rugged and unwelcoming it looks.

The grass at Long Reef Golf Club, on the headland at Collaroy, looks a magnificent lime green.

We see the white dome of the Ba Hai temple at St Ives jutting out of the greenery in the distance.

A slim strip of white sand stretches out in front of us.

Narrabeen Beach, our pilot tells us, is the largest on the Northern Beaches.

The houses below look like Lego buildings.

We hit the area where the Hawkesbury River meets Pittwater and round Barrenjoey Head, flying over the lighthouse made famous by the television soap Home and Away.

Soon we are soaring above Pittwater, looking down on the hundreds of small white boats which dot the water along its bushy coastline.

We pass over Scotland Island, where we can make out just a few houses on the coast with jettys pointing outwards like fingers.

We land in a quiet bay with a beach lined with seaweed, a jetty at the end and bobbing white boats.

The take off and flight are smooth and we barely even feel we have landed, except for the huge splash of white foam and water.

A boat takes us to the jetty, where we are greeted by two small, fluffy, white dogs who quietly lap up our pats before we board the mini-bus to Jonah's for lunch.

Laurence Olivier, Anthony Hopkins and Mick Jagger have dined at the iconic restaurant, which has 180-degree views over the Pacific Ocean.

There we soak up the vista from the tiled terrace looking down Whale Beach and see the many clifftop houses cascading down towards the sand.

White curtains blow in the breeze and sea-coloured artworks decorate the walls as we dine on a three-course meal from an a la carte menu.

Before landing back at Rose Bay on the return journey we do a quick bonus loop over the Harbour, soaring close to the Harbour Bridge and the white sails of the Opera House, shady in the afternoon light.

A Manly ferry pushes through the water beneath us, with its whitewash streaming from its sides and behind in a rough line.

Seaplanes land and depart from the Seaplane Base at Lyne Park in Rose Bay, in Sydney's eastern suburbs.  The base is a small departure building to the right hand side of Catalina Restaurant.

Four-hour fly and dine trips cost $505 per person, with a minimum of two adults, including seaplane flights and a three-course a la carte lunch. There are also fly and dine trips available to the Peats Bite on the Hawkesbury River and Berowra Waters Inn and Cottage Point Inn in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.

More: Ph 1300 732 752 www.seaplanes.com.au

Source:  http://www.heraldsun.com.au

Press Release: Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. Sustains Weather Related Damage to Wichita, Kansas Facility

Press Release
April 16, 2012, 7:30 a.m. EDT

WICHITA, Kan., April 16, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. SPR -1.37% announced today that its Wichita, Kan., facility sustained structural damage during severe weather on April 14, 2012. All personnel were safely accounted for, and the emergency management plan was immediately implemented. Initial assessments indicate that damage is primarily limited to infrastructure, including buildings and utilities, and that production equipment appears to be largely unaffected.

Operations are suspended at least through Tuesday, April 17, 2012, to ensure the safety of our people, complete our damage evaluation, and finalize plans for systematically bringing production online. The company expects near-term production disruptions, including delivery impacts as recovery plans are executed.

"We are thankful that none of our employees were injured in this event, and we continue to remain focused on safety as we assess damage and execute our recovery plans," said Jeff Turner, President and CEO. "We are also working closely with our customers to minimize the expected delivery impacts."

About Spirit AeroSystems, Inc.
Spirit AeroSystems, with headquarters in Wichita, Kan., USA, is one of the world's largest non-OEM designers and manufacturers of aerostructures for commercial aircraft. In addition to its Wichita and Chanute facilities in Kansas, Spirit has locations in Tulsa and McAlester, Okla.; Kinston, N.C.; Prestwick, Scotland; Preston, England; Subang, Malaysia; and Saint-Nazaire, France. In the U.S., Spirit's core products include fuselages, pylons, nacelles and wing components. Additionally, Spirit provides aftermarket customer support services, including spare parts, maintenance/repair/overhaul, and fleet support services in North America, Europe and Asia. Spirit Europe produces wing components for a host of customers, including Airbus.

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning future business operations. Actual results or circumstances may vary materially from those indicated or implied in this press release as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, including the accuracy or completeness of our initial assessment of damages; the availability of insurance to cover losses as expected; and our efforts to restore operations at our Wichita, Kan. facility in a timely manner; as well as other risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those detailed in Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

SOURCE Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. 

http://www.marketwatch.com

Pilot's degree eyed by University of Windsor - $22,500 given to develop new program

By Ilana Belfer, The Windsor Star 
April 16, 2012 4:05 AM
 
A program that - if approved - would grant aspiring pilots a license to fly and a university degree is one of 30 new initiatives being funded by the University of Windsor's Strategic Priority Fund.

By combining flight training with university courses, the Commercial Aviation and Aerospace Leadership program would respond to a growing demand in the aviation and aerospace industry due to an aging workforce and technological advancements, said Cecil Houston, dean of the arts and social sciences faculty.

"Because of the demographics of current pilots ... there will be a lot of them who are going to be leaving the industry in the next few years and there is enormous expansion in the use of aircraft across the world, so this is really a global demand," Houston said. He also pointed to a 2010 report by the Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council, which called for pilot training to adopt a more diverse curriculum, rather than focusing solely on hours spent inflight.

While Western University, the University of Waterloo and Seneca College offer similar programs, Houston said there are more applicants than there are spots available.

Students in the program would study engineering, social sciences, arts, and business - but that's just on the ground. Simulation training would speed up the process of getting the prospective pilots in the air, with flight lessons likely taking place at Windsor Airport, Houston said.

"One of the things we're aiming for here is to tie what we do to some of the developments that are happening in the community like the development of the airport, and the development of the airlines industry here," said Leo Groarke, the university's provost and vice president academic.

Until now, Windsor area residents could get flight training at the Windsor Flying Club, but it has never been tied with a university degree. Graduates of the University of Windsor's program would receive a bachelor of arts in liberal and professional studies with a specialty in aeronautics leadership.

The $22,500 from the Strategic Priority Fund will be used as seed money to develop the new program, Houston said. It's currently being considered by the university's program development committee and Houston said he expects a final decision by summer. Ideally, the program would start in fall of 2013, Groarke said.

The fund, which was established in 2009-10, allocates about $1.5 million of the university's operating budget to new programs and initiatives each year.

Other recipients of funding include the Faculty of Science, which will be getting a community outreach co-coordinator, and 4Winds, a summer camp that aims to engage aboriginal youth in science, math, engineering and technology because aboriginal people are presently under-represented in those fields.

The fund will provide $80,000 for a "live building portal" at the $112-million Centre for Engineering Innovation being built at Wyandotte Street and California Avenue. The portal will use sensors to track data about the performance of the building, which is set to open in the fall. Things like wind distribution, the transmission of sound, and air flow for the heating and cooling systems will be monitored and then used as a teaching tool for the engineering students.

Source:  http://www.windsorstar.com

Former Yuma pilot an award-winning author

One day Mike “Zack” Franzak was going through an old cardboard box packed with things from his deployment to Afghanistan when he found three military log books he had used to keep a journal.

“There were some old ghosts in there,” Franzak, a retired lieutenant colonel with the Marine Corps, said about the box.

That cardboard box also included his Distinguished Flying Medal. “I pulled out those log books and started reading them and I got emotional. I thought, wow, there might be some material in here that might make a book.”

Those journals became the basis for the first-time author's award-winning book “A Nightmare's Prayer: A Marine Harrier Pilot's War in Afghanistan.” The book gives his first-person account of the combat missions he flew during the early days of the Afghanistan campaign.

The first book ever to be published by a Marine Harrier pilot, “A Nightmare's Prayer” was also chosen as the 2012 William E. Colby Award winner.

Franzak explained the book is more than the air war in Afghanistan as seen from the cockpit of a fighter. It's one man's thoughts of how the war would be, what he would accomplish and how that changed as he went through his time there.

“There is a little bit about flying, but there is a lot more about life and what goes on inside a man's head, and the guilt and emotions he may feel. It is an emotional book. It is a no-holds-barred look. There isn't any fluff. It is the real deal.”

Franzak was an AV-8B Marine Corps Harrier pilot who served as executive officer of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma's VMA-513, The Flying Nightmares, while deployed in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003. The squadron was the first to base Harriers in Bagram in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

After thinking about it for about a month, Franzak, who says he was never better than a C student in English, said he finally decided he had to write the book.

“I just decided like a lot of things I do in life that I would rather not think about it or talk about it, I would rather do it,” said Franzak, a contract pilot who lives in Raleigh, N.C., with his wife, son and daughter.

Writing first with pen and paper, he would get up at 4:30 every morning and work on his book for two hours because he did not want to take time away from his wife and children. It took a year, but he finally finished the book.

Although proud of his accomplishment, Franzak said he knew after having some friends read the book that he had done just about everything wrong in writing it and that it would never be published the way it was.

He realized there was no way to salvage what he had written, so he decided to start over and rewrote the first chapter, putting everything aside, writing for one person, with that person being himself.

“I didn't write it for anybody else to enjoy. When I went to go write again, I wrote for me, and I wrote without any rules. So when I wrote the second time, I tore loose. After I read that first chapter, I started crying. Then I said, well if I can bring out that much emotion in myself, I can do it.”

After another year of writing, Franzak finished the book for a second time and began sending it off to various publishing companies. Simon and Schuster eventually bought his manuscript and published the book in 2010.

“When I finished the book, I knew it was good,” Franzak said.

Although he flew many combat missions while in Afghanistan, Franzak said he dropped ordnance only twice. In both of those instances, he said, he was the first Harrier to arrive to the area to provide ground support.

“You do your best to support the guys on the ground, who you may not be able to see, whose life depends on you,” said Franzak, who went to Afghanistan as a major and was promoted to lieutenant colonels.

“It was sad to go provide ground support somewhere, only to learn someone had died and there wasn't anything you could do about it. It was difficult.”

Franzak said flying combat missions was a grind and every day started to become the same.

“It was like ‘Groundhog Day.' Your missions are long, four or five hours. I even flew some missions that were seven hours long.”

For Franzak, the hardest of those missions were the ones called the Dawn Patrol. He said pilots who flew these missions would take off at around 2 a.m. and return to base shortly after sunrise. Most of the time, the pilots were flying around the country waiting to respond to what are known as TICs, or troops in contact, reports.

“Basically you live like a vampire because you adjust your schedule to where you get up when the sun sets and you go to bed when it comes up.”

Franzak said he did not want his book to be narrative about his emotional life during his deployment, instead wanting to focus on the personal issues he had to sort through.

“This was the first time I was going to war, going into harm's way. I was leaving behind a wife and a 1-year-old son. And I found that very difficult to do. Nevertheless, I love my country and I went over there with high expectations of doing right and helping to accomplish our objectives.”

Over the course of the squadron's year in Afghanistan, the six Harriers flew nearly 4,000 hours, with each pilot flying in excess of 300 hours. Only one plane was lost, and that happened when it plunged off the end of the hard-scrabble runway at Kabul Air Base. Luckily, no one was hurt in the incident.

Read more: http://www.yumasun.com

Torrance Airport - Salute to Veterans B-17 Tour, 20-22 April

Spirit Aerosystems suspending operations

WICHITA, Kansas -- Spirit Aerosystems in South Wichita has suspended operations indefinitely as a result of damage sustained from Saturday's tornado outbreak.  Employees have been told not to report to work until further notice.

"We had substantial damage," said Debbie Gann, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Spirit.  "Roofs and siding have been torn off, and we have no power."

A search last night revealed no employees trapped inside buildings on the Spirit campus.  Gann says the company is in the process of double checking today.

"Our first priority is to our employees, and we executed our emergency evacuation plan like clockwork," Gann added.

Structural engineers will begin going building to building today to survey the damage.

"It looks like most of our operational capability is in tact," Gann said.  "We're working to get our facility up and running as soon as possible.  That's our goal."

Gann says they plan to update the media on the situation at Spirit about 3 p.m.

http://www.ksn.com

Burmese treasure: 'We've done some pretty silly things but the silliest was burying the Spitfires'

EXTRAORDINARY plans to raise a lost ''squadron'' of Spitfires that have lain buried in Burma since the end of World War II were revealed at the weekend as David Cameron, Britain's Prime Minister, visited Rangoon.

A Lincolnshire farmer who devoted 15 years of his life to finding the planes has spoken about his quest to recover them and get them airborne.

David Cundall, 62, has spent £130,000 ($200,000) of his money, visited Burma 12 times, persuaded its secretive regime to trust him, and all the time sought testimony from a dwindling band of Far East veterans in order to locate the Spitfires.

His treasure hunt was sparked by little more than a throwaway remark from a group of US veterans made 15 years ago to his friend and fellow aviation archaeologist, Jim Pearce.

Mr Cundall said: ''They told Jim: 'We've done some pretty silly things in our time, but the silliest was burying Spitfires.' And when Jim got back from the US, he told me.''

Mr Cundall realised the Spitfires would have been buried as they had been shipped, still in their crates. Before they were shipped to the Far East, they would have been waxed, wrapped in greased paper and their joints tarred, to protect them against the elements.

The first step was to place advertisements in magazines, trying to find soldiers who buried Spitfires. ''The trouble was that many of them were dying of old age,'' Mr Cundall said. He visited Burma over and over again, slowly building relations with its junta. Finally, he found the Spitfires, at a location that is being kept a secret. Mr Cundall said: ''We sent a borehole down and used a camera to look at the crates. They seemed to be in good condition.''

In August 1945, the Mark XIV aircraft, which used Rolls-Royce Griffon engines instead of the Merlins of earlier models, were put in crates and transported from a factory in the West Midlands to Burma. Once they arrived, however, the Spitfires were deemed surplus to requirements. The order was given to bury 12 Spitfires without even unpacking them. It is possible that a further eight were then buried in December 1945.

Mr Cundall said: ''In 1945, Spitfires were 10 a penny. Jets were coming into service. Spitfires were struck off charge, unwanted. Lots of Spitfires were just pushed off the back of aircraft carriers into the sea. On land, you couldn't leave them for the locals - they might have ended up being used against you.''

Ground radar images showed that inside the crates were Spitfires with their wings packed alongside the fuselages. The Britons want to work to restore as many of the 20 Spitfires as possible and get them flying. There are only about 35 flying in the world.

The final obstacle to recovering the Spitfires, however, is political: international sanctions forbid the movement of military materials in and out of Burma, and it was also feared the regime would not allow any foreign excavations.

But because of the new, reforming stance of the government, the sanctions on movement of military material may be lifted on April 23. With the help of Mr Cameron and his visit to Burma, a deal is being negotiated and hopes are high that it will conclude with President Thein Sein granting permission for the dig.

Telegraph, London

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au

IN PICTURES: Skiatook Municipal Airport (2F6), Oklahoma - The calm after the storm

Written by Mike Simons 

 

Bob Myers surveys storm damage at Skiatook Municipal Airport April 15, 2012. Myers had a plane damaged in the storm, but had moved his plane out of the hangar. It looks like the Tulsa area was lucky to get through the overnight storms with little damage. A lot of loud thunder and bright lightning is all that seemed to accompany this storm. The Skiatook Municipal Airport did have damage and several planes were damaged. Town Administrator Martin Tucker told me that other than the airport, all he had heard is that a bunch of trampolines blew away.

Read more and photos: http://www.tulsaworld.com

India: Trainee pilot drowns in Sharda canal

A trainee pilot of the Indira Gandhi Udayan Academy, Fhursatganj drowned in Sharda canal while bathing here today.

Police sources here said that M Shanker (21) went to bathe in Sharda Canal along with his friends when the incident occurred. The body has been recovered an FIR registered at Milla area police station.

http://news.webindia123.com

Fighter jet boost for Rolls Royce plant

Rolls-Royce is in line for a massive boost this week when the Government is expected to select the jump-jet version of the Joint Strike Fighter for Britain's two new aircraft carriers from 2020.

Work on the supplementary lift engine for the short take-off and landing version of the supersonic jet is already under way at the aero engine giant's plant in Bristol.

The contract could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds to Rolls, depending on how many aircraft are ordered. The Ministry of Defence originally ordered 150.

While a decision will be made early this week the announcement will be withheld until after local government elections on May 3, according to convention.

The MoD will argue that adapting the carriers for the short take-off and landing version of the stealth fighter will be cheaper than using the traditional method of catapulting jets into the air.

But more than £50million has been spent on designing catapults after the original plan for jump jet fighters was shelved.

The cost of the carriers, which had been estimated at £3.5billion, has ballooned to £6.2billion.
 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk

LeTourneau University students win aviation competition

FORT WORTH (KYTX) -- A group of Aeronautical Science majors from LeTourneau University won the Southwest Regional Professional Aviation Maintenance Association competition Saturday, up against other teams from Texas and Oklahoma.

Senior Patrick Harney of Lowville, NY, won first place and senior Jacob Sweers of Mount Hermon, CA, won third place. Senior Tommy Regier of Fairview, OK, sophomore Tim Powell of Klamath River, CA, and senior Luke Sjoblom of  Longview were also on the team. Their faculty sponsor was assistant professor of applied aircraft systems Andy Farrell.

"This year, the judges changed the electrical project in the competition so that the students had to troubleshoot a challenging electrical wiring harness that was like something you would see on a weapons system, not on a small airplane," Farrell said. "They had to test to see if it was good or not. After the event, the judge on that project went out of his way to come compliment our students in person because he was impressed that nobody on our team was intimidated by this unique project."


http://www.cbs19.tv

Aviation accidents decline across Africa

Statistics from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) have shown a significant drop in air accidents in African airlines between 2010 and 2011

There were eight accidents across the continent, 10 less than 2010, but still considerably higher than on other continents.

“The challenge with African countries is that they hire cheap, non-compliant aircraft, with no proper records,” said Ignie Igunduura of the Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority.

The number of accidents on Western-built jets, however, declined by 39 per cent in 2011.

It was against this backdrop that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) organized a three-day conference in late March in Kampala, which attracted more than 250 delegates from member nations.

Among the aviation bodies to attend the Regional Air Safety Conference were the African Civil Aviation Commission, the Agency for Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar, the African-Indian Ocean Regional Monitoring Agency, IATA and the European Commission.

IATA noted that Africa’s problems were complex and included insufficient government oversight and lack of infrastructure.

The conference came at a time when the African continent was considered a hot spot in the global aviation sector despite the fact that in 2009 Africa had the worst accident rate in the world.

According to a recent report on world aircraft accidents by IATA, Africa’s Western-built jet losses per million surged from 2.32 in 2008 to an alarming 6.62 in 2009. In contrast, the overall regional accident rates for the world decreased from an average of 0.92 in 2008 to 0.57 in 2008.

Africa’s accident rate was more than twice that of the Middle East, which ranked as the second worst offender and was six times greater than the third worst area, Australasia/Pacific.

Statistics obtained from the Flight Safety Foundation indicated that between 2000 and 2009 a total of 91 aircraft accidents occurred in Africa, of which 26 were in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 14 in Sudan, eight in Kenya, seven in Nigeria, six in Angola, three each in Egypt and Gabon, and 24 in the other countries.

The DRC and Sudan accounted for 44 per cent of all the fatal accidents on the continent in the ten-year period, with the top five countries (DRC, Sudan, Angola, Kenya and Nigeria) accounting for more than 67 per cent of all accidents on the continent.

Mwangi Mumero

http://www.africanreview.com

Managing Miami International Airport (KMIA), Florida

Miami International Airport is a very familiar sight for anyone living in the Cayman Islands. It is the most frequent port of entry into the United States and the main hub for Cayman Airways.

Over the last decade the airport has gone through significant changes as the amount of traffic routed through its facility has grown exponentially in a relatively short period of time.

Some years ago a need for expansion was recognized as more and more airlines chose Miami to be included on their schedules.

As a result a four-phase plan was devised to upgrade it to a modern, efficient machine capable of processing and routing passengers with a combination of state-of-the-art technology, moving walkways and automated shuttles.

Jose Abreu is the director of the airport and has been overseeing this major project while at the same time trying to minimize inconvenience to travelers as the work progresses.

Despite the issues that ongoing construction inevitably brings, he is confident that once the job is finished, the airport will be a landmark facility making travel a much more pleasant experience for the thousands of visitors moving through the concourses on a daily basis.

Q. How long have you been the director of Miami Airport?

A. Since July 2005. Before that I was Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation under Governor Jeb Bush.

Q. What changes have you seen in the years you’ve been working there?
A. MIA has doubled in size with the opening of a new 1.7 million square foot South Terminal in 2007 and completion of the 3.5 million square foot North Terminal in 2012. Approximately 95 per cent of our passengers now use modern, award-winning facilities featuring nearly 200 restaurants and stores. New features such as the South Terminal’s 40-lane international arrivals area, the North Terminal skytrain people mover, and the MIA Mover connection between MIA and the Miami Rental Car Centre now make travelling through MIA a much more convenient and pleasurable experience.

In the last seven years, we have implemented mandatory customer service training developed by the Disney Institute, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Miami-Dade College Centre of Service Excellence, which has improved the customer service at MIA as well.

Scores in our annual customer service survey in 2011 were the highest they have been in the last four years.

Q. What accomplishment are you most proud of in the time you’ve been director?

A. When I arrived in 2005, completing the Capital Improvement Program was without a doubt the critical path to the airport’s success. The programme will be completed this July with the opening of the North Terminal Federal Inspection Service area.

Since 2005, when the county assumed responsibility for the North Terminal Development Program and a new contractor was assigned, more than $200 million in costs and two years of construction have been saved, expediting the project.

Q. What do you think makes Miami airport unique from other airports?

A. What most sets MIA apart from other airports is that it is the largest US gateway for passengers and cargo from Latin America and the Caribbean, with more flights from the region than any other US airport and more perishable imports through MIA than all other US airports combined. MIA was the fastest growing large US airport in 2011 with a passenger increase of seven per cent, and we are the number two, US airport for international passengers, behind only JFK. MIA continues to be the top US airport for international freight and is the only US airport among the top 10 airports in the world for international freight.

Q. Obviously the amount of air traffic has significantly increased over the years. What is the airport doing to accommodate the added flights on the schedule?

A. The North Terminal Development Program has added 1.8 million square feet of new space and 1.7 million square feet of renovated space to the facility that serves as the Latin American and Caribbean hub for American Airlines. The North Terminal has been expanded to 47 gates and now features dual taxiways that double the amount of flights each gate can serve per day. The facility serves more than 300 flights per day and, combined with four long runways, has the capacity for twice as many flights. The new Federal Inspection Service area opening in July is twice the size of our current facility and has the capacity to serve 3,600 international passengers per hour. The South Terminal, completed in 2007, serves 20 of our major airlines and handles nearly 25 per cent of our passengers. Therefore 95 per cent of our passengers are now using facilities that are less than five years old and have the capacity to accommodate projected growth.

Q. Until the new immigration hall projected to open in July is officially in operation, what would be your advice to visitors travelling into or through Miami before they book their tickets?

A. Unfortunately, American Airlines [and Cayman Airways] passengers and others using the Concourse E Customs area may experience longer wait times in the passport control area during peak hours on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, which are our busiest days. Passengers should schedule their travel plans accordingly if they are travelling on those days, especially for connecting flights, until the new North Terminal international arrivals facility opens in July. They should give themselves at least two hours between connecting flights. Airlines using the Concourse J Customs facility should not experience any abnormal delays.

Q. Does MIA have a long-term expansion plan to prepare for future growth?

A. We are currently in phase three of our four-phase Strategic Airport Master Planning Study, which will address capacity needs at MIA through 2050.
 
http://www.compasscayman.com