Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Vans RV-6A, N215DG: Accident occurred September 22, 2015 Deckerville, Sanilac County, Michigan

Date: 22-SEP-15
Time: 18:26:00Z
Regis#: N215DG
Aircraft Make: VANS
Aircraft Model: RV6
Event Type: Accident
Highest Injury: Minor
Damage: Substantial
Flight Phase: LANDING (LDG)
FAA Flight Standards District Office: FAA East Michigan FSDO-23
City: DECKERVILLE
State: Michigan

AIRCRAFT FORCE LANDED IN A FIELD, NEAR DECKERVILLE, MI


http://registry.faa.gov/N215DG



The Sanilac County Sheriff's Office just issued the following news release:

The Sanilac County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an airplane crash near the intersection of Ruth Road and Custer Road in Bridgehampton Township.

On Tuesday, September 22, 2015, at about 2:26 p.m., Sanilac Central Dispatch received a 9-1-1 call reporting that a plane had just crashed in a farm field.

Emergency personnel from the Carsonville Fire Department, Sanilac EMS and sheriff’s office responded to the scene and found that a 69-year-old male subject and a 64-year-old female subject, both of Harrison Township, made it out of the plane and were walking around.

According to Deputy Chad Adams, the initial investigation revealed that the male pilot and passenger had just left the Sandusky airport when they started experiencing mechanical problems.

The pilot stated that he attempted to make it back to the Sandusky Airport, however, then decided on attempting an emergency landing on Ruth Road.

Due to traffic conditions on Ruth Road, he had to cancel and veer off into a field.

He then lost control due to the mechanical problem, thus crashing upside down in the farm field southeast of the intersection of Ruth and Custer roads.

The pilot and passenger, who were both conscious and alert, were transported by Sanilac EMS to McKenzie Memorial Hospital for treatment of injuries.

The plane is described as red and white, two seat, single engine assembled aircraft.

The sheriff’s office was assisted on scene by the Carsonville Fire Department, Sanilac EMS and the Sandusky Airport.

The names of the individuals are being withheld pending the ongoing investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Source:  http://www.michigansthumb.com

Boeing Addresses Concerns Over China Plant • Ahead of Xi Jinping visit, company said it is in talks to extend partnership, according to memo

The Wall Street Journal
 By Jon Ostrower
Updated Sept. 22, 2015 7:40 p.m. ET



Boeing Co. sought to assuage employee concerns over its plans for a new plant in China that was expected to be announced as part of the visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to a company factory on Wednesday.

The new plant would be Boeing’s first big manufacturing facility overseas, and would mark a milestone for its presence in China, which is fast becoming its most important market.

The facility is expected to handle only final steps in completing work on 737 single-aisle jets ordered by Chinese customers, according to a person familiar with discussions on the venture.

China accounted for roughly a quarter of Boeing’s single-aisle jet deliveries this year and is expected to claim a large share of future orders, but the company has lost ground in recent years to Airbus Group SE, which delivered the first of its rival A320 jets from an assembly plant in Tianjin in 2009 and now claims around half of the Chinese market.

The prospect of Boeing moving some work to China such as painting jets and completing their flight tests has riled Boeing’s unions.

Boeing hasn’t yet announced the planned facility, but Ray Conner, chief executive of its commercial airplanes unit, alluded to it Tuesday in an internal memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“We are in important discussions with Chinese partners about our strategic partnership in China and also possible sales agreements,” Mr. Conner said. “I want to assure you that agreements we may reach with our Chinese partners will not result in layoffs or reduce employment for the 737 program in Washington state.”

A location for the planned facility has yet to be selected, but it would install seats, in-flight entertainment systems, and some galleys and lavatories, as well as the custom paint job for each airline, said the person familiar with the plans. Each jet will then be flown on production flight trials before delivery. Because it will take several years to establish, The facility will mostly handle Boeing’s new 737 Max jets, which begin delivery in 2017.

Airbus has assembled more than 200 jets in Tianjin near Beijing and is also building a completion center in China for its larger A330 planes—work it promised as part of a deal for up to 75 aircraft.

While China has become its single-largest growth market, Boeing has resisted siting an assembly plant there to retain the efficiencies of its existing plant in Renton, Wash., and to avoid disturbing its often strained labor relations.

“Any shift of aerospace jobs from our bargaining unit or Washington state causes grave concern,” the bargaining unit for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Seattle said in a statement last week.

The lure of the China market has already led other large U.S. capital goods makers such as Caterpillar Inc. and Joy Global Inc. to assemble equipment there. General Electric Co., which makes engines for Boeing jets, last week said it would move final assembly of some power turbines to China from the U.S., citing the loss of financial sales support from the Export-Import Bank. Boeing and GE have led the battle to reauthorize Ex-Im, which has been closed to new business for almost three months.

While Chinese firms are already big suppliers for Boeing and Airbus planes, previous efforts to deepen ties with its aerospace sector have floundered. McDonnell Douglas opened a facility near Shanghai to assemble its MD-80 jets in the mid-1980s, but Boeing curtailed the effort following its 1997 merger with McDonnell.

China is now investing heavily to develop its own passenger jet industry, and though the state-backed Comac C919 plane includes engines from a joint venture between GE and France’s Safran SA and parts from other Western suppliers, it is years behind schedule.


Original article can be found here: http://www.wsj.com

New Mexico man aims to break world record in the sky



MORIARTY, N.M. (KRQE) – Jon Sharp has been a pilot for three decades, winning races at air shows for years. Now, he wants to take his flying game to the next level. 


“I’m hoping to put up big enough numbers where nobody gets to them for a while,” said Sharp.

He’s talking about beating a speed record for planes that weigh under 2,300 pounds. He’ll attempt to break the record in his team’s own creation, The Nemesis.

“Records are made to broken, and it’s always great to be the fastest person there is. So that’s what we’re here to do, be the fastest,” said Sharp.

He’ll hit the skies on Wednesday when he attempts a 3-kilometer course over the Moriarty Municipal Airport.

“He’ll fly across the runway, two times in each direction, we’ll measure the speed in which he’s flying, and determine if he flew fast enough to break the existing record,” said Brian Utley of the National Aeronautic Association.

That existing record for a small single-engine plane is 356 mph.

Jon’s confident that by the end of the week his name will be next to a few new records.

“We’re just more prepared now, when we did our record last time in Osh Kosh. We were not set up correctly, we just wanted to get a record,” said Sharp.

If all goes well, Wednesday won’t only be a victory for Jon but also the Moriarty Municipal Airport.

“Having Jon here and The Nemesis, really means a lot of the community of Moriarty and this airfield, because we’re already famous in the glider world, and now we’ll be famous in the power world,” said Bob Hudson, manager of Moriarty Municipal Airport.

Story and video:  http://counton2.com

Pilot Reports Lasering While Flying Over Casper Mountain

The pilot of a commercial plane flying north over Casper Mountain on Monday night reported someone on the mountain had used a laser along the the flight path as he was preparing to land at the airport.

The pilot reported the laser was coming from an area of three broadcasting towers on the mountain, Sgt. Aaron Shatto said Tuesday.

Pointing lasers at airplanes can cause temporary night blindness in pilots, rendering them unable to see their instruments, said Mike Hendershot, chief of public safety at the Casper-Natrona County International Airport.

“It could have catastrophic results,” Hendershot said.

The incident happened about 7:30 p.m. The pilot radioed the report to the control tower, which in turn notified him and the Sheriff’s Office,Hendershot said. “A Skywest flight from Denver to Casper stated they were illuminated by a green laser.”

The airport, following protocol, notified the Transportation Security Administration, which notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he said.

Shatto said a deputy on the mountain checked the tower site on Tower Road, and went to KTWO Road, but did not find any vehicles.

After the plane landed, Hendershot said the pilot and copilot said they saw a vehicle with its lights and two bursts from the laser. “It was not directed at the aircraft, but it was in the vicinity.”

Because it apparently was not a deliberate act, it will be reported as suspicious, Hendershot said.

He was not aware of other incidents of people pointing lasers at airplanes in Natrona County or elsewhere in Wyoming, he said.

But this has been a problem elsewhere, Hendershot said.

Because of the increasing popularity of the laser pointers and the potential damage, the Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 made it a federal felony to knowingly point the beam of a laser at an aircraft, according to a 2014 FBI report. The crime is punishable by up to five years in prison.

The beam from a 5 milliwatt laser pointer is narrow close up. But it can reach up to a mile and grow in diameter to several feet. Pilots have reported the effect is like a camera flash going of in a darkened car, according to the report.

Source:  http://k2radio.com

NFL First Major U.S. League to Win FAA Permission to Use Drones

The National Football League can use drones to shoot films, documentaries and television segments, becoming the first major sports league to receive such permission from the Federal Aviation Administration. 

The exemption, which precludes filming games, comes three months after the FAA said it was probing NFL teams, including the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, for their use of drones. 

It’s illegal to fly unmanned aircraft for any commercial purpose without first receiving a federal green light.

In a Sept. 17 letter, the FAA granted the league’s NFL Films permission to use drones but with several conditions and limitations. 

Among them: Drones must weigh less than 55 pounds (25 kilograms) including payload, fly no more than 400 feet (122 meters) above the ground and travel no faster than 100 miles per hour (87 knots). 

NFL Films revolutionized the way football games are chronicled, taking viewers inside the game and emphasizing the sport’s power and beauty, often in slow motion. 

The division produces TV programs, films and documentaries, not live broadcasts. NFL and college football coaches have praised drone footage for giving them a vantage point of the on-field action that previously didn’t exist. 

Fox used drones in its coverage of this year’s U.S. Open golf tournament at Chambers Bay Golf Course outside Seattle. 

The FAA exemption allows NFL Films to operate drones only over empty stadiums, precluding their use on game days when the stands are packed with fans, said Kurt Wimmer, NFL Films’ outside counsel.

Drones won’t be used to film practice, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. 

“NFL Films has a long history of embracing and employing the latest technology,” McCarthy said in an e-mail.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com

North State Aviation to begin hiring for 109 Lenoir County jobs within weeks

The president of Winston-Salem-based North State Aviation said Tuesday that his company will begin hiring the first of 109 new jobs for a new maintenance center at the N.C. Global TransPark in Lenoir County within the next three to four weeks. 

Charlie Creech, president of North State Aviation, said the positions for the new aircraft center will mostly be mechanics and technicians who will work on aviation repair, maintenance and overhaul services at a one-bay hangar with more than 20,000 square feet. Workers will also be needed in the stock and tool rooms.

He said the more than 400 jobs located in Winston-Salem will remain at the Smith Reynolds Airport, where North State Aviation is the largest tenant and has a total of six bays that are 17,000 square feet each.

“Nobody is going down there from here; we’re going to be hiring locally down there,” he said of the new park jobs.

Creech said members of the senior management team, including himself, will remain in Winston-Salem, where the company was founded in 2010.

The new North State Aviation salaries will vary by position, but the average will be $39,688 per year. That’s higher than the average annual wage in Lenoir County of $32,164.

The company will also invest $900,000 mostly in upfits to the hangar, Creech said.

Creech said the N.C. Global TransPark hangar can hold a plane as large as a Boeing 737-900, which is the largest aircraft that North State works on at its Smith Reynolds Airport facility in Winston-Salem.

North State Aviation eyed facilities in South Carolina, but determined that the Kinston facility was “perfect for us” due to a variety of factors including nearby community colleges that both have aviation programs as well as military installations that the company can recruit from, Creech said. The 2,500-acre industrial park has access to an airport, rail and highways such as Interstate 95 and Interstate 40.

He said the park is also home to a “magnificent” airport with a 2-mile runway.

Source:  http://www.bizjournals.com

Papal ‘No Fly Zone’ grounds planes for Pottstown Municipal Airport (N47) Day



POTTSTOWN >> One might expect to see airplanes in the air during the annual Municipal Airport Day this Saturday, but that will not be the case.

And you can thank Pope Francis for that.

Organizers of Saturday’s affair announced Tuesday that due to a No Fly Zone — known as a “Temporary Flight Restriction” — being imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration in a 30-mile zone around Philadelphia, planes will be grounded during the annual event.

Pottstown Municipal Airport is right at the edge of that zone.

The restriction lasts from 9 a.m. Saturday through 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
 

“These restrictions severely limit operations at all airports in the area, meaning no flight lessons, no skydiving, no balloon rides, and a long list of other prohibited aerial activities,” wrote organizer Deb Penrod.

“Almost 30 public-use airports are included in this safety net, including Pottstown Municipal Airport,” wrote Penrod.

“The TFR was fully anticipated by local pilots, although the extended duration may have been a bit surprising,” she wrote.

Rather than try to change the date, “the organizers elected to hold Municipal Airport Day on its traditional date, which has been the last Saturday in September for several years,” according to Penrod.

“There are several other aviation events at this time of year which occupy the pilots who participate, and there have also been quite a few other Pottstown-area events that tied up local volunteers and energies,” she said by way of explaining the decision.

Airplanes will still be available for up-close and personal inspections, pilots and student pilots will still be available.

“So what do you call an Airport Day with no airplanes in the air?” Penrod asked.

“Call it a good day for free hot dogs before or after you visit the many other events that day in the Pottstown area,” she said, noting that the Can-Jam at Sly Fox Brewery “will be right around the corner.”

Source:  http://www.pottsmerc.com