Blog Archives
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Finding Fault Can Be a Full-time Job
- Tuesday December 8, 2009There’s never been any such thing as a routine accident when a piece of ground equipment hits an aircraft. If we’re lucky enough that no one is injured, damage to the aircraft alone can quickly mount into the thousands, if not the hundreds of thousands. A belt-loader or a baggage cart hitting an engine nacelle or getting sucked into an engine can cause extensive — and expensive — damage. Damage to the fuselage or wings can also be costly to repair. Well, someone has to pay for that damage, the equipment owner, the operator or the maintainer. It used to be that the owner, operator and maintainer were one and the same, usually the airline. If an accident happened, the airline was responsible and its insurance coverage would... -
Long-Range Aircraft Spell Long-Term Impacts
- Tuesday November 24, 2009When I started in the aviation business in the 60s and 70s, aircraft range dictated intermediate stops for refueling on long haul flights. This meant aircraft from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, needed to stop in Honolulu; New York to Tel Aviv meant a stop in London or Paris; Chicago to Tokyo required a stop in Seattle or Anchorage, and so on. With all those stops, of course, there were increased revenues at those airports for fueling, ground handling of the airplanes, catering, and in terminal shops and restaurants. Now with improved technology providing more efficient aircraft with longer fuel ranges, it is fast becoming possible to connect any two points on the globe without the need for an intermediate or refueling stop. For... -
NBAA Convention: Wings of Hope for Business Aviation
- Thursday November 5, 2009While attendance was somewhat down from prior years, the mood at this year’s NBAA Convention in Orlando was decidedly upbeat. Despite the beating corporate aircraft took earlier in the year in the media, and in the mouths of politicians looking to get their faces and names in the media, most people I spoke with were optimistic that the economic tide was turning for business aircraft. A number of companies announced an expansion of their air charter operations, which is, of course, good news for FBOs and ultimately ground equipment suppliers. I spoke with equipment manufacturers and suppliers exhibiting at the convention who uniformly reported increased interest in their products. While that interest may not all translate into... -
Emergency Fuel Shut-off for Dummies
- Tuesday October 13, 2009It seems obvious that people working with equipment anywhere on or near the ramp should know emergency shut-off procedures for all the equipment on the ramp, including, of course, how to shut off the fuel either from the ground or the truck. My experiences working on the ramp and as an NTSB Member investigating ramp accidents have convinced me that while this may seem obvious, it bears regular repetition and training. As a Board member, I investigated a fuel truck fire at a major airport where a leak in the fueling nozzle ignited under the fueling platform. Disaster was narrowly averted only by the quick response of the airport’s crash, fire and rescue crew. The deadman’s switch had been jammed by the fueler to avoid having to... -
Airports are No Place for Demolition Derbies
- Monday September 21, 2009When I was growing up in Boston, there were a number of small racetracks where every weekend there would be demolition derbies. Owners would take their clunkers for one last fling before the junk heap. There they would race around the track trying to hit as many cars as possible to immobilize them. Big crowds would gather and cheer each crash; the harder the bang, the louder the applause. The last car running was the winner. It was great sport. Sometimes looking at equipment around the ramp, I’m reminded of those demolition derbies. Some of the baggage and service carts seem to have engaged in a pretty brutal game with those armor-plated tugs. Curbstones and even buildings are scarred and marred from violent encounters with those tugs... -
Who Gets the Credit?
- Tuesday September 8, 2009Environmental regulations are coming, sooner probably than later. This Administration is committed to it, and ground support equipment providers need to stay on top of what’s proposed and who gets the credit for what. If the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme goes into effect, as scheduled, in 2012, the U.S. aviation sector will be the first U.S. sector to feel the effects of emissions regulations. As it now stands, the EU is not going to give U.S. airlines any exemption to its regulations which would apply to flights in and out of its 27 member countries. This means that U.S. airlines will have to reduce carbon emissions by 3 percent in 2012 and 5 percent a year thereafter. With pressure on the airlines to reduce carbon... -
Tagged, You're Out of Service!
- Friday August 28, 2009How many times does it happen that someone tags equipment out-of-service and before it’s repaired, it’s back on the job? Sometimes with unpleasant consequences. Just recently I overheard a heated exchange between an airline supervisor responsible for aircraft loading and a ground equipment maintenance supervisor under contract to repair the airline’s equipment. It seems that a belt loader had been tagged with bad brakes but the airline, being short on equipment, pressed it back into service. While maneuvering the belt loader into position, the bad brakes did what bad brakes sometimes do — i.e. failed — and the loader hit a baggage cart, damaging it. Fortunately, no one was injured. But now the two supervisors were... -
Things that Go Bump in the Night
- Monday August 10, 2009Mix low visibility, light rain and the dark of an early November morning with an aircraft coming from an unexpected direction and a tug driver rushing to get some late bags to Delta, and what do you get? The perfect combination for the accident that in fact happened to a Pinnacle Aircraft and a Delta tug driver at Detroit Metro Wayne Airport this past November. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries, although the aircraft sustained substantial damage. While the tug driver was thrown from the aircraft, he was very lucky to suffer only minor issues. The NTSB recently released its Preliminary Report which contains a synopsis of factual information regarding the flight. Interestingly, while the pilot reported his taxi lights on, the... -
Summer in the Northeast, Thoughts Turn to Deicing
- Monday July 27, 2009Flying out of Boston Logan this morning, I saw a line up of about 20 deicing trucks. It was obvious the equipment hadn’t been moved for quite some time — under-inflated tires, windows caked with soot, the usual signs that equipment left outdoors has not been used. It got me thinking of the days when I was running my FBO and had to worry about things like deicing trucks and deicing fluid. When everyone else was talking about summer vacation plans, I was busy making plans for winter. And winter in Boston can be brutal. Even though the equipment had sat unused for months, we all know that lack of use can sometimes be harder on equipment than daily use. Hard as it was to work on winter issues in the middle of the summer rush (and we... -
What's Health Care Got to Do with It?
- Tuesday July 14, 2009I can’t seem to talk to anyone in aviation these days — on the ramp or in the air — without health care coming up. It’s killing small businesses, big businesses and everyone in between. And the stress on individuals is palpable. It’s telling that most people I speak to are more worried about losing their health insurance than their jobs. (I guess jobs in aviation have always been a little shaky.) The health care legislation on the horizon is part of the reason for the anxiety. Change is always hard to accept. But can we afford not to change? I don’t know much about the pros and cons of the much-debated government option. I do know that what we have doesn’t work and has made health care unaffordable to too many of us and...
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Events
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- 06/17/13 - 06/23/13
- Paris Air Show
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Conference/Expo, Paris,
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- 06/19/13 - 06/20/13
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Conference/Expo, Shenyang,
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- 06/24/13 - 06/24/13
- Ultrasonic Testing Level 2 Training Course
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Training, Houston, TX
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- 06/25/13 - 06/27/13
- SMART Terminal Asia 2013
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Conference/Expo, Jakarta,
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- 06/29/13 - 06/29/13
- Rotors 'n Ribs Helicopter Fly-in
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Conference/Expo, Goshen, IN
