ATC Privatization

The main reason that GA has spoken against the privatization of ATC is because a majority of the costs for the switch will come from user based fees. This will require a new bureaucracy and can potentially decimate small businesses that depend on GA aircraft and airports. (Oldfield, 2015) Airlines, on the other hand, are mostly all for it stating "a corporation with a board of industry leaders would work faster than FAA to modernize equipment and adopt more efficient flight paths" Delta has opposed the privatization arguing that it will not decrease the traffic and could distract from current efforts to decongest. (Jansen, 2015)
New Zealand was the first to privatize in the late 1980's followed by Germany, Australia, The U.K., France and Canada. While all of those have been pretty successful, U.S. Airlines found that the Canadian method worked the best handling 50% more traffic using 25% fewer employees. (Bachman, 2015) The process of implementing this would not be a quick. The bill has already been proposed and is now waiting on the vote of congress with lobbyists fighting on both sides.
I personally do not think that privatization would be more efficient. We already have a well working system in place and I believe in not trying to fix something that isn't broken. During Thanksgiving, Delta had 92% of their flights arrive within 15 minutes of their set ETA. (Jansen, 2015) We have a much busier airspace than many of the other countries who have adopted the privatization which makes comparing their models to our numbers irrelevant. I do feel that some slight changes could be made to better it, like NextGen but to change the entire process I think would be foolish.



Bachman, J. (2015, September 11). Should the U.S. Privatize Air Traffic Control? Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-11/should-the-u-s-privatize-air-traffic-control-

Jansen, B. (2015, December 2). Airline executives urge privatization of air-traffic control. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/12/01/airline-executives-urge-privatization-air-traffic-control/76604766/

Oldfield, R. (2015, December 4). Stop the Movement to Privatize ATC. Retrieved from http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/mailbag/stop-the-movement-to-privatize-air-traffic-control/article_0e6c72ca-1c18-5826-902e-f9f06d46fb0a.html

GA Medical Reform

The current agenda for the GA medical reform is to remove the need to renew pilots' third class medicals. This is an amendment to the Pilots' Bill of Rights 2 and was proposed by Joe Manchin and John Boozman. In doing this, anyone who has had their third class medical in the last 10 years will never have to get another when and those who have not had one will only need to go once. The only time you will need another is if a specific health condition occurs. Aside from that, the pilot will be required to see their own personal doctor every 4 years to make a note in their log book. (Tennyson, 2015)
This reform is currently a bill. It first needs to get voted through the committee, then similar versions will pass on to the Senate and the House to be discussed and voted on. As of November 18, there are 69 cosponsors in the Senate and 150 in the House. (Tennyson, 2015) The differences of the two will then need to be worked out and agreed upon before it makes its way to the president.
I think the biggest positive outcome from this bill being passed is that it can open the skies back up to pilots who were previously grounded and will help keep general aviation in motion. It will also be nice to not have to find an AME, as they are not found everywhere (I had to drive at least an hour away). Obviously the biggest downside of this would be the safety aspect. Someone may not have one of the specific health condition to have to go to the AME, but could still not be able to pass a medical anymore and they still continue to fly.
I personally do not think that the medical reform is necessary, it isn't that bad having to go in and get a medical. However it would be nice to save a little time and money and it would help continue the growth of the industry.


Tennyson, E. (2015, November 28). Closer than ever. Retrieved from http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2015/November/18/Closer-than-ever

COMAC Competition?

I do not think that the C919 will receive FAA certification. While China is a major production country, most of the items that say "made in china" have a short life and come with a number of warnings. They are more quantity over quality. It also does not help that they already have a failed attempt to certify an aircraft, the ARJ-21, under their belt. For arguments sake, if the C919 did receive the certification, I do not think it would pose many problems for the U.S. carriers. In regards to the public perception, I feel that a majority of the people will not want to fly in an aircraft made in China because as I said above, the quality of their products is not that great. In terms of aircraft purchases, the only real upside is that the cost would be cheaper. However, the U.S. carriers needs to keep in mind the public perception and the possibility of losing passengers because they are flying a Chinese plane.
COMAC is the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China. They are a state owned limited liability company and were formed with the approval of the State Council along with six other corporations. (COMAC, 2015) The Chinese Government supports COMAC, they offer funding and the day the plane was pulled out, there were nearly 4,000 government officials in attendance. If they succeed it will only bring them in more money and what businessman doesn't want money. The airlines also back up COMAC, as they already have orders for around 500 aircraft, mostly from the Chinese carriers. (Newser, 2015) There are plans for a new plane, C929, which is similar to the 919 but a twin aisle and this is a joint effort with Russia. (Leeham, 2015)
Even if this aircraft received FAA certification, it is going to be quite a while before we can consider them a competitor with Boeing or Airbus, let alone any other company of no significance.
The response of Boeing and Airbus was to re-engine their planes, taking away the economic advantage from COMAC. (Leeham, 2015)


COMAC. (2015). Introduction. Retrieved from http://english.comac.cc/aboutus/introduction/

Leeham News and Comment. (2015, November 3). No fear of C919 for a generation. Retrieved from http://leehamnews.com/2015/11/04/no-fear-of-c919-for-a-generation/

Newser. (2015, November 2). China Just Rolled Out Its Answer to the Boeing 737. Retrieved from http://www.newser.com/story/215397/this-is-chinas-answer-to-boeing.html

Aviation Organizations

Joining aviation organizations is beneficial because they give you the opportunity to meet others who share the same interests and goals. Also, creating these relationships with other professionals can potentially open doors into other careers. A couple of important ones are AOPA, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, ALPA, Air Line Pilots Association and WIA, Women in Aviation.

The mission of AOPA is to protect our freedom to fly by

advocating on behalf of our members,

educating pilots, nonpilots, and policy makers alike,

supporting activities that ensure the long-term health of General Aviation,

fighting to keep General Aviation accessible to all, and

securing sufficient resources to ensure our success. (AOPA, n.d.)

They offer many services such as information centers, flight planning tools, insurance/ financing options and even keep you in the loop of current events in the industry with their monthly magazine. They offer courses to promote safety and keep your skill levels up to par.

ALPA's mission is to
"promote and champion all aspects of aviation safety throughout all segments of the aviation community; to represent, in both specific and general respects, the collective interests of all pilots in commercial aviation; to assist in collective bargaining activities on behalf of all pilots represented by the Association; to promote the health and welfare of the members of the Association before all governmental agencies; to be a strong, forceful advocate of the airline piloting profession, through all forms of media, and with the public at large; and to be the ultimate guardian and defender of the rights and privileges of the professional pilots who are members of the Association." (ALPA, n.d.)
The three critical services they offer are airline safety and security, representation and advocacy. They assist the NTSB in investigations and public hearings, they help maintain salary, benefits and working conditions and they also represent pilot views and promote legislation in favor of the union members.

WIA is a nonprofit organization that promotes the advancement of women in all aviation careers. In contradiction to their name, their help also extends to men in terms of offering scholarships and conferences and seminars. They also publish a monthly newsletter. (WIA, n.d.)

Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2015, from http://www.aopa.org/

 

Women in Aviation, International Official Site. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2015, from  https://www.wai.org/

 

Air Line Pilots Association. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2015, from https://www.alpa.org

 

Cargo Industry Exempt from Flight/Duty Changes

After the Colgan Air accident, new flight regulations came about partially due to the lobbying of family members of the victims on board. The major area of change is dealing with fatigue. For flight and duty requirements, the new rule incorporates the time of day the pilot has their first flight, the number of scheduled legs and the number of time zones they cross, whereas the old rule had different rest requirements based on the type of flight and did not even recognize those factors. There is an FAA flight time limit of 8 or 9 hours depending on the start time of the duty period and now, instead of the minimum 8 hour rest period, it is 10 hour minimum rest period with an opportunity for 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Also, it is required that pilots have a minimum of 30 consecutive hours duty free on a weekly basis, which is a 25 percent increase of the old rule. Another good thing to come out of this is pilot affirmation of fitness for duty. If a pilot states that they are feeling fatigued or unfit to fly, the airline must remove that pilot immediately. (Duquette, 2011)

Cargo pilots were originally included when the new regulations were proposed, but the White House had the agency remove them. So the cargo carriers still operate under the old rules of 250 hours and a commercial license. James Fraser, the FAA’s chief air surgeon stated that “the aviation professionals at the FAA understand that there is no difference between pilots who fly cargo and pilots who carry passengers, other than the fact that cargo carriers' management complained that increased rest for pilots would cost too much.” (Hall, Goelz, 2014) So I firmly believe that they were excluded because of financial reasons. I think that they should be included in the new rules because those pilots have the same susceptibility to fatigue as passenger pilots. In 2013 a UPS cargo plane crashed in Birmingham, AL, killing 2 crew members and the NTSB blamed fatigue for the crash. The cockpit voice recorder got them discussing how tired they were before they took off.

The impact on my career by extending these regulations to the cargo carriers would really just be making the airspace safer. The less fatigued pilots we have out there, the better. I honestly think it is unfair to not include them because in a way it’s like saying they matter less because they can go out and fly when they are not fit to fly.

Hall, J., & Goelz, P. (2014, September 11). Cargo pilot hours should be regulated, too: Column. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/09/11/cargo-pilot-airline-safety-fatigue-regulations-commercial-column/15474061/

Duquette, A. (2011, December 21). Press Release – FAA Issues Final Rule on Pilot Fatigue. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=13272

Flying Cheap

Since I entered this program, the pilot shortage is something that is continuously brought up. However, there is more than one side to this problem. The first is that there is actually no shortage of pilots but the rate of pay is the problem. A not large enough salary will make any person not want to work somewhere, even outside of the aviation community. The second side to this is that there really is a pilot shortage and the amount of people coming in does not measure up with the amount of retirees. I personally feel that it is the first of the two, and that pilots are just not wanting to fly for that amount of money. An article in AviationWeek states that while there was this glorious plan of getting through school, starting at a regional airline to accrue hours then moving up to big leagues, it just doesn’t work that way. Especially with the increasing cost of just getting through flight school, which is first handedly messing with my life, going straight into a job with such a low salary, it is nearly impossible to pay off loans or whatever money you had to borrow for school. George Perry, senior VP of AOPA Air Safety Institute, states “The entry-level pay for a regional airline first officer—in many cases $30,000 or less—contrasted with large amounts of college loan debt make the career hard to justify.” One possible solution to this would be for those regional airlines to offer scholarships or aid to students while in school with the promise that upon getting their degree, they go and work for them.

As for the hiring pool in regards of the new regulations, I can see how they may be concerned because the number of hours you need to enter one of these jobs has increased. I think maybe if they allow student hours to be counted, that might help.

Besides the other organization, ALPA, that represents the regional airlines, there is also RAA, Regional Airline Association which represents not only North American regional airlines but also management and manufacturers.

Professionalism to me is acting or behaving to the highest standards and making sure that things are done correctly and in a timely manner. One lack of professionalism that I saw in the movie would be that one of the captains falsified a record so that his aircraft would not be overweight. Another would be that the DOA backed the captain who falsified the records instead of the co-pilot who was trying to be in the first place. I definitely feel that money is a huge contributing factor. The whole idea of pilots being paid by flight completion causes unsafe flying because they will do whatever it takes to get paid. I think that two things I will do to maintain professionalism is definitely being as safe as possible. It is not just my life at risk but the lives of many others. Other than that just making sure I am mature and communicating well with others.

 

Tallman, J. (2015, May 5). Pilot shortage: Yes or no? Retrieved from http://www.aopa.org/News-and-Video/All-News/2015/May/05/osu-pilot-supply-conference

http://aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/coming-us-pilot-shortage-real

UAVs

The use of UAVs is growing steadily not only in the military setting but also on the civilian side. A national geographic article gives five areas in which their use has already excelled. These include hurricane hunting; using large drones to "spy" on the storms improving predictions, 3D mapping; using smaller drones for land surveying, protecting wildlife; monitoring populations, deforestation and helping the fight against poaching, farming; monitoring fields and growth analysis and application of pesticides, water and fertilizers and lastly search and rescue; covering large areas of non-accessible land faster and through the night. (Handwerk, 2013) There has also been talk of using drones for Amazon deliveries. UAVs are regulated by the FAA and are not supposed to fly out of the line of sight of the operator.
I think that UAVs will eventually be integrated into the NAS, however not for quite a few more years. A British Dominos pizza franchise came up with the "DomiCopter" delivering pizzas by drone. In America this is highly illegal since the operator was not in line of sight. This is just one of the problems using drones poses. Another would be an increase in air traffic causing more congestion in airspace.
In the military aspect, drones are used in numerous different ways for example: security, search and rescue, monitoring, impact and disaster management, communications and munitions. (Unmanned, n.d.) The use of these has saved many lives, allowing us to enter warfare without having any actual troops. A main downside is the cost and upon entering a war zone may be damaged and these things are not cheap.
I also found an entire website dedicated to UAS/UAV careers with plenty of job opportunities called UAS Career Center.

References

Handwerk, B. (2013, June 6). 5 Surprising Drone Uses (Besides Pizza Delivery). retrieved from
             http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130606-drone-uav-surveillance-unmanned-domicopter-flight-civilian-helicopter/
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association Welcome. (n.d.). retrieved from
             https://www.uavs.org/military
UAS Career Central. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://uascareercentral.jobboard.io/ 

Pilots and Depression

On Tuesday March 24, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525 departed from Barcelona, Spain in route to Dusseldorf, Germany. Aboard the plane was Captain Patrick Sondenheimer, Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, 4 other crew members and 144 passengers. The plane fatally crashed into the French Alps killing all 150 people on board. This crash however was not due to any mechanical malfunction but the actions of co-pilot Lubitz. Sondenheimer had left the cockpit for only a brief moment when Lubitz locked the cockpit door and began the descent into the mountain, setting the autopilot to descend to 100ft. It was noted the aircraft went from 38,000ft to 5,000ft in just 8 minutes. Sondenheimer tried numerous times to regain entry being ignored by Lubitz, and even tried to bust the door down with an axe. In the aftermath, it was found that Lubitz had been seeking help for depression, but keeping it from his employer. They even found a note from his psychiatrist stating that he was unfit to fly the day of the accident, though he never turned anything in. (Engel 2015)

A similar case to that is Mozambican Airlines flight TM470. On November 29, 2013, the aircraft left the capital Maputo for Angola but crashed, killing all 33 passengers. There was no mechanical malfunction found and the Civil Aviation Institute reported that the pilot made a "deliberate series of maneuvers" causing the accident. While it is said that the motives were unclear, Joao Abreu, head of the Civil Aviation Institute, stated that the pilot, Hermino dos Santos Fernandes, had a "clear intention" to crash the aircraft. Like the Germanwings crash, Dos Santos Fernandes locked himself in and his co-pilot out of the cockpit. "During these actions you can hear low and high-intensity alarm signals and repeated beating against the door with demands to come into the cockpit" said Abreu. (Pilot deliberately crashed 2013) He manually changed the altitude from 38,000ft to about 550ft while also changing the aircraft speed. Again, while it is unclear of his motives, it was rumored he was having marital problems due to losing a son.

Pilots must pass a physical and mental evaluation every 6 months over 40 and once a year under to be certified to fly passengers. Unfortunately, most of the emphasis is put on the physical rather than mental. They are asked to answer simple yes or no questions and at various locations. If you take the examinations not in house, previous data is not available. Sadly, most pilots will not say anything about having any issues such as depression because it can and most likely will take them out of the sky. (Park, Oaklander 2015) I feel that something needs to be done so that pilots feel more safe to express the need for help without having to worry about losing everything they have worked for. Maybe if there was an allotted time period for that person to get actual help and take whichever medicines they need to knowing that their job will be there for them when they get better. Otherwise I feel that they are admitting to having a problem only for everything to be taken away which can lead to even worse depression.


Engel, B. (2015, March 30). Here's everything we know about the crash of Germanwings flight 9525. Retrieved September 20, 2015

Park, A., & Oaklander, M. (2015, March 26). How Pilots are Screened for Depression and Suicide. Retrieved September 20, 2015.

Pilot 'deliberately crashed' Mozambique plane - BBC News. (2013, December 22). Retrieved September 20, 2015.

Personal Introduction

       My interest in aviation started when I was about 9 or 10, my uncle who was in the Marines took me to see Marine One and since then my passion has grown. I started going to as many airshows as possible and when I got older I began to actually look more into them and the different kinds. Currently I am in the aviation flight technology program and while I have finished basically all my general education courses and in school aviation classes, I still have the majority of my flying and ground school to finish. That being said, I will unfortunately not graduate on time but hopefully by December of 2016.
       As for future plans, I do not have anything set in stone yet. I have been looking into flying for the Marine Corps, mainly just using my uncle as my inspiration and I know that I would absolutely love to fly something along the lines of an F-14 or an F/A 18. That is definitely my first goal, however my second option would be something with cargo, maybe UPS or FedEx. Other than that, I think maybe when I am older I would like to just fly at a smaller, local airport doing private flights.
       Some areas that I would like to have guest speakers in are really already on the schedule, but definitely someone from the Military, preferably the Marines and also someone from UPS or FedEx. Other than that I think having someone from acrobatics would be fun, especially someone from the Blue Angels, they have always been my favorite.