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.