16g Seats save lives, All abroad are alive!!
This is an excerpt from an FAA fact sheet:
16G seats: In 1988, the FAA issued regulations requiring that all newly developed transport aircraft use “16g” seats. Using a test dummy, these seats undergo dynamic testing and evaluation regarding injury protection. Similar to automobile crash tests, the FAA tests are designed specifically for the aviation environment. Previously, seats were designed and approved to a static 9g standard with no occupant injury criteria. Most transport airplanes were developed before 1988. However, Amendment 121-315, effective October 27, 2005, required that transport category airplanes in part 121 operations, certificated after January 1, 1958 and manufactured on or after October 27, 2009, must comply with the 16g dynamic standard.
We have been recommending that all of our clients update to 16g seats even if they are not required. We believe the extra expense is worthwhile for the enhanced safety of the passengers.
Ivan Klugman
Aviation: Legal v Safe
Those of us on the line side of flying or maintenance always here the following words from crew scheduling, maintenance control and our chief pilots. “It’s Legal” my response has always been but is it “safe”.
Let’s take a look a the formal definitions of the terms courtesy of Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
Legal: of or relating to law a: deriving authority from b: having a formal status derived from law often without a basis in actual fact c: established by law3: conforming to or permitted by law or established rules 4: recognized or made effective by a court of law as distinguished from a court of equity 5: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the profession of law or of one of its members 6: created by the constructions of the law.Safe: free from harm or risk: 2 a: secure from threat of danger, harm, or loss b: successful at getting to a base in baseball without being put out 3: affording safety or security from danger, risk, or difficulty 4 obsolete of mental or moral faculties: healtly, sound 5a: not threatening danger: harmless b: unlikely to produce controversy or contradiction 6 a: not likely to take risks: cautious b : trustworthy, reliable.
I don’t know about you but I certainly would want to fly in an aircraft and with a pilot that is safe.
Let’s discuss a common example of legal v Safe. Please feel free to share your own.
A reserves pilot wakes up at 7 am local time in NY even though his call window does not start till 8pm that night. At 1145 pm crew scheduling call and assigns him a trip (2man) to Europe at 2am. The flight will land in Europe at 11am NY time. The reserve pilot will be up 26 hours at the time of his landing in Europe. Is this legal? believe it or not yes however we all know this is not safe. Management will say that they would never ask this pilot to fly however how many times do you think a pilot can say he is too tired to fly before he is ask to go for one of those witch hunt physicals called fitness to fly. Of course this pilot will not be paid for the trip.
Flight operations Management must remember actions speak louder than words
Legal is not the minimum standard to use to when running a Safe flight operation.
High Altitude Airport Problems?? solution= Aircraft Performance Group
Airliner Takeoff in Zurich
I was challenged last week by a client that wanted to fly an ultra long haul flight from a high altitude airport with a restrictive climb performance gradient. This may be all Greek to my readers so I’ll try to explain. Aircraft don’t preform as well at high altitudes as they do at sea level. The other factor was rising terrain and obstructions in the takeoff path. Under normal conditions this is not a problem but we always plan for the worst case which is loosing an engine on takeoff. The FAA publishes very rough and restrictive generic climb restrictions. These restrictions severely limit the allowable takeoff weight at these high altitude airports. For many years now airlines with large in-house engineering staff have designed and the FAA has approved alternate procedures(Aircraft Specific) to follow in the event of an engine failure on takeoff allowing them to carry more payload. A company called Aircraft Performance Group serves as the engineering team for small corporate operators allowing them to have their own procedures for these high altitude airports. APG procedures allow corporate operators to safely fly out of all airports with the piece of mind of knowing that they can safely depart even in the event of an engine failure.
APG is run by two of the nicest most accommodating people I have run across in a long time; Roger Hemphill and Mark Thelen. They have also placed a very educational video on the website that I highly recommend. APG Runway Analysis
Ivan Klugman www.inavsol.com www.privatejetconsultants.com www.headofstateaircraft.com
Capt. Klugman on CBS News commenting on Continental-Colgan Flight 3407
Sorry for the poor Quality of the video it takes some time to get the DVD from the station.
This is just one segment: there are others on YouTube