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Oct
03
2016
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Posted by Admin
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Imagine a future where helmet-mounted night vision goggles (NVGs) are replaced by light-enhancing contact lenses. While this might seem like some high-tech invention in the latest Mission Impossible movie, the idea itself isn’t fiction. Rather, researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a super-thin, graphene-based light detector that can see light wavelengths invisible to the human eye. This includes the thermal energy detected by NVGs that is amplified and rendered into human-viewable black and green/black and white images.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Training
Safety
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Sep
26
2016
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Posted by Admin
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A few months ago I was visiting a large helicopter flight school. While touring the school, I had the opportunity to sit in on a ground school class. The students were training toward their helicopter instrument rating, so the material being presented was on that topic. My initial impression was very positive. I thought: Wow, these young aviators are getting a great education in a highly standardized, quality-based training environment.
The portion of the course I was observing was covering takeoff considerations during IMC conditions and the regulatory requirements identified in Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) 91.175. All was going well ... and then I heard these words: “An instrument takeoff (ITO) is nothing more than a maximum performance takeoff into IMC.” Initially I thought I misheard the instructor, but it became quickly apparent that I had indeed heard correctly.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Career Development
Training
Safety
Regulatory
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Sep
20
2016
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Posted by Admin
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“One of my great ambitions before I die is to fly in an aircraft that is on an airline's balance sheet.”
– Sir David Tweedie at the Empire Club of Canada, 25 April 2008
With that statement, Sir David Tweedie changed the world. For nearly a decade, the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) labored to create a new set of accounting standards governing leases. In the first quarter of this year, FASB finally released Topic 842 on leases, and IASB released IFRS 16 on leases. Let’s not rewrite the hundreds of pages that have already been written about the new standards, but do note that you can find some of the best at www.elfaonline.org/Issues/Accounting/. (Look especially for articles by Bill Bosco, who has very clear explanations.) The major takeaway is that now leases have to appear on corporate balance sheets.
So why is this important to helicopters? While it's a truism that the oil industry drives the helicopter industry, it’s seldom mentioned—but just as true—that the availability of capital equally drives the helicopter industry.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Regulatory
Helicopter Sectors
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Sep
12
2016
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Posted by Admin
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Texas-based Night Flight Concepts (NFC) has impressive numbers. It has an instructor staff with 39,109 flight hours that has trained 1,443 students. It has inspected and repaired 3,391 night vision goggles, and has 300 customers worldwide. Yet, there’s also another thing at which the company excels: It creates clever acronyms to trademark its brands.
Take SOAR, for example. Sure, it’s a common aviation word, even biblical: “They will soar on wings like eagles” comes to mind. (Looks like Isaiah was in the fixed-wing camp.) However, S.O.A.R.TM is also NFC’s service that provides comprehensive airborne resources for any mission: Special Operations Aviator Resources. That’s creative naming. Don’t agree? Well, Madison Avenue types get paid big bucks to brand everything from video to bottled water, and they still deliver failures like Sony Betamax and Coor’s Rocky Mountain Spring Water. (It’s true that some beerheads compare Coor’s beer to water, but that’s just harsh!)
[Read More...]
Categories:
Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
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Sep
06
2016
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Posted by Admin
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RPMN: If you could give only one piece of advice to a new helicopter pilot, what would it be?
I see new pilots get so discouraged so quickly in their journey to fly for a living. My piece of advice would be to not listen to the naysayers. There are going to be plenty of people who are going to tell you why you can’t do something, or they will say, “Things don’t work that way.” Ignore them. Push forward, seek wise counsel, and make good decisions based on the research you’ve done. A lot of the negativity in this industry comes from a small group of people. Just stay positive!
[Read More...]
Categories:
Career Development
Human Interest
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Aug
29
2016
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Posted by Admin
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The fire started small on May Day 2016. However, the traditional May 1 holiday soon turned—and burned—into a distress call. Unfortunately, the winds were too high and the ground too dry. Within hours, more and more acres were devoured by flames with red-hot embers blowing ahead of the leading edge. In time, the fast moving fire grew too hot for firefighters to approach. So intense was its temperature that it even began creating its own heat lightning. Eventually, emergency personnel had another name for the Fort McMurray wildfire: The Beast.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Helicopter Sectors
Human Interest
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Aug
29
2016
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Posted by Admin
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The United States Helicopter Safety Team is offering a supportive voice to recent changes made by the Federal Aviation Administration in its Practical Test Standards (PTS) for helicopter instructors. (https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/test_standards/media/FAA-S-8081-7B.pdf)
“The revision provides examiners a path to mitigate some risks associated with the Flight Instructor PTS requirements to demonstrate proficiency in the touchdown portion of an autorotation,” explains Raj Helweg, USHST industry co-chairman and chief pilot of Air Methods. “If a CFI applicant has proven competence with this touchdown portion of an autorotation prior to the evaluation, these revised test standards offer flexibility and a greater margin of safety by eliminating the requirement to repeat these maneuvers during the practical test.”
[Read More...]
Categories:
Safety
Training
Regulatory
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Aug
22
2016
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Posted by Admin
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“I was oil field trash.” When an interview starts with a quote like that, good stories are in store. However, Mike Stanberry, the president, CEO, and sole owner of Metro Aviation headquartered in Shreveport, Louisiana, is much more than just a storyteller. Rather, he has seized opportunities throughout an eventful career to create one of the rotorcraft industry’s premier companies. When President Obama implies that owners didn’t build their businesses, you get the distinct impression that Stanberry would reply, “Yes, Mr. President, we did.”
[Read More...]
Categories:
Company Profiles
Human Interest
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Aug
15
2016
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Posted by Admin
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I have just finished a day's contract flying and am now driving back home on a four-hour trip. I’m a little fatigued, but mostly just bored. I need new energy in the car. Fortunately, I have a phone interview scheduled to begin now with Don Wharton, REACH Air Medical Service’s director of business development. With both cruise control and phone speaker on, I start my phone's voice recorder and make the call. Wharton answers and his enthusiasm immediately comes flooding into my car—goodbye boredom!
I ask him, "In your own words, what's the Reach mission?" Without hesitation, Wharton replies, "Right across the ranks, it's our obsessive focus on safe and efficient transportation of our patients and always doing right by them in every situation. Depending on the situation, sometimes we substitute the word 'patient' with community, partner, or customer, but we are committed to the high-road process that produces the best result."
[Read More...]
Categories:
Company Profiles
Helicopter Sectors
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Aug
08
2016
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Posted by Admin
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Decision-making is a frequent occurrence in our daily lives. As aviation professionals, the choices that we make can certainly have critical implications on the outcome of a flight or maintenance activity. When selecting between several options or different courses of actions we often do so unconsciously, without reference to the influences that might drive our decision. We often do not realize that there is underlying stimulus that can motivate our choices. Studies have shown that there is a definitive relationship between culture and decision-making strategies. We belong to what Allan Stewart describes as “high-reliability organizations.” Due to the catastrophic potential of our work, it is critical that safety culture and decision-making align to enable the best choices.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Safety