100 AI pilots want out, 10 overseas flights hit

HINDUSTAN TIMES : Tushar Srivastava, Hindustan TimesNew Delhi, October 31, 2011

In a move that could dent national carrier Air India's operations, more than 100 of its pilots have threatened to quit, charging the management with "cheating" and taking "discriminatory decisions".

These pilots belonged to the erstwhile Air India (AI) before the merger with Indian Airlines (IA) in August 2007. The trigger for the resignation threat is the management's decision to allot half of the 64 slots for training on Boeing 787 Dreamliners to erstwhile IA pilots. This was first reported by HT last Friday.

The pilots, affiliated to the 450-member Indian Pilots Guild, said in a letter to AI chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan, "We are deeply pained by this discriminatory attitude that the management has adopted towards us vis-à-vis pilots of erstwhile IA. We are compelled to seek a no-objection certificate so that we may consider seeking employment elsewhere."

"We feel cheated by management's unfair and discriminatory decisions leading to a complete stall of our career progression," the letter said.

An AI spokesperson said talks were on with the pilots.

Oil companies hike jet fuel prices

The Economic Times : 31 Oct, 2011, 10.47PM IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: After a one-off reduction, state-owned oil companies today hiked jet fuel prices by a steep 3.8 per cent in line.

The price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or jet fuel, at Delhi's T3 airport was raised by Rs 2,845 per kilolitre (kl), or 3.8 per cent, to Rs 61,115 per kl with effect from midnight tonight, an official of Indian Oil Corp (IOC), said.

The hike comes on back of a marginally 0.5 per cent cut in rates to Rs 58,271 per kl effected from October 16.

Prior to that, the nation's largest fuel retailer, IOC, and other state retailers, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, had on October 1 and September 16 and raised jet fuel prices by 2.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively, mainly because imports had become costlier due to fall in rupee against the US dollar.

ATF in Mumbai, home to the nation's busiest airport, will cost Rs 2,950 per kl more at Rs 61,984 per kl from tomorrow as against the old price of Rs 59,021 per kl.

Jet fuel makes up for 40 per cent of an airlines' operating cost and the steep hike in prices will raise burden on the cash-strapped airlines. No immediate comment was available from airlines on the impact of the price hike on passenger fares.

ATF prices vary from airport to airport, depending on the local sales tax or VAT.

The three fuel retailers revise jet fuel prices on the 1st and 16th of every month, based on the average international price in the preceding fortnight.

Helicopters in Mumbai fly half the recommended altitude

The Economic Times : 1 Nov, 2011, 07.51AM IST, Chinmayi ShalyaChinmayi Shalya,TNN

Helicopters in Mumbai fly too close to the surface for comfort. Against a recommended altitude of 1,000 ft above the tallest building in an area (obstruction level), they fly at 500-700 ft from obstruction level and sometimes come as low as the height of the buildings.

The risk of flying low, say pilots, is that when there is total engine failure, a helicopter cannot be manoeuvred to open spots and risks crashing on populated areas. The 1,000-ft altitude, a recommendation of the International Civil Aviation Organization ( ICAO), is for allowing helicopters a better chance of being manoeuvred to open spaces like parks or even the sea to minimise casualties on the ground.

Pilots say flying altitudes are determined by air-traffic control (ATC), which follows rules set by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). AAI officials say the 1,000-ft altitude cannot be permitted for helicopters because they will then come in the flight path of aeroplanes ascending from or descending to the airport.

How then is the ICAO's recommendation followed in cities like New York and London? "There, all flight operations are under radar monitoring . But in Mumbai, non-scheduled flights (for example, helicopters) are not covered by radar. This makes it impossible to coordinate the movement of helicopters and aeroplanes at the same altitude," said an AAI official.

"In India, the ATC radar cannot track helicopter movements. Countries like the US, Australia and the UK extend radar coverage to both scheduled and non-scheduled flights. ATCs there assign flight levels to both aircraft and helicopters, depending on air traffic. It's high time that Indian aviation monitored small aircraft and helicopters both for internal security and air safety."

ICAO's 1,000-ft recommendation "was made keeping emergency situations in mind" , said a pilot. "Just because it is only a recommendation and not a mandatory rule does not mean that we ignore it. The recommendation is followed in countries around the world."

A pilot said risk was an integral part of flying a helicopter in the Mumbai of present. In the last 10 years, many buildings in the city have come up which are more than 500 ft tall, examples being Antilia (568 ft) and the Imperial "Twin" Towers (833 ft) in Tardeo. Because of this, and particularly when visibility is low, safety solely depends on the pilot's skill and knowledge of terrain. "In times of low visibility, a helicopter pilot can only guess the presence of a building or a hill. Since ATC cannot trace the helicopter on its radar, it cannot warn the pilot about the presence of an obstruction in the path," an AAI official said.

"It was not dangerous to fly so low in the city 10-15 years ago, when there were few tall buildings," said a pilot. "But now that the height limit for buildings has been relaxed to 300 metres (beyond a radius of 9 km from the airport), the obstacles are far too many.

IndiGo launches daily flight between Delhi and Kathmandu - Hindustan Times

IndiGo launches daily flight between Delhi and Kathmandu - Hindustan Times

China conducts trials of first biofuel passenger plane

The Economic Times : 28 Oct, 2011, 02.47PM IST, IANS

BEIJING: Air China conducted the first trial flight of a passenger plane powered by a mix of biofuel and traditional aviation fuel.

The Boeing 747 landed safely at Beijing Capital International Airport at 9.30 a.m. after it burned more than 10 tonnes of biofuel, reported Xinhua.

Analysts believe the successful trial indicates that biofuel will become an alternative energy option for commercial passenger flights in the near future.

After the test, Zhang Hongying, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, proclaimed that biofuel was now ready to be used for commercial flights.

Sun Li, general manager of the China National Aviation Fuel Group Corporation, a large state-owned supplier of aviation fuel, said the fuel used was a 50-50 mix.

Air China vice president He Li said the composition and the burning efficiency of the fuel had been tested as well as its impact on the engines.

The biofuel used in the trial flight was produced from the seeds of tung trees.

Shen Diancheng, a vice president of PetroChina Company Ltd., said it had taken the company 10 years to overcome the technical barriers of converting the oil extracted from the seeds to fuel that could power airplanes.

He said the trees that the seeds were harvested from were not planted on arable land but were grown on hills and wasteland.

According to him, tung trees can be grown on 800 million mu (58.3 million hectares) of barren hills in China. He said PetroChina had so far planted more than 1.2 million mu of the trees mainly in the Yunnan, Sichuan, and Jiangxi provinces.

The company is expected to supply 60,000 tonnes of aviation fuel produced from tung oil annually by 2014, according to Shen.

Biofuel is the only available alternative energy for commercial aviation, as electric, solar and nuclear power were not suitable for this purpose, Sun Li said.

Sun said that the large-scale use of biofuel might save the country's aviation industry from the shortage of crude oil.

Aviation ministry to relax eligibility criteria for DGCA

The Economic Times : 28 Oct, 2011, 05.06AM IST, Anindya UpadhyayAnindya Upadhyay,ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: The civil aviation ministry will relax the eligibility criteria for the top post at the aviation regulator after its attempts to find a suitable candidate drew a blank for the second time this year.

The ministry, which aims to overhaul sector watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) within a year, plans to kick off the exercise by raising the age limit from 56 to 58 years and reducing the work experience to attract candidates from varied backgrounds.

A senior ministry official said the relaxation in eligibility, as suggested by the UPSC, is necessary because the robust growth in aviation will entail more responsibilities for the revamped DGCA, expected to become operational by December next year. To be called the Civil Aviation Authority, the government plans to transform the DGCA into a more powerful and passengerfriendly regulator with full financial and administrative autonomy.

EK Bharat Bhushan, additional secretary and financial advisor to the ministry, currently holds additional charge of the DGCA. His tenure has been extended for a second time this year.

According a ministry's advertisement, a candidate for the post of DGCA chief is required to have 12 years of experience in aviation, including a minimum of five years in administration and finance disciplines at the senior management level. It also invited Air-Marshalllevel air force officers, but said they shouldn't be older than 56 years.

However, the aviation ministry could not find candidates meeting the requirements both in March as well as September. There is almost no government official who has been in the aviation sector for 12 years, the official said, adding that Air Marshall-level officers who are 56 years old haven't shown any interest. "They'd rather become Air Chief Marshalls."

The official said even for SNA Zaidi, the civil aviation secretary and previous DGCA chief, the eligibility criteria were reversed to five years of experience in the aviation sector and 12 years of administration skills.

Virgin Galactic Selects First Commercial Astronaut Pilot From Competition

Virgin Galactic Website

 Fifty years ago, an historic competition for the first pilots to fly into space yielded the Mercury Seven astronauts.

Today, from an intense selection process with more than 500 applicants including some of the best pilots in the world, Virgin Galactic has selected former USAF test pilot Keith Colmer as the first astronaut pilot to join the commercial spaceline’s flight team. Colmer will join Chief Pilot David Mackay to begin flight training and testing, leading to operational missions to space with Virgin Galactic’s revolutionary vehicles, WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. Additional selections will be made as the company nears commercial operations.

Colmer brings 12 years of operational, developmental and experimental aircraft test flight experience plus more than 10 years of combined military experience in USAF spacecraft operations and flying. He has logged over 5000 hours in over 90 different types of aircraft. He will report to Mackay and Vice President of Operations, Mike Moses, as Virgin Galactic prepares to undertake powered test flights, leading soon thereafter to commercial operations.

“Keith brings the kind of tremendous multi-dimensional talent and skill set that we are looking for in our astronaut pilots,” said president and CEO George Whitesides. “But equally important to us are his impeccable character and his outstanding record of high caliber performance in highly demanding environments. He sets the bar very high for others to come.”

Following completion of USAF pilot training, he served as a combat F-16 pilot in the Colorado Air National Guard, with two combat tours to Iraq. Colmer was then selected as an operational test pilot, managing various sensor and electronic warfare flight test programs for the F-16, at the Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve Command Test Center (AATC) in Tucson, Arizona.

He then became the first Air National Guard pilot ever selected to attend the USAF Test Pilot School, at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He served as Operations Officer for the 416th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB, where he led F-16, F-15 and T-38C flight test operations, specializing in high angle of attack flight test and training on the F-16. Keith then completed two classified assignments, finishing his active duty tour as a Combined Test Force Director and Squadron Commander for a classified program.

Colmer is the recipient of the Order of Daedalians Orville Wright Achievement Award, as the outstanding pilot training graduate in 1989, the Aaron C. George Award from the USAF Test Pilot School, the Lieutenant General Bobby Bond Memorial Aviator Award and the Lieutenant General Howard Leaf “Test Team of the Year Award” for the United States Air Force.

Colmer, whose aviator call sign is “Coma,” joins an elite team in Mojave, CA, where Scaled Composite’s test pilots and Mackay have been putting WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo through an exhaustive series of test flights to fully explore and quantify the performance profiles of the two revolutionary vehicles.

“This team in Mojave is second to none,” said Mackay about Scaled Composite’s test pilots. “Keith and I are indeed fortunate to have their expertise and body of work to build on as we enter the final phases of the test program and prepare to open space to all.”

“I am extremely honored to have been the first astronaut pilot selected through competition to join the team,” said Colmer. “Virgin Galactic is truly revolutionizing the way we go to space, and I am looking forward to being a part of that.”

Colmer has a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has both a Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Masters degree in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is a graduate of the USAF Undergraduate Space Training program, the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program and USAF Test Pilot School, Class 02A.