ACROSS AFRICA we see countless examples of failures to provide essential aviation safety and security services.
Perhaps the most laughable is the regular failure of the power supply to the baggage X-Ray scanners. Security checkpoint officers have been seen to be diligently pushing bags through the unpowered scanners with a stick.
There is increasing evidence that what passes for airport security checks is in fact just an elaborate theatrical performance – more designed to reassure passengers than deter any hijacker or terrorist bomb.
The whole painful drama of airport security checks began nearly fifty four years ago, when on 10 November 1972, three innovative crooks hijacked a Southern Airways DC-9 with 31 passengers and 3 crew. The drama started in Birmingham, Alabama and the novelty of dealing with the problem meant that it continued for 30 hours and 6,400 km, only ending the next evening in Havana, Cuba. The hijackers’ threat to crash the aircraft into a nuclear reactor led directly to the requirement that airline passengers be physically screened, with effect from 5 January 1973.
was that a bomb was placed in the hold by a baggage handler, or someone who had airside access.
For a while EgyptAir flight MS804 was thought to have been a bombing, but that is now generally accepted to have suffered a pilot’s iPad induced cockpit fire.
Pilot suicides are the biggest problem – and airport security checks can’t fix that. Malaysia’s Boeing 777 MH 370 is now generally accepted to be a suicide. As was the Mozambican Airlines Embraer 190 which crashed in Namibia and the Germanwings A320 which dived into the Alps.
Pilot suicides are a big problem
The need for a theatrical performance about security is that airliners are high profile targets for terrorists –and politicians. These tragedies led to calls from politicians demanding tighter airport security – and so a big show is put on.
Since then there have been amazingly few successful hijackings or terrorist attacks compared to the number of flights flown. Other than one event in the Middle East, there have been no deaths or injuries from terrorists in airliners since the 911 attacks 23 years ago. The event that we know for sure was terrorism was the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268, an A321 flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg. The finding
One of the weaknesses of the security inflicted on passengers is that they are – perhaps surprisingly –largely toothless. The ban on liquids, aerosol and gasses (LAGs) introduced in response to the 2006 plots, is a case in point. If security staff find illicit liquids that a passenger has not presented, they confiscate the containers, but still allow the passenger to fly. And despite the mild consequences, nobody has been caught trying to get liquids on board to make a bomb in over ten years.
HOW HIGH’S A HERCULES?
1994 was a bad year for South
Yemen. The countrywasstillstrugglingtoreleaseitselffrom the cloying influence of Russian Communism.
THE TATTERED ECONOMY
was just beginning to show signs of digging itself out of the mire and some of the old money which had fled the country when the Russians arrived was trickling back. One or two of the stunning multi-storey Baroque palaces in the Wadi Douan sported new paint and primitive scaffolding announced that repairs were being effected to these historic structures, some of them over six hundred years old.
A fragile breeze of optimism pervaded the scorching canyons of the Hadhramaut and suddenly the old brick-makers were back in business as the demand for their sun-dried products increased.
North and South, creating at last the Greater Yemen so often attempted before but never achieved. The fact that half the South Yemeni Army would now be based in the North, surrounded by Northern Military, escaped the Southern leaders’ notice until it was much too late. A contained skirmish around the encircled Southern forces billeted in North Yemen heralded the beginning of the North’s drive to take over the whole of South Yemen.
withdrawn his protective military mantle
Then rumblings of war began to issue from the North. The population of North Yemen was around fifteen million and there was a serious land hunger in the ancient villages which clung precariously to the rugged crags which made up so much of North Yemen’s geography. The population of South Yemen, however, was only two and a half million, although the land area was many times greater than that of the North. Inevitably the eyes of the Northerners were attracted to the vast open spaces to the South, particularly now that the Russian Bear had withdrawn his protective military mantle.
The North diverted international scrutiny from its hegemonous intentions by proposing a Union between
We were in South Yemen at the time and the Canadian oil company to whom I was contracted, decided to evacuate all non-essential personnel. Our “expat” presence effectively went from around twelve hundred down to about one hundred and twenty. Insurance premiums provided the primary motivation in getting the high-earners out before the war got under way. To give you some idea, the premium for the aircraft rose to two percent of total hull value per week.
Of course, among the evacuees were all our Senior Staff and we were left in the very capable hands of an enormous Texan called “Big Foot”, who was actually a Pipeline Supervisor.
If your salary rose above the $14,000-a-month level with this company, you moved into the “Senior Compound”, down at the Central Processing Facility,
where the security was a bit tighter and the containers full of essential supplies were kept for the siege scenario.
When the “Non-Essentials” left, Big Foot decided that the first thing to do was to make an inventory of all the supplies we had available, to see how long we could survive, cut off as we were by the war. One of the containers in the senior compound had about six locks on it and naturally became the focal point of our attentions. We finally cropped the padlocks off it and opened the doors.....Wall-to-wall Chivas Regal! We couldn’t believe our luck!
Well now, of course, nobody wanted to go home!
Luckily siege mentality governed our consumption to a certain extent, otherwise I would still be in the clinic, but, having said that, a few entertaining evenings were definitely had by all. The Canadians had sent out a French-Canadian expert to design and construct an airstrip suitable for the operation of Hercules Transport Aircraft which would provide our escape route in the event of a serious breakdown in security. He turned out to be an arrogant little fellow who was actually proud of the fact that he was the only inhabitant of the senior compound. I got the feeling that this unfortunate engineer was sent as a kind of sop to us who had stayed behind, to assuage the evacuees’ slight twinges of guilt as they scuttled away! Anyway, he was happy, since he was now the only person left on site who qualified financially for the Senior Compound. In fact even he couldn’t believe the generosity with which the company had smothered someone of his limited experience with money..... and when he asked me for advice one evening, neither could I!
“Well I was wondering if you could tell me how high a Hercules is.”
“How high?” I looked up at him in some surprise and then jokingly added, “Do you mean when it’s on the ground, or when it’s in the air.?” “Oh I’m talking about when it’s on the ground of course.” he replied, having missed my meagre attempt to bring some levity into the conversation. “Well, to be honest I’d have to look in the book.” I said,"but I suppose it must be up around forty feet to the top of the tail fin...somewhere around there, wouldn’t you say?” But this was obviously not accurate enough for our aerodrome expert. A worried look came over his face. Maybe these Frog-Canadians aren’t allowed to use feet. “Sorry,” I corrected, “I mean about twelve metres.” “Is it urgent?” I enquired.
“What got up his backside?”
“Well they want to get started on the pylons tomorrow morning, so I would really need that information first thing if you could get it to me.” Now our boffin was putting the pressure on. I suddenly got the feeling that any delay to the construction of the runway was being subtlely laid at my doorstep. “I’ll certainly see what I can do for you.” I replied “Although I can’t make any promises. What are the pylons for, anyway?”
“Excuse me, Mr. Pryor,” he started, as we relaxed over a dram of Mr. Chivas’s Regal, “Could I possibly pick your brains for a moment.”
“Of course.” I said, the relaxing influence of the Whisky encouraging me to be friendly with the guy, although I had not in fact had the pleasure of meeting him formally as yet. “If you can find any to pick. How can I help you.?”
“Oh, they’re just to carry the three-phase electricity cables over the top of the runway. It is significantly cheaper to take them over the top than to route them around the end of the runway. We thought of putting a trench across under the airfield, but we decided that it would probably not be appreciated by the crews having so much voltage running right under where the ‘planes were taking off. You know how sensitive these people can be.” For some seconds I thought I must have misheard him, then it suddenly dawned on me that this character was actually for real! He was intending to hang three-phase cables right across the middle of the flaming (very possibly, if he was allowed to go ahead!) runway! “No! No! No!” I exclaimed in disbelief.”You can’t do that!”
“Mr. Pryor,” he said, adopting a school-masterly severity, “This company is not a bottomless pit when it
comes to finance, you know. It is my responsibility to seek the cheaper option whenever possible. We could probably stretch to some of those fluorescent marker balls to make the wires more visible if you absolutely insist, but that’s about as far as they’d be prepared to go, I’m afraid”
“Then you won’t be getting many visitors at your new airport.” I said. “Nobody in his right mind would take-off or land a large aircraft under power-lines, except in a dire emergency. I have taken off from a road under some high-tension cables, but that was in a single-engined ten-seater with no passengers on board. No...I’m afraid you’re going to have to go for the expensive way this time, if you want anybody to use your airstrip, of course.” He visibly winced at the use of the word “Airstrip”. It somehow seemed to reduce him to the status of Human Being. Anyone could build an “airstrip”. “Airports” demanded the services of a “Civil Engineer” and $500-a-day was the least you could pay to get one of those elite
persons to come and work in a war zone. In fact he was very non-plussed by my attitude and expressed his displeasure by storming off to bed.
“What got up his backside?” enquired one of the Americans.
nobody wanted to go home!
“Oh, I told him he couldn’t put the power lines across the new runway. I think I just ruined his budget.” “I knew the guy wasn’t for real when I offered him a Whisky and he said he didn’t touch the stuff.” remarked the American and we went back to discussing the progress of the war.
The runway was completed on schedule and the power lines were re-routed around the Southern end of the strip, We even had one visit from a Hercules. But by this time our “Civil Engineer” had left for Canada. Maybe he’s still looking for an airport where they will let him put some power lines over the runway.
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LAURA MCDERMID
THE ARMS DEALER
Laura McDermid continues her stories about Iris McCallum’s early years in East Africa.
WHEN THE KENYAN POLICE
Air Wing could not fulfil a mission, they would charter Air Kenya. As a result I had the great fortune of discovering remote places like Garissa, Wajir, El Wak and Mandera.
El Wak was very close to the Somali Border and was famous for its fort which closely resembled Fort Zinderneuf, a fictional fort in the Sahara desert out of the novel Beau Geste. Published by P.C. Wren in 1924, it tells the story of three brothers who join the French Foreign Legion after a valuable family heirloom is stolen.
Whenever I flew to El Wak, I couldn’t help but think of Snoopy’s Legionnaire alter ego “Beau” Snoopy, the novel’s tragic hero, attempting yet another siege of Fort Zinderneuf.
Pilots at the time had a saying about El Wak which went like this: If you were only given three months to live, move to El Wak and it would seem like forever.
One of the many really interesting people that I met in the short time that I’d been flying with Air Kenya was Roger Sylvester. Roger was responsible for securing all the charters to the Ol Pejeta Ranch which had
The huge Ol Pejeta Ranch.
recently been purchased by Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi arms dealer and businessman, which marked a significant chapter in the property’s transformation.
Located in Laikipia County, near Nanyuki, on the foothills of Mount Kenya, Ol Pejeta Ranch covered around 90,000 acres. Khashoggi was one of the richest men in the world, with properties around the globe and the acquisition of Ol Pejeta was part of his growing portfolio.
one of the richest men in the world
From its early days of cattle ranching, Ol Pejeta evolved to serve multiple purposes, becoming a private playground for Khashoggi and his wealthy circle.
Khashoggi’s ownership coincided with a surge in global interest in Kenya as a premier safari destination, opening the door to the allure and romance of highend East African luxury safaris. We would often fly Khashoggi from Wilson Airport to his ranch where we would spend the day ‘hanging out’ whilst Khashoggi dealt with his business affairs.
What I learned during my tenure flying charters is that it didn’t matter if a person was ultra-rich and commanded an empire. When they boarded that plane, they relinquished control to those in charge, winding their egos in a few notches, as the altitude reminded them that, up there, power meant trust—not in wealth or status, but in the hands guiding them through the sky. Being in such close confines at 10,000 feet brought out a different side to most of my wealthy clients. They were courteous, friendly and made me feel very comfortable in their presence.
When I’d spend the day at Ol Pejeta Ranch, I would be invited to join the Khashoggi family for lunch. The meals were a feast of traditional Arabic dishes, including warm flatbreads with hummus, fresh tabbouleh, grilled halloumi, and perfectly spiced kofta. To complement this delicious spread I was always offered a glass of exquisite wine like Chateau Margaux or Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Sadly there was no drinking for us pilots on duty, but on occasion I would find a bottle waiting for me in my aircraft to be enjoyed later. And so my first taste of Château Margaux was paired with a humble dinner of boiled eggs—the only food I had in my fridge at the time.
The fort at El Wak reminiscent of the fictional Fort Zinderneuf.
French Legionnaire Beau Snoopy.
PILOTS
The Ol Pejeta airstrip sat at an elevation of 6,300 feet, composed entirely of black cotton soil—a tricky surface, especially during the rainy season. Once wet, it became as slick as ice. To keep the aircraft from sliding off the runway, we avoided using the brakes and quickly adapted to the challenge, becoming seasoned black cotton soil pilots in the process.
There was one particularly wet day when the runway was deemed too dangerous and I was grounded for the night. I hadn’t packed any overnight gear, so George—Khashoggi’s right-hand man and the ranch manager—kindly offered me a place to stay at the residence. Not wanting to appear ungrateful, I asked if he could instead arrange for me to be driven to Nanyuki, where my brother Danny’s in-laws lived. George quickly organized a driver, and before long, we were slipping and sliding our way through the mud for a bumpy 30-minute ride
Danny’s in-laws, Jane and Digby Tatham-Warter considered me part of the family and I had in turn ‘adopted’ them as my own in-laws.
carrying an umbrella into battle
Digby Tatham-Warter in happier times.
Wheeler Arms Dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
Major Allison Digby Tatham-Warter was a British officer known for his unconventional bravery during the Battle of Arnhem in World War II where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
Digby was a tad eccentric and was known for wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella into battle, which inspired the character in the film ‘A Bridge Too Far’, an epic historical war film directed by Richard Attenborough. During the Battle of Arnhem, Digby was injured by shrapnel, but continued to fight until they had run out of ammunition, following which they were captured.
My clothes were streaked with mud, and my typically wild bush pig curls were plastered to my head. I apologized for looking as though I’d been dragged through the bush backwards, but Jane just smiled, handed me a glass of wine, and offered me a bright pink kaftan to change into. The evening unfolded with good food, wine, laughter, and effortless conversation.
he was killed in the Falklands war
Digby was sent to St Elizabeth’s Hospital, where assisted by the Dutch Resistance, he escaped out of a window with his second-in-command, Captain Tony Frank.
Jane greeted me warmly, thrilled that I had “perfectly timed my arrival” as she was in the middle of preparing for a dinner party. Among the guests was Colonel Herbert Jones, the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment.
As it transpired, I never saw Colonel Herbert Jones again as he was killed in the Falklands war a few months later and was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.
The following morning we awoke to brilliant blue skies and George sent the driver to collect me. By the time we got back to the Ol Pejeta Ranch, the sun had dried the airstrip out and Khashoggi and I flew back to Wilson without any incident.
Jane Tatham-Warter and Iris McCallum at the Pegasus Bridge in Normandy.
AIRLINE CEO INSIGHTS: BURNING ISSUES
At the recent Airlines Association of
Southern Africa
annual conference, Guy Leitch took the opportunity to canvass the various regional airline C-suite executives about what the burning issues are that their particular airlines face.
THE CURRENT CEO of Air Zimbabwe, Edmund Makona, likes to quote a previous IATA Director General, Tony Tyler, as saying that the natural state of the airline industry is one of crisis, interrupted by brief moments of stability and calmness. Being in a perpetual state of crisis implies that there must be burning issues.
Makona references IATA’s finding that collectively, African airlines are making just 90 US cents profit per ticket sold. And importantly, this 90 cents is almost entirely being made by just two airlines – Ethiopian and FlySafair. This means that almost every other airline is making losses. So for Makona the burning issues remain the excessive charges, taxes and levies imposed on African airlines.
“The challenge is that we must be as efficient as other companies if we are to cover the costs of aircraft lease, maintenance and fuel. The burning issue then is that we must become competitive, which means that we are going to have to learn to be innovative, and in particular, to share routes and resources. In so doing, we can share costs and technology, so we don’t have to be one airline trying to cover all the routes everywhere.”
we need to hold the regulators accountable
When airlines fail because they are not sustainable, Makona says, “All the benefits of aviation are lost to the broader economy. While there are other modes of transportation, aviation is the one that most quickly creates [essential commerce and transport] links to other countries.
Makona concludes, “We need to fix ourselves and not be the victims of things like the Cape Town Convention. There’s an old saying that when an egg is broken from the outside life dies, but when an egg is broken from the inside, that’s when life starts.”
For FlySafair CEO Elmar, his burning issue is, “I would like to see a considered attempt to reduce the amount of regulation. We need deregulation so that the costs can come down, especially amongst the providers of fuel and services. We put too little trust in the free market to sort things out.”
Conradie says, “Success comes from embracing competition to provide efficiencies and a better product. There are things that we can control, and things that we cannot control in terms of the markets we serve.’
For Conradie a specific burning issue is that, “There is a shortage of [seat supply] capacity. This may seem strange to say after the surplus capacity of last year. But this lack of capacity is easy to fix. As an industry, I think that there is much that we can do. They are not difficult things, but very fundamental things that we can achieve in each service provider.”
Conradie quotes the example of the famous British cycling team coach, Dave Brailsford, who developed the practice of achieving marginal gains to make his team champions. Conradie says that Brailsford’s philosophy is, “You can use small improvements to get 1 percent better every day and find success.”
Brailsford called it the aggregate of marginal gains. He broke down cycling into its component parts and said that if you can improve each of those components by just 1% you will transform the performance.
Applying the 1% principle, Conradie says, “For example, a burning issue would be to improve regulator performance so that we can get Foreign Operator Permits (FOPs) approved 1% faster or Certificate of
Air Worthiness (CofA), approved 1% faster. And if we can get people through immigration just 1% faster, then the gains that we will see as an industry will be way more than that. So my plea is for everyone to just get back to doing the fundamentals better.”
Conradie concludes by saying, “We need to sit down with the regulators and put the burning issues on the table and get them to work with us, rather than against us. We need to workshop the issue so we can prioritise the key issues. And then hold them accountable to these issues.”
Air Zimbabwe's latest CEO, Edmund Makona.
FlySafair's CEO Elmar Conradie.
AMERICAN RECCE
In the late 1980’s I went to America to have a look around with a view to possible relocation, and while there acquire an FAA ATP licence.
APART FROM MY RETURN ticket to the US, I also bought a Delta Pass in Johannesburg which allowed non-US passport holders to fly within the continental USA for a month without further payment.
Arriving in New York, I spent a couple of days acclimatising then flew on the Delta Pass to Miami. I took a taxi to Sunny Isles, north of Miami, and reasonably close to Opa Locka airfield.
The driver asked me where I was from. “South Africa,” I replied.
He laughed and said, “That President Botha in your country is one tough mother. He whipped the Cubans, and now he’s keeping everyone else in line too. He should be here in Florida running Dade County.”I booked into a budget, but comfortable, beachside hotel.
Jeffery fondly imagined himself flying Twin Otters in the Bahamas.
Next day I took a cab to Tursair at Opa Locka airfield, a drab grey place surrounded by low cost houses.
There I took the intense four day lectures – and passed the exam. This was followed by a further intense four one-and-a-half-hour IF sessions in a well-used Beechcraft Travel Air, which is like a four-seat Baron with two 180 HP engines. It was a responsive machine with just two on board and adequate for twin engine training as the lightly loaded Travel Air had no problem on one at sea level.
Every day I donned the IF hood climbing through 300 feet, and we headed for a training airfield in the Everglades. Here, with one engine at zero thrust, I performed numerous single engine ILS approaches, before pushing both throttles forward to overshoot. We also did daily VOR and ADF let downs, although the British/ South African QDR and QDM nomenclature was a complete mystery to the Americans.
This system was devised by the British for Morse code transmission. The Q stands for Question, and the next two letters are the body of the question. Thus, QDM stands for: ‘What is my Magnetic bearing to your station?’
After flying consecutive approaches for four days, I was deemed ready to be tested by an FAA designated examiner. So, on the fifth day I flew a 1,9-hour check ride with the FAA guy to nearby Fort Lauderdale for our IF approaches, which worked out fine after having to scrabble for the new instrument frequencies. We flew a simulated engine out after Takeoff, then a single engine landing along with a flapless landing, then a short takeoff and landing along with general aircraft handling abilities, including flying the appropriate entry procedures into holding patterns.
The examiner seemed surprised that I carried a high speed into the ‘pattern’ (circuit) before reducing to gear and flap speeds. I told him that South African charter pilots were often asked to keep the block speed up.
After a favourable debriefing the examiner handed me a temporary FAA ATP, to be followed by a permanent one, sent to my South African address.
In the taxi back to the hotel I regretted not asking for a junior instructor to fly me around the area in an affordable C172 so I could have a look at the Florida beaches and the mysterious Everglade training strip, to see where the hell I’d been.
I now held a coveted senior licence, and while the written exam matter applying to airliners was mostly common sense, and not as difficult as the SA written ATP, the IF flying portion had been very intense. Nothing much that I learned there would be of much use to an African bush pilot.
Two days later I took a cruise ship on a three day trip in the Bahamas.
The US dollar at that time bought R2.50, so I felt I might be able to afford a small second hand fourseat plane, and perhaps a 28 foot yacht to live on in the Bahamas. I imagined myself flying Twin Otters while dodging hurricanes and so achieving an envious lifestyle.
However, the working pilots I spoke to seemed mostly overworked and disgruntled, and many of the aircraft in commercial service had very high times and cycles.
On my second day I fell in with a jovial yachtie. He showed me over a friend’s 30 foot sloop, which looked pretty good, until he pointed out that parts of the hull were delaminating, then pointed out several other mounting deficiencies that would cost a lot to fix.
I bought him a fish dinner, and decided I couldn’t afford a yacht if I had to pay for such expensive upkeep.
Back in Florida I used my Delta Pass to visit California. I changed planes at Dallas and boarded a B757 for the leg to John Wayne airport in Los Angeles.
estate, and that she lived in nearby Diego Beach and offered me a lift to that area.
She had a car phone, and once aboard her Porsche I phoned Jane Clements, but there was no answer. I tried a couple more times, to no avail. “Well”, she suggested, “You’d better come back to my place, and try her again later.”
not as difficult as the SA written ATP
I had an invitation to visit Jane Clements, an attractive young ex-South African pilot flying as a co-pilot on one of the major US carriers, who had an apartment at Huntington Beach.
However, after takeoff a pretty forty-something blonde sitting one seat away heard me order a Coke from the stewardess. “Where are you from?” she asked.
“South Africa,” I replied. This piqued her interest, and we fell into conversation. She said she was in real
Anyway, she had a nice apartment, and I never got to contact or speak to Jane, but spent four memorable days with the intriguing lady. She wined and dined me and showed me the sights. Then I had to fly back to Miami for an airline interview with a US carrier that my recent instructor had arranged for me.
It seemed that some US airlines could apply for a 2-year green card waiver if they employed a foreigner who met their criteria and undertook to repatriate them if things did not workout.
When the California lady dropped me back at the airport she kissed me on the lips and said; “It’s been great knowing you. I loved your company, and by the way you’re my first, Jeff. Now, I don’t want a reprise, please don’t call or write me, and if you’re ever back in the area please don’t ring my doorbell.”
JEFFERY KEMPSON
Back home at Lanseria he owned this turbo TwinCo. Image Michael Green.
I smiled and asked; “You’re not wearing a ring, but are you married?”
She smiled. “Yes, he’s a big pro-football player away visiting his mom; he’ll be back on Thursday. He’s adequate, but immature.” Then she waved and drove away, an energetic woman and an enduring memory.
On the plane to Miami I met four South African men running out of money, who used their Delta Passes for overnight flights in lieu of accommodation until they needed to return to SA. Amusingly, they carried a thick Delta timetable which also listed what on-board movies would be showing on their various flights. They were using this as a guide to select their intermediate US destinations.
who was meant to interview me had been called to their Chicago office and wouldn’t be back for a week.
So, I took in the Miami nightlife for a couple of days. Then, while sitting in a laundromat watching my clothes spin around in the machine, I asked myself what the hell I was doing there.
the FAA guy issued me with a temporary FAA ATP
Back in Joburg I was a freelance pilot at Lanseria, the number two pilot in the Progress Air pecking order, and earned enough money to afford a decent lifestyle, had a maid who did my washing, and moreover I owned a lovely, fully paid-for turbo Twin Comanche, ZS-FAP in a hangar at Lanseria. Why was I watching my clothes in a laundromat in Miami?
Back in the Miami area I booked into an affordable hotel and found out that the airline management guy
So I used the Delta Pass to New York and flew home without regrets.
IATA OFFERS DIGITAL CURRENCIES
IATA ANNOUNCED that it will offer digital currencies in the financial settlement systems it operates for the aviation industry.
IATA is offering Digital Currency settlement.
The first digital currency to be offered is the digital Renminbi, which will be available in the China Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) by the end of 2024. “China is one of the most advanced countries in the world in the
adoption of digital currency. Recognizing the trend, IATA’s China Airline Committee requested for the digital Renminbi to be included in the BSP.
IATA is also examining the potential to offer other digital currencies in its settlement systems based on the needs and requirements of the industry. “The experience gained in introducing the digital Renminbi will help IATA in onboarding other digital currencies in the future,” said Muhammad Albakri, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Financial Settlement and Distribution Services.
DENEL’S NEW SINGLE ROTOR UAV
Denel has announced the launch of a new Rotary Wing Unmanned Aerial System (RW-UAS).
THE NEW UAV is designed primarily for surveillance, through the ability to provide situational information as well as detailed object or terrain data.
RW-UAS is day and night operable and is equipped with optical sensors and an optional radar sensor. The standard observation sensors include a thermal imaging camera, high-definition colour TV camera, auto tracker, laser rangefinder and designator. The optional radar sensor offers synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imagery as well as ground moving object indicator imagery.
Capable of automatic vertical take-off and landing, the RW-UAS can operate and navigate autonomously, with 10 hours of endurance with the standard payload.
With an additional 80 kg payload, the system has a four hour endurance. Maximum take-off weight is 560 kg. It is powered by a 4-cylinder, 4-stroke turbocharged petrol or diesel motor, with a max speed of 200 km/h.
The aircraft’s flight modes include Autonomous mode, with autopilot control in accordance with a pre-planned flight plan, including auto take-off and landing. Trajectory mode makes use of autopilot, which executes route commands from the Ground Control Station (GCS). A sense and avoid capability is included, along with communications fail mode, which executes an autonomous flight to a predetermined landing point. There is also provision for engine rotor failure, which executes autorotation and an autonomous landing.
RW-UAS Denel.
AIRLINE DATA STANDARDS
In the age of big data and aircraft continuously transmitting sensitive condition and reporting data, IATA and Airbus, Embraer and Rolls-Royce have established five
key principles for access to, and the use of, Aircraft Operational Data (AOD).
THE FIVE PRINCIPLES ARE:
1. Consent: AOD can only be extracted with the airline’s written consent.
2. Transparency: Airlines have visibility of the data generated by their aircraft and how it is used.
3. Sharing: Airlines can choose the parties they share AOD with and control such sharing.
4. Accessibility: Airlines can access, analyse, and use AOD from aircraft they operate without interference.
5. Responsible Use: Airlines provide AOD to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to improve safety and, if they choose, to support aircraft reliability.
The principles apply to AOD generated by aircraft once delivered to the airline/operator, whether in flight or on the ground, and are subject to regulations and to contractual agreements between parties.
“These principles bring transparency to how AOD is used. Establishing that airlines are in control of the data generated by the aircraft they operate sets an important best practice in an area where a common understanding was needed. With this agreement, airlines, manufacturers and other interested parties will be able to
more efficiently utilize AOD to operate and manage aircraft safely, efficiently and more sustainably. We look forward to other OEMs joining the early adopters in endorsing these commitments,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.
TELL ME WHY
One of the lesser-known ‘perks’ of being a helicopter pilot is that you occasionally and unexpectedly spend extended periods of time in a car, driving from one stuck / unserviceable helicopter to another –or to relieve a crew that has exhausted a flight and duty cycle.
IT WAS DURING ONE OF THESE
impromptu road trips when I rode shotgun with a colleague, Joe, on a five-hour journey. He was happy to assume driving duties, while I was responsible for navigating and providing an uninterrupted supply of entertaining music. Naturally, I was pleased to oblige, given my self-proclaimed excellent taste in music.
Our assigned steed for this journey was a brand-new rental car of the same make and model that Joe owned. This thing was loaded with every conceivable bell and whistle, and I settled into the comfortable passenger seat with Jannie’s Road Trip Playlist at the ready.
do you lift your entire torso out of the seat to look behind you? Our luxury family sedan is equipped with convex mirrors, blind-spot monitoring system, lanechange assist, and a bunch of additional safety features with fancy acronyms.” Predictably, Joe was defiant: “It’s the way I’ve always done it…”
right to the edges of the R22’s flight envelope.
While I’m not exactly renowned for being a good passenger, I held my pose for a few hours, but eventually had to address the elephant in the room… or the elephant in the luxury medium size family sedan, in this case.
Joe was not a bad driver, but he tested the limits of my sanity by craning his neck a full 180 degrees every time he changed lanes. “Joe, no offence, but why
Joe’s response propelled us into a debate that consumed the remainder of our journey, and by the end of it, we still had not arrived at any meaningful consensus.
Many moons ago, I had the privilege of flying with Tim Tucker during one of his first visits to South Africa. For those who are not familiar with the name, Tim is the Chief Instructor for the Robinson Helicopter Company – a role that he’s occupied under one title or another since 1982. He’s been instrumental in the development of several Robinson products and the main driving force behind improving Robinson’s safety performance through pilot training. He’s won more awards and accolades than I care to count, and to say that he’s an icon in the helicopter industry would be an understatement.
Do flying instructors unknowingly pass on bad habits?
Somehow, I was assigned to conduct a dual check on Mr Tucker to assess his performance, both for insurance purposes and for his SACAA validation. At the time, I could not have accumulated more than a couple of thousand flight hours, so imagine the state of my shattered nerves when I found Tim Tucker to be the subject of my “expert” judgement.
Fortunately, Tim proved to be a gracious gentleman when I nervously asked him to teach me a few things about the R22, instead of me assessing his performance. What followed remains one of the most mind-blowing experiences of my flying career.
One remarkable exercise highlighted the autorotation capability of this little helicopter in respect of airspeed, rotor RPM and flight path. It took me weeks to fully grasp and articulate what I had witnessed. Things that I learnt during that single flight in an R22, still influence the way I consider performance and flight characteristics of every helicopter I fly. My kids would say it was epic!
one of the most mind-blowing experiences of my flying career.
Lacking any effort or stress, he showed me what the R22 was capable of during our flight on a warm spring day near Rand Airport. Without breaching any limitations, he calmly talked me through a series of manoeuvres which took us right to the edges of the R22’s flight envelope.
My experiences with both Joe and Tim left me pondering the question of why we do things in a certain way.
Joe, like many others, is reluctant to consider an alternative to the way things have always been done. Tim, on the other hand, showed me things that cannot be found in any training manual or Pilot Operating Handbook. In my own career, I’ve identified many actions in the cockpit that I could not clearly explain. If it’s not written in an SOP, checklist, Operating Manual, or any other approved guidance
HELICOPTERS
material, then why do we do it? Where do these actions come from, and how do we know they are safe?
Many pilots I’ve flown with over the years follow a cockpit-flow, instead of reading from a checklist. This is particularly prevalent in single-pilot operations in aircraft that are not too complex. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, the cracks begin to show when you challenge a pilot about why certain things are done contrary to the aircraft’s published checklist. The response is often something along the lines of: “I don’t know, it’s just what I’ve been taught”.
That is not the right answer.
Similar examples are rife in more mature and complex organisations where Operations Manuals, SOPs, and Checklists deviate from procedures originally published by the manufacturer. These deviations are approved by the authorities, so we expect that at some point a good reason for the deviation had to exist. However, when you start digging a little deeper you soon realise that the real motivating factor behind a specific procedure may have been lost in the mists of time.
Imagine flipping through a 3" thick checklist.
What are the factors that drive deviating change from a standard, manufacturer-published procedure? There may be a myriad of reasons why a private weekend-warrior in a Cessna 150 or R22 may choose to follow certain procedures. Similarly, large organisations encounter very comparable catalysts for change. Some of these include:
• Regulatory requirements
• Operating environment
• Lessons learnt from incidents and accidents
• Human factors
• Ergonomic and cockpit design
• Systems and process design
• Standardisation
• Efficiency
• Culture
• Tribal knowledge / best practice
• Personal procedures / habit
Once a procedure has been captured and incorporated into the way we do things, we should be less concerned about which of these factors initiated the change, but much more troubled about why the change or updated procedure was required in the first place. This is the problem we encounter in both our own private flying and in longestablished commercial operations.
Many of the reasons we introduced change have been lost in translation or simply forgotten. At the more informal end of the spectrum, our flow-items lack clear motivation and understanding.
Of course, questioning a procedure requires an in-depth understanding of the underlying systems, and it may just be that it’s easier simply accepting a procedure, rather than doing the legwork of actually learning and understanding your aircraft’s systems. Again, not the right answer.
Where tribal knowledge, conventional wisdom, or any other form of procedural evolution has found its way into our procedures, we should be documenting, somewhere in a little black book, a secret file, in the cloud, or the back of a cigarette pack, where these changes came from. We have a responsibility to make this a deliberate and formal process. (Okay, I guess the back of a cigarette pack may not be the optimum repository for this data.)
We often see that aircraft evolve to the next model with improved systems and equipment, but SOPs are not updated. A helicopter operator deploys its fleet of helicopters halfway across the world in a completely dissimilar role and operating environment, yet the old checklists remain. An organisation chooses to introduce a more efficient procedure, tailored to their operational needs but five years down the line, no one knows why the procedure exists. People move on, knowledge is lost, and lessons must be learnt all over again. Often at an extraordinary price.
ADVANCED DRAFT
Remember that my friend Joe, who cranes his neck in traffic, learnt the habit decades ago before modern technology made it safe and redundant to do so. Also consider Tim Tucker, who applied his extensive tribal knowledge as a founding-elder of the Robinson clan, to demonstrate how the get the most out of an R22.
Both their actions are laced with good and harmless intentions, but Joe’s craning is no longer relevant, nor required. Tim’s wisdom will be diluted over time by pilots like me who try to emulate what I had learned, but lacking context and detailed explanation.
Which of your procedures are a little fuzzy? How can we better capture the evolution of a procedure to preserve it for posterity? The answer should be obvious, but it will require effort. We have an obligation.
STARLINK QATAR
Starlink is revolutionising internet connectivity to aircraft in flight.
SPACEX’S STARLINK offers high-speed internet access from anywhere in the world. Passengers can stay connected, stream entertainment, play online games or work while flying.
Qatar Airways is the latest airline to offer in-flight connectivity by Starlink on its Boeing 777s. It’s the first carrier in the Middle East and North Africa region to offer Starlink, free of charge to all customers.
The inaugural Starlink-connected Qatar flight flew from Doha to London on 22 October 2024.
SpaceX is pushing into the in-flight connectivity (IFC) market. Starlink’s optical space lasers transmit data throughout the Starlink constellation, providing continuous service in areas far from SpaceX ground stations - providing coverage for your flights over the open ocean and in polar regions.
Starlink’s constellation contains 9,000+ lasers transmitting 10Pb+ of daily data traffic. These lasers can sustain a 100Gbps connection per link, can connect up to 3,300+ miles apart, and maintain a mesh network with 99.99% uptime.
SpaceX has previously announced in-flight deals offering its service on Hawaiian Airlines Airbus flights, Japan’s Zipair, Latvia’s airBaltic and semi-private charter airline JSX. Starlink announced that it has about 2,500 aircraft under contract.
“Starlink is fast. We get 200 Mbps to the airplanes. It is actually faster than many of the homes in North America, so you feel as like you’re at home or in the office. It is an incredibly reliable and fast product that SpaceX designed.” Says Alex Wilcox, JSX Co-Founder and CEO
Elon Musk on an inflight video calll to a Qatar flight.
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