On August 5, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board held its final hearing on the Emery Worldwide Airlines DC-8 crash, which happened February 16, 2000 near Sacramento, Calfornia. Probable cause of the accident, according to the NTSB, "was a loss of pitch control resulting from the disconnection of the right elevator control tab. The disconnection was caused by the failure to properly secure and inspect the attachment bolt."

Safety Board investigators believe that maintenance errors caused the crash, yet they were unable to determine exactly when improper maintenance was done. "The maintenance errors," the NTSB stated, "occurred either during the most recent heavy maintenance ‘D’ check (November 1999) or during subsequent maintenance of the aircraft." Three crewmembers were killed in the crash.

The results of the maintenance errors were that prior to the final takeoff, the DC-8’s elevator control tab became disconnected from its pushrod, due to a bolt migrating out of the fitting, according to the NTSB. This allowed "the control tab to disengage from its pushrod and shift to a trailing-edge down position. As the aircraft accelerated during the takeoff roll, the right control tab crank fitting contacted the disconnected pushrod, thereby restricting the upward movement of the control tab’s trailing edge and leaving it in an extreme downward deflection." The DC-8’s elevator then moved fully upwards, thus forcing the aircraft’s nose down to the point where the pilots could not overcome the control forces.

The NTSB issued 15 safety recommendations to the FAA, including:

• Require all DC-8 operators to incorporate periodic elevator position indicator (EPI) calibration inspections into their maintenance programs to ensure that the EPI indications observed by pilots accurately represent the condition of the elevator.
• Require DC-8 elevator position indicators to be located and sized so that they are visible and usable for both the captain and first officer.
• Require Boeing to redesign DC-8 elevator control tab installations and require all DC-8 operators to then retrofit these installations such that pilots are able to safely operate the airplane if the control tab becomes disconnected from the pushrod.
• Require all DC-8 operators to replace all DC-8 aluminum elevator geared tab crank arms on their DC-8 airplanes with stainless steel elevator geared tab crank arms.
• Require all DC-8 operators to create or revise DC-8 work cards to ensure they specifically include a postrigging inspection of the elevator assembly, including verifying the security of elevator control tab attachments.
• Require all DC-8 operators to review their work cards related to critical flight controls, and revise them as necessary to ensure that appropriate tasks are identified as discrete tasks with individual inspection signoff requirements.
• Require all Part 121 air carrier operators to revise their task documents/work cards to describe explicitly the process to be followed in accomplishing maintenance tasks.
• Require all Part 121 air carrier operators to either: 1) provide maintenance personnel with the manufacturer’s current pertinent installation drawings, update those installation drawings as needed, and require use of those drawings during installation and/or assembly of that airplane’s components; or 2) list the illustrated parts catalog (IPC) on that operator’s operation specifications, provide maintenance personnel with up-to-date IPCs for reference, continue to update those IPCs as needed, and require maintenance personnel to use the pertinent updated IPCs during installation and/or assembly of an airplane’s components.

New Piston Technology

Both Bombardier Recreational Products and a Honda/Teledyne Continental Motors joint venture displayed new piston engines at the AirVenture show in Oshkosh in late July. Bombardier is offering 220- and 300- horsepower V6s, while Honda/TCM showed off a 225-horsepower four-cylinder powerplant.

Bombardier’s engineering team in Gunskirshen, Austria is responsible for development of the new engines. Key features include fadec-type automatic electronic control systems, liquid cooling, and reduction gearing. The engines can run on auto fuel or avgas, making them versatile and countering the much-touted advantage of diesel engines, for which kerosene-based fuels are readily available worldwide. Specific fuel consumption of the 220-horsepower normally aspirated engine is 0.420 pounds of fuel/horsepower/hour, while the turbocharged 300-horsepower engine’s sfc is 0.412 (both figures at best economy cruising conditions). The gear ratio is 3 to 1.

Both Bombardier engines will be shipped with everything needed to bolt on to the firewall, including the engine, exhaust system, turbocharger and intercooler, fuel system, coolant system, engine mounts and isolators, engine control unit, starter, two internal and two external alternators, two fuel pumps, wiring harness, ignition coils, overboost control valve, and sensors.

No preliminary pricing has been released yet. Initial deliveries should follow certification in 2005.

In March, Teledyne Continental Motors and Honda announced that they had begun a joint feasibility study "for a next-generation piston aviation engine currently in development by Honda," according to a Honda statement. The company went on to say that TCM and Honda had been testing a prototype Honda aviation engine for two years.

A June article in Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper said that Honda plans to seek FAA certification of the new engine starting later this year. The article went on to say that the engine was developed by Honda Research and Development’s motorcycle division. The engine, according to the article, has a four-cylinder, horizontally opposed configuration, electronic controls, and runs on unleaded auto gas.

Wing Aviation Up and Climbing

Like any new backyard bird house, it didn’t take long for Conroe, Texas-based Wing Aviation’s new Gulfstream maintenance facility to start filling up.

Open since last September at the Montgomery County Airport, Wing Aviation specializes in routine and heavy maintenance as well as refurbishment of Gulfstream business jets.

The company has more than 50,000 square feet of main hangar space equipped to handle all Gulfstream maintenance needs as well as an additional 24,000 square feet housing a new paint shop. Included in the main hangar are avionics and interior shops as well.

"I’d say we’ve grown along at a comfortable pace, but I’d say we’re exceeding our expectations at this point," said Frank Zimerman, Wing’s director of maintenance.

"As the facility was being built, we worked on our marketing effort and we established some pretty good local and regional contacts within the Gulfstream community," Zimerman said. "Those contacts, our continuing marketing efforts, and the reputation I think we are gaining even within our first year of operation is bringing business our way."

Wing Aviation is the brainchild of John B. Wing whose worldwide operations in power co-generation projects benefited from Wing’s use of a Gulfstream GII. Wing’s experience with maintenance on his Gulfstream convinced him there was a better way of doing things.

Wing’s son, Brian, oversees day-to-day operations at the facility, which also houses a full-service FBO.

"We didn’t start this business to stay small," Brian Wing said. "We intend to grow this business, but at a carefully coordinated pace with our goal of providing five-star service to our customers remaining clearly in focus. We’d like to see the business grow faster, but we want to ensure we’re able to maintain the high quality of service we started out with regardless of our size."

An example of that growth is that Wing Aviation has already added maintenance capability for Raytheon’s Hawker 600 through Hawker 1000 line.

"It’s a natural and logical next step for us," Zimerman said. "A lot of corporations have both large and mid-sized jets and the Hawkers are popular.

"We have technicians on staff with Hawker experience and we were able to acquire [the necessary maintenance] equipment cheap, so it was natural for our shop to expand in this direction," he added.

Zimerman said the company is expanding and continuing to gain FAA certifications for its avionics shop including acquiring additional dealerships for various vendors as well as looking for other opportunities to add additional aircraft types to the company’s repair station certificate. – By Bob Howie

NordTech Aerospace Starts Up New MRO Facility in Quebec City

Located in Quebec City, Canada, MRO startup NordTech Aerospace (www.nordtech-aerospace.com) hopes to thrive by offering MRO services that are less expensive and more efficient than airlines’ own in-house facilities. To do so, NordTech has rebuilt the Jean-Lesage International Airport facilities of defunct MRO Conifair with the latest in computer-assisted technology. Its target market are Airbus A320, Boeing 727/737/757, and McDonnell Douglas DC-9/MD80 narrowbodies.

"We have created an e-enabled MRO facility, with a goal of reducing our clients’ turnaround time by 25 to 40 percent," said Luc Filiatreault, chairman and CEO of NordTech Aerospace. Driving this ‘e-enablement’ is Avexus’s Impresa MRO software (www.avexus.com). Impresa is an MRO-specific process management suite that centrally manages the scheduling, planning, managing, and tracking of aircraft teardown, disposition, and repair cycles.

Using Avexus’s software and ruggedized IBM handheld computers—"you can drop them on the shop floor, and they keep working," Filiatreault said—NordTech technicians can respond to aircraft problems quickly. "When a technician decides that a replacement part is needed, he can order it while still inside the airplane," he explained. "The order goes directly to our database, where our inventory is scanned. If we have it, it is sent to him immediately. If not, the electronic service agreements that we’ve struck with suppliers mean that the part is ordered over the Web and dispatched to us as soon as possible."

Having just entered service with space for four narrowbody airplanes, NordTech is already planning to expand. "We want to add hangar space so that we can handle two widebodies and 12 narrowbodies at a time," Filiatreault said. Beyond NordTech’s Avexus-based equipment, Filiatreault believes that NordTech’s proximity to U.S. airports ("we’re 200 miles north of Boston"), the company’s stable workforce of former Conifair technicians, and the beauty of Quebec City will being clients to his facility.

�"Quebec City is a piece of Europe located in North America," Filiatreault said. "For customers who have to spend a few weeks at an MRO, touring the old world sights and restaurants of Quebec City sure beats sitting an airport in the middle of nowhere." – By James Careless