Comments on: Maritime Buzz Job

By: Alex Kovnat

Alex Kovnat — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:11:07 +0000

On the AOPA forums, under Aviation in the News, there were two threads about the 4-engine C-130J doing aerobatics. Now its come to light (to me, at least) that an L-1011 has done something like that. One hopes that all that kinetic energy is NEVER pointed at crowds of people nor at places where people outside the airport boundaries might get hit if something goes wrong.

By: John Ritchie

John Ritchie — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:29:57 +0000

Sometimes the Buzz jobs are authorized by the system. I remember In the 1980s Atlanta Center would have it’s “Family Day” picnic on the grounds in the summer where they would have a Delta L-1011 fly by at around maybe 800 feet (it was darn low for such a big plane) and pull up into what appeared to be a chandelle. They did this several times for the crowd. It was really strange seeing the upper side of the L-1011 fuselage and wings in a steep bank from a viewpoint standing on the ground; you never get to see this profile in “normal” flight . As the ship approached at low level, you would see the full set of landing lights shining through the pine trees before you actually saw the plane. The flights were crew-only “maintenance flights” (5 digit flight ID) and the the adjacent airport 4A7 was NOTAMed for the whole thing at 1:00pm which took maybe 20 minutes total. It was a truly magnificent show, but I sometimes did wonder a bit about the safety of the whole thing.

By: Bruce Landsberg

Bruce Landsberg — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:00:03 +0000

Alex, Good points. Flags of convenience are the dirty little secret of the maritime world and the dollar is the driver. We are finallystarting to address the fatigue issue in aviation as a result of Colgan. There is still a long way to go.

This is not as big a problem for Part 91 ops because we are our own bosses and get to set the schedule. Air Safefty institute has a safety brief on fatigue that listes the hazards. http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/SB07.pdf

Thanks for yor comments .

By: Alex Kovnat

Alex Kovnat — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:03:17 +0000

The Costa Concordia disaster was partially, but not entirely, a matter of an irresponsible captain showing off. It was partially but not entirely, a matter of said captain deserting his command. Imagine an airline tragedy where yes, the captain was a jerk in flying too close to the ground but also, the flight attendants were overworked and not properly trained to deal with emergencies. According to the latest edition of Newsweek magazine, this is what happened with the Costa Concordia. The Newsweek article I’m referring to, mentioned how cruise ships are often registered under foreign flags of convenience and therefore, are not subject to U.S. admiralty laws. Since these ships are not subject to U.S. maritime laws and maritime unions, crew members often speak English with heavy accents that are hard to understand, are required to work 12-14 hour days, are not trained like they should be and get very little time off. Hence if something happens, they don’t address their responsibilities to passengers as we would like them too.

This web site is supposed to address aviation not ships, so I’ll not go any further in holding forth on the problems of the cruise ship industry. Let’s just say that with Part 121 or 135 aviation, or commuter aviation, we should ask: Are the flight crews properly trained and motivated? Are they required to fly more hours per month than is good for them? Finally: when boarding an aircraft, one should ask: Are the flight attendants trained in how to handle emergencies?

For those flying their own planes, its not only so much a matter of not “buzzing”, but also a matter of whether YOU have been working too long a day without enough sleep.