UAV Applications and problems

I believe that Unmanned Aerial Systems, or UAS as the new popular name for the remotely flown aircraft are now called, are going to be one of the biggest advances in so many areas of the economy in the next couple of decade. I have spent a lot of time studying, learning and dreaming about what this new technology will be able to do in the near future. I have read every article I can find on them, I have attended trade shows, I have bought books on them, I have even taken a free Massive Open Online Course from Embry Riddle University on the subject. Make no mistake, the drones are coming.

Well, let me back up a little, there have been remotely controlled aircraft since the 1920's, with the technology actually coming from Tesla in the 1890's.(RCflightline,2016) The only difference is now that the technology has gotten to the point that the once small aircraft can be scaled up to something that could cause a major conflict with a manned aircraft. The response from the FAA has been quick and very heavy handed. In December of last year, they put up a website that if you were going to fly ANY unmanned aircraft between .55 lbs and 55 lbs you had to register yourself and were given a number that you had to in someway mark on your drone that you were using for personal reasons. Any aircraft that was over the 55 lbs or was going to be used for commercial purposes, had to go through the whole process to become an N-registered aircraft just like a cessna or piper airplane. (FAA 2016)I was one of the first people to sign up for this because like I said, I know that this is going to be a big thing and I want to be in on the ground floor. With signing up for the website and giving them your information, you are told repeatedly that the limitations on you are that you are not to fly above 400 ft AGL, you are not to fly within 4 miles of an airport without contacting that airport, and you can not fly the aircraft out of your line of sight. All of these requirements will most definitely make it into the final rule.

I do believe that they will find a way to bring UAS into the Airspace system, it has just become too much of a force for the FAA to ignore. The only thing stopping the sky from being darkened by so many drones flying around is the regulation. But even with strict limitations on them, you see things like one landing on the white house lawn, drones being used for photography and everything else that is prohibited but still capable of being done. When the FAA realizes that they can not keep fighting this technology, there are going to be so many problems in almost every aspect there can be. There will have to be all new privacy laws written, as well as insurance for having something happen to you or your property by a drone, and countless other problems that people haven't even thought of yet. The biggest problem is that historically we have been able to keep idiots out of the NAS, just by the fact that it is very difficult to get your pilots licence and not anybody can just fly an airplane. But with drones, anyone with $200 can buy something that weighs about 30 lbs, has a HD camera and with no training whatsoever, can start flying these things over the unsuspecting public.

The military has made drones if not the centerpiece a very big part of its strategy, the advantages behind it are that the commanders are not putting people in harms way to fight an enemy. They can also deploy a drone much faster and with a much smaller footprint than an aircraft that needs fuel, back up crew, mechanics, parts, and armaments. Not to mention the cost if a drone goes down is only a couple hundred thousand dollars, where an aircraft is hundreds of millions of dollars. As a consequence of having these cheaper and easier aircraft at their disposal, that don't put American lives at risk, we are seeing commanders more likely to deploy drones than manned aircraft. And while the UAS are more precise than the carpet bombing of World War II there is still the human element missing from making sure that it is the right time to take the shot.

There are so many jobs for people that are interested in the UAS that are available right now. I actually almost had a job with a company that did ice flow and whale counting work, almost 10 years ago. But just a quick search on Indeed.com brought up over 375 jobs, from flying, to designing to managing Unmanned systems, for companies like Northrup Grumman and Raython, which are probably mostly for militart applications, but also for aerial photography and many other jobs. And like I said, this is just the beginning, as the FAA gets their act together and makes some rules that will actually work, you are going to see so many new job opportunities open up.
http://www.indeed.com/q-Unmanned-Aerial-System-jobs.html

 RCFLlightline.com. (n.d.). History of Radio Control. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from https://rcflightline.com/rc-history/ 

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). (2016, January 22). Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Registration. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/uas/registration/

Pilot Fatigue in the Cargo Industry

Limits on flight duty hours have been around since the 1940's when aircraft first gained the ability to stay aloft for significant periods of time.(Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 2011) As airplanes get better and better at staying in the air longer and longer, the need for serious, science based rules on dealing with and preventing pilot fatigue have become more important. There were rules in place that addressed the duty times and required rest that airline pilots, but these rules, that were supposed to be the bare minimum, quickly became the norm for nearly every operator. This resulted in more fatigued pilots that made more mistakes, some with tragic consequences.

The new rules that were put together in response to the Colgan Air Crash in Buffalo in 2009. These rules improved on the previous rules by using the latest in Fatigue science and research. (FAA 2011) Some of the changes that the new rule made were that it changed the amount of available duty time depending on when the day started for the crew, their Flight Duty Period or FDP could be 9 hours up to 14 hours. (FAA 2011)
The new rules limit the amount of time that a pilot can be at the controls to 8 or 9 hours in one day, and mandates that they should have 10 hours of rest with at least 8 being available for rest. The new rules also increase the amount of time that the crew must be off in a 7 day period from 24 hours to 30 hours (FAA 2011) And lastly the rule states that pilots must be trained to be able to identify and mitigate fatigue that can degrade their abilities.

One major discrepancy that this major rule change had, was that it excluded all cargo carriers from having to comply with the new rules. The All Cargo carriers such as UPS and FEDEX are under the old rules that just required 10 hours of rest for every 14 hours on duty, with changes if the duty time ran over it was possible if the pilots were given an extended rest after the fact. (Carroll 2014) But the problem is these rules were made to be the bare minimum of rest that the pilots should get, but in the world of "always increasing Productivity" these bare minimums became the norm. I have flown 135 cargo and I can tell you that the rules were not sufficient to keep you from getting fatigued.

There are many reasons that the cargo companies are exempt from the new rules. The first and biggest being money. I remember when I was flying cargo, we talked about the new rules and I was told by a UPS rep that if they had to comply with the new rules it would cost every one of its nearly 400 domestic bases over $400,000 a year more to operate. Now I think that this number may be a bit overblown but the FAA concluded that it would cost the entire industry over $550 million to implement the new rules on cargo carriers (Carroll 2014) so this number could be close. Other reasons that could be that the Cargo carriers got out of the new rules is that there just isn't that many people that know about cargo carriers, because they work the back of the clock and don't have paying passengers that have congressmen on the airplane. 

I don't believe that cargo carriers should be exempt from the new duty rules, because of my own experience. It is a miracle that I didn't crash in the first two weeks of flying cargo, because you are just thrown into a new schedule that dictates when you need to sleep and where you will sleep, usually a cheap hotel, or crappy apartment, and that is very hard to just jump into. It took at least two weeks before I was acclimated to the schedule and was able to sleep when and where I was supposed to. And I was just flying a small single engine turboprop Caravan, not a large jet like the A300 that went down in Alabama, while I was flying cargo and after the rules came out that exempted cargo carriers. Those pilots were fatigued and even talked about how crazy it was that they weren't under the same rules, on the flight that they crashed and killed both of them! (Carroll 2014)

There would be some big changes on the landscape if the rule applied to cargo carriers, first there would be more pilot jobs because there would need to be more pilots to relieve the tired pilots. The carriers would have to be much better at scheduling crews and knowing the factors that could delay flights and cause pilots to go over duty times.   


Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). (2011). Flightcrew member duty and rest requirements(RIN 2120-AJ58). Retrieved from http://Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). (2011, December 21). final rule, flightcrew member duty and rest requirements. Retrieved from http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/rulemaking/recently_published/media/2120-AJ58-FinalRule.pdf

Carroll, J. R. (2014, March 13). UPS pilots urge more rest for cargo crews. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/13/ups-pilots-urge-more-rest-for-cargo-crews/6402615/

Third class Medical reform

The idea of third class medical reform has been pushed by different advocacy groups for as long as I have been involved in aviation, and I suspect for many years before that. The way the rules work at this exact moment is any person that wants to fly an airplane for their own enjoyment must have at least a 3rd class medical. These medical certificates can only be issued by special doctors called Airmen Medical Examiners. The aviation medical process can be quick, easy and cheap if you are younger and in good health. But if you have any medical issues, from diabetes to heart conditions to even sleep apnea, the process to get a medical certificate to fly privately can be a long, expensive and very difficult process. 

The way that the third class medical reform is changing is with the Pilots Bill of Rights 2, that if passed and implemented, will all but do away with the third class medical. The new rule will be that student pilots, people with special issuance certificates and anyone who hasn't had a medical in the past 10 years would need to get a medical exam but then would not need any other exams from an AME. (Bergqvist, 2015)Instead all a private pilot would need to do to keep flying is to complete an online course every 2 years and see any board certified doctor every 4 years and make a note in their logbook, and this will allow them to fly VFR or IFR in an airplane under 6000 lbs and up to 5 passengers below 14,000 ft. (Bergqvist, 2015)

The Pilot's Bill of Rights 2 has passed the Senate and is on its way to the House where it will be voted on and if approved, and is signed by the president it will be come law. In which case the FAA would have 180 days from the day it was signed to institute a new rule or the law would become the new rule. (Text - S.571 - 114th Congress (2015-2016) 


Like I said before there are many different alphabet groups that have been pushing hard for reform of the third class medical certificate needs. Groups like the AOPA and EAA have been on the for front, advocating for people that have a hard time with their third class medicals. One of the major good things that this will do for the industry is to bring more people into the aviation world. I remember when the Sport Pilot rule came about, it was a major victory that instead of needing a full fledged medical certificate, you could use the fact that you have your drivers licence and any restrictions that were on it as your proof that you were medically fit to fly. When I was instructing and this rule came about, I expected to see many older pilots that were getting out of flying bigger airplanes because they couldn't keep their medicals, but what I found were many younger pilots that always wanted to fly but couldn't because they had minor health problems in the past that would have either disqualified them for a medical or would have made it too hard and expensive. One of the bad things that is different from the light sport rule is having a 5999 pound airplane with 6 people in it and an older, pilot with out any medical background on them makes for much bigger headlines than a single pilot killed in a small light sport plane.

Medical reform is something that has needed to happen for some time. The fact that you seeing an AME for 10 minutes every three or five years has no way of telling you whether you are going to have a heart attack in an airplane or not. Plus the rules for what was not allowed under the third class medical were getting silly. I had a student that couldn't get a medical because of an antidepressant that he had taken 8 years before, another that had sleep apnea and a third that was on an acne medication that had to get a special issuance. So I believe that the reform is a good thing, because like I saw with the Sport Pilot rule, there are people that want to fly but are unable to get a third class medical and these people will now be able to join the ranks of pilots.


Text - S.571 - 114th Congress (2015-2016): Pilot's Bill of Rights 2 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress. (2015, December 16). Retrieved January 30, 2016, from https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/571/text

 Bergqvist, P. (2015, December 17). Senate Passes Third-Class Medical Reform | Flying Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.flyingmag.com/senate-passes-third-class-medical-reform

Pilots and Depression

On March 24th 2015, German Wings flight 9525, an Airbus 320 crashed into the alps on a flight from Barcelona, Spain to Dusseldorf, Germany, killing all 150 people aboard. In the investigation, it was found that the copilot locked the Captain out of the cockpit and then set the autopilot to 100 ft and sped the airplane up to intentionally crash the plane into the mountain. The co-pilot, 27 year old Andreas Lubitz, had lost his medical in April of 2009 because he had depression and was taking medication for it. He reapplied in July of 2009 and was denied, later that month he was granted his 1st class medical with limitations. One of the limitations was that the AME giving the exam, must contact the controlling agency to get more information, presumably about the depression. (BEA 2015)

There have been other instances of pilots with mental issues intentionally crashing airplanes, There was a Japan Airlines DC-8 in 1982 that killed 24 people, a Royal Air Maroc ATR42 in 1994 that killed 44, Silk Air 737, in 1997 that killed 104, Egypt Air 767 in 1999 that killed 217 and a LAM flight in Namibia in 2013 that killed 33 people.(BEA 2015) The one that stuck out to me was the Japan Airlines flight 350 in 1982 where the pilot,Seiji Katagiri, Switched the autopilot off on approach, pushed the nose down and put two of the DC-8's engines in reverse. Despite the co-pilots efforts the plane crashed into the water just short of the runway. In the investigation it was found that Katagiri was suffering from a schizophrenic episode at the time of the crash, and as with Lubitz there had been warning signs of mental health issues. Katagiri had been put on medical leave about a year before the crash. But was able to pass the needed tests and be reinstated to fly. (Alexander 2015)

The only screening that I know that the FAA does for mental health is to ask if you have ever been diagnosed with certain mental conditions, such as bipolar Disorder, or substance abuse, they also ask you if you are taking any medications. The whole thing rests on the fact that the consequences of getting caught lying about your conditions will be dire, loss of certificate or even possible jail time. The problem that isn't immediately apparent is the fact that if you do tell your AME about depression or that you are on medication to help with depression, your chances of getting a first class medical are pretty much out the window. From there you will not be able to fly and then you will not be able to work as a pilot and your career is essentially over, unless you can fight at great expense to your self, while of course you also are not working, then you may be reinstated, but with that black mark on your record that will come up every 6 months that you have to renew your medical. You can see how as a pilot it would be in your best interest to keep things like that to yourself, or try and find other doctors to help you with prescriptions as Lubitiz did.

I know that there can be some improvement in the process, but I just don't know where the balance is would be, because if you become tougher on people with depression or even mental issues, you will just make the people who need the help to keep from getting it, so that they could keep their jobs. 

I do not envy the FAA or the airlines in coming up with an approach that works to deal with depression or mental illness in pilots. On one hand if you are too tough and deny people with any depression a medical, you will get people to stop reporting it and stop getting the help they need, but if you are too accommodating and don't stop people from flying when they have serious mental problems then you run the risk of not only an accident but the public finding out that you allowed a pilot to fly when you knew he was mentally unstable. If I could come up with anything, I would say that the Airlines should pay for pilots to seek counseling free of charge and with the understanding that they would not be putting their jobs on the line unless there was a very strong evidence that they were a danger to themselves or passengers. That is about the only way that I see pilots that need it seeking help.  





Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile. (2015, May). BEA of the Preliminary Report on the Safety Investigation. Retrieved January 23, 2016, from http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2015/d-px150324.en/pdf/d-px150324.en.pdf

 Alexander, D. (2015, June 14). The Suicidal Pilot Who Survived. Retrieved January 23, 2016, from http://www.ozy.com/flashback/the-suicidal-pilot-who-survived/41496 

ATC Privatization

  Our current Air Traffic Control system is based on World War II technology of ground based radar systems that have to send out a signal and receive one back from the airplane. This equipment is old, outdated, and expensive to keep running. The old system depends on ground based Nav aides such as VORs and NDBs to set up routes for Air traffic. Both of those technologies have been around for more than 70 years, and as the volume of air traffic has increased, very busy airports have seen delays and choke points develop. However, even using old, outdated technology, the ATC system in the USA is the safest and most efficient system in the world, handling over 65,000 flights a day. (1)

   The touted answer has been the coming of a new satellite based Next Generation Air Traffic Control System, Next Gen. Next Gen is more than just using satellites to track aircraft. It is a completely different way of thinking about Air Traffic Control. What the Next Gen will allow pilots to do is to file for more direct routes between airports, set up approaches and descents in a more stabilized and fuel saving manner.They are able to do this through better tracking of aircraft and the fact that the controllers will have real time data of both aircraft position, altitude and speed, but also real time weather. (2)

  One of the main pushers of ATC Privatization has always been the airlines, basically they want to get their hands on the ATC process and make it either work for just them or make it so expensive to General aviation that the airlines could have the skies to themselves. Because of this big push from the airlines, GA has been firmly against Privatization. The Aircraft Owners and Pilot Association is a great pilot lobbying organization, that I am a longstanding member of, and they have in the past been very against the idea of privatization, mainly because they know that if ATC were to privatize then user fees would not be far behind.  Every time that the idea of User fees are brought up, the AOPA has been on the forefront fighting them. The Experimental Aircraft Association, is another great organization that advocates on behalf of General Aviation, and has always fought against privatization and user fees. I remember going to Oshkosh and signing petitions and walls and anything else we could to tell law makers how opposed to user fees pilots are.

 There are other countries that have privatized ATC, the one that is brought up most often is Canada, in fact the current bill is modeled after Canada's not-for-profit NavCanada. Much of Europe is also ran by private entities as well, and are funded by user fees. And they do seem to work fairly well...from the outside.       The main problem with looking at other countries ATC is just the fact that the US handles 9.6 million Airline flights a year, that is three times the next closest, China, and that doesn't even include the thousands of General Aviation flights everyday.(3) Plus, I have flown General Aviation in Europe and people fly much more unsafely, doing things like avoiding airspace, turning off transponders and not talking to ATC, all to avoid paying, what can at times be thousands of dollars in user fees.

  Right now the temporary funding bill is set to expire in March of this year, many of the details have not come out on how, where, when and how much it will cost or hurt GA(4). But it my opinion that it will be hastily rammed through the congress, probably in lame duck, if the Republicans get beat in November and then all hell will break loose after that.

 My opinion is that there is nothing that could be worse for General Aviation and really the future of avation than this idea of ATC Privatization and the User fees that are sure to come shortly after. I have seen this fight for almost 15 years now and they keep bringing it back with small tweaks and get a little bit closer. But if you want to see the death of General Aviation and I would say a 10 fold increase in the pilot shortage in the next ten years, watch what happens if they pass and implement Privatization.


1. DeGood, K. (2015, May 5). 4 Essential Questions About Air Traffic Control Privatization. Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/report/2015/05/05/112406/4-essential-questions-about-air-traffic-control-privatization/

2. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). (2014, November 21). Retrieved January 16, 2016, from https://www.transportation.gov/mission/sustainability/next-generation-air-transportation-system-nextgen

3. Bachman, J. (2015, September 11). Should the U.S. Privatize Air Traffic Control? Retrieved January 16, 2016, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-11/should-the-u-s-privatize-air-traffic-control-

4.Silk, R. (2015, October 26). Drop in number of controllers fueling debate on privatizing air traffic system: Travel Weekly. Retrieved January 15, 2016, from http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Airline-News/Drop-in-number-of-controllers-fueling-debate-on-privatizing-air-traffic-system

Introduction

Hello,
 I am John Riske, I have been around aviation my entire life. My dad was the director of cargo for Wein Air Alaska when I was born and has been involved in many different aspects of Aviation since.We always had an airplane on our little grass strip behind our house.

 I have followed those footsteps by being involved in everything from flying cargo to owning a flight school, to managing an airport to being a corporate pilot. I love just being around the characters that the aviation world tends to attract. Like I said I have been surrounded by the aviation world my entire life and now that I have kids they have been exposed to it as well. My two year old has had almost an hour of hands on stick time and my 6 month old went for his first airplane ride when he was just a few weeks old.

I am considered a senior, as this is my third attempt at a bachelors degree, this one may finally happen. I am hoping to graduate sometime next year, Depending on the way some things shake out. I do have an associates degree in Aviation Flight Technology from Jackson Community College.

The Question of what I want to be when I grow up comes around quite often, and the answer is I don't really know. I enjoyed being an airport manager, and would love to do that again at an airport the size of Ann Arbor. But I also like flying. So if I have to be specific, I would say that I would be an airport Manager of a midsize airport and have a 135 operation that allowed me to fly. Until I could get the kids out of school and then it is straight to Seaborne Airlines, based in St. Croix and that is where I will stay.

Some of the things that I am really interested in are on the syllabus already. I am very interested in learning more about the Unmanned Systems, because I believe that those are really going to take off in the next decade. I also want to follow more closely the commercial space travel. I was at Oshkosh when they brought the first White Knight and Space Ship 1 after the first civilian launch and was mesmerized by the possibility of commercial space travel.