Saturday, January 7, 2012

Cracks found on wing ribs of Qantas and SIA A380s


Cracks have been found on the wing ribs of at least three Airbus A380s belonging to Singapore Airlines and Qantas Airways.
Both carriers said the cracks were discovered in the second quarter of 2011, and that they have been repaired and posed no danger to flight safety.
The carriers' comments come a day after Airbus said "very small cracks" have been found on some "non-critical wing rib-skin attachments on a limited number of A380 aircraft".
Singapore Airlines said the cracks were first discovered during an A380 inspection last year.
"These pose no safety issue and repairs were carried out on the aircraft. Repairs were subsequently carried out on a second aircraft," said an SIA spokesman.
He added that the relevant authorities have been informed and checks and repairs will be done on other A380s as the aircraft undergo routine C checks. Both affected aircraft are back in operation.
Qantas meanwhile said that "minuscule cracking" was found on the wing ribs of the A380 that suffered an uncontained engine failure in November 2010. This aircraft is still in Singapore, where it made an emergency landing after the incident, and Qantas hopes it will return to service in March.
"Investigations have found that the cracking is unrelated to the engine failure incident experienced by this aircraft in November 2010 and is not unique to Qantas. It has now been repaired," said a Qantas Spokesman.
Airbus said that it has since developed an inspection and repair procedure which will be done during routine, scheduled four year maintenance checks for the A380s. It has informed all A380 operators and the European airworthiness authority is aware of the issue and has accepeted its recovery approach, said a spokesman.
"This is not a safety issue and aircraft performance is not affected. Any fix, if necessary, can be done during regular maintenance," Airbus added.

Information Obtained : FlightGlobal.com

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Friday, May 6, 2011

International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)
  1. On 4th April 1947, all members who participated in the Chicago convention of 1944, gathered in Montreal Canada to administrate the agreement made in the Chicago Convention.
  2. A common standardise civil aviation regulations and requirements was made up by all the participating member countries whose aircraft flying on International routes.
  3. The regulations and requirements are only applicable to civil aircraft.
  4. It was also established no Civil Aircraft shall fly over another country unless prior authorisation or permission is granted.
  5. It was also established that when aircraft flies on International route, due to regards to safety of Air Navigation must be considered. 

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The Chicago Convention of 1944
  1. A meeting was called in Chicago (USA) in 1944, to standardise Civil Aviation policy and  procedure.
  2. The meeting was made up of members of various countries who has civil aircraft flying on International route.
  3. A common policy and procedure was discussed to standardise civil aviation and these were:

·         Standardise International Air Navigational (Flying)
·         Standardise International Air Transport (Airport & other services)
·         Standardise Technical Standards and recommended practices (Repair & Maintenance)
·         Standardise the management system on manpower, material, machine/equipment, method laws & money.

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History of Aircraft Flight
  1. The Wright brothers flew the first aircraft successfully on 17 Dec 1903.
  2. Aeroplanes were built by various countries (USA, Russia, UK, France, German) but these were state aircrafts.
  3. As aeronautics improved, various countries started to build civil aircrafts.
  4. These aircrafts flew within their country and was governed by the law of the respective country
  5. On 25 August 1919, the first commercial aircraft took off from London to Paris, and this started the First International Aviation Flight.
  6. As civil aviation progressed, more countries started international flights, as this caused air congestion, and air accident.
  7. To resolve air congestion and air accident, the Chicago convention was formed to standardise Civil Aviation for civil aircraft flying on International routes.

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What is a Civil and State aircraft?


1.Civil category:

Transport category aircraft
-          Passenger aircraft - these aircrafts carries paid passengers and their personal baggages.
-          Cargo aircraft        ­ - the aircrafts are only used for carrying paid cargo.

Aerial category aircraft
-          These aircraft SHALL not carry any passengers or cargo.
-          These aircraft is to be used for the following purpose:
·         Crop spraying (Agriculture)
·         Search and rescue
·         Fire fighting
·         Aerial photography
·         Cloud seeding
·         Para trooping or static drop or free fall
·         Constructions
·         Surveying
·         Observation and patrol
·         Aerial advertisement

Private category aircraft
-          Aircrafts used by individual people or a group of people for own use or pleasure.

Special category aircraft
-          These aircrafts are used for demonstration flights, with the view of sale
-          Aircraft being used for charter flights are also classified under this
-          Aircraft flying for maintenance repair or modification
-          Aircraft on flight test

2.State category:
-          State aircrafts are government owned aircrafts and are used in
·         Military
·         Police
·         Customs
-          The aircrafts do not come under DCA Malaysia but it has the respective Ministry of Defense or Ministry of Home Affairs.                                           

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