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Non-Standard Phrase Cited in Incursion
A Transportation Safety Board report released Wednesday shows how just a little slip of the tongue can potentially lead to disaster.
In the report, investigators say a little non-standard phraseology from a controller at Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport last year might have led to a medevac helicopter pulling onto a runway into the path of a cargo plane that had just landed.
The helicopter, an AW139, was holding short of the active runway. A FedEx A300 had been cleared by the tower to land on the runway but the helicopter crew was monitoring the ground frequency and didn’t hear that clearance.
At the same time another controller called the helicopter to give a revised IFR clearance and said “LF 4 Medevac, Roger, while we wait….” The TSB theorized that the helicopter crew, which was accustomed to receiving a takeoff clearance following an IFR clearance change, heard the non-standard “while we wait” as the standard phrase “line up and wait.”
The helicopter moved onto the runway just as the A300 finished its roll-out and the two aircraft came within about 240 feet of one another.
The report said such incidents are relatively rare “but their consequences can be catastrophic.”
Carbon Cub For Canada
Cubcrafters, of Yakima, Washington, has announced it will build a special version of its successful Carbon Cub for the Canadian market.
The Carbon Cub CA will feature a Canadian-built engine and all the modern updates that have made the light and powerful version of the classic Cub so popular.
The aircraft will be equipped with Titan engines built by Aerosport Power, of Kamloops, B.C. The CA version will also come with a new airfoil-shaped aileron that Cubcrafters CEO Randy Lervold said improves control harmony and response.
“Customers have said it didn’t need (the new aileron) but they can see the improvement,” he said.
There are already nine Carbon Cubs flying in Canada and the CA version is a bid to enhance that presence.
“We are underrepresented in Canada and we believe it’s a market that should be good for us,” Lervold said.
The company is offering three purchase options for Canadian customers, including a factory built experimental that gets the most in terms of payload and performance out of the design.
Cubcrafters will display at the Abbotsford International Airshow in August and Canadian Aviator will have a full feature on the aircraft in its September issue.
Bombardier Stocks Drop
Bombardier shares dipped below $2 in trading last week after some reports that another important development program is “under review.”
The company is reportedly having second thoughts about its Global 7000 and 8000 big business jets and since business jets have been a company mainstay for more than a decade the news sent a shiver through the market.
The 7000 and 8000 programs were announced in 2011 and were supposed to be delivered in 2016 (7000) and 2017. Now it’s looking like 2018 and 2019 at the earliest and has investors wondering if the reasons go deeper than just a slipped schedule.
One scenario suggests it another cash conservation measure needed to prop up what is increasingly looking like the do-or-die CSeries development program. But stock analysts say Bombardier has plenty of cash to finish CSeries and the business jet review might just be a matter of a host of new executives at Bombardier headquarters getting their feet wet.
The CSeries earned good reviews at its debut at the Paris Airshow but didn’t attract any more customers. There are currently 243 firm offers for the 110-160-seat airliners.
Liberator Engine Recovered
An engine from an RCAF Liberator bomber that crashed near Chilliwack in 1945 has been hoisted off a mountainside and will become a permanent memorial to the loss and hardship of war.
Liberator KK241 left RCAF Abbotsford on a training mission to Revelstoke and Penticton, B.C. on June 1, 1945, just 10 weeks before the end of the war. All 11 crew members, who were all RAF personnel died instantly when the plane hit Welch Mountain, about 100 feet below the summit.
The location of the wreck has been well known and memorials were erected at the site but the new memorial will be easily accessible.
It will be erected in Thompson Park, near Chilliwack. The engine will be surrounded by two plinths with the names of the servicemen who died.
“This is a chance to give them a proper memorial,” said Lt. Ron Shore, who’s overseeing the project.
As the war in Europe wound down, Allied bomber crews came to Abbotsford to train because the terrain and weather is similar to Burma, where the next focus of the war was expected.