Papa-Bravo Aviation

26/03/2020

The final AAIB report into the Piper PA-46 Malibu light aircraft transporting Argentine football player Emiliano Sala crashed in the English Channel off Alderney, Channel Islands has been published.

It makes the usual reading of a catalogue of issues that lead to the demise of the passenger and pilot.

The unfolding horror of the timeline and the ultimate loss of control resulting to inflight break up makes grim reading.

As all the witnesses to the events are dead its difficult to work out quite which part of the series of errors and misjudments was the final part of the chain we'll never know.

https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aircraft-accident-report-aar-1-2020-piper-pa-46-310p-malibu-n264db-21-january-2019

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51831150

Given the complexity of the 'hrey charter market' and the deliberate obscuration by the parties involved it was probably inevitable that the manslaughter charges would be dropped.

The CAA investigation continues so we'll have to see what that brings..

04/02/2020

We were wondering when/if any prosecutions are going to arise from the Emiliano Sala plane crash incident? The BBC did an interesting piece on non compliant AOC operators as a follow up..I suspect some operators kept their heads down at that point!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47626855

The alledged operator of the aircraft was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9342313/emiliano-sala-crash-pilot-goes-into-hiding/

Time will tell!

Several flights before the fatal crash which killed Cardiff City striker Emiliano Sala are under the spotlight.

31/01/2020

Papa-Bravo Aviation is pleased to have helped the Arab Civil Aviation Organisation by co-running a Cyber Security Aviation course in Morocco in November 2019 with one of our partners...

31/01/2020

A profoundly sad day for those that believe in the wider concepts and values of a broader European vision...for many of the 49 million living in the UK that did not / could not vote, especially the people under 18, they will be denied some of the opportunities that participation in the EU gave. 😢

On a professional level I only hope that common sense prevails and the UK remains part of EASA. Although the journey from National Regulator through JAA through to EASA has not always helped GA in particular the irony is that, contrary to popular myth, the regulatory envionment now is more transparent and no longer at the whim of an entity that was police/judge/jury...

We will have to see..

For those of us who bought into EASA the concepts and practice of almost effortlessly operating accross Europe was fantastic compared to the issues moving /operating across almost all other countries.

16/01/2020

Well, another shootdown of yet another innocent crew and passengers, this time by an Iranian Tor missile system..although this Russian anti UAV/aircraft system has a high 'kill' probability, the issue, AFAIK, is that this version was not fitted with IFF (Identify Friend or Foe).

Compounding this, although very ';effective' it is only a short range system, designed as a 'knee jerk' system, ie a plane comes screaming overhead at low level and you fire and forget.

The Iranian Operator has precious little time to think, apparently no data to identify the aircraft and limited range in which to launch..so he just pressed the button!

Interestingly some Chinese variants do have IFF fitted!

23/12/2019

Best wishes to all our FaceBook visitors...been a very busy year..hopefully we will be posting more frequently in 2020...stay sharp..stay safe!

24/05/2019

Met up with John Crosby of Crosby Aviation with whom we collaborated on the development of the after market retrofit of the 155 bhp Centurion/Continental to the Diamond DA42...they hold FAA and EASA STCs for this..transforms the aircraft in terms of take off and climb performance plus a healthy increase in cruise speed..

16/03/2019

One of Northern England's great 'entrepreneurs' aka cowboy finally got his dues.

Murgatroyd had been associated with other aircraft that had crashed, had run up huge debts for other to resolve and had a habit of selling shares in the same aircraft multiple times over.

On a sliding scale, one of the more dodgy cowboys, however we are still faced with an industry where people who should know better commit acts of criminal negligence on a regular basis.

I'm sure the CAA is well pleased with the result!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-6814545/Greedy-reckless-pilot-jailed-crash-birdwatchers-escaped-death.html

12/03/2019

I see the UK CAA followed by thoughts and issued this SB later today!

Please find below details of the CAA Publication you have selected. Dependent on availability, you are able to download the file, or purchase a printed copy.

12/03/2019

Well another Boeing 737 Max Jet goes down in a very brutal way..as usual we will have to wait and see what the air accident investigators come up with..

However circumstantial evidence points to an automation related issue, either the crew did not know some of the latent characteristics of the flight control systems, or, with fly by wire systems, there was, maybe, a 'bug' in the system that causes the aircraft to do things that the crews are not expecting under certain combinations of circumstances.

The lack of apparent type related differences training seems woeful given how much the systems have been tweaked with to cope with all but in name a new aircraft.

The marketing departments of the airlines are desperate to avoid any changes to the type rating to avoid expensive pilot training and associated certification.

Having seen, many times, in training, how pilots can try and kill themselves and their passengers when they fail to understand how the flight control systems respond to various inputs and scenarios in what are simple aircraft I find it perplexing the lack of detailed follow up training on what to many people is effectively a new type of aircraft!